A Moonlit Night - The Complete Saga Read Online Free Page B

England;
which would one day be considered the last battle in the War of the
Roses.
    Xander had commanded the armies of King Henry
VII into battle against the pretender, Lambert Simnel. Xander had
given everything to his king, and paid for it with his life. Near
death, and gasping for breath, Xander considered for a moment,
where his actions had taken him.
    He didn’t regret his choices; he only
regretted leaving behind a wife and child. They had been his entire
life, and now he was going to die, alone and afraid, without his
family for comfort.
    The battle had been over for a couple hours
now, yet none of his men had returned for him. Not that they would
be able to find him, he thought, in the sea of bloodied corpses.
No, this is where he was going to die. At least he would finally
have peace.
    “I saw you out there,” said a voice from the
shadows. “You were magnificent.”
    “Who’s there?” asked Xander, desperately
trying to find the energy to turn himself over. “Show yourself! Do
not hide from me!”
    Xander’s eyes traced the tree line, as he
frantically searched for the person behind the voice.
    “I’m not over there,” said the voice from
afar. “I’m here—.”
    “Ah!” screamed Xander, as the man appeared
right beside him, inches away from his head, kneeling over like a
hyena picking at his dinner. “W—what do you want?”
    The man sniffed around the open wound on
Xander’s head. He brought his lips to Xander’s ear, and said, “I
want you .”
    “You have fought well for your king,”
continued the man, staying just out of Xander’s line of sight. “If
you were to survive, you surely would be given land, and a title;
but you are not going to survive, are you? No, the stench of death
is all over you.”
    “What are you, a soothsayer?” asked Xander,
as he coughed up some blood. “Spare me the merchant’s pitch. Either
leave me alone, or kill me right now.”
    “What I offer…goes far behind life or death,”
said the man stepping in front of the fallen Xander. “My name is
Simeon Agathon and over 1000 years ago, I too, was a soldier just
like you; a Roman legionnaire, to be exact.”
    Simeon hovered over Xander as he licked his
lips in anticipation. He looked at Xander, and yelled, “Now I am a
god!”
    Simeon threw his hands to the sky and he let
out a monstrous scream. The ground below shook as Simeon howled to
the very gods themselves.
    “I want you to be a god, too,” said Simeon,
lowering his head back down. “Is that something you would
like?”
    The answer seemed to be rhetorical, because
as soon as the words left Simeon’s mouth, he dropped to his knees,
and began biting at the neck of Xander. After all, Simeon thought,
if given the choice, who would not want to be a god?
    The monster’s teeth tore through the flesh of
Xander, as he helplessly cried out for help; but no help would be
coming for him. Not that any would have really made a
difference.
    And so, Alexander Franson died that night;
the final casualty in the War of the Roses.

Chapter Seven

    “Is this some kind of sick joke?” asked
Emily, now brandishing a knife she had retrieved from the kitchen
counter.
    “I’m not with him, I promise you that,”
Xander growled, refusing to take his eyes off Simeon.
    “My goodness, you both are so rude,”
smirked Simeon. “Isn’t anyone going to invite me inside—?”
    “Do not invite him inside!” shouted Xander,
his lip curling at the sight of his maker. “He can’t enter your
home without an invitation.”
    “And how did you come to get inside?” Simeon
questioned. “Did you lie to her, or did you simply charm her?”
    “What is he talking about?” Emily asked.
“Somebody better tell me what is going on, right now.”
    “Should you tell her, or should I?” Simeon
inquired.
    “A vampire can charm any human, rendering
them under their control,” Simeon said. “Of course he probably
didn’t tell you any of this. Can you really be so sure that