I moved again and kept a watchful eye for any movement. Two men emerged from Rolland’s house. Their eyes were kept straightforward, focused on their destination. Determination was set in their expressions. There was no mistaking the gait of men on a mission. These were two men who had information, and I needed it.
I followed them into the forest, away from the rest of the clan, and watched as they fed on several large animals. Hour after hour, they moved from place to place, stalking their prey and pouncing when they had the animal cornered exactly where they wanted it. They were building their strength without causing suspicion in the city by creating more missing persons. They were preparing their bodies for something major, for a fight to the death.
Was that fight to the death intended to be with me?
If Ramses and Rolland are at the helm, the answer is most definitely yes.
When they’d finally had enough to drink, the sun was rising. I realized I’d been away from home all night. Alea would be beside herself with worry over me, followed by incredible anger and hurt when I returned home and explained my absence. How would I explain neglecting to tell my wife I’ve been spying on my brother who doesn’t live anywhere near us?
That conversation should go very well.
The two men I’d been following and watching stopped walking without warning and looked at each other. Then they burst out laughing.
“We know you’ve been following us. Rolland told us you would. He also just told me to tell you he hopes you enjoyed our little show. His plan worked better than he thought it would.”
“Hurry home now.”
* * *
Alea Barnett, 1792
With Thomas working in the office with Slade, my assistance wasn’t needed as much. While growing the business was a good thing, not going into the office left too much time on my hands. Hours and hours of nothing to do, forcing me to find anything to hold my attention. I looked forward to the hour when Slade normally walked through the door. He’s been later some days than others, but then he’d also been earlier at times. But when Slade didn’t return home anywhere near his normal time, my first thought was he’d been held over by a client or possibly had fed without me. Either way, a word to alert me would’ve been the polite thing to do.
The more time passed, the more concerned I became. He’d been venturing off more frequently lately, but never for so long. He didn’t bother to share where he’d gone with me, but I knew Ramses still consumed his thoughts. It was only natural he’d want some time alone to process his thoughts and work through his frustrations. My main concern of not knowing where he’d gone was his safety. One vampire hunter had already turned up and Slade changed him, but there are more out there.
A knock at the door alarmed me since I wasn’t expecting visitors. When our servants brought my unexpected guest into the parlor, I could barely speak because of the shock.
“Sean?”
“It’s me, Alea. I’m sorry to show up unannounced, but it took me most of the day to locate you and I didn’t want to wait another minute to see you again.”
“How can this be? I was told you were dead.”
“Umm—no. I am alive and well, as you can see. Would it be inappropriate for me to wrap my arms around you and hug you as tightly as I can?”
“No, that wouldn’t be inappropriate at all!” I leapt into his embrace, so happy to see my friend again. To learn he wasn’t executed, contrary to what Ramses said.
Sean wrapped his arms around my waist, and my arms went around his neck. He squeezed and I pretended to be crushed, though I was the one who had to take care not to hurt him. Through all of this, my happiness over having my friend back was all I could think about.
“I’ve missed you, Alea.”
“I’ve missed you, too. You have no idea. When I was told you’d been killed, I was so heartbroken. I still can’t believe you’re here.”
He released me, and we sat together. “Alea, you look absolutely radiant. Marriage agrees with you in every way.”
“It definitely does. I can’t wait for you to meet Slade. I’ve told him all about you.”
Sean smiled warmly. “You’ll always be the one who got away from me.”
He asked a lot of questions about my life, and we talked for a couple of hours. He asked me about married life, Slade, and the differences of living in America. I shared as much as I could without giving away our family secret. Sean soaked up every word, as thrilled to see me as I was him. The miracle of my oldest friend sitting next to me was blindingly beautiful.
When he stood to leave, I realized how long we’d been talking, but Slade still hadn’t returned home. I hid my concern and escorted Sean to the door.
“How long are you staying?”
“I have no plans to return to London. I’ll be here for the foreseeable future.” He kissed my cheek, hugged me again, and stepped outside.
“I’m thrilled to hear that, Sean. You are welcome here anytime. You must come back soon and meet my husband. He’ll be sorry to hear he missed you tonight.”
“Good night, Alea. I’ll see you again very soon.”
I returned to the settee and began journaling the return of my friend Sean, though my mind kept wandering back to Slade.
A noise outside the front door drew my attention. Concerned Slade had been injured by a hunter, I rushed to the door to check.
“Sean? Did you forget something?”
“Yes. I forgot you.”
“What do you mean?”
Before I could process his intent, several men rushed me and threw a silver chain mail over my head, effectively rendering my power useless. They picked me up and sprinted away from the city, moving north toward the mountains in the upstate area.
When we reached the hideaway, Sean put me in a cell with silver bars.
“Here’s your journal. You can finish writing about us now. It’s very touching to read how much you missed me.” He pushed my journal and writing pen through the bars, then changed his appearance before my eyes.
“Rolland.”
“Did you honestly think I was your old friend Sean? Oh, I’m sorry, dear. Ramses didn’t lie to you. Sean died some time ago. But I appreciate all the information you shared about Slade. It’ll help me tremendously when he shows up here to get you, and I use it against him to kill him. You’ll have a first-row seat to watch.”
“Was this your plan all along?”
“Of course. I just had to take a more indirect route to get here. You and Slade wouldn’t accept my offer, but Ramses did.”
“Why? What do you hope to gain from this?”
“His blood. The maestro rosso in him is stronger than in any other vampire I’ve encountered. If I take his blood, it’ll complete what’s inside me and then I’ll possess the power. Like everything else in this world, it all depends on who the strongest is. Do you have any last words you’d like me to convey to your husband?”
“Yes. Tell him I said to rip your throat out and save it as a trophy for me when he takes me home later. Because that’s exactly what’s going to happen when he finds out you’ve taken me. You’ll wish you’d never met anyone named Barnett by the time this night is over. You want to know who the strongest is? You won’t actually get to meet him—because you’ll never even see him coming.”
Chapter 19
Ramses Barnett, 1792
Rolland’s words keep replaying in my mind, a taunting chant of how something so simple yet imperative was kept from me. The more I think about it, the angrier I become. How could I have been so blind all these years? I’ve been played for the fool in so many ways by the two men who were supposed to be my family.
My brother and my creator.
Slade and Castel have lied to me and hidden crucial information from me. They’ve intentionally held me back from being the most powerful vampire I could possibly be. The first important piece of information was, of course, the legend of and the secret behind the red-eyed powers. Finding that out the way
I did was bad enough. Knowing they conspired together against me was worse.
But I’ve only recently learned yet another element of the life I’ve lived for more than a hundred years. All this time, I could’ve broken the control Castel has over me by simply asserting my own will against his commands. When he showed up at the park that night and ordered me to make my clan retreat, I didn’t have to obey him. I wasn’t required to bend to his will. I’ve always conformed to his directives because his power is so strong, and that was what he’d taught me to do. Now I clearly see that Castel and Slade intentionally held me back to keep me under their thumbs. The only explanation is they’re both jealous of me because they know I’m the one who was destined for greatness, but they wanted it all for themselves instead.
My previous plans failed partly because of them, but I have to accept the bulk of the blame. Going after Alea in my brother’s house without the full power awakened inside me was utterly foolish. I knew going in Slade’s strength exceeded mine, even under normal circumstances. Had they told me about the additional powers I could’ve developed and mastered by now, I have no doubt the outcome would’ve been very different.
That action created an immediate reaction with outcomes and consequences I never could’ve predicted. The power that awakened in Slade and the conflict that erupted between the two of us summoned Castel to our location. As our creator, he felt the tremors of discord in his family. He heard the murderous thoughts in our heads. The only thing he could do besides kill us, or rather, kill me, was to stop us from going any further than we already had.
I examined all the facts and relived every interaction before my next move became clear to me. When I realized, after much deliberation, what I had to do, a huge weight fell from my shoulders and my path became evident.
Patrick and I took an unscheduled trip to a tiny village located on the northern coast of Sardinia. It’s completely ironic that the name of the town is Castelsardo, since it’s not named after Castel. But he most likely chose it out of his vanity and pride anyway. As point after point occurred to me, I had to wonder how I missed all the obvious clues for so long.
We arrived at Castel’s beachfront mansion unannounced and unexpected, just the way I’d planned. There were no sentinels standing guard. No rabid dogs to protect their master. My exact thought as I entered his home, my home during my early vampire years, was how poetic it would be for my vampire father to die in the same place where he changed my real father, and then watched as my father killed my mother.
My revenge has been a long time coming.
Patrick and I drifted through the palatial beachfront home, silently searching for Castel. Each room I passed through held too many memories from my younger years as a vampire. They all hit me at once—the good and the bad mixing together until my mind was a jumbled mess. Scenes of Castel and me together, him patiently teaching me all I needed to know.
The view from the veranda outside the kitchen evoked the next memory. Slade and I left together on a hunting mission, practicing our vampire skills in another coastal town on the mainland. We moved our stalking grounds as far away from our lair as possible to avoid drawing unwanted attention. Our village was much too small to feed on anyone and not cause suspicion, risking being beheaded or burned at the stake
The next room was the grand banquet hall. When Slade and I had mastered our gifts, Castel held a masquerade ball for us. His clan brought humans in from all corners of the world for us to feast on in celebration. Castel was so proud of us that night. He boasted to all of his vampire friends from distant clans about how well his sons had learned the vampire ways. The admiration he held for us was never kept a secret.
In the library next, scenes from my time alone with Castel flashed before my eyes. He spent hours with me, going page by page through the many books he owned, introducing me to more knowledge than any human could fathom. His patience with my questions never waned even once. “We have plenty of time, my son,” he’d said. “Ask all the questions you want.” When I was ready, he’d switch to teaching me other languages to help me blend in wherever my travels would take me.
The great room presented a different memory entirely. The sharp pain that shot through my chest as the events replayed brought me to my knees. There, in front of me, I saw my beloved mother and my father as plainly as I saw Patrick standing beside me. It was that day all over again. The day Castel changed Slade and me. The day he changed my father into the monster that killed my mother, the one person who’d always loved me for me—flaws and achievements alike. Then I watched as Castel killed my father before I lost consciousness.
I closed my eyes. I couldn’t bear to watch it happen a second time in one lifetime. Losing my mother was something I’d never recovered from. Seeing my father murder the woman we both loved more than our own lives haunted me for a century. Reliving that again would be unbearable.
“Look again, Ramses,” a familiar voice urged gently.
“No.” My reply was adamant and resolute.
“It’s not as you remember, my son. You need to watch and understand the truth.”
Against my better judgment, I opened my eyes and steadied myself to relive the day my whole family died. It was by far the worst day of my life.
Castel and three other vampires from his clan carried the four of us in their arms as they drifted through the wall and into the great room.
“Quickly. Lay them here on the floor. We’re almost out of time,” Castel commanded.
My eyes drifted to my mother’s face. It had been so long since I’d seen her, but there she was again. She was already so pale her skin was almost translucent. Her breaths were slow, labored, and shallow. She was fading so fast. My gaze darted over to where the mortal version of myself lay on the cold, marble floor. Even then, I was calling to my mother, begging her to hold on.
“Mother, keep breathing. Do not give up. I beg of you, sir. Please help her first.”
Castel was kneeling beside my father and looked up when he heard my plea. My voice was so weak when I asked him to help her first, it was barely audible. At the time, I thought I was yelling at the top of my lungs.
Castel and the others exchanged knowing glances. “I will try my best to help her.”
He finished sharing his blood with my father, allowing him time to go through the change as Castel checked on my mother. He knelt over her and inhaled a long breath, taking in her scent first. Then he closed his eyes and bowed his head.
“I’m sorry, my boy. She’s already gone. I cannot bring her back now.” His voice was thick with remorse. Then he moved to Slade next.
“Your brother is very sick. Much more so than you are. I will help him before it’s too late. You’ve lost enough today.”
From my kneeling position, I watched the events of that day replay as if I were an outsider to the entire scene. Castel’s fangs extended, ripped into his own flesh, and exposed more of his blood. It dripped into Slade’s mouth, forcing him to either swallow or drown in it. I watched the muscles in his neck as they barely moved, forcing the life-giving liquid down as best as his sickly body would allow.
By the time Castel moved to me, my father had completed his mortal death and his rebirth as a vampire. Castel again opened his artery and held his wrist over my mouth. The toxic nature of vampire blood stops the heart from beating. The pain is excruciating as the internal organs cease to work and the change begins. My mortal body began to convulse as it went through the stages of dying.
In the scene before me, I watched as I fought against losing consciousness due to the pain, keeping my eyes fixed on my mother even when I started to drift away. My father’s wails of pain drew my attention away from the younger Ramses on the floor, and I observed his actions with rapt attention.
He had been changed into a full vampire—but his dead heart was still connected to my mother. In the blink of an eye, he was at her side, gathering her into his arms and hiding his face in the crook of her neck. He rocked back and fort
h, wailing inconsolably. His only coherent words were repeated over and over.
“Not without you. Not without you.”
My father looked up at Castel, tears of blood streaked down his face. “You promised me, Castel. You gave me your word.”
“But your sons…” Castel objected.
“You gave me your word!”
Castel nodded, his shoulders drooped, and his steps were slow when he walked to the far wall. He lifted the silver sword from its resting place and begrudgingly returned to my father.
“You promised, Castel. It’s what I want you to do. I can’t live an eternity without her.”
Castel placed his hand on my father’s shoulder. Remorse filled his face. “I am sorry, my friend.”
“Take care of my boys. They’re your sons now.”
“I give you my word. Your sons will be treated as my own,” Castel assured him. With that, my father drew my mother’s lifeless body close to his chest again and closed his eyes. Castel’s swing made a clean cut through my father’s neck.
The other clan members carried my parents to the funeral pyre outside and stood solemnly by until the fire burned itself out.
The vision cleared from the room, but I couldn’t move from my position on my knees. “All these years, I’ve had recurring visions of you turning my father into a monster that killed my mother. And then you killed my father—but not for the reason I just witnessed.”
“Had I realized that’s what you believed happened, I would’ve shared my memory with you much sooner. Why did you never tell me, Ramses?”
It was well past time to be completely honest—with myself.
“Because I loved you, Castel. I loved you like a son loves his father. I admired you and wanted to be exactly like you. And if that were true, if you had caused my parents’ death, I didn’t want to know. Not really.”
“But you’ve been conflicted all this time. Torn between not wanting to love me and wishing you could hate me. Feeling guilty for being associated in any way with the one who took your parents from you was bad enough, but loving and admiring that man drove you to madness…” Castel replied, filling in the words I still couldn’t say.
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