My Vampire Harem Will Dominate Everything

Headlights cut through the darkness of the night as Ezra's car screeched to a stop in front of James' estate and he jumped out, the tires smoking behind him.

There it was.

The statue of the money king. The statue of Shadrach, King of Faewall.

Ezra deployed his black zone as he exhaled in wonder, his hands trembling slightly as he walked slowly closer, almost as if he couldn't believe his eyes.

This was it. The thing that had drawn him to Faewall. The thing that had been tormenting his soul.

He walked closer until he got to the wide pedestal the statue sat on.

Just like the memory, it felt like the statue was staring at him. Telling him to stay back and away from the only thing that would bring relief to his soul.

And the closer he got to the statue, the more he could feel it. The resistance. The air became heavier, as if there was a force actively pushing against him.

Voices whispered in his ear, telling him to turn away and forget why he came here. A wave of lethargy swept through him but he fought against it, keeping his eyes wide opened.

His steps grew slower and as he placed his leg on the wide pedestal, he found that he couldn't go further. No matter how much he strained, it was as if the air was a wall he just could not pass through.

Ezra focused on the pain in his soul, using it to ground himself. With a snarl, he called up his darkness, the tattoo of Valaren flashing on his body. He wreathed himself in the darkness and began absorbing the vitality of whatever was stopping him.

"No." He gritted his teeth as he moved forward by a hair's breadth. "You'll never stop me."

He began moving forward, inch by inch and it felt like whatever was stopping him had grown more powerful. He kept absorbing the vitality, turning it to his own as fast as he could but it felt like trying to drink up a river to stop it from flooding a town.

But he didn't stop. He kept moving, his hands trembling as he stretched it out, reaching for the statue that was right in front of him.

Whoosh!

The moment his fingers brushed the cold metal of the statue, the resistance vanished as if it had never been there. He stumbled forward before catching himself.

He straightened, dismissing the darkness around him.

His eyes roamed around the statue and he studied it closely, his fingers tracing the concentric circles on the breastplate it wore.

He frowned as he noticed it. He grabbed the breastplate and tugged. With a metallic groan, the breastplate slid off the statue as if that was what it had been designed to do.

Ezra laughed, almost deliriously, to himself at the breastplate in his hands. Nobody had been able to find this secret except Nicodemus who had been waiting for something. But now, it was Ezra's.

The metal of the breastplate was unnaturally cold against his fingers and he examined it. There was only one logical next step.

He raised it up then hesitated. Was this the right choice? Nicodemus had wanted to wait. What had he been waiting for? Ezra had no idea. But he knew one thing.

Anya and James were out there and his soul was slowly breaking down, day by day. This was the only way out of everything that had been going on for the past nineteen years.

It was time to be free.

With an exhale that was just for the sake of habit, he pressed the breastplate to his chest. The metal clicked into place and instantly, a wave of cold washed over him.

It wasn't the biting chill of winter that he'd always felt growing up but instead, this cold was different. Less cold and more… soothing.

The cold spread through his body, going deep until it touched his soul and the ache that seemed like it had always been there slowly faded away and at that moment, it was as if a portion of his brain that had been locked away was now returned back to him.

It brought… clarity.

He gasped as his awareness expanded.

He could feel it now. The soul bond.

He could feel every connection that tethered him to Olivia and Red. Each of the threads was alive and was bursting with energy, vitality zipping between the three of them faster than it had ever been before.

Then, he frowned. On Olivia's bond was something different. A new thread was forming, fragile and bright like a sprout breaking through the earth.

But before he could examine it, the pleasant cold turned to fire.

The burning started in his chest and swiftly spread outward like molten lava coursing through his veins.

He dropped to his knees, clutching at his chest as the new energy from the breastplate raged through him.

A scream tore through his lips as visions flooded his mind, fragments of a memory he didn't recognize but instinctively understood.

Shadrach's key. That was what the breastplate was. A key fashioned by the progenitor himself for his beloved heir.

He saw flashes of a palace with its grand throne and great tree, a palace he'd seen once before, its gates sealed under the Ark itself.

The visions twisted and shifted, showing him how the progenitor's palace sat peacefully and hidden under the Council's Ark like a slumbering beast waiting to be awoken.

And sitting sealed inside was a special gate. The gate to the Abyss.

As the fire consumed him, Ezra felt his body breaking under the strain.

One by one, his limiters were stripped away, his vampire instincts seizing every cell in his body. He felt like fighting and tearing everything he could see down with his bare hands. Drink hot blood directly from the source and feel it going down his throat with every gulp.

He didn't know when he got on all fours but his fingers clawed at the ground, the pain almost unbearable as his physical form began to change. Darkness coiled around him, feeding off the energy and intertwining with his very soul.

With a roar, something broke within him and he ascended to the fifth ring.

The fire burned a hole inside his soul, creating his own pocket dimension as was his right as a fifth ringed vampire. But it didn't stop. It kept going, burning more space as the world seemed to warp and bend around him as if the fabric of reality itself was burning.

The pain didn't stop.

Ezra roared into the sky as the fire continued its work and he ascended into the sixth ring.

His body convulsed, the energy ravaging him from the inside out. He could feel his humanity slipping away, each shred of it burnt away by the fire of the breastplate.

His control, his endurance, his sense of mercy. It all began burning.

This was it.

The future that had been foretold. The future that meant that no matter how hard he tried, this was where he'd die.

The future that guaranteed the Cutting Off.

Then, almost as if it had been lying in wait, a memory surfaced.

Gen. Her laughter when she was in the throes of battle, wielding her giant battle axe like the bloodthirsty vampire that she was.

Her smile when she cracked a joke, laughing out loud with the carefree attitude of a woman with no worries.

The memories came flooding back like a dam had been broken.

He should've known. He should have seen it coming.

In hindsight, it was all clear. Gen hadn't been living like a woman with no worries. No. She'd been living like a woman who knew she didn't have much time to spend being alive. Like a woman who knew her death was fast approaching and wanted to enjoy all she could before she left.

That was when the ache in his soul returned like it had never gone in the first place. The cold sensation from earlier came back, sweeping through him and fighting back the fire that was consuming him.

He blinked as he felt tears running down his face, roaring his pain as the battle raged on inside of him.

The two forces raged, each one fighting for dominance.

His memories kept rushing back. Not just of gen but of the life he'd built. Of Olivia and Red.

His body trembled violently as the energies built up. And with one final, ear-splitting roar, the forces exploded outward, a shockwave of power spreading out his body.

He could vaguely feel the energy eating through his black zone but his focus was on himself.
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His vision swam as his humanity gradually came back to him. He found himself on his knees, gasping for breath.

Then there was a flash of light beneath him and he looked down to see the breastplate shining softly. It shimmered and turned into flashes of light before dissolved into him.

He stared down at the empty space where it had been, his chest heaving as he tried to process what had just happened.

He could feel the energy of the key sitting inside his soul like an egg waiting to be hatched.

The key was now a part of him. Forever.

That was when the force struck him.