Alpha Dhampir~ On Hold

Chapter 4

Unknown Strigoi

The night signalled a new day for my kind. Groaning, I made my way to the kitchen where my friends were already sitting at a table with a newcomer, one I didn’t recognise at first. The man looked up and went pale, as if he was going to faint. My title, one I hadn’t heard in many years, echoed through the room as he stood up, gasping for air. Only then did I recognise the man, Abe Mazur, or as he was more known as Zmey.

Smiling weakly, I nodded to him as he narrowed his eyes, giving me the full force of his famous glare. To say that the stare could scare a Strigoi was an understatement, I gulped as my mind reminded my body that we didn’t have the basic body functions anymore so there was no need for me to piss my pants. I turned to where my friends were standing with confusing expressions, but before I could ask them what was happening, a loud shrill scream echoed throughout the house. Abe’s eyes widened, and he ran off towards the guest bedroom where I had placed the girl from the night before.

As he ran, my friends approached me. “Isn’t that Ibrahim Badica?” I shrugged, not really playing attention to his words; my mind was still foggy as to why the man was there. In fact, I could barely remember why there was a girl in the house that hadn’t been drained or turned. Lucas turned to his wife and groaned with recognition.

“You do realise you brought the Rose Hathaway into our house?” Lucas turned to me as his wife looked up and asked, “The Rose Hathaway, as in the same Rose who saved Christian when they were kidnapped in Spokane?”

I shivered in fear as Moira’s voice turned dark and angry. Moira nor Lucas belonged as Strigoi, and trust me, it wasn’t their idea despite what Court believed. The majority of us were never turned willingly, and they were no different from the others. I remembered hearing of how the two royal members of the Ozera family had turned, leaving behind their five-year-old son Christian behind with no family, besides his crazy and obsessive aunt. Unknown to my friends, I had known of them for years, as the older sister of my Guardian and friend Dmitri Belikov had been friends with Tasha growing up.

I knew all about the suka. She was crazy, and I had warned Dimka of that many times in the past, but the man never seemed to listen. He stayed in contact with the woman who he believed was his friend, but I had no idea if he was still friends with the woman. If he knew the truth, I highly doubted it. Like most, I was turned due to greed. My maker had admitted the truth; I had been turned due to a bargaining chip. The Strigoi who had killed my replacement Guardian and turned me had been paid to do it by a Strigoi who was high up in the hierarchy.

Isaiah, the Strigoi wanted me dead, for what reason? I had no idea at the time. It wasn’t until I heard about his death that I found out the truth. He and his Strigoi lover had been killed by a novice by the name of Rose Hathaway; yes, the same Hathaway who was currently screaming my house down, when she and a few other students had been kidnapped for ransom and information on the remaining Dragomir member. Isaiah had paid the nobody almost ten thousand dollars and a place at the ‘table’ to turn me, so I was no longer in the way for a royal to gain Dimka as a Guardian. There was only one royal that I knew wanted Dimka as their own, and that was Natasha Ozera.

Gritting my teeth, I felt so much fury that the blood I had consumed the night before bled out and left me craving more. No matter what they say, some Strigoi can retain their original selves, their souls in a way. I did, and so did Moira and Lucas. My thoughts were broken by the furious growl that sounded from behind me. Abe stood standing in the hallway, his eyes sparking with rage, and he bared his fangs.

“Who did this to my daughter?”

I turned to my friends who stood there with amusement in their eyes. I rolled my own at them before returning my attention to the furious father. “I do not know. I was walking around the edge of the Court when I watched her run towards me. I thought she was going to attack me, but instead, she collapsed.” I took a moment to continue, feeling like an idiot. “I swear on my family’s lives that I saw and spoke to a ghost.”