Bloodscourge Read online

  Nicolae nodded. “He won’t let anyone sign on at this rate.”

  He didn’t get the chance to listen in further when one of the recruits charged at him, releasing a war cry. He turned just in time to block an attack. The strength behind the attack was weak, the vampire only an adolescent. The older a vampire, the stronger they were, but he believed age meant very little.

  There were vampires in Ichor Knell who were centuries older than him, yet he could most likely best them in a skirmish. Strength was not as important as skill. And he would teach these new recruits a thing or two as soon as he found some worthy of his time.

  The recruit who had attacked him stared wide-eyed. Dracula’s tall, bulky frame cast a shadow over the fear in his expression. His uncertainty annoyed him. With two heavy swings, he sent the young male’s sword flying out of his hands, and before he could scramble away, he ran him right through.

  The vampire screeched and fell backward. He clutched his side and released several long, pained whines.

  Pathetic.

  As the vampire clutched his bloody side, the hole started to knit closed as if the wound hadn’t happened in the first place. Blood still soaked his clothing, but in a few minutes, there would be no trace of a scar.

  The entire training field hushed, all eyes watching the display. Horror seeped from many in the crowd. Others looked like they might faint. And a select few wore hardened expressions. These were the ones he wanted in his army.

  He walked slowly from one end of the training field to the other, making sure all eyes were on him.

  “Fighting is not a game!” he shouted to all the recruits near enough to hear. “If I choose you for my army, it’s because you have what it takes to keep the citizens of Ichor Knell safe. If you want an easy wage where you get to sit around all day and do nothing, this is not the job for you. You will get hurt. You will train harder than you have ever trained before. But if you are a coward, then leave! Get out of my sight.”

  Unsurprisingly, some vampires scrambled away. Half of the remaining stared with fearful uncertainty in their eyes, and the other half stood proudly with chests puffed out. This would be enough to start with. With the chaos erupting in Ichor Knell, they needed more soldiers who knew how to fight.

  He hefted his sword onto his shoulder, wary of nicking himself. “Congratulations,” he said, his eyes as hard as stone. “You’ve made the cut. You will report here bright and early in the morning at the crack of dawn. If you are late, you will polish swords until your hands bleed.”

  The sun never shined in Ichor Knell, as permanent dark clouds protected the city and its inhabitants from receiving a nasty burn from the sunlight. But even Ichor Knell had a morning, afternoon, and night.

  As a dismissal, he pressed his fist over his heart, the new recruits doing the same before taking their leave. He watched them go, his mind already spinning with exercises for tomorrow. The first phase of training would be brutal, but it would also weed out more recruits unworthy of this position.

  Lucian and Nicolae snickered by the fence. He huffed in annoyance as he finally turned his attention to his friends. “What are you two laughing at?”

  Nicolae spoke in the Old Language, saying something about fierce brutality. Dracula sighed wearily, sheathing his sword, and leaning casually against the fence nearest them, rough and worn from soldiers draping weapons and armor over the wood.

  “No one speaks the Old Language anymore, Nicolae,” he said.

  “I have to keep the language alive somehow. Between Madeleine and I, we have our work cut out for us.”

  “Speaking of Madeleine…” Lucian cut in, nodding his head in the other direction.

  Dracula turned to see Nicolae’s mate, Madeleine, waddling slowly toward them, her large round belly clearly making it difficult to navigate the training grounds. Like Nicolae, her blonde hair reached her waist, but she wasn’t just a vampire. She was an elf. Or at least used to be before Nicolae had turned her. Her long, pointed ears stood out almost as much as her large belly.

  But Madeleine wasn’t alone.

  Ilona accompanied her, a curly-haired brunette with light brown eyes and pale pink lips. His friends had tried to convince him to court her time and again. They were persistent—he had to give them that.

  He frowned and turned away, watching the dark clouds hanging over Ichor Knell instead of the two approaching females. He didn’t know whether his disinterest in Ilona stemmed from not wanting to settle down yet or from the fact she just didn’t…match him. Her vampire transformation was a bobcat. His was a bat. She had light brown hair and a timid demeanor, he had dark brown hair and he was uninhibited. Her beauty mattered little. It only got one so far. Besides, they never had anything to talk about.

  “You look lovely today, dear,” Nicolae said, suddenly at Madeleine’s side and looking at her with more love in his eyes than Dracula had ever seen anyone look at another person before. “How are you feeling? How is the baby?”

  “Both well,” she smiled.

  “You two are breeding like rabbits,” Dracula grumbled as he stared at her near-to-bursting belly. “How can two vampires be so fertile?”

  Something in vampire blood made them less fertile than humans and elves. Sometimes it took decades, even centuries, for two vampires to conceive.

  “It must be my elven blood,” she replied, breathing heavily at the exertion from walking across the field. “Baby number six attests to as much.”

  Six children in fifteen years… It was unheard of in vampire culture.

  He finally dragged his attention to Ilona. She smiled timidly at him, a dimple making an appearance on her cheek. He didn’t return her smile, but he had enough manners to reach for her hand and kiss her fingers. Again, the contact just didn’t feel right. It frustrated him.

  He wanted to find a connection with her, especially because she was a dear friend of Nicolae and Madeleine, but it just wasn’t there. No matter how hard he searched for it, any sliver of fondness for the female evaded him. No spark. No excitement. No twitterpation.

  “Hello, Vlad,” she said. His eye twitched at the greeting.

  That was another thing she did. She called him Vlad. Although it may be his first name, it was also his father’s name, a human he despised more than anything in the world. Which was why he chose to be addressed by his second name, Dracula.

  “Ilona.”

  An awkward silence followed. He never knew what to talk about with her. Conversation didn’t come naturally in her presence.

  “Walk with me?” she asked.

  He scratched his head, overcome with uncertainty. He had never been alone with her before, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. Still, he obliged and allowed her to slip her arm through his. Sweat still clung to his skin from recruitment exercises, but she didn’t seem to mind. They walked beneath the boughs of a tree with emerald jewels for leaves, and he suspected the others were watching them. He felt their eyes on his back, but he didn’t turn around.

  She turned to face him. Again, he felt nothing. Nothing at all. No spark. No excitement. She wasn’t meant to be his mate. Why did no one else understand?

  “I fancy you,” she said, a blush rising to her cheeks. She spoke to him more boldly than she ever had before. That was different. Yet, his heart raced with panic at her confession. What was he supposed to do? He wasn’t particularly fond of her, but he wished he was. Courting her would seal their group of friends more soundly.

  “Thank you…” he said slowly, and thankfully, she didn’t seem to notice his hesitancy.

  “Please accept this.”

  She handed him a yellow and blue handkerchief, a token of her desire to court him. He reluctantly took it. He noticed her laundry-like scent in the fibers of the cloth. Again, emptiness washed over him as he gazed back into her light brown eyes. Could something develop over time if he gave this a chance?

  He wasn’t sure what to say. But he didn’t need to say anything as she stood on her tiptoes and kis
sed his cheek before hurrying away with a deep blush on her face. He stared at the handkerchief, unsure of what to do with it. It was impractical and just took up space. Such a small cloth couldn’t even wipe dirt from his forehead.

  His frown deepened as he returned to the others, who had most certainly been spying on the exchange judging by their knowing grins. Madeleine’s face beamed, her smile unrestrained.

  “So?” she asked.

  “So…what?”

  “Will you give her your handkerchief in return? Will you court her?”

  “Bah!” he said and drew his sword, resting it on his shoulder. “I have no time for courting. I have new recruits to train. She will just have to court someone else.”

  Madeleine took his free hand, her eyes wide as if she might start crying at any moment. The silver elven sheen in her eyes worsened the effect, creating a guilty pit in his stomach.

  “But she’s in love with you,” she said, her chin quivering. “You would break her heart?”

  He groaned, but when he tried to look away, she tugged harder on his hand, forcing him to meet her watery gaze. Elves were capable of feats of magic, and for a moment, he swore she was doing something to churn the emotions inside him. Her magic had been stripped from her upon transitioning into a vampire, but still, he wondered.

  “I feel nothing for her,” he said, shooting a glance toward Nicolae, silently pleading for help, but he only shrugged. “We are not compatible.”

  “But you can be!” she insisted. She took a step closer to him, her manipulative tears continuing to pool in her eyes. “You haven’t given it much of a chance. It couldn’t hurt to at least try. It’s not like I’m asking you to become her mate. But a little courting never hurt anybody.”

  He groaned again. Courting was the last thing he wanted to do right now, but her words did hold a sliver of truth to them. He wouldn’t truly know unless he tried.

  Prying his hand away, he stalked toward the soldier barracks, agitation in each step. “I’ll think about it.”

  He hoped his words were enough to satisfy the vampire-elf. Yet, as he entered his room in the barracks and shut the door behind him, her words gnawed at him. It couldn’t hurt to at least try. Besides, he wasn’t courting anyone at the moment anyway.

  His disheveled room stared back at him, littered with more weapons than he could count, discarded clothing on the floor that didn’t quite make it to the dresser, and a meager bed he never got around to making. Nicolae always said he was a slob, but why take the time for tidiness when he could be on the training grounds with a sword in his hand?

  Crossing the room, he dug deep within his drawer and located a handkerchief he had created years ago, the black cloth wadded up and wrinkled to the point of being hardly recognizable. First, he would press the cloth to restore it from its slovenly shape. Second, he would think about giving it to Ilona. Once he gave it to her, there would be no coming back.

  “Females,” he muttered under his breath. They made life more complicated than it needed to be. Unfortunately, it was the price every male had to pay eventually. Perhaps his time to pay it was now.

  Chapter 3

  Freedom.

  Elisabeta never realized how oppressed she was under her brother’s thumb until she escaped his presence for a short time. He no longer rained his dominance upon her, and for the first time in a couple years, she breathed easier.

  She took a deep breath of the cloudy vampire air, tasting freedom on its wing—a stark contrast to the confining salty sea air. For a moment, it didn’t matter she entered vampire lands. It didn’t matter at any moment she might become a vampire’s dinner. What did matter was the new adventure waiting before her, one she could experience without Miles.

  “I am a lunatic,” she whispered to herself as she walked along the path leading to the vampire city, her knuckles white from clutching her dagger with a vice-like grip. She had already passed several people who she assumed were vampires, but none looked at her as if she was a human. Miles’s elixir worked. They thought she was a vampire.

  Getting her blood sucked dry wasn’t what worried her most. Rather, the moral dilemma before her knotted her stomach. How could she ruin a vampire’s life because of Miles’s greed—and her own? As a human, she may be able to walk away after seducing the vampire, but he wouldn’t be so lucky. He’d be tied to her forever. A thief. And he’d never be able to take another mate.

  She shook the thought away and continued forward with purposeful strides. This vampire was a brute. He likely deserved what she had in store for him. At least she told herself as much. It helped ease her guilt, if only slightly.

  A gasp of wonder escaped her as she rounded the bend and took in the city of Ichor Knell in full view. The black castle spiraled upward into the swirling black clouds, more ominous than she imagined the vampire land to be. Her anxiety grew as she trekked down the slope leading into the city, and she pulled her hood tighter over her hair, making sure to conceal the lower half of her face so only her eyes showed. If she was going to catch this brute’s eye, she wanted to use every asset she had at the right time.

  The city was just like any other to the extent of having a working class and a noble class. From what she observed, nobles lived in the wealthy sect of Ichor Knell, and the working class lived everywhere else. The smell of clothing dye hit her hard as she passed vampire females dunking cloth into large, colored bins. The dyestuffs stained their hands as they worked, but they were so engrossed in their gossiping they didn’t notice her walk by.

  She grimaced and stepped carefully to avoid soiling her boots. What a messy job. Dyeing clothing would be the last thing she wanted to do.

  Homes and businesses littered the city from blacksmiths to logging to dressmakers. The civilized state of the city surprised her. They weren’t barbarians as she had been led to believe. In fact, she remembered passing a school on her way in. Vampires were far from barbaric.

  Her footsteps ceased, discomfort growing within her. There were two things she hadn’t noticed on her way in. Brothels—which made sense considering vampires mated for life—and pubs.

  “Oh no,” she whispered, now overly aware of her grumbling stomach. What was she supposed to eat? And how was she to hide food under vampires’ supposedly excellent sense of smell? She couldn’t drink human blood like vampires. Would she have to hunt for her food? In the dead of night?

  She anxiously pinched the bridge of her nose. Making herself smell like a vampire was one thing. Surviving was another.

  The clanking of metal brought her out of her thoughts. Her heart pounded harder than it had ever pounded before. She followed the sound, and sure enough, the path led her to what looked like training grounds. Dozens of vampire males skirmished one against another, practicing footwork, striking, and blocking. She grimaced when one vampire sliced through another’s arm. The vampire yelped and dropped his sword. Her eyes widened as the wound started to heal immediately, and within moments, it closed up like it hadn’t been there in the first place. Vampires could heal that quickly?

  She shuddered. They might assume she healed quickly too and wouldn’t take care around her. She had to be careful, otherwise a wound that might be a nuisance to a vampire could kill her as a human.

  Taking a deep breath, she scanned the soldiers for their leader. The captain. This so-called brute she needed to trick to obtain a key to the treasury. However, she frowned when she realized locating him was no easy feat. Everyone dressed in a similar attire with boots, trousers, shirts, and leather armor. One thing they didn’t wear were helmets. But which one was the captain?

  She searched for the burliest, ugliest vampire she could find, with thinning hair and rotting teeth. That was how she imagined him. Yet, as she scanned the soldiers, only a few matched the description. Could one of them be the captain?

  Determination sparked inside of her as she drew her own sword. If she couldn’t locate the captain, she would make him come to her.

  Chapter 4

/>   Dracula watched the training soldiers with a careful eye. Often, when one of them made a grave fighting error, he corrected them. But as far as first days went, it was going better than he had expected. Still, disappointment surged through him over his unskilled recruits this year. Starting from scratch was time-consuming.

  He subconsciously fingered the black handkerchief in his pocket. After practice, he planned to seek out Ilona and present it to her. Despite not having any feelings for her he hoped something might come of his efforts. Besides, no other females interested him anyway.

  “He looks like he might have potential,” Nicolae said beside him, nodding his head toward a male who dodged his opponent’s attacks with ease.

  With a huff, he turned to his friend. “Don’t you have something better to do than dally at the training grounds? As long as you’re here, you might as well pick up a sword.”

  “No fighting for me, thank you very much. I prefer the quiet solitude my books offer. Besides, Shah Jorin has no use for his advisors right now.”

  A frown came unbidden to his face. The church recently became more involved in the government, and one by one, Jorin’s advisors were either sacked or pushed aside. The only solace he found was knowing Jorin still paid Nicolae for a job he wasn’t currently doing. Madeleine and the children needed to be taken care of somehow other than from Madeleine’s meager pay as a launderer. He worried for them often. Times already weren’t easy for vampires in Ichor Knell, but with five children and one on the way?

  “Did Jorin lower your wage again?” he asked, his frown now a permanent fixture upon his face.

  “Yes, and with Madeleine working less due to her condition, it makes it more and more difficult to feed the children. The church increased the cost of blood and hunting to feed my large family is proving to be a difficult task.” Nicolae sighed, his shoulders sagging with the heavy burden of caring for his family. “It would be easier if children fed as infrequent as adults. But my littlest needs to feed every few days. When the baby is born, he or she will need to feed every few hours.”