Page 110 of Theoden
I nodded. “And that is why we are here. You will go with him as he sates his hunger.”
Bruce nodded and we watched as Michael wrapped his arms around the child and continued to drain her dry. Once he was done, he sat up in the coffin, his pale blue eyes blind with bloodlust.
“Rise now, my son, and feed,” I commanded.
I gave him just a bit of my will so he’d have the strength to climb out of the coffin. Bruce stepped aside, but followed behind him as Michael half stumbled and half walked with his gangly, lanky body into the first building where the scent of blood called to him. He was grotesque in his appearance and must have given those humans quite a fright.
I could hear the screams coming from the tavern, but none of the humans escaped and I knew it was because of Bruce. I didn’t keep track of the time that passed before my two sons exited the tavern, but I knew they’d both fed. Michael looked better, healthier, but he was still starving and needed more blood.
Together, they ravaged the village until they’d gotten their fill. Even I took a victim or two, but it was really Michael who had done the most damage, killing half the people in the village to sate his hunger.
When I came upon them, my two sons, Michael was drinking seed from Bruce’s cock and my other son was enjoying feeding his brother. Michael was clinging to Bruce, moaning in earnest as he sucked down every last drop. He would need more and Bruce would be all too willing to give it to him, I was sure.
Once they were done, I looked at Michael. “Look around, son, and see the result of your stubbornness. The devastation you left behind.”
Michael was still on his knees, trembling from the bloodhaze, but he looked. The place was littered with bodies, their throats ripped open by the savage teeth of an uncaring beast. I watched his reaction and he was beside himself with grief. Tears poured from his eyes as he crumpled to the ground.
I walked over to him, grabbing a handful of his dark brown hair, and lifted his face to mine. “You cry for yourself, your self-pity. You cry for your victims. You are showing your weakness, boy.” I shoved his head as I released his hair. “You are a vampire, Michael. Master of all these humans. None of them will live to see the years you have before you. You are eternal and my child, which makes you special even among your own kind. Do not ever disgrace me again be refusing my gift—your nature—or find yourself in this predicament again. Do you understand?”
Michael looked up at me with tear-soaked eyes and nodded. “Yes.”
“Yes, what?” I snapped.
“Yes… Father,” he said dejectedly as if he realized he’d lost and I’d won. In truth, he had won, because he was my son. Soon, he would learn and understand and then fully appreciate the blood that flows through his veins. As for now, we had a boat to catch.
He would get to know his brothers better once we were in our own territory. I was relieved when I finally returned home months later with the humans Ara had requested and a brand-new son. Ara was pleased and satisfied with the way I handled my first unruly child.
“Never let them rule you,” Ara said as he patted me on the back while looking over Michael.
“I will not, Father,” I said, smiling. I loved when I made him proud of me.
“You are growing your family well. Miguel has finally found his first child,” Ara said.
Miguel was Lord of district five, and he and Nolan were the best of friends. I wondered when Ara would sire another child. He was now alone in his home now that all of his sons had their own Houses and families.
“Do not worry about me, Théoden. I will sire when I am ready,” Ara stated.
I nodded. “Of course, Father.”
I left his home feeling very good about my future and the future of my children. Michael was rough around the edges, so to speak, but he would smooth out.
***
When I met Donovan Coleman in Ireland, he was a priest who took confessions for his parishioners like any priest would, but secretly, he’d been hiding soldiers who fought against the English army. Because Queen Elsa owned the Ireland territory, I didn’t have to bargain my way into it to search for a son. Also, I had all of my sons with me this time, as we were sent to aid the Queen in keeping her territory. Vampire King Alexander was attacking and she needed reinforcements. It was during this battle that Queen Elsa got to witness what truly made me and my sons so extraordinary.
After the war, I had time to travel around the foreign land and that was when I first saw Donovan. One of the things that stood out the most to me about him was how steadfastly he rebelled against his oppressors, even in the face of death.
The night he would have either been killed or imprisoned by the English, I rescued him, killing the soldiers. He fled with me to the lovely home of a man named Lord Miles O’Connor. It was at that time when Donovan saw that I wasn’t human as I’d fed on the human in front of him, killing O’Conner. Like with Michael, I told him what I was and what I was offering him. And also like with Michael, he cursed me as a demon and tried to flee.
“Go back to hell from whence you came!” Donovan spat at me, both literally and figuratively. His glob of saliva landing on the floor where I had been standing, but had moved to avoid his spit.
I grabbed him by his chin, forcing his face up to mine. “You call me a demon?”
“Yes,” he snapped. “Only something as evil as you could have been belched up from the bowels of hell! Demon!”
“Then if I am a demon, let me show you what a demon does,” I growled in my rage. After over a century of peace in my home with my well-behaved sons, I wasn’t in the mood for another self-righteous ingrate. I wanted to prove to Donovan that he was not as strong as he thought he was, that he would never be able to defy me.
I took him back to his church, kicked open the doors, and slung him on the floor. He landed hard and slid halfway up the aisle with a grunt. I was on him fast, grabbing him by the collar of his robe and dragging him back up to the front of his church, toward the alter. Several people were in the church at the time and they looked upon us with shock and horror. They gasped and begged for me to leave their priest alone. I didn’t care about their pleas. None would be left alive after this night anyway. My sons accompanied me and they kept the humans in check, commanding them to sit in their seats and remain quiet.
