Aleron: Book One of Strigoi Series (Stringoi Series)

by Kane

  I sucked furiously. I sucked until there was no more. I dropped her body. She’d be among those who were missing in Bulgaria. She’d be found, lifeless and bloodless. She’d be burned as the others were. And she’d be headless!

  I ripped her head from her neck and took to the night, with Raya following close. Our pace hastened, our newfound desire for death guiding us to life. The journey continued to a place revealed by the vampire woman’s blood. It was a place seen many times by her, visited by her during the many decades of her life. To Varna we went.

  CHAPTER 29

  ust before daybreak, Pandora witnessed Vlad entering the castle just below the main floor. She seldom visited the dungeon beneath the castle. Even as an immortal, the memories were too painful to bear. It was there that Vlad kept humans for feasting. He wouldn’t feed them nor bathe them. They would literally rot within its dank, cold walls. A tomb it served for many, for once a mortal entered, he would never leave alive. Pandora would be the sole survivor, save Mordekai, who met his fate shortly after his escape.

  Pandora sought the dungeon again and arrived unnoticed. Retreating into the darkness, she witnessed Vlad awakening Sinaa’s senses and sensuality. Sinaa was deep within his power, for had she not been, she would have surely tried to kill him for killing her mother, whom she cherished.

  Sinaa’s eyes were tamed. Her breath was steady. Vlad tore off her gown, exposing her naked body. He caressed her, though he wasn’t gentle. Fueled by the anger of being deceived, he wanted to ravage her, and so he did.

  Sinaa’s eyes widened and reclaimed focus as his spell over her weakened. She wanted his death. However, she knew not the demon beholding her. Sinaa lunged at him.

  “You shall pay for your treachery, vampire!” Every word dripped with hatred and served as the catalyst of loathing for her own immortality. She wanted his death as she wanted her own.

  “At your hands, my mother suffered a cruel fate. Yours will be the same!” She knew nothing of the presence she now graced. She knew nothing of the power that rested within the beast who was our creator. She knew nothing!

  Sinaa powerfully struck Vlad with her hands and scratched deeply into his flesh. He stood still as she witnessed the wounds she inflicted instantly disappear. She struck him again with more force than before, and again while anticipating her next strike, his wounds were gone!

  “Who are you?” she screamed. “Where do you come from? Answer me!” She stood ready to attack again as Vlad finally spoke. “You’re unknown to me, vampire girl. However, the mystery won’t be long lived. I shall partake of you and all of your beauty, leaving part for the rats’ and wolves’ delight.”

  “Hold your tongue—”

  Before Sinaa could complete her thought, Vlad plundered her with contempt and beastly disregard for her. Sinaa fought with all of her strength and immortal gifts, but she was completely defeated by the fiend.

  He bit her repeatedly, tearing and eating the flesh from her back, legs, arms, breast, and neck. Preparing for the blood meal to come, he began suckling her throat, tormenting her, until the blood began to flow into him. And onto him came a vision that stopped his feasting completely.

  He tore himself away from her. Sinaa fell back and quickly began to recover. Vlad’s eyes became enraged. The entire castle shook.

  The hair on Vlad’s back raised, his nails elongated and became ghastly sharp, and his mouth dripped with blood. Vlad saw for the first time another vampire within the blood memories of this fledgling girl, a vision of a powerful male. “Where do you come from?” he snarled in animalistic, near incoherent speech.

  Sinaa, confined to the floor, nursing her wounds, simply smiled with a blood-filled mouth and cunningly vacant eyes. She said nothing.

  Invisible hands grabbed Sinaa and slung her the length of the dungeon, into a wall where her bones gave, as did the stone boundary that she had been thrown into. She plummeted to the floor as Vlad pounced on her, biting down again into her flesh, drawing out the truth of her origin.

  He released his toothy grip on her when he realized her memoirs would not reveal the location of this male. Vlad knew of his existence but knew nothing of his whereabouts, a fact that enraged him. His mouth displayed large ungodly teeth stained with Sinaa’s blood.

  “You shall tell me where he is or you shall die!”

  “I’m already dead, beast! I’m waiting for you to finish this!”

  Vlad grabbed Sinaa’s arm and slowly pulled it completely from her body as he spoke. “I’ll tear you apart, limb by limb, until you tell me where he is. I’ll leave you to rot for all eternity beneath my castle as my wounded pet. I’ll deprive you of what you seek the most, as well as what you need to survive. Tell me where!”

  “I’m waiting for you,” Sinaa gurgled while choking on her own blood. “I’m waiting for death.” She writhed in pain, lying on her back holding the bloody stump that used to be her arm.

  “Then death you shall not have.” Vlad straightened himself and began walking around Sinaa’s beaten and broken body. “You shall have weakness. You shall be fed on by my daughters. You shall be forgotten by your precious secrets. You shall know my wrath. But you will not have death!”

  Vlad exited with such speed that the walls cracked. Sinaa crawled around in search of her arm, but Vlad had taken it with him, assured to keep his promise. Broken from her fight, Sinaa lay on the floor of the dungeon. As she fell into a deep sleep, a familiar voice filled her head. You were lucky, my young one. Call out to them, and they’ll seek you. Call out.

  And so she did. With all of her remaining strength, Sinaa called out to Eliza.

  Pandora returned to the main floor to find Vlad in a fury. He called all of his children, demanding their presence immediately. All business dealings came to a swift conclusion as the main floor began to fill with immortals. Natasha entered, followed by the fledglings she created in the name of her master. Her brood was younger and not as powerful as the rest. Then Pandora made herself visible for all to see, as her children waited.

  A thick grey cloud surrounded the castle. Rain pounded into the moat. The howl of the wolves and the sounds of the beating wings and screeches of hundreds of bats joined the wind and thunder in a surreal symphony of darkness. Vampires poured into Bran. Hell had called upon all its demons resembling the angels depicted in heaven. Some arrived with dark blood caked on their mouths, some with muddy feet, some in gowns and dresses, both elegant and tattered. The eldest dressed with dignity; many of the fledglings cared only for the thirst, and everything else was a blur.

  The candles in the hall were furiously awakened. Wax flowed heavily as the roaring blaze consumed the candle and brilliantly lit the walls of Bran, the walls of the underworld. Vlad was Hades. He paced in front of the elevated main floor, which served as a platform, and waited for all to arrive. He was the personification of anger and rage.

  The open ballroom was hot and heavy with terrible spirits rustling about. Curtains feverishly flapped and fanned here and there. Vlad’s cloak regained its own will. Dark shadows crept up from the floors along the walls and ceiling, screeching and erratically dancing, resembling frantic creatures called upon to witness his majesty’s might and savagery. All the while Vlad’s own shadow moved objects out of its way, a display eclipsing a hundred times the spectacle when Seth was born from Sasha’s disobedience centuries before.

  At long last Mynea entered the hall, her dealings in Budapest completed. She walked in with a queen’s poise, Persephone in this world of the dead. The other vampires prostrated themselves upon her entrance. Her children loved her. All others adored her, except one. She made her way slowly to her throne beside Vlad’s, which he refused to take.

  “I have evidence of treachery,” he began. “At least one of you has disobeyed my order! At least one of you has kept a secret full of deceit!”

  The young vampires dared not speak, yet thoughts flooded the hall as they looked at one another in despair and disbelief. Mynea was impassive, as unflinch
ing as stone, while a slight smirk arose on the lips of Pandora.

  “Tacerea este raspunsul meu? Silence is my answer?” Vlad questioned. “This blasphemy will not go unpunished!” The door from the dungeon below swung open with such force the stone wall cracked. The captured and wounded Sinaa floated into the hall with Vlad’s invisible force guiding her. She was bloodied and broken. Her eyes opened to a sea of vampires staring at her.

  “Where did she come from?” Vlad spat, carefully examining the expression on his children’s faces, searching for any signs of emotion, listening for any thoughts that might indicate the origin of this unfamiliar vampire. A young one from Natasha’s brood screamed as she burst into flames, for Vlad targeted her as an example of his fury and power. Her screams filled the room to capacity, as she flailed and yelled for forgiveness of a crime she knew nothing of. It was a display of the utter disregard Vlad ultimately had for all of them, all of us. She burned in the very spot she stood, alongside her sisters, who did nothing except watch in horror.

  Sinaa’s living corpse was rotting on the bone; without the healing power of fresh blood, she had been reduced to a gorgon—the smell of decaying flesh with that of burnt flesh as the aroma du jour. Her eyes were partially open and cloudy as a wounded animal’s might be.

  Some of her less serious wounds had, in fact, healed, but most were much too deep. Wounds inflicted by a more powerful vampire aren’t easily made sound, especially those inflicted by Vlad. She hung as if her entire body were clenched in the palm of Vlad’s invisible force for all to see, for all to admire the wages of his rage, for all to cower in his unflinching vengeance. Her body was drained of its life force. The other vampires looked upon her in horror. Some had never known Vlad to be anything but endearing. Some had only seen Vlad through dreams and omens. This display served him as well as upheld his dominion.

  Mynea was unmoved. She was a true queen—heartless, disconnected, merely present. She kept her eyes focused and her breathing steady. It was impossible to discern guilt on her stoic face.

  “This immortal came not from the dust as Adam. She’s not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone. She’s not born of me! She’s spawn of someone else, something else. I saw this being in her blood. I sense I’m not the only one in this room with knowledge of this.”

  A blue flame engulfed the head of Sinaa. Then the blaze spread until her entire body was an inferno. The fire came from within her body, for her screams were heard before the flame became visible. Fire poured from her mouth and eyes. Her fingertips and toes glowed just before the flame broke free from them. Still suspended in air, her melting flesh began to drip. Some of her flaming tissue landed on the vampires beneath her. As we were at birth, she became at death—a foul soup. The remains of her once perfect body soggily slammed against the floor. She drew breath no more, her pain extinguished. She wouldn’t join her mother, for her destination was Sheol, the gateway to Gehenna, damned forever!

  Vlad suddenly disappeared, and the vampires looked to Mynea for counsel. However, this time, she offered none. The wind howled alongside the wolves no more. The curtains stood still, the candles defeated. His presence was no longer felt.

  Mynea emptied the entire hall with one silent command. Pandora remained close by. Mynea walked over to the burnt body of Sinaa and took a piece of her flesh into her hand. She raised it to her nose and smelled it, taking in its essence beneath the acrid burnt odor. Had there been anything left for her to taste she would have put the flesh into her mouth and searched for an answer, searched for the smallest droplet of blood, for, of course, this deceased vampire’s origin was of particular interest to her as well.

  She let her mind wonder since Vlad couldn’t read her thoughts or the thoughts of any who were in her direct bloodline. However, it would take some effort to shield her thoughts from one as powerful as Pandora, and without Mynea realizing it, Pandora easily captured them.

  Mynea dropped the flesh back onto the burnt mass. “No. It cannot be. She’s not of him! He knows not the power to make another.” And with this, she walked away, leaving the rats to a feast.

  Pandora made herself appear in Mynea’s pathway just before she retreated into the hall. She simply smiled as Mynea walked by so closely that their shoulders brushed. The putrid smell of the night clung tight to Mynea’s gown, detailing her close encounter with the corpse. Their eyes locked before Pandora vanished.

  To the east Mynea traveled across the Arges River. There she found Vlad beneath the ruins at Poenari. These ruins were once part of a fortress built by the Turks and seized by Vlad’s father. Even the most powerful of us needed solitude at times. Vlad’s solitude would be short-lived, for Mynea was never far from him since her return. This time would be no exception.

  Mynea entered the dungeon beneath the ground. This place received no benefit from Vlad’s vast fortune. It lacked the silk from Asia and the marble and stone from the west. No furs lined the ground, only dirt and ash. Vlad preserved these grounds for another reason, known only to him.

  As she approached the doorway, Mynea found Vlad standing with his back to the entrance. Before she took her first step, he was behind her, his hot breath assaulting her ear.

  “You’ve come to offer me comfort, my dear, or have you answers?”

  Softly Mynea replied, “I’ve come to soothe you, love, as I’ve always comforted you.”

  She reached her hand back to caress his neck as he looked down upon her from behind, so close that her hair moved with his steady breath. Her eyes closed as he kissed her neck softly. His eyes, too, were closed, yet his mind wasn’t in the moment. Neither was hers. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, wide and black as they stared into air; hers remained closed. In an instant he left her for the original spot where he stood when she first spied him.

  Her reaction to his absence was delayed. Her body still felt him, yet he was no longer touching her flesh with his, her hair momentarily swaying, pushed by his last breath. Realizing she was alone in the embrace, her eyes opened and she collected herself.

  “What do you know of her, Mynea? You smell of her stench. I take it that you took particular interest in her death.”

  “I know nothing, my lord. She’s of unknown origin to me as well. I wanted to touch her flesh to see if I could feel her. I thought there may have been something left behind to tell me where she came from. I wanted to smell her scent, but through the ash I could not. For you, my love, to help settle your weariness.”

  “Lies! All lies! I saw another. In the blood of the foreign one, I saw another. It has been outlawed for centuries to make a male vampire. I alone am sovereign. I am totem. I have made all of us. All that is of us is through me. It is my blood that flows through the veins of all who are truly immortal. Yet the fledgling showed me signs of someone I have no knowledge of. Hidden from me for how long? Answers I must have, and answers I shall have!”

  Mynea remained quiet, trying desperately to keep her mind sharp and strong as Vlad continued to confide in his queen

  “How could this happen? Could I have been blind for decades to the existence of another? Who was his maker? Where is he now?”

  Vlad focused his gaze upon Mynea. “I demand answers to these questions, Mynea. If I have to destroy all that I’ve created, I will have answers. Send out your scouts and bring me what I seek!”

  “Yes, my lord.” Mynea left the ruins of Poenari.

  Vlad, settled in his charge to his queen, found the scent of another, a familiar scent, a welcome aroma, the aroma of his first love, his immortal Eve. She appeared within the walls of this very dungeon as she did long ago. She came bearing gifts.

  “Pandora. You bring me sustenance. You’re here to nourish me? To caress the one you loved as a mortal girl? To love the one who killed your family and brought you to a life of death? To me you return over and over, as I know I’ve crushed your heart many times over. You still care for me. You still love me.”

  Pandora stepped out from the shadows with two men, fast asle
ep, one slung on each shoulder. “These men have offered their lives so that you can live, my love. I merely accepted and became the vessel of deliverance.”

  She placed both at his feet. “What did she bring you, my love? More empty kisses?”

  “Respect your queen, Pandora. I’ve chosen her with reason.”

  “Oh, I know, my lord. I know your reason for choosing her. You want what is most distant from you. And for all of your children and concubines, she remains alone and aloof at a distance. Your cold ancient heart desires for nothing that desires you.”

  “This hurts you. This is why you hate her so.”

  “I hate her because of your blind love for her. I knew this from the beginning.”

  “You know nothing of my love! You know nothing of her heart!”

  “More than you, my king. Better still, I know yours. I’ve known since you stole me from my family and kept me at Bran as its mistress in waiting. I didn’t know waiting would eclipse centuries. For now, drink from the offering I’ve brought you.”

  Vlad was able to control his thirst, but when presented with such a succulent offering, it would have been difficult for any immortal to resist. Vlad lifted his hand into the air, and one of the men’s bodies began to rise. Pandora’s spell wavering, the man came to. He opened his eyes wide and began to struggle against the invisible hold that was impossible to break. He screamed as the skin surrounding his throat began to tear open without as much as a touch. He tried to cover his progressing wound with his hands, but his arms were outstretched, as though he were being crucified. The man cried out louder as Vlad turned his palm in a calling gesture, summoning the blood within. A spate of blood appeared in the air and then followed the path drawn by Vlad. Gravity failed in its attempt to draw the life force downward.