Chapter 13 Remnant #3
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I am very careful whenever I emerge above ground. However, years of visiting you in secret, even I could not evade detection. There were vampire clans rising at that time, joining forces with the intent to take the power of The Shadowed for themselves. To usurp us, to have me fall also. That day, three hundred of them crowded the northeastern border of Vyrn Hollow. They’d put the pieces together and realized who you were to me.
They intended to use that as leverage to force my hand.
To use you. Three hundred vampires hopped up on the blood of magic-wielders whom they’d taken captive. ”
“What happened?” he asked, fixed on me so intently.
“I told you to run. You would not leave me.”
He flinched. “You were hurt because of me?”
“No. They were hurt because of me.”
“You took on three hundred vampires high on magic?”
“I murdered them all.” I shifted my weight. “But their deaths alone weren’t enough to keep our secret safe, nor to safeguard The Shadowed against being exposed and threatened. I had to dispose of anyone they’d spoken to, all allies, potential allies, and everyone they knew and loved.”
He choked, a curse spilling from his lips. “Fuck… how many?”
Three thousand and seventy-two.
“Too many. Suffice to say, you witnessed enough horror as it was with my destruction of just those three hundred. Combined with you knowing my true name, Oblivisca was called for.”
“It’s also why you stopped coming by?”
I nodded. “And the point I am making is that all that unfolded because I allowed my sentimentality as a father to transcend everything. It made me sloppy. It led to hundreds of deaths. It had you witnessing horrors that would break most. It really enraged your mother. So much was almost lost because I made a mistake. Because I was selfish. Because I wanted to know you as my son so desperately.”
He came back then and settled onto the bench again, this time not leaving a two-foot distance between us. “Mom was really enraged, you said?”
“She was.”
“So she dealt you a beatdown, huh?”
“Yes.” My lips quirked despite myself. “That was how it began, at least.”
He screwed up his face, catching on far too easily. “Lovely.”
He took a moment, then asked, “Without going into too much detail, how did it even happen? You and her?”
“Are you referring to our relationship, or your conception?”
“Both,” he responded boldly.
My boy.
“Our relationship began as merely business. Over the centuries, many have reached out to me seeking power, favors, even curses upon their enemies. Not Rhyza. She demanded.”
“Demanded what?”
“The supernatural world was in a state of flux in the wake of Draco’s reign of terror—the risen dark Immortal.
Even after he was vanquished, damage lingered.
One of the only packs that remained intact was Vyrn Hollow, due to her efforts.
But that wasn’t enough for some and it was a challenge to others.
They wanted to take her power. I had vampire clans connected to me above ground at that time.
She desired to expand her pack territory, a means to both bring in the wolf wanderers who were many, and to also demonstrate her power and reach.
To do that, she wanted my vampires gone, the lands near her pack vacated and given to the wolves.
In return, she offered an alliance between what was to become the second largest wolf pack in the world and my vampire clans.
Not just peace, but an exchange of resources. ”
“And you took her up on this deal?”
“I required an in-person meeting first.” I smiled to myself.
“She was indeed as forthright and commanding as her offered deal had suggested. So far above all those who doubted her. She was a warrior through and through. And, although deeply savage when it was called for, she had a pure heart. That is a true rarity.”
“You loved her.”
Our eyes locked.
“I did. And I do. As for your conception, I will spare you the details, but suffice to say, magic was involved that… overcame my physiological deficiencies when it came to being able to conceive a child.”
“Magic? How? What could possibly—”
“That I will leave for your mother to discuss with you.”
He studied me closely for several moments, unspeaking.
And then he told me, “I’m not a child anymore.”
“I am aware.”
“Are you?” he challenged. “Because things don’t need to be like this now. You and her… you don’t need to be as you are. You and me… it can be different.”
“Is that what you wish for, Lazriel?”
“Is it what you do?”
I grimaced at the deflection. He was still unsure of my intentions, of my sentiment toward him. And that wouldn’t do.
Not just from a strategic approach and the fact that his distrust and resistance would hinder our training and my teachings, but from a personal standpoint—for both of us.
“It has been for a very long while.” I reached out and grasped his hand.
“Of course I wish to know you, to have a relationship with you. You are my son.” I smiled as his hand tightened in mine.
“Of all that I have done and created over my many centuries of life, you are that which I am most proud of. You are my most esteemed and cherished creation, Lazriel.”
Emotion welled in his eyes and he turned his head from me.
With my free hand, I cupped his cheek, returning his gaze to mine.
“It is not a weakness to feel, nor to express said feelings. In fact, it’s a strength.
A being of supreme power who can actually feel and show emotion is to be respected, and also related to by those beneath them.
It gives them comfort, it humanizes that power and creates reassurance.
Respect. When they look upon you, their fear for what you are will be mitigated.
They will see the being beneath the power.
A person, not a monster.” As his eyes shone at me, and I wiped away a stray tear that cascaded down his cheek, I told him, “And for you, personally, expressing how you feel, who and what you are, facilitates connection. Just like you have managed to accomplish with the three whom you love and fight for now, who you risked so much to help through seeking me out.”
“When all this is over… when the war is won… what then, though?”
“You believe history will repeat, that I will disappear from your life, and leave you with no memory of our time together?”
“It’s obviously crossed my mind,” he said, staring at our joined fingers, before raising his gaze back to mine and steeling himself before telling me, “What you say you want for us, I believe you. I believe you care, that you want to be a father to me. But there’s a big difference between wanting something and bringing it about in reality. ”
“There most certainly is. And so long as I remain entrenched in my role with The Shadowed, it complicates matters. It limits me when it comes to you and your mother. However, before recent events, your association with me had only ever been a danger to you, but now it has become the opposite.”
“Now it’s protection?”
“Yes, you’ve become quite the celebrity in the supernatural world.
Your work with Crossborn. Your standing at Wraeven Academy.
A born hybrid making great change alongside the likes of Warlow Boyd and his team.
An openly bold hybrid at that. It has garnered you attention—including that of Puritas.
They see your power and it’s a direct threat to the fear they wish to infect all hybrid kind with.
They also see that you are bolstered, and that has kept them at bay for the most part.
Albeit, now that Victor is fixated on you, that will be challenged.
Things are approaching a tipping point.”
I squeezed his hand. “As such, you need to be ready. And you require me to ready you. To do that, I do need to be the war general, because otherwise I would hold back with you, be too lenient on you when I need to push.” I took a breath, then told him, “We will not go back after this. I doubt you are aware of this, but Oblivisca cannot be used on you anymore anyway, so you would remember our time together regardless. Moreover, I want you to remember. Things are shifting and I am working on something to afford me more freedom when it comes to my personal relationships without jeopardizing The Shadowed through being above ground too much. But there are many moving parts to my plan and it cannot be accomplished with ease, nor overnight.”
“Okay,” he said, a great deal of tension leaving him.
“Okay?”
He gave a nod, and released my hand, but with a smile.
“Yeah, I get it. You might find me deficient, but I’m a wolf-vampire hybrid, I can sense your sincerity.
You want to be a father to me. Desperately, actually.
That’s enough for me. For now. Especially now you’ve admitted you have a strategy you’re working on to actually finally change things, to help our family.
” His lips quirked. “You’re really not what I thought, you know?
I mean, all I had to go on when Sylas completed that Blood Trace was that you were part of The Shadowed.
I figured you were this stoic, ice-in-his-veins power-hungry dictator, that abandoning your son was freedom to you, a weight off.
I thought I was just something to be discarded, especially with my hybrid nature—a stain on your legacy, maybe.
But you’re none of those things. You’re… you’re a lot more than I thought.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear it. I am just showing you my truth.
You deserve nothing less than that, especially after all these years.
As for your deficient comment and the stain on my legacy, please don’t speak of yourself that way.
You are truly special—that specialness scares people, especially the ignorant.
It comes from them being too inept to understand and learn, so they retreat into fear, that fear resulting in them lashing out because they are ill-equipped.
That mentality is what you have internalized over the years. ”
“How do you—”
“For one, I heard you tell Victor when he tried to degrade you that you’ve experienced it many a time before. And another, it’s evident in your suppression of much of your vampire side.” I picked up my glass and gestured for him to do the same. “So, let us begin remedying that.”
“How?” he asked, grabbing his glass.
“Drink.”
He tensed and sniffed the warm liquid again—with his wolf side.
“Allow the wolf to retreat. When you feed, you are vampire. It does not need to be checked by the wolf. Because the wolf is not just affording you control, it is repressing the essence of the vampire. It’s diluting the effects of the blood infusing your system and also preventing you from drawing from more than a fraction of your abilities. ”
I brought my own glass to my lips and let the vampire rise and take me, my features contorting and twisting, fangs dropping, my eyes gleaming with the call of the demon within.
He gazed at me, watching as my fangs clinked against my glass when I tipped it back and took the coppery liquid into my mouth, savoring it as it coated my lips, my tongue, then swallowing the intimate fuel down, snarling with its sweetness and power infusing me.
His attention dipped to his glass and he tipped it back a little, taking a sip.
I smiled as he licked the blood off his lips with no grimacing or turning his nose up this time.
And then it happened.
The vampire rose, his features contorting spectacularly, his eyes blazing.
It was breathtaking.
My first time witnessing my son bringing forth the vampire.
Truly remarkable and a beautiful sight to behold.
He took another sip, then snarled and gulped it down ravenously, his talons—not his claws—dropping in the process and scratching the glass.
He took it down to the last drop and when he came up for air he was panting heavily, his body vibrating with intensity.
He eyed my glass that was still half-full.
I smiled and handed it to him.
And then I watched as he devoured that too.
The true heart of the vampire had been awakened.
For once, not restrained by the wolf.
Or his fear.
He was in the presence now of somebody who could assist should he lose control.
Not only that, but in me, he had somebody who knew well how it actually felt, how to properly thrive with bloodlust without losing all sense of reason in the process.
“More,” he breathed, when he finished off the blood in my glass too, his lips and fangs dripping with it.
“As you wish.”
Son.