Julius and Marcus had managed to help one another make it to a tree nearby, downwind of the smell. They huddled together under their meager blanket and waited for death. They had not said final words to one another because their throats were too dry to speak anymore. They had intended to die together as they had lived, side by side. They prayed for the end to come quickly to end the suffering now.
It was during this time a woman appeared out of the tree line. She was walking barefoot through the snow wearing only a tattered dress. She had long black hair and the pallor of death. When she saw Julius, she walked closer to get a better look. Julius was sure he was hallucinating and death must be near now. She bent to examine his face, and Julius noticed her hair was scattered with twigs and leaves, like she had been sleeping on the ground for months. He just looked into her eyes and wondered why his hallucination didn’t speak but then reasoned that hallucinations probably didn’t talk. His fevered brain just accepted what it was seeing.
Her name was Nicia, and she had been taken at the age of three as a slave. She had been a kitchen slave and then a body slave. She had known nothing but pain and fear her whole life, so when a man appeared in her room one night many years ago, she submitted. Only this time he wasn’t there to harm her but to change her. She had never been the same since the change, and her fragmented mind had turned her into something feral that roamed the woods. She fed on fallen soldiers after battles, and she lived like a wild animal in the forest. She had smelled the rotting dead and had come to feed.
She crouched down in front of Julius and turned her head to the side. She normally would have fed upon the two dying men, but this one was different. His eyes were familiar although she could not understand why. She had been shown one kindness in her entire life. She had gone to the market with the cook when she was nine. She had been brought along to help carry the food as the lady of the house was having a large party that night. She was tall for her age but undernourished. She was like a stick figure she was so thin. She had been following behind the cook quietly when a soldier approached her and held out his hand. He held an apple on the palm of it and was offering it to her. He had seen the child and was disgusted by how thin she was. He knew slaves had no rights, but most were at least kept fed. This one looked like she was barely fed scraps. The cook noticed him offering the girl the apple and slapped her for looking at it. He was enraged and slapped the cook and made the girl take the apple. The cook had no choice but to let her keep it. The soldier had more rights than she did. Nicia never forgot the taste of the apple or of the man who had shown her kindness, and now as she looked upon Julius, she saw he had the same eyes as the soldier from so long ago. She decided to now do an act of kindness herself and save him. After she had changed him, he begged her to save his brother, and so she did. She spoke little to the brothers and only stayed for two days after the change. She told them what she could, but her speech was just as fragmented as her mind. She stole away one morning, no longer able to keep anyone’s company. She needed to be alone and away from people.
The brothers stayed in the forest for the rest of the winter. They were unsure of their new power and its limitations. They tested their strengths and weaknesses and fed upon the soldiers one by one as they lay dying.
Julius loved his new power and embraced it like a child with a new toy. Marcus was more reasonable about their newfound power and treated it cautiously. They both realized though that if the rats carried the disease, it would find its way to Rome. They wanted to save Cassia and even their mother, who probably didn’t deserve their concern.
They tore their way through the countryside, feeding on anyone in their path. In later years they would learn to control their hunger, but in villages already war-torn, they held no such self-control. They left a trail of bodies in their wake as they made their way home.
By the time they reached Rome, the disease had already started. They later learned it had originated in the densely populated city. They found their mother on her deathbed and their sister trying to tend her while she herself had started the early symptoms of the sickness. They turned them both immediately. To their dismay though, their mother only became more bitter day by day after the change. She blamed Julius because he had been the first to be changed and called him cursed. She told him he had brought evil upon their family and she would have rather died than to live like a monster. She left one day and never said goodbye. She just simply vanished. They waited for her to return, but after two decades, they had to leave. The people around them had started to notice they never aged. They had heard their father died in a battle, and they accepted their mother, if still alive, was never returning.
They began to travel the world together and never stayed anywhere longer than a decade. Their appearance would never change, so their home would have to. They learned to blend in and leave no trace of their feeding. They learned to use their full powers and made no lasting connections. Eventually they would learn of others of their kind, many who were much older than them. They learned to avoid their kind as it was easier to be solitary to keep themselves safe. They never turned anyone; it was a pact they made when they all first were changed. They survived because they stuck together and made few mistakes, and if they did, the other two would clean it up for them.
They survived this way for centuries, until they came to meet with the woman at the bar.
Chapter 2
Liam and Lucas were born into a royal house. Their cousin was the king of England. Although they were twins, nothing about them was the same. They had been born into the same station in life, but both boys had approached it differently. Liam took to his father’s views of the world, while Lucas preferred his mother’s.
The lived a life of privilege and were afforded the best education of their time. They had private tutors and were fluent in Latin and French. They were both skilled riders and marksmen with a bow. When they reached their teen years, they were invited to come live at court. Like most young men born to power and privilege, they were reckless and showed little regard to people considered lower than themselves. Even Lucas, who had a kind heart, was inconsiderate to people below his station. He blamed the mentality of the time, but as he aged, he understood he should have been a better person. As men of status, they were not expected to marry and provide heirs until they were much older. They spent their youth flitting from girl to girl. The court was abundant with them, and they never took them seriously for long. These young women were meant for the older men who were ready to marry. So the two young boys took nothing seriously for any length of time.
It was one such young woman who became their undoing. Liam was prone to falling in love quickly and falling out of it even more fast. Liam loved the rush of a new love, the adrenaline of emotions that were uncontrollable. The madness that would take over his young brain at the first kiss or the first touch. The feeling never lasted long though, and so he kept seeking out new girls.
He was out riding one day. He had grown tired of the monotony of court life and equally tired of his cousin the king. He had never met a more pompous man, and his whims were growing tiresome. He would announce that he felt like going quail hunting, and they all had to drop whatever they were doing and attend him. One day he had decided he wanted the men of court to watch as he had his portrait painted, and so for weeks they would sit wordlessly while he posed. If you played a game of cards or went shooting with him, you had to let him win. It all seemed mindless to Liam, who had started to think no one should be allowed to have their every whim to be fulfilled. It seemed the madness the monarchy was famous for hadn’t skipped their current king, and his whims were becoming more dangerous. At least for now the men were safe, but the ladies were starting to experience the cracks. As he rode through the forest, he happened upon a beautiful girl by the river. She was washing clothes and had flaming-red hair and porcelain skin. He sat upon his horse and watched her until finally she took notice of him. She was immediately