Simone's POVI don't move. I can't. The best I can do is to stare at Aldric with my mouth hanging open. For his part, he doesn’t look in the least bit concerned. “I expected him to show up here after I declared procreation illegal in my ward.”Sebastian glances at me before he speaks to his father. “That’s not why he’s here.”“Oh, I know why he's really here,” Aldric says.I should be scared right now. I should be balls-out terrified, but all I feel is glee. He came to us. This is our home. The vampires and humans here are loyal to us. “We can kill him.”“He’s an ancient,” Sebastian says. “He can’t be killed.”“Chop of his head and let him petrify…whatever,” I say. “We have the upper hand.”“We don’t,” Aldric informs me. “I have spies in my household, and I told you before that it’s nearly impossible to decapitate a vampire as old as Baron.” He turns to Sebastian. “Show him to my office and tell Zane to get a room ready for him.”“Yes, Father.” Sebastian's eyes flit in my direction th
Aldric's POV I gasp and try to pull myself out of Baron’s grasp, but I have forgotten how strong he is. Even now, as a vampire, I can't budge the man. He's stuck to me like glue to paper. From the corner of my eyes, I see Aldric vault over the desk. In a blink, he's by our side and manages to grab Baron’s chin a moment before his fangs sink into my neck. If he gets a taste of my blood he’ll know that nothing has changed. I still have golden blood, I can still make him high. Aldric sticks two fingers in Baron’s mouth and yanks downwards, dislocating the ancient vampire’s jaw. A loud pop is quickly followed by the sound of his flesh tearing. With a wet squelch, Aldric rips Baron’s jaw clear off. Blood explodes from the gaping wound. The ancient vampire grunts and stumbles backward, gagging and gurgling, he brings his hand to his mouth. “Whu yah ‘oo?” he tries to ask. “I warned you. I have every right to hand you over to the council for judgement,” Aldric says. “Uh,” Baron grunts.
Aldric's POV “Where are you going?” Lazarus asks as he watches me pack my things. “I have to go get Imogen.” “The fuck you say.” “Uh-huh.” “Oh Christ Lazarus,” I moan and grab some clean shirts from my dresser. “How am I going to explain this to Simone? She thinks her mother is dead.” “Have you just, I don’t know, tried talking to her?” I shake my head and throw a t-shirt into my backpack. “I want to protect her so badly.” “You can’t protect her against everything.” “I can damn-well try. She didn’t have the easiest life, you know?” Lazarus nods. “Neither did you, Brother, and Darrick didn’t hide things from you, did he?” “I hated his guts though.” “And if you’re not careful, Simone will start to hate yours. What happened? How did Imogen end up in a cage in the Tyr family’s crypt?” I sigh and sag to the bed. “Imogen washed up the next night, still alive.” “Naturally.” “Darma found her.” “Oh sweet Jesus.” “Uh-huh. She bound Imogen with some kind of magic and took her to
Aldric's POV We fly through the night and most of the day, just so we can catch up with Luban and Malachi when we're halfway between the pits and Baron's estate. We meet up with them the next night and find a secluded spot. While my sons fly overhead to look out for spies, I fill them in on the plan. “I’m truly, deeply, sick to death of fucking Baron,” Malachi laments. “You should have let your bride kill him.” “Don’t be such a fucking dolt, you moron,” Luban scolds Malachi. “Is she worth it?” he asks me. “I think she is. I love her. You know you don't have to do this if you don't want to? She's my bride and my responsibility.” My brothers smile at me. "We look after our own," Malachi says. Neither of them has ever imprinted, and they’re older than me, but both of them had fallen in love and have turned the women they loved. “It wasabout time, wasn’t it?” Luban asks. "For you to take a proper bride?" “I suppose. Can we focus on the plan?” “What’s to focus on? Malachi, Hagar and
Simone's POV Lazarus and Sebastian take it upon themselves to keep me occupied while Aldric is gone. I don’t have much time to think about him, but during the day, I find myself unable to sleep, and when I do manage to fall asleep, I always go back to that beach where Aldric found me on the night of my rebirth. I miss him with everything inside me, and every morning when I go to bed, I hope that I’ll find him in my dreams as I did on the day before he left, but either he doesn’t go to sleep, or we are too far apart to find each other. I didn't know vampires could get tired, but I am. I am exhausted. Every night,I go to the office where Sebastian teaches me how to work the computer and sort through the files, and when I’m done there, Lazarus takes me to the mansion gardens where he'll either give me lessons in sword fighting or flying. I'm not too bad with the sword, but my flying lessons aren't going too well. Lazarus's efforts are about as successful as Aldric was. “Why I can’t
Aldric's POV I almost let my mask slip when Darrick speaks behind me. I had been so focused on Asmodeus that I didn’t sense my father’s awakening or his approach. His sudden appearance at once filled me with joy and dread. Luban takes up position behind me and puts his hand on my shoulder. Like me, he’s nearly paralysed with fear. Asmodeus is the only vampire in existence that possesses all the talents, and while he will not kill us, he won’t hesitate to use any of his powers against us. Before the originals ushered him into his tomb two centuries ago, he did it just for shits and giggles. "It gives me a tingle," he used to joke. “Oh relax,” Asmodeus says. “I won’t touch your son. Your special little boy this one, isn’t he?” he asks sarcastically. "The untouchable one." I chance a look over my shoulder at my father. For a vampire that had been petrified for a century, he looks fantastic. “All my children are special in their own ways,” Darrick says, but we all know he’s lying. I’
Simone's POV “How’s your bloodlust?” Lazarus asks. I shrug. I haven’t felt anything close to it since those first two nights. Even my emotions seem to be doing okay. If I didn't know better, I'd say I'd been a vampire all my life. “Under control.” “You are a very different kind of neophyte,” he says. “My youngest daughter, she’s ten now, still battles with it.” Before I can answer him, Lazarus disappears, but within seconds he's back with the potion Vesper brewed for me. “I don’t know if this will work against Asmodeus, but you’d better drink a double dose of this.” I stare at the potion in disgust. “Is it really necessary?” He nods and takes a step back from me. I notice the grimace on his face and the tight muscles in his neck. “I can smell your blood, and if I can smell it-” “Every powerful vampire can. Okay.” I accept the cup from Lazarus and quickly empty it while I watch the group of vampires come ever closer. My new brother takes up position next to me and narrows his e
Aldric's POV “I don’t belong to you,” Simone says through gritted teeth. “I belong to no one.” Technically, she does belong to me and as he said, we all belong to Asmodeus. Even the twenty-one, that somehow managed to defy his orders so they could wrestle him into the catacombs, belong to him. Shortly before he walked in there himself, I asked Darrick how they did it, how they managed to ignore Asmodeus’s hold over them, but he never answered me. I should ask my father that question again. Given that the first vampire has been resurrected and has clearly taken an interest in my bride, that might be valuable information to have at some point in the future. Asmodeus pulls my bride tightly against him. “Denying it doesn’t change the facts.” "Let her go," I say. Asmodeus turns on me, his red eyes pinning me in place. "She is mine to do with as I please." I can't move. Helpless, all I can do is I watch as the vampire paws at my bride, running his hands over her neck and shoulders. L
Dear Readers, As per usual, after the end of a book, I would like to thank you all for taking the time to read my twisted imaginings. Thank you for the comments and the gems, the ratings and the words of encouragement along the way. This was a particularly difficult book to write, and there were days I felt like giving up, but knowing that you liked it and wanted to keep reading about Aldric and Simone kept me going. Don't get me wrong, I loved them both, but my goodness, could those two be difficult at times. It probably doesn't help that I am anal retentive and wanted to get the historical facts "just right," even if I only wrote two sentences about a certain period in history. I swear, I fell down a historical rabbit hole every single time. And so, we've reach the end of this particular journey. Thank you for coming along. It is, and always will be, appreciated. Until next time. Much love,Celice.
Aldric’s POV Before any of the vampires around me can get any ideas, I break Asmodeus’s neck. For a long time, no one moves. Everyone’s staring at the dead man in disbelief. Within minutes, I flipped their world upside down and ended a war we thought would last centuries. All of us are unsure what to do next, including me. The only person that's not deeply affected by Asmodeus’s death is Simone. She barely knew him, she didn’t know what life was like before the vampires came. She doesn’t fully understand the gravity of the thing I had just done. Herod and Darrick feel their father’s death most keenly. They hated him, but they are heartbroken at the same time. After a while, the two originals come unstuck. Wordlessly, they pick their dead father up from the ground and disappear with him into the night sky. "Call a meeting of the families,” I say to Lazarus. My brother nods and kicks off. One by one, the vampires start to come back to reality. “What do we do now?” Knut asks. “Go ba
Simone’s POV I don’t know if Asmodeus can hear Aldric. I don’t think so. All I know is, is that my groom is in my head, using our telepathic connection to translate the conversation between the two most ancient vampires that ever walked this earth. “Ruth,” Asmodeus says. “I have missed you.” “No,” she says. “You forgot about me.” “Never,” he says and takes a step in our direction. I try to get away, but Ruth’s hand quickly shoots out and she grabs me, her eyes pleading with me not to leave her side. “Even when I was entombed, my dreams were with you,” the vampire goes on. “You are a liar Asmodeus. You betrayed me. Betrayed our bond. You even betrayed the blood god himself. Surely he will punish you severely for what you had done.” The vampire snorts loudly. “If he wanted to punish me, he would have done so by now.” Ruth is quiet. I’m with her on this one. Why hasn’t the blood god punished Asmodeus? “He doesn’t work that way,” Aldric says in my head. “Then what is the point of
Simone's POV “I’m really fucking angry at you,” I snap at Aldric when he walks into my room. "You just sent me away like a naughty child." “I know, dear,” he says and folds his arms across his chest. "It won't happen again." “Don’t do that.” “Don’t do what?” he asks, his voice filled with fake innocence. “Don’t be all charming like that.” He chuckles and grabs me around the waist, lifts me a little too high in the air and throws me on the bed. He crawls onto the mattress after me, already taking off his shirt, his eyes filled with fire and lust. “Take off your pants,” he orders me. I don’t even argue with him. I don't want to. There are days that I feel like I can't get enough of him, can't get enough of his body and his touch. Today, is such a day. I slither out of my leggings while he yanks down his jeans. Aldric spins me around, lifting me up onto all fours. He smacks my ass. Hard. The warmth that follows the sharp sting settles between my legs as a throbbing, aching need.
Aldric’s POVVesper lands first, followed by Lazarus and Hagar who have Ruth between them. “Did you bind her with magic?”“No,” Vesper answers. “She came willingly.”“Did she? And you weren’t afraid that she’d try to escape?”“No,” Vesper lifts and drops one shoulder. “She talks about her destiny and Athenia a lot.”“Yes. Our sister is the one that freed her.”No one looks surprised by this news. I'm guessing Ruth already told them.Simone walks out onto the porch and runs straight to Vesper, launching herself into my brother’s arms. He snatches her out of the air and spins her around in a little circle. “Hello, Poppet,” he says with a grin. “You are growing up way too fast.”I glance at the pair. He’s not wrong. Simone is quickly shedding her neophyte skin – it’s too fast and it bothers me, but there’s nothing I can do about it. All vampires mature at different rates, and Simone chose to express way.Lazarus comes over to say his hellos while Hagar stays next to Ruth just in case she
Aldric's POV I want to strangle Athenia for showing Simone every horror show the humans ever created, and none of the beauty. “Go up to the house,” I say to my bride. “I need to have a word with my sister.” Simone is emotionally shattered, and instead of the argument I've come to expect of her, she simply kicks off and fly in the direction of the mansion. “Why did you do that?” I ask Athenia. “You had no right.” “She needed to understand.” “You deliberately showed her the worst of humanity! Why?” "If she does not understand reality, she will not fight. She needs to learn that everyone, regardless of species, is capable of the worst kinds of depravity." "Fine. But there are other ways, better ways." “My end is near,” she says. “I did not have time to be delicate.” “What?” She gives me a sly smile. “I will not live to see you end Asmodeus. In fact, I won't live to see another sunrise” My insides turn to water. “Who is coming? Tell me so I can stop them. You don't have to die.”
Simone's POVI inhale sharply as the world is suddenly ripped out from under me and we’re sucked into nothingness. For a moment, we linger in complete darkness, then the cosmos opens up in front of us.The sight of it almost brings me to tears. All the stars and moons, all the colours of the universe are in full display like a Van Gogh painting. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful, and I've never felt so at peace with myself.We fall out of universe and land back on earth. My head spinning a little by how quickly everything happened. “They can’t see or hear us,” Athenia says as we walk up to something that resembles a house.The mud structure has a grass roof, and orange light flickers in the small niches along the wall. Without thinking twice, Athenia pushes the rickety door open and kneels next to a labouring woman lying on a pile of straw covered with rough fabric. Blood streams down the woman's legs, colouring the straw red. The only light is coming from the blocked hearth. The
Simone’s POV“Why have I never seen Ruth before?” I ask Aldric. "I have gone to that beach almost every day since I was reborn, and I never saw her there."He groans and swings his legs off the bed. He rests his elbows on his knees and cradles his head. “Different time zones maybe. She’s constantly on the move.”“Yes, but at some point…she was with Darma, wasn’t she? Ruth convinced her to free Asmodeus.”“Who told you that?"'No one. I just assumed."No,” Aldric says and scratches the back of his head. “Darma decided by herself to free Asmodeus. He said she did it because she thought he’d grant her favours.” My groom shrugs. “But who knows, he might have been lying.”“Asmodeus is a lot of things, but he never lies,” I say and sit next to Aldric. He is exhausted, and he has been ever since he came here. “If Ruth was made by the blood god, doesn’t she have all the talents like Asmodeus does?”“She might have had them at one point,” Aldric says, “but since her blood is so terribly corrup
Simone's POV “This actually explains a lot,” Aldric says. “Why?” “Sargon was an orphan that founded the Akkadian empire. A man that ambitious…sooner or later, he’ll want to get all of that back. Living a life in the shadows, unknown and unseen...that would never be good enough for a man like that. Baron wanted nothing less than absolute rule over everything and everyone.” “What happened to him? Sargon, I mean.” Aldric shrugs. “According to history he died around the age of fifty-five, but he might have been younger. Humans weren’t good at tracking the passage of time back then.” “He didn’t die, he was turned into a vampire,” I state. “Yeah.” “To get more power.” Aldric peers at me through the fringe of hair that flops over his eyes. “Probably…and what he got was a life of darkness and secrecy.” “I created him when he was about twenty-five,” Herod says from nowhere. Aldric and I both look up to stare at the vampire at the foot of the stairs. "In human years, he was sixty-five