Dark Embrace (Principatus) Read Online Free Page B

dominate and influence in his grooming for the position of overlord. More than once he’d made it clear he would not be a puppet to their political machinations, refusing to destroy vampires accused of vague, unsubstantiated crimes, questioning dubious requests his father would automatically approve, seeking answers to questions few in court wanted asked.
    To this day, Ezryn had to admit he’d underestimated his brother. Haral had played all the pieces to perfection. The dying virgin had allegedly whispered Haral’s name in the oracle’s ear, and the advisors to the position of overlord had supported and enforced that proclamation. Ezryn was denied the title he’d been groomed for a mere twenty-four hours before his ascension. But blood trial or no, Ezryn would not kowtow to his brother. Especially when he didn’t believe what the virgin had proclaimed.
    He drew Haral closer to him, his anger a cold fist in his chest. “Tell me, brother mine, supreme and oh-so-revered leader of our illustrious race, after the oracle finished raping the human virgin to her death, did he wipe his pus-weeping dick clean before sinking it into your ass?”
    Haral hissed, tiny beads of saliva splattering his bottom lip. “I charge you with a task, Ezryn Navarr,” he snarled. “And for every night you choose not to obey my command, I will slaughter one vampire who chose to rebel against my ascension.”
    Ezryn’s cold blood turned to fire. “You wouldn’t dare. I accepted that ridiculous proclamation to save bloodshed.”
    His brother sneered, wrapping his fingers around Ezryn’s wrist. “Try me, Ezzie.”
    The nickname stabbed into Ezryn’s chest. They had always despised each other, from the moment Haral learned of his lower position in the family. One son born to be lord, one son born to be subservient. One groomed for the duty, the other hungering for it with every molecule in his body. Ezryn bared his fangs, releasing his grip on Haral’s throat and stepping away from him. “That we come from the same blood disgusts me.”
    Smoothing his hands over the crumpled collar of his shirt, Haral smiled, the action both smug and perverted. “As it does me, brother . So tell me, will you have your loyal followers’ destruction on your conscience? Will they drown in blood and burn in sunlight? Or will you do as your lord commands?”
    Ezryn thought of the hundreds of vampires who had adamantly and vocally refused Haral’s ascension. Vampires who had moved beyond the savagery of their race long ago. Vampires who continued to have faith in him, even when he stepped aside. Who bemoaned his move to Australia and begged him to lead a rebellion. He remembered Kristoph, his tutor and advisor in the royal court for close to four centuries. The ancient vampire had been one of only two to discover Haral’s relationship with the oracle. Kristoph had spoken at length to the court, petitioning them not to appoint Haral, but his pleas had fallen on deaf ears. Or scared ones. The mass slaughter of those immediately loyal to Ezryn had begun with Kristoph. Only Ezryn’s departure from Europe had halted the cleansing . Harry, of course, denounced his followers’ actions. He spoke verbosely and grandly of peace and coexistence but did little to stop the executions. Fifty years later, and the fury in Ezryn’s chest had not lessened one iota.
    He stared at his brother. The disquiet in his chest grew colder. Tighter. What he was about to agree to do was insanity, but he had no choice. There was always a solution to lunacy—even if the solution was lunacy itself. “Where do I find this Principatus you’re so willing to see dead you will condemn hundreds?”
    His overlord grinned at him, fangs glistening in the candlelight, eyes shining with cold triumph. “Why, in Australia, Ezzie. In the very city you now call home.”
     
    “What do you mean, kill a Principatus ? Is he insane?”
    Jacob Ford, Ezryn’s closest friend and Sydney’s most