Lords of Discord Collection, Volume Two

Chapter 1

One

Winter stepped out of the ramshackle tenement and across the uneven paving stones to the sidewalk in the quiet neighborhood Aiden had selected. He looked up and down the street but saw few people. Sunrise was only a couple of hours away. He felt both exhausted and so very alive.

He was a vampire.

Aiden had changed him into a vampire.

When his father slipped away with his older brothers, Marcus, Rafe, and Beltran, he had begun to fear he would be excluded.

That he’d be left human and alone. All in the name of protecting him and keeping him safe.

Yet, the whole reason they’d waited until he’d reached the age of twenty-three was so they could stop protecting him and treating him like a child.

A bit to his surprise, they’d come back for him. They were sticking together as they’d agreed.

The early hours of the spring day were crisp and cool; a thin tendril of fog was winding its way through the city. There was a distant clomp of a horse’s hooves on stone, but the echo through the buildings made it hard to place its direction. Otherwise, the world was silent.

There was a feeling more than any telltale sign that Aiden was approaching him. Winter turned in time to see the vampire exit the narrow alley they’d taken, slipping into the building containing a variety of rundown flats.

His senses were so much…more now. It wasn’t just sharper eyesight or hearing.

He could feel things. He was aware of Aiden differently now.

His sire. There was an extra energy to him that pulsed out, and Winter could feel it.

It was strange but oddly grounding and comforting as well.

As if he were suddenly more connected to this man than he’d been before.

Would it be the same for his brothers?

Unfortunately, answering that question would have to wait until they returned to Marcus’s home.

For now, it was just him and Aiden on the streets of London, not something his oldest brother was at all happy about.

He had wanted to accompany Winter, but Aiden had insisted it be just the two of them for this first outing.

And Winter had a very good guess as to why.

With his surrogate father standing close by, Winter turned his attention to his surroundings. He closed his eyes and listened.

But only silence could be heard.

There was nothing. No little whispers. No laughing. No forlorn cries and little whimpers. There was the wind and the horses. The grind of wheels across stones. A cart, maybe.

“Winter?” Aiden’s voice was low and cautious. A faint thread of worry.

But Aiden had every right to be worried. He was the only one who knew that Winter, like his mother, heard voices. The question had been hanging in the air since the brothers made a pact years ago to become vampires: would Winter go insane just like their mother when he was turned?

Now that moment was here.

Winter’s heart was pounding so loud, his ears and his whole body had become one tensed muscle.

His entire existence was balanced on the edge of a knife, all of it building to this.

Were the voices that had cluttered up his mind for nearly twenty years still there?

Was he going to go mad? Was he a threat to his family?

He didn’t want to hope that the nightmare might finally be over.

The dream of being free had lingered in his brain for years, but it had never happened, becoming a sharp, bitter disappointment.

Protecting his brothers from his ugly truth had made him into a liar, putting a distance between him and his family that left an ache within him.

And he wanted it all done at last. He didn’t want to be a liar. He didn’t want to be alone anymore.

Aiden had insisted he accompany Winter without his family in case he—the youngest son—went mad.

His father was determined to protect his brothers as well as Winter.

He’d tried to convince Aiden for months now to end his life if the worst happened, but he’d begun to fear that Aiden had other plans.

That he intended to safeguard Winter away from his brothers until another solution could be found.

But Winter didn’t want to be a burden on his family in any way. He didn’t want the voices plaguing him any longer…even if it meant his own death.

Second after blissfully silent second ticked by, and there was nothing. Hope rose in Winter’s chest, nearly choking him. He covered his mouth with his hand and blinked back tears of intense relief and joy.

“I hear…nothing,” he whispered, dropping the hand he’d used to ward off Aiden.

“Really?” Aiden demanded as air exploded out of his lungs.

“There’s a horse. A cart or maybe a carriage. The wind. But our voices are the only ones I hear.”

Aiden grabbed him suddenly and pulled him into a tight embrace. “That’s wonderful!”

Winter gave a little laugh as he hugged Aiden, trying to breathe past the lump that had formed in his throat. Maybe, just maybe, he’d escaped the voices that had steadily followed him since childhood. The constant companions he could not see.

He roughly wiped away unshed tears before he laughed and straightened as Aiden released him.

The vampire had been the only father he’d known in his lifetime, the one person he’d whispered his secrets to.

He’d always felt different from his older brothers.

They were careful to include him, wanted to protect him.

Yet something had always held him apart.

Aiden helped get rid of that feeling. The vampire had never tried to coddle and wrap him in cotton.

He always encouraged Winter to be bold and daring, but he also had a way of making Winter feel safe at the same time.

There was a deep understanding in Aiden’s soft golden eyes, and nothing he said could ever surprise his father.

Winter turned his head to gaze around the surrounding street, a little grateful that they were alone, so no one could wonder at their slightly mad laughing and hugging.

He was free. Yes, he was now a vampire, and life would be forever different for him, but he had a second chance.

He could finally focus entirely on his mother and brothers. He could be honest with them. He could—

Every muscle in his body froze when his eyes fell on something…something so very strange.

It was a woman in a fancy gown and an equally extravagant bonnet on her head. She was strolling down the street, with a parasol in one hand as if she were out for her afternoon walk, not seeming to care that it was nearly four in the morning.

Oh, and the fact that she was quite clearly dead.

Winter’s heart hammered in his chest for an entirely new reason. Relief was swept aside under a mix of shock and wonder. She was entirely white, and he could see straight through her. As she passed steps and a doorway, he could see them through her body. She was a ghost. A phantom.

“What? What do you see?” Aiden demanded.

Winter looked over at Aiden, taking in his worried gaze, and then at the woman as she continued her walk. “You don’t see her?”

“Who? We’re the only ones out on the street.”

“The only living people on the street,” Winter corrected, his voice low and a little shaky as his newfound hope drained out of him. “I…I can see the dead.”

Had he just traded one trouble for another? His stomach churned, and he was lightheaded. How could this happen? He’d lost the bane of his existence and he was trading it in for what? Ghosts strolling through his life.

Aiden followed Winter’s line of sight, staring at the distant sidewalk, but it was quite clear he didn’t see anything. When he met Winter’s gaze again, there was a deep sadness in his eyes, but his lips were pressed into a hard, determined line. “We should speak to your brothers.”

“No!” Winter snapped.

“Winter—”

“Not yet, at least. They have enough to worry about with Mother. They’re still learning to be vampires. They don’t need to worry about me as well.”

“They deserve to know.”

“I’d agree if it meant they’d have to protect themselves from me or kill me, but I don’t think it will come to that.

” Winter grabbed Aiden’s shoulders and placed himself directly in Aiden’s path.

Desperation was nearly choking him. He’d been so close.

The taste of freedom and hope was still on his tongue.

He was not letting that go. Not yet. “Yes, I hear voices, like Mother, but I don’t feel particularly insane now.

I don’t feel like you’re attacking me or want to hurt me.

I don’t want to hurt my brothers. I’m still me, Aiden. ”

“And you will always be my Winter, but this…and so soon…” Aiden’s gentle voice drifted. Pain and fear filled his eyes.

“Maybe it’s my vampiric gift?” Winter suggested, but Aiden didn’t appear convinced.

Not that he could blame him. A vampire’s special gift typically didn’t appear for several months, if not years.

Yes, there were exceptions, but it didn’t help that Winter had been hearing voices before he’d been turned.

“I’m worried about you. I only want what’s best for you,” Aiden said carefully.

He cupped the side of Winter’s head, sadness still scrawled across his face.

His father had already suffered the loss of Julianna Varik, the love of his life, to violent madness.

Winter knew if he lost him as well, it would kill Aiden.

“Winter, I would never hurt you. You’re my beloved son. We’ll protect you, always.”

He meant like they protected Julianna, safeguarding her from the world as well as protecting the world from her. It wasn’t what Winter wanted.

“I know, but let’s wait for a little while. We’re all still getting accustomed to this new life. We must figure out this feeding thing. And the sunlight.”

A hint of a smile teased the corner of Aiden’s mouth, but it didn’t clear away the concern. “You don’t have to figure out the sun. You just stay out of it. Very simple.”