CHAPTER 115: THE VAMPIRE’S HISTORY

Dmitri POV

The old sword sliced through the air, missing my head by inches. I rolled behind a broken stone pillar as the Void Lieutenant’s laughing echoed through the cave.

"Still playing with toys, old vampire?" it hissed. "Your maker would be ashamed."

My dead heart should have stayed still, but hearing Katarina’s name spoken by this thing made rage burn through my cold veins. I gripped my silver blade tighter, the one she had given me three hundred years ago.

"Don’t you dare speak her name," I snarled, jumping over the pillar to strike.

But the Lieutenant was gone, vanishing into dark like smoke. Around me, the other magical leaders fought desperately against the three creatures that had burst through the cave wall. Werewolves howled in pain. The dragon-woman spewed fire that barely singed their dark forms. Even the elf’s old magic seemed useless.

"Dmitri!" Luna’s words cut through the chaos. "The contracts! You have to help her finish the binding!"

I saw the young diplomat standing in the middle of the fighting, still trying to recite words from some old contract while everything fell apart around her. Brave little cat. She reminded me of Katarina in that moment - unwilling to give up even when hope seemed lost.

The second Lieutenant materialized beside Luna, claws reaching for her neck. Without thinking, I threw myself between them, my sword catching its wrist. Black blood splattered the cave floor.

"The Void Clause won’t save you," it spat. "We are already free."

"Free?" I laughed, though fear crept up my spine. "You’re still trapped in whatever prison held you for centuries."

All three Lieutenants stopped fighting. The sudden quiet was worse than their attacks.

"Prison?" The first one tilted its horrible head. "Dear vampire, we haven’t been in prison for fifty years."

The words hit me like a physical blow. Fifty years. The same time Katarina had died.

"Impossible," I whispered. "The Void Walkers were put away during the Great War. The binding was meant to last forever."

"Forever is a long time," the third Lieutenant said softly. "Long enough for someone to make a deal."

My mind raced back through the decades. Fifty years ago, I had been chasing a rogue vampire clan that was killing human children. Katarina had insisted on helping, despite my protests that it was too risky. We had tracked them to an old graveyard outside Prague.

"The children are innocent," she had said, her green eyes fierce with resolve. "If we don’t stop this clan, who will?"

I had loved her for that kindness. It was what made her different from other vampires, what made her teach me that our strength should defend the weak, not prey on them.

But something had gone wrong that night. The rogue vampires had been stronger than expected, more organized. Almost like they knew we were coming.

"Dmitri," Katarina had gasped as black lines spread across her pale skin. "The boss... he’s not just a vampire. He’s something else. Something that whispers in the dark."

She had died in my arms as dawn approached, her body turning to ash despite my desperate efforts to save her. I had thought it was just bad luck, a terrible accident.

Now, looking at these creatures of pure darkness, I began to understand the horrible truth.

"The rogue clan," I said slowly. "They weren’t working alone."

"Very good," the second Lieutenant purred. "Your precious maker found our little partnership. Vampires make such useful helpers when properly motivated."

"Motivated how?" But even as I asked, I knew the answer.

"We promised them power beyond imagining. Strength to rule over all other magical beings. All they had to do was weaken our jail from the outside, just a little bit each year."

The cave spun around me. Everything I thought I knew was wrong. Katarina hadn’t died fighting rogues. She had died fighting servants of the Void King itself.

"She could have joined them," the first Lieutenant continued. "We offered her the same deal. But she refused. Said some things were more important than power."

"So you killed her."

"We eliminated an obstacle," it corrected. "Just as we’ve eliminated others who found our growing influence. Werewolf pack masters who asked too many questions. Elf councils that noticed our servants moving through their woods. Dragon leaders who sensed the corruption spreading."

I thought of all the strange deaths over the past fifty years. Leaders dying in crashes, getting sick with strange illnesses, disappearing without a trace. Not random misfortune. Murder.

"How many?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

"Hundreds," the third Lieutenant said proudly. "Anyone who might have joined the supernatural world against us. We’ve been very thorough."

Luna was still repeating her treaty words, but her voice shook now. She must have heard every word. The poor girl was learning that the union she was trying to build had been under attack for decades.

"The Void Clause won’t work," the second Lieutenant told her mockingly. "That pact was written when we were truly imprisoned. Now we walk free in this world, hidden among your own people."

"What do you mean?" Elder Marcus commanded.

The Lieutenants smiled with their terrible black teeth. "Did you think we came here alone? Every supernatural society has our servants now. Vampires, werewolves, elves, dragons - some of your most trusted leaders have been working for us for years."

Ice formed in my dead blood. If they were saying the truth, then anyone in this cave could be a traitor. Anyone in our groups could be feeding information to the Void King.

"The birth has begun," the first Lieutenant said, looking toward the deeper cave where Prince Ash’s screams still echoed. "When the child is born, our master will have a body strong enough to enter this world fully. And our staff will make sure no one interferes."

That’s when I noticed Luna’s eyes had gone totally black.

"Luna!" I shouted, but it was too late.

The young diplomat smiled with a mouth full of shadow and raised her hands. Dark energy poured from her fingers toward the supernatural figures around her.

"The alliance dies here," she said in a voice that wasn’t her own. "Just as it was always meant to."