Then last month, nineteen people went missing from a village down the road. Entire families had just vanished without a trace. This was the third such occurrence in as many months and panic was quickly spreading among the villages. The elders knew a rogue vampire was to blame and there was an all-out hunt to find him and dispose of him before the rogue exposed them.
When Devon discovered Xavier was the one behind the kidnappings and had been keeping humans locked up like animals, he had no choice but to tell the elders, one of which was his father. The depraved things Xavier did to these humans sickened him. Violating small girls in front of their fathers; torturing young boys while their mothers were forced to watch; bleeding wives dry in front of their husbands until their bodies were nothing but shriveled husks.
He’d known Xavier’s moral compass was questionable lately, but that he wasn’t aware of the depths of his brother’s wickedness ate at him every day since. He could have prevented this had he only chosen to speak to his father sooner. When he confronted Xavier, he simply stated this was how it should be. Vampires were not the weaker species. Vampires should rule humans, not live alongside them as equals when they were clearly superior. Humans should be treated like the cattle they were, waiting for their slaughter, while making themselves useful in the meantime by serving a vampire’s every need.
Xavier had not been seen in over a month. Hunters had been sent to find him but had been unsuccessful.
Dev should have flashed home, but he’d taken his horse that evening and needed to return it. Flashing such a big beast was not only taxing on his powers, but it would also raise suspicions among the humans in his small village, so he settled for the long ride home instead. Dawn was nearing, but he expected to arrive shortly afterward and, with his medallion, he’d be fine. He was well sated and in a fine mood, making plans with the same female for night after morrow.
As he neared the village, still over a mile away, the scent of blood and smoke overwhelmed him. Forgetting the horse, he flashed to his small cottage, and the sight before him dropped him to his knees in agony. The stench of death made his stomach heave.
His baby sister’s body lay in the doorway, her still beating heart lay beside her lifeless body. The look of horror on her face would be etched into his retinas forever. The curtain concealing his parents’ bedroom was on the floor and the entire small area was engulfed in flames, but he could clearly distinguish their dead bodies lying in the small bed.
The attack was so fresh he must have just missed the slayer. His family had been murdered minutes ago and he’d been screwing some whore when he should have been home to protect them. He bellowed in grief and guilt and was forced to flee the house as the fire quickly spread. What he saw outside his cottage was more than his mind could comprehend.
Slain bodies lay everywhere. Most of the homes were on fire. Destruction was all around. His entire village had been slaughtered, but the sight that he couldn’t wrap his grief-stricken brain around was the one of his friend, his brother, walking out of one of the few homes not on fire. His clothes were drenched in blood and he had a smile on his face. When Xavier spotted Devon, he simply saluted before vanishing.
How his parents didn’t know their attacker was upon them until it was too late was a problem that took Dev decades to solve. His dad was an elder and one of the strongest vampires alive.
After that, hate and revenge became Dev’s only friend and he’d spent the last five hundred years trying to exact that revenge, but Xavier remained elusive—and that fucking pissed him off.
The memory was painful, as always. He agonized every day that he hadn’t been there to save his family, his village, from Xavier’s wrath. After he discovered Xavier’s special ability, he knew he would have also been killed had he been there, but it still didn’t stop the guilt. He was surprised to find the grief felt slightly less today and smiled inwardly. Kate was already healing him in more ways than she even knew.
The webcam rang at the same time Giselle walked into the office, pulling him out of his reverie. He answered, projecting the images of Damian DiStephano and Romaric Dietrich on his computer screen. Marco and T were with Damian. No one, not even Damian, new what T was short for. Circo was with Romaric, as usual.
Both the other Vampire Lords were as striking as Dev. He knew neither had a shortage of willing women spreading their legs, but he was surprised that neither man had found his Moira, either. While he’d yearned to find his, he hadn’t realized how truly lonely he’d been until he laid eyes on Kate. That deep dark hole had now been filled with a woman whose essence shined brighter than the stars. He was a lucky bastard.