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Chapter One
Sophia Brenning
Germany’s Black Forest - 1978
The tragic scene that unfolded in front of Sophia Brenning didn’t make any sense.
Just this morning, she had been laying beside the overflowing blossoms that surrounded her idyllic family home, her only worry whether or not the characters in her latest romance novel would find their happy ending.
Tonight, she hid under the charred remains of that home, using what was left of her cottage to shelter herself from the bloodshed occurring all around her. This night was quickly becoming the longest of her life, and she knew it was far from over.
Sophia’s fey village of Trim, hidden deep within Germany’s Black Forest, had been magically cloaked from the outside world for centuries.
But tonight, it was under attack.
The mystical veil that shrouded this village somehow vanished, allowing the merciless vampire horde of the Voivod to attack.
These vampires, led by their ruthless leader, Artem, made their savage goals clear to the villagers over the last few hours.Every fey living in Trim was to be turned into one of them - a bloodsucking demon, forever enslaved by the Voivod.
And that was only if they could survive the transformation, something most failed to do.
Sophia didn’t care whether she became a vampire at the end of this ordeal or died during the process. Her life, in her mind, had already ended. There was no escaping this. All her hiding did was prolong the inevitable.
Sophia tried to ignore her trembling quads, which were beginning to feel a lot like jello. She had been crouching beneath the rubble of what was once her home for far too long, and her legs were giving out because of it. If she wasn’t so afraid, adrenaline fueling her, she would have collapsed long ago. hours ago.
All around her she could hear the gut wrenching cries of the fey she grew up with during the twenty-four years of her life here. She wanted to help them all, but knew she wouldn’t be much help. With the vampire horde surrounding this village, preventing anyone from escaping, there was nowhere to run. It was a game of cat and the mouse and would be until there were no mice left to catch.
And what easy mice the fey were to capture. Without their village’s cloaking spell, they were defenseless against the unnatural world.
The fey had decided to isolate themselves from the unnatural world well over a millennia ago. They chose peace over war, finding serenity in nature. None dared to leave the safety their many villages provided. Frightening tales of vicious immortals frightened them far too much to consider trying. So no one needed to learn how to fight, believing the cloaking spell that protected their villages would never fall.
But they fell today.
“Casper,where are you?”She let out a harsh whisper, careful to not be heard by any of the nearby bloodsuckers.
Casper was one of her closest friends, but no one in her village was aware of their friendship. If anyone had been, they would’ve banished her from Trim. Fey did not take kindly to anyone who was not fey, and Casper definitelywasn’tfey. He was an elf, and a royal one at that, hailing from the elven island of Elaron, an island hidden deep in the Atlantic, shrouded from mortals by ancient magic.
It didn’t matter that the fey were an off breed of elves, having evolved from elves millennia ago. Elves weren’t fey, so they were forbidden, and that was that.
Capser and Sophia struck an unlikely friendship several years ago, back when Sophia was only sixteen. More rebellious than most within Trim, she decided to run away, escaping the cloak Trim hid behind to explore the outside world.
She met Casper out in that world. Terrified of him at first - as any fey with common sense would’ve been - he quickly grew on her. She supposed her sense wasn’t so common after all. But she was thankful it wasn’t, because the two of them would’ve never become the best of friends if it had been.
She was admittedly in love with the elf. How could she not be? He was absolutely stunning - his emerald eyes enchanting, his golden locks flawless. Beyond that he had an amazing, selfless soul. He was perfect in every way. Unfortunately, he never returned the romantic affection she felt for him, though Sophia didn’t stop hoping he one day would.
Tonight, that hope would die. Whether Artem’s horde took her or Sophia died before they could, she knew she’d never see her friend again. News of the fey didn’t travel fast or far in the unnatural world. Casper wouldn’t know about this attack until it was too late.
Of course, if hedidhappen to find her in time, she’d be a free woman. Elves had the unique ability to split, a talent no other unnatural being possessed. Splitting gave elves the ability to jump to any place on earth in an instant. If Casper was here, he’d be able to split her away, easily avoiding the wall of vampires surrounding Trim.
It was then that a terrifying sound caught Sophia’s attention, chilling her to her very core.
It was the anguished screams of her parents, reminding Sophia that she didn’t want to imagine escaping this madness. Not unless her family was escaping with her. There was no future for her without her parents.
Her eyes darted in the direction of their screams, her heart pounding in her arms, her legs, her head. She couldn’tbreathe.
She hadn’t seen her parents since this morning, when her mother was watering the flowers while laughing with her father, Sophia sitting beside them, her head stuck in a book.
It was a peaceful memory and worlds away from the haunting one in front of her, one she wouldn’t soon forget. There her parents were - their mangled bodies helplessly laying on the ground, three vampires standing over them, their lips slick with blood.
