"We have a few hours left till the sun comes up, and you now have enough information for you to make a decision," Nik said, looking outside.
Alexandra, the vampire in transition, nodded and replied, "Yes, I do. And I am really concerned about the part where you said you are forbidden from siring vampires, yet you turned me. Why take such a risk, and more importantly, why put my life in danger?"
Nik sighed. "Your life was in danger from the moment you crossed paths with me, love. I just gave you a chance to defend yourself from those who would wish you harm because of your association with me."
Alexandra stared at him for a bit. " The first thing you did when you met me was bite me. I believe that can hardly be called association."
Nik grinned. "Yes, but had I not decided to turn you, I would have come still, and we would have because close companions, thus making you a target for my enemies. Association was inevitable. I just chose to empower you first."
"By taking away my humanity and forcing me to either die or become a monster like you," she replied, smiling wryly.
Nik responded, " I have been alive for two hundred years, Alexandra, and in that time I have learned how to make hard choices in order to get things done. You would have been tortured and then slaughtered without you even able to put up a fight. Would you rather I let you die?"
With that, he stood before her and stooped to match her eye level.
"Will you accept my gift, and allow me to make up for your first death?" Nik asked, his face showing an expression that bordered on sincerity.
She nodded, and his face brightened.
"Wonderful! I shall go fetch our breakfast," he said, then left.
Alexandra lay down on the bed, and she began to process the night she had experienced.
.....
Lucas sipped some whiskey and spectated as his younger siblings sparred.
"Keep your head guarded always!" he yelled as Ariel's fist pummeled Michael's chin.
A slight change in the air's movement told him he wasn't alone anymore.
"Ariel is quick on his feet, but Michael deals the harder blows," Nik commented as he stood beside his brother.
Lucas didn't respond.
"Don't tell me you still hold a grudge over what happened earlier, brother," Nik said. "I expect better from you." He smiled.
Lucas' hand shot towards his neck, but Nik caught it midflight and twisted it, forcing Lucas to his knees.
Then, he grabbed the younger vampire by the scruff of his shirt and tossed him into the courtyard.
Lucas fell just short of the fountain, and he got up slowly as his arm snapped back into place.
"I'm not here to fight you, little brother. In fact, I had come to apologize for my behavior but you seem to be in too foul a mood to be sufficiently receptive. You can boil in anger for all you want. See if I come back."
Nik stormed off.
Lucas followed in a blur, but when he got outside, there was nobody in sight.
A pair of hands grabbed his head and twisted it to the side, snapping his neck.
Nik dragged his brother's body back inside, calling the other two.
He left the body on the floor as he sat in the living room, his siblings joining him.
They stared at Lucas' lifeless corpse quizzically, then at Nik, whose gaze suddenly became sharp.
"I caught the scent of the witch he's been roaming around with on his clothing. He's been with her much more frequently than he used to, and it doesn't sit well with me. What do you know?"
Ariel shrugged. "The same as you do, Nik. Only he knows what he does with her."
Nik went quiet for a while, then spoke slowly.
"I sired another one."
Paying no heed to their alarmed stares, he continued, "I was testing something. According to what the witches said back then, as soon as a new vampire was created, they would sense it and come to exact punishment. Yet I waited and nobody came. So I will leave the city before sunrise and stay temporarily in New Ashton before proceeding to Stoneridge."
"Wait, you're leaving? Why?" Ariel asked.
"I can't possibly create an army if I'm bound by the imposed laws of the city, can I?"
Seeing the worried looks on their faces, Nik rose and embraced them both, saying, "Once I'm in Stoneridge, I will send word for you to join me. We will take this city, and the next, and so on till Argent once again belongs to the Asgeirssons."
He looked down at Lucas' unconscious body.
"He knows I have sired a vampire, and with the way he's been playing around with the witch, I'm not entirely certain he won't tell her and so exact revenge by killing her. Keep watch till sunrise."
Nik vanished in a blur.
....
The fire had been partially extinguished by the time Claire arrived.
Men threw buckets of water onto the flames, while others poured sand or beat at it with branches.
"What happened?" Claire asked a group of women close by.
"Some say that one of the men inside failed to pay the woman he spent the night with and decided to burn the place down. Personally, I don't think it's a plausible explanation at all, but there are witnesses. Two of them, in fact."
The woman who replied pointed at two men, who were explaining the events to a policeman.
Another woman asked Claire, "How far have you gotten with the Fallen Prince's brother?"
She replied, "I planted enough seeds to turn him against Prince Nikolas. He will be rid of him before sunrise. In exchange, he will recover three daylight rings. Or so he believes."
"Well played, Claire."
She smiled back sweetly.
.....
Alexandra clutched her stomach as she writhed in agony.
The hunger pangs felt like knives stabbing at her insides, and it only became worse as time progressed.
Nik had left promising to bring sustenance, but he had yet to return.
She cursed under her breath.
Just then, she heard the door open, and Nik's voice calling out, "I hope you missed me! Come!"
She made a great deal of feigning utter weakness, and groaned from the bedroom, "I can't...I can barely move."
Nik's figure suddenly appeared in front of her and he said, "I might not have spent as much time without feeding as you have when I was created, but I have centuries of experience turning vampires. Get up."
He led her to the kitchen, where two men stood motionless.
"Who are they?" she asked.
"You're going to die young if you let curiosity take precedence over silencing your stomach," Nik answered as his fangs sank into one of them.
Alexandra didn't think twice before following suit.
A while later, she dropped the body, fully drained, and then the knowledge of what she had done sank in.
Nik noticed it and said, "From now on you must learn to control your emotions, as they will be heightened. Don't think too much about feeding. We are predators, it's our nature."
She wiped her face and asked, "How are you so calm about all this?"
He replied, "I learned to embrace it."
Nik opened the door and said, "Now, let's leave. We must reach New Ashton before dawn."
.....
Lucas woke up furious.
Getting up from his bed, where Michael had casually thrown him, he opened the secret compartment and took the stake, and jumped down the balcony of his room before his brothers found out he had gone.
He made his way to Claire's house and met her on the way.
"What's gotten you so worked up, love?" she inquired.
"I need a locator spell on my brother."
She hurried him to the house and got to work.
"They're in the north of the city, near the warehouses close to the bus station," she said.
And he was gone.
Claire smiled and started to chant another spell.
....
"Do you have to hold my hand all the way?" Alexandra asked as Nik pulled her into an alleyway.
"As a baby vampire, you are significantly much slower than I, so if we're going to get there early enough, I'd actually have to carry you," Nik explained, frustration finding its way into his voice.
They took cover in one of the buildings.
"Wolves," Nik whispered. "If I was alone, I could have simply slaughtered them, but I've got a pretty lady to consider now."
It was a compliment, but the first half of the statement killed the mood.
When the coast was clear, Nik motioned for them to leave.
And went flying into the wall right after.
Nik had barely gotten up when Lucas appeared in front of him and tossed him onto a beam of the ceiling.
Nik crashed onto the floor and spit a mouthful of blood.
"I have had enough of your antics, Nikolas," Lucas said. "For seven years I have put up with your grief and your violence, I have tried to help you recover and yet you still resist!"
Nik tried to stand and was kicked back down.
Alexandra's figure appeared beside him.
"Nik!" Her glare met Lucas' fiery gaze.
She blurred and attempted a strike at him, but it was easily deflected, and Lucas broke both her arms before knocking her to the side.
As he turned to face his brother, he saw darkness as Nik's fist pummeled his face, another landing in his gut.
He reeled backwards in pain, and Nik hurtled them both through a wall and into a storeroom.
....
Claire watched the fight through the spell she cast using Lucas' leftover blood from the ritual.
Seeing him being battered again and again, she raised her hands slightly, and Lucas felt his body suddenly become invigorated.
He caught Nik's next blow and gave him a punch that broke the left ribcage, then threw him back where they had come from.
"All I asked of you was for you to wait, and you chose to wage war! Could you not trust me?" Lucas yelled.
Nik, who lay on the floor, breathing shallowly as his bones went back in place, replied, "I trusted you to bow to the witches and the werewolves. I also trusted you to expect me to be comfortable with living like a runaway slave while you spent your time sleeping with the enemy."
"I am trying to make peace, Nikolas! Don't you understand?!"
"How many times must I tell you thatere can never be peace in is city for us unless we go to war?!" Nik shouted back.
"With what? Just four vampires against five covens of witches and a united pack of sixty wolves?" Lucas asked derisively.
"I have won wars with odds much worse," Nik replied.
Alexandra made to attack from behind, but Nik warned her with his eyes.
Lucas said, "Brother, the one thing I have always regretted over the last few years is not having fought hard enough when you needed me. And I am trying to repay my debt to you. But I can't do that if you continue to destroy yourself and the city you love so much."
He revealed the stake, and for the first time in over a hundred years, a flicker of fear crossed Nik's face.
"I intend to give you peace, as I fight for our home, your kingdom, and the reunion of our family. You and I have the same goal, but your methods will only lead to perpetual war."
"So you decide to place me in a state of endless darkness as you do gods know what and deprive me of the chance to forge my own path!?" Nik shouted.
Alexandra could no longer contain herself, and she rushed to Lucas.
Claire made a gesture, and the young vampire screamed as she felt her brain seemingly burn.
Nik, almost fully healed, ran to her, and impaled himself on the stake, which Lucas had thrown at him.
Lucas caught his body as it fell, and said to him as his body desiccated, "Sleep, brother, and when you rise, your crown that was taken from you, will be yours once again."
With the last of his consciousness, Nik wrapped his hand around Lucas', and drew him into his mind, where darkness rapidly enveloped.
"Pray that you burn in hell before I wake," Nik said, his blue eyes staring right into Lucas' soul.
And then, there was only darkness.