Fate of a Blood Moon (The Hades Blood Moon #2)

Chapter 1

Valentina

Fiskardo, Greece, 1823

T he man in my arms tensed as my fangs sank deeper into his neck, his flesh warm with blood. He made a low moan, his body writhing against mine as I drank from him. Sensual pleasure flowed through me, soothing my burning thirst and causing gentle goosebumps across my pale skin. I withdrew my fangs from the man’s neck and pushed him away, his breathing labored. I savored the salty taste of his blood as I licked my full lips.

Though frozen in terror, the man’s dark brown eyes moved to the older woman standing by the dock. She must have been his mother, locked in horror, unable to move or speak. She could only watch as I drank from her son.

I placed my hand against the man’s cheek and pulled his attention back to me. His bloody lips trembled as he looked into my eyes and saw the dark power within.

“Why are you doing this to me?” he asked.

Humans always seemed to ask that after the exchange.

“Why can’t my mamá move?” His eyes widened, but he couldn’t escape power; my control over his mind and body was too strong to break. “What kind of magic is this?”

I chuckled to myself. While I was born a witch, that was not the power I used to hold his mother in stasis. Kylan had given me many gifts when he turned me, which I then passed on to my progeny. One of those was to control the mind.

I gave him a warm smile. “Don’t worry about your precious mamá. She would have tried to stop me, so I used a simple power my maker bestowed upon me. I will keep it in place until I’m done with you.”

He strained to look back at his mother. I frowned and gripped his jaw, forcing him to stay focused on me. My eyes flared, and I pushed more energy into his mind.

“Tell me your name,” I commanded. I knew it already, but having him say it aloud gave me even more power to control him. There was a weight to a human’s name, a value I stole from each person I turned.

“Andrei,” he replied. He reached up and touched the drying blood on his lips. “What did I just do?”

“We drank each other’s blood.”

Andrei blinked in horror. “Why would I do something so vile?”

I smiled wickedly. “Because, my dear, I have watched you for a while, and I know your darkest, most desperate desires. You long for eternal life, for power, to be more than a simple village doctor. I can give that to you.”

“Andrei, don’t listen to her! She’s a demon!” Andrei’s mother shouted. She then pleaded with me to let her son go, but I brushed her words aside.

Andrei was mine.

His father, however, was sprawled on the small boat, gasping for air, more dark blood dribbling from his mouth. It wouldn’t be long before death came to claim him.

“I want a companion, Andrei.” I kept my voice calm and gentle, even as the raging beast beneath my skin fought to break free, eager to slaughter the entire family and be done with it.

“Being immortal is a lonely existence. I don’t want to walk this earth alone anymore. So, I have chosen you.”

Gently, I placed my hands on each side of his head to keep him steady. “I am giving you eternal life and power. I suggest you embrace this gift and serve me well.” Then I snapped his neck and let his lifeless body fall to my feet.

His mother screamed, fell to her knees, and wept, but I ignored her.

I didn’t have to wait long; my victims never took more than a minute to resurrect after the killing blow. Moments later, Andrei’s eyes opened, and he sat up, a confused look crossing his handsome face. I helped him stand and smiled, but he flung his arm free from my grip and stepped back. I frowned at his defiance and pushed my compulsion back into him.

“That’s enough!” I snapped. “Now, drink. Your father rejected my gift of immortality. If you don’t feed, you’ll die just like him. Drink his blood and become like me. Your desire for eternal life and power is right here, Andrei. Take it!”

I saw from my peripheral that the compulsion on Andrei’s mother had worn off. She held up her hands, as if trying to ward off the inevitable. But then, I noticed something. A red-orange glow danced across her fingertips, morphing into flames.

The moment I stepped back, Andrei sprinted toward his father in the boat. When he reached him, his father struggled to escape, but he couldn’t. He seized the man’s frail body and pierced his fangs deep into the flesh of his neck. He only drank for a few moments before he ripped the man’s throat open, pieces of spinal vertebrae and flesh falling into the sea.

His mother screamed for her son to remember who he was; all traces of the Fire magic I had seen flickering away. In the throes of bloodlust, he charged toward her. I didn’t intervene; it had to happen his way. His mother would only become a nuisance, and it was clear that Andrei still needed blood to quench his thirst. Desperate to escape her son, the woman scrambled to her feet, leaped into the water, and swam against the current.

She didn’t get far before Andrei took hold of her hair, dragging her back onto the dock and sinking his teeth into her neck. The woman only screamed once before blood strangled her voice. It would be over quickly.

The demon I had created was finally alive, his face contorting into a beautiful monster like me. He leaned in one last time and ripped his mother’s spine through the back of her neck.

Suddenly, a cry echoed from the shed. The teenage boy with jet-black hair and soft green eyes was still in there, too afraid to flee. I had intended to spare him—he couldn’t be more than fourteen. But with his parents and elder brother dead, killing him now would be an act of mercy.

“Kill him, Andrei. Save your brother from years of grief and pain. He will never see you as his family again.”

“Without hesitating, Andrei nodded and hurried toward the shed. I stayed behind, standing beneath the tree as its branches swayed gently above the dark water.”

I didn’t hear a scream, though; it was only silence.

Did he change his mind? He shouldn’t be able to break my compulsion.

There was a noise, and I ducked to stay out of sight. The boy burst out of the shed, his face a mix of terror and desperation as he disappeared into the forest that led to the village.

He’s getting away.

Andrei looked over at me as I came back around, and we locked eyes with each other. “You didn’t kill him?” I asked, irritation laced into my words. Anger burned in my chest. The compulsion didn’t work. He disobeyed me. “If you’re to be my companion, I demand submission. Am I clear?”

Andrei’s eyes widened as he looked around. The sight of his parents’ disfigured corpses caused him to groan and collapse to his knees.

“Why does it hurt?” He pressed his hands into the lush grass. His shirt, now covered in blood, almost appeared black in the moonlight. He started pulling at the soaked fabric. “There’s so much mess. So much blood.”

“Yes, that will happen when you feed for the first time.” I kneeled beside him and placed my hand on his back. “Relax. It’s just blood. Soon, blood will be all you think about. You will learn control, and this ‘mess’ won’t happen again.”

Andrei’s breath quickened. “It’s so messy. It’s everywhere.” He stripped off his shirt and tossed it across the grass, then looked down at the blood coating his bare chest. “It’s everywhere.”

His breath grew more frantic, so I clutched his hand, resting my other against his cheek. “Eventually, this pain will disappear as you embrace what you are. I promise. But if you’d like, I can help the process move faster. I can compel you not to care right here and now—to never care about anyone else but us.”

Andrei looked at me then, horror and sadness in his dark eyes. He nodded slowly. “I have a wife and a child. They’ll learn of my parents’ demise and come looking for me. My brother, Jasen, he’ll tell everyone what I’ve done. My family will know.”

A child?

My stomach dipped. I was a monster, but I would never harm a child. I forbade my followers from turning or injuring children, and any who disobeyed met a swift death.

Other vampires didn’t follow my orders, but that fell on their own maker’s failures. The responsibility of spilling a child’s blood was something I refused to bear. However, if Andrei were to leave them behind, he would remember them. He would always wonder where they were, and his devotion to me would suffer.

I must make him forget.

It was clear that I needed to increase my compulsion over Andrei. He was still too willful. I summoned more energy and wrapped it around his mind. As I stared into his eyes, I felt mine burn with an ice-blue glow, a physical manifestation of my strength over him.

“I demand you to erase them from your thoughts. Free yourself from them, Andrei. It’s the only way you’ll survive this.” I focused my power on his will. “Erase them.”

Andrei blinked as if clearing his vision, giving me a subtle nod before clambering to his feet. Before I could take his hand to escort him away from the slain bodies, he rushed past me at vampiric speed.

“What are you doing?!” I shouted frantically, catching up to him. He paused once I stopped beside him, his eyes blazing crimson.

“What you asked of me,” he said. “I’m erasing my family.”

I reached out to stop him, but Andrei slammed his heel against my knee, breaking it with a sharp crack. I fell to the ground, gasping in pain. As my body began to heal, he broke into a sprint and vanished into the dark trees.

“Andrei! No, stop!” I screamed and pleaded into the night. “That isn’t what I meant.”

The tingling sensation of my body healing washed over me, allowing me to finally stand. But Andrei was gone. Just then, the ringing of bells and the faint shouts of villagers filled my ears. The younger brother must have made it to a neighbor to find help. Even if vampires were a myth to humans, Fiskardo had a few witches who knew my kind existed. If someone killed one of their own, they would come.

“No!” I gasped and spun around. I had to leave. Now.

A sharp pain ripped through my chest, causing me to fall back to my knees. My hands grabbed the fabric of my bodice as if to quiet the horrid pain seizing my dead heart. Another wave of agony crashed over me, and something inside cracked. Human emotions that I had long forgotten in my thousands of years of existence came flooding back: regret and shame.

I clutched my chest, half expecting to feel my heart beating again. But instead, another wave of emotion overtook me: sorrow.

What is happening? What have I done?