Aleron: Book One of Strigoi Series (Stringoi Series) (33 page)

I continued to drink and drain this vampire of all. She became weak and I, invigorated, until I saw visions of what had occurred the previous night. From her blood into my mind came Vlad! He stood in a great room surrounded by many, all of whom were his own. He ranted and bellowed his contempt for the plot that he had detected. The faces of the female vampires told me that none of them knew by what outrage their master was consumed.

And suddenly, the vision changed. I saw Sinaa. She was defeated in body and spirit, and my heart broke upon seeing her like this. Her eyes no longer glowed, her angelic body had been reduced to a mere mockery of itself. I observed no restraints; however, she floated above the coven, for all to see. Then a blue inferno she became. She burned until there was nothing left. In a rage, I sucked more fiercely on the life essence of this vampire trapped within my jaws.

Then I saw Mynea, ensconced as Vlad’s high counsel, overseeing this unfolding tragedy. My heart pounded as it did the first time I saw her, as it always had every moment she was with me, as it did every moment I was alone and thought of her. Her eyes found the vampire who now nourished me, seemingly looking directly at me through my prey’s eyes. I wondered if it was possible for Mynea to see me as I suckled. No, only Pandora possessed such a power to see into time at will.

I sucked furiously. I sucked until there was no more. I dropped her body. She’d be among those who were missing in Bulgaria. She’d be found, lifeless and bloodless. She’d be burned as the others were. And she’d be headless!

I ripped her head from her neck and took to the night, with Raya following close. Our pace hastened, our newfound desire for death guiding us to life. The journey continued to a place revealed by the vampire woman’s blood. It was a place seen many times by her, visited by her during the many decades of her life. To Varna we went.

CHAPTER 29

ust before daybreak, Pandora witnessed Vlad entering the castle just below the main floor. She seldom visited the dungeon beneath the castle. Even as an immortal, the memories were too painful to bear. It was there that Vlad kept humans for feasting. He wouldn’t feed them nor bathe them. They would literally rot within its dank, cold walls. A tomb it served for many, for once a mortal entered, he would never leave alive. Pandora would be the sole survivor, save Mordekai, who met his fate shortly after his escape.

Pandora sought the dungeon again and arrived unnoticed. Retreating into the darkness, she witnessed Vlad awakening Sinaa’s senses and sensuality. Sinaa was deep within his power, for had she not been, she would have surely tried to kill him for killing her mother, whom she cherished.

Sinaa’s eyes were tamed. Her breath was steady. Vlad tore off her gown, exposing her naked body. He caressed her, though he wasn’t
gentle. Fueled by the anger of being deceived, he wanted to ravage her, and so he did.

Sinaa’s eyes widened and reclaimed focus as his spell over her weakened. She wanted his death. However, she knew not the demon beholding her. Sinaa lunged at him.

“You shall pay for your treachery, vampire!” Every word dripped with hatred and served as the catalyst of loathing for her own immortality. She wanted his death as she wanted her own.

“At your hands, my mother suffered a cruel fate. Yours will be the same!” She knew nothing of the presence she now graced. She knew nothing of the power that rested within the beast who was our creator. She knew nothing!

Sinaa powerfully struck Vlad with her hands and scratched deeply into his flesh. He stood still as she witnessed the wounds she inflicted instantly disappear. She struck him again with more force than before, and again while anticipating her next strike, his wounds were gone!

“Who are you?” she screamed. “Where do you come from? Answer me!” She stood ready to attack again as Vlad finally spoke. “You’re unknown to me, vampire girl. However, the mystery won’t be long lived. I shall partake of you and all of your beauty, leaving part for the rats’ and wolves’ delight.”

“Hold your tongue—”

Before Sinaa could complete her thought, Vlad plundered her with contempt and beastly disregard for her. Sinaa fought with all of her strength and immortal gifts, but she was completely defeated by the fiend.

He bit her repeatedly, tearing and eating the flesh from her back, legs, arms, breast, and neck. Preparing for the blood meal to come, he began suckling her throat, tormenting her, until the blood began to flow into him. And onto him came a vision that stopped his feasting completely.

He tore himself away from her. Sinaa fell back and quickly began to recover. Vlad’s eyes became enraged. The entire castle shook.

The hair on Vlad’s back raised, his nails elongated and became ghastly sharp, and his mouth dripped with blood. Vlad saw for the first time another vampire within the blood memories of this fledgling girl,
a vision of a powerful male. “Where do you come from?” he snarled in animalistic, near incoherent speech.

Sinaa, confined to the floor, nursing her wounds, simply smiled with a blood-filled mouth and cunningly vacant eyes. She said nothing.

Invisible hands grabbed Sinaa and slung her the length of the dungeon, into a wall where her bones gave, as did the stone boundary that she had been thrown into. She plummeted to the floor as Vlad pounced on her, biting down again into her flesh, drawing out the truth of her origin.

He released his toothy grip on her when he realized her memoirs would not reveal the location of this male. Vlad knew of his existence but knew nothing of his whereabouts, a fact that enraged him. His mouth displayed large ungodly teeth stained with Sinaa’s blood.

“You shall tell me where he is or you shall die!”

“I’m already dead, beast! I’m waiting for you to finish this!”

Vlad grabbed Sinaa’s arm and slowly pulled it completely from her body as he spoke. “I’ll tear you apart, limb by limb, until you tell me where he is. I’ll leave you to rot for all eternity beneath my castle as my wounded pet. I’ll deprive you of what you seek the most, as well as what you need to survive. Tell me where!”

“I’m waiting for you,” Sinaa gurgled while choking on her own blood. “I’m waiting for death.” She writhed in pain, lying on her back holding the bloody stump that used to be her arm.

“Then death you shall not have.” Vlad straightened himself and began walking around Sinaa’s beaten and broken body. “You shall have weakness. You shall be fed on by my daughters. You shall be forgotten by your precious secrets. You shall know my wrath. But you will not have death!”

Vlad exited with such speed that the walls cracked. Sinaa crawled around in search of her arm, but Vlad had taken it with him, assured to keep his promise. Broken from her fight, Sinaa lay on the floor of the dungeon. As she fell into a deep sleep, a familiar voice filled her head.
You were lucky, my young one. Call out to them, and they’ll seek you. Call out
.

And so she did. With all of her remaining strength, Sinaa called out to Eliza.

Pandora returned to the main floor to find Vlad in a fury. He called all of his children, demanding their presence immediately. All business dealings came to a swift conclusion as the main floor began to fill with immortals. Natasha entered, followed by the fledglings she created in the name of her master. Her brood was younger and not as powerful as the rest. Then Pandora made herself visible for all to see, as her children waited.

A thick grey cloud surrounded the castle. Rain pounded into the moat. The howl of the wolves and the sounds of the beating wings and screeches of hundreds of bats joined the wind and thunder in a surreal symphony of darkness. Vampires poured into Bran. Hell had called upon all its demons resembling the angels depicted in heaven. Some arrived with dark blood caked on their mouths, some with muddy feet, some in gowns and dresses, both elegant and tattered. The eldest dressed with dignity; many of the fledglings cared only for the thirst, and everything else was a blur.

The candles in the hall were furiously awakened. Wax flowed heavily as the roaring blaze consumed the candle and brilliantly lit the walls of Bran, the walls of the underworld. Vlad was Hades. He paced in front of the elevated main floor, which served as a platform, and waited for all to arrive. He was the personification of anger and rage.

The open ballroom was hot and heavy with terrible spirits rustling about. Curtains feverishly flapped and fanned here and there. Vlad’s cloak regained its own will. Dark shadows crept up from the floors along the walls and ceiling, screeching and erratically dancing, resembling frantic creatures called upon to witness his majesty’s might and savagery. All the while Vlad’s own shadow moved objects out of its way, a display eclipsing a hundred times the spectacle when Seth was born from Sasha’s disobedience centuries before.

At long last Mynea entered the hall, her dealings in Budapest completed. She walked in with a queen’s poise, Persephone in this world of the dead. The other vampires prostrated themselves upon her entrance. Her children loved her. All others adored her, except one. She made her way slowly to her throne beside Vlad’s, which he refused to take.

“I have evidence of treachery,” he began. “At least one of you has disobeyed my order! At least one of you has kept a secret full of deceit!”

The young vampires dared not speak, yet thoughts flooded the hall as they looked at one another in despair and disbelief. Mynea was impassive, as unflinching as stone, while a slight smirk arose on the lips of Pandora.

“
Tacerea este raspunsul meu?
Silence is my answer?” Vlad questioned. “This blasphemy will not go unpunished!” The door from the dungeon below swung open with such force the stone wall cracked. The captured and wounded Sinaa floated into the hall with Vlad’s invisible force guiding her. She was bloodied and broken. Her eyes opened to a sea of vampires staring at her.

“Where did she come from?” Vlad spat, carefully examining the expression on his children’s faces, searching for any signs of emotion, listening for any thoughts that might indicate the origin of this unfamiliar vampire. A young one from Natasha’s brood screamed as she burst into flames, for Vlad targeted her as an example of his fury and power. Her screams filled the room to capacity, as she flailed and yelled for forgiveness of a crime she knew nothing of. It was a display of the utter disregard Vlad ultimately had for all of them, all of us. She burned in the very spot she stood, alongside her sisters, who did nothing except watch in horror.

Sinaa’s living corpse was rotting on the bone; without the healing power of fresh blood, she had been reduced to a gorgon—the smell of decaying flesh with that of burnt flesh as the aroma du jour. Her eyes were partially open and cloudy as a wounded animal’s might be.

Some of her less serious wounds had, in fact, healed, but most were much too deep. Wounds inflicted by a more powerful vampire aren’t easily made sound, especially those inflicted by Vlad. She hung as if her entire body were clenched in the palm of Vlad’s invisible force for
all to see, for all to admire the wages of his rage, for all to cower in his unflinching vengeance. Her body was drained of its life force. The other vampires looked upon her in horror. Some had never known Vlad to be anything but endearing. Some had only seen Vlad through dreams and omens. This display served him as well as upheld his dominion.