Page 29

S ebastian sat in the corner of an ancient pub, his hood pulled low and a glass of ale in hand.

Now that he had arrived in his ancestral homeland, his ‘plan’ was beginning to sound rash.

The treaty allowing Victor’s coven to be sovereign from the original coven was fragile at best. Vlad had Turned Victor himself, after all.

But after watching Isabel writhe in pain after burning just one painting, he felt even more desperate to find another way to undo his mistakes.

He could handle the pain. Isabel, though?

She was already saddled with such a weak body.

Would she even survive the agony of so many pieces of her soul being burned?

So this had to be done. Even if it meant denouncing his coven and joining Vlad’s, he would find out more about his curse of a magic. Sebastian downed the rest of his ale and slid the cup away, the liquid courage beginning to course through his veins.

Every vampire knew where the original coven lived.

Beneath the castle just outside Cluj-Napoca ran miles and miles of underground tunnels.

At the deepest point stood the Throne Room where the original vampire himself resided.

Even humans had rumors of his existence thanks to Dracula, though few actually believed in him.

And those that did believe didn’t know that Vlad the Impaler was not the first of their kind.

He was merely the first to be discovered and happened to share the same name.

Getting there would be easy. Getting inside? That was the problem. Just have to think on my feet, he thought and rose from his chair.

“So you really are this stupid. I had hoped I was wrong.”

Sebastian’s eyebrows lowered and he spun around. “Remus?” he growled in a whisper. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I’d ask you the same thing, if I didn’t already know.

You know the consequences of passing through that door!

Our coven has gotten large enough that this wouldn’t be a small war.

Either we’d be wiped out, or they would.

” Remus grabbed Sebastian’s arm and began dragging him out of the pub.

As much as Sebastian wanted to resist, he also didn’t want to cause a scene in front of the humans.

The pair slipped out into the night air and out of the city, remaining silent until they were deep into the uninhabited countryside.

Anger and fear clouded Sebastian’s vision and made his heart race despite the forced leisure of their pace.

When only the stars and shrubbery remained to bear witness of their conversation, the vampires stopped and faced each other.

“I would do anything for Isabel, and I know you would, too. How much do you know about our magic, Remus?” Sebastian sat on a large rock, struggling to balance his desperation with caution. If he could win Remus over, perhaps the two of them would have a better chance with Vlad’s coven.

But Remus seemed unlikely to agree. “I know that you’ve disobeyed the most basic rule of it, and put the woman I love in danger.

How many paintings of her do you have, that you’ve managed to summon some kind of demon to devour her?

! How much of an idiot are you, that you’d willingly capture so much of her soul? ”

“I didn’t know!” Sebastian spat, his hands clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. “I didn’t know that our magic was stealing parts of her soul! I didn’t know that something so beautiful and pure as our paintings could be so evil.”

“Excuses! If you hadn’t been so damn cocky and refused to listen to Victor when he tried to tell you what you were doing, this wouldn’t have happened.

But you’re a selfish, moronic child who thinks he knows better than everyone!

Even now you were about to march in to start a war that affects hundreds of people, only thinking about yourself.

” Remus shook with fury, his eyes black and his teeth clenched.

He pulled his arm back and let it fly, slamming his fist into the unsuspecting Sebastian’s jaw.

Sebastian felt the bone shatter, followed by the white-hot pain of his body knitting it back together.

Within 30 seconds he was healed, but the phantom ache remained.

His own anger boiled over and he went for Remus’s throat with both hands, but the shorter vampire dodged the attack. “You’re an ass!” he shouted.

“No, you’re the ass! I’m the one here to stop you from slaughtering our entire family, and still help Isabel!

Unlike you, I took the time to speak with Victor and search the library for answers.

If you’ll use your brain instead of your ego for five seconds, maybe I’ll tell you what I’ve learned.

Not for your good, but for the good of our family, and the good of Chiara. ”

Despite his anger running at maximum strength, enough of Sebastian’s logic center still functioned to latch on to the possibility that Remus had a solution to his problem.

He forced himself to take a few deep breaths and pressed his back against a tree.

The sensory input calmed him enough to shelf his pride for a moment.

“Okay. For them, I’ll listen to what you have to say. But I still hate you.”

“And I still hate you. So we’re even.” Remus shook out his punching hand and crossed his arms. “While our coven doesn’t know much about our type of magic, I found a reference in one of the history books about a library left behind when Vlad’s coven left Poenari castle.

If there is anything written about our magic that has been forgotten, it would be there.

And since it’s abandoned, we don’t have to start a war to check. ”

Hope sprouted deep in Sebastian’s heart.

If they could find something in the ancient library…

He pushed himself away from the tree. “Alright. That’s a better idea than mine, I admit it.

Poenari castle is about 300 kilometers south of Cluj-Napoca, if I remember my lessons correctly.

” He glanced at his watch, at the sky, and southward.

“There should be enough time. I’m leaving now. Come if you want, I suppose.”

And he began to run. Just like rushing Isabel to the hospital, he pushed his body until his lungs heaved for air and his heart pounded in his chest. But his vampiric strength allowed his body to function despite its oxygen-starved condition.

Nearly an hour passed before he bothered to check if Remus was following.

He turned his head just enough to look behind him.

His brother was just a few meters behind, jaw set with determination in his eyes.

Annoyance flared in his chest, but he knew that two sets of hands and eyes would get through twice as many books.

Besides, Sebastian knew generally how to get to the castle due to studying maps under Victor’s tutelage, but he didn’t know exactly where this library was supposed to be.

The lights of cities and towns appeared and disappeared as Sebastian avoided entering their warm circles. Even reports of unknown vampires in Vlad’s territory could put Victor’s coven in danger, so he stuck to the dark mountains and valleys of the unpopulated wilds.

The two reached the base of Mount Cetatea around 4AM and paused for a moment to catch their breath. Sebastian looked up at the 1,480 cement steps and sighed to himself. While they would usually pose no challenge, he was feeling the hours of full-speed running.

“What, Sebastian, are you too tired to keep going?” Remus mocked. “Have you gotten soft out on your own?”

Sebastian picked up a moderate sized stone and flung it at Remus in annoyance, though Remus dodged it as easily as the fist earlier.

He didn’t bother to speak as he began taking the steps two at a time, ignoring the burning in his legs and chest. Remus matched him step-for-step, and their feet landed on the top of the plateau in sync.

Despite the castle being barely more than a decrepit pile of stone, Sebastian couldn’t help feeling a bit of reverence for the site.

This was the birthplace of his kind. The place where Vlad spilled enough blood that he brought a curse on himself and those he brought under his command. A shiver rushed through his body and he shook his head to clear it. “Alright, where is this library, then?”

Remus pulled a sheet of paper from within his cloak.

“Beneath the dungeon. There’s a secret door in the fourth cell on the left, but it requires blood to be placed on the seal to open.

Luckily for you, I snatched one of the vials you’d gathered for Josephine.

” He returned the paper to his pocket and retrieved the blood to wave at Sebastian.

“Let’s go, then. We’re wasting time on your gloating.” Sebastian walked up to the crumbling structure and stepped within the circle of the walls. If he hadn’t been here on an important mission, he would have stood in awe as the power of the place washed over him.

But instead he waited for Remus to lead him toward the dungeon.

Sebastian had studied the layout of the castle, but seeing it now, it was hard to picture where everything used to be located.

Hundreds of years of decay had that effect.

Remus smirked at Sebastian’s hesitation, but didn’t seem to have any more insults to hurl.

They carefully traversed the fallen stones on the ground floor and located the crumbling stairs leading into a yawning black maw in the earth.

The thought of untold knowledge beneath his feet filled Sebastian with excitement.

No longer worried about Remus showing the way, he began descending the stairs.

They spiraled deep into the ground and if they ever had a rail…

it was long gone now. Water dripped down the wall and made the stones slippery where moss grew in the puddles.

Sebastian should have been careful as he made his way down to the dungeon, but a combination of his immortality and haste got the better of him.

Ten steps in, a moss-covered step gave way.

The stone fell into the abyss and with nothing to hold on to, Sebastian went with it into the belly of the beast.