I was no longer a brother. No longer a son. No longer a physician’s apprentice.
At that moment, only one word circled in my mind for what I was.
Murderer.
* * *
“Kiev!”
Erik gasped as I stumbled into the cottage in the early morning hours.
“What happened to you?”
“Where’s Helina?” I panted.
“She… she’s sleeping. What is going on? Your shoulder—”
“Bring her, goddamn it!”
Erik sprinted up the staircase, casting worried glances at me. I’d managed to slow the blood flow by bunching up my cloak and holding it against the wound with one hand as I guided the horses and the carriage with the other. But it meant that I was now frozen numb from the cold.
I walked over to the warm fireplace and crumpled onto the carpet.
When Erik emerged, he was carrying a sleeping Helina.
“For God’s sake, brother,” Erik pleaded. “Will you tell me what happened?”
“It doesn’t matter… what happened,” I gasped. “Just listen to me. Carefully. I don’t have the strength to repeat myself. There’s a carriage with two horses waiting outside the house. In it, you’ll find enough food to last you a week and enough money to keep our uncle happy for at least five months.”
“But—”
“Beware of robbers. If anyone tries to stop you, shoot them. Take breaks only during the daylight hours, and when you do, keep an eye out. You’ll find a knife and firearms in the carriage. Do you understand me?”
Erik stared down at me, his eyes glistening in the firelight. He clutched Helina closer to his chest, and nodded.
“When… when will we see you again?”
“What kind of question is that?” I snapped, clenching my jaw against the pain. “Just leave now. You know what you have to do.”
He took a step closer to me.
“No,” I said, shaking my head and pushing myself further away from them. “Get away from me. Get away from this village. You’ll start a new life in the city. Find work there to keep Uncle happy. And just… take care of our sister.”
“I won’t ever forget what you’ve done for us, brother,” Erik choked, tears streaming down his cheeks. “And neither will Helina. I’ll make sure of it.”
I watched from the floor as he exited the cottage, still carrying our sister in his arms. He closed the door, and a few minutes later, I heard the creaking of coach wheels.
If Erik hurried, they would escape the village by dawn.
* * *
My father passed away the following night, and my mother followed him three days later. Once my shoulder had healed enough to bear the strain, I dug two graves in the garden, next to the rose bush, and laid them to rest.
The bitter thought occurred to me that I ought to dig my own grave while I was at it. For the day before I’d coughed up my first lot of blood.
I didn’t know how long the illness would take to disable me, and dying sick was bad enough to not want to die hungry as well.
That meant only one thing, since I’d run out of food and money in the cottage. Another trip up to the highway. Another robbery. The last one I’d ever need to make. And, God willing, this time without murdering anybody.
I decided to pick a spot a little further up the road than last time. By the time I arrived, it was well past midnight.
I sat myself down on a tree stump and waited. My ears ached for even the slightest crunching of gravel. Any distant whinnying. Any clattering of wheels. I waited for hours in vain. Nothing came that night, and as morning was about to break, I felt too frozen to move. I’d stayed sitting in one position for far too long.
My eyelids became heavy and I fell face forward into the snow, my limbs no longer capable of supporting me. As I began to lose myself to the darkness, a chilling wind whipped past me, rousing me to my senses. It was so biting, it was as though it was seeping into my very bones.
And then I heard it. A whisper… a rasping voice… drifted through the dark woods.
“You want food.”
At first I thought that it was the whistling of the wind through the trees playing tricks on my ears, my hunger and cold making me hallucinate.
But then it came again. “You want a cure.”
“Who are you?” I gasped.
“You miss your family.”
I managed to find the strength to sit up and look around me. I couldn’t see anyone. It was hard to even tell which direction it was coming from.
“I can give you everything you want.”
“Show yourself!”
A figure shot out from a tree a few feet away from me. A man, it seemed. He wore a long black cloak, his hood pulled down over his eyes. As he approached me, his walk was jerky. And his smell. It was the stench of rotting flesh.
“Follow me.”
What other choice did I have than to follow? Even if this stranger intended to murder me, I was dying anyway. The mention of food ringing in my ears, I found strength in my limbs again to stand up.
I followed him for hours, and he refused to answer any questions. It was a constant struggle trying to catch up with him. I’d wanted to walk side by side with him, but somehow, no matter how much faster I pushed myself to walk, he was always a few feet ahead of me. Finally, as I was on the verge of giving into numbness again, we entered a clearing and a magnificent dark castle came into view. A castle I’d had no idea ever existed. A castle I was sure our village didn’t know about either.
We walked through the courtyard up to the giant oak doors. I followed him inside.
“Welcome to The Blood Keep.”
His voice echoed around the chamber as the doors creaked closed behind us. And as they did, the man crumpled to the ground in a heap. His face became visible for the first time—that of a corpse. A rotting, maggot-infested corpse.
But it was too late now for second thoughts.
The Elder kept his promise.
Over the following years, he cured me of my mortality.
He provided me with more blood than a single vampire could consume.
He made himself my father and gave me new siblings.
In exchange, he dragged my soul to hell.
Chapter 1: Kiev
“Mona’s gone.”
I stared at Saira as she stood in the doorway of my room.
“Gone?”
“She left this note.” The werewolf handed me a piece of damp parchment with words scrawled in the witch’s florid handwriting. Don’t try to find me.
“It means that she left voluntarily.” Matteo appeared next to the werewolf. He placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, though he looked unsettled himself.