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Chapter 1
Botosoni
The bar is loud, filled with modern-day piped in music that draws a crowd on a late Saturday night. The long-legged blonde on stage holds the attention of every red-blooded male in the club, both vampires, humans, and shifters alike. Every single one of us is the same when it comes to a female who looks like that and is dressed in the skimpiest of wrap, barely disguising even the tiniest detail of her exquisitely shaped physique.
The graceful dancer turns on her stilted heels and bends, giving everyone sitting on the edge of their seats an upended view of her ass and a glimpse of the red string of her little panties. She tosses her long mane of blonde hair as she comes back up, flashes me a bright white smile, and gives me a wink.
I tilt the scotch glass in the air and give her a half smile. News travels fast in these parts, and when the vampire master of the region purchases the largest piece of land between Ukraine and Moldova and plans for a thirteen-bedroom, sixteen-bathroom home have been submitted to the city, people take notice.
My jaw tightens with irritation. I haven’t changed a bit since last week and have the same amount of money in the bank. Yet, since word got out that I have that kind of money in the coffers, I haven’t had a minute of peace from anyone, especially the females who seem to be coming out the woodwork.
Money talks.
Grim, frustrating, and annoying, but true.
Claiming the land of the vampires heritage feels good, and I’ll continue to buy it all before I’m through. It’s a soothing balm amidst all the chaos with the rogue vampires, and the shifters who want to send us back to a time when we were feared and staked for taking innocent souls in our blood-thirsty quest.
The rogue vampires should be careful who they mess with because the righteous purebloods, without taking one ounce of tainted blood, are a force to be reckoned with now. They’ll learn that the hard way in the very near future. As soon as we find the fuckers, and we will soon. Then this war they started centuries ago will be put to an end for good.
Overmaster Descallia feels it too; the same reason that he just purchased a large piece of property in Transylvania, Romania just over five hours south and why Roman started the property grabs with his purchase of land in Bucharest, all around his vast estate and the surrounding Carpathian Mountain where werewolves, witches, and vampires still roam freely around the range.
We’re taking over the properties, little by little, ensuring century to century that we have a larger impact, more respectability, and above all, that we maintain the power of the underworld and our leverage with the humans who are critical to ensuring our business ventures around the world remain stellar and, most importantly, profitable.
Master Oradea won’t be far behind me with his estate plans, set to build his estate on the largest piece of property on the western border. Devora and her witches may have been laying low, but we all know the land that we claim, and they claim, will always be a source of contention; it’s just a matter of when and where the fight will ensue over the area we both call ours.
But the day is coming, and the masters are preparing to fight.
All for the power and control the rogues feel was taken away when Overmaster Descallia started gathering the purebloods and convincing them of a better way of life. One that was free from attacking and snacking on humans as they walked down the street. One that allowed us to prosper as the fear of being attacked was diminished, and assimilate into the respected purebloods we are today, working hard, supporting our communities, and giving back through charitable contributions and the like.
The vampires have prestige, money, and power and now we’ll have land too. No matter how it’s earned, working hand in hand with the syndicate, dividing up work, territories and business divisions in a way that profits us all, and some legitimate but all invested well. The rogues have managed to rock that relationship with the syndicate elders, but fortunately, at the end of the day, the only thing that will matter is alignments that make the most profit, and it will be us, not the fucking rogue vampires or the mangy shifters who work hand in hand with the syndicate when we get through.
Money, power, and land. We have to claim all the land surrounding the Carpathian Mountain range. That’s what we have to continue to keep our focus on, even as we search for our enemies. We can’t afford to let the end goal out of sight. And our enemies would like nothing more than to distract us with their games. But that’s not going to happen on our watch. It didn’t happen last century when they came, or the century before that or the century before that.
A strong hold of land is power in itself because we all know the war will soon be coming to a head. The fight for the mother land, the heritage, and the vampires’ future lays in the secrets of the land.
The cell in my pocket rings, disrupting my thoughts. I finish the last of the scotch, pushing a bill and the glass toward the barkeep, as I reach for the phone.
He places the money in the register and tosses the tip in the jar on the counter. “Thanks, Master Botosoni. Have a good night.”
I give him a chin nod, heading toward the door before answering the call. “This is Botosoni.” I don’t need to hear his voice to know why I’m getting this call because if Overmaster Descallia’s phone number shows up on your cell in the middle of a war with the rogues, you can bet your ass you’re going to be involved some way or another.
Descallia clears his throat. “One of the lords in Romania called me. Sheba was spotted in the forest area near you. We have confirmation he’s definitely with the rogues.”
The growl in the pit of my stomach bubbles up before I can contain my wrath. “Of all the places the shifters think they can hide, they choose my area after what they’ve done? They dare to bring the rogues into my region?” My growl is so loud it rattles the light in the lamp above the street. I don’t make idol threats, and I don’t make one now. “Sheba will wish he had never set foot on my land! They will rue the day that my brother was killed at the hands of one of his mangy shifters.”
“I don’t pretend to know how you feel and the anguish that doing nothing in two years to redeem your brother’s death has caused you, but it was for the overall good, Botosoni. I needed to ensure we kept the peace. I promise you, though. Everything has changed now, my friend. I asked you to maintain the peace because Sheba promised me he’d dealt with it.” Descallia’s voice raises with his anger. “His words no longer mean a thing. A traitor, just like the rest of the rogue shifters, leading the rogue shifters! They will all find their rightful place in eternal hell, especially Sheba, because I plan to send him there myself.”
“I’ll do anything to help; you know that.”
“Good, that’s what I was hoping to hear. We’re going to find these fuckers and end them for good, and that dirty traitor Sheba will not live to see another day! But Sheba knows that land well; as well as we do, Botosoni. It’s like they’re taunting us. If they didn’t want to be spotted, they wouldn’t be. Lucianna believes they’re trying to lead us into yet another one of their traps, but I’m not going to let them go without tracking them down.”
I growl my frustration. “The sheisty bastards are always two steps ahead of us. Fucking Sheba. Even I never thought he would turn on us. I may not have liked him because of what his shifters did to my brother, but I thought there was mutual respect between the two of you. That’s the only reason I agreed not to wage a holy fucking war on their ass.”
Descallia grunts. “We’ll get them, Botosoni, but we have to be cautious. I’m bringing in a team who have been working with us. We’ll get there as soon as we’re able. It may be a day or two, though. We have a few pressing loose ends to tie up here too.”
“There’s not as much space at my current house as there will be in the new one I’m building, but it still has plenty of room for a group. You can all stay with me. I wouldn’t take long, though, because if I run across the fuckers first, I will kill every single one of them barehanded. I swear I will!”
Overmaster Descallia growls. “Sheba is mine, Botosoni. I can’t be clearer about that. A collaborator with the rogues, he will die a death of a traitor to me, at my own hands and in my own time. Are we clear?”
