A vampire without fangs.
Alistaire gained superhuman strength, keen hearing, sharp eyesight, and a thirst for blood once a month. Alistaire had been disappointed that he couldn’t be Synder’s son by blood and soon after turning twenty-one, he’d left the vampire's side, hoping to find where he belonged.
"Don't pull yourself away from us, Alistaire. Don't push your fathers away. They love you, kid."
Not knowing what to say, Alistaire nodded and walked out of LaMarkus's office to start his patrol. The petty crime rate in Vale Valley was low; it wasn't like some of the states and countries he'd lived in over the past few decades.
He'd done many different jobs over the years—from carpentry to working in an office, but the one he found he enjoyed the most was working as a cop. It wasn't the aspect of carrying a gun. Alistair’s reasons were simple—he got to defend and protect the people as his father had done for the McBain clan. It was never about service for him.
Alistaire took into account the jobs he'd worked over the years and saw them as something to keep him occupied until he found his true target—Euan Gillies, the man who murdered his parents and wiped out his entire clan. Euan had delusions of grandeur and abused his immortality to steal, pillage, and take whatever he deemed that was his. One of those things Euan had thought was his was Alistaire's mother, Olivia McBain, a beautiful woman with a heart of gold.
Alistaire remembered the eve Euan had entered their village with a group of men. He'd watched from the shadows as his parents, the chieftains, entertained their guests. Everyone had seemed to be having a good time laughing, dancing, and eating—making Alistaire jealous he was too young to join in the festivities. He'd have been in trouble if his mother had realized he'd snuck out of bed after she'd tucked him in for the night.
He’d turned to leave and headed back to his room when he’d heard a howl echo through the hall. When he'd turned around to see what had caused the noise and why the dining hall had gone silent, he’d been surprised to see his father standing over their guest with his sword sticking out of the man's chest.
"I will not align myself with traitors," Lochlan McBain yelled in the hall. "I will not betray our king, and if anyone dares to touch my wife and child..." He pulled his sword out of the man's chest, slashing it as blood splattered on the few people that were close to him. "You will feel my wrath, now get the fuck off my land."
Alistaire had never seen that side of Lochlan before. His birth father had been kind and forgiving with a burst of boisterous laughter that could be heard a mile away. His mother, Olivia, had once said if he'd ever gotten lost, all he needed to do was listen for his father's laughter, and he'd find his way home. Alistaire remembered very little about his parents, but there were little things he couldn't forget. His father's laughter and his mother’s lush red hair and bright green eyes.
His most vivid memories were the events that led to their death. The fear and recognition in his mother's eyes when she’d realized Alistaire had seen it all...that she couldn't save him from the horror of it.
Lochlan had turned his back to the dead figure while gathering his mother in his arms. If only they’d known what would follow after, he would have kept his eyes on the man he'd just killed. Lochlan and Olivia had been about to exit the hall but stopped, slowly turning around when the most maniacal laughter sounded in the room.
Everyone, including Alistaire, was in disbelief to see the man Lochlan had stabbed in the heart standing hysterical laughter ringing through the hall, sending a frightful shiver down his spine. Alistaire couldn't move, nor could he make a sound.
"Euan, what sorcery have you done to yourself?" Lachlan shouted.
Euan’s laughter stopped. "Sorcery?" He looked down at himself, hissing at the blood soaking his clothes. "Look at what you've done to my furs, you insolent dog." His furs slipped off his body with a slight shimmy of his shoulders—falling to the floor.
He grabbed a tankard of mead and drank it with renewed vigor, then sat back down in the chair he’d occupied earlier and grabbed a fowl off the platter on the table, tearing into it like a ravenous bear.
"Answer me, you devil, what sorcery have you done to have dominion over the god of Bàs!" Lochlan pointed his sword at Euan.
Euan howled with laughter as if Lochlan had said something in jest. "I am the god bàs!" He shot to his feet then overturned the long table. "It seems the other gods saw fit to gift me this luxury."
"Your snake tongue speaks untruth," Lochlan shouted.
"What have you done, Euan?" Olivia stepped away from Lochlan. "This is not of the gods."
"How would you know? I thought you, as a witch, would understand receiving a gift from the gods. You had the power to destroy our enemies, yet you hid in the mountains by this coward’s side.” His eyes softened as he looked at Olivia. “Follow me, Olivia. Let us be together as it should always have been.”
“No, I refused you then, and I refuse you now, Euan Gillies. Your heart is not pure. You’ve sacrificed those you claim you want to protect, and for what?”
“If I need to tell you, Olivia, then you never understood me from the start.” Euan stepped back, extending his arms out, addressing the room. “Brothers and sisters, we no longer need to live under British rule. I, as your leader, will lead us to victory."
"Don't listen to him," Lochlan beseeched.
"Why shouldn't we listen?" Tivion, a member of the McBain clan, asked. "Against my better judgment, you claim neutrality in the war, yet you stood by and watched as our brothers and sisters were massacred."
"Tha," another McBain member chimed in. "We begged you not to turn a blind eye, but you ignored our plea. Now they are all dead."
"Don't you think I didn't hear their cries or feel their pain, but I had to protect my people."
"Protect us! You are a bloody Gealtaire," Tivion shouted, and to Alistaire's disbelief, other McBain clan members joined in, agreeing with his words.
Euan barked out a laugh, cutting through the shouting. "How the beloved leader has fallen." He moved over to Olivia and pulled her into his arms. "Why are you still standing beside this man? He is not worthy of you, mo ghaoil. Come with me, be mine, and I will make you my queen."
Olivia shoved Euan away. "It is not for you to say who is worthy of me or not. I choose Lochlan to be my càraid. I don't know what you've done to yourself, Euan Gillies, but you've cursed your soul by using forbidden magic we witches have stayed away from. Bàs is not something to be feared, nor is it a curse. Mark my words, Euan Gillies, the gods will punish you."
