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I didn’t pay it much heed at the time. A lot of people resented me, and still do.
It comes with the territory, I suppose.
I speed down another corridor then turn a corner, where I come face to face with a squadron of men.
Not undead, butmen.
They’re in full plate-armor, their faces hidden behind curved helms, their breastplates adorned with the twin serpent insignia of House Talavarra.
I stop, lowering my twin war-axes.
I stare at them.
They stare back; unspeaking, unmoving, as if they’ve encountered a ghost.
“Bloody hells,” one of them curses. “He’s herealready.”
“Fuckingmonster.”
The irony isn’t lost on me.
I count at least a dozen soldiers. Some of them have crossbows.
One is raising his, firing it straight at me.
His aim is good. The bolt would have hit me right in the heart if I hadn’t plucked it right out of the air.
I throw the steel bolt to the floor.
The sniper swears.
“I’d rather not kill you,” I say quietly as I approach.
The soldiers don’t move. They simply stare at me, frozen and silent. I don’t know what I must look like to them; covered in the stench and filth of the undead, my armor torn and shredded, a pair of massive war-axes in my hands.
My body is strong—I feel like I could go on fighting for an eternity—but the thirst is starting to creep up on me again.
I can smell their blood. It isn’t tantalizing like Finley’s, but I know it will make me strong.
The primal part of me is overcome with a sudden urge to feed.
Blades are drawn. The men advance, but there’s hesitation in their steps.
Unlike the undead, mortal men are influenced by fear.
“I’ll give you one chance,” I inform them. “Stand aside, and you won’t be killed.”
But they refuse to move.
I sigh. “Why are you doing this? You have to know that what’s come to pass here is an abomination.”
“Evil to fight evil,” one of the men replies, a tremor in his voice. “We can’t allow one such asyouto take all the power in this empire. Your kind don’t die. It’swrong.Better to have one of our own ruling us. Not a blood-drinking monster.”
And you think that one who resorts to Death Magic would be any better?
“You don’t evenknowme,” I growl, stalking toward the speaker. He lifts his sword and rushes me.
I dance around his swift attack. Dropping my axes, I grab his sword-wrist and squeeze hard, crushing his armor and his bones. I pull him close and tear off his helm.
