Dark Obsession by Aja James

Author:Aja James [James, Aja]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-02T05:00:00+00:00

In the last years of 2nd century AD, Roman outpost of North Africa.

The “boy” was in his third decade, though he’d stopped aging at twenty summers as most Dark Ones did.

He continued to grow in physical strength and battle prowess, however, as a Roman general who’d led tens of thousands of men into battle for several different emperors.

After the reign of Marcus Aurelius, his son Commodus all but ruined the Empire. When Commodus’s bloody time on the throne was done, there was the year of the Five Emperors, when one after the other, claimants to the throne got murdered and executed in the political upheaval that ensued.

The chaos and confusion that descended upon the Roman Empire was the perfect opportunity for the “boy” to make his mark.

He’d joined the Legionaries as a common foot soldier when he was fourteen, having scraped and stole to live before that. He’d had to fend for himself after he ran away from Mistress Circe’s citadel, ever fearful that someone would find him and hunt him down for killing the Mistress.

No one had come for him. No one helped him either.

He’d almost starved to death before he finally figured out how to beguile humans into Consenting to give him blood. Sometimes, he benefited from the kindness of villagers. Sometimes, he had to pay with his body for the blood he needed to survive. He learned everything the hard way, with only himself as a guide.

Trial and error. Life and death. He didn’t know there could be a different existence other than the one he had, and he didn’t have the luxury to think too hard about it.

The military was an answered prayer. As long as he showed he could fight, as long as he could keep up with the relentless marches across the vast Empire, he had a place with the soldiers.

He had food, shelter, clothes and shoes. And when they raided enemy camps, he could take his plunder like the others. But instead of coins and sometimes slaves, he took blood and souls. It was only hundreds of years later, when he’d become an integrated member of Dark society that he comprehended the law against taking human souls.

He quickly shot up the ranks of the Roman Legions, his fighting skills nigh legendary. The Emperor Severus himself gave Maximus his name. Continuing to call him “boy” and later “soldier” no longer seemed appropriate for such a mighty warrior upon whose shoulders wars were won.

Finally, he was known as Maximus Justus Copernicus, Supreme Commander. It was the highest honor and title bestowed upon any Roman General.

The Emperor had even bequeathed him a small estate and a patch of land to farm should he ever feel the need to settle down, take a wife and sire sons—in between waging wars of course. The Emperor could not afford to lose his fiercest general, but he could reward him with some material comforts.

Maximus didn’t need comforts. His place was with his men. Despite his questionable beginnings, the pale, gangly little boy who was rejected by his own vampire horde was embraced as a leader among humans.

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