Dawn hadn't fully broken when Jaenor arrived at the forest preserve northeast of Kharsen.
The trees were still dark, the morning light barely filtering through the canopy. But his eyes adjusted without effort, seeing clearly in the pre-dawn darkness as he moved through the forest toward the castle.
He heard them before he saw them.
The sound of movement. Hundreds of bodies shifting in the darkness, positioning, preparing.
Jaenor emerged from the treeline and stopped.
The clearing before the castle was filled with vampires. Not the hundred who'd invaded his home. More. Far more. They stretched from the castle gates to the treeline, packed into the clearing with the density of a standing army. Several hundred at minimum, possibly approaching a thousand.
And among them, creatures.
