“You’re more annoyed and pensive than usual,” the hostess cautiously mentions. Getting closer to her friend, she sniffs around him until putting her nose against his hand. “It’s really faint, but I know that perfume. Nadia was in the town? This is something you should have told us earlier.”
“It isn’t like he did anything with her since they’re siblings,” Mab interjects with a hint of disgust in her voice.
Feeling cornered, Clyde backs away and hops onto a clean table to sit on the edge. “I didn’t think there was anything to tell. She was there to get information about the womb-born and poke at me a bit. Nadia hit a few nerves and I got my own shots in, but I didn’t tell her anything. My advice was to either talk to Gregorio or get pregnant herself. Xavier definitely has all of his best people lurking about our business. Just another reason to keep Lost here until we come up with a better plan. Why are the rest of you so quiet? Titus? Luther? Bob? I’m always amazed when someone as large as your brother manages to disappear, Mab.”
“Lost is gone too,” the burglar points out.
“It appears she is,” the black-haired vampire says before lying down. Sensing shadows over him, he opens his eyes to see Mab and Chastity standing over him. “I’m tired of playing babysitter or whatever type of job involves running after children. If you two are so worried about them then go look around. I doubt they went very far since they can’t have been gone for more than five minutes. As for me, I’m going to trust the Vengeance Hounds to keep things under control. Wake me when they get back or something catches on fire.”
*****
Holding up her bunny, Lost tries to introduce the squirming animal to the skeletal horse in the pen. She refuses to give up even when her pet bites off her finger, which she fishes out of its throat. Once the rabbit delivers a kiss to the mount’s boney head, the vampire flips him into the air and lets him float onto her shoulder. Instead of turning towards the Vengeance Hounds, who are resting near the bales of hay, Lost wanders to the other side of the stables. She gazes out the window at the distant road, which is partially masked by large clumps of trees. Spotting a barrel of apples, she grabs as many as she can and starts to walk towards the door. She is stopped by the macabre horses neighing and bucking, all of them wanting a juicy snack. Getting closer to a stallion that is twice the size of the others, the nervous Dawn Fang tries to offer a piece of fruit without dropping the rest. She yelps when the beast opens its mouth and inhales everything that is in her arms. The other horses continue making a racket until Bob hurries to give one apple to each of his steeds.
“If you feed one then you have to feed the others,” the vampiric elf claims in a soothing voice. He takes out a brush and uses it on the skeletal horse’s head while pouring water into a hole, which fills a long trough that extends to all of the pens. “Grab two of those hay bales and we can set those up in the baskets. Titus will get the others since they’re heavy. Feel free to snack on a few blades yourself. I’m more of an oat man, but it’s fun picking the stringy pieces out of my teeth before bed.”
“Clyde and my mom seemed pretty angry,” Lost timidly whispers as she goes to the hay supply. Not wanting to get too close to Titus, she throws the bales into the baskets and climbs to the top of the biggest stack. “I didn’t mean to control all those people. Seeing that man scared me and things happened. Messes like that never happened around my friends, so maybe I should go back to them. Only Clyde said he’d have to kill me if I did. That’s right, bunny, but he doesn’t have to know that we still heard what they were talking about. Is it true that I made my friends kill a lot of people?”
“I told you that we should have left the room earlier,” Luther says while munching on an apple. He slaps at a long tongue that snakes over his shoulder, the strange horse abruptly yanking its head into its body like a turtle. “The other womb-born destroyed a mortal town, but you aren’t to blame. We have no proof that your outburst happened at the same time as the attack. It’s more likely that they were angry about us taking one of their number for questioning. Another possibility is that your own anxiety was being fueled by their aggression. So, we have a lengthy list of possibilities, which means we can’t treat one as true and the other as false until we learn more. Clyde won’t hold you responsible, but he is worried that you will join them again and go down their path.”
“Just to be clear, they aren’t going to be killed either as long as they behave,” Titus interjects in as soft a voice as he can muster. Seeing Lost shy away from him again, he sighs and takes a seat on the floor. “You have to understand that the Dawn Fangs are better left a secret until the mortals are ready to know about us. Learning that there are powerful vampires who aren’t weakened by sunlight is sure to cause a panic. Clyde’s goal is to establish our own society and have people secretly integrated into the mortal kingdoms. Then, we point out that we’ve been here all this time and nothing happened. It’s going to take a long time and each violent incident runs the risk of ruining everything. We’ve had to become a little crueler than we’d like, but it’s kept us in the shadows.”
“Where did the Dawn Fangs come from?” the girl asks while she creeps along the tops of the hay bales.
Luther hops onto the corner of the stack and creates a phantom to keep the tower from toppling over. “I’m going to try to be brief here. Around seventy years ago, Clyde tried to steal a holy relic. He was caught by the Duragians, who are sun worshippers, and set to be executed since he was an old-world vampire at the time. The Great Cataclysm struck before he could be killed and he became trapped in the earth for fifty years. Mab freed him and soon realized he came out of the ground different. He is the first of our kind, so his blood can transform old-world vampires into Dawn Fangs. Mortals are turned by biting and injecting aura, but we’ve been very selective there. Our numbers are only a few thousand, which isn’t a lot considering it’s been seventeen years and we’re spread out across Windemere. I should point out that the three of us were created with Clyde’s blood and so was your mother and Mab. Do you understand what I mean?”
“Dawn Fangs are born from either blood, fang, or womb,” Lost replies with a smile. A sudden thought comes to her mind, but it takes her a few false starts before she decides to say it out loud. “If Mab and Clyde are so close then why don’t they have a kid? I mean, you said she was the one who freed him after fifty years. Doesn’t that mean they’re a couple? It’s kind of weird that the progenitor hasn’t had a kid. Does his thingy not work? Did he have to sacrifice his thingy to become a Dawn Fang?”
“I’ve seen him pee in the woods, so I know he has one,” Bob announces before putting a lid on the apple barrel. Jogging back to his friends, he expertly slips a feed bag on each of his mounts. “I don’t think we can answer any of those questions. The Mab and Clyde relationship is one of mystery, noise, violence, and none of our business. It’s lots of fun teasing them about it though. Push them hard enough and they’ll blush or tear off your arm. Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t we tell Lost how each of us got turned? Seems only fair since we know where she came from.”
Luther nods in agreement, but Titus continues staring ahead and flicking his thumb against his fang. Without a word, he gets to his feet and walks over to a foot locker made of blackened wood. He twists the lock, which clicks open and lifts the lid on polished hinges that screech in protest. Digging through the collection of horse blankets and empty bags, he presses on one of the boards with all of his strength to make it pivot up. He pushes his large hand inside and blindly moves tiny pouches around, their contents ranging from solid coins to dried herbs. Titus carefully extracts a thin tube forged from vampire fangs, each one taken from his own mouth over the course of several years. The warrior is careful to open the container without breaking it, the thought of making a new one making him even more cautious. He pours out a handful of silver charms and chooses one that is shaped like a rabbit. Tossing the tiny object to Bob, he meticulous puts everything back in place.
“
Before you ask, I had one of those tubes put in a bunch of places after we left Nyte,” Titus says with a smile. Pulling a dusty chair over to the group, he holds out his hand to take the charm back. “Bob is getting at something that we haven’t done in a long time. The Vengeance Hounds had a tradition when it came to bringing a new member into the fold. Everyone would tell the story of how they were turned and then the initiate would swallow this charm. We didn’t mind it sitting in our stomachs because you never felt it. Might be different this time since the organs work. Anyway, if you want to, we’d be happy to have you in our group. It’s just us right now and you can’t have a good table with only three legs.”
“I get to be a Vengeance Hound,” Lost mutters as she climbs down. She sends her bunny to retrieve the charm and has it placed on the tip of her finger. “My mommy did the adult thing with my daddy, gave birth to me, abandoned me, and now I’m here. Who goes next? Do we go by height?”
“Titus always goes last because he’s our founder, so I’ll go first,” Luther declares before sitting in the chair. He draws his twin sickles and lazily rubs them against the rags that are at his side. “My story isn’t that interesting. I trained as a forest tracker when I was mortal and set off to explore the world. As one would expect, I joined various adventuring groups and guided a few caravans, but it was when I set out on my own that things went wrong. The job was to retrieve a rare herb and I didn’t expect a vampire to be looking for it too. We clashed and he turned me an instant before I took his head off. The only reason I survived was because my maker was part of a nomadic pack of assassins who took me in. Ran with them for about a decade until I fought this oversized idiot to a draw. Figured it was smarter to join him than risk another duel. On the other hand, it meant dealing with Bob for eternity.”
“That’s my cue!” the elf shouts with a grin. He shoves Luther off the chair and takes a seat, but gives his friend a sugar cube as an apology. “My family raised horses and a vampire came to eat our stock. I was the one taking care of the herd and I scared her off. She tried again and I won a second time. Then, I had to go into town for supplies. By the time I came back, everyone was dead and I was confused because it was still daylight. My maker had dug tunnels underneath the farm after her last defeat, so she just popped out to pull people into the earth. She broke into our house through the floor too. All that trouble to get around me and my shovel. My maker taught me all about being sneaky, which failed when we were grabbed by a torture-happy paladin who really messed with my head. Titus rescued me and we’ve been together ever since. I don’t think I’m nearly as bad as I used to be. Being a Dawn Fang gives me some clari . . . I wonder if I can make an elephant mount. They’re not horses and I lack the space, but it could count if I slap some really big horseshoes on it. Last story goes to the boss.”
“This always feels awkward,” Titus mutters loud enough for everyone to hear. Instead of sitting, he leans against the wall and crosses his arms. “Mab is my older sister and she made a few enemies soon after she was turned and disappeared. One was this woman who she kept beating out for jewel heists. To get revenge, this vampire hunted me down and turned me with the plan to use me as a secret weapon. I tossed her into a volcano that she used as a lair and ran off to join my sister, but I got distracted for a long time. By the time I finally figured out where Mab was living, she was with Clyde and I had these two lunatics by my side. That’s when the gang was started and I formed the Vengeance Hounds. Now, what say we enjoy the other tradition of throwing a party to welcome our newest member?”
With a squeal of delight, Lost pops the charm into her mouth and shows that it is on her tongue. Spinning towards the door, she makes a show of swallowing the silver bauble and coughs a few times to force it down. Titus is surprised when she leaps onto his arms and gives him a kiss on the cheek while her bunny pats him on the head with its ears. The nimble vampire clambers onto the warrior’s shoulders, which everyone finds amusing until she takes control of his body. Having forgotten all of her fear, Lost has her new boss charge through the closed door and race back to the Scrumptious Siren with the other Vengeance Hounds only a few steps behind.
*****
Deep below the main floor of the Scrumptious Siren, Clyde sits naked in the darkness and tries to ignore his growing bloodlust. Every breath releases a tendril of crimson mist, which he swiftly inhales through his nose. The pounding of his heart gradually slows down as he creates illusions of soothing images around the room. He frowns when he notices that he repeats himself after the fourth vision and he gives up on the calming tactic. Flipping to his feet, Clyde whispers the words to light the enchanted torches and closes his eyes to avoid seeing the whips and chains on the walls. He takes a single step to his right and throws a punch with the intent to use only a fraction of his strength. The rattle of metal tells him that he is not holding back enough, so he continues trying to minimize his power with a variety of strikes. Minutes pass and he increases his speed in the hopes of building up a sweat, but the lack of an opponent makes it difficult for him to push his body to its limits. It is when he kicks backwards that he catches another heartbeat appearing and he stops the blow an inch from the intruder’s head.
“I was aiming for a safe place, but you move around too much,” Mab mentions as she taps on her partner’s calf with her claw. Walking over to a basket, she drops her jacket and boots inside and starts stretching. “You stormed out pretty quickly when the boys came back wanting a party. Figured it was more important for me to check in on you than have fun. At least put on some underwear. Not that I haven’t seen it before, but I’m here for a sparring session. The fighting kind, so don’t grin at me.”
“I wasn’t even looking at you,” Clyde says while he goes to his own basket. Putting on his pants, he turns around in time to lean back from a slash. “Give me a minute. Rules are no powers and we keep our strength to mortal levels. Both of us need to practice holding back in case we have to take the womb-born alive. If I feel like I’m losing control then I’m going to call the fight.”
“You’re not going to snap.”
“What makes you so certain?”
“Because it’s me.”
“That’s not very convincing.”
“Stop dodging! We agreed that the day you try to kill me is the day I take your head.”
“That promise feels like a lifetime ago.”
“Probably because we don’t spend much time together.”
Clyde ducks under Mab’s kick and delivers a punch to her stomach, which knocks her to the floor. The burglar rolls to draw her partner closer before bracing her hands and launching herself at him. Expecting a mule kick to his chest, the black-haired vampire is caught off-guard when the woman does a split and wraps her legs around his waist. Still facing away from him, Mab leans back to grab his head and flips over him to drive her knees into his back. Clyde stumbles forward and turns it into a short charge that ends with him slamming his partner into the wall. An elbow to the burglar’s side weakens her grip enough that he can pry her loose and hurl her across the room. She bounces off the wall and twists to ricochet off the ceiling, but her momentum is ended by a punch to the chest. Falling into a crouch, Mab waits for Clyde to get within reach before darting through his legs. A tight spin gives her enough force to kick the back of his knee, but he falls backwards to slam an elbow into her pelvis. The clumsy move leaves him open to getting wrapped up by the more flexible vampire, who holds on tight while they grapple and roll across the floor. Unable to move any of his limbs, Clyde stops with his face against the ground and uses a powerful flick of his tongue to push himself up to his feet.
“How is that using mortal strength?” Mab asks, refusing to let go. She slams her chin into her partner’s shoulder and grinds into a ball of tense nerves. “So, want to talk about what has you upset? I feel like I’ve been neglecting you as much as you’ve been letting me down. Hey, watch where you’re elbowing? I’m not as naturally padded as Chastity, so you’re hitting ri
bs. Great, you broke one.”
“Payback for the two vertebrae you shattered,” Clyde growls before breaking out of the hold. Catching her foot, he takes her to the floor again and wrenches on her ankle while she gets her other leg across his throat. “I’m not upset. Just not sure I know what to do about these womb-born. It’s the first real test of me being the Dawn Fangs’ leader and all I want to do is wipe them out. The old me would never dream of doing something like that. Yet, I can’t deny how dangerous they are, especially to us. Imagine if they begin a conquest campaign and the gods decide it’s time to create heroes to wipe our people out.”
“Yeah, I’ve had nightmares about being seen as the new Hejinn,” the burglar admits while struggling to get the upper hand. Feeling a bite on her thigh, she yanks herself free and rolls away. “Let’s avoid the dirty fighting. You’re not really concerned about all of the womb-born, right? It’s Lost. She’s the one you’ve learned the most about and she’s Chastity’s daughter, which makes her related to the gang. Your sense of family loyalty is conflicting with this strict warlord persona that I’d love to beat out of you. Seriously, you aren’t fun anymore. If I’d wanted to work with someone like this, I’d have stayed with Xavier.”
“If you claim no dirty fighting then I claim no verbal groin shots,” the smirking vampire says. Rushing forward with a punch, his fist grazes her nose and he is left open to getting flipped onto his back. “As you can tell, I’m having trouble focusing. Maybe you’re right that I’m worried about having to kill Lost, but there’s so much riding on this. More than one of my old heists ever did and I can’t steal my way out of trouble. Remember when a plan would go sour way back way? The gang would disburse and lay low for a few days before going back to the hideout. You can’t do that with an entire species.”
Lost (War of Nytefall Book 2) Page 20
