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Seven Years Ago
day 229 since Shiloh’s capture
Darkness had always been Devon’s closest friend.
When he was little, he would often leave his cabin home and wander around at night. The house itself was a marvelous setting to stir up a child’s imagination, nestled in the middle of the North Carolina wilderness, right next to a stunning waterfall. The best part was that the nearest neighbors lived several dozen miles away, which offered a lot of privacy and gave Devon ample room to be himself.
Every afternoon, armed with his favorite books—usually of the gothic literature genre—and a flashlight, he would walk to a nearby spot overlooking the valley, sit on the same fallen tree log, and just stay there for hours, getting lost in the pages and the sounds of nature around him. He hardly ever noticed the sun setting, unless his brother or father called him for dinner. The dark was always something he marveled at. It never scared him back then, and it sure didn’t bother him now that he was older.
And yet, as he walked out of the servants’ quarters in the pitch black night, the silhouette of Master Benjamin’s mansion standing tall and imposing in the distance, a sinking feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. His ears were alert, picking up any sound around him. He could still hear the faint chatter coming from inside the building as servants milled around, either going to bed or, for those who worked the night shift, starting their work for the day. Other than that, everything was silent, yet tense. Like the world was holding its breath.
Just after dinner, Devon had received a cryptic message asking him to go to the stables but to make sure no one noticed or followed him along the way. Ordinarily, he would have raised a curious eyebrow at the request, but it did not bode well that the message had come from Walter, the head vampire at the estate. Had it come from Adam, who was in charge of servants like Devon, he wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
The summons couldn’t have come from Master Benjamin. Devon hadn’t done anything wrong, at least not that he was aware of. Besides, the vamphyr wouldn’t call upon anyone in the stables, of all places.
It couldn’t have been one of the vampires, either. They generally tended to stay away from him, so why change that now?
But who else would want to see him at this hour? And why?
The anxious, sinking feeling only got worse when he found Adam standing guard outside the stable doors. The latter’s face was faintly illuminated by a light coming from the vampire training center just outside the back gate. It lit up the area much more brightly than the crescent moon in the sky.
A cold gust of wind brushed over Devon’s skin as he approached, causing goosebumps to spread all over his arms. The pungent smell of horses made him nauseous, but he willed himself to keep a straight face.
Never let them see you waver, his father used to say.
“Were you followed?” Adam asked in a hushed tone.
Devon shook his head.
“Good. Try to keep your voice down. Walter knows, but we can’t have anyone else overhear.”
“Overhear what?” he whispered.
“Just go inside; he’ll explain everything. I suggest you keep the questions to a minimum for now. You don’t have much time.”
A million questions were indeed running through Devon’s mind, but he took Adam’s warning seriously and silently made his way through the doors.
It was even darker inside the stables than it was outside, but a bit of light came through the crack between the doors. Devon could make out a silhouette standing in the corner and recognized him with some surprise even before the light hit his face.
“Drake?” he hissed. “What are you doing here?”
His brother took a step forward. “I need your help, Dev.”
“What is it?”
Drake opened his mouth to speak, but then he faltered in his step and reached for the wall to steady himself. Devon rushed to help just as Drake’s palm smacked against the wooden panels. Throwing a glance over his own shoulder, Devon hoped the sound didn’t carry outside, but he kept his focus on his brother. Adam would alert them if they were being too loud.
“I got you, just sit down,” he whispered.
“I can’t stay long,” Drake muttered as he slid to the ground.
“Dude, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”
“Nothing good. No one else can find out. Not yet. It’s too dangerous.”
“Cut the bullshit and tell me already. What happened? Why are you like this? Did someone drink too much from you?”
Drake closed his eyes for a second and leaned his head against the wall with a groan. “Yeah, that’s old Ben for ya. But it’s okay; he fed me in return. I’ll be fine by morning. Just a bit blood-drunk right now.”
Devon’s head was spinning. “What the hell are you going on about?”
With a tired sigh, Drake sat upright and met his brother’s eyes straight-on. “He’s been feeding me his blood.”
Devon’s ears perked up, but he forced his expression to stay neutral. “Who? Master Benjamin?”
Drake nodded.
Finally! “Is that why you’ve been so distracted lately? You know I don’t care what you are.”
“Dev,” he paused. “He’s not making me a werewolf.”
A cold feeling descended over Devon, his spine suddenly stiffening.
No... He didn’t mean—He couldn’t.
“I only found out a month ago, but,” Drake trailed off.
He looked more vulnerable than Devon had ever seen him before, even more than the day they’d buried their father. Perhaps the stress of carrying such a secret had caused Drake’s mind to snap. Or maybe that was what he meant by ‘blood-drunk.’
Could vamphyr blood make one high?
Either way, seeing his brother like this terrified Devon.
“I think I already knew,” Drake confessed. “Since we got here, everyone has always treated us differently. We never got in trouble, even when we should have. It had to be that he needed one of us, and the other one was getting special treatment by proxy.”
Devon gulped, but he couldn’t speak right away. Drake suspected one of them was Lord Benjamin’s successor the whole time they’d been here.
And he didn’t think to tell his own brother before his transformation was already in progress?
“I didn’t want to freak you out,” Drake said, like he could sense the direction of Devon’s thoughts. “Honestly, I was hoping to spare you the pain. It’s dangerous turning down that kind of offer. Better to do it myself than put you through it.”
Folding his arms across his chest, Devon found his voice again. “So what changed?”
Drake looked at him in confusion.
Devon gestured to his general state. “Clearly, you didn’t turn him down.”
“I had no choice. It was the only way to protect her.”
“Who? Shiloh?”
When Drake looked up, the hatred in his eyes made Devon falter. “You don’t know half the things he’s done to her, Dev. To both of us. He knew about me since the day you and I got here, and he tried to keep me and Shi apart because of it. This was the only way he’d leave her alone. I just wanted to buy us some time to rethink the plan.”
“Drake,” Devon said, his heart suddenly dropping. But Drake’s rant was just beginning.
“I figured, after a while, I could maybe negotiate with him to let her go. Then you and I would find a way out just like dad, preferably before the transformation became irreversible, and then we’d all be free; free to be together, to find the bastards who—”
Devon dropped to his brother’s level and clamped a hand over his mouth before moving it to grab his face. “Shh, calm down. You’re blood-drunk, and you’re rambling.”
The plan was a secret they never thought about, not even in passing. They’d learned to lock away those thoughts and the memories attached to them in the recesses of their mind. No one but a vamphyr could ever find a trace of this secret, and only if he already knew of its existence.
Drake should know better than to mention it out loud.
Mercifully, he was conscious enough to detect the warning in Devon’s voice and dropped that train of thought. His face twisted in pain, and his eyes unexpectedly began to water.
“I don’t know what to do,” he wept. “He doesn’t want me to tell Shiloh yet, but... she needs to know the truth.”
Letting out a sigh of relief, which quickly turned to sympathy, Devon put both hands on Drake’s shoulders. “He doesn’t seem to mind you telling me.”
“Only because I basically threatened to tell everyone else.”
“That’s stupid. They’re gonna find out eventually.”
“Not until I’m strong enough to ascend in his place. If this comes out too soon, someone might try to overthrow him by coming after me. The only people he trusts are Walter and Adam. And now you.”
Yeah, that wasn’t good. “Why don’t you just tell him you changed your mind? Successors have to be willing participants, right? Or else they’d turn into werewolves.”
Drake shook his head, unable to meet his eyes anymore. “It’s too late. I’ve been a willing participant for too long, we can’t interrupt the process anymore.”
This made Devon tense. “What would happen if you stopped?”
Drake swallowed before looking up at his brother. “We die. Both of us.”
