Merle's jaw clenched, his nostrils flared as his gaze ran over him. "Has this always been about Genny then?"
Before the war he would have denied it, he didn't bother to do so now as he walked to the end of the table closest to the throne. He turned back to Merle when he reached the end. "Of course it has. Every move, every action, every thought has been about her. Just as it will be for the rest of my existence."
"You have gone insane over the years," Merle breathed in realization.
Atticus laughed and rested his right hand on the table. "I've been that way since the day she died, cousin. I've just been extremely good at hiding it. Actually, I never bothered to hide it from any of the countless humans and vampires I've slaughtered over the centuries. Those years in the desert, oh those years," he said in a savoring tone of voice as he tilted his head back to stare at the thick wood beams above him. "Some of the best years of my life, after Genny of course. The things I've done, the things I've seen. They'd make even the most hardened of vampires cringe."
"You're admitting to crimes that are punishable by death."
"Not according to my rules," Atticus said with a laugh. "Anna is dead because of me; that was another part of my plan."
This part of the confession rattled Merle enough that he took a cautious step back. "You're heartless."
"Me?" Atticus said with a snort of laughter. His fingers trailed across the smooth surface of the table as he began to approach his cousin. "You allowed Anna to walk out of here with your child and you didn't even offer a word of protest. You sat and voted not to go to war even though you thought it was the humans who attacked your only heir and her mother."
Merle took another step away, he glanced toward the closed doors but they both knew he would never get to them in time. "And let's not pretend you didn't know Melinda was yours," Atticus continued. "Blood knows blood; it's how I knew she was yours. She couldn't possibly have been mine but I sensed a piece of my own blood within her. It didn't take me long to realize that the difference in her blood was a piece of my cousin. My own children wouldn't recognize the difference in her blood unless they were looking for it and they would have no reason to. Not when she has her mother's blood in her too and they share blood with you too, not when I didn't disavow the child like I could have. You allowed your lover's death to go unavenged, and have done nothing to find out if your daughter is still alive. Who is more heartless now?"
Merle stopped retreating when Atticus stopped five feet away from him. "If I had come forward and claimed the child as mine you would have had us all killed."
"So you just let them walk away to save your own hide?"
"To save them," Merle shot back.
Atticus released a harsh bark of laughter. "Are you going to pretend you cared for them?"
Merle's eyes flashed red; Atticus could hear his teeth grinding together. "It was one night Atticus, it was a mistake."
"Those were Anna's words too."
"Because they are true!" Merle cried in frustration. "We both regretted it after, but she was lonely and you know my weakness for beautiful women."
"I do," he agreed.
"We are not as close as we once were but you are still my family. You are still the one that saved my life all those years ago; you are still the one that was more like a brother than a cousin to me when we were younger. I know that somewhere inside there is still a piece of you that remembers all of that. A part of you that wasn't destroyed when Genny was. I regretted what occurred with Anna as soon as it was over and so did she."
Atticus studied him before nodding. "You're wrong you know; there is nothing of me that exists from that time when I was with Genny. It was all destroyed the day she died." Merle bristled; his shoulders went back as he widened his stance defensively. "But I actually believe you when you talk about Anna. For all of her faults she wasn't a loose woman and you never could turn down a beautiful face."
Merle laughed and visibly relaxed as he ran a hand through his hair. "No, I couldn't."
"That's why I am going to make something extremely clear here. I don't care that you slept with my wife. Let's face facts, I care more for the dogs in the alleys than I ever did for that woman and the two of us aren't close anymore. I once told Camille that I would walk over your body to burn the world, and how many years ago was that?" Atticus could feel the fire growing in his eyes, the power throbbing through his veins as excitement for what was about to happen thrummed through him. "No, I hope you enjoyed Anna, I certainly never did. What is about to occur is because of the fact that you voted against me for this war."
The color drained from Merle's face. "Atticus…"
"I can take many things, but family doesn't go against family. My father learned that the hard way when I killed him." A strangled sound escaped Merle's throat as he took another step away. "He had Genny killed you know. He was the reason the humans razed that village. He set her up to die and I made him pay for it."
Atticus tapped a finger against his chin as he stared at his cousin's horrified face. "I guess I learned my scheming, undermining ways from him but I'm much better at it than he was. He ended up being my dinner the night that I killed him and now, you will be too."
With those words, Merle turned and spun on his heel. Atticus laughed as he watched his cousin bolt across the swirling gray marble floor toward the double wooden doors. Even if Merle managed to get to those doors and unlock them, Atticus knew he would never escape him. Merle had to know the same thing but he was still determined to try.
Atticus ran ten steps forward before leaping into the air and lunging himself across the rest of the room as Merle made it to the doors. Merle had just flung the first lock free when Atticus landed on his back and brought him down beneath him. The force of his body crashing onto the solid floor caused Merle to grunt loudly. Blood exploded from his nose, but he managed to get his hands underneath him as he attempted to try and dislodge Atticus.
A bubble of laughter swirled within Atticus's chest at his cousin's useless attempts. He wrapped his arm around Merle's neck and squeezed with the force of a steel vice. Merle clawed at his hands as he bucked and kicked beneath him but Atticus kept him pressed against the floor with his weight and superior strength.
He was still laughing when he sank his fangs into Merle's neck. A howl of pain escaped Merle, his hands slapped backwards behind his head as he desperately fought for his life. Merle didn't have the bloodline that he did, but he was still old and powerful and putting up a fight. One that Atticus relished in. It was so rare that he found any competition with his prey anymore, so rare when he found any joy in anything, but he relished in Merle's potent blood and the life force filling him. Relished in finally ending the last man who had known him with Genny, who had known the man he had been and should have always been if life hadn't been so cruel. Who knew what a disappointment and twisted freak he'd become. He relished in severing his last bond to his shattered life and broken dreams.
Shoving upward with his hands, Merle managed to flip him and Atticus over. Atticus's arms wrapped around his chest keeping Merle pinned against him while Merle kicked and squirmed across the floor. Merle's fingers tore at his skin, spilling his blood, but Atticus continued to laugh as he drained his cousin's blood in greedy, gulping pulls that filled him with even more power. So much power and it was his.
Merle's movements became sluggish but he continued to try and beat at Atticus's arms. The flow of blood filling his mouth began to ease, Merle's arms fell at his sides as his struggles finally ceased. Atticus continued to drain him until he was near death. There wasn't enough strength within Merle to put up a fight anymore but he wouldn't die, not as long as he was occasionally given at least a little bit of blood. That was something Atticus fully intended to do, his father had gone too fast, but the vampires and humans that would one day fill this room wouldn't know such a merciful death.
Releasing Merle, he shoved his cousin off of him and rose to his feet. He straightened his rumpled shirt a
nd pants before bending to grab Merle beneath his armpits. With the ease it would have taken for one to pick up a plate, he lifted Merle from the ground and propped him up in a chair. Gleeful laughter escaped him when Merle's blue eyes rolled toward him but he remained too weak to move in the chair. Merle's cheekbones stood out sharply against his sagging skin. His flesh had taken on a sickly yellowish hue from the lack of blood in his system.
Atticus rested his hands on the arms of the chair as he bent down to peer into his cousin's eyes. "This is the way my father was before I lit his manor on fire. Unfortunately, I had to cover up the evidence of what I had done to him too soon, but you will be here for centuries to come. Remember though, that what I am doing to you is still kinder than the hell that I live in every day."
Releasing the arms of the chair, Atticus turned away from him. His shoes clicked on the marble floor as he walked to the throne at the end of the room. He settled himself onto the chair, lifted his goblet of blood and took a sip. Grim satisfaction filled him as he raised a toast to his first trophy.
The war and vengeance he had finally succeeded in accomplishing hadn't succeeded in easing the monster inside of him. Death and blood still did though and there was plenty of that to be found in this world. It was all he had left anymore.
***
February 11th, 2083,
My dearest Genny,
Natasha was wed to Ashby today. It is a good match; his family is strong, but even more than that I sense that his family doesn't trust me. They don't like what has been going on and they are not as good at hiding it as they think they are. By binding Ashby to my family, his family will be forced to accept the situation whether they like it or not. Ashby seems like a fun loving sort but Natasha will beat that out of him soon enough. It will actually be amusing to watch.
It's time to start thinking of a match for Braith. I have my eye on a few women for him but I will have to wait and see which one will be the most beneficial to me.
***
July 20th, 2091,
My dearest Genny,
The child, Melinda, was brought back to the palace today by Jericho. He uncovered her in a raid of one of the suspected traitorous villages. She's as beautiful as her mother was and her presence here is only a harsh reminder of the years I was forced to spend with that woman. It threw me into a fit of rage, and though they had told me that they hadn't seen the child when they went after Anna, the guards that killed Anna made a fine addition to my growing trophy room. They should have found and put the girl down too. They won't be able to make such a mistake again but I will get to look at them every day.
***
October 5th, 2091,
My dearest Genny,
I'm sorry I haven't been able to write but some of the aristocrats decided to try and stage an uprising. Though there were heavy losses on both sides, it was rapidly squashed by my men. The aristocrats did not know that I still had weaponry stashed away from the war. All that weaponry has now been destroyed but it served its purpose. The rebellion lasted only a month, Braith was nearly killed, the rebellious nobles that weren't killed have scattered, but my power has been solidified even further.
- CHAPTER 31 -
August 29th, 2175,
My dearest Genny,
The girl that Braith left the palace over has been captured and brought to me. She's a skinny little thing, a human no less, and yet there is a fire in her eyes. There is pride and a defiant air about her that I've never seen before in a human. I want to destroy her but in some ways, she reminds me of you.
If she wasn't human, I might even think that perhaps she is to Braith what you were to me, but after Merle told me about the bloodlink, I spoke with Khalfan and he confirmed Merle's information. It is a bond that is shared only between two vampires and this girl is most certainly human.
Braith cares for her though, that much is obvious by the fact that he turned his back on his family and ran into the woods after her. Obvious by the fact that even now there are men approaching the gates, looking for a rebellion.
I'm hoping he cares for her enough that when I destroy her, it will make him realize that the world is cold and cruel. That all good things will come to an end, that nothing lasts forever, and sometimes death is the far better option. It would have been for me.
I know not what I have become, maybe this monster of a man is always what I was meant to be, but a small fraction of me doesn't believe that. No matter what I've done, what I've accomplished by freeing the vampire race, I know this isn't who I was meant to be. It never was.
I'm hoping that even if this girl isn't his bloodlink that her death will allow Braith to do what I was capable of doing upon your death.
I'm praying it will give him the strength and determination to kill his father.
I've had enough my dear sweet Genny; I should have gone into that fire years ago to be with you. All of it would have been so much better. We could have been together in the afterlife if one exists. I wonder if we will be reunited now. After everything I've done I doubt I would be allowed to be anywhere near such a beautiful soul as you, but I hold out hope that we will miraculously be granted the eternity we were denied.
Today I thought of that conversation we had, all those many years ago, on the second time that we met in the woods. I've relived those days so often that I can still recall every vivid detail of them. When I look back at it now, I realize just how wise you were…
"Are you lost?" you had asked me.
"Sometimes I think I am."
"Sometimes we are all lost, at one point in time or another in our lives."
I was so entranced by you and your strange insight into who I was. "I suppose we are. What happens if we are never found though?"
"Well I like to believe that there's always something, or someone, that will help us find our way."
I did find my way, in you. I realized how much you meant to me, and yet I still lost you to greed and a world that I hate even more now that it has been shaped into what I made it. I remember asking you, "And what happens if we don't recognize the help when we find that something or someone?"
"Then fate hits us over the head until it wakes us up."
"And what happens if we find it but then lose it again?"
Your smile had slid away you watched me. "Well I suppose that would be a sad life then wouldn't it? To be forever lost."
It's been the saddest life of all Genny. I have felt so lost since the day you died, but today I will find out if my son will be capable of the violence and cold-bloodedness that I've tried for so many years to cultivate within him. I don't know what I'll do if he fails. Death is all I crave now but I do not deserve to be able to make the choice of ending my own life.
For the first time in years I will be taking your ring off of my body, I don't want it to be thrown away if I am to perish today. I need it to be with what I have left of you. If we cannot be together in the afterlife, at least a small piece of us can still be together here.
I've missed you every day of this desolate life Genny. I've never stopped loving you.
You were my soul.
- EPILOGUE -
Though tears streaked her cheeks as she read those last words, it wasn't her tears that had caused the tearstains on the bottom of the page in the journal she held. Aria wiped her tears away and glanced around the small room she sat in. It seemed like a lifetime ago since she'd discovered it but it had only been just this morning. It had been on a whim that she'd decided to explore some of the areas in the palace that she hadn't been to yet.
Curiosity had driven her into the old king's rooms. She'd never entered his rooms in the nine months since the last war had ended and the king, Atticus, had been killed nor had she ever intended to enter. For some reason something had pulled her here today though, and she realized now she was holding that reason in her hands.
She didn't think anyone had come in here since his death if the amount of dust on the things in his main rooms was any indication. Thoug
h she doubted anyone other than a few servants and the king had ever entered his rooms anyway.
She knew no one other than the king had ever entered this room. It had been hidden behind one of his bookcases. She never would have discovered it if it wasn't for her love of reading. A book titled Wuthering Heights had caught her attention. When she'd pulled it down the book had remained on the shelf but a door had swung open with a loud creak to reveal a faded and sagging trunk in the middle of the room. Wary of what the old king may have hidden inside, she'd approached the trunk with caution but upon closer inspection she'd realized that it wasn't some sort of trap meant to explode in her face.
The scent of must and something sweeter and more floral in hue had drifted up to her upon first opening the trunk. Her attention was quickly diverted from the smell though by the gleaming glass box, lined with gold on the outside. It was placed on top of the clothing tucked neatly inside the trunk. Inside the box had been a blue ribbon that was almost completely white now and only showed its original blue hue in small patches. Another darker blue ribbon was also tucked securely inside the box along with a man's simple gold wedding band. There was also an assortment of parchments and numerous journals tucked into the bottom of the box.
Concerned the papers would fall apart in her grasp, she'd handled them with care when she removed them all from the airtight glass box and placed them to the side. Her confusion about what she'd discovered continued to mount as she sorted through the old-fashioned women's clothes in the trunk. The original color of the clothes had faded to the point it was nearly indiscernible. They had holes and patches in them and were of a style she'd only seen in history books. The dresses had to be at least a thousand years old but they were in relatively good condition given their age. In fact, everything in the trunk appeared to have been taken care of exceptionally well, and with love.
This trunk, and its contents, was so out of place with the monster she'd known, that she began to wonder if the king had even known these things were in here. She didn't see how he couldn't know about the room though, he'd built this place after all.