Reckless

Chapter 9 Part 4

1700 AD

Character POV: Ariadne

I'm sitting in a hammock in the middle of the night, looking out over the Mediterranean sea. I see the sparkle of the stars on the water, and I smile to myself despite my recent break-up with Aoibhe and the pause in the war that I lost so much to try to win. The thought of all of it makes me suddenly angry all over again. I hear the crunch of boots on the ground, and I turn towards the sound, seeing Zebulun walking up the path towards me. I say nothing as he stops next to me, gazing out over the water. He says nothing as the minutes pass by. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he says slowly, "I did what you asked. I tried to track the other two members of the Triumvirate down. What we do next is going to be entirely up to you, I am afraid. Vlad became Vlad the Impaler, and he is now dead. Elizabeth became Elizabeth Bathory, and she has only recently died. They let their bloodlust get the better of them. They gave in, they weren't careful. A cautionary tale, I suppose, on keeping a low profile in the world of humans."

"And in a world where the witches are still a thing. There may only be a handful of them left, but they are formidable. And with Aoibhe having negotiated our surrender and our survival at the cost of everything I thought she cared about, it's not worth it to immediately launch back into a war and get the few of us that remain killed. All of Vlad's and Elizabeth's sires are dead now that the originator of their bloodlines are dead. That just leaves my line, and I have not been very prolific in siring people outside of the island of Lesbos or Britain."

"What are you saying?" Zebulun asks me quietly, turning his dark eyes on me as he crosses his arms over his frame. There's no judgment, just a good second wanting his marching orders, wanting to know what comes next now that everything had turned to dust in our hands.

"I'm saying," I start, swirling the wine in my glass around, "I think it's time that I embark on a world tour. There are thousands of people across the globe who would give anything to be a Vampire, and I am going to be more discerning this time. The desperate don't make the cut, but people like you and me, those who can actually think through their passions, they will be our brethren. And I want tabs kept on Aoibhe, I want to know where she ends up. She's going to be vital to our return to the world stage, for the second act of our war." I smile slightly as I whisper, "We're leaving Vampire Island."

I snap back to the present as I pull up to my destination, no noises emanating from my boot to speak of. He must still be out cold. Doubts suddenly occur to me, worries that both he and Drusilla- now Analize- were right, that I don't hold the importance to Roxanne that I used to hold, or that that significance was even legitimate. My entire plan hinges on getting through to her, on making her see the world around her for what it actually is instead of what she's been groomed to see. This might royally backfire on me because I gave into my impulses like the other two members of the Triumvirate did before. Why the fuck did he have to be such a douchebag? There's no doubt in my mind that he deserves this, but I just hope Roxanne is better able to handle it than she's handled curveballs so far.