Ascendancy Origins Trilogy
Bradford Bates
Contents
Ascendancy Rise of the Fallen
Copyright
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
In Memory of
Ascendancy Butcher of the Bay
Copyright
Prologue
1. Sarah
2. Adam
3. John
4. Edward
5. Adam
6. John
7. Joshua
8. Edward
9. Joshua
10. John
11. John
12. John
13. Adam
Epilogue
Ascendancy Night of the Demon
Copyright
Prologue
1. Mathew
2. John
3. Edward
4. Sarah
5. John
6. Edward
7. Mathew
8. Mathew
9. John
10. Edward
11. John
12. Edward
13. John
14. Edward
15. Adam
16. John
17. Mathew
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Also by Bradford Bates
Ascendancy Rise of the Fallen
Copyright 2015, Bradford Bates
All Rights Reserved
This novel is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and incidents described in this work are used fictitiously, or are entirely fictional.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, except by an authorized retailer, or by obtaining written permission from the author. Any inquires may be addressed via email to [email protected]
Prologue
John
We had just finished clearing out a group of minor Demons about one hundred and fifty miles east of San Francisco. The reports coming in from around the area were shockingly bad. People had been kidnapped, and the buildings were burned to the ground. In most cases, all we found left of the homes was ash, but sometimes, we stumbled upon the sun-bleached bones of the Demons’ victims. The trip had been long, but we had successfully tracked the Demons. Sarah had used her natural tracking ability to lead us back to where they had set up a temporary camp.
We found a place nearby to hide out while we watched their camp, waiting until we thought most of them had returned for the evening. I used my magic to set a ring of fire around the camp’s perimeter, then used a second spell to draw the fire inward, creating a constricting ring of flames that slowly pulled toward the center of their camp. Minor Demons cannot resist magical fire. Being bound to a human shell makes a minor Demon susceptible to many of the same things that would cause death to a normal human, though they tend to be stronger, faster, and slightly more resistant to non-magical damage than their human counterparts. The flames might not kill a minor Demon outright, but they would cause a colossal amount of damage to the human shell they occupied. The Demon would then need a significant amount of time to heal before it could move or run again.
It was unlike the Demons to be so sloppy and to have not set up sentries for their camp. It was as if they had grown complacent because they had yet to be challenged. Their neglect had turned into our good luck. As they tried to flee from the fire, Sarah circled around the camp, wielding her massive sword to expedite their return to hell. The Demons that did not make it out of our trap were lying on the ground writhing in pain. We walked through the camp dispatching them with our swords, ending their suffering. It was kinder than they deserved. That was us, though—the kindest Demon hunters around.
Sarah preferred to use a massive sword that I could hardly swing due to the blade’s weight. Originally crafted for a giant of a man, it was named Heartseeker because of a streak of red folded into the center of the blade, and the longer-styled grip was capped with a red gem shaped like a heart. Due to her augmented strength while still in her human form, she was able to wield the sword using both hands before she shifted. While in her Lycan form, she could wield Heartseeker just as easily with one hand.
As we rode back to the city that we called home, I realized just how filthy I was. My clothes werecovered in soot and smelled like sulfur-infused smoke. After riding for a few hours, we came across a large stream and decided to stop for the night. It would take us several days to get back to San Francisco without pressing our horses too hard.
“Sarah, if you do a quick perimeter check, I will start to rub down the horses. Then it’s up to you if you want fire duty or to feed the horses.”
She looked back at me with a sly smirk as she started to unbutton her shirt. “You always ask me to scout the area, John. I’m starting to think it’s just because you like to see me undress.”
It was true. I could not take my eyes off of her as she finished removing her clothes. She folded them up neatly and walked over and handed them to me before turning and running off into the night. That is when the change took her.
It was something to see one of the Lycans change, firsthand. Not many who had seen it had been lucky enough to live. I watched as she fell to her knees and her bones started to shift and grow. The Lycans did not turn into giant wolves, as some of the campfire stories would have you believe. They shifted into massive beasts that were just as comfortable on two feet as they were on four. The interesting thing was how, during the change, the Lycans kept their thumbs so they could still manipulate objects.
The Lycan also had the natural ability to shift their hips forward so they could run on all fours. When they chose to do this, they resembled a giant wolf from a distance, which might be where the stories of wolf people had come from. Any Lycan running on all fours would be able to run faster than any horse.
I watched as she finished changing from a five-foot-four woman into an eight-and-half-foot tall beast. I knew for a fact she weighed over eight hundred pounds in her beast form. We had weighed her once at a cattle farm. I loved to joke with her that she was the best-looking eight-hundred-pound woman I’d ever seen. She let out a long howl and then turned her head toward me and snapped her jaws before dropping to all fours and running off into the woods.
I had often wondered what it must be like to experience life as a Lycan. It had to be so different from what I was used to. Sarah had tried to describe the way she saw, heard, and smelled things differently as a Lycan, but it was hard for me to take in. I pulled my thoughts back to the mundane and started to remove the gear from our horses, after which I pulled off their saddles and set them on an unfolded blanket. When I grabbed the brush from my bag, both of the horses gave me a little whinny. I decided not to wait for Sarah to come back before feeding them. I placed the food bags over their heads and got to work brushing them. I spent the next thirty minutes making sure our horses were well rewarded for their hard work. Sarah showed up soon after I had finished. She walked into camp dripping wet from the stream. She shifted back into her human form and started to get dressed. Once she had finished dressing, she headed off to collect firewood while I grabbed a change of clothes from my saddlebag and headed down to the stream.
The water was clean and clear, although it was a little too cold for my liking. I could not wait to get back to our base and get a real shower with hot water. There was a lot I liked about being on the road, but the creature comforts of home were
what I missed the most while we were traveling. While I was bathing, I soaked my clothes and took the time to rinse out the smoke and rub off the gore that was now encrusted on my shirt.
When I was finished, I dressed and headed back toward the camp. Sarah had set a fire, and with the flick of my hand, I set it alight. She smiled at me from across the flames and showed me that she had skinned a couple of rabbits for us while I had been gone. She skewered them with a metal rod that she placed over the fire, then went back down to the stream to wash her hands. I slowly turned the rabbits over the flames while I waited for her to come back. I left the rabbits to gently brown and went over to the horses and removed their feedbags so they could sleep more comfortably.
On the way back, I dug into our supplies to get a couple cans of beans. I dumped the beans into a small pot and started to heat them up, adding a lump of beef fat to make sure they had a little more flavor. Sarah might be able to live on an all-meat diet, but I needed a few carbs to keep me going.
Sarah came back from cleaning up and sat down next to me. I tossed her the empty cans of beans, which she crushed and put back into our saddlebags. “So, John, is dinner ready yet?”
I gave her a look of mock horror. “Are you trying to say the only place I belong is by the fire, cooking your dinner?” She hit me hard in the shoulder, and we both started to laugh. We were famished from the day’s events. Me, because I had used so much magic earlier, and Sarah, because changing into her Lycan form took a large toll on her. We shared above-average metabolisms as part of our unique gifts. After eating in comfortable silence, we washed the dishes and cookware in the stream together. Afterward, we packed them back into our bags. With everything packed away, we would be ready to go at first light. Having left our blankets on the ground near the fire, we each picked one up and shook it out, making sure that no creepy crawlies had found their way into them while we had been eating. Satisfied we had no uninvited guests, we laid them back down and cuddled into each other by the fire.
As I was about to fall asleep, Sarah said, ”John, you know we have to tell him soon.” We had had this discussion before, and Sarah was always the one pushing for us not to tell Adam about us, while I thought it was a good idea to get everything out on the table. I understood her hesitation in telling him the truth. The first point of contention was that we were of different races and our relationship was considered taboo. The second point was that, even after working for Adam the last fifty years, she did not fully trust him. The Gifted had spent a long time hunting her kind after the war in Europe. It was hard to trust someone who held a position ruling the very people who were trying to exterminate your kind. I was interested in hearing why she’d changed her mind about telling him the truth.
“We can tell him as soon as we get back,” I said. I felt her body stiffen against me, coiled with tension.
She whispered, “I said soon. I did not say we had to do it right away.”
I pulled her into me and could feel her finally start to relax a little. “Sarah, I love you, and nothing Adam does or says is going to change that. I want to be with you, and we should not have to hide it from anyone. Plus, we are the biggest and the strongest, so if the others don’t like it, there is not much they can do about it.” I felt the last of the tension fall from her shoulders as she settled her back into me, finally ready to fall asleep. I could not resist saying one other thing before she drifted off. “It would not surprise me if he already knows, anyway, and is just waiting for us to tell him.” For that little comment, I earned myself an elbow to the stomach. With a huff, Sarah nestled her back against me, and I could feel her heartbeat slow as she fell asleep. I stayed awake for the next few minutes, thinking about what it would be like not to have to hide our relationship. It was a great feeling and one that carried me off into a gentle sleep.
1
Joseph
I always hated driving up to that damn church, even when it was sunny and the weather was fair. Tonight was anything but fair; a cold wind was blowing in off the ocean, and the sky was cloudy and threatening rain. I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. They were paying me double my normal rate for the late Saturday night delivery, but even so, I hated the drive. Four hours outside of the city up into the forest and the hills. If it hadn’t been for Father Thomas asking himself, I would have flat out refused to bring it, and had one of my boys do it on Monday. There must have been something very special in the crate to make this worth the hassle for both of us. I looked over my shoulder again at the large crate that rested in the back of the cart and wondered just what I had gotten myself into. I had thought about bringing the new delivery truck up to show Father Thomas, but he was unimpressed by such things, and the roads up here could have damaged one of the wheels. So here I was, stuck leading my horses through the worsening weather and fighting off the cold that was creeping into my ass from the cold wooden boards below me.
Finally, I could see the path that led directly into the church grounds. I turned off the main road onto the isolated drive that led up to the entrance of the church property. I was looking forward to seeing the old place again, despite myself. The first view of the church was always incredibly dramatic. One moment, you were surrounded by forest, and the next, you came to the gated entrance, beyond which was a large open field. The field continued on toward the ocean, wrapping around the left side of the hill the church was built upon. The winding drive moved gently up the hill. When you came in at night, the view was even more incredible. You went from the dense black of the forest into a field that seemed to shimmer with a silver glow in the moonlight. Torches were lit on either side of the gates, illuminating the area around them quite well. I could see that the gates were closed, and it struck me as slightly odd, having never seen them that way before.
The church itself sat up on a hill. It had been converted from an old monastery that had been serving the community for a long time but had become run down as more people began attending church in the city. Father Thomas had purchased the property and spent a small fortune restoring the buildings that could be of use. They used the church to hold services on Sundays and to house priests who traveled to our fair city from out of town. At one time, the sprawling property had as many as ten buildings. Now it only held the church, a small barn, and the living quarters for the priests who worked there. The rest of the buildings had been removed to make room for small fields of vegetables. The church almost grew enough food to be self-sustaining. The mead that they made was the finest in the county and sold well enough for them to continue donating to help those struggling in the city proper. They had decided to leave the old wall and entrance gates that surrounded the church. It was often said it was in tribute to the monastery that was here before the church. In truth, I always thought it was because it made for a more dramatic entrance and reminded us of a time when the church was not only a place of worship, but a place of war.
I pulled up to the gates and slowed my horses to a stop. I could see the church atop the hill, aglow with candlelight that poured through the stained-glass windows. It was a breathtaking sight, heavenly by design. One could almost wonder how people couldn’t believe in the power of God when they saw this building.
I was sure there was a story behind the gates being closed tonight. Father Thomas had always told me the gates would be open to welcome people into the church no matter what day it was, no matter what time. I noticed a dark shape move from the shadows into the light of the lanterns, and then I heard him speak. “Who goes there?” At first, I was a little startled. This had always been a warm and inviting place. A place anyone could come at any time and not be questioned as to why they needed the comfort of the church. On a normal delivery to the church, the priests unloaded my cart and I was invited in for a cup of mead with the father. Tonight seemed to be in stark contrast with how I was normally welcomed. Who was it that had spoken? I think it must have been Brother Samuel. It was hard to tell exactly who it was; the hood from his cassock was pulled over h
is head to shield him from the cold.
“It’s me, Joseph, from Joseph and Sons’ delivery service. Open the gate already so I can get this up to the church and be on my way before the weather turns any fouler.” I heard the lock on the gates release, and one side opened, and then the next. The priest removed his hood from his head so I could clearly see him again. It was Samuel. I could tell, even in the light of the torches, from his mop of unruly blond hair. He was the youngest and the newest to start working at the church, which explained how he got stuck standing out in the cold at the entrance to the church.
“Joseph, if you don’t mind, once you pull the cart in, can you wait a minute while I close the gates again? I’d like to catch a ride up to the church with you to help the other priests unload the box.”
I gave him a stern look that quickly melted away. It wasn’t his fault I was stuck out here at night, and he was just doing what he had been tasked with. “Of course, Samuel. You can jump up here in the front with me.”
I heard one gate creak closed, and then the other, followed by the slide of the latch being thrown firmly into place. Not a moment had gone by before I felt the cart shift as Samuel climbed up into the passenger seat. “So what is happening tonight? Why are the torches lit and the gate closed? Normally, the gates are wide open when I get here. And even on the busiest nights for the church, the fields are always dark and only the church itself is lit.”
Samuel kept his head down and did not look at me when he answered. I could see his jaw working, obviously tasting a few different words before he spoke. “To be honest, Joseph, I am not sure what Father Thomas would want me to say. I know that you are a simple man and not one to gossip, so I feel comfortable telling you a little more than I should. Let me just say that there have been a few thefts, and some things have gone missing from the grounds. We have taken to locking the gates and lighting the path at night as a precaution. The light also seems to act as a deterrent and to let them know we are aware of what has been happening.”
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