Darius sat sulking in his room that evening.Yet, he was glad for Zane.The curse had been finally removed from him and it was something that neither of them could have ever imagined would happen.It had been determined that there was no hope for Zane.The tribe that cursed him knew his ways even before he had been born.Somehow, they knew.They knew Zane would be resentful, angry, moody, and powerful.They knew that the children of a vampire father and a human mother were most likely going to be more powerful than their fathers because of the way the genes dominated.They knew that the son of their tribe leader’s daughter would harbor so much hate toward the human race that he would never be able to overcome it in time to save himself.Now one would think, hmm, a thousand years is a long time to overcome a resentment or hatred.It is also a long time to build up a wall so thick that nothing could ever get through, not even logic or knowledge of the truth that would save you.The curse had a way out, but it was also designed to be nearly impossible for that way to be found.
Zane had to love, marry, and bear a vampire child with a human wife.Zane ruled over this great empire and by his own law, vampires were not allowed to reproduce with humans.They were not allowed to turn humans without Zane’s consent first.Humans were a class separate from the vampires, a class so low to them that they could be killed without reason.And, it was perfectly legal.
Darius had once wondered what it would be like to have children of his own.He thought about his long dead family, murdered at the hands of slave stealers, and the thieves that had taken him away while his family burned to death.He loved it that Zane had the power to torch someone at will.He wished her has such a power.He had said that to Zane once, and Zane broke out in a fit of laughter.“You’d be torching everyone, we would run out of food!!!”Darius knew he was right.He’d go around avenging the death of his family by burning anyone that pissed him off.Zane was known for burning to death a lot of people, but it wasn’t as many as one would think. It would have to have been strongly called for, or he would have to have been extremely angry.
After having a chance to meet Bree, Darius did have to say that he liked her.She was everything he wanted in a wife.Sweet, forgiving, submissive - yet open about her thoughts and ideas.She was beautiful and soft spoken.When she looked at Zane her eyes were filled with tenderness and love.It radiated off of her.When Darius was near her, he felt relaxed and yes, happy.She was respectable.She was honorable.She had given Zane a beautiful child.
Darius confronted his thoughts now after having hid them for centuries.He had to finally admit to what he wanted in his life.Yes, he had to fix himself.He was not perfect, he was so far from it.In fact, he was hurting inside.A lot.He had never really gotten into the nature of his pain when talking to Zane.Zane just knew that Darius’s hatred for mortals was based on a similar foundation as Zane’s was, and in that they could relate.Other vampires hated humans just because they were humans.Zane and Darius had validating reasons for their hates, causes that went deep to the core of each of them and tied them together like brothers.
But Darius wanted children.He had always wanted children.He had only vague memories of his parents and siblings, but he remembers his mother the most. His mother was gentle and sweet and soft spoken. Maybe that is why Darius liked Bree so much.In some way she had brought to the surface again Darius’s memories of his mother.His family were slaves to a vampire, Darius didn’t know much about the vampire, though.How would Darius’s mother feel if she knew that her own son was now one of them now, and that he had been for ten centuries?Would she be waiting for him at the gates of heaven? How long would she wait before she realized that he would never come?Darius sat on his bed, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.
It had been over a thousand years since Darius’s human family, his true family, was burned alive in their humble slave hut.Darius wondered if there was even anything left on that ground to this day.He knew where it was but he had never gone back there.Now something in him decided that he wanted to visit the site.Why?Why did he suddenly have this urge?And what ever became of Hugo, the vampire that had turned him?When Darius awoke that evening as a newborn vampire, he was just – gone. Hugo had turned him to protect him, and then he just left him.Darius had never heard Hugo’s name mentioned in the course of his vampire years.He had wanted on many occasions to go back to that part of this world and search for him.He was almost afraid that maybe Hugo would have been killed for turning him, or worse, he was still around but had disowned Darius for some reason.Hugo said that he would protect him by turning him, but why was he not there when Darius needed him to guide him those first few years that he was a vampire?
