1. Erik

1000 YEARS AGO

My family and I made camp in the woods close to the battlegrounds. The lands of Atbringer would be nourished by blood for decades to come. Blood spilled by my hand. My teeth.

Miles sat beside Fabian on a log as they spoke in low murmurs, but I kept away from them, my back to the circle we’d formed under the waning moon.

Clarice moved to my side, taking my hand in hers. “We had to kill them or they would have killed us.”

“Every war is the same,” I said darkly. “Who is it we’re fighting for? I don’t see worthy creatures sitting here. I see monsters made by a wrathful god.”

“We are your family,” she urged, squeezing my fingers. “I love you and our brothers more than anything. We can’t let the slayers win.”

“Maybe they should win,” I muttered. “Did you see what I became today?”

Clarice rested her head on my shoulder and her golden locks cascaded down my arm, her closeness bringing some measure of peace to my soul. I had gone so long without contact, and her touch was a balm against my skin, even if the two of us were as cold as ice. We were clean at least after we’d washed the blood from our bodies in an icy river. We were immune to the freezing water, and it haunted me that I would never feel the warmth of summer, nor the bite of frost again.

“You’re a good man, Erik,” Clarice promised, and I released a dry laugh.

“Good? How can you think that? I am a vessel for Andvari to fill with blood.”

“If we’re his pawns, perhaps it’s not our fault,” she murmured, a note of hope gilding her voice.

“Many men before us have blamed the gods for their misgivings. That does not make them right. We still have free will.” I toyed with the blade in my hand. One strike, deep and true, would end my plague on this world. But the afterlife would bring me no peace. What I had done would leave a permanent stain on my ruinous soul and I would pay for it if I ever stepped beyond death. Remaining here in this body didn’t seem like a better alternative though. And at least if I was in the depths of Náströnd being punished for my crimes, I could no longer kill innocent people.

Clarice gripped the hilt of my blade, prising it from my fingers. “Do not do something foolish. I love you, brother. You mustn’t give up.”

An ache grew in my heart. “I cannot remain like this, Clarice. I thought perhaps changing the slayer warrior into one of us was the answer. But here we are, still in our cursed forms. It has changed nothing, and I have cursed another soul.”

“That slayer may have destroyed the last of the clans by now,” Fabian called. “It could have changed everything. If the slayers are all dead, there will be no one left to hunt or persecute us.”

I didn’t turn to him, growing irritated by his lack of guilt.

“Your priorities are all wrong, Fabian,” I snarled, gazing at the dirt by my feet.

“My priority is keeping us alive. The slayers were made to kill us. If they are gone, we are free.”

I rose sharply, turning to him, and Miles caught Fabian’s arm, trying to keep him back as a fierce tension crackled between us.

“And how long do you think the gods will keep things that way? They can make slayers at their whim. If they want us challenged, we will be challenged.” My shoulders tensed as Fabian bared his fangs.

“Then we will kill them too,” Fabian growled, stepping closer.

“Stop fighting,” Miles groaned, giving up on holding Fabian back. “I just want to go home.”

“To your band of fucking mindless followers?” I spat at him. “You’re all giving in to the curse, every one of you.” I rounded on Clarice and she gave me a guilty look as I pointed at her. “You draw men to you like moths to a flame, promising them eternity in your arms if only they can entertain you long enough. And Miles, you offer out the curse like it’s a gift to be bestowed upon those you deem worthy. You are all building an army of creatures just like us, and for what? For every one of us you make, another slayer will be born. The gods will not let us win. They do not want us to prevail.”

“I disagree.” Fabian folded his arms, his fury seeming to have dissipated a fraction. “Perhaps this is a gift more than a curse. Perhaps they do want us to prosper.”

“You were there when they killed our families!” I roared, losing control of my emotions. “You wept at your sisters’ deaths. You saw what they did to our mothers and fathers. This was no gift; it is our punishment for their crime. And it is eternal.”

Fabian stalked around the edge of the small clearing, infuriated by my tone. “Perhaps the gods have changed their minds. Perhaps they are taking pity on us now. We won that battle. They could have intervened if they didn’t want us to succeed.”

I thought of Andvari and how he’d given me the strength to win, urging me on with every death I claimed. Fabian was right in one sense; Andvari wasn’t done with us yet. But pity? I wasn’t enough of a fool to believe that.

“Andvari doesn’t want us dead, he wants us tormented,” I growled.

“Andvari?” Fabian hissed. “Does the great Andvari speak to you, brother, because he has never once answered me.”

Miles’s brows rose. “Does he?” he asked me hopefully.

“Yes,” I sighed. “He has spoken to me many times.”

“And?” Clarice asked, taking my hand again and giving me a desperate look.

“He’s lying!” Fabian bellowed, lifting a log from the ground and throwing it into the trees. With a tremendous crash, another tree was uprooted by the collision and smashed to the forest floor.

“I am not lying,” I snarled, my muscles flexing.

If Fabian wanted a fight, I’d happily give him one. I had too much energy to expend and I’d revel in taking it out on him.

“You went insane in that cave. I told you not to go.” Fabian rounded on me once more, his eyes narrowing sharply. “My brother went in there, but a madman has walked out.”

“You’re just envious because Andvari chose him and not you,” Miles bit at him then turned his gaze to me. “I believe you, Erik. What did Andvari say to you?”

I shook my head, pulling away from Clarice’s hold. “Just more riddles and laughter. He wishes to taunt us, that’s all.”

Silence reigned and Miles fell into a dark reverie, gazing into the trees with total dejection. Fabian stalked around the camp, evidently still hankering for a fight, but if we went there, I would only regret it in the end.

I picked up my blade and headed into the forest, needing to get away. Clarice called after me but I ignored her, moving into the shadows where my soul belonged.

When I’d moved far enough from the others, using my enhanced speed to race away into the heart of the ancient woodland, I took a seat beneath a birch tree and weighed the blade in my palm.

I was no coward, but facing an eternity in Náströnd still frightened me. I’d be torn apart by the beasts that lurked in the underworld, feasting on my flesh for all of time. It was no less than I deserved, and death was so very easy to seize…

I rested the tip of my weapon against my chest, and my heart grew heavy as if it longed for the pierce of the blade to end its suffering. One deep stab and it would be done. Either I would become nothing, or the gods would steal away my soul, weigh it in their palms and decide my fate in the afterlife. Considering what they had offered me in life, I had no doubt I would face far worse in death.

I gazed up at the canopy, glimpsing the canvas of stars above. “I’ve tried to right your wrongs, Mother...Father. Sometimes I despise you. But most of all I wish to forgive you. To put the pain in my heart to rest for what you have caused.” The star-spangled sky seemed to watch with bated breath, whispering about whether I would go through with killing myself.

“I’m done,” I whispered. To me. To Andvari. To my family. “I will not be a bane upon this world any longer.”

I pushed the blade hard, but no pain came. So I took the hilt in both hands and drove it inward, though still no crack of ribs followed. My skin was iron to most men, but that shouldn’t have stopped me.

Andvari’s chuckling laughter filled the air. “I would never let you take this path, Erik Larsen.”

I ground my teeth, fury sprouting in my chest and growing deep roots.

“Let me die,” I snarled.

“Death is easy,” Andvari purred from between the trees. “I will see you suffer in every way this world has to give. And then perhaps I will let you die and taste the pain of the nether world - if you do not break the curse first, that is.”

“Then I shall walk into a camp of slayers and they will end me instead.”

Andvari’s presence shifted around me, and the leaves stirred at my feet. I could almost sense him kneeling before me, then a warm hand rested on my knee. “I dislike the slayers, Draugr. They are Idun’s creation, made to thwart me. I will gift you what you need to fight them.”

“Then I am just your puppet,” I said, the words more for me than him. I was trapped here living this life until Andvari decided otherwise. And that truth tasted bitter on my tongue.

Dropping the blade into my lap, I rested my head back against the tree. “What do you want from me and my family?”

Andvari seemed to sigh. I could feel it in the way the trees bowed to the wind and the leaves swirled in the gust. “It is time the vampires rose to power. Tell your brothers and sister to sire as many humans as they can. Build an army, Erik. A challenge is coming to you like none you have ever faced before. Your family can only be saved if you rise to meet it.”

I felt his presence waning and lurched forward, certain he was about to leave. “They will not believe me. You must speak to them yourself.”

Andvari laughed. “I will speak to them in songs and poems and sonnets. I will speak to them in the arc of the rising sun and the shadow of the crescent moon.”

“You make no sense,” I growled.

“I make perfect sense. The meaning is that I am always here. I am always watching.”

“Then speak with them!” I barked.

The air shuddered before my eyes and a small stream bubbled and steamed just a few feet from me. I rose, moving toward it at a cautious pace. The water stilled and I gazed into it as a man seemed to swim up from its shallow depths. Andvari rose from the water like a reflection stepping from polished glass. He was in his own form, just as he’d been the day he’d cursed us. His eyes were as black as tar and his skin near-translucent. His hair was a coarse tangle of brown locks akin to weeds, and his dark robes were perfectly dry, moving about him like the lapping of a wave.

“Lead the way,” he whispered with a cruel smile.

Turning my back on him felt dangerous, but I was already snared in his claws. He could end me as easily as he could save me.

I guided him back to my family, finding them all gathered on the fallen log with sullen expressions. Stepping aside, I allowed Andvari to move past me, my skin prickling with tension. His feet were bare and hardly touched the ground as he moved toward them, and even the grass seemed to turn his way, enraptured by his power.

My brothers and sister shrank before him, their strength nothing in comparison to this deity.

When he spoke, his words were fluid and soft. “Sat on by a ruler, polished by a maid. What am I?”

Clarice glanced at Miles, and he tentatively slid an arm around her shoulders.

“A throne?” Fabian guessed, getting to his feet, his eyes wide with awe.

Andvari laughed, opening his arms. “Yes. And it is time you take it, friends.”

My hands curled up into fists as my family fell under his spell, nodding their agreement.

“How?” Miles asked, his gaze glittering with hope.

“There is a land far from here, not yet claimed by kings or queens. It is time you go there. Then you must wait until the day of reckoning arrives. And when it does...you may seize power. But do not squander the time you have. Make your monsters. Breathe immortal life into every deserving soul you can find.”

“Is that the answer to your prophecy?” I hissed, stepping forward so Andvari had to acknowledge me.

“Do you think it is?” Andvari’s pitch black irises dragged over me.

I shook my head, having no answer.

“What is it I told you of the sun and moon?” he whispered, drifting closer.

I swallowed the hard lump growing in my throat. I didn’t want to voice that answer. I feared how my brothers and sister would take it. But Andvari’s smiling face turned into a grimace, and I knew I had no choice. I drew up the memories of my time in the dark cave and repeated what I’d learned.

“We can birth children with humans. Twins perhaps...” I glanced up at the sky and the stars dimmed, like they did not dare to shine too bright in Andvari’s presence.

“Is that the answer?” Clarice asked excitedly, her eyes brighter than they had been in years.

Andvari smiled around at us all. “You have much to do. Begin with the nearest town. Sire as many as you can and head to the last of the slayer clans. Finish the battle before Idun can create another army. Buy yourselves times to rise.”

Hope reared its head in my chest.

“They’re still alive?” Fabian asked and Andvari nodded.

With that, leaves coiled up around the god, swirling in a vortex until he was completely concealed. When the wind died, they fell limp on the ground and Andvari was gone.

Uncertainty burned through me as my family began speaking excitedly. I feared with all my heart what Andvari had said. He had tricked me on the battlefield, and I was sure this was another of his games. The look in my family’s eyes told me I’d never convince them of that.

Siring humans was a dangerous thing. I didn’t want to bestow this curse on anyone, but perhaps I needed allies beyond my family now. People who could help us figure out this riddle. Men and women with knowledge of the gods. And at least when the curse was broken, they would be free of it too.

There was one thing I’d never do, however. And I made a steely promise to myself that I’d never bear a child with a human. I would not be fooled by Andvari again, but from the way my brothers and sister were speaking excitedly, I sensed they would not be so easily swayed from this path.