The moon rose high above our heads as night fell. Before my son was born, I had lived for the darkness as it gave me life and fulfilled my deepest desires as I would ride through the forest on my horse. Long before I knew Lucian and fell in love with him, I had reveled in killing the Lycans because I thought them to be mindless beasts with no sense of humanity. My father had raised me with that hatred and instilled in me from a young age that they were beneath us and that they could not help the monstrosity of their birth, be it infection or blood as it was for Lucian. How little he knew. Lycans may have been animals, at least those not capable of turning back to human form, but they were loyal to their own. So many had rallied to Lucian to protect our pack and I could not help but be thankful for them. They were the family who welcomed me and my son with open arms, despite my own status as a pure born vampire and the daughter of the man who had enslaved their brothers.
I finished strapping my armor to my body as I grabbed my sword, knowing that I would not let Lucian face this fight alone. Lucan was left with Isobel and four others, men who were able to change, with instructions to flee if the battle were to turn in favor of the vampires. They were to run as far away as they could and take Lucan away from here to protect him from my father. I had seen how ruthless he was with Lycans and remembered how I had been trained, so I could not risk my son's fate becoming that of so many of his ancestors before him.
"Sonja, there is too much risk for you to fight…Lucan cannot lose both of his parents tonight," Lucian insisted as he came through the doors.
"And I cannot leave you to face the wrath of Viktor alone. I want our son to grow up in a world where Lycans and Vampires can exist without one enslaving the other. And if we want that, then we both need to fight for it.
He came to my side, cradling my face in his palms as he kissed me once. This was the man I had chosen to live for, forsaking everything else in my life. No matter the cost, I knew that living my life with him was worth it. He had given me my son.
"Isobel, Xanos, Kyantos, Gyorg, and Helios are with Lucan. They all know that if things are to go bad, to run and take Lucan as far away from here as they can manage," I explained.
Lucian nodded. "I trust them all and know that they will take care of Lucan and protect him with their lives."
"We have gone over the plans…everyone knows who the weakest of the Death Dealers is and will be the easiest to take down first." Father had always insisted that I know how to defend myself. I took up a sword in honor of my own mother, who had once been a Death Dealer before my birth. "I trust that our pack will have victory tonight."
"Lucian!" Raze called, putting an end to our conversation.
We both came out of the room and down the hall to the stairs leading to the wall. Once we ascended, we saw the line of horses standing in front of our castle. At the front, my father was mounted with his armor, commanding his Death Dealers to charge. Lucian gave the orders for the wolves to attack.
"So it begins," I said, drawing my sword.
When the first clashes of swords and armor began, I ran down the steps and toward the gates with Lucian, Raze, and several others. The first vampire that came to the gates, I did not hesitate to slash through the armor and remove their head. Their orders had been to come here and slaughter my family, so I knew that I could not hesitate or even show any weakness no matter how many of these warriors I knew or had fought alongside in the last century.
"Traitor!" Anton screamed as he charged at me. I raised my sword and the metal scraped against the metal of his.
"Stand down, Anton!" I yelled. He had been one of the first I had ever sparred with as a child. A friend.
"You betrayed your own kind for the stench of an animal!" he roared.
"I betrayed no one," I insisted, meeting his blows with my own. "We are all children of Corvinus!"
He refused to listen as he continued his attack, using every maneuver that he had taught me to try and disarm me. I met him with each new blow and refused to give in. When I saw an opportunity, I stabbed into his armor's weakest point, driving the blade into his chest. He coughed blood and collapsed, cursing my name as he took his final breath.
"Goodbye Anton," I said with a sigh, turning to run to help Lucian.
The fight continued for hours as losses were beginning to rise on both sides. Many were men I had known and trained with nearly all my life while others were new friends that I had made within the pack that Lucian had created. All of this was part of the war that had been raging on for over eight hundred years. A war, which I now knew, was unnecessary and fueled by hatred between two races that spawned from the same ancestor. When I saw my father, I immediately ran in his direction, intending to confront him.
"Call off your men," I said, looking him in the eyes and raising my sword.
"How dare you raise your sword to me. You betrayed me for your dog and the monstrosity that you birthed," he spat.
"I betrayed no one. Just your idea that Lycans are beneath us when we all come from the same ancestor," I said. "I don't want to fight you."
He growled as he lunged at me and met my sword with his own. Though he was more powerful than myself, I knew his weaknesses as well as he knew my own. And I would not make the same mistakes I made before. I met his sword strokes with my own and used my smaller size to dodge attacks quicker than he was able to. He threw me across the courtyard, and I recovered to my feet and kicked him back, catching him off guard as he dropped his sword and it scraped across the stone. It was at that point I realized that my father was the last vampire. All the Death Dealers he had brought with him were strewn across the battlefield, dying or already dead. We had lost many of our own, but our numbers were far greater than that of my father's.
"You have lost," I said evenly as I gazed at him. "There has been enough of this war for over eight hundred years, Father. It is time to change."
"Never. These beasts are nothing more than animals with no humanity that are beneath our boots and you have betrayed your coven, your species, and me."
"Animals? Then how is it that they protect me? And your grandchild," I asked.
"Even dogs protect their masters," he snapped.
At that moment, I knew that I could not reason with him. The father I had known and loved as a child was no more. He had been replaced by a cold and calculating monster that would have murdered my husband and child without a second thought. And there was no way that I could change him.
"I will spare your life this night," I said coldly. "Leave and do not return to this place. The next time, I will not be so kind."
Those who were gathered around began to gather the weapons of the fallen and removed my father's sword from his reach. Lucian came to my side.
"The sun will rise soon, so you had better hurry," I told him.
Conceding defeat, my father rose from the ground and mounted a nearby horse before riding out of our gates. I watched him go with no remorse. I had done what was necessary to protect my family. Lucian took my hand and I squeezed his. He understood the weight of what had happened and the choice that I had made. We left the wall and came into the safety of the walls as dawn approached. Once inside, we made our way to the room where Isobel and the others guarded our sleeping son.
"The commotion did not wake him?" I asked as I approached and carefully picked him up.
"No, my lady, he slept through the whole thing," Helios said. "He is a quiet babe."
I held my son against my chest, feeling the warmth of his skin against my own, smiling as I felt the soft wisps of his hair on my neck. No matter what was out in the world, nothing would have ever been more precious to me than my son. I had thought that if my father could only see what Lucian and I had created…how innocent and pure he was, that he might come around. But I had been wrong. He would never see the sweet child that Lucian and I did. He only saw him as a monster, which was something I would not allow anyone to think of my son.