Abner and Lois both nodded slowly. The unusual friendly manner of the Countess made them look at each other.
“That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” Sophia asked. “Now I just need to get you to open your mouths. Let’s start with something nice and easy. What are your names?”
“Abner.”
“Lois.”
“Oh my, what a delight. You both have excellent names; however, I am rather interested in yours, Abner. Do you know who your parents were?”
28
Memories of a Past War
Abner remained perfectly still, shocked that this Vampire could know anything about his parents. However, she had been here for sixteen years and Barros had said he fought in Rhorn that long ago with Abner’s parents. This was too coincidental.
“How do you have any idea who my parents were, Countess?” Abner asked. “You’re a Vampire.”
“You are but a child. I have lived for over five hundred years, longer than any Vampire since Tal’davin walked this earth. I know things, Abner, many of them involving you. Throw down your arms so that we may talk in peace,” Sophia said.
Lois groaned and picked herself up, her hand falling straight to her sword. Abner’s fangs were still out, serving as a warning. Both Hunters were disobeying a direct order from Barros, but Abner needed to know who his parents were. The Countess did not come closer but rather retreated to where they had first found her sitting on the chair.
She sat down on a crooked angle, throwing back the hood of her robe only to reveal her hideous and damaged face. It was part human, part Vampire, the white and grey skins of both forms conflicting in different areas of her face. The rotted flesh of her non-human self bore marks, black wounds from a fight long ago. Abner saw the beauty of the human side that made up the broken beast underneath.
Sophia’s hair was all that remained completely human, it’s lush golden shine was the only thing to radiate from her. One of her eyes remained the rich human green color while the other was a dark and misty red.
“What happened to you?” Lois asked.
“Your dear friend, Barros Toldar is what happened to me. I knew him once,” Sophia said with a twinkle in her eye. “We were married, long ago until I bore him a son. The first half-Vampire to ever exist within Taagras.”
Bile rose in Abner’s throat as Sophia uttered the words. His fangs slid back behind his human teeth as he stared at her in disbelief. “You’re lying.”
“No, my son was to be the greatest weapon I had in the war against humanity and the Hunters. You were to wipe them from Taagras, Abner Toldar. Your father stopped my plans from coming to fruition all because I needed blood that you stole from me! I nearly died that day in Rhorn. The day he stole the amulet of Tal’davin from me, one of the very same you now possess!”
Abner shook his head in denial. “He told us not to listen to a word you said. He told us you would try and manipulate us.”
Sophia laughed. “Abner, you’re the one that has been manipulated your entire life. Everything from your training with Malvrok up to you winning the Renori Tournament has been orchestrated by Barros. He bought you up, living apart from you and that was the worst mistake he ever could have made.”
“You’re a Vampire, how do we know any of this is true?” Lois asked.
“Stupid, stupid girl,” Sophia said. “Barros has blinded you both already. I’m aware that I am a master of deception, children, but as of today I am nowhere as close to a master as Barros. He defeated me that day, sixteen years ago in Rhorn, and I barely escaped with my life! Ever since that day, my power has only become weaker.”
“Then you should have died, rather than spread your disease across Taagras for another sixteen years!” Abner said. “Barros is a Hunter, and a good man! While you were spreading your filth across Taagras, he was trying to save people.” He strode towards Sophia, his sword finding his hand.
“He’s a liar and a monster, worse than I am,” Sophia said. “Tell me, Abner, my beloved son. What would you have done if I had won that day? What would you have done differently if you were born or made a pure blood like I was? I’ll tell you. You would have killed and fed on anyone that came across your path.”
“I am a Hunter! We are living here and now, not in this twisted reality of yours! I am a half-Vampire and I am half-human! But you, Sophia, you are an abomination, a plague upon this world that needs to be removed from this world at all costs. Even if I was not a Hunter, I would never side with you! Barros is who I would follow into battle!”
“You wouldn’t if you knew the truth,” Sophia said. There was a glint in her red eye. “Tell me, how many secrets does he keep from you?”
“He keeps what he needs to keep from me. If something needs to be told I trust that he will tell me,” Abner said raising his sword.
“Including the secret that you were his son?” Sophia asked.
The sword flashed down and she caught, the blade burning into her dead flesh. Sophia thrust her free hand forward, grabbing Abner by the skull, pulling him closer. He tried to pull away but her grip was too strong.
“Hold still.”
Abner’s eyes began to wander, a mist falling over his vision before he was viewing what appeared to be memories in a ghost world. His sword fell loosely by his side before he was submerged.
A man and a woman lay still on the floor, surrounded by flames, their throats ripped out by a Vampire that stood behind them. There was a strangled cry from a girl nearby as blood leaked from her parents, mixing with the flames. Abner realized he was watching a memory through Sophia’s eyes. He could feel her emotions pouring into his brain, while he stood paralyzed unable to do anything to the world around him.
The previous scene blacked out, and now before him lay a burning city as he sat atop a black warhorse. An army had leveled it and Vampires ran rampant throughout. As Sophia watched the burning city as a teenager, the Vampire from the previous memory came up beside her on foot.
“What would you have me do, Namzal?”
“I would have you learn, become my student, and know that men will fall beneath our heel,” Namzal said. “Are you ready?”
“I am,” Sophia said. “You may have my blood.”
Once again, the memory changed, Sophia now fully grown, kneeling over the body of a Vampire. He was covered in bolts, coated in Fyndfire the orange circle around each point. Sophia sobbed and threw back her head screaming into the wind, breaking glass in the streets around her. Hunters had killed her friend and she now wanted revenge as a rage burned inside her.
Vampires now swarmed in a dark forest, covered by cloaks, their intentions focused on a group of Hunters emerging from out of nowhere only two kilometers away. Dozens of Vampires were spread through the trees across several hundred meters, closing in on the flanks of their enemy. They descended upon the Hunters as one and Abner could only watch as Sophia cut the head off a man that could only have been Barros’ father.
Now he remembered what his father had told him as they stopped beside the Bulldrag on the way to the Huntrey. The memory changed again and this time another group of Hunters led by a female Hunter and a young Barros, no older than fifteen came into the same area.
This time the Hunters fought back, but each of them still fell save for one. Barros was a killing machine, destroying Vampires as they ran at him. His knives slashed out at every angle, removing heads and limbs. With her kind slaughtered, Sophia turned, leaving the young boy alone to mourn over the fallen bodies of his family.
Now the memories came in flashes. A ballroom where Sophia saw an older Barros from across the room. A wedding, side by side with the Hunter. Finally glimpses of the Battle of Rhorn and a flash of what appeared to be Lois, standing with Barros underground.
Abner took a huge gasp of air as he returned to the real world, taking a moment to stagger away from Sophia. Lois rushed forward, but the Countess raised her hand prepared to strike the young Hunter.
“Let him recover,” she said.
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“What did you do to him?” Lois asked.
“I gave him knowledge, some that none will ever know after this day. My history is marred yes, but I made my choices,” Sophia said.
Abner closed his eyes again, still absorbing all that he had witnessed. “You’re the reason why Barros hates Vampires? You killed his family?”
“Barros hated our kind long before I showed up outside his Huntrey. I merely added extra fuel to the fire. I should have killed him that day, but I decided to spare him, let him live in agony and to see if I could manipulate him later in life. It’s a shame he betrayed me sooner than I expected.”
Abner nodded his understanding. “Your life has been long, ungoverned. I offer you a release, Sophia Toldar. For all the humans, Hunters and other beings you have slaughtered I bring justice.” He gripped his sword properly, once more walking towards her.
“One day, Abner, you will realize what a privilege it is to be what you are. I hope when that day comes you run far from the Huntrey, because they will chase you to the ends of Taagras and beyond!”
“I am loyal to the Huntrey, Sophia, unlike my father when he left it for you,” Abner said raising his blade.
Sophia only cackled. “If you’re going to kill me, make it fast. My death is all part of the plan put in place by a friend of ours.”
“By a friend you mean, Barros?” Abner asked.
“You’re so shortsighted, my child. May you have many happy years ahead of you before it comes to fruition.”
With a savage roar, Abner’s sword flashed down in a blur of red, severing Sophia’s head from her torso in a single blow. He looked around at Lois who smiled at him.
“That was easier than I thought it would be.”
“Something tells me that she wasn’t the only thing that awaits us on this hunt,” Abner said. “Whatever plan she mentioned, she almost conquered Rhorn, something tells me her friends can do it again.”
“We need to go home, tell Barros, he’d want to know.”
“I think he already knows,” Abner said.
The Hunters returned to their campsite to find it unusually quiet. Barros should have been waiting for them, but instead there was no sign of him. The fire was snuffed out, but even at this late hour, Barros would be standing watch.
“I smell Vampires everywhere,” Abner said. “Can you see anything, Lois?”
“Barros got dragged away by two of them. From what I can see, their weird outlines tell me they were Shades. They came up behind him and ambushed him,” Lois said. “He’s not a part of whatever Sophia was talking about.”
Azurus lay dead on the ground, meters from the camp, the beast’s throat slit by Vampire’s claws. Drag marks in the grass suggested he was pulled away between the two fiends, taken unawares from behind by the invisible monsters.
“I’m sorry, Ab, we should have been here earlier. We could have stopped them,” Lois said. He fell victim to her touch and let her hand work away at the tension in his shoulder.
“I just wanted to talk to him, father to son for once. The same thing happened at the Fortress. I couldn’t help Mal!”
His fist clenched tight around his sword’s hilt as he took one final look at the campsite, untouched by the Shades. He walked to his tent and pulled back the entrance. Inside, on the floor, was a hastily written letter. With his night vision active, Abner could read the rough handwriting.
Hunter: Abner Toldar, Seeker: Lois Behan.
Target: Sophia of Rhorn, killed by Abner with a single sword cut to the neck.
Grade: Full marks to both Hunters; the execution carried out flawlessly.
Recommendation: Transfer to the Tyrainian Huntrey for immediate acceptance into the Tal’davin Amulet Task Force.
The note finished abruptly, the last dot skewered at an awkward angle, no doubt at the time Barros had been ambushed, with the Hunter using the quill as a weapon. It was scattered a distance away, the feather sticking out of a tuft of grass.
“We did well,” Abner said.
“What now? The Shade’s trail runs cold as if they vanished from the face of the earth. We can’t track them when they’re invisible.”
“What about Barros, he can’t become invisible.”
Lois shook her head. “They were touching him so he went as well. We’ve got nothing, Ab. He’s gone.”
Abner frowned, his face full of frustration. “We ride for Anacore. Find someone that can help us rescue Barros. We need to hurry. Leave everything here.”
29
Breach in the Nest
Rowan had never felt better. The Huntrey was flourishing underneath his hand and two of the finest recruits to walk through the gates in the better part of half a century were now on their first sanctioned hunt. He felt pity for the boy, knowing he would soon kill his mother in combat. All he hoped was that it would be swift, and Abner moved on without knowing his origins.
Alone in his office with a gentle breeze caressing his skin, Rowan was at peace, scribbling away on large parchment scrolls, before tossing them into an ever-growing pile. With any luck he would soon be selected to seat the Board, sitting at the helm of all Huntries through out Taagras.
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. “Come,” he said without looking up from his work.
A tanned steward boy by the name of Prasad rushed in, almost tripping over his own feet. He was agile and lanky, still a year younger than the requirement age of training.
“Rowan, sir! The outriders from the east have just returned with word of what they believe is an enormous Vampire army marching this way!”
The silence was broken by the sound of the smashing ink bottle Rowan knocked over onto the floor. “What! How many?”
“They didn’t know, but they stretched for as far as the eye could see!” Prasad said. Panic washed over his face. “There could be tens of thousands!”
“And they’re coming here?”
“Yes, sir! They’ll be here within an hour or two at most. We don’t have any time!”
“Well what in the fuck are you waited for?” Rowan shot up from his desk. “Sound the fucking bell! We need every man, woman and child armed and at the ready! If there’s as many as you say headed straight for us we’re going to need everything we can get our hands on. A Vampire horde is knocking on our door and we aren’t going to let them in!”
Leaving Prasad behind, Rowan stormed out of his office, and headed down into the lobby, where dozens of Hunters were gathered looking up the stairwell at him. All of them waited for his instruction. With angry eyes Rowan glared at them.
“Get moving people! Do what you’ve been trained to do! For the love of the gods, move your fucking asses!”
Rowan reached the ground and scooped up two crossbows carrying each under an arm. He broke through the crowd racing out into the courtyard, eager to oversee the preparations. Hunters handed Fyndfire coated swords to those that were not a part of their order while other raced along and underneath the wall leaving crossbows at regular intervals and dropping traps that would spring when Vampires crossed them.
He turned to the left heading down towards the training field only to be cut off by Gunthos and Havoc.
“You know what they’re here for don’t you?” Gunthos said. “Somehow word got out that we’ve got five of the fuckers here.”
“It’d be disastrous if they were to fall into the hands of the Vampires,” Havoc said.
“Thank you for the fucking obvious! Havoc make sure everything is ready along the wall. Gunthos you come with me,” Rowan said.
“They’re still going to be there,” Gunthos said.
“I have to check,” Rowan said.
He stopped next to a birch tree, drawing his knife from his belt before cutting his hand open. The Highlander pressed the wound against the grassy exterior and a gaping hole slowly opened. Rowan blinked twice utilizing his night vision to see inside the vault that was reminiscent of what Barros had built years ago under Rhorn.
&n
bsp; The Fyndfire lake bubbled and churned, the water surging around the small island in the center of the underground cave. As they neared the liquid, Gunthos pointed out a prone shape on the edge of the lake. Rowan groaned as he saw the large white wolf, its paws sprawled out at odd angles.
“La Gardanto is dead,” he said.
“And the Fyndfire wall has been disabled,” Gunthos said. “Only one of our own could do that.”
“None of the men that know about this would have.” Rowan shook his head. “The Keeper has only recently passed. Its wounds are no more than half a day old.”
“What kind of weapon did it?” Gunthos asked kneeling beside the beast.
“Not a weapon, a claw,” Rowan said.
“No, not possible.” Now it was Gunthos’ turn to shake his head. “The Magicians can’t have let a Vampire inside the walls aside from that boy.”
“He’s a half-breed, Gunthos,” Rowan said. “And he’s the best damn chance we’ve got in this fight now.”
“He’s still a Vampire, Rowan. You saw his fangs and claws better than I did. There’s no denying that fact. What about the girl?”
“For fucks sake, Gunthos! I would have smelt traces of Vampire on them when I was seeking in their presence. She’s clean,” Rowan said.
“Well who else has had an affiliation with Vampires and the amulets?”
“It couldn’t be either of them,” Rowan said. “They’re away in Sauria with Barros...”
“He married the Countess, that fucker! It’s his son who’s the half-blood!” .
“No, the wounds are fresh, how could Barros have slaughtered the La Gardanto? He’d have to be a Vampire,” Rowan said.
The Toldar Series Box Set Page 39
