Subspecies: The Tragic Tale of Radu Vladislas

Chapter 1

  

There are many conflicting stories of how the vampire Radu Vladislas came to be. There are tales that the witch Circe seduced the King of Vampires so she could have a powerful spawn who would assume the father's throne and attain the power for herself. There are fables that it was King Vladislas who seduced her and took the child for himself after banishing her from his land and killing her kin, and there are even some who claim that the King was willingly having an affair with the witch and had the child. But, since the child came from an affair Circe killed the King's wife and in retaliation the King banished the witch and slaughtered her people.

No one truly knows anymore, the only facts that are certain is that King Vladislas and the Witch queen Circe had a child, this child had been a burden, the King's wife was murdered, Circe was banished, and her family killed. The only ones who knew the truth were now dead, slain by the child that they had spawned.There was a time when Radu's father, the King had tried to love his monstrous looking son. There was no natural love there, in fact Radu's appearance horrified even the vampires. Radu was pale as a ghost, his ears pointed, and his fingers far too long. Even with that, the King tried his best to love his heir.

That love seemed to vanish when King Vladislas brought home a human woman. The moment Radu had met the woman who would mother his half-brother was one that continues to haunt him until this day. Radu, still so small and so young ran up to the woman and tugged on her dress; he asked her simply if she was his mommy. The woman looked down, horrified and disgusted with what she was seeing that she kicked him away and moved on down the hall. It was the first time that the young vampire felt alone...she had been so needlessly cruel and his father had done nothing to defend him from the horrible woman.

Things only got worse when Radu's half-brother Stefan was born. Oh, how the young pale vampire adored his brother. How he wanted to be the best big brother he possibly could be. But, Stefan's mother hated Radu's very existence and thus had forbade him privately from spending any time with his younger sibling. Perhaps this was where Radu's rebellious attitude stemmed from because despite being threatened Radu still played and loved his brother with all his hear. And oh they seemed to be inseparable.

What the young one did not realize was that Stefan was being trained to be their father's heir, not Radu anymore.

The hatred from Stefan's mother only seemed to grow worse. Oh, in private she was cordial and nice enough but in private she did not hide her distaste for the little vampire. Radu felt so sad and so very alone, except when Stefan was around. Stefan seemed to be the only one who looked past Radu's face and just wanted to be his friend. Stefan very much loved his brother and Radu loved him right back.

That changed the day Stefan's mother died however.

One bright and sunny day whilst the vampires slept, Stefan's mother went down to the catacombs beneath Castle Vladislas. In her hand she grasped a wooden stake which she intended on using and ending the elder brother's un-life. She threw open Radu's coffin and plunged the stake down upon him. As luck would have it, the vampire awoke just in time and caught the stake before it could pierce his chest. There was a struggle but Radu was clearly the stronger of the two, he was now a young man...but then it happened...Radu had accidentally impaled her with her stake as they struggled. She fell at his feet and bled out.

And that, was the only part of it that Stefan had seen. Radu saw this and his heart dropped. He tried to reach out, embrace his brother to explain what had happened but Stefan just backed away. There was fear and rage in his eyes...and at that moment Stefan uttered the word that everyone except him had called Radu all his un-life.

Monster!.

That word hurt more than any stake or sunlight ever could. The one creature on the planet that Radu could thoroughly rely on, the only one who treated him kindly had now called him monster. Well...it was at that moment that Radu started to think...perhaps he truly was a monster after all.