Prologue

Pain. Horrible and excruciating pain ripping through my insides, tearing everything in its path. I thought my heart was being torn out of my chest. The one time I felt like this, it had been when Alizandra died in my arms. Right there my heart died with her, if I had one, of course. My world crumbled, guilt and hate consumed me, and I became even more of the devil people used to call me.

I’ve barely woken up in my long existence, the grief of having lost her hit me too hard, I had nothing worth to fight for, so I’ve tried to sleep as much as I could, because every time I was awake I had brought chaos around me, not that I cared! Screw everybody, if I couldn’t find my peace, then no one would.

Humans were stupid beings, they believed in so many stories and legends, and were afraid of the unknown, I reveled in the unknown, it was what made me feel alive. Well, at least used to, now I had a dull existence and there was nothing I could do about it. The longest I’d been awake was in England, in the mid 1700s and I’ve lost her again! Back in those years I had done a lot of things and then I put myself in this slumber to be awakened to this pain searing through my veins like a jolt of lightning. 

Would this be a late punishment for all my evil deeds? For all the pain I inflicted on people all those years? Because I was sure this was a tine version of what they had felt. I’ve never prayed before, because God had forsaken me as soon as I lost my soul to the darkness, but it was too much to endure. Each of my muscles cramped in such terrible way I swore they were being reaped open or something, so I prayed to stop and only got worse, an uncontrollable shaking took over my body, my skin felt so hot I thought it would melt from my flesh and my lungs closed leaving me gasping for air. Lord, what kind of torture was that! Suddenly I realized... It was not my pain! 

“Alizandra!” I screamed at the top of my lungs and snapped my eyes open. She was back! “Alizandra!” I felt the power once more overrunning me, my canines lengthened and I exploded from my resting place, rocks, stones and dust erupting all around. Falling to the ground on my knees, breathing large amounts of fresh cold air, trying to refrain the fire burning my guts, I held to my stomach while coughing and vomiting, such was the intensity of the pain torturing me. I felt so disoriented with everything, and after so long I looked to the sky so full of stars, and it spun out of control making me even dizzier. What the hell was going on? Why was she in such pain? I didn’t know what had happened, but I couldn’t lose her this time. “Alizandra!” I looked to the cold night sky and screamed her name. Feeling the disturbance of power, animals scurried and flew away from the monster who had risen once more. I was back again…

***Author's Note***

I had the most beloved Romanian grandfather in this world, and through him I learned to love and admire his country for its people, culture and beauty. Since I was a kid I heard a lot of stories about a historical figure, and when I spent some time there I learned that a lot of the people also saw him as a hero. My intention in this story is not to disrupt history, neither be disrespectful in any way, but just to give life to a "what if" that came to my mind. Mixing a few  facts with fiction, and bringing to the 21st century a ruler I grew to admire besides his cruel side. In my eyes he did what he had to do in a world of kill or be killed in the name of his land in the dark ages of Europe.