Eternal Reign (Age of Vampires Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  Silence followed my words, then Erik ordered the driver to turn around in a sharp tone. I wrung my hands together in my lap, feeling suffocated by what I'd learned.

  I shifted my gaze to the window to avoid looking at Erik. Tears pricked my eyes but I attempted to hold them back. I could have tried to convince him of the truth, but why would he believe me?

  As we sailed toward the exit, I spotted a schoolhouse beside a large restaurant. My heart was obliterated. This was why he thought I'd skipped meals to get so thin and why he questioned my ignorance about the world.

  “Most humans don't want to be free, Rebel,” Erik said as we headed out of the gate. “Any cause you think you're fighting for is an illusion. Your kind are safe, housed and given free food. All we require of you is blood donations. Is that really so bad?”

  A tear slid from my eye and I was glad of the darkness to hide it. I let it drip into my lap, keeping my head turned away as I refused to answer.

  The situation for humans was worse than I ever could have imagined. Even the vampires themselves didn't know the extent of our pain. Something splintered inside me and I longed to see my family more than anything in the world.

  I couldn't trust Erik. He didn't know the truth and he never would. To him, I was just some ungrateful human from a town like Realm A. So why would he help me?

  Perhaps he wouldn't. And even if he did, he'd send Dad and Callie back to our Realm and they’d be stuck in misery for the rest of their days.

  “I'm starting to think picking you was a bad idea,” Erik growled and his sharp tone cut daggers into my heart.

  Fear sped through my veins. I was suddenly certain that when Erik spoke to Valentina, he was going to cut me loose. She’d convince him to get rid of me in favour of someone more compliant.

  I couldn't take that risk, so I made a terrifying decision.

  I had to escape.

  The carriage swayed rhythmically beneath me as the vampires drove it north. Away from the blood bank. Away from my family. Away from Magnar. I couldn’t work out what that meant. Were they taking me to General Wolfe? Or back to the Realm to make an example of me in front of everyone?

  The terrifying possibilities were endless and each time I convinced myself to dismiss one of them, another awful prospect filled its place. Whatever they wanted me for, it couldn’t be good. You didn’t shackle someone and lock them in a cage unless you were planning on doing something unspeakable to them.

  The pressing dark of the night was broken up by silver moonlight.

  In the Realm, we’d always been home before the moon rose, afraid of being found by a vampire in the darkness. It was like the sun helped the vampires to remember their humanity, at least enough to leave us be. But after dark all bets were off.

  People who went outside couldn’t be sure to come back again. We never found out what happened to them. Perhaps they were simply taken to the blood bank but in my gut I’d always feared it was something far worse. I guessed the creatures of the night were at their most dangerous in the dark and being surrounded by them now left me feeling more than a little afraid.

  Despite the close proximity of the vampires, I couldn’t help but stare at the beauty of the lunar being. It felt so alien, so separate from everything we did beneath it and yet it watched over us all the same. I guessed the moon was one of a very few things which hadn’t changed for Magnar while he slept.

  Thinking of the slayer caused an ache to form in my chest. It had been hours since he’d left me to wait in that tree. Had he known I’d be caught? Had he decided that looking after me was too much trouble after all?

  I didn’t want to doubt the fragile bond I’d thought I’d felt between us but it was hard not to while I shivered in the dark. I’d never felt so alone in all my life. And if he really had abandoned me then my fate was already sealed. No one else was coming.

  Montana and Dad were already in the hands of the vampires. And no other soul in this world gave a damn about me. That had always been the way I preferred it. My family were the only people who mattered to me so there was no one else for me to lose. So long as I had them, I had everything. Or so I’d tried to convince myself.

  But now that I sat alone in the dark, knowing that no one in the Realm even cared where I was, I wondered if that had been the right way to live. Maybe isolating myself hadn’t protected me from anything. It only made sure that I hadn’t really lived at all. And now if it turned out that I was going to die or live out the rest of my days in the blood bank it just meant that the small measure of freedom I’d experienced in my life had been wasted.

  If by some miracle I ever made it out of this mess then maybe it was time I started looking at things differently. The vampires had us so terrified of losing each other that we didn’t dare to care about one another the way that we should anymore. It was just another weapon they used to control us. But I refused to keep living in the shadow of that fear. From now on all of my choices would be my own. I’d make them for myself. And not out of fear.

  I groaned at the many small hurts and bruises the vampires had inflicted when they’d searched me and tossed me into this cage. I wasn’t sure how kicking me in the ribs was meant to help them make sure I didn’t have any more weapons on me. I guessed they’d thought I’d earned the treatment when I’d killed their friend. Not that I regretted the world having one less bloodsucker in it.

  The wooden box was bolted to the back of a big horse-drawn carriage and wasn’t tall enough for me to stand in.

  I was perched awkwardly on a hard bench which ran along the left-hand side of it. They’d taken my coat and boots, leaving me to shiver in the freezing winter air which billowed in between the bars of the single window on the rear door. I hunkered in the back corner, wishing I could wrap my arms around myself to stay warm but the heavy chains they’d used to secure my wrists prevented that.

  The muted clip-clop of the two shire horses’ hooves was the only sound aside from the creaking of the wooden carriage. I wondered why none of the vampires spoke to each other. Or if they were still all accompanying me at all. For all I knew, half of them could have taken off now that they’d caught me. It wasn’t like the slow pace set by the horses would have been their preferred speed of travel.

  I could only see four of the vampires walking at a distance behind the carriage. Their eyes were alert and their swords were in hand as they forged paths through the long grass which reached as high as their waists.

  I could taste blood and my tongue was swollen from one of the blows I’d received at the hands of my captors. The iron tang of it made me think of the blood bank and a sliver of fear ran through me. There had been hundreds of rumours about that place but no one ever came back from it to confirm or deny them.

  Some people said they would string you up upside down and slit your throat above a huge vat designed to collect every drop of blood. Others said they used the humans there for sport, forcing them to fight each other and taking blood from the losers.

  I’d also heard tales that the vampires there fed from humans directly, biting them to gain access to their blood. The idea of that terrified me. I’d heard the way my father had screamed when General Wolfe and his lackeys had bitten him. He was a strong man, never one to complain of pain or overreact and the horror I’d heard in his screams told me all I needed to know about the agony it had inflicted.

  There were stories involving every imaginable form of torture and we’d all heard the screams carrying on the wind from time to time. I wasn’t sure what to believe but I knew nothing that happened there could be good.

  I scoured the open fields beyond my moving cage with fading hope. Had Magnar really abandoned me? I was beginning to believe he’d left me to my fate despite his promises. It wasn’t like he owed me anything anyway. Why risk his own neck for some girl he’d just met? Even if there was a chance that I might become a slayer like him...

  “This is ridiculous,” muttered the Elite vampire, Eve, her lilting voice easy to recogn
ise even through the wood that separated us. “I’m going to send a message to Wolfe just as soon as I get a signal, demanding they supply us with off-road vehicles and motorcycles. I mean, a horse drawn carriage? It’s archaic. It’s insulting.”

  “Yes my lady,” a male vampire replied. “It would certainly make our work easier if we were given more modern vehicles. But as there are so few on the west coast-”

  There was a sound like a slap and the male vampire stopped talking.

  “I was voicing a complaint, not asking the opinion of a lesser like you,” Eve spat.

  “Apologies,” he simpered and their conversation came to an end.

  The vampire guards continued to prowl behind the carriage, spread far enough apart to create a wide, impenetrable perimeter around me.

  I watched them silently as they struggled to force a path between the grasses which were getting longer the further we travelled. The swaying brown and green stalks were so tall they brushed against their chests in places.

  As I studied their near flawless features it was strange to think they were just lesser vampires. Though they were unnaturally attractive, they still held imperfections. One of them had a hooked nose, another’s lips were too full compared to the rest of her features. Though minor, the imperfections allowed me to see the humans they’d once been beneath the visage.

  The Elite on the other hand were nothing short of perfection. Looking at Eve had been like seeing a statue given life. Something that perfect couldn’t be natural. Her features were symmetrical in a way that defied nature. Comparing the lesser vampires to an Elite was like comparing the sun to the stars: though they were the same, one shone a lot brighter.

  If what Magnar had told me was right, then the Elite were those who had been turned into vampires by one of the Belvederes directly. That also meant that the vampires who called themselves royalty must have been even more stunning than the Elite. Such a thing didn’t even seem possible to me.

  I alternated my gaze between the four rear guards, a kind of morbid fascination gripping me as I studied the unnatural way they moved. There was something almost feline about their steps as they prowled along, balancing the weight of their weapons in a loose but ready grip.

  Their long cloaks kept catching in the grass and I couldn’t help but feel a tug of amusement as they struggled with their impractical clothing. Serves you right for swaggering about like a bunch of pompous assholes.

  A male with a scarlet cloak stopped and yanked the thing off of his shoulders in frustration as it got caught again. I watched as he cursed the long material and wrapped it into a ball which he wedged beneath his arm. He looked up and caught me staring, the venom in his gaze making me quickly look away again. I hardly needed any extra reasons for these bloodsuckers to hate me and laughing at one of them wasn’t likely to do me any favours.

  I looked for the vampire who had been walking to the right of my view but he wasn’t there any more. I frowned, scouring the field for him but there was nothing to see. I wondered if he’d dropped further back, the darkness of the night swallowing him from my sight.

  My gaze travelled back to the male with the red cloak just as he was yanked out of sight beneath the grass. I sat up straight, leaning forward slightly to see what was happening. There was a flash of movement as a golden sword swung above the grass but it was gone again just as quickly.

  Magnar. My heart leapt in excitement and I sat forward eagerly. The two remaining vampires who walked behind the carriage hadn’t looked back yet and their fallen comrades had gone unnoticed.

  I bit my lip as my heart pounded excitedly and the third vampire suddenly dissolved into dust which scattered away on a soft breeze as her clothes crumpled into the long grass out of sight.

  The final vampire paused, his head beginning to turn as he noticed something was wrong.

  “Hey!” I shouted loudly, drawing his attention back to me before he could turn. “Can I get some water? A girl could die of thirst in here!”

  I shifted across the hard bench, moving towards the bars that lined the window. A loud banging sounded on the roof of my cage and I flinched back into the corner.

  “Silence! Or a dry throat will be the least of your problems,” a male vampire yelled from above me. “I might find myself parched as well.”

  I cringed at the implication but when I looked back out between the bars, the final vampire was gone. A satisfied smirk pulled at my lips.

  The breeze picked up, sending a wave of motion rustling through the grass surrounding us. One of the horses snorted uncertainly like it could tell something was about to happen.

  I moved slowly towards the bars, my chains rattling against the movement as I leant forward to look out.

  The jostling of the carriage came to a sudden halt and I was thrown into the door, my shackles slamming loudly against the bars as I tried to catch myself.

  “Where are the rear guard?” the Elite snapped, her tone trying to mask an edge of concern.

  “I saw them a moment ago,” another vampire replied. They can’t-” His voice cut off suddenly and something metal clattered onto the roof above my head. The Elite shrieked in anger as the other vampires all started yelling commands.

  The ring of clashing blades sounded violently ahead of me and I pressed my face to the bars, hoping to catch sight of what was happening at the front of the carriage.

  The vampires swore as they struggled to respond to the attack and I heard Magnar’s deep voice raised in a challenging growl.

  “Turn this thing around and get us the hell out of here!” Eve shouted.

  Someone whipped the horses into motion and the carriage wheeled about, sending me crashing back down onto the bench. My head slammed into the wooden wall and I cursed as pain lanced through my skull.

  The carriage tilted precariously as the horses dragged it around and I felt the wheels lift off of the ground on the left-hand side. I grabbed one of the bars on the window, gripping it tightly. With my wrists bound together by the chains, I wouldn’t be able to save myself in a fall.

  The carriage righted itself with a heavy thump as the wheels made it back to the ground and I almost lost my grip as I held on for dear life. We began racing back the way we’d come, allowing me a view of the battle taking place behind us.

  Magnar stood between eight vampires, wielding both of his long blades like a warrior from the legends my father had told me. He danced between them, severing limbs and deflecting blows as if they were nothing.

  Moonlight glinted off of his swords, glittering faintly in the darkness. Fear gripped me as the monsters surrounded him but he met every blow they tried to land with a slash of his own weapons. It was as though he could see each strike coming before it did. His skill was astonishing and my lips parted in awe as I watched him.

  My heart froze in my chest as a vampire leapt at his exposed back, sword raised for the kill but Magnar twisted aside just in time. His long hair flew around his face as he thrusted his blade up and pierced the vampire’s heart, sending him scattering into dust.

  Two vampires raced forward on either side of him, trying to use the coordinated attack to take him down. He parried both blades at once, swinging his swords between the two of them before leaping forward, causing them to stumble into the space he’d just been occupying.

  He launched Tempest at them, the huge blade twisting end over end before cutting through the neck of one and embedding itself in the other’s chest. Though both of them collapsed into the long grass, neither body disintegrated so he mustn't have struck their hearts.

  Left with his father’s sword in his grasp, he shifted his grip to wield it with two hands, swinging it with such ferocity that the five remaining vampires fell back rather than tackle the blows. One wasn’t fast enough though and Magnar cut through her chest in a single, savage sweep of his blade, sending her spiralling into dust before he’d completed the movement.

  At the sight of her death, a male vampire shrieked in undeniable distress, throw
ing himself at Magnar with his teeth bared and sword forgotten. The slayer met his rage with a sharp thrust of his sword, sending him racing into death after his mate.