Alexandra hugged her legs as she sat in the corner of her room, shuffling away from the faint rays of sunlight in front of her that had peered through a rent in the curtain.
The dim lighting of the room soothed her, allowing her to calmly analyse the events of her current situation.
She had been turned against her will by a man she didn't even know- or thought she didn't know, till a few minutes before, when seemingly foreign memories surfaced in her mind.
She and Nik had actually met more than once, and it seemed he desired not for any continuation of their conversations, which begged the question of why he turned her then.
"Because I like you," had been his answer, and perhaps it were true.
But it didn't change the fact that she had been turned without consent and plunged right into a battlefield she was most likely to die on.
Nevertheless, during that brief time before his brother plunged a stake through his heart, he had proven to be a charming individual- caring, even.
Her train of thought was interrupted by the opening of her door, as two men entered.
She shot upright instantly and asked, "Who are you?" warily glancing at the two.
"She's forgotten me already! I can't believe it, do you?" one of them said to the other, who seemed to be the younger of the duo.
"Well, Mikael, you do lack Clan Asgeirsson's handsome features, so I wouldn't put it past her. However, she should still have recalled a countenance as horrid as yours," Ariel replied.
He turned to the girl. "We are Nik's brothers, and my sibling here spoke to you in your dreams. You told him you intend to strike at the witches at sundown. We're here to help. Rather, you are going to help us get him back."
Alexandra did not respond for a moment. Then she asked, "In my dreams?"
Mikael smiled. "I assumed you knew, considering the topic we were discussing, and the lessons Nik imparted to you before his demise. We can enter dreams, but that is a topic for another time."
Ariel interrupted him. "You speak too much, brother." In an instant, he crossed the room and now stood in front of the girl, his blue eyes staring into her own, brimming with the power of compulsion.
"Come with us," he ordered, and she followed him to the door, where she jumped back with a hiss when the rays of the sun burned her hand.
"How am I supposed to come if I can't get out the bloody door?!" she nearly yelled.
Ariel held out his hand to her, Lucas' daylight ring in his palm.
"What's that?" Alexandra asked, enamored by the intricate design of the ring.
"It's an enchanted ring to protect our kind from the sun. Put it on, your possession of it is temporary," Ariel said, impatience finding its way into his voice.
She did, and stepped into the light.
Immediately, the brothers lifted her by the arms and left in a blur.
....
In the enclosed courtyard of the imposing Asgeirsson Manor, the light of the sun was shrouded by clouds passing overhead, allowing a nearly unrecognizable figure to crawl into the darkness preceding the open space.
Lucas was charred, enveloped in the sickening scent of burnt flesh, and could barely heal. Unless he fed, and Ariel had compelled the servants to confine themselves to their quarters, denying him that saving grace.
Under normal circumstances, a member of his kind would have been reduced to a miserable pile of ash after exposure to the rays of the sun, but strangely, the Asgeirssons had shown themselves to be an exception to this seemingly universal rule.
The sun could not kill Lucas, but it would subject him to an agony one could not even dare to imagine.
And it would continue till he fed, or till his body slowly and agonizingly surely, restored itself.
Whichever came first.
The second of the Asgeirsson princes hissed as the sunlight, now free from cloud cover, seared his left foot, and he jerked it into the shade, only to scream louder as his movements aggravated his burned body.
His elder brother's last words to him surfaced in his mind.
"Pray that you burn in hell before I wake."
He had burned, and to him, the Manor currently was no different from hell, so had his prayer been answered?
And he knew that when Nik woke from his imposed slumber....
Then he remembered that the witches planned to kill him. The most ideal time would be at midday, when the sun, the vampire's bane, was at its strongest.
He hoped Mikael, Ariel, and Alexandra would succeed and retrieve him before midday, and stay alive in the process.
Especially the girl, for unlike him and his siblings, she could very well die in the sun.
.....
"They most likely will perform it in a place devoid of shadows and better still, a source of abundant power," Mikael commented as they stood in front of the Silvergate Cemetery.
"But they are not here, despite knowing of our inability to enter."
"Or perhaps they know we in fact can enter as we wish, at least the four of us can. Surely, after two hundred years of pretending we're like the rest you have not forgotten about our uniqueness, brother?" Ariel answered.
"Where would that leave the girl? We can't let her stay on the sidelines," Mikael retorted. "In any case, I reckon they are converging in the west of the city, close to the Old Battlefield."
Alexandra asked, "Why there? Don't they practice ancestral magic?"
Mikael responded, "Indeed, but when it comes to us I doubt pure ancestral magic will help. They need to be in a place filled with the presence of death. The spirits of the witches that haunt the Old Battlefield will be the source of the ancestral power. We must hurry."
Ariel glanced at the girl. "Can you keep up?" "I'll try."
He nodded. "Good. Do not slow us down, infant."
He vanished, followed by Mikael. The girl came right after, but it was obvious she wouldn't be able to match them.
'Damn him.'
....
The Western Coven's most powerful members, ten in total, stood in the center of the Old Battlefield, circled round an altar of stone.
Upon it was the body of the Fallen Prince, Nikolas Alexander Asgeirsson, a glistening stake embedded in his chest.
Claire looked up and observed the position of the sun.
"It's in place."
One of the others, a middle aged woman, asked, "Are you sure it's going to work?"
She got a nod in reply.
A man asked, "What of the rest of Clan Asgeirsson? The power of his siblings is dire, and so is their anger, will they not come to retrieve their eldest brother?"
Claire replied, "I have instructed twelve of our people to circle the perimeter and cast a boundary spell. It's not permanent, but with twelve witches keeping it up, the Princes will not be able to enter."
The man nodded in approval, and Claire began to chant.
The rest joined her, and the air grew heavy as the spirits of the dead were stirred awake.
One of the witches, an elder, stepped closer to the body and withdrew a blade, with which she slit Nik's wrist and let his blood flow into a bowl filled with salt and other herbs.
She mixed it with the blade and motioned for Claire to join her.
Together, they poured the mixture into Nik's mouth, then the elder gave the remainder to Claire, saying, "Drink it. We shall bind you two together and use his power to elevate you to an elder. Only then can we have the power to kill him."
Claire took the mixture and forced it down her throat, struggling not to throw it all up again.
The elder dipped her thumb into the blood and placed it on Nik's chest, holding Claire's hand with her other. Then she began to chant a different spell from the other, and her veins bulged and pulsated, shimmering blue as power flowed into her and passed on to the younger girl.
Claire was the youngest, but of the current group of witches, she had been the most powerful, and the most loyal to the coven, proven by her single handed orchestration of the downfall of the Fallen Prince. And so she was elevated to an Elder through Nik's power.
As the energy surged within her, the older woman gently took her hands and held them above Nik's body, and the two resumed the same spell as the other eight, their hair blowing in the wind, faint but brimming with power.
....
Ariel stopped at the gate of the Old Battlefield.
He tried to put his hand through to the other side, but it was barred.
"Boundary spell," he said with anger in his voice.
Alexandra asked, "We cannot enter?" Ariel nodded.
Mikael placed his hand on the invisible wall of power. Then, he looked at his brother.
"It isn't permanent," they said in unison."
The girl, once again feeling left out, asked, "How do you know?"
Ariel banged his fist on the barrier and replied, " A permanent boundary maintains the same level of power. This one has fluctuating energy, which means that the caster is not alone, and they are not of the same strength. We just have to find and kill them till we can break through forcibly."
Alexandra paled at the mentioning of killing. "Or perhaps you would rather ask them with a sweet smile to return our brother to us," Ariel said, noticing her distress.
She didn't answer.
Mikael sighed. "Enough. Our objective is the breaching of the barrier. Temporary barriers tend to be strongest right in front of the caster. Feel the barrier till you find the point, then toss a projectile to kill them."
Ariel added, "The problem is, there's quite a lot of them, and they seem to have cast a cloaking spell so we can't see exactly where they are. Clever bastards."
Alexandra muttered, "Unless..."
And under the questioning gazes of the Princes, she took hold of a metal railing, tore it off, and motioned for them to be silent.
She went still for a brief moment before cocking her head towards a certain area.
She threw the railing, and the sound of bone breaking followed right after.
The figure of a young man materialized, the railing in his chest. His eyes showed an immense fear as his lifeless corpse fell to the ground.
Mikael smiled. "I'm impressed."
Alexandra gave a little bow.
Ariel frowned. "Likewise, but I propose we celebrate later with Nik on our side." He struck the barrier.
It held.
"We still have more to kill."
Both spells had become weaker, but the task was by no means easier.
If it were a trio of young, inexperienced vampires, that is.
The Asgeirsson brothers had two centuries worth of experience and power, and using Alexandra's method four more witches fell.
.....
The ten Elders continued to chant, the power in the atmosphere building up.
One of them suddenly slowed down his chanting.
"I feel a disturbance in the air around us. Power is leaking, and the presence of death grows stronger."
Claire suddenly had a scary premonition. "We must proceed, now!"
The witches began to channel the power in the atmosphere into the blade in her hand, and she hoped against hope that it would be stuck in Nik's heart by the time his brothers got to them.
....
Lucas had healed enough for him to crawl, and he propped himself up against the wall. His heart longed for him to be among his brothers to right his wrongs.
But his ring had been taken from him, and so he could do nothing.
And so he slowly recovered, but he swore within that by the next sunrise, if his brothers had for some reason failed to destroy the coven, he would burn it down himself.
Nik's blue, furious eyes appeared in his vision.
Lucas whispered, "I am sorry, my brother. I cannot undo what has been done, but I will do right by you. I swear on our immortality."
....
"Any more death and they'll feel it, if they have not already," Ariel said as the fourth body dropped.
Mikael stood beside him. Together, they rushed into the barrier and felt it give in, but ultimately repel them.
Alexandra said, "Let's do it together."
The three of them rammed into it once more, and with a groan, it shattered, the power being released.
Immediately they were assaulted by an overwhelming power coming from the center of the Old Battlefield.
They made for the place instantly and got there a quarter of a minute later, hiding behind a gravestone.
Alas, they made it in time to see Claire raise her knife to plunge it into Nik, having pulled out the stake.
"No!" Ariel yelled, leaping at her.
One of the Elders raised a hand, and his trajectory was shifted, causing him to crash onto a gravestone.
That man's neck snapped the very next moment by Mikael's hand.
Alexandra broke that of another, leaving only eight of ten witches.
Ariel had broken the tombstone when he crashed into it, and so it was part of that stone that he threw at Claire, striking and breaking her wrist, thus disarming her.
He made as if to come at her, then suddenly swerved and sank his fangs into the neck of another Elder, ripping his jugular vein.
Claire and the Elder guiding her cast another spell, assaulting the three vampires with a tremendous headache, sending them to their knees.
Mikael had plunged his hand into another's chest when it happened, bringing it down to six.
The remaining Elders could feel the power accumulated dissipate, and Claire picked the blade with her left hand.
Alexandra screamed at the pain she endured, but fought against it, getting to her feet and grabbing the body of a fallen Elder, which she threw at Claire's guiding Elder, disrupting her focus and thus lessening the pressure of the pain.
Mikael leaped at that Elder and tackled her to the ground, while Alexandra headbutted Claire and wrested the blade from her hand before breaking it.
A wave of power broke out and sent them all flying, knocking them unconscious.
.....
When Alexandra woke up, the sun was setting over the horizon.
Ariel sat across from her, his expression unreadable. Claire was tied to a tombstone, bleeding from her forehead.
Mikael was nowhere to be seen, neither were the last of the witches.
Neither was Nik.
Hearing her stir, Ariel said, his voice subdued, "They ran off with him. Mikael went after them, but I doubt he will be successful."
He raised his head and looked her in the eyes, and she saw that he was crying.
Ariel's face was suddenly masked by fury, and in an instant he had gotten up, his fist pulverizing the altar. He let out a yell of anger, grief, and unimaginable pain as he struck it again and again till it fell apart.
His eyes fell on Claire, and it was then that Alexandra's figure appeared in front of him.
She said softly, "You did all you could, Lord Prince."
"It was not enough."
Mikael returned just then, and his downcast expression told them all they needed to know. His bloodied hands, however, hinted at him having released his fury already.
"They threw his coffin into the river, and him with it. I dove to the bottom of the waters but it wasn't there, it must have gone with the current."
Claire suddenly took in a sharp breath, and instantly commanded the attention of the vampires.
They walked towards her, and Ariel growled, "I will rip you limb by limb and scatter your remains on your family tomb, then unearth their bones and shatter them before casting them into the river!"
"No, brother." A voice said from behind them, and they turned to see Lucas standing there.
The sun had gone down enough to allow him to move, and now he stood there, the object of his siblings' fury.
"I do not claim righteousness," he said, "and I accept full responsibility for what has happened. Now I ask to end it."
They regarded him in silence, then Ariel nodded.
Lucas' figure appeared in front of Claire right after. He looked at her beautiful, bloodied face.
He looked into her eyes and saw the sheer amount of fear in their depths.
He smiled coldly and compelled her, "You will feel this with countless times more intensity than you should have, and you will not try to resist."
He walked back and procured a bottle of diesel, which he doused her with before lighting a match.
"No, please! Please!" Claire screamed.
"For our brother," Lucas said, and threw it onto her. And her body went ablaze.
The four vampires watched her burn, a vindictive look in Lucas' eyes. For he had burned because of her.
Claire shrieked as the flames engulfed her, and soon, she was nothing but a charred corpse.
The silence persisted for a while, then Lucas spoke.
"I am truly sorry. All I wanted was to send Nik into a slumber to keep him from his bouts of destruction while we got the kingdom back. I trusted the wrong person and almost got our brother killed. Even now, he may be in grave peril. You may not trust me anymore, but I promise you, I will make this right. I will get our kingdom back. For him."
Ariel replied, "And we will find him and bring him back. I have not forgiven you in the slightest, but you are family, and so I will put my trust in you once again."
Mikael nodded in approval. "However, the stake is once again in his heart, so Nik is in an extremely vulnerable state currently. The weapon is spelled and cannot be removed by anyone without Asgeirsson blood as Lucas' blood is one of the ingredients powering it. Alexandra has his blood and so she can wake him as well. But we must find him. We made countless enemies over the last two hundred years and any of them could find him."
The brothers embraced, and Lucas said, Farewell, brothers. And to you," he said to Alexandra, who just nodded.
Lucas walked away, headed to the Manor, while the others walked across the Old Battlefield, headed to the river.
It would be a century before the four Asgeirsson brothers saw each other again.