Once the fire is blazing and Mirabelle has stretched out across the rug between us, Reginald retreats from the room, closing the door behind him with a quietclick. His footstepsdon’t move from the door, and I know he’s guarding the room, making sure neither my mother nor Perdita nor one of their Thralls disturb us.
I continue my story. “One campaign, we were to lay siege to a castle controlled by a rival king. Our intelligence led us to believe that only women and children and a small, inexperienced force held the fortress, and the bulk of the army had moved on to a more defensible position. But we were misled. Inside the castle was a force the likes of which we’d never encountered before. Vampire mercenaries, commanded by none other than Lady Callista Valerian.”
Winnie gasps.
“We assaulted the walls, expecting easy victory. But none of our arrows pierced their skin. Our swords glanced off their bodies. Whenever we cut them down, they rose again. They flowed over the walls of the fortress in insurmountable numbers. Beside me, Hrodebert prayed to his god for our triumph over these demons. But gods don’t listen. Callista’s army surrounded us, cutting us down without mercy, and worse.
“The horrors I saw that day are forever burned behind my eyelids – my comrades screaming and begging for death as fangs sank into their necks. Their bodies going limp and their screams turning to moans as the ecstasy of the bite stole their minds. I did not know what kind of hell we had entered, but I fought with everything I had within me to drive those monsters back into the darkness. I severed the head of one as he sank his teeth into Hrodebert’s neck, and that monster didn’t rise again.”
“I thought vampires were immortal,” Winnie says.
“We do not age. We are difficult to kill. But all things, even aberrations, die in the end. There were only two ways I knew to kill a vampire – driving a wooden or silver weapon through their heart, or cutting off their head. The staking I did not learn until much later. That day, I strode through the battlefield, getting up close to evil incarnate so I could separate heads from bodies, with Hrodebert at my side.
“And thenshecame for me.”
“Callista?” Winnie leansforward in her seat.
She tempts me with her proximity. I long to pull her into my lap, to wrap her golden hair in my fist and expose her pretty neck. I am blood-drunk and she is everything I’ve ever desired. The promise of her prickles in my fangs. I force the hunger down.
“Do not let her beauty fool you, Winnie. She is known among our kind as the Lady of Agony. She was not happy that we had killed some of her best warriors, so she strode onto the battlefield to deal with me in person. And I was young and foolish. I underestimated her as a woman alone, wearing nothing but a white shift splattered with dirt and blood. I drew my sword, soaked in the immortal blood of her warriors. She drew a small, jewelled dagger, a pretty trinket she still carries with her now. With that little knife she glanced aside my killing blow without breaking a sweat. She smiled down at me and I knew then that all of Hrodebert’s demons and monsters were real.”
I rip open my shirt, running my fingers over the raised scar beneath my armpit. “She pulled me against her chest, so that my long blade was useless, and then worked her knife through the seams in my armour, driving it home. It is the only wound my immortal body cannot heal.”
“Shekilledyou,” Winnie whispers, her fingers reaching out towards the wound, towardsme. I long for the warmth of her, but instead of sweeping her into my arms and kissing away the tears that gather at the corners of her eyes, I tiptoe across the knife edge of my control and close my shirt.
She will learn soon enough that I don’t deserve those tears.
“I knew as soon as the blade bit my flesh that I was dying. She offered me a deal. She would save my wretched life and gift me immortality, but in return I had to swear a blood oath of fealty to her. I would disown all bonds of family and loyalty and become hers.
“I had no family left, save Hrodebert, and when the life is fleeing your body, the choice seems no choice at all. And so, she gifted me the Kiss, mingling her blood with mine, giving me the power and lineage of the Blood Valerian.”
“Oh, Alaric,”Winnie breathes.
“When it was done, she brought me to the Nightshade Court. The vampire population in Europe is divided amongst courtly alliances. Vampires are either born beneath the banner of a particular court, or they can swear their loyalty in a blood oath to their court of choice. The number and nature of the courts has changed over the years, but you need know only of the three that still exist today – the Nightshade Court, to which I was born, which is a court of warriors and bloodshed; the Midnight Court, Perdita’s court, which is the court of pleasures and art; and the Dusk Court, the court of magic and illusion.”
“I’m skipping right past this ‘magic and illusion’ bit, because I think I’ve had enough surprises for one lifetime,” Winnie says. “So the courts are a form of government?”
“Yes. They do not cover specific geographic regions, although many vampires prefer to live in the vicinity of their chosen court. Each court administrates a number of services for their people, including feeding clubs, affiliated businesses, events, matching vampires with Thralls … Three representatives from each court form a governing council, the Conclave, who make laws that cover the courtly vampires. We also have a legal system, known as the Mora, which you must hope never to encounter. My mother administers the Mora, and she delights in it.”
“Noted.”
“Callista was true to her promise. She schooled me in combat, gave me the finest armour and weapons, made me the greatest of all her warriors. She taught me the laws and traditions of theUpyr, which is what we are called in the old tongue. She presented me with lavish gifts, like a gold-inlaid coffin. She allowed me to continue my father’s trade, and I found pleasure in crafting weapons that I carried proudly into battle beneath the flag of the Lady of Agony.”
“The swords piled in the ballroom?” Winnie raises an eyebrow.
I nod, slowly.
“I had everything, but I was miserable. All I saw of the world was pain and death and suffering. I realised that the gift she’d given me was really a curse, and I grew to hate the tasks she set me – the human armies she had me slaughter to a man, the prayersto silent gods to save them, the promising fighters she made me bring her so she could curse them, too. I envied the Midnight Court vampires who visited her, with their bright, easy smiles and their passion for beauty and colour and dance.
“One day, we were camping en route to join another lord’s Nightshade regiment. We were at rest in our coffins, guarded by our Thralls, when our camp was attacked. A small band of brave human men, their bodies covered in sacred Christian symbols, swords inlaid with silver, and wooden stakes strapped to their horses, descended upon us during our sleep. They had been following us, studying us, searching out our weaknesses. That is how they knew to attack during the brightest hour of the day.
“I rose from my coffin to the sounds of my kin dying. That sun bore down on me with such violence that I could barely lift the lid of my coffin. I dragged up my sword and stumbled into the fray, swinging at the nearest attacker, only to be met by the clash of steel and my friend’s familiar blue eyes.”
“Hrodebert?” Winnie’s eyes widen. She hugs Mirabelle so tightly that the cat gets annoyed and jumps down.
“He was older, his beard peppered with grey, but the same devout, beautiful man I’d called my friend. I was ecstatic. I had assumed he died during the siege, slain by Callista’s undead army. But here he was, full of fire, his body dripping with blood. I reached out for him. ‘My brother, I can’t believe it’s you—’ and he slashed a long cut down my arm. The cut stung, but what stung worse was the hatred in his eyes.
“‘You are no brother of mine!’ he cried, before he swung at me again, going for my neck. Our swords sparked as they clashed. I tried to explain that I was still me, still the same Alaric he’d fought beside all those years. But he looked right through me. He saw only the evil he wished to see. He threw all his weight behind his next blow, aiming to take my head. But even with the sun beating on my back, I was stronger. I stepped around him and my battlelust fell over my eyes. It was him or me, so I drove myblade into his side.
