The Darkest Crown (The Eternal Darkness Duet #2)

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

A fter that, each night was the same. I’d spend the first half with Allie, exploring the castle from top to bottom, always with a member of the King's Guard trailing behind us. They were all cheerful, sometimes annoyingly so, and we eventually got used to their presence. We took long walks outside, along the tops of the cliffs, and I hated that I didn’t have the ability to fly us out of there.

I spent the second half of each night with Marius. One night he informed me that Julian and Adam had been released, and all previous charges against Adam were dropped, but if they ever tried to contact me, he would kill them. I almost wept when he told me. After that, he spent each night telling me about his life with Phaedra. He was always kind, and he never tried to touch me, but the more stories he told me, the more unsettled I became.

His words infiltrated my subconscious, making me dream of him, and of Phaedra. Most of the dreams were sexual, which made me feel awkward around him. Sometimes, though, I would dream of Julian, or Adam, and I would wake up crying.

Enormous changes were made to the castle. Renovations were happening at an astounding pace, and countless truckloads of furniture arrived. After a few weeks, it looked completely different.

One night when we were walking along the cliffs, Marius told me he would be hosting a ball, to announce his return to society. I asked him why he stepped away in the first place, and his answer surprised me.

“Shame,” he said, looking out at the sea. “I was ashamed of what I’d created.”

I frowned. “What did you create?”

He looked at me. “Vampires. I never intended to change anyone. I was alone for over a thousand years after you left me. Until one night, I came upon a cottage on fire. A woman’s screams came from within, and it reminded me of the night you died. I saw you that night. You thought I was dead, but I watched you fly into the fire.” Marius lifted a hand, as if to touch my face, but after a moment's hesitation he let it fall back to his side. He took a deep breath and continued with his story.

“I acted without thinking. I pulled her from the fire, but she was so badly burned, I knew she’d never recover. So I changed her, without her consent. Luckily, she did not hate me for it. Over the next century, I changed seven more. Each was on the brink of death, but I made sure I got their consent.”

“The Strategoi,” I murmured.

Marius nodded. “Yes. But it was quite some time before the council was formed. There was no need for it in the beginning. There were so few of us, and we were mostly peaceful. We needed blood to survive, but we did not kill for it. Eventually the vampires I changed began changing others, and so it went until there were tens of thousands of us. That's when the Strategio was created.

“Each generation became more violent. I can’t know for sure, but I assume it's because their blood became more diluted with every generation. You were changed by a goddess, and I was changed by you. Vampires changed today have only a miniscule amount of your blood.

“Sadly, the part of their humanity that stayed with them the longest, was their hunger for power. Some vampires changed hundreds. They created armies in their pursuit of power.” Marius shook his head sadly. “I never meant for any of this to happen. I only wanted to save them.”

His words moved me, and I had the urge to comfort him, but I didn’t. I just stood there.

“Vampires have potential for greatness,” he continued. “Our powers evolve over time. I could fly and daywalk from the beginning, but reading minds and stopping time came much later.”

“How do you do that?” I asked. “How do you stop time?”

“I don’t know how to explain it,” he said, shaking his head. “It's incredibly difficult. It takes an enormous amount of strength and concentration.”

“It looks easy when you do it,” I muttered.

The corner of his lips curved. “That is my intention. People fear my power, and that fear keeps them in line. Who would dare plot against me, knowing I can read their mind?” He shrugged. “They don’t realize how hard it is to keep track of who’s thinking what. In a large crowd that power is basically useless.”

I stared at him, shocked that he was admitting that to me. Wasn’t he worried that I’d tell someone?

“Turning someone to dust is easy,” he said casually, as if it weren't a horrifying ability. “I can only do one person at a time,” he shrugged, “but it's easy.”

My feelings must have shown on my face, because he laughed and said, “And now I have frightened you enough for one night. Let us return to the castle.”

I tried to process everything he’d told me as we walked back, but I was still baffled when I lay in bed two hours later. Was Marius actually a good guy? It was hard to believe, after what he’d done to me in the beginning. I was still thinking of him when I finally drifted off.