Chapter 13
Maksim’s Childhood Home, Friday, January 18, 2013, Night
After fleeing from the traitor bitch’s unexpected show of power, Maksim had flown for days, killing anything he saw, though he kept to the wilderness. The animals he found provided no relief for the thirst that seared the dragon’s throat far more effectively than its fire had burned his enemies.
He’d lost everything. Nadya had been savagely murdered. He’d taken control of her legacy but lost it in a matter of days. He was a pathetic excuse for a vampire, and he knew nothing about being a Therian. He didn’t want to, either. They’d proven themselves every bit as horrible as his father and Nadya had claimed.
Though he’d taken a long and winding route, Maksim’s meanderings brought him closer to his childhood home each day. He longed to reconcile with his father and earn his approval for the power he now wielded. If Timofey joined him and became a vampire, they could take on the Therians together and exact the justice the old dragon so richly deserved for his wrongful exile.
Maksim sensed something stirring and dove through the clouds, then vanished into shadows the moonlight couldn’t touch and reappeared a hundred feet above the ground. He landed lightly and stretched his wings, grateful that he no longer crashed each time he touched down. The shadows let him jump to where the light wasn’t.
Navigating his new powers was a learning process. He’d been staggeringly unprepared for the fight with Ash. Nadya hadn’t left him an instruction manual, and he no longer had the lesser vampires to learn from. He knew nothing about being the alpha vampire. He felt the power within him but knew he’d only scratched the surface of what he could do.
He hadn’t had much time with the man, but even Nadya’s right hand, Jean-Pierre, hadn’t known the full extent of her skills, so he’d been unable to guess what else Maksim might be able to do. He’d regretted abandoning the vampires at Nadya’s home to Ash and her Therians immediately after he’d done it but didn’t see what he could do about it now. He had considered seeking out others, but he wanted to feel more like a king before he looked for his subjects. He felt lost and was overwhelmed by the role he’d foolishly assumed. He longed for guidance.
The familiar outline of the isolated mansion his father had built for his human mother came into view. It was the one place he belonged and understood how the world worked.
Before he landed on the front lawn, Maksim saw Timofey step out onto the elegant porch to stare at the black and red dragon with horror as well as fascination. When he was on the ground, Maksim shifted to human form and took a knee, looking at Timofey with hope in his crimson eyes. “Father!” He rose. “I’ve come home.”
Maksim didn’t know what else to say. He had changed since the last time he’d seen his father. He’d left as the half-human spawn of a Therian and returned as a king. He made no effort to hide what he was and waited tensely to see how his father would react. He offered a hesitant smile, which broke the older man’s shock.
Timofey rushed forward and pulled his son into his arms, trying not to let his heartbreak show. “My boy! Where have you been?”
Maksim pulled away to meet Timofey’s gaze. “I have so much to tell you, Father. The power I’ve gained is beyond anything I ever thought possible.”
“Let’s go inside, then. I’ll pour us a drink, and you can tell your tale.” Timofey ushered his son into the house, grabbed two cut crystal glasses and a bottle of vodka from the freezer, and joined his son at the table with a smile. He’d missed the boy.
They downed the shots.
Timofey leaned forward to refill their glasses. “Tell me, son.”
“I’ve awakened the power within me, Father,” Maksim began.
Timofey eyed his son. He dreaded the answer he knew was coming, but he asked anyway. “What power?”
“We both knew that being your son granted me strength and a long life, but I was far more human than Therian. With the help of Nadya and her vampires, I awakened my dragon.”
Timofey scowled. “So, that leech stole you?”
“Don’t call her that!” Maksim snapped. “She didn’t take me anywhere. I chose to go, and I’ve returned the same way.”
“Returned as what, though?” Timofey asked sadly. “What did they do to you, my son?”
“It’s not like that, Father,” Maksim pleaded. “They set me free. Now, I am what I was always meant to be. I want you to join me, Father. Let’s claim the justice you deserve.”
Timofey couldn’t disguise his devastation. “Oh, son. I’m so sorry. I thought I was prepared for you to learn the truth about our world, but I’ve failed you. I let my bitterness and anger stop me from telling you the reality. I thought I’d taken us far enough from the hidden world that I didn’t have to explain its horrors to you. I thought you’d never need to know.”
Maksim fought the confusion that overwhelmed him. What was his father talking about? “Father, please. You don’t have to worry. I’m here, and I’m perfectly fine.”
Timofey shook his head adamantly. “No, son, you’re not. Vampires cannot be trusted. They are pure evil, Maksim. I never told you about the dangers they pose or the horrible atrocities they’ve committed. For five thousand years, they hunted humans and Therians alike, caring for nothing but death, fear, and blood since that was what they were made for. They drove the Therian king mad, and I was exiled during a battle with their kind.”
Maksim’s confusion grew, and with it, the power swirling through his veins. He was torn between his father”s image of vampires and his love for Nadya. The battle was short but brutal, and like so many other battles, Nadya won.
“No! You’re wrong!” he shouted. “They’re not what you think they are.” He rubbed his forehead as the dull ache in his skull increased. “I’m not evil, Father.”
Timofey jerked back as if Maksim had sucker-punched him. The color drained from his face, and he looked like he would faint. “What do you mean, son?”
Maksim held his head high and met Timofey’s gaze. “I’m a vampire, Father. Nadya herself awakened my Therian form.”
“She’s the worst one of all, Maksim!” Timofey shouted. “Nadya is the mother of evil!”
Anger that anyone would besmirch her name overwhelmed him. “That’s not true! She was my beloved, a gentle woman with a kind heart who wanted to make peace with the Therians to stop her people from being hunted to extinction,” Maksim shouted back.
Timofey’s face contorted in rage. “You’re a damned fool, son. How could you believe such an obvious fantasy? I personally saw her bathe in the blood of innocent children.”
“I’m not a fool. Nadya gave me more power than you ever did, and she chose me to lead in her stead. I am the vampire king, and with the death of my love, it falls to me to ensure that vampires no longer live under the Therians’ oppressive boot.”
With every word, Timofey’s heart broke more. “You can’t do this. I’ll stop you.”
Maksim grinned. He could feel his control slipping, but he was too addicted to the rush his power brought to care. “You couldn’t stop me if you tried, but it doesn’t have to be like this. You can join me.”
“Never,” Timofey spat.
“So be it.” Maksim threw out a hand, and shadows spilled from his palm. They crept across the floor to yank the older man’s feet out from under him. They flung his body across the room into the far wall and held him in place.
Timofey screamed in rage and disgust at his son’s use of the vampire’s dark magic. Perhaps it had been a father’s love, stupidity, or maybe denial that had kept him from registering the significance of Maksim’s crimson eyes and the radical change in his son’s scent and demeanor. It didn’t matter now. His only child was an abomination.
Maksim had never seen his father so infuriated. He felt the magic in the air before the older man’s body began to change, and it was so unexpected that he froze. Throughout his long life, he had never seen his father shift. Confident in his abilities and curious about what Timofey looked like as a dragon, Maksim dropped the magic that held his father in place.
The change was not fast or easy for Timofey, who hadn’t shifted in centuries. He writhed on the floor in agony as his bones broke and reshaped with horrific slowness. Maksim watched the process in fascination, grateful that his shift was not as lengthy.
A full minute had passed before Timofey’s shifting mass was large enough that Maksim had to leave the room. Soon, the magic would produce a full-sized dragon to destroy that corner of the house, breaking through the hand-hewn timbers. Unconcerned by the additional pain it would cause his father, Maksim went outside to wait for the emergence of Timofey’s dragon.
It wasn’t a long wait. The further along the change got, the faster it went. The wall exploded outward, and an enormous dark brown dragon flattened one wing of the beautiful home. Chunks of wood flew in every direction, but Maksim dodged them. The dragon reared and loosed a mighty roar, sending a gout of flame a hundred feet into the air.
I forgot how good this feels!Timofey sent.
Maksim took a deep breath as a stabbing sensation shot through his head. The pain had grown worse, and it now interfered with his ability to think straight. The burning in his throat was now constant, insisting that he needed to feed. It was unbearable, but Maksim summoned every ounce of his willpower and forced himself to concentrate on the fight ahead of him to the exclusion of all else. He would deal with his bodily needs later.
Maksim’s eyes glowed as he stared at the angry dragon. He willed the change to overtake him, and the red and black dragon occupied his place in seconds.
I didn’t.
Timofey roared as the elation faded and the cause of his change resurfaced in his mind. You’re an abomination! A monster!
The older dragon’s mental tirade got more unhinged as Timofey slipped over the precipice into the pit of madness he’d been hovering above for years. The brown beast lunged and slashed at the red and black dragon with his talons and jaws, no longer aware it was his son he attacked.
Maksim avoided the worst attacks by jumping through the shadows, which enraged his father further. His mind screamed that he didn’t want to do this—that he would never want to hurt his father—but it was drowned out by the blood rage and the addictive lure of the dark magic.
Thunder filled the valley from their clash, and their blood painted the lawn of the home they’d shared for a century. Very little of Maksim remained, and Timofey was incoherent, mentally cursing as his dragon roared and snapped.
Maksim shot one of his spines at the other dragon. It struck his father’s right back leg and ripped a gash through the scales to the flesh beneath. He savagely bit the wound. The brown dragon roared in pain and paused his attack. That moment was all it took for the taste of dragon blood to hit Maksim’s senses. Every value and inhibition vanished. There was only thirst. Nothing mattered but the blood.
His conscious awareness faded, and Maksim blacked out, leaving the bestial vampiric dragon in control of their shared body. Timofey fought valiantly, but he was no match for Maksim’s power or his ruthlessness after the bloodlust consumed him.
When Maksim returned to himself, it was still dark. He rose slowly, noting that he was in human form, naked, and covered with blood. The lawn was so drenched with blood and gore that he didn’t recognize the hellish landscape at first. The moon’s reflection made the puddles of blood look like nightmarish tidepools and glittered on the snow. He felt queasy as scraps of memory resurfaced in his mind, filling in the gaps so he could piece together what had happened.
He reached the obvious conclusion and looked around in horror. The scattered body parts could only be his father’s remains. Maksim had ripped him to shreds and gorged on his entrails. That visual surfaced with crystal clarity, and he wanted to vomit.
He rebelled at the thought of harming his father. However, a persistent voice declared him the superior warrior and was satisfied that he had emerged victorious in his first real fight. For the first time since Maksim had awoken as a vampire, he wasn’t thirsty. Bliss and renewed power coursed through him.
He was sad and ashamed that things had gone so wrong, but his human emotions were overshadowed by the delight of discovering a way to relieve both the unending thirst and the gnawing hunger. It wasn’t just Therian blood and flesh he needed. Maksim had to hunt and feed on other dragons. He grinned at the thought of being a cannibal and preying upon the dragons who had made his existence possible. He liked the irony.
He walked through what remained of his childhood home. He would never return here, and he saw nothing he felt compelled to carry into his new life. The man he had been, the one who had lived here for a century, was dead and had risen as more.
As he changed back to dragon form, Maksim examined the mansion, experiencing conflicting emotions. His thoughts whirled, drowning him in sorrow before lifting him with pride. The dragon sighed and launched into the air, then turned back to spray the house and the fields with obsidian flames. He watched until only smoking ashes remained.
Maksim decided he had been right about the Therians. They couldn’t be trusted. Nadya had shown him the true nature of vampires, and his father had demonstrated the vileness that lived in the dragons” hearts. He felt nothing as he flew away, abandoning the scorched earth of his childhood home, his father’s impromptu grave, and his humanity.
He didn’t stop until he reached the home he’d shared with Nadya. It too was abandoned, the ashes of countless pyres still visible. Maksim changed into human form and stumbled through the halls to the master bedroom. He fell into bed, naked, bloody, and exhausted, and instantly slipped into a deep sleep.
Maksim dreamed about Nadya and awoke determined to rebuild his forces and take the Therians on. He would destroy their empire and wipe it from history.
His beloved had been working with a group of rebel Therians who were not satisfied with the new king. She’d always spoken to their leader privately, but Maksim had met the man.
She’d introduced him as Jules.