Blood Brothers

Explanations

I slowly became aware and just lay there, trying to absorb. I had been moved to a soft bed if I was interpreting the warm floating correctly. A heavy weight of despair settled in my stomach right next to the sharp pain of betrayal. Liesel had sold me to monsters in exchange for her own betterment. I had known our relationship was one of convenience, not love, but it still hurt. I swallowed hard, refusing to weep. I would hate her instead.

A frisson of discomfort suddenly sparked up my spine as I remembered the rest. The monster had done something to me. Changed me. I could feel the foreign sensations already, like an itch, a need, to pull the fetters off and resume my full potential.

The soft hiss of a page turning in a book had me slowly opening my eyes. I blinked up at the ceiling for a moment, then slowly dropped my gaze down to the little body curled up against my right side. The blonde head pillowed against my shoulder was becoming quite familiar. Katherine's hand tightened a little in my shirt and she sighed in her sleep.

My gaze finished moving over Katherine and over to the chair set beside the bed I was in. King Le'Roy sat easily next to me, one leg crossed over the other as his eyes skimmed the book in his hand. I swallowed down fear, my arm closing a little around his daughter between us. He took in a breath and dropped the book down into his lap before turning his gaze up to me.

"I suppose I should explain some things, since you won't be the meal I thought you would be. When Liesel promised me a blood gift in exchange for her induction into my family, I was not expecting to have to give an education to a whelp with nothing to offer besides his blood." He shook his head and shifted in his chair. "But then, I also was not expecting my daughter to take a liking to you."

He regarded the way Katherine was curled against me, and I wondered if he would simply wait until she had forgotten her fascination with me. Then kill me.

"I'm not going to kill you. Not after turning you."

I blinked in surprise, then tried to relax. "Turned?"

Le'Roy dipped his head. "You're a Vampire now boy. One of me and mine. A child of the blood drinkers and a creature of the night. You will thirst for the blood of humans and gain strength from indulging in that desire."

My stomach twisted. "Why?"

Le'Roy smiled, closed lipped so he didn't show any teeth. I was grateful for that. I was dealing with enough as it was, without a monster leering at me. "It appears you made a good first impression on my daughter. All three of them, once I had a chance to talk to them. Ordinarily, that wouldn't be enough to save you, or at least, it hasn't been for anyone else I've been given as a gift. I'm not sure what it is you did differently, but it saved you from an early demise."

His smile faded as he turned a contemplative gaze on his sleeping daughter. "She said, she liked the look of you. She liked your loyalty and thought it would be useful if you weren't dead." His gaze flicked back up to me, intense and weighted with judgement. "We'll see if that holds true, won't we?"

I shivered. "What am I to do for you?"

Le'Roy smoothly slid into business, dropping all veiled hostility. "Fortunately for you, I am in need of some new blood in my ranks. If you can prove yourself a useful soldier, I may be willing to call this a gain despite the loss of my gift. As it happens, there is a little business in Germany that I need attended to. Having another soldier fluent in German would be an asset to the mission."

I blinked in surprise. I had come to France to escape a war. Now I was being sent right back to Germany as a soldier. Le'Roy raised a brow in question, but I didn't dare tell him I didn't want to go. "I have no training as a soldier. I don't know how to fight."