Tal chuckled and I turned to face Victor in time to see his lips twitch as he fought his own grin.
“Do you threaten the dust?” Victor teased, making me laugh.
“Hey, don’t underestimate me, you might be scary Vampire mafia Kingpins, but I am the one who rules over dust bunnies around these parts, and they usually run-in fear when they hear me and my vacuum coming.”
Both brothers burst out laughing and I had to say it was a sound I relished. But as for the handsome sight of them both, now that had me squirming in my seat for different reasons.
Of course, this only increased when Tal banded a heavy arm around my waist and pulled me closer so he could rumble in my ear,
“Our girl is funny.”
And whether it made me an idiot or not, I so badly wanted to be their funny girl. But I also had to ask myself just how long I was prepared to keep up this pretense when I knew it was all a lie to them. Whereas my own heart was sinking further into that same lie, hoping that one day it became powerful enough to turn it into a truth. My presence so deeply rooted that they could never detangle themselves from the love that had grown over time.
Naturally, I didn’t say any of this. No, instead, Tal handed me the remote and so as to mask my greatest fears, and my turbulent mind, I looked at them both and said…
“Bram Stoker’s Dracula, too obvious?”
9
STORM IN A TEACUP
VASILEIOS
Iwas a monster.
I was the mark of shame. The black heart. The vessel of evil.
The family stain and scar of ruin. I was all of those things and more. I knew this, for I had allowed it to happen. My rage had manifested itself into a physical thing, clinging onto my skin and warping my once mortal features. The face in the mirror was the stuff of nightmares that Vampire younglings were made to fear. The fucking boogeyman at the ready to steal your soul and condemn it to an eternity of being nothing more than some Hellish plaything.
And I was always ready to take. To feed the darkness.
Any shred of humanity I once had was lost that day my life was torn apart. I hadn’t always been this way but like my brothers, I always had it in me.
Festering.
A beast living there in the depths of my dark soul, the only difference being that I had long ago released mine into theworld. And well, once that darkness was out of the box, there was no way of ever putting it back in there again.
So, I fed it instead.
I gave it what it wanted, time and time again, and in return it made me stronger…invincible.Powerful enough to beat two of the most powerful Vampires in existence. Soon I would possess the Garnet dagger and with it, the throne.The right to rule my sector, which would be only the first step in taking control of the Fondatori. For I would take them all out, one by one, until none were left. But before that, I needed to take the biggest threat off the table.
My brothers.
There were very few Vampires who wouldn’t recognize the family name, Erebus, without recoiling in fear. But far less who would know of its sordid history. How deeply the rot actually ran through our bloodline, like the deal made to the very Hell our forefathers originated from. And so, with souls exchanged and Hellish deals done, the darkness was born, and with it one that passed down that family line.
But not to twins like everyone believed.
But to triplets.
And I was the oldest.
Not Victor.
Therefore, the dagger was my birthright, as was my right to rule. Victor wasn’t the only one who possessed the gift of patience. I had laid in wait, the shadows feeding my dark soul each night as I counted my days until the time was perfect.
And now that time had come.
However, it did so by adding a slight complication.
