Blood was nourishing. The hot life coursing through the veins of the living. Every heartbeat counting the number of seconds they had left. Seconds a vampire took from his prey and added into his own every time he fed.

But there was another thing a vampire could rely on when he was weak and wounded. The comfort of his coffin.

Resting on a bed of his native soil nourished Pietro even more than blood. A vampire’s coffin might have looked small but inside it, he was the king of infinite space. The only borders were his abilities to dream.

When all life would end… when the sun had gone out… when the living had burned their cities and forests for light and warmth… when kings would trade their kingdoms for a candle… when brother would turn against brother… when mothers ate their children… when only hounds remained loyal… when the vampire kind had descended on mankind for their final feast… when the world was cold and dead…

When that night had come and gone and the world had ended, he would climb into his coffin like the rest of his kin, and they would sleep and dream forever. Their reward for outliving the human race. They would sleep… until new life was born into the dead world. When that day came, they would be roused from their sleep, and they would feed again.

Pietro lied in a trance inside his coffin while Elysa’s blood and the earth of Garuccia nurtured him back to full power. It wouldn’t be long now and then… it would be war between him and the Fox Clan. For the insult their prince had made him suffer, he would not rest until all the Fox Clan was nothing more than horror stories rabbits told to their young.

His sleep was disturbed when his ghouls howled an alarm.

Pietro’s red eyes shot open before he pushed the lid of his coffin off and rose from his rest. He rushed to the window of his tower and saw…

“No!”

The Bear Clan had come for him. They had surrounded his tower just before daybreak which meant he was trapped here. The bears looked vengeful and fearless… and they had goblins riding on their backs like great knights going to war.

And in the distance… he could feel the sun creeping up. The eternal enemy of his kind.

Stolen novel; please report.

For a moment he was twenty again. A soldier on the eve of his first battle. He could still feel the terror…

The terror…

But that had been over twenty years ago. He was no longer that terrified soldier boy. He was Pietro Capello. A King of the Dark. A master vampire who had survived and triumphed when all should have been lost. He was now what caused terror.

So, what if the Bear Clan had come hunting for blood? He could not see or smell their prince among their ranks. Which meant that the fools had just added their numbers into his army.

“Old Flea… you senile idiot. Is this what I was supposed to be afraid of?”

He closed his eyes and reached out with his mind.

There were so many of them, so many souls he could take control of. Weak souls. Weak souls for him to snare and use as he saw fit. More pawns he could move across the board anyway he wished. They would all…

An invisible wall he could not scale or push through rose before him.

“What?!”

Suddenly he was all too aware of it. He could see flickers of it with his mind’s eye. The presence of another master vampire. Someone already controlling the bears and pushing him back. How could this be?

“Who’s there? How dare you oppose me?” Pietro snarled.

Hello, father, a voice he knew all too well echoed in his mind.

“… Elysa?”

Yeah. Surprised? Or did I finally make you proud? You’re not the only one in this family who doesn’t give up without a fight, Elysa said inside his head.

Pietro hit the wall with all his strength. Hard enough to leave a dent in the stone.

“How dare you?! How dare you oppose me?! I am your father! Don’t you dare get uppity with me!”

You’re also not the only one who carries a grudge, Elysa said: You’re going to die tonight.

Pietro hissed.

“Ghouls! Do not let the bears enter the tower!”

You think shambling corpses will save you, father?

Pietro bit his lip.

“They will buy me time. Enough to teach you what it costs when you get uppity with me!”

Big talk from a dead man, Elysa said.

Pietro let out a roar of anger and hate and threw all his willpower against Elysa’s.

He would break her mind and make her kneel. Vampire or not, she was just an uppity little girl he had trained to play tricks when he told her to. He would teach her respect, and this would be a lesson she would never forget.

Not ever!

He gave it everything he had at her to wrestle away the control of the Bear Clan from her. Every desperate trick he had used. Every drop of resolve that had allowed him to survive when all seemed lost. He had faced dangers Elysa could not even dream of and he had survived. What had Elysa survived? Nothing! She had never suffered anything! She had just lived a pampered life he had given her, and she had grown spoiled. So spoiled she would turn on him the second he wanted something in return for everything he had given her. He was strong and she was weak and the weak submitted to the strong.

So why didn’t she yield?!

No matter what he did, he was pushed back by an iron will that would not break or bend. Somehow his daughter had gained a mind that could match his blow for blow.

“How dare you?! I am your father! You will obey me! Stop this foolishness!”

Elysa just laughed inside his mind.

Father… did you really think you could outfight me when my entire life has been a fight because of you?

There was a flare of anger that burned like the sun.

Here I stand, father! Between you and Nuncio! Between you and mom! Between you and every other person you would hurt! You will never hurt them or anyone else again!

Pietro let out a scream of hatred and fury and kept fighting to overpower his daughter’s will.