CHAPTER 9

Nickolas looked out at the sky, anger now boiled below the surface of his seemingly calm exterior.
“She’s changed her.”
“I have asked for a moment of her presence. But the male servant has refused that I be allowed to enter the house.”
“Request that she see you.”
“Yes master.” Nathaniel replied as he bowed and left the room once again. Nickolas was angry, Katherine had gotten her one new child, if she brought across the priest he would loose everything.
Katherine peeked into her chambers and smiled, there still laying on the bed was Bianca, her long dark hair slightly over her face as she slept. Soon the sun would rise and Katherine would too return to the room.
“She’s become yours.” Darcy said as he walked up behind her.
“And you could join us. But you have to want it. I will never do what my former master did, I will not make you become what we now are.”
“If I choose to become what you are, does that mean we will become equals?”
“Equals? That is something that is hard to say, I am much older and have lived for over five hundred years. Believe me when I say, I wish this on no one, but I will take those that are willing to join my family.”
“Family? Is that what you are calling this? A family, a family cares about each other.”
“Mistress Katherine cares for each of us that are here with her.” Henry stated.
“Do you stay freely?”
“There is a difference between Mistress Katherine and Master Nickolas. Katherine has a heart, black as it may be but it still has love within it. Nickolas was dead, had been dead for nearly seven hundred years before he found me, and then found Martin, there are a great many of us here that stay with Katherine freely, she has told us that we could leave if we chose to. We do not. She brings a power to us all, a love that most dead should never have.”
“Then you stay because she cares?”
“This is right. Katherine has a black heart, but that black heart beats with a love that no undead has ever shared. She shares her love with those that choose to become her family. I was changed by Nickolas, as was Martin, but we stayed behind when he left what he called his beloved to learn the truth about him.” Henry said. Martin stood near by with a small child at his side.
“A child?”
“She was dying, she was very ill and her mother, a human that worked here freely asked me to save her. I do not ever take the life of a child. But this child is no child, and hasn’t been in nearly a hundred years.”
“I am Angelina, are you going to join us?” The blue-eyed child asked him. Darcy was taken back by the question but was he ready to become the demon he came to destroy?
“Take this in your mind, I have lived a great many years, and during that time I’ve seen hell on earth, death and destruction between humans and demons alike. A war that rages between the evil and the good, the human and the non-human, but that war is unseen; a war that is told over fires to children, I will only take you if you are ready to leave the world that you have hidden from in years.”
“How long?”
“I will give you as much time as you want. But beware, Nickolas has returned, and if he finds that you are unsure of what to do, he will make that choice for you. Becoming one of his children comes with a price that many are not willing to pay.” Katherine replied, she took one more look at the small group gathered and then walked into her room and closed and latched the door. Darcy stood there for a moment longer before walking down the long hallway to his room, the sun was just about to rise above the mountains in the distance, he sat near the window in his room, the curtains drawn back.
“Take your time to watch the sun, for if the choice is to become part of her world, it will be the last time you see the sun.” Angelina said as she slowly closed the door to Darcy’s room. Darcy sighed and looked out the window, a choice was to be made, but his heart was confused and unsure of what to do.