Chapter 2

The cloaked figure opens the door to reveal a room far grander than it should have been found in such a rundown dwelling, a room with a fire lit in the hearth on the opposite side of the room. 

Grand tapestries lace walls of the large room, the images revealing ancient battles between the two ancient immortal races of the Vampire and the Lycans. Deep color rugs littered the floors, expensive and ancient ornaments and furnishings decorated the room. Finely crafted furniture was scattered around the room and a grand fireplace that took up half the wall cast a golden glow over the room. 

The shadow's gaze quickly found the three other occupants of the room. Two of the occupants were middle-aged men both healthy and fit and the other was a young man who appeared to have yet to reach his twenties but in the world of the night, appearances were most often deceiving. 

"Ah, Ethelbert." The darker of the two middle-aged men greeted. 

Ethelbert raises both hands to his hood and lowers it, bowing his head once in respectful greeting to them all as he took off his cloak, revealing his penetrating brown almond-shaped eyes and short black hair, hair blacker than darkness itself. His hair he had inherited from his dad but his eyes he had inherited from his mom. He was Prince Ethelbert Thomas, the crown prince and future king of the Lycan race. 

"Father." Ethelbert greeted respectfully, as he bows his head once again and turns to the other two occupants of the room. He bows his head respectfully to the older of the fairer men before repeating the action to the younger, "King Kaden. Prince Lamar." 

They both bow their heads respectfully in return to him. 

Ethelbert moves gracefully to his dad's side and they all took their seats around the finely crafted pine wood coffee table in four comfortable overly stuff armchairs, all facing each other. 

"We are here to negotiate peace between our people." The leader and ruler of the Lycan race, King Kabir Thomas the Third, began "Too many have already fallen to this pointless war and the mortals are now becoming causalities in a war that isn't their own." 

"Agreed." The vampire king said. King Kaden Thomas, the second, had rule the vampire for nearly fifteen hundred years but he didn't look a day over thirty-five, "This war has cost both of our races too much, our numbers are decreasing rapidly. At this rate, both races will be extinct within the next century." 

"The war has gone on too long and we are all paying the price for it." Crown prince Lamar stated sadly. 

Ethelbert looked up at the prince who had been his enemy for so long and saw the soul-deep sorrow in the vampire's big dark brown almond-shaped eyes. He knew that look well; it was the look of lost love. He had seen it in the eyes of so many of his people for far too long and it broke his heart. He had long ago learned to close his heart to love. He allowed so few close to him and as a result, he had less to lose. Sometimes he wonders if it was worth it. 

"I'm sorry to hear about your sister, Prince Lamar," Ethelbert told him formally, but sincerely. 

It was only a month ago, but a blink of an eye to the immortal kind, that the second and only other born of the vampire royal family had died after her child had been stillborn. She had died from despair and a broken heart, her bond mate dying with her at the very same hour by his hand. 

Such was the fate of so many of the women of his kind, especially as of late. Due to the war, the numbers on both sides were few and women were even fewer. To top it off, with the great difficulty of conception and then carrying them full term, so few children were being born and both pregnancy complications and depression were killing too many of their females. Unlike the belief in mortal legends vampires and Lycans were born, not infected by bite and so, their races were dangerously close to extinction. 

Many said that this was the price of so many centuries of pointless war. It had been one of the main reasons that both sides had demanded an end to the war, demanded peace, this was their purpose that night. They had come to form a peace treaty between the vampire and the Lycan kind and bring peace after five thousand years of war. No one could remember the true cause of the war but they still knew the thriving hatred and distrust between the two races who had once lived peacefully with the mortals in the human world. 

In the light. So long ago. 

Prince Lamar looks up into Ethelbert's eyes, "Too many have been lost in this pointless war. It is time for peace. My sister was only one of many. With females so few and living offspring rare, none of us can afford the cost of this war any longer." He sat up tall and proud in his chair like the prince and future king that he was, "This war will end this night or I will never be king." He turns and looks straight into the shocked eyes of his disapproving dad, "On my love for my sister, this is my oath and it shall come to pass. I will no longer be part of a war that isn't my own. My sister, Jena, for so long warned us all that this would happen and we chose to ignore her and she lost her own life to this war. Not to a blade but to this war no less. The moon goddess is punishing us and I will ignore her divine will no longer." 

Ethelbert suddenly found himself respecting and liking the vampire prince. There was something about him that reminded him of himself. He had never met the prince face to face before but he had heard much of his passion and love for his people and his kindness and conviction. The whispers he had heard of the vampire prince hadn't been false.