- XXXVIII -

Viktor angrily stared at a piece of parchment on the desk in his study. He had taken notes about the elite troop of bodyguards he was planning to set up, but right now he couldn't concentrate on military strategy. Knitting his brows, the warlord drummed his fingers on the desktop.

All he could think of was his last encounter with Amelia, her reaction to his wish for an heir. Hadn't it been a moderate wish, considering the long time they had been lovers now? Mortal women bore children almost every year to make sure that at least one heir survived to continue their husbands' names. He understood that she wouldn't want such a life and would never have requested anything like that. But they were immortal, and their offspring would be, too. Amelia would have to go through only one pregnancy, bear only one child and he would have been satisfied.

Viktor had always thought that they had formed a strong, unbreakable bond, an alliance in concord, like husband and wife, king and queen, and that she felt affection for him. Now he knew that Amelia had never loved him like a wife should.

He had been the one who had truly made her a vampire, formed her from a weak mortal into an immortal Elder, a strong ruler by his side, under his wing. But now she seemed to no longer acknowledge the benefits that came with his guidance. She thought his tenderness to be manipulation, his reasoning to be sweet-talk, his wish for a child an attempted coup. She didn't trust him anymore. And without the essential element of trust, their alliance had come to an end.

Then, his last option had been to intimidate her. After all, he was the strongest Elder, and if Amelia wasn't listening to him anymore, he had to give point to his words. Viktor hadn't intended to truly hurt her, of course not, but this action had driven her away from him even more.

Abruptly, he crumpled up the parchment in front of him, his nails leaving marks on the wooden desk in the process. It seemed that if he wanted an heir he would have to find himself a new mate.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and the warlord looked up from his desk.

"What's so important that you dare disturb me?!" he barked.

Slowly the door to the study creaked open and a soldier's head appeared in the gap. "Milord Viktor, please forgive me... there are... we had to..." he began hawing.

"Speak up, you mumbling fool!" the Elder hissed, his aquamarine eyes threateningly fixated on the man's brown.

The guard took a step into the room, then straightened his posture and cleared his throat. "At the moment there are twenty mortals in the courtyard. We had to take them in to save them from a werewolf attack. Your orders, Milord?"

About the same time, someone knocked on Amelia's door, too. When she answered, a maid announced a visit from Marcus Corvinus.

The female Elder furrowed her brow. Why would Marcus want to visit her? The original vampire had lived withdrawn from Viktor and her for such a long time now, she didn't even remember when she had last talked to him at all, much less in private. Nevertheless, she gestured for the maid to let him in.

As Marcus entered the sitting-room, Amelia noticed that he looked better now than the last time she had seen him – his hair combed and tied back, his beard trimmed, and he wore an elegant black and gold robe instead of a dressing gown. There was also a positive vibrancy to his whole form, like he had found new vitality in something.

"Amelia, I hope I don't disturb you with my unheralded visit," he said, slightly lowering his head like in an implied bow.

She raised an eyebrow in bewilderment. Since when did Corvinus treat her so courteously?

"It has come to my attention that you and Viktor aren't getting along very well at the moment..." Marcus began.

Amelia made a hissing noise through clenched fangs. Did rumours really spread so quickly in this castle?

"I know we have never been friends, you and I," Corvinus continued. "But if there is anything you need..."

"Marcus! What do you want?" she interrupted his surely well-studied speech, her tone somewhere between annoyance and pity on him for his poor attempt to ingratiate himself with her.

Corvinus bit down on his lip, the unpleasant feeling of being caught red-handed rising in his chest. He stared at the Persian carpet for a moment, then cleared his throat.

"I am here to ask for your help." Marcus raised his chin, looking Amelia in the eyes now. "I want to catch William alive. But Viktor would never allow it. He would kill my brother with his bare hands if he had the chance to do so. Now, however, it seems he has lost an ally..."

Marcus paused for a moment, waiting for her to give him any sign that proved this assumption right, but Amelia just stood there, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Well, now that you no longer seem to be Viktor's mate, I thought maybe I could convince you of the benefits our people could get from studying William." The self-confidence in Marcus's voice faded, his last words sounding more like a question, while Amelia's emerald eyes burned into his cobalt ones.

"You know that I will never agree to that." Taking a step back, the female Elder folded her arms. "My hatred for William may not be as profound, not as perfervid as Viktor's, but just because I am not driven by rancour, it doesn't mean I would spare that rabid dog's life. Regardless of any benefit your research on him could bring, he is still the origin of all our problems, the root of all evil. He deserves to die."

Her voice had taken on that ice cold tone again, like when she had spoken to the convicts at the execution. Marcus's face fell, like he had placed all his hopes in her. He bit his lower lip again, this time drawing a drop of blood. Suddenly, the original vampire went down on his knees, raising his hands up towards Amelia.

"Please! I still feel connected to him, I still love my brother. He is my flesh and blood. We are two halves of a whole, two sides of the same coin." His voice sounded desperate now, broken. "It hurts to be separated from him, and the anguish doesn't fade with the decades. It increases with every year he is out there, cursed to live as a monster. I want to study him so I can find a cure, so I can make him my brother again. When we find him, do not allow Viktor to kill him! Please, Amelia, I beseech you!"

After that emotional speech, all his new gained vitality seemed to have evaporated from Marcus's body and he lowered his gaze to the floor, waiting for Amelia's answer.

The female Elder stared at Corvinus's bent form, her eyes widened. This was no trick like the power games Viktor found so much pleasure in playing, no attempt to manipulate her. Her people's once so boastful, misogynic, perennially immature progenitor had just poured the deepest depths of his heart out to her. He had swallowed all his usually well maintained pride, humiliated himself by kneeling before her. Amelia would have been lying if she claimed his words hadn't affected her in any way. But he would not win her over by generating compassion.

She took a step forward and gently, but firmly, grasped Marcus's chin, making him look up again. The original vampire's gaze seemed broken, the once bright cobalt colour covered by some milky veil.

"I appreciate your act of submission, Marcus," Amelia's voice sounded soft, but there was an ice cold undertone to it – the same tone she had used when refusing Viktor's wish for a child. "But no. Sparing William would be a fatal error, you know that as well as I do."

Then she leaned forward, a lock of her hair touching Marcus's cheek.

"And therefore nothing on this earth can make me give in to your ridiculous plea, you pathetic fool," she hissed in his ear. "And now get up and out of my sight!"