Page 114 of Theoden

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

ONE LONG ASS EPILOGUE

It took us a year to reach the shores of America. Most of the vampires hated being on water for so long, many actually experienced sea sickness. I hadn’t known a vampire could feel that, though I never did, even when I was human. The plan worked as I knew it would and within a week, we had taken over both of King Alexander’s territories, forcing him and what was left of his army to flee into other lands to the west.

Once we had settled, found new homes or took over the homes of the vampires who had once lived there, we began to establish our own businesses. Ara broke the territory up into five districts and in doing so, wanted to assign each district a new Lord. He held a small ceremony at his mansion, where he gave districts to his sons.

Of course, by this time, he had made two more sons, both I had an affinity for. Vladamir was found by Nolan, who had been sent to the unfamiliar land of Russia to search for a son for Ara to sire. In order to get permission to do so, Ara had obtained a small vial of Tylendel’s blood and venom to bargain with. The Russian vampire King, Nikolai Petrov, though friends with Ara, was still stubborn about letting Nolan, a Lord in Ara’s kingdom, in his territory. That was why there was a need to make a bargain and one that Nikolai was all too willing to trade the human for. The dragon cure was priceless to vampires.

Vladamir was a soldier who fought against the Russian army in their Battle of Shelon. That was a decisive battle between the Grand Duchy of Moscow under Ivan the Third and army of the Novgorod Republic. Nolan had taken a liking to the red-headed barbarian who fought like a beast on the battlefield even though his side lost the battle.

Nolan brought him back with him, which was a treacherous journey as they had to pass through other territories undetected. It wasn’t impossible to do, but it was very difficult and one must not linger in any one place for too long. Keeping to the water as much as possible was always the best way for one to travel.

Ara had been pleased with Vladimir andembracedhim. Henry, Ara had claimed on his own when he went on a trip to England to see Queen Elsa. He was always welcomed there and her territories were the only ones he was allowed to enter as a King himself and vice versa.

I was sure they fucked a lot during his trip, but while there, he found a human to sire and heembracedHenry while still in England. It was also during his trip there that he acquired the fancy gold cane with a ruby handle he enjoyed touting around with these days. One he took from a Duke who’d been arrogant enough to challenge Ara in the matter of infidelity. Needless to say, the Duke lost more than his cane that night. As for Henry, when Ara returned home, we all got to greet our youngest brother, whom I promptly fucked.

Where Miguel and Nolan had bonded quickly, Vladimir and I had become close, with Henry following in Vlad’s footsteps. Of course, that had angered Nolan, as he had chosen Vladimir and had wanted our younger brother to choose him and not me to bond with. However, it just didn’t work out that way.

As for the new arrangement, now that Ara had five sons present, he would redefine our statuses. It was then, at that ceremony, where I was named Lord of District Five. The highest position and the most flourishing part of the state, Chicago. I was overwhelmed and honored by the elevation.

As to be expected, not all of my brothers were pleased with their lot in life. Nolan felt that he should have been made the highest-ranking Lord, although he never made such complaints to Father. I and my other brothers had to hear him bemoan his fate. The only one who sided with him was Miguel, which was not uncommon. Nolan was assigned to the fourth district, Miguel, the third, Vladimir, the second and Henry, the first.

I didn’t let Nolan’s ire deter me from accepting and excelling in my position. And I assigned my four sons their own districts within the kingdom as I had done while in Bahir. My boys thrived in the new land and I knew moving was the right thing. I was just happy that Ara had decided to take us with him.

Decades passed as we all settled into our routines, however, Ara was not done with his conquering campaign. The dragons had taken over Wisconsin and had settled, but now, it was time to move on Japan.

There was more traveling by water, through our other territories, then by more water. Again, it took nearly a year to reach Japan from our American territory. The land was also in turmoil as the shogunate was on its last legs and the samurai were fighting to protect the shogunate reign.

Their human war was meaningless to ours, which was hard fought for three months.The vampire King, Ito Masamura,was also in alliance with the dragon King,Tomohachi Yoichi, and with the advantage in their favor, we really had to put everything we had into it, even having to wait for reinforcements. Dragons had to fly, carrying vampires during the night and hide during the day from the sun, which was what caused the war to go on for so long.

In the end, we had won the territory, forcing both the dragon King and vampire King to flee with their armies. While in Japan, that was also where I found my fifth son, Ryu Takahashi. He was wounded, having fought off two other samurai working for the new government that wanted to eradicate the shogun. He was a swordsman in the Shinsengumi, the “Wolves of Mibu” they were called. He was one “wolf” I didn’t want to see die.

Unlike my last two sons, Ryu took to his nature with ease. He had wanted to stay, to fight for his friends and his way of life, but unfortunately, we couldn’t stay in Japan. Once Ara named Titus the Prince of the City in his new land, we had to head back to America. Only a handful of vampires returned, as the rest stayed in Japan to help Titus establish the land.

Returning back to America, I introduced my new son to the ones who hadn’t been with me in Japan. As the time passed, it didn’t take me long to find more humans I felt were worthy of my blood. I met Tyler Wallace one night when he was being beaten to death. His black lover had already been killed. His bloody, beaten, and battered body hung limply from the branch of a nearby tree.

Apparently, the four white men didn’t like the idea of Tyler teaching black people how to read and write. It was in the nineteen-twenties and America was rife with injustice and these men felt they had the right to kill them. I rendered them unconscious and afterembracingTyler, I let him feed on the men who would have seen him dead. Tyler also took to his nature with ease.

Derek Wilson, I met under similar circumstances. He’d been through hell in his young age, a member of SNCC, Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. He was fighting for equal rights for black people in America and had undergone nearly every type of degradation a human could experience.

He’d been jailed, beaten, sprayed with a water hose, bitten by dogs, and on the night I found him, he was going to be killed by four white men. They even had the noose ready, but first they wanted him to suffer for getting uppity. Derek was quite beautiful and I loved his fighting spirit when he didn’t take his beating lying down. His swings were wild, but he did make contact here and there.

When they got the upper hand was when I stepped in, ripping out their throats and feeding greedily from them. I did so to show Derek what I was. I knew he was afraid, but also intrigued. When I offered the gift of unimaginable power to him, he took it with open arms, becoming my seventh son.

I was happy with my life, living it to the fullest as more time passed by. It was the twenty-first century when the Kings, Queens, and Alphas of the vampires, dragons, and werewolves decided it was time for us to come out of the closet, so to speak, and rule the world as we were meant to rule.

No longer did they want to hide in the shadows while the humans controlled governments. New alliances were made in order to bring about the new world order. For instance, the territory King Ara and Evander had carved out for themselves had to be shared with werewolves, with five packs, to be exact. We needed them to fight when we couldn’t since the humans could fight twenty-four hours a day.

The Great Exposure was something that had been in the works for decades as we established our businesses and gained wealth and power on their levels. So, when we came out of the shadows ten years ago, the humans of the world were caught off guard. We had control of their governments, banks, companies, and resources. We had literally pulled the rug out from under them. After we’d won, new lines had to be drawn up as the land was divided evenly among us. Odin Colony now belonged to vampires, dragons, and werewolves.

I enjoyed no longer having to hide that we existed, and I wasn’t the only one. This happened all over the world, so really, humans had nowhere to run. They only had to comply and those who didn’t… well, we had uses for them. It didn’t matter that humans outnumbered us, they didn’t have the power to control us. Of course, that knowledge didn’t stop some of them from trying. They formed rebel cells and did tawdry little vandalism or terroristic acts on our establishments, but nothing that could seriously alter the tide. We were here as we had always been here and were never going away.

In the post exposure age was where I found my eighth son, Noel Peterson. He reminded me a great deal of myself, but then, all of my sons did. They all fought for what they believed in and stared into the face of death while doing so. I respected that. Noel was a rebel, fighting against us ‘supes’, as we came to be known.

He had the good sense to stay hidden but he did hurt my pockets with his well-coordinated attacks. I thought he would have been easy to catch, but he was clever. More cleaver than most humans I’d encountered, so I decided to make a deal with someone from his cell. Jonah Masterson. The kid was starving and weak-willed and all too willing to turn on his friends to become a vampire.

It was a deal I’d kept because I wanted Noel. After capturing him, I had to ask my Father for permission to turn him. Normally, it wouldn’t have mattered, but Noel was a rebel leader and one who had made attacks against us. Death should have been the sentence for his crime, not immortality.

But Ara knew why I wanted Noel, so he allowed me toembracehim, and I did so with great spectacle. In front of thousands of vampires and people watching him on television. They needed to see their hero fall before their eyes. And Noel needed to learn that he was not better than us. He fed on the blood of his best friend, savoring the flavor as a vampire for the first time in front of all those watching.

That was my first step in breaking his stubborn ass down. Of course, his story was told in more detail, and my story continues as I strive for greatness. I see no limit to what I can attain. All my life, I had been told that I was destined for a superior life. The Church had their plans, Ara had his, but I have my own. Come with me if you’re the curious type.