The Vampire's Rival

The past allowing for a fresh start

I turned to the owner of the voice. It was Tristan, Lujeo's oldest New Age Vampire. He was still alive?! I was sure Sleritu had immediately killed him on arrival in a bid to wipe out everything about Lujeo that remained.

"If you do this," Tristan said, his gaze burning through me. "If you break the Accords, everything is lost."

Sleritu's Champion laughed. "You should listen to Lujeo's little pet, Ruqwik!"

"Tristan, we can't let them take this Enclave!" I insisted.

"No, we can't." Tristan agreed. Then he smiled and turned to Sleritu's champion. "It's all about the rules, right?"

"Exactly," the champion sneered. "And the rules state that only Masters can fight for an Enclave. That bitch is not a Master. If she breaks the Accords, every vampire here is obligated to kill her!"

The Venom flared inside me.

Let them try!

Tristan took a deep breath and said the only thing that broke through my stubbornness.

"My Master, Lujeo, is dead and I am not yet old enough or powerful enough to sire a human. That makes me a Freelancer. That means I am granted the opportunity to choose a new Master, right?" Tristan turned to face me and exposed his neck. "I choose Ruqwik."

I backed up and shook my head.

"Tristan, no!"

He was right, of course. A fledgling whose Master was dead could choose a new Master. And if it was a vampire who met all the criteria to become a Master, especially an Ageless One, there was no other condition to meet. All that the Freelancer needed to do was pledge their loyalty to the new Master. However, only a Master with a blood bond to a fledgling was really ever considered a true Master, and the only ones allowed to challenge for the rule of an Enclave. Turning a human automatically took care of that. However, creating a blood bond with another vampire was a little complicated.

It meant drinking another vampire's blood.

There were two ways that could go. If a vampire forcefully tried to drink another vampire's blood, it triggered the release of ambrosia into the bloodstream of the one being attacked, which would poison the attacker, killing them almost instantly. But if a vampire offered their blood to another willingly, that was a completely different situation!

"I trust you, Ruq." Tristan said.

He shouldn't have.

I didn't trust myself.

There's a reason why drinking the blood of another vampire to become a blood-bonded Master was never attempted. To other vampires, vampire blood is an intoxicating and heady elixir, more pleasant, more alluring, and more addictive than any other substance on Earth!

And it could only be drunk from the vein.

Over the centuries, more than one vampire had accidentally drained another who'd offered their blood this way, usually while making love. Offering your vampire blood to another was the ultimate sign of trust for a vampire, and being able to resist draining the one who offered the blood was the ultimate sign of control and power. I could count on one hand the number of vampires who had succeeded at gaining a Freelancer fledgling, and they had all already turned several human fledglings before then. Blood-bonding with a Freelancer was only ever done as a show of power and pompous ceremony, taking months of practice and with the knowledge that the Freelancers might die in the process.

No vampire would ever attempt to just casually change a Freelancer into a blood-bonded fledgling.

I backed away. "Tristan, this isn't..."