All around , there’s nothing but fire, smoke, and screams.
I’m standing in my little crib, in an abandoned room, with dangerous cracks spidering across the walls and the ceiling.
I hear crying — a child’s cry. My crying.
«Mom... Dad... where are you? I’m scared...»
But no one answers my desperate cries for help. No one can answer.
All I can do is clutch my pillow and curl into a corner of the crib, crying.
And then... I see her, and my heart lights up with hope.
Isabelle Valakys, the governess of the Volkom household. She stands in the doorway, with my little sister, Mia, on her back.
I hear Mia crying my na, begging Isabelle to take too.
Isabelle is strong — the strongest in all of Mildelar. She’ll save and bring back to Mom and Dad.
But just as Isabelle is about to step into the room, enormous chunks of the ceiling break free and crash right in front of the doorway, blocking the entrance.
Right after that, the sounds of a ferocious battle erupt down the corridor.
The ceiling above my head is coming down.
I look up, and a massive slab is about to crush .
I hug my knees, bracing myself for the worst — but when I open my eyes a heartbeat later, I’m inside a huge diamond-shaped do.
It materializes out of nowhere and saved from the collapse.
And I’m not alone inside the do. The one who created it is in there with .
John Hardley.
He scoops up in his arms and smiles at .
«Everything will be okay, little Jace Volkom. I’ll take you sowhere no one will ever hurt you.»
I wake up with a start, drenched in cold sweat.
Just a nightmare, thank God. A nightmare that has been haunting since that night five years ago, when I learned the whole truth. It’s as if discovering who I really am stirred up traumas that my child’s mind had completely erased.
«L-Love... did you have that bad dream again...?» a woman’s voice murmurs. lania’s voice. She’s lying beside in bed, the moonlight washing over her naked body.
«Tomorrow I have to tell Veronica to stop using those spells to make you sleep. They’re nothing but torture...» she adds, snuggling closer to .
Yeah — my mother’s spells. Archwitch Veronica Lance, able to put even a vampire to sleep. Archwitch is a title granted only to the most powerful witches. Who would’ve guessed?
And that’s just a tiny fraction of what she’s told .
For starters, she’s human — but despite that, she’s not from this world, or from Elyndra. She cos from a world called N’Raeth, where humans can use magic. She ran from that world over twenty years ago because people hunted anyone who practiced certain forms of dark magic — and John saved her. John, who, back then, still went by his real na, Vadhim, and who’s also a human from N’Raeth.
That bastard told he was a demon from Elyndra so I’d sympathize with him, since we supposedly both ca from the sa world. He really thought of everything...
«No, it’s fine this way. Each dream becos more vivid and detailed than the last, and I’ll keep sleeping until I get back all my mories from when I was a kid,» I reply, gently stroking her hair.
My ears perk up at once as my heightened vampire hearing picks up the faint whimpers of a child.
It’s my son, Kris Volkom, crying from the room where he sleeps — with his grandmother, Veronica.
Of course, Kris will never know that Veronica is his real mother and not my current fiancée. lania is raising him with the sa love and care she’d give if he truly were her own, and my heart lts every ti Kris calls her Mom.
That’s how Veronica wanted it. Those weren’t just jealous scenes she put on in Hawaii, when she said that lania and I were a beautiful couple and that she liked us together. And because a succubus and a vampire can’t conceive, Veronica is the one who gave birth to the child that lania and I could never have had.
And the most incredible part is that the last ti Veronica and I slept together was four years ago. After that, it was only lania. No other woman for , no other man for her. Just , her, and our son.
In Kris’s veins runs the blood of the Volkons and of an incredibly powerful witch — so yes, I can’t help but have high expectations for him.
«Go back to sleep now, lania. Tomorrow we’ll both be starting new missions, and you can’t show up at work half-asleep,» I add, pulling the blankets up around her.
«Ugh, what a hassle — don’t make think about it...» she grumbles. «Two whole weeks without you will be hell!»
«What are you whining about? You’re going to Italy — at least it’s warm there this ti of year. What should I say, having to follow John to Russia?»
Yeah, being one of John’s agents isn’t all sunshine and roses. I thought we’d mostly operate around New York, but more often than not we get sent all over the world, like this ti. I’ll be in Russia for a few days, where John will et a powerful cri boss, while lania will go to Italy to secure an important financial agreent with a wealthy businessman from Milan. Of course, her succubus charms will make sure the man signs without hesitation.
One year ago, I was sent to Ashiya, Japan, to set straight one of John’s agents — a young vampire nad Leon Thazreel, as talented as he was lazy.
Still, thankfully, we have the best grandmother in the world to look after little Kris while we’re away. Since giving birth to him, she stepped down as CEO of Seiryu Biotech to beco a full-ti grandma, and little Kris couldn’t be in better hands.
As for Kimberly Almiris, she returned to Greece — her holand — from which John had summoned her specifically for that mission, and we haven’t talked since. Every now and then I ask John about her, mostly out of curiosity, and last ti, he told she’d managed to beco an A2-rank agent within HESPARC Italy. I’m glad she’s doing well — she deserves it. She really is a good girl.
And then there’s my dear Naomi — Aunt Naomi, as Kris calls her. Just last week she shared the wonderful news that she’ll be getting married next spring, and lania and I will be her witnesses.
And guess who her future husband is? Tyler. Yes — that Tyler.
They started seeing each other again about three years ago, a year after their breakup, and things seem to be going really well between them. Just to be safe, I made sure, for months, that he wasn’t still fooling around with young girls, and it looks like he’s finally learned his lesson.
Of course, he doesn’t rember what lania did to him, and he doesn’t know anything about what happened between Naomi and . And I have to admit — the more I got to know him, he really is a good guy. So much that the four of us often go out together.
Looking back, I think that’s what Naomi wanted from back when we had that huge fight over Tyler: a best friend who really was just a best friend.
But at the ti, I was probably just too immature to understand.
It’s still the middle of the night, and since my son’s whimpering must have woken Veronica, I think I’ll take the opportunity to ask her to put to sleep again. Sleep is the one thing I truly envy humans for — I can’t live without it anymore.
Still, now and then I like to spend the night staring at the ceiling, thinking about how much my life has changed since that morning almost five years ago when Ms. Archer introduced Kimberly to the class. So much has happened since then, but I’m sure just as much is still waiting for — because this isn’t the end of my story.
It’s only the beginning.
***
And so concludes the genesis of Jace Lance.
I hope this story entertained and amused you as much as it did while I was writing it.
But, as you may have guessed, this is only a fragnt of the overall macro plot.
A single drop in a much vaster universe.
Don’t miss my other novels.
Who knows... so of the characters you’ve co to love might return.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for coming with this far.
I’ll see you in the next story, whose first Chapters are already available.
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