Book 1 Prologue
“Do you know what you ask, Angel; will you accept the price?” The dark hooded figure hissed, its red eyes dancing with delight at the delicious desperation that he detected within her. He knew because of this, whatever he named as the consequence, she would accept and so he planned to ask for the most precious thing.
The Angel ran her hand across her flat abdomen, longing to feel the life within her move and grow. She knew in her heart that only the company of her own child would make this place bearable. She met his fiery gaze. “I have already paid the ultimate price. My lust for power has condemned me never to feel my Lord’s love again, so I must make my own contentment.”
The hooded figure chuckled and pressed his bony palms together, as if in prayer; tapping his fingers together, thrilled at the possibilities. He gazed into the fires of the future and within the flames he saw many of her kind follow her to his altar, willing to sacrifice their own unborn children's souls as payment for his spell. He saw the children grow slowly, taking decades to advance a human year. Their angelic faces and demonic gifts - such beautiful creatures they would be. The image pleased the hooded figure. The millennium of sacrifices that would cross his altar in payment for his magic: the spell to soften their skin and allow the foetus to grow.
"I see within my flames, the gift that was bestowed upon you. I understand why you found it impossible to give up the power once it had passed your lips." He felt sorry for the Angel, an impossible test to have had to pass. God must have known so many would have failed it.
The Angel bared her fangs; the two long spears of enamel looked alien within her delicate jaws. “After centuries of walking this earth I now regret my defiance; I would gladly renounce their power, but he will not grant me leniency." The Angel hung her head. “I am damned to walk this earth for eternity, the weapons within my mouth that won his war now a reminder of the blasphemous words that passed my lips." She looked up at the hooded figure. “Take them, and use them to suck the power from your foes, I will gladly part with them as payment for your spell."
The hooded figure shook his head, declining the offer.
The Angel's fangs were a prize that many would pay handsomely for, as with them the Angel army had stolen many powers from their demonic enemies. Yet the hooded figure saw a greater prize, an army of souls to do his bidding. That is what the flames of the future had revealed to him. It might take him millennia to gather, but what were a few thousands of years to wait to be able to command such a force.
The hooded figure parted his hands and began to use them to mould the air between them into a ball of green light “No Angel I do not want your fangs, all I desire is the company of your child's soul for eternity. I, like you, found the plane I am condemned to walk upon a lonely one." He outstretched a bony hand, the green orb floated inches above his palm. "Accept the spell and I will take my price."
The glow from the spell illuminated her face; the desperation within her gaze was eased by its light. She stretched out her hand and curled her fingers around the ball of energy and as she did so the hooded figure plunged his fist into her soften belly and extracted the blue orb that was her child's soul.
She accepted the pact, believing that an existence without a soul was better than no life at all. Yet when you make a pact with someone who practices the dark arts, there is always a catch. Her son was born with the face of an Angel and the power of a demon; but also the thirst of a vampire!
The flames burned true and thousands of the fallen ones followed the first Angel’s desperate path, wishing to feel their children grow. The hooded figure continued to expand his army of souls, as the Angels’ children grew up and mated with each other. Their children were the first Pureblood vampires, who still walk our world today.
Let me introduce myself, I am Darla Letalis and I am a pureblood vampire.
The year is 1914 and I sense my daughter, Darcy, is about to reveal the secret of our existence to a human she claims to love.
I am concerned this boy will be unable to handle what she’s about to share with him; unable to accept the sacrifice that comes with knowing our secret. So I am travelling across the ocean back to her, in the hope that I can prevent a mistake being made that cannot be reversed.
As I travel I have been able to intercept their conversation, by using my mental power to gain access to his mind. Now inside his mind, I plan to share my past, my experiences, to test his resolve. I must satisfy myself that he can be trusted and is worthy of the knowledge of our existence. Letalis Vindicta FREE
