Dark War Chronicles Box Set One

by A. L. Kessler

  “If you enjoy this sort of thing.” I muttered. I wanted to be back at the temple with Amunet. As far as she knew I was never there and that’s the way I wanted it to stay. She’d be ashamed of what I was now.

  “Taking out villages and cities that go against what the Father wants? I don’t enjoy it, but he is to be worshiped like the god he is.”

  And yet, he wasn’t a god, but the humans didn’t understand that. They wouldn’t until they felt the wrath of him directly. The horn sounded and the troops rushed into the sleeping town. I followed with a heavy heart, how many humans would be killed needlessly tonight? How many women and children taken into the slave trade? I followed the troops in as the blood lust started to creep up in me. I hadn’t fed since we’d left the main village. Tonight I would need to feed or I’d risk losing control and killing the victim.

  Finding an alley that was secluded from the screaming and fighting people I saw a woman clinging to the shadows. She turned her heart shaped face to me and met my gaze with brown questioning eyes. Her long hair was up in an intricate braid and she held herself high and proud. Her eyes took in my armor and stature and she tensed to run.

  “I can spare your life from them.” I offered and she froze. She was beautiful in the moonlight as she contemplated my words.

  “And what do you want in return? You are no ordinary human or soldier. Your eyes are red and your hair white. I can see an aura around you.”

  She was a witch of some sort, powerful if she could see an aura around me. “A bit of your blood. My word that I will protect you if you let me feed from you.”

  “How can I trust you?” She sneered. “You speak of taking substance from my veins.”

  I laughed. “I could have killed you by now, or called to the guards to take you to the slavers, but I have not.” The fates had to have put her there that night. I found myself enamored by the fire I saw in her eyes and the fight she showed me. “Just a bit of blood, all I ask, and you will have my protection for your whole mortal life.”

  She raised a brow and gathered her skirts. For a moment I thought she would run, but no. She took two quick steps towards me. “And how do you think you’ll protect me? You have to hide in the shadows, while I walk in the day.”

  “Come with me. I have a villa of my own, away from the soldiers and away from the others like me.” I had no idea what made me give that offer, but there was no taking it back.

  Guards came streaming down the alley way and I let out a curse. The woman ran behind me. “If I agree, I want the freedom to come and go as I please.”

  “Granted.” I stated and looked at the men in front of me. “She is mine. No one is to touch her.”

  Someone started to protest and I snarled. “Be silent or be my dinner, your choice.”

  No one protested. They knew that I could take them on single handedly. The only problem would be that my actions would go back to the Father. The men filed out of the ally and I turned to the woman. “I need to feed now.”

  She nodded and held her arms out. “I do not know what to do.”

  “Just relax.” I stepped up to her and wrapped my arm around her waist and tilted her head with my other hand. She closed her eyes and let out a deep breath as I lowered my lips to her throat. My fangs slipped through her skin with ease and the copper taste of blood filled my mouth. It touched and healed the fire that moved through me. I used my powers to ease her pain. With that came the rush of memories. I could see her from when she was a child playing in the wheat fields, to an adult, promised to a man of high standards. Her most current grief being when he died, leaving her a widow in a world where woman were not valued.

  I pulled back when my blood lust ebbed and helped steady her. “Come, I have a horse we can take out of the city and back to my home.” Now was not the time to push her on her memories. I would have plenty of time to know who she was, to learn about her life before I stepped into it.

  She nodded and stayed close to me as I led her to where my horse waited. I helped her on and pulled myself up behind her. Urging the horse forward, I wished I could have shielded her eyes from the blood drenched horror filling the streets of her home.

  I felt her thin body shake against mine as I took her out of the village. We’d be back to my villa before the sun rose and before the troops returned. I could get her settled before I rested for the day. Amunet would have to wait until tomorrow night to be seen.

  I stopped the horse outside my villa. “You’ll be safe here. They’ll forget about you soon enough.”

  She slid off the horse without my help and crossed her arms. “What the hell are you and why were you and your men attacking my village? We are innocent farmers.”

  I sighed and motioned to the villa. “Let me get you something to eat and I will explain. You deserve all the answers, all the truth I can provide.”

  She looked around and then to the dwelling. It was mediocre compared to the one the Father lived in, but it was larger than anything I would have had if I’d still been living a human life. My heart ached to think of what my fate would have been.

  “My name is Zaaren and I am what your people call a vampire.”

  “I know that much.” She shot back. “But you shifted through my thoughts, my memories, calmed my panic. How?”

  I chuckled. “All parts of my abilities that I gained from the Father when he changed me.” I led her inside.

  “Your hair and eyes, were those part of the change as well?” She asked and sat on one of my lounge chairs.

  I refused to meet her gaze. “No, that happened when I tried to save my sister. The Father had a witch use a spell to turn her into a Blood Human.”

  She frowned. “I know that spell. It strips someone of their humanity, turns them into a gift for the Father and the vampires. It costs a witch their soul.”

  “Yes. My sister is his food source now.” I couldn’t shake the feeling of grief.

  She took a deep breath. “My name is Elissa. My husband was killed by one of your soldiers. I’m twenty-one years, we had no children. My parents are from another village that your people already took out.”

  “This was not the life I wanted.” I admitted. “My sister and I were sold into the Father’s care fifteen years ago. I was merely a child, my sister a babe, and my mother was strong. The Father chose my sister when she turned thirteen to work in his mansion. We would visit when we could, and now at your age she is now his...” He shook his head. “Hard to believe that she is only two years younger.”

  Elissa stayed with me for several years. We were lovers, friends, and sometimes enemies. I came home from raiding another village to find my villa ransacked. Discarded furniture, torn bed sheets and the smell of Elissa’s blood everywhere told me something had gone very wrong while I was gone. My mind raced as I tried to figure out what had happened in my absence. Storming out of the dwelling, I ran into a human woman. She tumbled down to the ground and then stood, dusting herself off.

  “Forgive me, sire. I come bearing a message from The Father.”

  My heart skipped a beat. “Tell me.”

  “He would like to see you in his hall. There are matters that need to be settled.”

  I looked back at the mess and hoped that she had nothing to do with this. I could feel my temper rising as I followed the servant to the Father’s hall. She left me in the empty room. The Father’s hall was just off where he kept Amunet for his feeding pleasures, but instead of hearing the normal sounds of him feeding, I heard sobbing, and it wasn’t my sister. No, it was my love. I waited, knowing going in there would only mean death for her.

  After a few moments the Father came out. His dark hair tied away from his olive skin, his black eyes met my gaze. “I was wondering when you would return home. I found your little pet. She is pretty.”

  My heart fell, but I kept my face blank. “I found her in a village, I was taken with her.”

  “So much so that you rarely come to see your sister. My whore must be so disappointed in y
ou.”

  I tensed. I didn’t realize that Amunet knew I came, I didn’t think she’d miss my visits. “She’s normally too drained to notice I’m here.”

  “Do you really believe that?” The Father laughed. “Come with me.” He led me into the room that I knew to be Amunet’s chamber. A room full of pillows and a chamber pot for her, though I never knew how she found it since her eyes were covered at all times. Amunet was curled on the floor holding a pillow to her naked body, silent, still.

  Kneeling next to her was Elissa. She stroked Amunet’s hair as if trying to comfort her. But her own cheeks were streaked with drying tears. I took a few steps towards them, but stopped when the Father put his hand up.

  “Whore.” He snapped.

  My sister raised her head up, but still remained silent, but I could see her jaw lock in what I assumed was an attempt not to snap back.

  “Who is in here with you?”

  She took a moment and then took a deep breath, “An unknown female, my brother, and you, Master.”

  “Her senses have increased in the last few years. She can sense vampires, shifters, witches. I assume it’s a perk of me blindfolding her.”

  So did I, but I hadn’t been aware of it. “The unknown female is my lover, Amunet.”

  She frowned at the name. “My brother has taken a human lover when he himself has become a monster?”

  “Amunet, please.” I tried. “I am no more a monster than you.”

  She rolled onto the floor, onto her back, displaying that her body was littered with marks. “I am not a monster, I am food.” Her voice was even and my heart broke. When in the last few years had she come to this conclusion?

  The Father laughed. “She still fights me, but right now she is still affected by my powers. When she comes down from them she’ll remember what she is and where she came from.”

  And I wouldn’t be here. I had never been there for her. I looked at Elissa.“Come, I do not wish to be here for that.”

  “You are going nowhere.” The Father snarled. “You are not to keep humans from me. You are not to keep anyone from me.”

  He rushed towards her and grabbed Elissa’s neck. “She is nothing compared to us, when will you learn that Zaaren? When?”

  With a flick of his wrist he snapped her neck and dropped her lifeless body. The blank look in her eyes and the frozen horror on her face would always haunt me. My one glimpse of human life, my one hope now gone.

  ***

  The seven of us stood in front of the Father’s throne, waiting. He said nothing, merely looked us over for a few minutes. Finally Nuala stepped up. Her long light red hair tumbled almost to her knees, her pale skin had been freckled and her green eyes flickered to me before she spoke. “Why have you called us here?”

  “With the exception of Zaaren, I have allowed all of you to strike out on your own. I have taught you all how to bind humans to you, make others, and use your abilities.”

  Except for me. I always wondered why he had kept me so close. Nearly a hundred years had passed since he’d killed my love and he had yet to teach me anything more. I was the youngest of the seven and I knew that. He’d chosen each of us by hand, except me. They each carried their own exotic look, their own names, and none of them were the same. I had never questioned where he had found them, but this was the first time we’d all been together.

  “So why have you called us back.” She asked.

  He snarled. “We have lost favor with the gods. They have taken all that is glorious away from us. We are the superior beings. It is time that we show the humans that. Every human you come across that is not bound will be killed, turned, or put into the slave trade. Only change the strong ones. We do not need weak vampires running around.”

  A brilliant plan, except how did he expect us to control all the ones that we changed? How did he expect us to keep order?

  Enzuna stepped up. His skin was the darkest I’d seen, even in my travels. His head was clean of hair and his body toned. “You expect us to keep track of them all?”

  “I expect you to teach them as I have you. They will answer to me and to you. You will act to police them into obedience. There will be rules to follow, laws that if broken will mean a visit from me.”

  Our own little vampire society. We would no longer be alone in this world.

  “Come, I have prepared a meal for you.” He motioned to the hall and I knew exactly who he was getting ready to share. I hadn’t seen her in ten years. My sister.

  I hesitated and he looked over at me. “If you refuse, Zaaren, then I will let you starve for a year.” He snarled.

  A year of blood lust unsatisfied would turn me into more of a monster than I already was. Refusing his gift was not a choice. Amunet stood in her room, some version of a dress covered her most intimate parts and some sick part of me realized it was meant to tell us the Father would not share everything about her with us. Each pulse point was left uncovered for us, her eyes still shielded with the black fabric, and had I been human I would have missed the fine tremor going through her body. As a vampire I could sense her fear and her panic.

  I shouldn’t have been waiting there for her to be offered, I should have been there to comfort her. To save her. The Father touched her and her body stilled. All the panic I had sensed melted away. He was using his power to calm her.

  “Offer yourself, there are eight of us total.” He told her.

  Amunet nodded and laid back on the pillows, spreading her arms and legs open without a protest. Despite knowing she wouldn’t die from this, I couldn’t stop the fear.

  “Zaaren, take her wrist. Everyone else, choose your spot.”

  “Zaaren?” Amunet’s voice cracked. “Master, please—“

  The Father stopped her with a hand on her head. “Shush, silence. Remember you are nothing but property. My property to do with as I wish.”

  Her protests died down and she took a shuddering breath. “Yes, Master.”

  I stepped up and took her wrist. “I am sorry.” I whispered before I bit in. Everyone else surrounded her and took a pulse point.

  We left her on the ground, bleeding and unconscious. Through my feeding I’d seen her memories and I wanted nothing but to wipe them away from her and me. It was that moment I knew I needed to become powerful enough to take her from The Father and find a home for her, far away from this horror. Nuala put a hand on my shoulder. “You have to learn to let go.”

  “She’s the only thing I have left in this life, I cannot simply let her go.” I glanced back at her as she curled up on her side.

  Nuala sighed. “Come with me.” She led me out of the room and hall to the outside courtyard. “You are a vampire now. You cannot hold on to mortal things. And yes, I know she is not mortal anymore. She is not your sister anymore. She is a human that the Father turned into some poor creature for the pure sake of food and fucking. She is one of twenty, he burned the rest.”

  My heart sank. He would killed Amunet, as he said before, when he tired of her. Of course now that they had lost favor with the gods....

  “Ask to strike out on your own. Find a land, do as you’re told for now, and then come back. None of us like him, none of us want to see him grow into immense power.”

  I walked with her as we talked. It made sense, but it meant abandoning my sister. “And then what? Hope he doesn’t kill her while I’m away?”

  “Do you know why he’s kept you here?” Nualas asked, stopping to look at me.

  “No. I never questioned.” Maybe I should have.

  She chuckled. “It was to keep his little pet in line. Now that she’s compliant, there’s no need for him to keep you here. Staying here will only keep you weak. Zaaren, trust me that you need to strike out on your own.”

  She spoke to me as if I was a child, but she was right. I knew there would be no helping Amunet if I did not grow in power. My sister was stuck in a routine of being drugged by the Father’s powers and I doubted she’d know how long I’d be gone. Nuala was r
ight. If I wanted to save her, I had to let go.

  “Thank you.”

  “I’m only trying to look out for you. Like I said, none of us are fond of him and these plans of his are going to get out of control.”

  And that was the truth, but right now, we were all too young, too weak to do anything about it.

  ***

  The Father had let me strike out on my own. Three hundred years and things had changed. I’d grown in power and though I had yet to change anyone, I knew who ever I did I wouldn’t be able to trust with my mission. Each fledgling that I had met from the others still had an undying loyalty to the Father. It was sickening, but it was needed so none of us were ever suspected of wanting to turn on him.

  I did have my eyes on one man. Markus. A great solider of the time from Rome. I’d followed the training and the battles, he was one of the best. Smart, logical, strong, and he had nothing to lose. He’d lost his wife to childbirth when I had first shown up in his country. I’d met him grieving in the market one night, drunk on wine. He had no true idea of what I was or where I came from, but he shared his story with me.

  If I changed him then I wouldn’t be taking anything away from him. I watched as he left the tavern in a drunken stumble. In the morning he’d get up and go to training, so he thought, but my mind was made up. It’d be tonight that he would join me and then the Father’s army, and there he’d be trained as the Father saw fit. Just like the others. In time the Father would release them to start their own territory. It was a circle of creation that would not stop until vampires were the majority.

  I followed Markus down the road. I waited until he was out of the torch lights and rushed him. I trapped him against a wall and didn’t wait. I was blood starved and the only way to change him would be to drain him. My fang tore into his throat. Over the years I learned that I could alter the memories of those I fed from, but that is not something I’d do with Markus. He needed to know where he came from and how he was created.