Night Kings: The Complete Anthology

by Gregory Blackman

  The older vampires remembered, and the only thing louder than their hate was their fear. They remained in the shadows, where they were strongest, and where they could gather their forces in secret. If something powerful enough to kill a reaper still stalked the Salem borders these vampires had every right to worry. Whether it was one man or one hundred there was a monster greater than them out here. In spite of all this, the kindred waited with the same carefree attitude the unsuspecting townsfolk had waited.

  None of these younger vampires had any clue of the danger that lay in wait.

  “How much longer do we have to wait?” a disgruntled vampire asked.

  He was hung low in the bushes, invisible to all but those with supernatural sight. A muddied vampire beside him looked up to the full moon only a few hours from ascension.

  “We’ll need another few hours,” his brother in blood said. “We can’t risk exposure by those that have been hitting our dens.”

  The first vampire to speak growled in disapproval, but with the approach of another vampire he quieted down to a murmur. The elder kindred pushed her way between the two of them and lowered to a prone position.

  “Don’t be so hasty to leave the brushes,” she said. “They’ve kept us safe all day. When our strength returns the time will be right to make a move. Not before.”

  The older vampire looked behind her shoulder to where the rest of her nest rested. There were a dozen kindred under these willows. They were dirty, malnourished, and displaced from the only world they knew.

  Their queen would’ve been there for them. The thought hadn’t left the elder’s mind since word of the darkness and its spread first reached them. It signaled more than just a change in the environment. The citizens of Salem became agitated, scared, and their law keepers scrambled to keep it under their control. This left the perfect storm for the hunters that watched from afar.

  She wasn’t sure whom these men worked for, but they’d been paid top dollar and they showed up in force. Would their newly crowned king be able to pry himself from his dark castle before it crashed down around him?

  “Do you hear that?” one of the kindred asked.

  The rest of the vampires began to talk amongst themselves with each of them wanting to chime in on what they’d heard or not heard.

  “Quiet!” the den mother hissed, afraid to raise her voice any further than needed. “I can hear it, too.”

  All of the vampires quieted down at their mother’s command. They listened intently to what could only be described as a slow thunderclap before it rose to a mighty roar. It was the stomp of many feet they heard first, but it was the stench of matted fur they remembered last.

  “The werewolves,” said a panicked, young vampire. “They’re already upon us—!”

  He was the first of the kindred to realize what came. He was also the first to fall victim to the unhinged jaws of a werewolf at war. Others soon joined him on the battlefield among the willows. The vampires were sapped of their strength, weakened, but not down for the count.

  The vampires fought for every inch of land the werewolves took from them. Tooth and nail the vampires defended their nest, but in the end it was no use. They were outnumbered, unprepared, and cursed to do battle in the daytime hours.

  “Head to the manor,” the vampire mother called out to her young. “Fall under the protection of the king and we might live to fight another day!”

  But there would be no other days for the mother of this nest. A blank expression ran across her face as the jaws of an umber werewolf took her head off where she stood.

  The other vampires watched in similar disbelief as the werewolf spit her head back at them. Soon more werewolves would join the fray and the vampires that watched soon came to understood just what their mother experienced.

  “Run them down,” Kaleb Ramsey growled.

  It was a tall task for a werewolf to speak while transformed. While all werewolves were believed to have the ability, it is only with tremendous resolve and perseverance that one can train themselves to speak the human language.

  The warrior caste never bothered with such things. Bernhard Wendish told the warriors that burden fell upon the ruling caste, so that orders may be given on the battlefield. It was a form of control and Kaleb Ramsey never cared much for it, so he trained himself in secret in case this day ever came. Only none needed to know how he pushed events to get there.

  “I want no quarter!” Kaleb howled to the legion at his command. “Cut them down where they stand!”

  He watched as they devoured vampire after vampire. It signaled the beginning of a new war between supernatural races of Salem. It may have very well signaled the end, as well. Blood had been spilled on this night and it would continue to spill until both werewolves and vampires reached Blackrose Manor under the light of the full moon. They would give the vampires no warning, no quarter, and when the full moon passed from the sky there would be no trace of Kaleb or his kind. There would only be the corpses of all their enemies.

  “Feast, my brothers and sisters!” bellowed Kaleb Ramsey with his snout tilted towards the moon. “We march to the southern parts of Salem! There we’ll see the old enemy crumble beneath our might!”

  The werewolves howled in approval and bloodlust. The Wendish clan would never have sanctioned attacks such as this, whether it was father, mother, or son; but the Wendish clan didn’t exist anymore. Kaleb Ramsey saw to that. Now he would see the clan to a brighter future—his future.

  Chapter Forty Five

  Night Kings: Darkest of Depths

  Gregory Blackman

  Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

  Elsa Dukane and her father had barely spoken these last few weeks. Somewhere between secrets they kept and the misgivings of the past, this place became a house and not the home it once was.

  Her father wasn’t here often, and when he was, Victor was usually in the foulest of moods. Regardless of such dispositions, on the nights he was home he demanded the two of them eat supper together. They hardly spoke during these meals and when they did it was frequently at the others expense.

  There were many secrets within these walls. Elsa once believed those secrets started with the death of her mother, but now she feared they began at her birth.

  What was she? Did her mother know what she would become? Countless questions swirled around in her mind, none that could be brought to her father’s attention. It wasn’t that she distrusted the man that raised her. It was that she couldn’t even trust herself. She might say the wrong thing at the wrong time. That could only lead to another of their recent clashes.

  More than that, Elsa was frightened that her father would learn the true of her other half. Maybe her father would embrace her, help ease her into this new world she’d found herself. Maybe he’d push Elsa into the darkness, drive her to the same fate that befell their mother. The truth was that Elsa didn’t know how her father would react and that scared her most of all.

  “How’s the job search going?” Victor asked out of the blue. “Well, I hope.”

  Elsa would’ve rather answered a question about her recent visions than one about her search for work. The school year was long over, and in the human world that meant the latest crop of young adults had the choice to ship off to school or stay and find someplace to work.

  Not once since that decision was made did Elsa inquire about local postings. She became engrossed in a world unknown to decent people, forced into the darkness where she discovered that the light at the end of the tunnel was her own. She was one of those monsters she feared as a child.

  With a lump in her throat Elsa tried her best to respond. “It is… it’s going well.”

  “I bet,” said Victor as he shoveled a bloody hunk of steak into his mouth. “Collard Industries called me today and inquired if you’d be available for an interview.”

  “Really?” Elsa asked with her mouth gaped in disbelief. “Are you serious?”

  She was about to query him further, but when
Elsa saw the blank expression on his face she stopped dead in her tracks.

  “I’m not the foolish old man you think I am.” Victor placed his utensils on the plate and looked his daughter dead in the eyes. “Come tomorrow I want you out there looking for a job.”

  “I will.”

  “You say that,” said Victor, “but do you truly mean what you say? The night life’s no place for someone like you.”

  “What does that mean?” Elsa asked, begrudgingly.

  Victor picked his fork and knife back up and took a moment to savor the last of his meal. He didn’t want her to know of the many monsters that lurked both in the darkness and in the daylight. It was his darkest fear that those monsters would one day find her, and with the darkness nearly upon his town, Victor knew it would be only a short while before those monsters came for her, came for everyone in Salem.

  “It means you should be mindful of the company you keep,” Victor said. He paused in mid sentence to look down upon his daughter’s plate. “You devoured the half your meal and then just stopped. Did I say something to sour your appetite?”

  “I’m not as hungry as I thought I’d be,” a flustered Elsa said. She was madder than heck, ready to shout and kick to make him see the fallacy of that statement. He didn’t know the kind of friends she had. He didn’t even know his own daughter anymore. “You mind if I skip out early on dinner?”

  “Is everything okay?” her father asked.

  “Yeah,” she answered, “I’m just feeling a little light headed, is all. I think I’ll head to bed early tonight.”

  Elsa wasn’t exactly honest with her father. None of this was okay. She was headed straight into the darkness. This time she wouldn’t turn back until the truth was revealed to her. Still, despite the severity of the night, the darkness could wait a few more hours while she napped.

  “I’ll be heading out tonight,” said Victor as his daughter headed from the dinner table to the sink. “I’ll make sure to wake you before I leave. Keep the lights off and doors locked, okay?”

  Victor waited for a response, but when none was given, he asked “Okay?” once more, albeit in a much more serious manner. “I want the lights off and the doors locked at all times.”

  “I got it,” Elsa said with a stiff upper lip. “Lights off and doors locked. I got it.”

  It was easy for Elsa to comply with her overbearing father’s requests when she hadn’t the slightest interests of seeing them through. She had somewhere to be tonight. Nothing could stop her, and a nap could only delay her. She was a woman on a mission. Now if only she could shake the relentless need for sleep.

  He listened to her shuffle out of the kitchen, headed upstairs towards her bedroom. It took her some time to do so, but only Victor knew the reason why. He regretted the choice to silence his daughter, but these uncertain times called for the darkest of responses. Somewhere in his guarded daughter’s heart Victor believed she still had respect for the man, not the title. He wanted to keep things that way. She didn’t need to see what he would become.

  Elsa made it up the stairs with some delay. She was light in the head, numb to her hands on the railing, and barely able to push open the door to her bedroom. When she finally managed this feat, Elsa flopped down onto her bed. Sleep hit her quickly while she waited for Gemma’s call. That call would come as expected, but neither her father nor she would be there to answer.

  Had Elsa Dukane been in the right mind she would’ve noticed the dark presence outside her bedroom window. Corina Petravic lay outside, ten feet above the ground, with eyes locked on the woman she’d seen in the young werewolf’s mind. Eat or be eaten, Corina would choose the former every time the option presented itself, many times without even that.

  What would this young woman choose?

  “Eat or be eaten,” said the dark princess, “and choose wisely, little girl, because I can assure you the feral werewolf will choose the former.”

  Chapter Forty Six

  Night Kings: Darkest of Depths

  Gregory Blackman

  Caged

  Lukas Wendish spent the night of the full moon locked in the secret chamber of a woman he still couldn’t comprehend. Whatever she wanted he didn’t possess it. Whatever she needed Lukas would never, could never give it.

  He felt the full moon approach within his bones and in less than an hour the beast would awaken, forcefully. He’d lose himself in the river of blood Corina mentioned and there wasn’t anything in this world he could do to stop it.

  The muffled sounds of movement from the other side of the hatch brought him to his feet. Lukas waited, bided his time, and hoped that he might catch her unaware with the change.

  He would take his chances while they were still his to take. Not hers.

  “Back the fuck up, you mangy dog,” Corina barked at him from behind the hatch door. “You’ve got company.”

  A terror stricken Lukas Wendish watched as his closest friend entered into his cell. She entered not of her own will, but of the masochist that carried her. Elsa was tossed to the floor as if she meant nothing, but in truth, to Corina Petravic she was less than nothing. She was the means to an end.

  “Not a chance.” He tried to rush the dark princess, but was halted by his iron shackles. Still, he tried to fight with everything he had left to give. It amounted to little and quickly he was silenced by a backhand from Corina. He made no move to defend himself from another onslaught. All he cared about was the one down on the floor beside him. Lukas moved to Elsa’s side and cupped her head in his hands. The dark princess be damned, his friend would always come first.

  “What did you do to her?”

  Corina scoffed at the implication. “If I had done something you would know. I think she was given a sedative by her deliciously overprotective father. Made my job slightly easier, I’ll admit, but it wasn’t nearly as fun.”

  She moved forward and threw Lukas against the wall on route to the unconscious Elsa Dukane. That’s when Corina Petravic’s many fangs descended from her mouth.

  “Better late than never,” the dark princess said.

  She proceeded to tear into the neck of Elsa with fiery passion. Lukas tried to stop her, but like all his previous attempts, he was shut down before he could land a blow.

  Corina didn’t even look back at him while she put him down to the cement floor. Not while she was teeth deep in his best friend. She was swept up in her bloodlust and lost to her emotions. It dulled her senses and made the slight different in taste harder to detect, but it was there and after some time she found that out for herself.

  “Son of a Cerberus!” Corina Petravic pulled back sharply from Elsa’s touch. “What in hell do we have here?”

  The startled princess looked back at the woman she accosted in the hopes her neck would be ripped wide open and this matter resolved. What she saw was an entirely different story. For Elsa Dukane it was as if the attack never happened; but for the perverse royal in red and black it appeared to have just begun.

  The blood poured from her thinly sealed lips and cascaded down to the floor, all while she stared back at Elsa Dukane with curious eyes. “It looks like this one might choose to eat, after all.”

  When the sadistic princess saw a flicker of movement from the eyelashes of Elsa, she moved to the doorway, placed a hand on the circular handle, and said, “I want the two of you to have a nice evening.”

  “Let her go,” Lukas pleaded on his hands and knees in surrender. “Put her in another room. Do something—anything—I don’t care! Just don’t leave her with me! I’ll do anything you want!”

  “I won’t and you will,” said Corina Petravic with a sneer in disapproval, “for you’ll have no other choice in the matter. Blood comes to Salem, my dear mutt, whether you want it to or not and it comes tonight. I only seek to make sure you’re prepared.”

  As the hatch slammed shut Lukas dropped to the ground in agony. The ringing of steel echoed around in his head. It was too loud, too powerful, and brought
Lukas to his hands and knees. He felt the change come for him, faster than he anticipated. Locked in this cell his wolf couldn’t wait any longer to come out. They had run out of time.

  “Are you okay?” a wide eyed Elsa Dukane asked.

  She appeared to have recovered from her afflictions. How much she knew was still in question. It was all a blur to the unknown girl, half human, half monster, and in a world well outside her jurisdiction. The only thing of certainty to Elsa was that her closest friend writhed in agony beside her.

  “Damn it, Lukas,” cried Elsa as she rushed to his side. “I’m here and it doesn’t look like I’m going anything. How about you tell me what the fuck is going on?”

  It was the true monster behind Lukas Wendish that he tried desperately to push back. The one he never wanted her to see. It might’ve been Corina Petravic that arranged this meeting, but Lukas knew the truth behind the matter.

  This moment had been coming since they first met. Now it was here and they’d find out, once and for all, where this friendship was headed.

  Chapter Forty Seven

  Night Kings: Darkest of Depths

  Gregory Blackman

  Crow Bait

  A dark shadow had been cast of the Dukane household. When Victor came to bid his slumbering daughter goodnight, possibly goodbye, he discovered that she’d been taken in the night. An open window provided the only clue, but the bedroom was on the second story with no lattice below. That left only one of the Salem races able to carry out such actions.