Born Of Sin

by Deanna Richmond

  Victor stopped abruptly. “Yes, all for a woman. Because she is here. She is flesh. She is a part of me. Literally. What would you have me do, leave her to them? Let them either dissect or torture her? They see her as a curse, so please tell me what should I do?” He stood as if awaiting a resolution, but as expected, when none came, he turned to leave.

  “There must be another way. Let’s reason with them,” Brayden continued, trying to talk reason to the man as they headed out of the back door, entering the night. Octavia trembled as the wind swept across her face. Victor held her closer as they rushed toward the garage. “I cannot let you leave. You have a hospital to run, a conglomerate that needs you.”

  “You can burn the damn hospital down and the lab along with it for all I care. You and I both know there is no reasoning with them. Once they know that they have lost me, there is no reason to keep me alive either. No, I must go and care for her. This is my doing. Brayden, did you not yourself try and hide me when it was not by your own making? She is truly my responsibility. My burden to bear, not any of yours. I must care for her as you have done for me. My god, man, she doesn’t even know what she is.” Neither one said a word. He’d spoken the truth, even though the words were hard to hear.

  Victor sat Octavia down in one of his fastest cars, a convertible Aston Martin. “Please, Victor. We can hide her,” Ms. Havershem begged, saddened by her friend’s impetuous decision.

  “You know there is no hiding from them. We have to run.” He kissed the woman on her cheek.

  He stopped by the driver’s side door and looked back at his oldest and dearest friend. “It’s settled then. Brayden, you are well aware of what to do. You know the business as well as I. Keep it. Destroy it. The choice is yours.” He got behind the wheel and started the engine. “I know you did not know all of what Miruna spoke of, so I cannot blame you for everything. I know you were trying to protect me,” he said to the man who had sacrificed everything for him.

  “Where will you go?” Brayden asked. “You need supplies, a safe place to hide.”

  “It’s better that you don’t know.” Before he took off, he looked back at his companions. “You will be missed.”

  Brayden’s face showed heartache. “I am so very sorry, brother, for never telling you the truth I knew. I was sworn to secrecy by the Cabalistis. I should have trusted you.” The men embraced in forgiveness and farewell.

  “Will you ever come back?” Ms. Havershem asked. Victor said not a word, for he truly didn’t know if he would, let alone whether he would survive this night.

  “I will contact you when I can,” he said to his old friends, then took off as if there were already a hoard of vampires behind him. In actuality, there was; the Cabalistis’ most ruthless were not too far away.

  The night was ominous and his mood was bleak as Victor headed toward a path through the woods, not looking back. He floored the pedal and took the road by force. There was no time to second-guess his decision. It had been made in haste, but there was no other choice.

  Victor held tightly to his love, Octavia, as she all but curled up against him. By revenge, he may have sired her, but for love, he would keep her. Victor could not imagine a world without her. Throughout his remembered existence, it was as if he had never been whole, as if something had been missing. She was that link. He finally felt complete. Alive again. As if he’d finally awakened from a deep slumber. This felt right and he would kill anyone who tried to rid him of that other part of himself, Octavia.

  Victor heard dogs barking nearby in the very woods through which they were fleeing. They were gaining on them. “Hold on.” Octavia gripped him more tightly as he drove faster. The wind was fierce as it whipped across their faces, but he hadn’t had time to raise the cover. Time was of the essence. They were near, closer than he’d imagined. They were trying to surround him, so he needed to outpace them.

  He weaved down a hidden path in an attempt to distance himself from his new adversaries. They made it as far as the river’s bank where he was greeted by his own kin. They had been waiting there all along, in case he had chosen to flee with Octavia. He stopped short, having no choice but to engage. Five cars blocked their path.

  Stannis stood before Victor, refusing to budge. He had not left town after all, instead waiting and watching Victor’s every move.

  As Victor got out the car to confront them, a rogue dog lunged at him, but Snow grabbed the mutt by its throat. They fought violently, but a dog was no match for a wolf. Following a high-pitched squeal, Snow dug into the neck of the canine. Her coat was no longer pure white. It took no more than a minute before Snow once again sat next to her master.

  “Victor,” Stannis called. Half of his face was concealed by a dark hood. “I will not tolerate this insolence. I gave you a chance, but I should have known better; a leopard never changes its spots. Turn it over and we shall let you live,” he ordered, four vampire henchmen standing at his side. They were the kind that only live for one reason—to kill.

  “If you wanted me to live, then you would not have brought those starved creatures hiding in the thickets.” Three kept ravenous vampires so they would be vicious when they attacked. “Their stench is revolting.” Victor knew no fear. It did not matter that he was outnumbered and outgunned; he would never capitulate.

  “I’m surprised at you, Nikolai. You were our most favorite.” His expression was reserved, even cooler than the air.

  “You mean your most manipulated,” Victor snarled.

  “You are not the same.” Stannis sniffed the air. “I smell Miruna on you. You killed her!” he yelled, forcing a roar out of Snow and Midnight. Victor rarely saw the man angered, although he’d tried Stannis’ patience more than once over the past few days.

  “So, it was true, you and Miruna.” This newfound knowledge made killing her even more enjoyable. “She tasted delicious.” Victor’s eyes lightened, showing his increased strength that he was still learning to control. Yes, his body still fought to remain composed, but letting more of that darkness reveal itself was liberating.

  “Give Octavia to us and we will make its death painless. You drag this out and we will make her suffer a most heinous end. I give you this one chance.”

  With one simple answer, Victor sealed his fate. “No.” His eyes narrowed, his teeth elongated, and his back arched.

  A shot fired and one of Stannis’ henchmen dropped, causing the remaining dogs to bark. Both of Victor’s personal guards, Sergio and Claudio, were coming up on their rear via horseback. “Brayden sent us to follow you,” Sergio informed Victor as he dismounted.

  “Kill them!” Stannis screamed. Another shot rang, just missing Victor’s head. Octavia got out of the car and ran up to Victor, who shielded her. Under Stannis’ command, more than twenty vampires revealed themselves, baring their teeth.

  Sergio and Claudio sprayed bullets, taking down as many as they could before having to fight hand-to-hand. Sergio and Claudio loved to kill, but these vampires were vicious. These were the Cabalistis’ pets. They were trained in one thing only—the taking of life. They were not civilized. They were not cultured. Most decidedly not ones with whom to reason. They lived in cages, fed on flesh and tortured to remind them that they were killers.

  Victor took Octavia to a nearby tree with Midnight at her side to protect her. “No.” her eyes enlarged at the black wolf.

  “He won’t harm you.” He could not find the comforting tone to reassure her.

  “Victor, don’t go. What do they want with me?” Octavia yanked on his shirt.

  “I will explain when I can, but not now. Stay put.” He tore from her grasp and went to his companions. His fears were coming true, but if need be, he would kill Octavia first, before he would let them have her.

  The match was unfair as there was only Victor, his protectors, and Snow to take on the worst of their kind. Stannis stood watch as vampire fought against vampire. Stannis was wise to bring an army to take down Victor and his most loyal. He could not le
t Victor get away. If he did, Victor would hunt them down, each of them, as the methodical unpredictable beast they knew him to be.

  Octavia also stood watch, at what she was not sure. “I must be hallucinating. I must still be sick,” she whispered to herself. She stood up to move a greater distance away, but fell into a nearby stream. She stumbled up and crawled, huddling next to the tree where Victor had told her to stay put. She hugged her knees, trying not to witness this chaos, but she could not look away.

  They were disfigured. All of them. Even her love, Victor. His skin had somehow tightened and turned pallid in color. But the other men, if that’s what they were, seemed grotesque. The sounds they made were a piercing high noise. Octavia had to cover her ears. Their skin was unnaturally pale, more so than Victor’s, which contrasted against their long mangled black manes. Their faces held many scars, like they had seen too many fights. The scariest part was that they moved so swiftly, it was surreal.

  Octavia didn’t know what to think. She didn’t want to believe her eyes, but how could she not? A part of her was grateful Victor moved quickly, as crazy as that sounded. Victor moved hastily, flying in the air, matching their height. Victor and his men fought bravely, but they were no match for the others. There were too many of them.

  She’d heard of beings like these in movies or read about them in tales, but had never thought them to be true. Nevertheless, she’d always sensed the darkness in Victor, even though she’d tried to deny it. Was it in her too? Is that why she felt drawn to him?

  “No!” Victor screamed as two took down Claudio, viciously feeding on him. Sergio loyally stood next to Victor. They were losing the battle. They were soaked in blood and although they fought brutally, it was useless. “Take Octavia and run.” Sergio did as ordered by Victor. They would not win. “If you get caught, you know what to do.” Sergio understood. Victor meant kill her if he needed to, but do not let them have her.

  Octavia rocked back and forth. She crawled around the tree to hide her face to stop watching the pale men feed on each other. She’d witnessed some questionable actions with Victor, but with him, she was blind. She steadily rocked back and forth on her heels, jumping back when something touched her.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t harm you,” Sergio said, kneeling down next her. He could hear her pulse racing as she crawled away from him.

  “I saw what you did. What you and Victor…” Tears formed as she looked around, wanting to escape.

  “Octavia, we must leave at once.” He reached for her.

  “No!” she jumped up, planting herself against the tree. She could hardly breathe or think straight. She began hyperventilating. The noise around her started to get louder like she was losing her mind. Nothing made sense. “What are you? No, this isn’t real. You’re not real. None of this is.”

  “I assure you it is.” This time, Sergio grabbed her without permission and threw her over his shoulder.

  “Please… please… let me go,” Octavia screamed. Her mind reeled, she could hardly focus. Her stomach churned and her heart was beating too fast.

  “Trust me, you’d rather be with me than with them. They want you dead.”

  They’d made it only a short distance when three grotesque vampires stopped them. Sergio threw her off to the side. “You will have to kill me to get to her.”

  Octavia crawled through the muck and brush to get away. She was feeling sick. Her stomach was in an upheaval and she was losing focus. Noises kept getting louder — the fighting, the animalistic noises, and the stirring wind. She was sweating profusely. She felt feverish, so she removed her cape, letting the cool air envelop her.

  She stood up to run, but a pain in her back shot through her, blinding her vision. She fell to her knees and released her stomach’s contents.

  “Victor!” Octavia screamed.

  Her cry for help caught Victor’s attention, but they were slowly surrounding him. He wanted to save her, but he was outnumbered. His only hope was that Sergio had escaped with Octavia.

  Dead man’s blood laced the arrow’s that pierced Victor’s arms, pinning him to a tree. Then another, pinning his leg. He’d killed so many savages, being faster and swifter than before, but there were still nine monstrous vampires left, and one henchmen.

  Stannis approached him only when he could no longer move. He did not want to get his hands dirty. “All you had to do was turn her over, and maybe she could have been your little whore once you were married. Well, after we were finished dissecting her, of course.” His expression was callous and unsympathetic as he held a blade to Victor’s throat. “Goodbye, Nikolai.”

  Suddenly, the wind echoed with a deafening bellow. All nine demented vampires attempted to attack something that was moving aggressively and quickly toward them. It took them all by surprise. As the entity moved, it wailed a noise that was all too familiar to Victor. One by one, the vampires dropped dead, unable to take on a creature they’d never encountered before.

  Monstrous vampires fell to the earth with broken necks or backs. Limbs were strewn about and tossed in the air. Heinous sounds were heard throughout the cold night as death surrounded them all.

  It seemed as if nature had joined in the massacre. The wind picked up, taking note of the vileness that had occurred, forced to bear witness to such perversity. It had been a foul, but undoubtedly pure carnal savagery. And what lay on the ground was unbelievable. The starved and uncared for vampires, lay still, all dead at the hand of one.

  Octavia.

  Finally, she stopped in front of both men. Stannis stepped back. “Call her off,” Stannis ordered Victor as she sniffed him. His words fell on deaf ears. “You are an atrocity.” Stannis tried to cut off Octavia’s head, but she grabbed his arm and ripped it right out its socket. She then lifted him up in the air and broke his neck. Octavia dropped him from on high, gazing down at his dead, lifeless body.

  Octavia, white as snow with dark pitted eyes, stepped in close to Victor. He noted her features were hard and her talons long as she sniffed him. She was truly ferocious. She was uniquely rare and Victor thought, quite magnificent. Eventually, she backed away.

  “Victor. Victor.” It was Sergio running back to help him. “You must leave at once.”

  “Wait… It’s her.” Victor was amazed. “Let’s go.” Sergio helped him to remove the arrows pinning him to the tree.

  Both men walked past all the vampires as they lay dead on the ground, having suffered every form of brutality. Victor told Sergio to wait as he walked alone over to the raven-haired creature named Octavia. He was not sure how she would respond to his approach.

  At first, Octavia growled at him as she stood in the stream that now flowed with blood. She watched him suspiciously. She seemed scared, and although she backed up, she did not run. He closed the distance between the two of them, but he did not touch her. They stayed that way for a moment, both just staring.

  Eventually, her breathing slowed, her dark eyes lightened, and she lowered her head. Victor lifted her head, caressing her hard features that started to soften under his ministrations. Her skin tone returned to its natural state, transforming her back into the beautiful young woman he loved. When she was herself again, he pulled her close to him.

  She fell against him. “I’m so exhausted,” she declared, hugging him back.

  “It’s all right. We must go.”

  “What happened? Where are those…” She tore from Victor and saw the blood on him, on her hands. “Blood.” Her dress was soaked in red. Wiping her face, her hand came back with more blood. She looked at what lay around them, screamed so loudly it hurt Victor to hear it. “No!” she kept screaming. “Was this me? Was this me?” she shouted at him. When he said nothing, she asked, “What have I done?” She looked up at Victor, pleading for him to tell her it was not her, but he could not. He grabbed her firmly. “What am I?” She wept so pitifully, it tore at him.

  How could he tell her, when he hadn’t a clue? So many centuries ago, he had been the cruel
monster that his kind had hunted. Now she would be. This was his curse. To live a life in peril, never to know when they would come for them. By his actions, he had put his kin in harm’s way. Others had tried to protect him, but now it was his turn to protect. To hide. To flee. Not only had he lost everything, but he had killed an ancestor and now, so had she. He would be labeled a traitor.

  “Victor, you must go,” Sergio warned. “More will come. They will never stop hunting you.”

  Victor grabbed Octavia’s cloak and placed it over her shoulders. “You know that we can never come back,” Victor said to Sergio.

  “I know.” They’d been together since Sergio had risen three hundred years ago.

  “Stay safe and keep them out of harm’s way,” Victor said to Sergio, referring to those now forced to live his life.

  “Always,” Sergio promised, nodding to the man he loved and respected.

  Victor helped a traumatized Octavia into the car. “Don’t look back, Octavia.”

  With that, Victor and Octavia drove off into the unknown. They would need to lay low until he could reach a safe destination. There, he could contact those who might secretly help them. They were now fugitives, especially after killing two members of his Cabalistis.

  He hadn’t a clue what she was or how he was going to control her horrific side. He wasn’t sure what she was even capable of doing. But he would learn, for he would never give up on Octavia, as Brayden had never given up on him.

  Once a billionaire who hadn’t wanted or needed for anything, now he had nothing material, not even shelter. Only Octavia. He, the first of his kind who had supposedly gained the Cabalistis’ respect, knew the truth. His life had been a lie. In a way, he was happier distancing himself from that world. The world that had started to become his prison. A world where he had never felt complete. Because he had never been whole. A curse had ensured that.

  Now, with no rule or command over their heads, they could truly live life as they saw fit. Especially Victor. What that entailed, he was not sure, but he would soon find out. Let the danger come. Let the hunting commence. Victor would make sure that they were ready, unless he decided to go for them first.