Blood Vengeance (Blood Curse Series Book 7) by Tessa Dawn Page B

also attracted and encouraged human vampire-hunting societies here. Since the house of Jadon’s males had to wait on their destinies ”—he eyed her meaningfully—“they reproduced a lot more slowly, and a lot of males were taken by the Blood for failing to complete the requirements of their Blood Moons.” He placed one ankle on top of the other. “Luckily, they— we —had the sun and Napolean , a time to regroup when the Dark Ones couldn’t hunt us, and a leader who would step forward and rebuild all that was once right with the ancient civilization, a leader who knew what that civilization once looked like.”
    Tiffany twirled her fingers through her hair, tugging on several strands behind her ear, enraptured by the story. “So, how did you end up here… together… all in Dark Moon Vale? And what did Napolean do?”
    Ramsey’s eyes lit up with both recognition and respect, and for the first time, Tiffany got a glimpse of why the powerful sentinel served the king with so much loyalty. “The numbers of first-generation males in both houses, the followers of Jaegar and the followers of Jadon, had dwindled down from thousands to hundreds, maybe even less, when Napolean took it upon himself to try and save our civilization. Rumor has it, he was partially influenced by one of the Silivasis’ ancestors after his own father died, and when that male passed away, he got real serious about reinventing the wheel: Apparently, he had made some sort of vow to this guy, Timaos. Anyhow, he slowly began to gather the males from one end of the mainland to the other, relocating them in one central place. He started to compile information, keep track of what worked and what didn’t, what we needed to exist as a self-contained civilization in a new world, and he began to envision a cohesive society where we could function as vampires while still remaining true to our celestial origins. In short, he invented the house of Jadon. He drafted the laws and the covenants. He had the best warriors train the others, and ultimately, he went back to Romania, to the original castle of King Sakarias, to set up the University. While we weren’t allowed to live there, there was nothing in the Curse prohibiting us from going back and forth, as long as we didn’t stay, reestablish our community in Europe. Basically, he saved our species from imminent extinction by carving out a way for us to live, a place for us to thrive, and a code of honor to live by.” He paused, as if wondering how much detail he should go into. “You may have noticed that there are a helluva lot more warriors than wizards, healers, or justices in Dark Moon Vale, right?”
    Tiffany nodded. “I have.”
    “Well, that’s no accident,” Ramsey said. “While Napolean may have conceived of all four disciplines right from the start, his initial emphasis was straightforward: The house of Jaegar could reproduce at a far greater rate than we could, and in order to survive, we needed skilled Master Warriors, a lot of them, males who could fight better, stronger, faster, and with more efficiency than the Dark Ones. That took some serious training and time. It wasn’t until a few centuries ago, after we attained true stability and our numbers stabilized, that Napolean gave the nod to more than a handful of males to pursue the alternate disciplines. In other words, what you see now? It didn’t happen all at once. In fact, it took centuries to create the society you see today, but eventually, Napolean did it. And it’s worked ever since.” His eyes grew darker, more focused, and his upper lip drew back in a very subtle snarl. “For the longest time, we thought the Dark Ones were still scattered, living like animals in hidden caves and arroyos, but now we know better. They were right here… beneath us … all this time, and they developed their own advanced society, despite their degenerate ways.”
    Tiffany took a moment to let it all sink in, the history, the implications.