I have to find a way to entice Alea away from Slade before Castel does.
There’s obviously no way I can court her while Slade is alive, or while Alea isn’t under some sort of mind control—since she obviously holds ill will toward me for feeding on her. On the bright side, my actions did instigate her birth into her new life. Taking Slade’s lifeblood will give me his powers. Theoretically, it is possible that I could keep her under my control. I could persuade her to fall in love with me instead of him.
Every step of this plan requires extreme caution and extraordinary coordination. Castel can’t find out about my plan. Slade can’t know I’m coming for him. Alea must be caught completely off guard. Even if those three points align, there’s no guarantee my plan to persuade her will work. If Castel makes his move first, my entire plan is fucked up the ass, and there’ll be no way to reverse the damage, unless someone kills him.
If another vampire discovers I killed my brother, my life will be over. I’ve narrowly escaped that judgment already. But the power calls to me. Alea beckons me. If not but for chance, Alea would be mine. Had I not been off setting up my secret locations and building my own clan numbers, she would’ve been mine. She should’ve been mine. I saw her first, I met her first, and I courted her first. As the eldest, the first choice should have been mine. Alea should be mine right now. The rest of the vampire world has to understand that. They will…eventually.
With this plan in mind, I began making my preparations. The brothel I run was my first stop. Castel has a healthy appetite for fucking and blood, guaranteeing he’ll make his way there eventually. Setting a trap for him won’t be easy, but I have an idea. If I don’t tell the others my plans, the details won’t be there when Castel reads their minds.
“Patrick, has a very old and powerful vampire been here while I was away?”
“No, not that I’ve been told.”
“Good. Other business in the city must have kept him busy. When he arrives, you’ll know him. His name is Castel. He was changed in his early fifties. His hair is black with dashes of gray throughout. He’s a tad bit shorter than me, but he’s fit and strong. He follows the old rules and style to the letter, including his clothes.
“He will expect this specific red Bordeaux. Do not allow anyone else to drink it. His tastes are very particular, and we need to keep him happy. Make sure the girls bathe every day, also. Multiple times, if necessary.”
“Understood. I will see to it personally.”
“Inform me at once when he arrives. No matter where I am or what I’m doing. This comes first.”
After setting the stage at the brothel, my focus shifted to Slade. Trapping my brother would be more difficult. He’d smell my clan coming before they ever got close enough to speak to him. His dark gift would emerge if he had the slightest inclination Alea was in danger. Getting to him would require shrewd thought, meticulous planning, and flawless execution.
Fortunately, I’m an evil genius with a knack for accomplishing the impossible and a strong refusal to give up until I’ve succeeded. A week after leaving the special bottle of wine at the brothel for Castel, he showed up and drank the whole bottle. The strong sedative that would’ve killed a mortal man only lasted long enough to move him to an impenetrable room in the basement. He would be well cared for by my servants, but for obvious reasons, I had to stay far away from him.
Two weeks later, my entire plan for Slade and Alea was mapped out to the very last detail. Every man and woman in my clan was apprised of their specific role, and not one of them knew the entire plan. They were divided into several different teams and sent to specific locations to await my signal. When the conditions were perfect, I sent out the command and my army descended on Alea as she strode through the park. Alone. Within seconds, they’d grabbed her and were well on their way to my secret hideaway in the mountains upstate.
I sent one lady to their home, knowing Slade wouldn’t be there, to leave a letter from Alea asking him to meet her in the park for a romantic stroll. Small teams were placed along the routes from his office to his home, and from his house to the location in the park. In the event he strayed off course, I wanted to know immediately. If he sensed any of my clan members, I would immediately send that team away to keep the rest of the mission on task. We had eyes on Slade at all times, watching his every step and every mood along the way.
We watched his every move, calculated his every expression, waited for him to arrive at the designated rendezvous point.
And that is exactly where it all went wrong.
The problem was we were so fixated on watching Slade, we didn’t realize we were the ones being watched. We had no idea about the chain reaction of events our actions had set off. We had no forewarning of the full-scale war we’d started or how brutal it would be.
A war that, out of my foolishness and arrogance, I’d started.
Chapter 14
Slade Barnett, 1791
“Slade, something is going to happen soon. I’ve had a vision.” The warning in Thomas’s tone was unmistakable.
“Alea?” I almost didn’t want to ask, but if it was something I could change, I had to try.
“Yes, Alea. And you. And Castel. Ramses is at it again. His madness is reaching new levels. He’s identified the source of your red-eyed power, and he wants it for himself.”
“What’s his plan?”
“He’s going to sedate Castel and lock him in a silver-lined cell. He’ll have his clan grab Alea while she’s out on one of her walks in the park. Then they’ll use her to lure you to the same place so Ramses can kill you himself. He wants your blood so he can take your powers.
“He thinks Castel is already planning to do something similar to unlock his own inner power. Ramses’s obsession with this power is driving him to make rash decisions that will get him killed.”
“As if these random clan attacks he’s orchestrated haven’t been bad enough. He’ll create an all-out war in the streets with no regard for the collateral damage it’ll cause. We need to make our preparations to counteract this insane plan of his now. When he makes his move, our countermove must put a stop to all this madness.”
That conversation with Thomas occurred not twenty-four hours before Ramses made his move on Alea. I’d made arrangements with Castel to pay a visit to my home and meet my wife. I wanted to introduce her to the man who gave me this life. I wanted him to meet my immortal love.
On my way home from my office, I sensed all the eyes watching me. I caught the scent of Ramses’s clan on the wind. I heard the thoughts of those young ones who were inexperienced and too stupid to be on their own when they dared to get too close to me. I knew it was the beginning of Thomas’s vision.
When I entered my house and found the fake note from Alea, I knew Thomas had already put our counter-strike into play. Moments after I walked in, Thomas came in behind me with Castel in tow.
“Hello, my boy. It seems your brother has a bone to pick with you and me.” Castel smiled cheekily at me.
“It would seem so. What’d you do to him?” I retorted with my own snarky smile.
“Thomas filled me in on the plan when he sprang me from that prison cell. You know I can’t kill Ramses, but I’ll gladly help you stop him. Shall we?” Castel gestured toward the door.
The monster inside was clawing at me to let him out. He wanted to end this once and for all by ending Ramses. I held him at bay, locked in his own prison cell inside my head. It took mere seconds for us to reach the front line of the clan war in progress, but the sight of the carnage was worse than I could’ve imagined.
Vampires who should’ve been taught to stand for each other, instead tore each other apart. Silver blades slid through the air with lightning speed, held by men who should be brothers and women who should be sisters. The orders shouted telepathically in their heads repeated “Kill them all” over and over again, almost like a chant to brainwash them. My clan was forced to kill their own kind or be killed themselves.
/> They’d been created for the purpose of protection and overthrowing rival clans. But that was exactly the problem—other clans should never have been viewed as competition. A clan is a family, and other clans have always been considered to be extended families. There have always been cases of wayward vampires, the ones who go off on their own and cause too much trouble for the rest to cover. They’ve always been dealt with individually.
But what Ramses has created is an abomination, only in the size of an entire clan. He’s taught and trained them in his irrational and psychotic ways. As long as they’re under his dominion, they’ll labor under the same folly and recklessness Ramses does.
“Slade, call your clan off. I’ll have Ramses do the same,” Castel commanded before he disappeared.
I called to my members and ordered them to a neutral location. The shorter daylight hours of the winter were a blessing in disguise, thankfully ensuring the darkened park was empty of humans. The decapitated heads of vampires from my clan and Ramses’s clan littered the snow-covered ground. Crimson stains from their blood tainted the white snow, turning the once serene park into a combat zone. Vampires from both houses died unnecessarily because envy and obsession ruled my brother’s actions instead of rational thoughts.
Castel approached me with my brother following closely behind him. He stopped short of where I stood, knowing full well he didn’t want to engage in a direct fight with me.
“Ramses, what have you done?” Castel asked as he moved through the battlefield remnants, taking in the full weight of the night’s massacre.
“I-I…” He stuttered, but couldn’t form a reply.
Ramses’s eyes met mine, and I watched as shame and regret filled them. My brother loved me—in his own twisted way. But I think he envied me more than he loved me, and he was obsessed with my wife. Then he plotted to murder me so he could take her for himself. As much as I’ve tried to overlook or correct his erratic behavior over the last century, I can’t deny my efforts appear to have been in vain.
“Ramses, you locked me in a cell. You planned to ambush and murder your brother. You had your men take his wife. What do you have to say for yourself?” Castel leveled his gaze on Ramses and waited for him to explain himself.
Ramses wavered between rage and regret. His eyes darted back and forth between Castel’s and mine. Then his expression changed to pure hatred and I knew what would come next, but he sprinted away before I could grab him. His clan left on his heels and disappeared into the night, carrying the bodies of their dead.
“Don’t worry. I know where he went,” Castel assured me. “I’ll keep an eye on him and try to help him as best I can. You have to prepare yourself for the possibility that he’ll completely turn from me and I’ll lose my hold on him.”
“I know. It’s a good thing we’ve never told him he had that option before. He would’ve been much worse now if he’d known in the earlier years.”
“I also can’t guarantee another vampire won’t kill him for what he’s done.”
“Put the word out for everyone to stay out of my fight. It’s my wife and my clan he’s after. That makes it my right to handle in my own way. If anyone takes that from me, I’ll have his head.”
“Slade, you can’t save your brother, regardless of how hard you try. That’s not what you want to hear, but it’s the truth. We’ve both known it for many years now.”
Despite all Ramses has done over the years, I never really gave up on him changing from his destructive path. I’ve always wanted to believe the best of my older brother. But a bigger part of me knew he was right, and I also knew Castel couldn’t watch him all the time. Castel would soon travel back to his home and his clan. He came to help us, but I couldn’t and wouldn’t expect him to do more than he already had.
Dealing with Ramses fell on my shoulders and mine alone. All that stays my blade is I know most of his actions stem from his addled brain. That’s something he can’t help. But how far do I let that go in the name of family? At what point do I put the overall good first, rather than my loyalty to family and blood?
My sole comforting thought as I walked home was knowing my wife was waiting for me there. The only thing I want to do for the rest of the night is bury myself balls deep inside her and not quit until the sun rises in the west, blocking the rest of the world and its problems from our minds for all of eternity. But first, we would entertain our guest and put the unpleasantness of the night behind us for a short time. The time when I’m forced to make a final decision will come soon enough.
* * *
Alea Barnett, March 1791
Ramses has been in hiding since the night in the park that will forever go down in infamy. I can’t say I’m sorry he’s not near us, but the concern is etched in my dear husband’s face just the same. Especially in light of what happened to me that night in the park—an event we haven’t shared with anyone else out of concern of sparking yet another clan war.
Slade arrived home from the confrontation between the two clans first, and I’ve never been so happy and relieved to see him as I was that night. When he walked through the door, like a normal, human husband would do after a long day at work, I was waiting not so patiently on the other side. I rushed into his embrace, and he picked me up in his strong arms, not uttering a single word while he pressed my chest into his. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck and clung to him for dear life.
I knew Castel would be along soon, and there was something I needed to share with Slade before our guest arrived. Though I hated to break the intrinsic connection we’d established, time wasn’t on my side.
“Slade, I need to tell you what happened to me in the park tonight, before Castel arrives.” Keeping my voice low and controlled was an intentional move. I know my husband and his protectiveness of me all too well. My hope was he’d remain calm as long as I was calm when sharing how the events unfolded.
His hand crawled up my scalp, weaving my hair between his fingers as he moved. With a light, sensual tension, his fingers curled into a loose fist, and he pulled my head back so we were face-to-face. “Did one of them hurt you?”
His voice was calm, but the fire in his eyes was lit and burned brightly. I held his face in my hands and kissed his full lips. “No, no one hurt me. But I love how you’re ready to take on the world single-handedly for me in an instant. It seems you’ve passed the power of the red eyes on to me.”
“You’re serious?”
“Deadly.”
At first, he was thrilled we shared such a rare gift. There was never any doubt, but this oddity further demonstrated we were destined to be together. Then concern and hesitation stole the joy of the moment when he had to face the ramifications this twist held. Ramses was already obsessed with me and with unlocking the inner power, but knowing I also possessed it would ensure he’d try again.
“What happened?”
“Two of his men grabbed me and tried to fly away with me. It happened so fast, I didn’t even realize where the extra power came from at first. But in the black sky, the glow from my eyes was reflected on their faces.”
“If his clan members saw it, then he already knows. It’s not safe for you here.”
“No, they couldn’t have told him. I killed them both and flew back home.”
“He’s linked to them telepathically. You’re sure they didn’t convey it to him before they died?”
“I’m positive. I could hear their thoughts, and I could block their connection to him.”
“You never cease to amaze me, Alea. Just when I think you couldn’t impress me more, you find a way to prove me wrong.”
“When you explained where it came from, I never expected I’d also have it. But it does make sense. Castel passed it to you from his blood, and you passed it to me from your blood.”
“And with that gift residing in you, my dear, your abilities will be more powerful than anyone could possibly imagine,” Castel said, appearing beside us out of thin air.
Castel pulled me into a friendly embrace after kissing my cheeks. “We are family now, Alea. I will love you like my own daughter, and I hope in time you will come to love me as a second father. Slade and Ramses are very dear to me, though I don’t condone Ramses’s actions in the slightest.”
His thick Italian accent was soothing. His sincerity made me feel loved and a welcome addition to a large family, the one thing my parents were never able to provide. The love he has for the two men he considers to be his sons is genuine, as is the pain he felt when Ramses betrayed him.
“Thank you, Castel. Your kindness means a great deal to me. As does your love for Slade. What Ramses has done isn’t your fault or your responsibility. It’s admirable how you still try to help and guide him, but he’s a grown man and he makes his own decisions.”
“I’m grateful my son has found his soulmate—and even more thrilled that soulmate is you, Alea. You both must come stay with me in my village soon. I believe you will love it there.”
We spent the rest of the evening talking with Castel, hours of sharing stories about family, our homes, and what we have to look forward to in the future. He spoke of Slade and Ramses—how they became his sons and how I could look forward to embracing younger vampires as my children one day. To clarify, he meant my children-to-be would be younger in the time they’d been vampires, not in human years. Regardless, the concept gave me even more hope for our future.
Hours later, Castel announced he was returning to the countryside in Italy rather than staying in the new world with us any longer. “You’ll find Ramses hidden at this location.” He pointed to a spot on the map that was in the mountains in the northern area of New York state. “He’s built an enormous house deep in the forest. So deep, it won’t be found by humans for many years to come. However, I don’t believe he’s given up on his illicit plans. If he continues on his current path, he’ll soon consort with shifters. That cannot be allowed, Slade.”
Immortal Envy Page 14
