Preface
For a hundred years they tried and tried everything, just so that they could kill Vladimir, but all the plans that were accomplished were shattered by the Emperor of Darkness himself. The way he predicted every movement of witches, werewolves, or even the Angels had given every one to understand that they had to discover another way that could lead him to death. But nothing they were trying to do was useful, and Vladimir became stronger every day, destroying everything in his path from the need to spill blood, from the need to be the ruler of all the world beyond.
A world is hidden from the eyes of mankind and seen only by the gifted. A world he wanted only his own, then... people’s world and the whole universe.
„You will never be our emperor”, Farina spits with venom every word of it. “I’d rather die than kneel before you”, she kept talking to the same tone.
Vladimir was just watching her with a mocking smile on his face and saying nothing, then analyzing her head to toe and mumbling every once in a while. He stood up, pulled his coat better on his shoulders and headed towards the young witch in front of her, who now sat on her knees, being bound by Kodan, his right hand. The more Vladimir had stretched his wings over the lands around Bran Castle, the more he wished to conquer the other villages beyond the mountains.
The power he wanted was boiling in the rotten blood that flowed through his veins, and he wasn’t going to stop until he managed to kneel them all in front of him. He throws the cloak of his coat on one side and unwraps his legs, circling around Farina. He touched her hair with his fingertips, making this one go into disgust, while a smile like a devil would take the face of Vladimir and deep breaths the smell of it as if it smelled a steak that had just come out of the oven. He approaches the ear of Farina and whisper:
„Neither you nor your other sisters will succeed in stopping what is about to happen”, the words spoken by Vladimir were as a threat, Farina could feel it to the bone.
Without caring about the consequences, Farina began to speak in a language known only to her and her sisters, citing all the forces of the witches in a few words, wishing thus to end Vladimir’s cruelty. The room began to quake, and so did the walls and windows, which had little and broken into thousands and thousands of shards, causing the dust around them to rise, while the eyes of the Farina became purple.
They were so only when they roused the incantations or spells meant to lead anybody into despair and agony, but the Emperor of Darkness only made him smile with his mouth to his ears, uncovering his white teeth. They knew that as much as they tried to bring him down, they couldn’t make it, not without the right tool to tear him apart, so that he could finally burn his body, stopping his soul from being reborn.
Whoever heard this said it was impossible because vampires have no soul, they have no heart, to beat them in the chest, they’re just walking corpses and bloodsucking. That’s what they knew only those who hid behind the black cloak with which mankind was wrapped, to keep them away from things that could not be explained.
So they walked among the locks disguised as men, firing them to the one who wanted strength and bloodshed. But not always the count of a home is understood by the deal, which is why the police were able to investigate crimes they never managed to elucidate. They were unable to catalogue them in any system designed to differentiate the serial killers from those who were just imitating them. They came right up to the point where they blamed the wild animals, believing that rivers from which they took water for household chores, were poisoned, causing them to behave strangely.
But after a long, thorough analysis, in which they put the world in fear, it was proved that the information had been false, and so they arrived at that zero points, which made them resume the case again.
„Hash et neh meth Ethe”, Farina continues to speak in the language of witches, but Vladimir showed himself bored of the whole show that made him just laugh.
’Cause nothing was sucking him or touching him somehow. He raises his hand in the air, sensing the need for blood and his fingers pierced the chest of Farina, stopping her from talking, and he removed her heart. The warmth it emanates, but also the way the heart was still beating in his palm, made Vladimir smile satisfied.
He passed the tip of his tongue over the lips and the slapping satisfied with the feast he was about to enjoy. The witches ′ hearts were more succulent than humans, and their taste seemed like a soft spring breeze with a delightful lilac scent. He took the heart to his face and plunging his teeth into it, enveloped himself to the last straw, and then gave Kodan a sign to take the unanimated body of Farina and give it as food to his children, who were barely born. Vladimir was pleased with what he had managed to do, to kneel the witches, killing their queen, but it still wasn’t enough for him. He wanted more and more. He wanted everything. Many stood against him, fighting side by side, but no one could defeat him, and the bloodshed was inevitable, until... The hundred years had been fulfilled and the need for the perils of the vampires brought to the surface a legend that gave them new hope in defeating Vladimir.
It is said that once a hundred years the vampires can reproduce, only not with the flesh, but with a chosen mortal, it has a mark on the skin, marking them, fixed in the right ear. The full moon could give vampires a special child, but it had to be conceived on a full moon night and born on a full moon night for the legend to become reality. And Vladimir knew that which is why he had Kodan to find out who that mortal was, that when the time of reproduction had come, it would be safe.
It’s just, what the Emperor of Darkness didn’t know was that the legend was still hiding something important. One thing that could put him down, killing him. But that’s what Arwen and Tamarra only knew, two Northern California witches, who lived in Sacramento, meant to take their destins to the end, even if it meant giving their life for the legend to become reality. Their writings brought to the surface things that could change the world beyond one hundred and eighty degrees.
The legend of the mating of a vampire with a witch could give birth to a much more special child. But could they have gone all the way without Vladimir knowing? They wondered every day, looking at their little Ezlyn, whose destiny was to carry the child that would lead to the destruction of Vladimir.
Everything had to be the way it was written, which is why for another hundred years Ezlyn learned how to hide her nature from the witches and the vampires. No one had to know that she was a witch, but everyone had to see her as a mortal, only Ares, her husband, knew with exactly who his wife was and what destiny she had. When they met, her mother had barely moved to Bran, Romania, because they had to be as close as possible to the castle where Vladimir lived.
They all heard of Count Vladimir, but no one knew he was not human, but a creature of the night, only Arwen and her daughter were aware of who they were dealing with. The time when Ares; a citizen of the American nation, moved many years ago with his family to the Romanian lands; meet his future wife, it was as if the sky was with the Earth.
It was love at first sight, even though many do not believe in it, but it took Ezlyn a few years to confess to her husband who she really was. This happened when their first child was born, David and the amalgams of emotions that Ares had been through had overwhelmed him to some extent, made him see better the world he lived in. Wishing to find out even more, although Ezlyn could swear he had seen in his eyes the fact that he wanted to run away, not to be with her, she was wrong, and that pleases her.
But the thing that shot him down was finding out the destiny that his wife had to go through. He refused to believe that thing was going to come true. He refused to lose his wife, who had to give life to a walking corpse, but with the passage of time, he became aware that whatever he had done, it was still going to happen what was meant to happen.
He accepted in the end because he loved his wife, he loved his children, and he didn’t want to leave them alone. It would have been an immature gesture from his part, and though he was not special with anything, is just a man, he stayed near Ezlyn, swearing to her that he would be with her for better or for worse. He took her face in his hands and looked at her eyes like it was the last time. Since the night Vladimir made her his, nothing has been the same, not even Ezlyn, especially since she had to drink enough blood, just to keep her alive and the child that was going to be born.
They were waiting that moment, and even though they were scared and excited at the same time, they were completely trying to make it look as normal as possible, even though they knew exactly what was going to happen further when Ezlyn was no longer alive. Ares had to handle one way or another.
„It’s going to be okay”, Ezlyn is trying to calm her husband down, even if he keeps telling her that she’s okay, that he’s reconciled with the situation, she knew it wasn’t.
„ Just promise me one thing”, she said to Ares, and he just nods. „That you would take care of Hazel as if she were your child. That you would raise her and guide her into the life she was about to have, that you would be there when everything changed”, she said to him, watching him and smiling at him. „That you’re not going to let him take it”, she’s referring to the girl’s biological father in her womb.
Ares looked at it for a few seconds, then sight deeply and said:
„I promise.”
Ezlyn’s nod, although she knew her husband was disagreeing with the destiny she had been marked with since the day she was born. She took his hands in hers and left her head to touch Ares ′ shoulder, looking with a smile on her lips to Annabell and David, their other two children. A tear was on her cheek and closed her eyes. It hurt that she didn’t have a chance to see her children grow up, but she was reconciled with it, feeling an inexplicable silence in her heart. She opened her eyes suddenly and touched her belly, passing. Was it time already? She wandered inside her, and she felt the same pain that flashed again.
She swallowed and turned her terrified look to her husband. There’s no way the time of birth came because she had one more week to go before the time came. He caught Ares by hand as soon as the pain intensified and began to inspire trough the nose, then let the air come out through the lips and as much as the pain intensified.
„I think it’s time”, she told Ares, and he didn’t even know how to react.
„Already?“, finally freaked out, and Ezlyn just said yes.
He just swallows, feeling the sweat broads flowing on his forehead and standing up, giving his wife his hand to get up and on her turn on the porch bench. Ezlyn inspires, then expires a few times, feeling again that acute pain that sneezes back around the waist and feels the baby kicking her. Ares caught by the waist his wife and helped her move inside the house where she stretched her on the ready-made bed, but in the sky, the full moon was not. How was the baby going to give birth without the most important thing, the full moon? He did not know but tried to stop the inevitable, for he knew that otherwise, everything would be in vain, and the little girl would be born without that special thing. Without that gleam of the skin in the full moon, without the power of a witch flowing through her veins, though on the surface was half man-half vampire.
It would be a unique creature in the world, something unmet by no one, a new breed that would shake the afterlife. Ezlyn screams as the pains of birth were announcing the coming of little Hazel, but they were still afraid that she would be born before the deadline before the full moon shines masterfully in the starry sky. Annabell and David were five to six years old, is far too small to understand what was going on at the time, but Ares knew that he was going to have to explain it to them later.
He would have to help them know their power, the legacy they had from their mother, the witch. It was as if destiny had signed them from the very beginning, for they did not look scared of what was going to happen, even if their father tried so hard to make them stay in their room. Ares quit convincing them and returned to his wife, who seems to be preparing to bring little Hazel into the world. She screamed because of the pain, sensing something inside her it breaks and she took deep breaths of air in the lungs.
„Ares?“, Ezlyn calls his name and screams again.
Both the forehead and the body were filled with sweat broads and feel the earth-shattering around it. She raises his gaze to heaven, and as soon as the full moon shines in all its splendor, he screams for the last time, giving birth to a dazzling beautiful girl. Her skin was shining in the full moon. Ares looked into the eyes of the little girl, feeling at that time the desire to end her life, for he knew that as soon as his wife was saying the incantations to transfer her powers to little Hazel, she dies. He closed his eyes and sighs deeply, the images of the future passing through, and then opened them and looked again at the little creature that now had the little palm on his cheek. How was that possible? Wondered in the thought, but the more he looked at her, the more he felt the parental warmth of all his senses.
Ezlyn gave Ares a signal to give it to her, and he does it. He put the little girl in her arms smiling and kissed the crown of both little Hazel and his wife, then pulled one step further back and waited.
„I love you, and I will always love you, my dear”, Ezlyn, watched her husband in the eye, then pointed her gaze at the little girl in her arms and starting to utter words that Ares did not understand. „It is neg ma sur von hetem sur...”
Everything around the two began to float, and the earth shook as Ezlyn kept talking in the language of the witches, and then everything stopped. The silence of funeral lies in the house, giving to those present only cold chills on the spine. Ares approached the bed where his wife was lying with her eyes closed and checked her pulse. She died, just like she said it was going to happen. He kisses his wife for the last time, then takes the baby in his arms and sits her in the crib he built with his hands from the wood brought from the forest at the edge of the village.
Little Hazel slept so quietly without knowing that with her birth an angel fell from heaven and a demon came out of hell. One of them will bring redemption and the other damnation at the right time, having to choose between the two.
