Page 5 of Prince with a Chance of Darkness

Vlad blamed his father for handing him and Radu over to the enemy to start with, and the enemy himself. And he blamed any and all who would exploit the weak for their own twisted gains.

That had been the start of Vlad’s fierce need to protect those who could not protect themselves. Something history never spoke of. There were no recorded instances of it. Why would there be? Doing so would have made him look weak to his enemies, and that was not something he could have afforded them.

Not with war at his doorstep.

Not with a traitor as a father.

Vlad had done nothing to stop the rumors that spread like wildfire. In some ways, he’d encouraged them. Better they fear him and stay away than join in the already seemingly nonstop war that had become his life.

Had he impaled thousands?

Perhaps.

He had surely beheaded far more than he’d impaled. Was he called Vlad the Beheader? No. Many had died at the end of hissword. Did history refer to him as Vlad the Swordsman? Again. No.

Those he had impaled had not been goodmen—emphasis on men. Not women. And the technique was not his invention. It was something he’d been forced to bear witness to when held by the Ottoman Empire. He had simply taken their techniques and perfected them.

Basically, he’d invented a better mousetrap, and that hurt their feelings, so they began to whisper of his cruelty, of his madness. Back then, Vlad had welcomed it, knowing it kept many an army from daring to attack his lands. He had no idea he’d be “alive” some six hundred years later. Here to see what the future thought of him and how history painted him. Had he, maybe he would have taken measures to sprinkle truth among the rumors.

Hindsight was something indeed.

Now, all these years later, Vlad would gladly permit people to believe he was as Stoker wrote him, rather than live with what history saw his mortal life as being. In so many ways, Vlad the Impaler was a bigger monster than Dracula ever could be.

Do not grow soft on me,said his demon.

Often, Vlad wished he could face off with his demon, one on one. That he could stand before it on the battlefield, and they air their grievances as men. Not be stuck with one another, neither really able to best the other.

Master, hurry!

Katarina’s voice filled Vlad’s mind, spurring him onward. She and her sisters had answered his call for help when he’d learned Lucian had betrayed him. The Weird Sisters, as they liked to be called, had dropped everything and rushed to the cave’s entrance, trying to assist the young women from Harker’s visions.

The sisters were not known for being particularly caring. He could count on one hand the number of times in all his centuries that he’d seen them show an ounce of compassion or concern for anyone other than themselves.

Each of those times had been one hundred and fifty years ago, in this very forest, dealing with the same enemy who had harmed the twins Vlad was so desperate to get to.

Dragos.

Chapter Three

Vlad

She has ceased to breathe,Katarina shouted down their mental pathway, her words driving Vlad onward.

In mist form, he did not see in the traditional way, nor hear as a mortal would, but rather, he sensed everything. Far more than any human ever could, even using all their senses. And at this moment, he felt fear. Absolute terror beat at his essence like a drum, warning of pending death. Of agony, the likes of which he would not survive.

It made no sense. He was not in danger. Was he?

Had Dragos gained his freedom?

No.

Vlad would have sensed as much.

Even if Dragos had managed to do the unthinkable and break free of his mystical cell, Vlad would not feel terror. He'd be enraged. Not fearful.

Fear, not for us,his demon pushed through the nothingness at him.For her.

Harker's visions of the twins assailed Vlad, nearly making him lose his mist form. He was not one who lost control of his powers. He was not a fledgling. He was Vlad Dracula, known the world over as the greatest vampire ever to be. He was not newly sired. A pup on his master's lead. He did not lose control.

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