A Frozen Heart (A Blood War Novel Book 1) Read online

  Odesha tried to understand, her emotions slow and hard to process, making it difficult to form the correct response. “And this is what you thought would happen today?”

  They nodded, confusion clear on their faces. “We were so scared, my lady, that she wouldn't pass the Reawakening. She's so young for the symptoms to start.”

  Taking in their stuttered words, Odesha believed she found the reason for the fear and distrust she had encountered when she had arrived. She knew what she had to do.

  Glancing down to Evie, she ordered, “Evie, look at me.” A strange feeling was coming over Odesha and she felt uncomfortable. Evie remained still and held Odesha’s bright gaze with fresh eyes, clear of fear.

  “You will live forever after this Reawakening,” Odesha promised.

  Evie gasped quietly, lips parting. Her parents gasped. They had expected to bring home their child’s body when she fought the princess in the pool, but instead she would thrive.

  Odesha continued, “The Reawakening isn't a test. The pool is sacred, the rites passed down to the children when they change. No person can judge you. That’s foolish nonsense from a twisted man, given power that shouldn’t have been trusted to him.” She shook her head with disgust. “The Reawakening is our way to change a vampire body from consuming human food to drinking blood. A vampire child must live on human food, but once they reach a certain age their body craves blood. The body doesn’t know how to handle the change. The Reawakening will stop your sickness by purging your body of human food using the pool. I would never harm a child.” Odesha's words ended in a shout. Her emotions emerged through a crack in the ice surrounding her heart. This was what she had been feeling.

  Anger. Resentment. Purpose.

  When the princess’s words sank in, Evie’s eyes widened, the fear leaving her. The family’s uncontrollable crying had been alarming, but the lady had thought that their sadness was from their daughter’s pain. Odesha shuddered, her mind flashing back to her Reawakening and the pain she had felt that day.

  “Mother, I fear she won't last much longer,” her sister Vashti whispered. She had her arms wrapped around Odesha’s thin shoulders to comfort her. Odesha’s pale face dripped with sweat, the bed already soaked through from hours earlier. She saw through her tears her mother had her hair in a formal coronation weaving. Her large diamonds swung in the moonlight while she readied to leave them with the guardsman standing nearby. Queen Bera turned to Vashti. She sneered, “Impudent girl, your father and I have been signing the treaty to free the blood slaves in Romule. This is historic for our people. I will get to Odesha when the celebrations are over.” Waving her hand in the air, she dismissed them. Mother whipped around in her red gown, leaving Vashti to care for her ailing sister, alone.

  Odesha was lucky her father had intervened. She would never let a child suffer as she did that night. Returning to the present situation, the unpleasant memories faded away. Miravena looked at the princess with new hope in her eyes, even though she twisted her hands together.

  Straightening her back, Odesha promised, “I am overseer. Vladeric is no longer in control. I am Princess Odesha De Von Desmond of Antiqua and there will be no child’s death during a Reawakening. I am law, and Freyja have mercy on anyone that crosses me.” Miravena's fearful eyes reflected what she now saw. Silver eyes glittered with thousands of diamonds, their sparkling intensity blinding during rage. Blood dripped from Odesha’s gown, her nails and fangs elongated. She truly resembled the beautiful monster her mother had hoped she would be.

  The frozen queen carrying a frozen heart. Alone. Forever.

  “Bring me Vladeric,” she ordered, flicking her eyes to the guard. It was time to erase the menace from her land.

  Chapter 2

  The guardsman stood at the entrance of the dungeon, waiting for further orders from their princess. Disgust was clearly painted on their faces. The guards that were able to stand the heat of the dungeon were inside securing Vladeric to be questioned. They had never heard of such blasphemy during a Reawakening; it was sickening to their kind. A perverted tyrant had been sent by the hellfire to prey on children, they reasoned. The man had stirred hate and fear among the people of Antiqua. The guards were more than eager for Odesha’s judgment.

  Odesha paused at the door to the dungeon. Heat pulsed from the metal entrance, even though the door was tightly closed. She instinctively wanted to turn away.

  A guard opened his mouth, hesitating to voice his opinion. He hadn't known the princess long, but from what he had seen, she was kind. She didn't show any emotion, preferring to be by herself than in the company of others. That didn’t bother him, he had heard the whispers of her curse from others, and only felt sadness for her fate. Her willowy figure was graceful, her gray eyes always emotionless.

  Odesha turned to look at the guard when he hesitated, giving him a nod to continue.

  “If I may, princess, the heat of the dungeon is…stifling. You can give me your sentence you wish carried out and I'll say them word for word to Captain Philo,” he promised, trying to prevent her from the pain she would feel.

  Odesha shook her head with denial at his suggestion and paused for the strength to continue. The heat was painful to her, the ice inside her throbbing with retribution if she entered, but she would go through it for the people. Odesha was their voice and it was her job to care for them. The dead and the living. The questioning and the judgment she would carry out herself.

  “No. I must go in and speak with him. Thank you for your consideration,” she acknowledged absently, staring miserably at the door. Rubbing at her chest, she kept asking herself why didn't she train with heat again. Taking a deep breath, bracing herself for what she was about to face in the room, she nodded to the guard to open the heavy door for her. Both guards moved to the handles and grasped them, straining to open the door. It felt like a fire blazed across her face when the air blasted from inside. She instantly felt the sweat gather on her back. A trail began to drip. A headache began to form, slow and insidious with its throbbing. The ice stabbed her across her chest, like tiny needle pricks attempting to warn her against entering.

  Vladeric was chained between two posts, anchored to the ground, unable to move. His pale, sweating face was how she remembered him from the last time she had seen him in the throne room of Merdi. Only a few feathered lines on his forehead showcased his advanced age. His sharply pointed nose was what she remembered, like a hawk waiting for the mouse to show itself before it struck. The hair he usually kept neatly styled was standing on end as if he had put up a fight to be restrained. The sneer he directed towards her was full of contempt.

  Odesha walked towards him. The heat made her feel like she was moving slower than she really was. It was hard to do, but she would push through it. She repeated that in her head over and over to convince herself.

  “You,” Vladeric bit out harshly.

  “We haven't met. Trust me. I would remember,” she countered. She wouldn’t let the coward scare her.

  He eyed her body up and down disdainfully. “I remember the sniveling coward of a child Bera hid behind her skirts in court,” he remarked, meeting her gaze with his own. “The useless twin. At least your sister had a spine in her.” He reared his head back, spitting at her feet, but missed by a couple of inches. Yes, this man had changed, she decided. He had been corrupted by the power given to him, as many others before him had. She ignored him, used to the whispered comments in Merdi, asking instead, “Why would you harm those children? Those aren't our ways.”

  Even she couldn't imagine him doing something so atrocious to small children.

  “I am royalty from Romule. Did no one ever tell you that? This isn't my way. Blood and power are revered in my home. I needed the blood. That intoxicating, pure blood. Blood is what powers the magic we wield.” He tilted his head as if to smell the air, inhaling with pleasure at the thought of killing. A monster hidden behind a beautiful face. The whole time he had been here, he had been using the peopl
e to harvest the blood. Her mother had let him in her own home and set him loose on the people.

  Odesha's knees began to weaken, the heat overtaking her. She wasn't going to last much longer and needed to end this confrontation before she fell over. The last image she wanted him to remember would be her back, turning away from him and his ways, confident and strong.

  “I sentence you to death for your crimes, Vladeric. You will not have a burial befitting of your station because you now have no station. You will die a pauper. A criminal. Enjoy your return to the hellfire. There will be no blood or magic there.” She moved away from his menacing gaze. The answers to her questions had been found and he had admitted his own guilt to the room. Her guards moved to do her bidding. The order hadn't said how she wanted him to die, though. She hoped her guards could be creative with how Vladeric met his end because she didn't have the strength to think of ways he could suffer.

  Vladeric's mocking laughter stopped her retreat from the dungeon. “You think you know what is coming for you? For all of you,” he shouted. “My family will avenge me once they hear of my death. The Blood Treaty is only a piece of paper and you risk losing even that by your order! What would your mother think?” His smile turned sinister. He added, “Did you know who her secret lover was? I do. He is the one who sent me to Merdi.”

  There was only one person that could be. If Vladeric was royalty, only King Rion would be able to order him anywhere. She thought of her father and the suffering he had gone through over the years after losing her mother. Desmond blamed himself for Bera's death, turning to his brew for solace in the years without her, never knowing the person who had crushed her heart and caused her death. The ramifications were staggering.

  Vladeric’s smile grew larger, more menacing. His eyes became wild when he added, “It was a shame he married another. What is coming for you was forged long ago. It was made to bring destruction.”

  “I know what is coming for me. I stopped fearing it years ago. Fear your own fate,” Odesha whispered to herself, her back still facing him. She continued through the open doorway, motioning for the guards to close the doors on her final words. Once closed, she leaned her head against the cooler metal, listening to the cries of anguish from Vladeric's mouth. It wasn't close to what the families had suffered, and Endemion, her brother, wasn’t here to ensure it was brutal, but she did what she could. What was right. Endemion would support her in that at least if she had just caused the Blood War to begin again.

  Vladeric’s cries of mercy still bounced in her ears while she walked to check on Evie. Odesha hoped she never forgot those screams. There was a lesson to be learned from this day. To not trust what she couldn’t see. Her mother had trusted the wrong people. That trust had resulted in her death. There were evil people everywhere in this world, and Vladeric had proven that they lurked around every corner and every kingdom.

  Evie seemed to be in good health, her small body was already recovering from the ceremony. Her baby fangs were starting to sprout early, and her family was in good spirits. They thanked Odesha profusely. Odesha left the family alone to enjoy the castle before they returned to their cottage.

  She felt a shiver of anger flow through her, directed towards her mother for sending Vladeric there. Evie would have been destroyed by Vladeric if Odesha hadn’t been in Antiqua. This was Bera's ancestral home. Why would she place Vladeric in charge to terrorize her own people?

  She had been just a child when Bera had died. In Odesha’s mind, her mother was perfect; her spoken word, law. Vashti had tried to argue otherwise. The two sisters had gotten into many fights over Bera. The memories were making Odesha face some hard truths about the woman she had idolized. Maybe Vashti was right all those years. She had shrugged off Vashti’s concerns without reason, hurting Vashti in the process. Odesha would make it up to her the next time she saw her. She would listen.

  Odesha walked the halls to her barren room, thinking back to the day Vladeric had been assigned to Antiqua.

  “Vladeric. Come forth,” Queen Bera intoned. Her appearance was perfect, as always, in the throne room in Merdi. The décor, showcasing the riches Father had acquired, glittered in the dull candlelight.

  The court attendees stood silent, divided, standing like statues on the sides of the room, guarding their king and queen. They were all vipers, waiting to strike in the dark when you least expected it, when your back was exposed.

  Vashti and Odesha sat behind their parents, trying to stay out of sight in the shadows. They peeked through the slits in the throne chairs, seeing Vladeric, mother's guardsman, march forward. His lithe body moved like a snake, his patrician face preening at the recognition in front of his peers.

  Father warned them long ago to stay away from him, reminding his daughters, “His darkness would infect even Freyja’s soul.”

  They took Father's words to heart, too young to know what he meant at the time. Vladeric didn't look any different from the other guards that protected them.

  Queen Bera continued, “I have assigned you to Antiqua, my ancestral home. When I arrive, we will rebuild the salt mines even stronger now that our people are free. The wealth of Merdi will continue to feed our people.” The cheers around the room become deafening. It made the girls cover their ears. Odesha looked to their father's face, seeing the anger flash through his eyes for a moment. It disappeared just as quickly. She glanced at Vashti in confusion and shrugged her shoulders, asking a silent question. Why was father angry? Vladeric gave an elegant bow in acknowledgment, gracefully removing himself from the room to follow his queen's orders. He never looked back. Desmond never sent out inquiries on Antiqua’s welfare, ensuring their fate. The night Vladeric left for Antiqua was the night Queen Bera fell to her death.

  Odesha shook herself out of her nightmare. Vladeric was dead now, there was no reason to reminisce on the past. There was no way to change it.

  Odesha's parents were the rulers of Merdi, fighting to end the Blood War together. It was Queen Bera's obsession, forging the treaty and freeing her people. The one good deed, before her death, to Merdi and Antiqua.

  The Blood War had started in a dungeon long ago. The magisters of Romule experimented with blood and found out vampires had a unique agent that made black magic more potent. They captured more vampires day after day in secret. The magisters had trouble keeping the prisoners hostage, though. Many of the vampires escaped to warn King Desmond, to report what was happening in the neighboring kingdom, to beg for help.

  That's when the heat dungeons were built. The magisters had constructed them to hold vampires and drain them of their blood. They became intoxicated on the magic and the power they wielded. Until the captured vampires began to build a tolerance to the heat and fought back, killing many magisters. King Rion surprised King Desmond when he called for a truce during the war.

  Father ordered his children to train with heat in case they were ever imprisoned or exposed to the dungeons. He feared for his children’s safety. Vashti was always training, but Odesha never went. She knew the ice was going to be her fate long ago. The heat only caused her pain.

  Thinking of her father sent a jolt through her heart. She missed her family every day, not used to being without them. When her father had separated Odesha from the one person that kept her heart from completely freezing, it had been hard for her to cope with the loss even though she never showed it. Vashti was her lifeline. Basic emotions seemed harder to grasp as time ticked by, but being around Vashti had helped somewhat. Now Odesha had no one. She battled the ice every day, praying to the great goddess Freyja she didn't freeze completely until the task that was given to her was complete.

  Father had remarried a beautiful and kind woodland fey after losing Bera. Rube had given birth to her two half siblings and showered her step-children with kindness. Odesha's half brother and sister remained in Merdi but had never been as close to her as Vashti. They had shared a womb together, after all. They were fraternal twins.

  Her brother Endemi
on was dark and mysterious, while Saphira was lost to her own explorations, choosing creatures over people.

  Vashti had told Odesha she wasn't surprised that Father had decided to send her here. Antiqua was ripe with salt mines that had turned a heavy profit for the Crown in the past. Since Vladeric had arrived, the profits had dwindled. Merdi's coffers needed the extra profit from the mines to support the people.

  Reminded of the mines, Odesha sighed. Now that Vladeric was taken care of, that was next on her agenda. She had to see what Vladeric had done to the mines to stop the profits. That was the main reason she had been sent there. She secretly hoped it was only bad management and a quick fix. Then she could go back to Merdi to be with her family in her final hours.

  Opening her doorway, she lit the candles lining the room. After throwing her stiff, bloody gown across the room, she climbed in the large claw foot tub to soak in the cool bath water prepared by the efficient Miravena. She reminded herself to thank the servant in the morning. Looking down at her body, she seemed small in this large tub even though she was tall compared to most people. So pale, her thin body had nary a mark. Her small waist made her small breasts look passable.

  A perfect bargaining chip for Father to one day use, she reminded herself. Father was unpredictable, but Brother would never let that happen. Who would want a frozen princess in charge of a frozen wasteland? Her time was limited. When she was back home, she would join Freyja in the ice garden with the other statues.

  After bathing, she pushed herself out of the tub and walked over to her wardrobe. She picked out a pale pink gown to sleep in. The candles she blew out left a small puff of smoke. When the smoke stopped, she closed her eyes to sleep, but this time, she willed herself not to dream. The nightmares of the ice garden crowded her mind, making her afraid to sleep. To see them all waiting for her.