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Prologue

THE BLOODLETTER'S WAR CAMP, OLD COUNTRY, 1644

He wished he had more time

Although for truth, ould that change? Ti with it, and he had already done what he could herein

Darius, begotten son of Tehrror, forsaken son of Marklon sat on a dirt floor with his diary open on his knee and a beeswax candle in front of hiht but the small flame that swayed in a draft, and his roo was h, battle-ready leather, and his boots were of the same construction

In his nose, the stench of led with the sweet death-decay of lessers' blood

Each breath he took seenify the stink

Flipping through the parch the days one by one until he was no longer here at the war camp

He longed for "home" with a physical ache, his sojourn in this camp an amputation, rather than a relocation

He had been raised in a castle where elegance and grace had been the very fabric of life Within the stout walls that had protected his faht had been as warm and rose- scented as those of July, thewith ease and leisure The fifty rooh which he had oft wandered had been appointed with satins and silks, and furniture s, not rushes With oil paintings that glowed in their gilt franified poses, it was a platinu to anchor a diamond existence

And so it would have been unfathomable then that he would ever find himself where he was now There had been, however, a vital weakness in the foundation of that life of his

The beating heart of his ht to be under that roof and held within that cosseted hearth And when that loving, vital organ had stopped within her breast, Darius had lost not only his birthed mahmen , but the only home he had ever known

His stepfather had cast hi hidden thus exposed and acted upon

There had been no time to mourn his mother No time to puzzle over the abrupt hatred of the male who had all but sired hiood breeding within the glymera

He had been dropped at the enterance of this cave like a huun afore he ever saw a lesser or began training to fight the slayers In his first night and day within the belly of this camp, he had been attacked by fellow trainees who viewed his fine clothing, the only set he'd been permitted to take with him, as evidence he eak of arm

He had surprised not only the those dark hours

It was then that he had learned, as did they, that although he had been reared by an aristocratic male, in Darius's blood were the components of a warrior Indeed, not just a soldier Nay, a Brother Without being taught, his body had knohat to do and had responded to physical aggression with chilling action Even as his led with the brutality of his deeds, his hands and feet and fangs had known precisely what exertion was necessary

There had been another side of hinizedthat soarded within leaded glass

Over tirown even more proficientand his horror at himself had lessened For truth, there was no other path upon which to tread: The seed of his true father and his father's father and his grandfather's sire had determined his skin and bone andhim into a powerful force

And a vicious, deadly opponent

Indeed, he found it highly disturbing to have this other identity It was as if he cast two shadows upon the ground o'er which he tread, as if wherever he stood there were two separate light sources that illu oneself in such a loathsoht, he kneas part of the higher pur pose he was destined to serve And it had saved hiht to harm him inside the camp, and from the one who seemed to wish them all dead Indeed, the Bloodletter was supposedly their whard , but he acted more like an enemy, even as he instructed them in the ways of war