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The surprise at my self-mutilation and the vampiric bond failing was enough for my next strike to find Adalbert’s heart. Silver and heat spilled into the vampire’s body like poison. I forced my Sire to the ground and pinned him there like a butterfly as the stolen blood left his body.

My teeth found his neck and I drank as he trashed. He fought. He fought to his last breath. His wicked claws rendered strips of my flesh from my back but, in the end, I gave him the mercy he had always denied me.

The mercy of death.

Power surged inside of me. My head spun as, at last, I understood what it was to be a True Vampire. Even now my body was starting to heal, the cut off hand expelling the traces of silver first before it started healing in earnest. With my previous body such a wound would take decades to heal. But as a True Vampire I felt I was going to have a new functioning hand in just a couple of weeks if not days.

“Brothers and sisters, you are free,” I managed to choke out to the other vampires surrounding us. My supernatural siblings from the same Sire… I wanted the best for them.

I expected a happy ending.

But not everyone was satisfied with just freedom. The first attack nearly took my head off. I was weak, wounded, and I didn’t know how to use the full potential of a True Vampire. I was a power upgrade just begging to be taken, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to become the top of the food chain.

“I’m not going to be enslaved again! Not by you, not by anyone!” Lady Amestra growled after her attack. If I was Adalbert’s right hand she was his left. The petite woman was all deadly skill in an aristocratic package and she had immense control over her vampiric powers.

“You don’t deserve to be a True Vampire, you monster,” the merchant I was about to torture said and joined the fray.

The world went hazy as I used speed I never had before to avoid another strike. Nausea rose in my throat. I had multiple bleeding wounds, only one working hand, and two people attacking me. Soon my movements were filled with desperation as I fought for my life.

Avoid, survive, disarm.

It wasn’t enough.

Dodge, survive, attack, kill.

KILL.

The power of the True Vampire rose in me like a fire from within as I understood I had to take the offensive to survive. I attacked. For a second I thought that wouldn’t work when I saw Amestra’s claws nearing my throat... but her strike was stopped by the other vampires. My kin came to save me! As the second most powerful in our group, Amestra wasn’t going to go down easily. Even with the help of the other Lesser Vampires, the victory came at a steep price, as several of my brothers and sisters fell, their heads severed or their hearts pierced. With the last of my strength I delivered the final blow, ending Amestra’s life.

My muddy mind was dimly aware there was something else to pay attention to... a second attacker? I found the merchant kneeling several feet from me. He was yanking at his hair and his eyes flickered with red. I realized I had seen him in the fight. Attacking Amestra along with the others.

With mounting dread I looked at the vampires surrounding me. Their eyes were red and they stood in place, motionless, their faces blank. I had seen those expressionless masks before. When Adalbert took control over someone.

But there was no Adalbert to control them anymore. Only me.

I made them fight for me and die for me.

They weren’t free.

And I was a monster.

Chapter Five

Victoria

At first, I tossed and turned, too aware of another presence in the room, but Theo set his sleeping place as far as possible from me. He tried to be silent and unobtrusive from the spot where he was curled up on the floor with only a pillow as company. In the end, I managed to fall asleep.

Theo’s presence didn’t really register to my instincts as danger and I wondered why that was. Maybe Theo protecting me from Carl put him into the category of an ally in my subconscious brain.

In the morning, I smacked at the blaring alarm and rose up all disgruntled. It was a trial, being a night owl when you got a 6 AM shift. But today a surprise was waiting for me.

I blinked my bleary eyes at the sight of a blond angel in my tiny kitchen.

Theo tried to stay as silent as possible while he prepared breakfast but his hips were swaying a little and he was bouncingon his feet when he switched tasks, as if he was moving to a music soundtrack in his head. It was adorable.

“You can sing if you want,” I said, still not moving from the bed. I needed at least five minutes of acclimating to the cruel state of awakeness to be even marginally useful.

“You’re awake!” Theo chirped with a smile. “I will make coffee then. You look like you need it.” I only grunted, too sleepy to wonder if he just insulted me. “Are you sure you don’t mind me singing? I have been told my impromptu musical performances can be… a lot.”