Page 63 of Theoden
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
LITTLE BROTHER
Sixty years flew by like days as I held the position of executioner in the Kingdom of Ara. The announcement had been made the week after I had completed my first mission for Ara. Killing my enemies in the Church and King Nexus’ kingdom had elevated my stature in Ara’s kingdom.
Being the executioner was a role I excelled in as each death I carried out only enhanced my reputation as a deadly and powerful vampire. All of the vampires in Ara’s kingdom knew what I was and I reveled in their envy and fear.
Currently, I was in a tavern, hunting for my next victim. I had been eliminating the ones I didn’t want and was about to make my move when I felt Ara calling me back home. As much as I wanted to hunt, to smell the fear of the human as I chased him down and taste that same fear in his blood, I knew better than to make my Father wait.
I groaned as I rose from my chair and left the tavern. I kept to the shadows until I could get to a place where I could take to the sky without any humans seeing me. We were all powerful and humans were our food, so I didn’t understand why we stayed hidden from them. What could they ever do to us? It annoyed me, but I never challenged the rule of my King.
I returned home within the hour and sought Ara out. He was standing in front of the mirror in our bedroom, gorgeous in his long purple jameh with the gold trim and ruby jeweled hem. His pendent was ever present on his left shoulder, a symbol of his stature. His sirwal were gold, as was his shoes, and on his right hand, he wore a beautiful gold ring with an emerald jewel.
I bowed before him. “Father.”
“My son, I must apologize for interrupting your hunt, but this is more important. Go to the great hall, I will join you all shortly,” he said in his native Persian language, which I now understood and spoke as if it were my own. Ara, himself, spoke several different languages. Roman tongue being one of them, which was how he had been able to communicate with his three sons so well. Now that I spoke his native language, it was the one he chose to use the most.
He adjusted his dark curls, making sure they framed his gorgeous face perfectly. Everything about him was blessed by the gods, in my opinion. I had seen both men and women fawn over Ara, and he paid them the barest of attention. It made me feel even more treasured to know that someone as amazing as he was had sought me out.
As for what was going on tonight, I didn’t ask why, I only obeyed. I left the bedroom and made my way to the grand hall and opened the double doors. I saw my brothers, all Lords in Ara’s kingdom and with Houses of their own. Their children were present as well, the ones who still lived with them. I didn’t pay their children much attention, and I believed my brothers preferred it that way.
Nolan had his son by his side, a pretty, dark-haired, green-eyed cherub that snarled at me when I glanced his way. I supposed he had learned that from his Father. I was a bit older than his son, Omar, but I knew I was far stronger. Just being Ara’s son gave me strength other vampires didn’t have. Having that knowledge, I didn’t pay him any attention. He was beneath me.
Eventually, I took notice of the human that was kneeling on the floor in the middle of the room. The same place where sixty years ago, Nolan had once knelt when he was given his Lordship. The very placement where the human was positioned marked that this was a special ceremony of sorts. One I had never witnessed before, and I was curious as to what was going on.
I decided to walk in front of the human to get a good look at him as I made my way over to my brothers. He had short, dark, curly hair. The ends curled at the nape of his neck and ears. He regarded me with thoughtful blue eyes that held a bit of lust as he followed my movements. I liked his lips, they were full and shapely, almost like a woman’s but still masculine. His jawline was chiseled, nose—narrow, and body sculptured. A true Adonis. Just what was about to happen tonight with this human?
As much as I wanted to stand beside Karim, I had to take my place beside Nolan and his son had to move to my left. I walked up to Omar, then motioned with my eyes for him to move. He didn’t challenge me, which was wise on his part, for he would have only angered me. Once he was out of my way, I settled in between Nolan and him.
“Do you know what is happening tonight?” Nolan asked me.
“I do not, do you?”
He snorted. “Of course, our Father found another human he wants to sire. This is the human’sembracingceremony. One you would have had experienced had you not been such a fool. An ungrateful one at that.”
I cut a glance at him without turning my head, but remained silent. My disdain for Nolan grew every day, especially since I still had to submit to him sexually. He enjoyed lording himself over me every chance he got. I had learned to swallow my rage and make the best of the worst situation.
“I will fuck you tonight, little brother,” Nolan said.
“As is your right,” I said.
He laughed cruelly. “Do not act like you detest my cock inside of you.”
I turned to him finally. “Your touch sickens me, Nolan.”
He snarled and lashed out at me, striking me hard across my face. The impact was powerful enough to send me slamming into Omar, and we both tumbled to the floor. I immediately rose to my feet, standing my ground. I knew I could take him, burn him to a cinder like I had the vampires I had killed. Or bite him and inject his veins with enough venom to poison him to death. It didn’t matter that he was older and physically stronger than I was. And he knew this too.
I licked the blood from my healed lip as I glared at Nolan. “I am not the gullible human you once tricked sixty years ago, Nolan,” I warned.
Nolan growled and cocked an eyebrow. “Are you challenging me,littlebrother?” He made certain to say the word ‘little’ as if it were something insignificant.
“Enough.”
Both Nolan and I lowered our heads at the sound of Ara’s voice and that one word. I took my position again beside Nolan and Omar scrambled to his place beside me. He had climbed to his feet after I had and had been standing to the side watching, like everyone else, the heated argument between his Father and me.
“I will not have my sons fighting. What started this?” Ara asked. He began to walk steadily towards us and I could feel a chill trickle down my spine. The last thing I wanted was to upset him.
I knew he could read our minds, but he didn’t. He wanted honesty from his sons. I cleared my throat. “I stepped out of line, Father. I was insulting to my older brother,” I admitted.
