Page 21 of Crimson Mourning

“Then what would you call it?”

I threw my right arm back over the couch. The dagger I’d taped to the back of the couch, out of view, remained in its place.

“My birthright.”

“What?”

“Father. Mother.”

Damon began to pace. “What nonsense are you talking about, Lawrence?”

“Father. Mother. You,” I said, the heat beginning to rise within me. “You were born a pure blood, but me? Did you know I was promoted?”

Damon stopped pacing.

“That’s right. After all these years, I learned the truth.Davoncame clean one day. He told me a story. A story about the human resistance, and a particularly troublesome pocket of humans who kept resisting. Turns out, to get the buy in of all the clans, he had to show his strength by crushing the humans.

“Well, this particular pocket of humans was living in a small village in the south. To show the clans that he was the one who could unite them all, he vowed to wipe out that sect. So, one day, he slipped in under the cover of darkness and went from home to home, slaughtering the humans as he went.”

“So, what?” Damon countered. “The humans are nothing. They’re either food or familiars. Either way, they’re beneath us.”

With my left hand, I scratched at my beard. My right grabbed onto the handle of the hidden dagger.

“So, it just so happens that one of the houses he came upon, had a man and a woman in it. They were still awake and hadn’t gone to bed yet. The reason? The woman was in labor, and was about to give birth.

“Davonkilled them both with little regard. But, miraculously, the womanstillgave birth. When the baby slid out of her, Davon told me that he picked the child up, held it upside-down by one foot, and was about to devour it, when he looked into the child’s eyes.”

“And?”

“And Davon said to the child, ‘My son Damon needs someone to watch his back, a true equal to push him.’ “

Damon’s eyes slowly widened.

“Ta-da,” I said with a nod. “I’m not really your brother. I’m a prisoner of war.”

“Nonsense,” Damon said. “That’s nonsense. Even if it were true, he raised you as his son. We werebrothers, Lawrence.”

Damon’s voice quivered and his eyes trembled. I steeled myself.

“No. We were never brothers. I was servant, and you, being the eldest, were always master.”

“So, that’s why you did all this? Kidnapping my wife? Trying to kill me? Because of something that happened years ago that neither of us remember?”

“You know what happens when you keep prisoners, Damon. They eventually try to start a revolution. Nothing is secure.”

“So, what now, brother?”

“Well, with you alive, I can’t claim my rightful place as leader over Shaye.”

“Rightful? Oh, no. You’re not Shaye. You tried to kill me. You shattered my marriage by having my wife. You put your filthy hands on mywife.”

“Don’t forget the animal blood.”

Damon scrunched his forehead. “What?”

“The animal’s blood? Davon? You don’t think those circumstances he died under werereallymysterious, do you? Somebody had to slip it into his food.”

Damon clenched his fingers. “No. I’m going to wipe you from the face of the earth! You…you, and anyone you’ve ever sired, your entirelineagewill never be Shaye again,” Damon declared.

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