HORRIBLE, INDESCRIBABLE THINGS HUNT IN THE CORNERS HE DOES. Every creature that could hunt the alleyways and docks burrowed inside of his chest and bloomed into a tragic, hellish flower. Andrei had forever lived alone, worked alone, and erased what he couldn't control. In his derangement he developed a psyche that nobody could penetrate.

Hidden inside his mind were fleeting glimpses of his power that would throw off any of his kind who would dream of hunting him. To him, he was flying close to the sun and anyone who dared reach his height would be thrown into the fiery ball of danger. Only a paranoid man would create this many traps. The one who destroys must also hold the keys to his ability, lest it be turned against him.

The nagging feeling inside of him left a hole where his confidence had once been. It didn't matter. If he didn't have confidence, he would fill himself with zealotry.

Just as God himself, Andrei wrote lists upon lists of women who he would impose upon and men who would follow his orders. It would be easy for him to start over, create a world within a world where he was the most important person in society. One who has no memories cannot rebel against a master who remembers lifetimes. His appeal to the masses would be simple, mindful, and logical. Was it not the uneducated who vote? The uneducated who believe they control their lives? Andrei was only doing what a human would do, only better.

They'd fly like locusts towards his enemies, commanded towards a cause like in Egypt.

He would be the angel of death, stealing the leaders of their lives.

Those goals would be soon realized. It was only recently that he was able to infiltrate the castle. Andrei knew that they were under the impression that sheer numbers could stop him. He wanted to laugh, thinking that they'd believed he came for both of them. The spare was just that, secondary and unneeded. He'd planned on disposing of her, for the sake of sending a message. Andrei's declaration of war would come soon enough. When it did, he would strike fear into the very souls of those who he'd control.

By this time he believed he would have gotten to her. Andrei had always wanted a child, one who would be a beaming representation of who he was. That was what he was, was it not, for a long-dead father. He was the original now and could mold any baby into what he wanted. A child with the gifts of a vampire and the impressive resilience of a human.

Too many years ago, he'd come across the first hybrid creature and even then he wanted one of his own.

The night had been one of great defeat, even Andrei had to admit. He'd lost another one of his humans, who selfishly had run herself off a cliffside in order to end her servitude. Hunger was nipping at his head, a disaster for a man of such control. A hood over his head, he slipped into the local woods and hunted for a woman to take with charming words and promises of a better life. The poorer the woman, the easier to convince.

Human women were much easier to control. The strength was secondary, Andrei had no worries of any gifts impeding his goals of becoming the greatest vampire to ever exist. He would be the great one, with a woman in the background. Mates had never been for him. Why would he want someone to be equal to him in private? If a man wanted to wield power, he had to understand that his woman would listen.

Poor women were easiest to draw in, but always had a bit of bite back that angered Andrei. He needed them easy, pliable, able to understand when to shut up. He would be the guiding shepherd to his flock, not she.

These woods had nearly dried up, too many nosy villagers noticing he was picking off their women. Families moved away, but not hers.

Hair down to the middle of her back, with only a few woven bracelets and drab clothes.

Andrei was upset to know she was not human. Eyes of red, skin not white but washed out like any good corpse. How could he have not noticed a woman in his hunting grounds? He would have to leave to further south, find a new group in order to find a fresh group of women to entrap. Maybe one of them could follow the rules and not upset him enough.

Seconds after he made the final plans in his mind to leave, he heard the chirping of a small boy. A small boy who had a corpse face and flowing blood.

From those who he had unfortunately run into, they'd often wondered if humans could ever be with vampires, if beyond their strength, a child could be a possible. Andrei had concluded before that moment that the coupling was unholy, needed, and a child could not be born from the union. There were few ways that one could convince the man that he was incorrect, but this was undeniable proof that he could be better than the other vampires. What vampire could proclaim that they had enough strength to not only keep a human woman stay put during the coupling but also bear him a child from her womb? Andrei would be one of the first since he had not seen one before.

With digging, he understood that this man had fathered more children. Daughters, beings that had few uses for a man other than political alliance and furtherance of a family through the womb. Andrei, that summer, had unequivocally decided that his end goal was one of these children.

He was only upset at her that he was unable to do it. He had been so gentle with her, taking the time to lull her in with promises of happiness and a family. He had allowed her another woman to keep her company, for fuck's sake, what kind of man would do that if they were not serious? She had been the perfect woman. So quiet, so easy to please with a few words. It was his fault that he allowed that other woman, allowed her the chance to leave. It was she who had lulled him in the end, and that betrayal was worse than what she had done after.

The spare had spit it in his face: they'd removed the only good parts of them.

It was almost as unholy as blasphemy. What right did they have to deny him all he had ever really wanted? Andrei had been their ruler, their savior from the eventual poverty that came from their terrible lives. They were rich with him! No man would ever replace what he was to them. He was everything, the heaven and the good angel that delivered them to the rest of their life. They were meant to be mothers to his children.

When he saw that girl he'd nearly killed her right then and there, with her college friends. The shorter, blonder, version of his woman. He'd taken her, attempted to mold her mind to be what he had lost but it had not worked. She was unwilling to let go of her childhood, of the mother who wanted her home, of the University classes she had to attend. Andrei did what he had to in a rage, removing and unravelling every nagging piece of her that reminded him of the fact that she wasn't her.

She was his worst nightmare imagined, the haunting, the grimoire of spells witches used to curse their enemies. She had a devil inside of her, being so combative with him over her future. What woman did not need to be wanted by a man with such extraordinary gifts?

He buried her deep enough. She was a miserable, hysteric mess, with only herself to blame for her misery.

He would have what he wanted.

---

ATHENODORA HAD HELD HE SECRETS CLOSE TO HER. She didn't allow Aro to touch her after the first five hundred years, bought herself time with the only man who actually knew her while she fell in love with a man who never would. Despite what she'd done, she desperately wanted him back. She wanted back the laughs, the funny remarks about each and every one of those stupid guards. Never before had she been forced away from him. She'd been fine with staying in that tower most of the time if it meant keeping him happy.

Well, clearly she was never the one he wanted. The second River Acastia became his secretary, all was lost between them. The laughs, the sex, the roses. No touching her, she was a cursed object. Athenodora had to watch the man she'd been forced to be with, the man she made herself love, fall in love with another woman.

That is bound to make a woman crazy, right? Athenodora thought so. She'd kept her mean streak to a minimum when she was in his presence. He hated mean women. He never figured out that she was everything he hated. Oh well.

It had been her too that exposed the affair. Who was she to judge, too? It was clear when she looked at her. The little human girl was disgusted by the actions of a woman grown, a woman who was used as a political weapon for so long.

What would she have done?

What would she have done?

Athenodora sneered at the letter. His handwriting was too feminine, but she'd never tell a single soul that. This man, this man who used various nicknames but never let her know his name for very long. What was she doing, using him and him using her? He thought she was a whore for sleeping with a man outside of marriage. Well, she thought he was a bratty, loony child, but thinking that doesn't do much good for their partnership.

He was the only one who gave her the time of day. Stefan wouldn't speak with her over the phone because he thought it was bugged by the government. Whatever, he was always crazy. He shot at a hole because he thought a man was spying on him. It was a worm, at best, but more likely nothing more than air and lunacy.

She felt like she was the sane one, always, even when she was acting crazy, partially because she always had a reason to why she felt a certain way. She wanted to kill that woman, that River, because of what she did. She wanted to make sure she never forgot her, forgot what she did to her life. Athenodora had been a queen, only to be replaced by a lowly secretary. It made her insecure, something she never thought she'd feel. Humans were uglier, gross, and useful mostly for food. Why he wanted anything to do with any of them, let alone River, had to have been craziness.

Yet he was the one who she was siding with. The Romanians would not be undermined, not by Caius, not by anyone.

They were meant to meet an hour ago, but he'd been showing up late for the past week, probably off crying over his lost human and cursing her name. It was pathetic.

"Do you have the new plans?" he'd asked, as if she was willing to meet with him if she didn't. Athenodora, the smart woman that she was, only nodded and handed over the scoured out plans for the hidden caves. They had enough hidden wealth to cripple the economies of even the best nations. That amount of gold flooding the markets, what a mess.

They'd be guarded, they always were, by allies, but this crazy man thought he could convince them with the proof of half-vampires and a future of golden children. Would some lonely men buy that, sure, but immortal women had long since accepted the fact that they couldn't and wouldn't have any children. Athenodora had longed for them in a past life, but she realized now that human children were a waste to an immortal, and immortal children were dangerous to her safety. How many fucking bites did they have to give before a rational person slapped them silly?

"The South Koreans will not give up the money," Athenodora warned, "They'll rat you out. One of them can burn people with their mind."

"I'm not going to South Korea," was his only response as he stared at the plans further. At least he isn't so idiotic as to get himself killed.

Athenodora always wondered what gave him all of this power he believed he had. He wasn't that rich, especially for a vampire, and held no real estate holdings. He had no coven of his own, only the desire for a child of his own. She supposed that desire was what fueled him for so long, but she didn't like to ask him too many questions, as despite their working together, he often erased her memory. The process was not as comfortable as he believed it was.

"If you ever head up to Sibera, don't," she warned him again, "There's a girl up there who can turn your gift against you."

Why was she even warning him about this? Whatever, she was getting what she wanted.

Revenge.