House of Royals(12)

Rath takes another draw of his coffee. “In the end, Cyrus changed her anyway through the same process. What he did not know, though, was that she was with child.”

Something cold snakes its way up my spine. Something dreadful and so very wrong.

“Sevan conceived as a human and gave birth as a vampire.”

“What was the baby?” I ask. I didn’t realize until now that I’m sitting forward, nearly on the edge of my seat. “The baby was born a vampire?”

Rath shakes his head. “The child was born seemingly human. Ate, lived, looked exactly as every other human out there. Two unique, genesis vampire parents with a human baby. Everything seemed right and natural. Until the child died just after his eighteenth birthday.”

My brows furrow and the room is so silent, I hear it when Ian scratches at his jawline.

“They buried their son. Mourned over him. But then, just four days later, he rose from the grave.”

I swear under my breath. Ian looks over at me, but he doesn’t have that mischievous smile on his lips like what I’m learning is so common for him. He’s as dead serious as that son should have been.

“The son resurrected as a vampire. Exactly the same as his parents.”

“That’s why you called me a Born, isn’t it?” I ask as I look back at Ian.

He nods. “Only a Born could recover from a bite like you did. Anyone else would have turned.”

“The son resurrected as himself,” Rath continues the story. “And after a few years, they all realized he was not aging. He, too, was immortal. Realizing what he was and what he had defied, he became obsessed with creating others like himself. He took many women for himself. Horrifically, some of them conceived. Not all, but enough. Children were born. And once each of them reached their prime age, he killed them all.”

“That’s awful,” I say in shock. This man, father and murderer in the same breath. The thought is terrifying.

Both Rath and Ian are looking at me with a weight I don’t quite understand.

“The Born were not the only new creature to walk the earth, though,” Rath continues. “Those that Cyrus had bitten and nearly killed turned into something new. Different than Cyrus and his family. They still aged. They craved blood more than the Born. Without it, they withered and died. They were the Bitten. They had never died, but they would. Their lifespans were the same as if they’d lived as a normal human.”

We’ve been in this room for quite some time now, and I just now realize that not a single attendant has re-entered the room since Rath began his story.

I’m starting to understand now why they look at me with fear in their eyes.

“The son had created seven sons of his own and eight daughters. But still he wanted more. He wished for an army to dominate those around him. He was cruel and reckless. Seeing what his son had become and the threat he posed to his reigh, Cyrus killed him.”

“But I thought the Born were immortal?” I ask leaning forward, my forearms on the table. “How did he kill his son?”

“A few of the stories you hear about vampires are true,” Ian says, resting his forearm over the edge of the arm of the chair.

“A stake through the heart,” I say, recalling what Ian had done last night.

Rath nods. “Cyrus’ son was dead, but the damage was done. There were seven more Born vampires with the ability to create more offspring.”

“What about the female Born?” I ask.

Rath shakes his head. “Once resurrected, a female Born can not reproduce.”

“So a Born can only be created with a human mother and a vampire father?” I ask to clarify.

“You got it,” Ian confirms.

“Cyrus is still alive,” Rath says, moving things along. “And he rules as King over all vampires.”

“The vampires have a king?” I repeat, raising one eyebrow. This all just keeps getting layered deeper and deeper in the crazy.

“King Cyrus is ancient and thorough. To this day, he and his attendants keep tabs on all the royal male lines.”

“Why?” I ask.

“That is a story for another day,” Rath says. And suddenly he seems exhausted. It’s a heavy tale to tell and one I think has been weighing him down for a long time.

Is Rath a Born vampire?

Or an all too well informed human?

“Wow,” I say, feeling overwhelmed and a bit like everything I’ve just learned is going to fuzz my brain out. “Okay. There’s complicated history in the vampire world. And I know there’s some deep history to this house. But, Rath, I have to ask. How did my father really die?”

“I think we’d all like to know the answer to that question.” Ian finally sits upright, leaning forward, elbows on the table, fingers tightly locked together.