Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 122030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
You see, it is really the Darkness that produces new vampires, not us. Just as it is the Darkness that produces new Black witches. However, the two processes are completely different.
Anyway. Josep does not have a lab. There are no DNA samples. There’s no mapping of the genome. We do things the old-fashioned way here.
With blood.
So I suppose I can understand how the humans got that wrong, as well. Someone was told that there is an exchange of blood between a human and a vampire, and poof. Baby vampires are born.
It doesn’t quite go like that, of course.
There will be an exchange of blood for Ryet tonight. Mine and his. Syrsee’s and his. But this birthing process has been going on for sixty-five years. One cannot simply bite a human and make a baby. And Ryet is not, nor has he ever been, human.
He is a scion.
And before I bit him that night in the alley, he was puer surculus. Infant slave of the master.
One might assume that I am the master. It would be a forgivable mistake.
But I am not the master.
There is but one master.
And after I make my first child—after Ryet has fully transformed—I will finally meet that master once again. Because I will, once again, be a fully-fledged geneticist.
Originis nosferatu.
Just thinking those words in my head fills me with joy.
Because once that happens, I will have won, won’t I? And the Obscurati will be powerless to stop me this time.
I am already lord, but once I am father, the empire of the American Vampires will truly begin.
The tunnel begins to mist up and the air becomes lighter. I’ve always loved this dichotomy about Josep’s cave. He’s literally living in the dark under the earth and yet his cave is so refreshing. As I get closer to the cave opening, the air becomes a mist and the scent of earth more alluring as the sound of the trickling waterfall finds my ears.
I can see it. Maybe. One day. Burying myself in a cave such as this. Surrounded by the energy of the black dirt, but able to walk around and live as well.
How I do love to be underground.
Oh, to be Josep. To live in the earth full-time. It is a dream. One I aspire to. But as the lord of North America, it will not happen for centuries, at least. Perhaps even a thousand years, if everything goes well with Ryet.
A price I must pay.
As I enter Josep’s cave, I realize there is a small glow in one corner. Not a candle, or an actual light, but the lavender haze. Josep lives among the haze. Not in it—he doesn’t dreamwalk the way I do. They didn’t have that power when he was born since it came from me. But over the centuries he has taken command of that magic in his own way, drawing energy from it.
And light as well, I guess. It’s one way to brighten up one’s cave.
He’s sitting at a desk, his back to me. I pause to study that back. All cut with muscles. His skin taut across his broad shoulders. My eyes drop down to the curve of his upper arms, then trace that line back up to where his blond hair has been pulled back at the nape of his neck.
He’s writing something in a book.
“Am I disturbing you?”
“Of course not, Paul.” He doesn’t turn to look at me, just continues to write. “I’ve been expecting you.”
His voice is soft and calm, but also very deep. It’s soothing, actually. That’s what drew me to him back when I was young. I have never seen him angry. He is always patient. And after my upbringing, I needed that.
“The girl is here.”
Now he does turn. And he’s smiling. And, oh, how beautiful is that smile? Another reason why I partnered with him in those early days. He’s very, very pretty. “Already?”
I smile back, then shrug with my hands as I chuckle. “Things really went our way, brother.”
He stands up, body filthy with dirt. But that just makes him more captivating. The dirt is the earth, and the earth is power.
Don’t we all love power?
Isn’t a man wearing power always more attractive?
He comes towards me, places his hands on my shoulders and looks me in the eyes. They are lavender these days. Like the mist and the light that surrounds him now. “This is it?”
I nod my head, still lost in those eyes. “Ryet’s not here yet, but he will be shortly. The girl is being bled out right now. You will have your share in a matter of hours.”
He lets out a breath, then releases me and turns, walking across the smooth rock floor to the little pool of cool water that is collecting underneath the trickling waterfall.
He stands there in front of the pool, looking down, perhaps studying his own distorted reflection in the water. Then he turns again and smiles bigger. “We did it.”