Return to Jorgaldur Volume III: blood warrior

Feelings and conspiracies

Krovledi was irritated and frustrated, which is why her subordinates tried not to bother her, not to get close to her. Not only had the assault on the visitor's mansion failed, but one of her sons had perished.

She was furious with him for allowing himself to be surprised by the brother who was supposed to be dead. She could understand that he had kept him alive and locked up to torture him. However, to let him escape was inadmissible. Even worse was to lose his life in his brother's hands.

With it, she had lost a valuable pawn and a strategic territory. Perhaps, he was the weakest, but he wasn't unimportant.

It was while she was cursing him one more day for his incompetence when she felt the death of another of her kin, a vampiress. She stood paralyzed for a moment, incredulous.

"It can't be a coincidence... Someone is pulling the strings! Dammit! Which of my siblings will it be!? They're going to pay for it!" she cursed them.

She immediately mobilized her forces. The vampiress wanted to know what had happened, as well as warn her other children. They had to be alert, it couldn't happen again, she couldn't afford to lose more troops. Her interests in the Blood Kingdom had already been compromised enough.

She wanted to take control of the entire area, as she suspected that the former king had left powerful artifacts behind. Perhaps even something that could be used against him. Although she wasn't entirely sure, she felt that the former king was actually her father.

That would explain where he had come from, why he was hiding and his power. Although there could be other explanations, it was worth exploring. If it wasn't like that, she might at least be able to get hold of information or some artifacts.

She sighed, and turned her attention back to something even more important. Some clues had been found about the elf that had eluded her in the past, though she was far from finding him. At least, there was something to start looking for. If she could get him, she could free herself from her father's hold on her. The next thing would be how to confront him, something that she was already preparing.

"Krovy? Are you here?" Black Wolf's voice suddenly interrupted her.

"Yes, darling, come in," she replied seductively.

This visitor was one of the pieces that she wanted to have at her disposal. When the time came, she could use it against her father, since he wasn't under his blood control. Therefore, she hadn't hesitated to seduce him, to let his ego grow, to make him believe that he was in control.

For a vampiress over a hundred years old, it was child's play to have a firm grasp of a teenager with overexcited hormones. Although she considered him stupid and impulsive, he was powerful and easy to control.

Chornakish glanced at Coinín and his partner. Until then, he hadn't been interested in relationships, they had seemed silly, corny, even somewhat off-putting. However, something had changed in him since the vampiress' return.

He couldn't stop thinking about her. To imagine that instead of those two, it was her and him. He could no longer deny his feelings. He couldn't deny that he was attracted to her.

The demihuman might not have come to that conclusion on his own. Many had hinted or questioned him, sometimes more subtly and sometimes more directly. In the end, even if he wanted to deny it, he couldn't keep lying to himself.

His main concern was what to do when she returned. He didn't know if he would be able to look at her, to talk to her. Just the thought of her sucking his blood again made him blush. The worst thing was that more than one knew or imagined what was going on in his mind, Diknsa among them.

However, the head maid neither encouraged nor discouraged the young man. She watched with hope and concern, for she feared his heart would break if Gjaki rejected him. While she knew her adopted daughter had some interest in him, she wasn't sure how deep it was.

On the other hand, he was far from the only thing that worried her. Her bond with Gjaki assured her that she was alive, but not if she was out of danger. Nothing scared her more than the possibility of losing her again, and she wasn't the only one who worried about her.

Still, they had to get on with their life, prepare for when her friend, daughter, lady, or savior returned. More than one did it in the training room, ready to fight alongside her when the time came. Others were preparing the new rooms, or they were simply maintaining the existing ones. Maybe, they relaxed in the game room too.

While everyone felt some anxiety about waiting, it was nowhere near comparable to before. At least, now they had someone to wait for.

"So there's no telling who's giving Krovledi trouble. Well, it's fine, so they keep her at bay. Lately, she's been too big on herself, it's good if she is knocked off her high horse. Keep an eye on her" Kan Golge ordered.

"Yes sir."

Although they were his children, and couldn't directly turn against him, he didn't trust them. In the past, one of them had betrayed him, by leaking information about him to his enemies in exchange for helping her break free of their bond. To this day, he didn't know what had become of her.

Therefore, he had them under surveillance, especially Krovledi. Although she hadn't done anything to oppose or sabotage his plans, the vampiress' attitude had been strange to say the least. She had embarked on extravagant activities, which didn't seem to make much sense. Little did he know that she not only wanted to sever the bond that subordinated her to him, but to replace him.

Of his other children, there was one who had betrayed him. However, he had let it go, while pretending that he didn't know anything. His son was watched closely, even taking advantage of his initiatives. It was a fun game that he had under control, and that could end at any moment.

Their bond gave him power over the life and death of his children, so he could always kill him. He would if he stopped being useful to him.

For now, his efforts were focused on carrying out his plan. If he succeeded, the area where he was hiding would be under his control, and there would be no longer a need to hide in Cathair Taibhse.