Simone's POVAldric doesn’t answer me right away, but I can practically hear his gears turning as he’s scrambling for something to say. “I don’t mind, no, but…I have to ask why? She is your mother. Your family.”“You are my family now,” I say. “You and your brothers, Darrick…Imogen is not a good person.”“No vampire is.”“But she enjoys it, Aldric,” I say. "She enjoys hurting people, killing them...she's a complete psychopath."He shoves his hands in his pockets and kicks at a random rock. “Darling, when you were in the bloodlust, you enjoyed it too.”“And I hated myself for it when I woke up.” The memory of a young slave women screaming, begging me to stop, pops into my head and tears well in my eyes. “I still…think about it and wish I could go back and stop myself.”“If we killed every vampire that enjoys murder, we’d never stop killing.”“Herod told me that back in the day…vampires like her would be beheaded or thrown in the howling pits.”Aldric’s eyes narrow at me. “How bad is sh
Simone's POV“Imogen!” my mother’s name echoes through the hallways. “What the hell is wrong with you?”"Is that Herod?" Aldric asks."Yes." I sigh and get off the bed. “She did it again,” “What did she do?” Aldric asks.“She probably killed a donor…or three, or she made a vampire to feed on. It's usually one of the two.”My groom doesn’t wait for me. Enraged already, he yanks the door open and turns left, in the direction of the stairs.I run after him, quickly catching up with the group standing in the lobby. Four terrified neophytes, young boys that are no older than sixteen, are huddling together. They don't even know what's going on. “How the hell did you make four vampires at once?” Herod asks.These vampires, much like the ones Ruth makes, don’t look quite right. Their eyes are vacant and their mouths droop open with spittle running down their chins. They are confused and scared.One of the boys catches the scent of a human. His fangs drops and he tries to break from the group
Aldric's POV“You were supposed to wait,” Simone says as she follows me down the path that leads to the beach. “Baron was supposed to give back my memories before you killed him.”She’s spitting mad at me, but I seized the opportunity while I had it and killed the old overlord before he caught wind of the plan and went into hiding.He was always very good at sniffing out a plot, and even though I wanted to help my bride to get her memories back, I decided to listen to my new instincts instead, and they were screaming at me to kill Baron right away. “I know, and I’m sorry, but honestly Simone, after everything…do you want those memories in your head? You don't know what happened, what they'll do to you.”“They’re my memories!” she says. “I deserve to know what really happened to me.”“What happened to you?” Imogen asks sarcastically. “What about me? You were treated like a princess, protected from the vampires even from birth. Me, I was a brood mare for them.”“Oh don’t be so fucking d
Aldric's POV I fly out over the ocean with Imogen’s body in my arms, dropping it when I can no longer see land. If she washes up somewhere, the sun will take care of her remains. Otherwise, the sea life will be happy to do the job for us. I land next to Simone who is sitting on the beach, her legs pulled up, forearms resting on her knees, the stake hanging loosely in her hands. “Are you all right?” “Will you find it strange if I say yes?” “No,” I reply and put my arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer. “I am surprised that you’re still here, though.” Imogen didn’t die quickly or easily. Simone missed the spot the first time, slamming the stake into her mother’s breastbone where it remained firmly lodged until I wiggled it free. The vampire screamed in pain as the Ash burned her and she healed much too slow. “This is why you don’t feed on vampires,” I said, as I looked straight at my bride. “It weakens you.” She nodded at me, her cold eyes on her mother. “Try again,” I inst
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
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 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
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.”
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