I awoke to the sound of horses’ hooves stomping along dirt. My sire and my siblings were already up, moving about, when I raised my head. Anastasia told me to hurry and within seconds, still sleepy and hungry, we loaded the carriage with our luggage and headed away from the city toward what Anastasia called our temporary home.

  Along the way she comforted me, saying that I didn’t have to worry. We would be around other Deamhan. I would be safe and protected there until time permitted. I had her word. Throughout the ride, I continued to question why Silvanus felt adamant to protect me. My existence was important to him and when I questioned Anastasia about it again, she told me that he would answer all my questions. In the meantime, I had to tread carefully when it came to him. As an Ancient and the oldest Deamhan living in London, he warranted respect. He could easily decide my fate and the fate of my siblings with a mere flick of his wrist. He could deny us safety under his roof and throw us out to the streets to fend for ourselves. I became the deciding factor on how the meeting would play out. I carried the result in my own hands.

  We came upon a huge two-story brick home with land that extended into the horizon. A long, black metallic gate cornered wooden stables that connected to the rear of the majestic home. I’d never seen anything as huge and grand in my life. I heard about these types of home and I seriously thought I’d never get the chance to step inside of one.

  A tall human male approached the gate, unlocked it, and opened it slowly. He stood aside, staring straight ahead as if he waited for us to walk in. I grabbed my luggage and proceeded through the gate. As we quietly walked toward the home, I questioned Anastasia about Silvanus’ age.

  “Currently he is the oldest Deamhan in London.”

  Her response made me stupefied. “Currently?”

  Silvanus stood at the front door holding a silver-colored cane which, unlike the human, grabbed my interest immediately. Dressed in a bright white shirt and a golden taupe gentlemen’s vest with silk buttons underneath his medium length stock coat, he took off his tall black hat and bent slightly forward to greet us. As he held out his hand to Anastasia, I noticed a silver pocket watch dangling from his vest.

  “Anastasia. I can’t say it’s good to see you...again.” His deep brown eyes moved to Finley, Branda, and Brandy. However, when he turned to me, he didn’t smile. “She isn’t human?”

  “I had no choice.” Instead of grasping his hand, she placed her arm around my shoulder like a parent proud of their teenage child. “This is Maris.” Knowing that she showed me off, I held my head high.

  Silvanus smirked. “There’s always a choice.” He placed his hand underneath my chin and moved my face to the right to look at my scar on my left cheek. “And who’s responsible for scarring our little jewel?”

  Anastasia nodded. “Vampires.”

  “Those beasts.” He grabbed my hand and pulled it up to his lips. “It’s nice to finally meet you, my dear Maris.” He kissed the top of my hand. “I’m Silvanus but I assume you know that already.”

  I returned his kind gesture with a smile, wondering if he truly found me to be that bewitching.

  “Such a pretty name for such a pretty woman,” he said as he gently dropped my hand and stood aside. “Welcome to my sanctuary.” He opened the door.

  We walked in to the huge foyer with a tall ceiling. Moonlight hit the shiny marble floor, blinding me for a second. Paintings adorned the walls. I saw a female human maid, dusting a bronze bust statue in the hallway and another walking up the stairs cradling a stack of sheets in her arms. We stood silent in the foyer as he closed the door and walked forward.

  “Anastasia, your offspring will stay in this foyer until my minions show them to their rooms.” He motioned for her to follow him. “However, you will come with me. We have catching up to do.” She followed him down a long narrow hall and disappeared around the corner, leaving us alone.

  His butler approached us. “Please follow me.” He ascended the stairs and my siblings followed, but I didn’t want to go. The thought of sleeping under the roof of this magnificent house excited me but not as much as the thought of talking to Silvanus and getting the answers to my questions.

  I waited until they were out of sight before I followed the scents of my sire and Silvanus down the hallway. I walked by the female maid who moved aside and continued her work. I approached two large opened doors leading to a room with white marbled walls. I saw Anastasia standing in the center. Her body blocked my view from Silvanus.

  Anastasia looked over her shoulder at me and she spoke in my mind. Head back.

  I heard Silvanus speak. “She came all this way. Might as well let her in.”

  I cautiously entered the room. Silvanus stood up from a large throne covered in colored gems and stones. He towered over us, looking like a glimmering African statue. I thought of him as an immortal king and I lowered myself onto my knees to show him respect.

  He laughed at the gesture. “I’m not something to worship. Stand up.”

  I immediately stood on my feet.

  “It’s you who I should be kneeling to, if I knelt to any Deamhan.” He then looked to Anastasia. “I suspected that the descendant would be an aristocrat and not the daughter of a whore.”

  “Do you doubt that she’s the one?” Anastasia asked.

  “No.” He sat back in his seat and I moved back, cowering behind my sire. “I didn’t mean to humiliate you, Maris.” Upon seeing my reaction, he smiled at me. “You’re just, unusual is all.”

  I held my head high, pretending to not be bothered by his comment.

  “If I come off as brash and insincere, please don’t think of me that way. I’m just upset with your sire,” he said. “It seems that she can’t follow a simple Decretum.”

  “I did what you asked of us all,” Anastasia replied. “I protected her. I brought her here safely to you.”

  “Yes, but as a Deamhan and not as a human.”

  Taken aback, I looked at my sire who didn’t have the guts to look back at me. Her eyes remained forward and her face expressionless.

  “Maybe it’s better that she’s this way in the long run,” Silvanus continued. “As a human, she wouldn’t be able to protect herself from Dorvo vampires.” Silvanus repeated the name with a hint of distaste in his voice. “They will still come for her, especially Ruby, and she won’t stop until she has her but now, since Maris is one of us, that will make Ruby’s task quite difficult.”

  “She wouldn’t be stupid enough to come here,” Anastasia said.

  “Oh but she will.” Silvanus’ reply left my sire tongue-tied. “When have you ever known her to give up so easily?” He repositioned himself in his chair. “And now Maris is bonded to you, which gives you leverage over Ruby and over me. What devious game are you playing, Anastasia?”

  “Would you have been happy if I left her to die, then?” she asked.

  “Of course not, but I know you. I know how you work. I know what you will do before you do it. You waited until she was almost dead to come in and save her pending death. That would make siring her your only reasonable choice.”

  I listened intently to his strong accusations, all the while refusing to believe what he said. Anastasia saved me and I thanked her for it. She protected me from the vampire who came for me the first night after my transformation, and I would always thank her for it, regardless of what Silvanus thought of her.

  “I’m no longer the woman you remember from your past,” Anastasia said to him. “I’ve changed.”

  “Changed?” He spoke with clenched teeth. “Why are you lying to me in my own home?” He pointed at her. “May I remind you that you are only alive because I promised your sire, who is my sibling, that I would spare your life? I promised her that I would give you plenty of opportunities to right your wrongs against our kind.”

  I immediately sensed fear in my sire.

  “And I thank you for that. However, regardless of what I do from here and now, you will never trust me,” Anastasia replied. “You will always think wrong of me.”

  Before I opened my mouth to speak, in one blurred movement, Silvanus rose from his chair and stood in front of Anastasia. He placed his hand around her throat and lifted her just inches from the floor. Immediately my protective instincts kicked in and like clockwork, he glared at me and mouthed the word, “no.”

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  I stood still, watching him choke her. I heard the bones in her neck crack and instead of fighting back, Anastasia took the punishment. Her eyes fluttered and she held onto his forearm.

  “You’ve been a Ramanga for what—almost two hundred years now, maybe three hundred?” He continued. “And you still roam the countryside like a mad, wild, Deamhan orphan. You sire unwanted children and keep them around like servants, all willing to do your bidding because of their bond to you. You’ve used Deamhan for your own protection and now you tend to do the same with Maris. But I tell you now, Anastasia that will not happen again.”

  Unable to help her, I did the next best thing that came to mind. I dropped to my knees, crawled over to Silvanus, and I begged for him to spare her. I didn’t care if my act was low and embarrassing. All I cared about was Anastasia and her wellbeing. He ignored my helpless attempt, but I pleaded to him again.

  “She is all we have,” I said to him. “She is all we know.”

  “That is your bond talking nonsense,” he replied to me.

  “Bond or not, she is my sire,” I said in a harsh tone. “If you kill her, I will gladly die along with her.”

  He quickly eyed me.

  “I will fight you until either you kill me or I kill you,” I spurted back at him.

  Silvanus quickly let her go and Anastasia fell onto her back. His light brown eyes, now dark, beamed into my soul. “Are you threatening me, dear Maris?”

  I swallowed hard. “Yes.”

  “You’re still young.” He stepped back and straightened his jacket. “You clearly don’t know anything about your sire.”

  I stepped back and watched him rub his hands together. “You were going to kill her,” I said.

  He nodded. “That I was.” He walked back to his seat.

  “And you expect me to stand back and watch?”

  “No.” He sat in his seat. “I would expect you to do what you could to save her.”

  I reached out to grab Anastasia by her wrist to help her to her feet but she pulled away from my weak gesture.

  “You’re strong minded. It’s a rare trait in the Deamhan world,” Silvanus said to me. “I can see that your mind is worried about your family. But I’m telling you now, you don’t have to worry. I will not throw them out onto the streets. They will stay here until necessary preparations are made.”

  “Thank you.” Anastasia stood to her feet and rubbed her throat.

  “Don’t thank me. Thank Maris. Her close-knit bond with you saved your life. What you do starting here and now will determine if your family is worthy to stay in my protective sanctuary. Now leave us. I need to have some time alone with the newest addition to your family.”

  I watched Anastasia turn around and walk out, closing the doors behind her. Left alone in a monumental room with him, I started to become wary of his intentions and I thought that he would punish me for the threat I made earlier.

  “I will make the necessary preparations. It could take weeks, maybe months, to secure your passage to America.” He scrunched his nose. “I never understood why America, of all places. It’s such a dirty country. Why not Greece or Italy or any other place full of like-minded, sophisticated individuals?”

  “America?”

  “Although there is a high chance that Ruby and her vampires will follow you there,” Silvanus said. “But you will be safer there with her than here, trust me.”

  “Her?”

  “Yes. She is a very old Deamhan, much older than myself. She is the one who ordered me to declare the Decretum.”

  I didn’t care about that old Deamhan. I shook my head. “What about my family?” I asked. “I don’t want to leave them.”

  “You have to and you will.” He lifted his body to sit up straight. “Maris, this is much more than your asinine bond with your maker. This is about the future of our kind.” He read my thoughts and now, educated in my feelings toward my family, he leaned toward me. “You are unfortunate to have Anastasia as your sire.”

  “I don’t want to leave my family because some old female Deamhan commands me to.”

  He raised his hand to interrupt me. “She isn’t just some old Deamhan. She is wise and knows everything. Show more respect.”

  I silently stood down.

  “Many Deamhan, including your sire, don’t know of their lineage,” he replied. “They show no regard for those who came before them. Most think that once they are Deamhan and no longer human, they can do what they want to do. They let their primal instincts take over and they kill whenever and whomever they want.”

  I opened my mouth again but he reinforced my silence by raising his hand again.

  “I’m not done talking, Maris,” he replied. “They don’t worry about the implications of their horrors and the pain vendettas they cause among humans, vampires, and other creatures in the world. They don’t understand that all species are in fact closely related.”

  I tilted my head slightly to the right, confused as to why he was telling me about this and what it had to do with my bond to Anastasia.

  “I’ve witnessed several Deamhan throughout the centuries throw their lives away, your sire included. They all thought they were untouchable and truly immortal. They traveled from city to city, town to town, killing everyone in their path because they could. Even the oldest of the old could not control them for they were too many. This old Deamhan tried but her only desire was to make sure that your ancestors were safe from any harm. Other Ancients came together to try and solve this ongoing and out of control problem. Lucius, a Lugat, Nicias, a Metusba, Marjolaine, a lovely and beautiful Lamia, and Gennadios, a Ramanga—they believed that rules were needed to secure the survival of our species. They wrote down those rules and created The Dictum.” He lowered his hand. “Now, you can talk.”

  “What does this have to do with my bond with Anastasia?” I asked.

  “Because your sire has broken these rules too many times to count. She breaks them now.” He continued. “I’ve been alive for a very, very long time, Maris. You aren’t the first or the last human she will sire. Heed my words, young Deamhan.” He moved in closer to me. “You will have to break your bond with her if you are to survive—and believe me, your survival is of the utmost importance to myself and other Ancients. If not, she will use you as bait. She will turn on you and throw you away like unwanted trash. You are of use to her because of her history with Ruby. She is just one of the Deamhan who spent the earliest moments of her life killing without remorse and without thought. Hence, you will go to America to be away from her and to be away from her history that is catching up to her.”

  I remained quiet as my brain processed this new information.

  “I remember Anastasia when she was a young one, like you are now. Over time she grew to be the Deamhan you know today. She has survived off the backs of her offspring and other Deamhan. She has made enemies and now they are your enemies. Both Deamhan and vampire hunt her and you are too important to be caught in the middle of her squabbles.” He cleared his throat. “Believe me when I say that you are worth gold to me and to all Deamhan.”

  “How is it that I’m this important?” I asked.

  “You are descended from the humans who created our kind,” he replied. “The knowledge is in your blood.” He extended his arms. “Would you like to see?”

  I opened my mouth but I couldn’t find my voice. He then placed his hands on my forehead and immediately a flurry of images crashed into my thoughts in rapid movements. The staggering pressure lifted me to my toes and made me close my eyes tightly. In the darkness, I saw the visions he sent of Anastasia in her early years; killing, siring, killing, siring. I saw buckets of blood showering these visions like rain glistening off the leaves on a tree. Over and over again these images didn’t stop until I saw how my sire viewed me. What Silvanus said was true. She saw me not as her offspring but as a bargaining chip with vampires and Deamhan alike.

  I then saw how she viewed Finley, Branda, and Brandy. She used their bonds with her as a way of securing her survival, just like her own sire. She cared little if nothing for us or any Deamhan, including Silvanus. The night of my attack she watched and let the vampires attack me, bringing me near death, before she intervened. Her main goal wasn’t to save me but to sire me.

  “Bonds are tricky little things,” he said. “They can be broken, mended, and created anew.”

  The images suddenly changed. Now I felt Silvanus digging through my mind and my head began to throb in pain. I wanted to force him out, but he proved to be too strong and countered my attempt. I saw vampires and humans surrounded by death. At first the humans ran from them but in the end, they stood tall against the vampires. Power exuded from them; a dark energy that made the hair on my arms stand firm. Then I saw Deamhan standing with the humans against the vampires. Balance restored, they pushed the vampires back, but it only lasted for a short time. The Deamhan turned against the humans and like oil in water, each group separated into its own entity. Death had embedded itself into every inch of a Deamhan, down to our very core.

  Finally, I managed to force myself away from his touch and I stumbled back, looking wide-eyed at him. He had shown me things that I didn’t want to see or know. No longer did I have a desire to remain bonded to Anastasia or anyone for that matter. He proved to me that not only was I now damned like all Deamhan, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

  He slowly dropped his hand. “The energy in you is different. I felt it.” He leaned back in his chair. “You are the one, Maris.”

  Still reeling, I stepped back. “How did you do that? How did you show me those images?”

  He shrugged as if what he had done wasn’t that big of a deal. “I’m old, my dear. I can do many things.” He reached out and caressed my cheek. “I wanted you to see just how important you are.”

  “All I felt was death circling inside me,” I replied, “and a feeling that we are all damned.”

  He dropped his hand. “We are all damned. We’re death.” His eyes moved to my chest. “What is that dangling from your neck?”

  Immediately I placed my hand over my chest and stepped back. “Jewelry that my mother gave me a long time ago.” He went to reach for it but again, I stepped back. “It’s dear to me. It used to belong to my mother.”

  Silvanus dropped his hand. “It’s more than that. Let me see it.”

  I felt reluctant to show him but he continued to gawk until I slowly pulled it from underneath my clothing. He stared at it for what felt like hours before speaking.

  “You don’t feel it?” His eyes moved to my face. “You don’t feel its power?”

  I looked down at the amulet. “No, it’s just a family heirloom.”

  “It’s much more than that.” He snapped out of his stare by shaking his head. “It will protect you.”

  “It didn’t protect me from vampires.” Now interested, I took a closer look at the amulet. “I don’t feel anything or any power coming from this.”

  “Not vampires. Deamhan. Just keep it close. Don’t tell anyone what it can do; not even your siblings and definitely not Anastasia.”

  Still yearning to know what he sensed from the amulet, I stepped forward. “How can this protect me from Deamhan? It didn’t protect me from Anastasia when she sired me—”

  He quickly moved back from me. “It’s time for you to go.” For the first time I saw fear in his face, which caught me off guard. He waved me away. “Take your trinket far from me. I don’t like being in its presence.”

  I didn’t want to leave but he gave me a fierce look that made me quickly leave his chamber without question. Still befuddled, I found myself at the fork in the middle of two long dusty roads with one road calling at me to run away from this new life and the other to embrace it. Maybe Anastasia wasn’t the only mother figure in my life keeping secrets. Maybe my own mother kept secrets from me and if so, why? I desperately wanted to know what my life now meant.

  Everything I witnessed felt like a confused family tragedy, played out in dishonor, murder, and betrayal. Was this the new life that I now lived? How had I turned from just one unimportant whore to an important individual in the eyes of Deamhan? I didn’t want that burden and I blamed Anastasia for forcing it on me.

  I damn well didn’t want to be bonded to her anymore, but a part of me couldn’t imagine my Deamhan life without her and my siblings.