I bristled as I pushed onward, suddenly aware that the tunnel had opened into a large room. Stalactites and stalagmites jutted into the cavern, many meeting like teeth in a giant’s mouth.
“Where are you?” I asked as I strode into the room, scanning the space with narrowed eyes. “Show yourself, coward.”
I felt a movement in the shadows behind me and turned quickly, hands at the ready to gouge at the flesh of any threat.
My eyes widened at the shape that towered over me, and I backed away, truly shaken for the first time in my immortal existence. The creature I regarded was three times as tall as me, and just as wide. Red eyes bored into me from a massive head, as I attempted to comprehend the majesty of who, or rather what, I was looking at. The giant head shifted slightly, opening a mouth that revealed rows upon rows of sharp teeth, like a cross between my canines when they slid from their sheaths and a shark’s teeth. They continued well into its mouth, perhaps down its throat. The beast’s nose was flat and spread across the majority of its hair-covered face, its ears tilting this way and that as if registering something that even I, with my superhuman hearing, could not detect. Red eyes continued to glare at me as the creature pulled itself closer to me on bat wings, for that was exactly what it looked like—a giant bat.
“Don’t tell me the great count is afraid of his god,” the monster said, its toothy mouth pulling into a hideous grin.
“My god?” I asked, taking another involuntary step back before I realized what I was doing. I was startled by what had presented itself to me, but I would not let it intimidate me. I clenched my jaw and lifted my head defiantly. “The old gods are dead.”
“No. They are not.”
I didn’t know how to respond to this. I wracked my mind for what my creator had taught me about the god of vampires. He could appear as a man, a wolf or a … a bat. Vrykolakas, who sustained our eternal lives, who thirsted as we soaked the earth with blood in his name, whose power provided us with the tools to hunt.
“If you are Vrykolakas, then why are you squatting in this cave?” I asked, unsure.
Vrykolakas’s gaze never once wavered from my own, his red eyes as deep as blood and passion, and glowing with an unearthly energy. “My children are losing the battle for the dominance once seen as a foregone conclusion. As one of a handful of notable rulers of this territory over the past century, you are a standout among my strigoi, my moroi. I have taken a special interest in you, to see how you fare in this climate.” He shook his head. “It appears you fare no better than the rest. The humans are too powerful when they are organized.”
“I let my guard down,” I said, then winced as I noted my defensive tone. I straightened. “It won’t happen again. Humans are foolish creatures, but there are some among them who are capable of more than we give them credit for. I lost sight of that.”
“That you did.” Vrykolakas studied me for a moment. “Perhaps this was inevitable, our fall. Or perhaps this is an omen. Many of you have forgotten what humans are like. I think there’s an opportunity to learn something significant from this portent, rather than see it as the beginning of the end. Perhaps … you will prove yourself worthy of being a vampire yet.”
I swallowed hard, dread curling in my stomach. I didn’t like the sound of what Vrykolakas was saying. “What do you mean?”
Vrykolakas nodded to himself. “It is decided. A test of your worth. A test of the best of the children of the night.”
“I hardly think—”
“It is decided.”
I shrank back, finding myself shaking, and forced my nerves to settle. I loathed to show weakness to anyone, and I certainly wasn’t about to show fear before one so important.
Vrykolakas tilted his head as he looked me over. “You have been too long removed from the human world. You will prove to me that you can be as clever and shrewd as the humans.”
When he didn’t continue, I ventured, “How?”
“You will become human again. You will maneuver among them and blend in without them becoming suspicious of what you are in your heart.”
“Human?” My eyes widened. “You can’t be serious. I will … play act to move about with them? You would have me enter society with them?”
“Play act!” Vrykolakas chuckled, a deep rumble that could turn even my blood cold. “Not at all, my count. You willbecomehuman. It won’t be an act. Blood will once more beat through that undead heart of yours.”
I blinked. No. This was some sort of test. He couldn’t mean what he was saying. It was only meant to scare me into agreeing to something. He didn’t have that sort of power.
“Oh, I have the power. And I’m going to use it on you, Lucian. Mark my words, I will withdraw my gifts from you. You will return to the way you were … before.”
Before. I didn’t want to think about that time, when I was weak and lost, like … like all the humans I stalked across the mountainside. They were little more than animals.
“And if you succeed in your quest,” Vrykolakas continued, “I will return to you your powers. You will become a vampire once more.”
Before I knew what I was doing, I was on my knees before Vrykolakas, grasping the fur of his arm. “Please, have mercy on me. Give me another chance.”
“This is me giving you another chance. You should be grateful for the opportunity.” Vrykolakas pulled away as if by touching him, I’d sullied him somehow. “You should find your quest satisfying, for it gives you the opportunity to seek revenge against those who drove you from your castle tonight. My spies have traced this groups of hunters to an area in England that has been without vampires for too long. There happens to be a duke about to bequeath his dukedom in the vicinity, a family close to the queen, very influential in political circles. It’s the perfect opportunity to uncover information about these hunters, when members of all of the most influential families gather together in one place to seek the future duke’s hand. The mob must be funded by someone noteworthy, with the means. Uncover them, and we can destroy this threat once and for all. You, Lucian, could be our one chance to secure our future. You are tasked with courting the future duke and participating in these marriage games until you ferret out our enemy.”
I blinked. “Court a duke? Me?”
“Do you not think yourself up to the task? Do you not profess yourself to be more clever than the humans?”
