What has become of me? I am turning into a beast around this woman. If I can call her a woman—she is just a girl. I need to rule the animal inside me, not let the animal inside me rule me, grumbled Count Ambrosio as he clenched the ship railing in front of him. The wood creaked beneath his grip.
He could feel the beast rising inside him. It was caged, pacing within him—his skin too thin to hold it, his mental barriers too weak. What would become of the people on this ship if he succumbed to his nature? No one here would survive. He would be hunted like the beast he is.
The last one of his kind.
It was good that he was the last. There was no chance his cursed blood would be prolonged. Humans and beasts did not bring forth progeny. He would not continue his lineage as his parents had once wanted. Hundreds of years had passed since they were gone, and he could still see his mother's face—kind and pure—transformed by the beast into something else entirely.
Even so, she never lost her temper. Never harmed anyone. Perhaps he was different. He had always been different.
The light ones had hunted them to the point of extinction, and now he lived on the fringes of shadows, mingling with vampires and other secrets of the continent.
He could not believe he would hide in plain sight—go to the court of his mortal enemy, visit the tyrant who destroyed his lineage. The king who, cursed before his death, was meant never to have his own progeny—and now even their line was fading.
So they annihilated each other. In time, there would be only legends left of them.
Maybe it was for the best. No one should wield such power, and not even their long lifespans had made them wise.
YOU ARE READING
SHADOW
FantasyEvery night, as the moon cast its ethereal glow upon her room, Sha felt an intense sensation that someone was watching her from the depths of the darkness. It was a tantalizing mix of trepidation and curiosity, like a delicate dance between desire a...
