Though he had vowed never to return home, and though he thoroughly enjoyed his new life and all of the power and excitement that it gave him, he found himself inexplicably drawn back to his family’s massive country manor a few years later. His father’s mind was rotten

from his many years of heavy drinking. His brother however was young, healthy, and thoroughly enjoying his new life, and the power that came with being Lord of the Manor.

Devon watched him from the shadows of the early night as Robert moved about ordering this servant here, and that one there. Though Devon knew how alike they looked, he was keenly reminded of the fact that their personalities had always been complete opposites. Before he had become the monster he was now, Devon had never enjoyed ordering people about, he had asked for things when he needed help, or he had done it himself. In the eyes of his father, and his brother, he had never been anything more than a servant amongst these walls anyway. Never been anything more than the unneeded and unwanted offspring and they had reminded him of that fact on a daily basis.

He didn’t know what had drawn him back here after all these years, didn’t know why he had returned to this hated place, but he found himself oddly fascinated by it. Captivated by the life that he had rejected, and that had rejected him. He had been unable to get inside to see his father as he was not invited, but he had found himself peering in the windows at the man that had once terrified and brutalized him. He was now weak and feeble. Found himself staring at the man that had beaten him to within an inch of life more than a few times, but whom Devon could now kill with a flick of his wrist. And yet he felt no desire to do so. His father had ruined his childhood but now, in his old age, he was paying for his excessive alcoholism and brutality. Devon had never put much stock in God, but he felt the cosmic hand of fate at work here, and he was satisfied with it.

Devon withdrew from the window, moving swiftly through the night to the front of the manor. The windows were lit with candles; inside he could hear the soft music of a violin. His brother was having a small gathering, coaches and horses were gathered up front. Liveried footmen stood silently by them.

Though he was hungry, he would not hunt or feed here. This was the last time he would ever come here, and he would leave it the way he had found it. He would not sink to his father or Robert’s level with spiteful acts of vengeance, they were not worth it. He slipped through the gardens, so lost in his own thoughts that he didn’t notice the couple stealing time amongst the shadows until he was on top of them.

The women gasped in surprise, jerking away from the embrace of her lover. Her eyes widened upon him, her mouth dropping as she gaped at him. “Devon!”

Devon nodded to her. “Jane.”

He turned slowly, his eyes scanning over his brother. Robert had always been bigger than him, thicker through the shoulders, and broader in the chest. But either because of what Devon had become, or just the normal process of adulthood and genetics, Devon was now slightly taller than Robert, and broader in the back and shoulders. Robert looked anything but happy to see Devon as he studied him with open disdain, and his arms folded firmly over his chest.

“Devon, is that really you?” Jane whispered. Her hand was over her mouth now, her eyes wide as she scanned him rapidly. Her surprise turned swiftly to keen interest and desire. Jane, the neighbor’s daughter and Devon had once had a fling, but apparently she had moved onto his brother when Devon had left.

“We had thought you dead,” Robert said softly.

Devon’s mouth curved into a harsh smile. “Not even death could keep me down,” he told him, trying hard not to laugh at the confused look on Robert and Jane’s faces.

Robert shook his head, his eyes narrowing. “What are you doing here?”

Devon shrugged, holding his hands out before him. “I just wished to see my loving family once more.”

Jane glanced at Robert, her eyes widened with fear as her survival instincts finally surged up to bury her shock over seeing Devon again. Her head turned swiftly back and forth between them as she sensed the hostility and growing animosity there. “Will you be staying?” Robert inquired, ever the gentleman.

“No.”

“Will you see father?”

“No.”

Robert frowned in confusion. He expected Devon to be here for something, money, vengeance, shelter, anything. But the fact that Devon was here for nothing was one that Robert could not grasp, Robert was all about greed and self satisfaction. “Where have you been?” Jane asked softly.

Devon shrugged as he slid his hands into his pockets, his mouth curved in a cruel smile. “To hell and back, but I greatly enjoyed the trip.”

Jane’s eyes widened even more; she took a step back from him. Robert’s eyes were narrowed, questioning. He didn’t understand this man before him, didn’t know where this new Devon had come from, or what had helped to create him, but there was a power surrounding him that Robert greatly wanted, admired, and envied.

“I must be going now,” Devon told them, offering his brother a sly smile as he tilted his head to the side.

“Will we see you again?” Jane asked eagerly.

Devon shook his head. “No. I will not be returning here. I wish you both a good life.”

“Wait! Devon wait!” He turned slightly back at Jane’s hurried cry. “Where will you be going?”

Devon couldn’t stop the large grin that flashed over his face. “That’s the beauty of it. I’ll go wherever the world, and time, can take me.”

They both looked completely confused, but he expected them to be. Unlike him, they didn’t have eternity to travel the world, to experience the wonder of life, and especially the wonder of death. Devon slipped swiftly away, unaware of the fact that Elizabeth had followed him to the manor, that she had spied upon him, and been witness to the dislike amongst the brothers.

He didn’t know that she would approach Robert that night, and as vengeance for Devon leaving her, she would also change Robert and set him lose upon the world. Set him lose upon Devon.

Cassie clung tighter to him as his fingers twined through her hair. His memories poured rapidly into her, it was as if he was trying to purge himself of everything as rapidly as he could. Trying to purge himself of all the horror, fear, and hatred that had plagued his young life, and his later years.

After his change, Robert had slaughtered all of the servants at the manor, and their father. He had then burnt the home to the ground, effectively severing all of his ties with a life that had been kind to him, but that he had despised all the same. Devon had not known of Robert’s change, or the slaughter, until fifty years later when they had run across each other again in Venice.

Though Devon had been beyond stunned to see his brother alive, and untouched by age, Robert had been prepared for the meeting, looking forward to it. He had in fact been searching for Devon for a very long time. Robert had been the obviously favored child of their father, the only one that mattered, and he had also inherited his father’s vicious streak and ingrained hatred for Devon. Even at his cruelest, Devon did not have the depth of hatred, rage, and psychosis inside of him that Robert possessed, and always would. Robert may not have been beaten throughout his childhood, but he had longed to be the one doing the beating.

When he had come across Devon though, Robert had expected to come across the weaker brother that Devon had once been. He had expected to find the beaten and broken adolescent that had fled their family estate the first chance he’d gotten. Robert had expected to come across a man that he could torture and manipulate and brutalize to his endless pleasure, before finally destroying him.

He had been sadly mistaken. Though Devon only had eight years on Robert as a vampire, he was inherently stronger, faster, and far more cruel and vicious than Robert had ever fathomed. Robert had tracked Devon down in order to abuse him; he had not expected to be the one getting beaten. He had not expected to find his weak younger brother far stronger than he was.

And his hated for Devon grew even more after the encounter. He hated Devon for possessing a strength and confidence that Robert would never know.

And when Julian entered the picture, Robert became even more infuriated and volatile. There had been no stopping Julian and Devon together, there was no way that Robert could get to Devon. No way to destroy his younger brother like he had always wanted to do.

Until now.

And now, Robert knew that the one way to destroy his brother was to destroy Cassie, and he would do everything in his power to make sure that was done.

Cassie pulled away from Devon, gasping in a breath of air as the pulsation of memories pounding against her ceased. Gasping in air as she tried to breathe around the tight constriction in her chest. Tears burned her eyes, her heart ached for Devon. Ached for the innocent boy he had once been, for the man that boy had been turned into, for the monster the man had become, and for the man who lay beneath her now, terrified that he was going to lose her.

“Devon.”

He brushed the tears from her cheeks, wiped his blood from her mouth. “I won’t let him hurt you.”

“I know,” she whispered. “But why does he hate you so much? He’s your brother, he should have protected you. He should have helped to defend you. You were a helpless child.”

Devon was silent for a long moment, his eyes dark and distant. “Robert was always twisted, like my father. I didn’t see it as a child because I couldn’t see anything past my father, but Robert was always cruel too. It was a long time later that I thought back on those days with a different eye and suddenly realized the things I had missed. The servants were afraid of Robert. At the time I thought it was because he was going to be the future master, but now I know that it was more than that. He terrorized them. He hit them when they messed up, beat them if he saw fit, took the women whenever he wanted, as my father did. But I never saw the joy, the absolute ecstasy that he took in it, not until after.

“My mother was also afraid of him. She tried to protect me, to shelter me from them, but I recall times when she would tremble in their presence. Tremble in the presence of her own child. She wanted nothing more than to get me out of that house and as far from them as possible. Unfortunately, once I was free I ran wild with it. I should have taken more time for her, should have opened my eyes sooner to what was going on in that house, but I could see nothing past my own pain and terror. It was a long time before I finally did, and by then it was too late for my mother. She withered swiftly away once I was gone; I think her fear just ate at her until she finally died.”

Cassie choked back a sob as she shook her head. “That’s not your fault. You couldn’t have stopped it, you couldn’t have stayed there. If you had…”

“They would have killed me,” he said when she could not finish. Cassie recoiled from his words, hating the truth in them, hating that he’d had to suffer so badly. No child should have to go through what he had. No wonder he had wanted to keep the truth about his brother hidden from her, no wonder he had tried to keep her as shut out of his past as possible.

“I’m glad that you did, but you didn’t have to show me,” she managed to choke out.

He played idly with a strand of her hair, twirling it around his finger. “Yes, I did. You need to know Cassie, that no matter what they say, we cannot trust them. Especially Robert.”

She was silent for a moment, her fingers lightly stroking his solid, bare chest. “I know.”

“If they had truly come in peace, and for the reasons they say, they would not have brought Robert with them.”

The thought of Devon’s brother was enough to make her blood boil. She wanted to kill him herself, and if she got the chance she knew that she would. Just as Robert would do the same to her. “The change, what is it like?”

Devon’s hand stilled on her hair. “Cassie…”

“It has to be done Devon, whether they force it or we chose it, it must be done. I think I should be prepared for it.”

He was silent for a moment before nodding. “The pain is very intense, but hopefully I will be able to take some of yours onto myself by keeping hold of a piece of your mind.” Cassie shook her head in protest, not wanting him to do any such thing. “Yes Cassie that is going to happen no matter what you say. It doesn’t last long; the longest I’ve seen is an hour. Mine was only twenty minutes.”

Cassie nodded; she could handle the pain, no matter what she would not allow Devon to take it on for her. “Ok, that’s not bad.”

She managed a wan smile for him. Though she was looking forward to joining him completely, to being with him forever, she did not relish the thought of dying. He was thoughtful as he watched her. “I will make it as painless as possible for you.”

“I’ll be fine,” she replied.