“It’s never done that before,” he said.
“That’s because they all recognize my will,” Tal’davin said. “When you held it centuries ago I had not been in contact with them all for so long, but now they are reborn.”
“I feel alive,” Abner said. He felt his heart rate increasing.
“Again, my design,” Tal’davin said. “Now go my son and take those traitors down!”
“It will be done,” Abner said.
He gathered himself and burst through the holes that the Hunters had left in the doors. Abner howled again and looked along the floor to find the path that the Hunters had left behind. Their scent still wafted through the air and Abner followed them down and out of the Citadel.
The remnants of dead Vampires were strewn throughout the Citadel, room after room of them in various states of decay or ash. Abner continued to follow their path through to the main doors of the Citadel and saw the Hunters on the road below climbing into two separate cars. Dale and Valdmire into the first whilst Paige and Gerard climbed into the second.
A cliff face stood in his way, a several hundred-meter vertical drop to the landing below. More Vampires also lined the pathway to the plateau. A moment later and the Hunters had taken off, motoring towards the massive bridge that connected Tal’davin’s Citadel to the mainland. The towering silver structure stretched further than the eye could see and was lined with half a dozen checkpoints.
A helicopter flew close overhead with its gun port open, however no attempt was made to stop the Hunters from leaving. It circled over them until they were on the first checkpoint before firing. A missile smashed into the bunker and Abner saw more Vampires flung into the air from the explosion. The two separate Hunter vehicles vanished into the smoke cloud it had left behind and reemerged on the other side unscathed.
With his Vampire blood flowing through him, Abner was fearless and ran towards the edge, sailing over it. He soared through the air before crashing to the ground seconds later. He cried out in pain as his knee bone broke splintered and broke under the impact. His entire leg was on fire, the bones in his foot all but dust. He retrieved the amulet and waved it over the wound, his breath ragged. The amulet went to work and a moment later he was healed.
Abner picked himself up and dragged himself to the closest car and tore the door off the side. The keys were still in the ignition and Abner turned the car on, stomping down on the accelerator, sending the car hurling after the Hunters.
The helicopter had laid waste to the first checkpoint and now Abner could see it heading off further into the distance. Knowing the road was clear, Abner continued to push the car almost to its breaking point. The Hunters slowly kept coming into focus, growing larger by the minute as he got closer.
“Abner.” Tal’davin’s voice came to him through the amulet. “Stop wasting time and kill them, my son.”
The compulsion was strong, but Abner removed the amulet and placed it on the seat beside him. An explosion rocked one of the cars, a fireball exploding from its rear. The helicopter moved to hover and unloaded a missile into the next bunker. It exploded as the second car came to a stop beside the first.
The doors opened and the two Hunters clambered out in an attempt to climb into the second car. Abner approached as the doors shut and the wheels began spinning. He cut in front of them and the Hunters crashed into him, sending his lowered car hurtling out of control. Abner rolled with the car and fell out onto the road. He leapt to his feet and held out his hands in front of him.
“Stop!”
The Hunter’s car hit him with just enough force to make him budge. Abner looked up and saw the three of them holding loaded guns pointed at his face. Their windscreen was shattered, bullet holes puncturing it in over a dozen different places. The helicopter hovered overhead but did not fire.
“Get the fuck out of the way, Abner! Or we’ll shoot!” Gerard said.
“No, I’m not working for him!” Abner said. “I’m still on your side.”
“We came to rescue you and you attacked us!” Paige said. “What did you want us to do? Stay and be slaughtered?”
“I had to keep up appearances!” Abner said. “What would you do in my situation? I’m trying to get the amulets from him!”
“That’s why you turned yourself in?” Gerard asked.
“Yes, he’s too powerful for me to handle alone. Valdmire, wasn’t there to help me, and if I get the upper hand he’ll just put me in a bubble again,” Abner said. “This is the only possible chance I can have to even the playing field.”
“And then what? If you get the amulets, you’ll become him!” Paige said. “Tal’davin will take over your mind and we’ll lose you forever.”
“If I don’t do it, we lose anyway. If I do, we might be in with a chance,” Abner said. “What would you rather?”
Gerard nodded his approval. “It’s the only option we’ve got right now. Might as well give it a shot. Go back to him, we’ll take the helo from here.”
One by one the Hunters began to climb out of the car and Gerard waved at the pilot to come down. Abner turned to get back into his car but stopped and pointed at Valdmire.
“Don’t think I haven’t forgotten about you.”
“Oh, don’t worry, father, I’ve waited for this day for a very long time,” Valdmire said.
Tal’davin’s hand cracked down over Abner’s face. He didn’t flinch or act like he felt a thing. He stared his father in the eye and took every word of abuse the Vampire threw at him.
“I told you to kill them, not to let them get away! Nobody attacks me or my blood and lives to tell about it!”
“Well they did,” Abner said. His voice was flat and he showed no sign of emotion. “I can’t help it if they’re better at driving than me. I’ve only been in your world for a few days, Tal’davin, I did what I could. They had help.”
“We’ll remedy that,” Tal’davin said. “An oversight on my behalf that someone would be mad enough to attack the Citadel! But that will have to wait. I have another mission for you. One that will ensure you have no loyalty left to your past life.”
“Of course, father,” Abner said. “What can I do to assist you?”
“I’m aware you made a visit to your home grounds, to the West Anacore Huntrey. That’s why the plane crashed where it did. Would I be correct in assuming you found other Hunters there and that you tried to enlist their support with your fight?”
“You are correct,” Abner said.
“Good, then in that case, I have a test for you. I will also be coming with you to ensure that the task is carried out to completion. I want you to slay every last Hunter in that Huntrey and I want you to raise the Red Sky as I did there over four hundred years ago. Are you ready?”
“I was born ready,” Abner said.
23
Redemption
The pair had boarded Tal’davin’s private helicopter and flew into Tyrian. They were greeted at the airport by Aldo, Tal’davin’s assistant who took drove them from the private landing pad to Conser airport. He put them on the first plane to West Anacore and the two Vampirical anomalies were ready for takeoff.
Tal’davin looked over at Abner as he fastened his seatbelt and chuckled. “Just make sure you don’t pull anything off like you did on your last flight and everything will be fine.”
“I wasn’t the one who drunk my blood,” Abner said.
Tal’davin looked into the row behind them and laughed again. “Not to worry, they all know you’re with me. They won’t harm you.”
“Good as they shouldn’t,” Abner said.
He picked up a glossy paged magazine and buried his head in it, further ignoring anything Tal’davin had to say who happily chirped away about their plans for expansion further into the ocean and the great beyond. After a moment of attempting to read an article about an A-list star who had divorced from her husband Abner put the magazine down.
“Is this all they can come up with? In the world you have created
does this count as news?” Abner asked.
“What, are you offended they didn’t put anything in about you? I’ve had my staff decline all requests for interviews. We’ve got work to do,” Tal’davin said. “We’re better off not letting those distractions, distract us. That’s why I allow outlets like this to flourish under my regime. It keeps the humans happy and their minds otherwise occupied, until something I want them to know comes up.”
“Right, and they don’t need to know everything you do, because?”
“If they did I would need to quell the ensuring population that would rise up against me, and I simply now no longer have the time or patience to put up with it,” Tal’davin said. “It’s easier to let them imagine they live in this bubble and our two worlds are almost entirely separate from each other.”
“And they accept that?” Abner asked.
Tal’davin nodded. “It truly is remarkable as to what humans will accept. Whatever makes their lives easier, they’ll accept.”
“Unlike a Vampire,” Abner said.
“Unlike a Vampire,” Tal’davin said.
The rest of the plane trip was uneventful and passed in silence. By midafternoon they had touched down in the West Anacore airport and were greeted by another of Tal’davin’s retainers. He led them to a stretched car and climbed into the driver’s seat. Abner and Tal’davin sat in silence for most of the ride until they began to slow.
“Ah here we are,” Tal’davin said.
He rolled down the tinted window to reveal the ruins of the old West Anacore Huntrey. The Red Sky still shone overhead, but not as strongly as it had done before. The corpses of the Purestrain Vampires still littered the ground, massive husks of dead flesh, waiting to be picked at by the vultures that circled above.
“What are you waiting for, my son?” Tal’davin asked.
“You’re not coming with me?” Abner asked.
“No of course not,” Tal’davin said. “You should be able to handle this assignment by yourself, Abner. I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t think you could do it. But if you fail I have more Purestrains at the ready I can call in a moment’s notice.”
“I’m glad you have faith in me,” Abner said with roll of his eyes. He got out of the car and leaned back in through the window. “Kill the Hunters, anything else?”
“No, I know for a fact these Hunters do not have any artifacts. But bring me their leader’s head. I want proof,” Tal’davin said.
“Yes, father,” Abner said. He turned to walk up the hill to the Huntrey.
He’d barely stepped inside the old ruins before he was attacked. A bullet whistled past his head and smashed into the brickwork across the room from him. Abner followed the trajectory and saw a Hunter perched halfway up the ruins clinging onto the wall with one hand, a pistol in the other.
Abner growled and ran towards the wall, dodging the bullets as they rained down on him. One took him in the shoulder but he didn’t feel it. He surged up the walls, the bullet wound forcing him into a rage. He reached the Hunter’s level and knocked the gun from the man’s hand with one hand, grabbing him by the throat with another.
“You’re a traitor!”
Abner cocked his head to the side. The Hunter didn’t look familiar. He was covered in sweat and tried to flick a knife into Abner’s stomach. Abner grabbed his wrist and removed him of the blade as well.
“And you’re a pathetic excuse for a Hunter.”
The Hunter screamed as he feet left the ground, falling until he smashed into the ground. Abner looked down at the knife and looked across at the new Huntrey entrance. He waited for a moment before the door opened. The knife flew across the room and before it found its target it found itself buried in the door.
Abner hit the door a second later, leaping from his perch. He ripped the door open to find another young Hunter inside trying to secure the lock. She fell backwards, scrambling for her gun, but Abner leapt forward, diving with both his feet outstretched. He hit her in the chest and she stayed down, the back of her head splitting open on the floor under his weight.
Another Hunter was directly behind her and he swung down with his knife, aiming at Abner’s head. Abner caught his wrist and extended his claws, pushing them into the Hunter’s chest, ripping out his heart. The Hunter fell forwards onto him and Abner rolled him off to the side, taking the knife with him as he went.
He walked into the main room of the Huntrey, to find it abandoned. The furniture had been upturned and Abner ran his hand over the table, tapping his claw against it.
“I know you’re here Hunters, come out!”
He heard a scuffle from behind him and turned to see Timmy racing at him with a rifle in hand. The boy opened fire and forced Abner to duck behind the upturned table. Within seconds he had run out of bullets, holes almost puncturing through the table beside and around Abner. He still had the knife in hand.
“Show your face, you cunt!” Timmy said.
“Gladly,” Abner said.
He leapt out from behind the table and flung the knife as he rolled. It spun across the room and a moment later found itself buried inside Timmy’s skull. The boy fell to the ground, unable to pull the trigger again. Abner stood and sniffed the air.
“You’re going to let the Hunters be your shields, Balticarn?”
“Days. That’s all it took for you to turn, Toldar. I’ve never been more ashamed of a human or Vampire. I’ve spent hundreds of years here and have never once turned from the Hunters or the Huntrey,” Balticarn said. He strode down the corridor and stepped over Tommy’s still warm corpse. “Where’s Tal’davin? Didn’t come with you to hold your hand?”
“I have him with me,” Abner said.
He pulled the amulet out from underneath his jacket and showed it to Balticarn. The Vampires eyes widened in shock and he began to back away. “He didn’t, that has to be a fake! Fight me like a Vampire!”
Abner clenched it in his hand and felt Tal’davin reaching out to him. Without warning the amulet glowed and power surged through it. A flash of light escaped it and engulfed Balticarn and passed through his body. The Vampire clasped his chest and fell to the ground. Abner walked over to him and knelt beside him.
“You drank human blood, you were never truly a Lotu, you were as much on our side as another other Vampire,” Abner said. “And now I end your deception.”
He pushed his claws into Balticarn’s face, the Vampire screaming out in pain as his eyes were destroyed, but soon silenced as his brain followed.
“No!” Roni said. He looked down at the fallen body of his son and his face turned to Abner, filled with rage. “You come into my house, you slaughter my friends, you kill my son and now you’re after my head? Come and take it, Toldar!”
He charged at Abner with two knives in hand, both Dreyth blades, their red runes singing for Abner’s blood. He ducked out of the way, backing over Balticarn and into the main area of the Huntrey. Roni moved also as if he moved in slow motion and Abner toyed with him, letting the blades whistle past his head with the finest of margins.
“Pathetic,” Abner said. “Is this what happens to Hunters when you hide away from the fight rather than taking it to them?”
Roni flung himself forwards again, sweat pouring off his forehead as they went around the room for a second time. He stooped low and made a swipe at Abner’s leg, only for Abner to step forward and knee him in the face. Roni sprawled backwards, his nose now a combination of broken cartilage and blood. He tried to get to his feet but Abner picked him up, his claws wrapped around the Hunter’s throat.
“Look at your son,” he said. “You’ll be with him again soon.”
With a shriek, Abner tightened his grip around Roni’s throat, all but forcing the Hunter’s head to burst. He then wrapped his other arm around Roni’s head and pulled to leave nothing but a headless husk behind. A slow clap came from behind him. Abner turned to see Tal’davin standing in the hallway.
“Impressive, my son. Simply beautiful
to watch!”
Abner threw Roni’s severed head at the ground in front of Tal’davin. “I thought you’d stayed in the car.”
“I did, but then I thought I wanted to see you in action. You’re a little rusty though.” Tal’davin motioned to Abner’s shoulder. Abner looked at the wound with no concern. “Easily fixed now that you have the amulet.”
Abner touched the amulet and felt the familiar light wash over him, racing up to his shoulder. A cool burn ensured and a moment later the bullet wriggled free of the wound before it sealed over.
“Nothing to be concerned about.”
“Of course,” Tal’davin said. “Now come I have one more thing to show you before we leave this place.”
Tal’davin ventured outside with Abner, and they both stood in front of the old entrance to the old Huntrey. Tal’davin held his hand out to Abner. “Come on I can’t do this without all of them.”
“Sure you can’t,” Abner said. “I seem to recall you had no problem the first time that West Anacore fell under your boot.”
“Give it to me,” Tal’davin said. His tone changed and the look in his eye darkened. “I won’t ask you again.”
Abner stole a glance at the other amulets pressed against Tal’davin’s chest. Surely he’d be able to make an escape before the Vampire caught him. He flicked his wrist and presented the amulet.
“Apologies, father. Show me your power.”
“Heh, I’m just playing around with you boy,” Tal’davin said. “I don’t need any more than one amulet for this.”
He pressed the amulet and it flushed red. Abner heard a roar from above his head and looked up to sea the Red Sky circling around them, rushing towards Tal’davin in a tornado. The Red Sky vanished completely and Tal’davin began to shake violently. A moment later his chest erupted in red light, filling the air again. Tal’davin smiled and the Red Sky pushed out to cover the horizon.
The Toldar Series Box Set Page 73
