Book Cover created in acrylic by the extremely talented @therealpaul
If you have not read the first book of the series, "Reborn", it is advisable you do so before reading "Renewal" or you will be lost. This link will provide you with a series summary as well as all sixty-eight chapters of Reborn
Table of Contents for Fifty Two chapters of Renewal, created by @bashadow
Chapter Fifty-Three
Tyros stood alone on the wall that surrounded his brother’s city his mind drifting back to the day when Demetrius had first entered the fortress. He had just passed his twelfth birthday and his attention had been arrested by the loud voices of those that had given him life. Since the relationship between his parents had been that of master and servant for as long as he could remember, he’d been startled to hear his mother’s voice raised at Ce’Julienne in anger.
He’d sat in a corner of his room and listened, learning that his father had brought home a young male he’d learned was his own, a child made with another female when he was still able to breed. A son that was older than Tyros by a few years, effectively userping his position as High Prince.
He was called to his father’s chambers shortly after the argument to be introduced to his long lost brother, and the moment he’d laid eyes on him there was no doubt they were related. Though even then Demetrius had been much larger, they shared the same features from dark hair to gold ringed black eyes.
Instead of resenting him as his mother did he’d been excited at the prospect of a sibling, and for a time the two of them had been close. Tyros had been raised in the belief that vampires were a far superior race to humanity and his brother had accepted this idea readily. Together they would leer at the humans who were captured and brought to the dungeons to be used as blood and sex slaves, both eagerly awaiting the day they would age to maturity and have full access to them.
For three years they had behaved in much the same way that princes of the human realm always had, indulging themselves on liquor and females and being a general thorn in the side of more mature and less entitled vampires.
And then one day his father had gone away on business and his mother had told him what he was born to do. For the whole of his life she had carefully nurtured his affection and at the age of fifteen he found out why, though it would be years before he fully understood it. Using his love for her she’d convinced him to take his father’s life.
After he’d murdered Ce’Julienne she’d told him he must also eliminate Demetrius, but he’d defied her telling his brother to hide instead, assuring him that on the day he reached maturity he would call him home to rule beside him.
Those who had followed his father were also bound to the son through carefully worded vows, and during the years preceding his coming of age they answered to his mother who ruled in his stead. And so he continued his life of privileged debauchery awaiting the day when the role of King would fall to him.
A day that had never come, his world changed irrevocably by the life of one human girl. If it weren’t for her he would not be standing here in indecision, he would be ruling with, if not over his brother. And he certainly wouldn’t have hesitated to take the little blonde healer. At times he bitterly resented the long ago encounter for awakening his conscience and continuing to affect him so long after she was gone.
He closed his eyes and concentrated, penetrating the protective wall around the city. His brother had given him the means to come and go as he pleased, a small show of faith Tyros supposed, a gesture meant to further entice him. He could hear dark music thrumming and vibrating and the sounds of laughter and shrieks and flesh slapping against flesh. Every carnal pleasure he could imagine awaited him inside.
It was a siren song that was growing more difficult to resist. Yet he did resist it. For now.
He leapt from the wall and blurred back to his apartment.
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