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Timofey scowled. “So, that leech stole you?”
“Don’t call her that!” Maksim snapped. “She didn’t take me anywhere. I chose to go, and I’ve returned the same way.”
“Returned as what, though?” Timofey asked sadly. “What did they do to you, my son?”
“It’s not like that, Father,” Maksim pleaded. “They set me free. Now, I am what I was always meant to be. I want you to join me, Father. Let’s claim the justice you deserve.”
Timofey couldn’t disguise his devastation. “Oh, son. I’m so sorry. I thought I was prepared for you to learn the truth about our world, but I’ve failed you. I let my bitterness and anger stop me from telling you the reality. I thought I’d taken us far enough from the hidden world that I didn’t have to explain its horrors to you. I thought you’d never need to know.”
Maksim fought the confusion that overwhelmed him. What was his father talking about? “Father, please. You don’t have to worry. I’m here, and I’m perfectly fine.”
Timofey shook his head adamantly. “No, son, you’re not. Vampires cannot be trusted. They are pure evil, Maksim. I never told you about the dangers they pose or the horrible atrocities they’ve committed. For five thousand years, they hunted humans and Therians alike, caring for nothing but death, fear, and blood since that was what they were made for. They drove the Therian king mad, and I was exiled during a battle with their kind.”
Maksim’s confusion grew, and with it, the power swirling through his veins. He was torn between his father's image of vampires and his love for Nadya. The battle was short but brutal, and like so many other battles, Nadya won.
“No! You’re wrong!” he shouted. “They’re not what you think they are.” He rubbed his forehead as the dull ache in his skull increased. “I’m not evil, Father.”
Timofey jerked back as if Maksim had sucker-punched him. The color drained from his face, and he looked like he would faint. “What do you mean, son?”
Maksim held his head high and met Timofey’s gaze. “I’m a vampire, Father. Nadya herself awakened my Therian form.”
“She’s the worst one of all, Maksim!” Timofey shouted. “Nadya is the mother of evil!”
Anger that anyone would besmirch her name overwhelmed him. “That’s not true! She was my beloved, a gentle woman with a kind heart who wanted to make peace with the Therians to stop her people from being hunted to extinction,” Maksim shouted back.
Timofey’s face contorted in rage. “You’re a damned fool, son. How could you believe such an obvious fantasy? I personally saw her bathe in the blood of innocent children.”
“I’m not a fool. Nadya gave me more power than you ever did, and she chose me to lead in her stead. I am the vampire king, and with the death of my love, it falls to me to ensure that vampires no longer live under the Therians’ oppressive boot.”
With every word, Timofey’s heart broke more. “You can’t do this. I’ll stop you.”
Maksim grinned. He could feel his control slipping, but he was too addicted to the rush his power brought to care. “You couldn’t stop me if you tried, but it doesn’t have to be like this. You can join me.”
“Never,” Timofey spat.
“So be it.” Maksim threw out a hand, and shadows spilled from his palm. They crept across the floor to yank the older man’s feet out from under him. They flung his body across the room into the far wall and held him in place.
Timofey screamed in rage and disgust at his son’s use of the vampire’s dark magic. Perhaps it had been a father’s love, stupidity, or maybe denial that had kept him from registering the significance of Maksim’s crimson eyes and the radical change in his son’s scent and demeanor. It didn’t matter now. His only child was an abomination.
Maksim had never seen his father so infuriated. He felt the magic in the air before the older man’s body began to change, and it was so unexpected that he froze. Throughout his long life, he had never seen his father shift. Confident in his abilities and curious about what Timofey looked like as a dragon, Maksim dropped the magic that held his father in place.
The change was not fast or easy for Timofey, who hadn’t shifted in centuries. He writhed on the floor in agony as his bones broke and reshaped with horrific slowness. Maksim watched the process in fascination, grateful that his shift was not as lengthy.
A full minute had passed before Timofey’s shifting mass was large enough that Maksim had to leave the room. Soon, the magic would produce a full-sized dragon to destroy that corner of the house, breaking through the hand-hewn timbers. Unconcerned by the additional pain it would cause his father, Maksim went outside to wait for the emergence of Timofey’s dragon.
It wasn’t a long wait. The further along the change got, the faster it went. The wall exploded outward, and an enormous dark brown dragon flattened one wing of the beautiful home. Chunks of wood flew in every direction, but Maksim dodged them. The dragon reared and loosed a mighty roar, sending a gout of flame a hundred feet into the air.
I forgot how good this feels! Timofey sent.
Maksim took a deep breath as a stabbing sensation shot through his head. The pain had grown worse, and it now interfered with his ability to think straight. The burning in his throat was now constant, insisting that he needed to feed. It was unbearable, but Maksim summoned every ounce of his willpower and forced himself to concentrate on the fight ahead of him to the exclusion of all else. He would deal with his bodily needs later.
Maksim’s eyes glowed as he stared at the angry dragon. He willed the change to overtake him, and the red and black dragon occupied his place in seconds.
I didn’t.
Timofey roared as the elation faded and the cause of his change resurfaced in his mind. You’re an abomination! A monster!
The older dragon’s mental tirade got more unhinged as Timofey slipped over the precipice into the pit of madness he’d been hovering above for years. The brown beast lunged and slashed at the red and black dragon with his talons and jaws, no longer aware it was his son he attacked.
