A week later, Vlad scowled at his brothers.
In his right hand, the long stick now had several rocks strapped to its length to make it heavier. This fact alone caused the gathered fledglings to bicker less than usual.
They knelt before him in the common room as he sat on a bench.
In his left hand, a battered cup half-full of thin Renfield blood.
He'd been told it was Bren's.
By the taste of it, Bren needed food. Good food. Which he wasn't getting.
This wasn't something Vlad could fix right now. The first priority was his brothers. Tonight, they stared morosely at the ground in front of them, expecting another night of running up the mountain followed by an endless flow of exercises which made the training by Elder Janos and Elder Miklos seem like relaxation.
He tapped the cup with a hard fingernail and nodded as he spoke.
"You're still weak," he told them. "But the pain you feel is the strength growing inside you. You just don't know it yet. Soon, though. Soon you'll see I'm right."
He took a sip of the blood.
"I have some good news," he continued. "Tonight, we're not going up the mountain."
A few heads lifted hopefully. Then dropped again as they saw the cruel grin on his face.
"No, this time we're doing something better," he said. "It'll be much more fun."
"Fun?" Jenos groaned.
"Yes." Vlad tapped the heavy stick on the ground. "Don't you want to have fun, Jenos?"
Jenos swallowed hard. "Yes, brother! I want to have fun!"
"Excellent!" He grinned wider. "Then tonight we'll be cracking open your hearts."
A collective gasp went around the room.
Some were confused.
Did he mean he was going to open their chests and literally break their hearts open? With Vlad, it was hard to tell.
None believed he wouldn't do such a thing.
"Do you mean we're refining our hearts?" Tibor asked, understanding the meaning behind Vlad's words.
"That's right."
The fledglings looked to each other with glances mixing fear and optimism.
On one hand, the refining of their hearts would let them gain vampire powers like Tibor and Vlad had shown.
But on the other, the elders had repeatedly warned them how dangerous it was to do such a thing prematurely.
Were they ready?
Most doubted it.
Tibor's face hardened. "Do you know a way for us, brother?"
"I do. But it's not simple," Vlad warned him. "And if you feel too weak, maybe you shouldn't do it. Because the way I'm talking about isn't the Crimson Wave Technique."
A few gasped and Tibor frowned. "But the Crimson Wave-"
"Is weak!" Vlad snapped. "It's the easiest method to refine your heart, but it's also the most depthless. You will gain some strength in the beginning, but in the long run it won't grow as great as the method I will give you."
"Which method?" Ist asked.
"The Blood Ocean Technique."
"Blood Ocean?" Ist frowned. "But that has a poor reputation."
"Who says so?"
"Umm. Everyone?"
"Tsk," Vlad sneered. "And what do they know? The Blood Ocean Technique will give you a greater space inside your heart for your core to grow. Truly grow! Over time, it will continue to grow and the blood energy you can hold will be greater. The Crimson Wave is a good method for those who can't manage to refine their heart with the Blood Ocean, though. It's flashy, but it means you will run out of blood energy faster."
"I've never heard this," Ist said.
"Are you doubting me?"
"No, brother!" Ist flinched back. "It's just…"
"Are you certain of this, Vlad?" Tibor asked, his gaze lifting as he stared deep into Vlad's own. "You're not lying to us?"
Vlad slapped his own chest. "I have already refined my heart," he told Tibor. "With the Blood Ocean Technique. And I have felt the benefits already. Trust me. I want to make you strong. Strong enough to show the world why the Black Dragon Court is the strongest in the world. I won't let you be weak, even if you can't refine your hearts this way."
Tibor held his gaze a moment longer, then nodded. "I want to be strong," he said slowly. "So, I'll try it."
"I don't know…" Jenos said nervously. "What if-"
"You bastard!" Vlad shouted at him. "I give you everything on a plate! I hand it to you, and you won't even take it? Did I hit your brain too many times?"
"Umm… Maybe?"
"You will refine your heart with the Blood Ocean Technique, Jenos," Vlad hissed. "Or I swear, I will beat you to death a hundred times."
"But I can only die once," Jenos said, confused.
"You think I can't beat you to death a hundred times?"
"No, brother," Jenos said, struggling to keep up. "I think you can do anything you want!"
"Then what will you do now?"
"Refine my heart with the Blood Ocean Technique?"
"Good." Vlad picked up the goblet and finished the blood inside before sighing. He shouldn't be so hard on them about this. Refining the heart wasn't easy, even for the strongest vampires. "It won't be easy. Some of you will fail. Do not feel bad about it if you do. But do your best."
As one, they shouted; "Yes, brother!"
Then he pulled out some papers on which he'd been making notes.
"Alright, my senior bastards. Gather around. I will show you how to do it."
An hour later, Vlad sat on his bench and watched the fledglings as they ried to refine their hearts.
They were seated on the floor.
He could feel the blood energy flowing through them and already could see those who might fail. Some, however, were on the cusp of success.
Unsurprisingly, Tibor was ahead of them all.
Vlad could see the vampire's heart was racing at an incredible rate. He was doing almost as well as Vlad had himself.
Almost.
Jenos, oddly, was also doing well.
But Ist was struggling. The quiet vampire's face was twisted into a rictus of concentration as he tried to force the blood energy to scrape the shell from his heart. He was stuck on this step.
The pain was great and was causing him to falter.
Dropping down beside Ist, Vlad spoke softly.
Calmly.
"Peel it like an apple," he said. "You've peeled an apple before, right? Peel it like that. Slow. Deliberate. Don't rake at it. It's not a garden. It's an apple. Slow down and breathe like I told you. You are doing well."
His words must have sunk in, because soon Ist was breathing more normally.
He did a quick round, checking on those who could be encouraged a little to succeed.
The process took more than two hours for the last fledgling to finish.
Only a handful had failed, and they sat looking miserable to one side.
Probably expecting a beating, Vlad thought.
But this wasn't a time for beatings.
He squatted down in front of them, noting that more than one was trying to hide tears of humiliation.
He put a hand on Bally's shoulder. The skinny vampire dropped his head.
"Failure is like pain," he told them. "All of us must endure it at least once. Failure is not a weakness if you learn from it. The Blood Ocean Technique is not suitable for everyone. And despite what I said before, it is not inherently weaker."
"Truly?" Bally asked.
"Prince Ferenc was the strongest of our Court," Vlad said, smiling at memory of his old master and friend. "None would dare call him weak. And he built his foundation on the Crimson Wave. Most of the old ones as you call them did. It's a technique which gets results swiftly. There's nothing shameful about it."
"But you said-"
"What I said was to motivate. It wasn't a lie, but not quite the truth. In truth, the two techniques are simply different from each other. You will see the truth of this in the long run."
"I hope so."
"I will work with you tomorrow to show you how to do the Crimson Wave," he grinned at them. "But be prepared. It will be different to how the elders teach it, I'm sure."
And he was sure, too. Because the technique had been adapted and improved during the war.
If these fledglings followed his instructions, they'd have more explosive power than others using the same technique. He was sure of it.
Because everyone who knew the improvements was dead.
Bally sighed. "It'll be painful, though, won't it?"
"Bally, Bally," Vlad almost purred with delight as he clapped a hand on the skinny vampire's shoulder. "How do you know me so well?"
The small group groaned as they forgot their failure in favour of the agonies yet to come.