by Zara Novak
“Conversion,” Ellie said, as if reading the recruitment book by rote. The Order rescued human slaves all the time when taking down vampire thresholds, and the standard procedure was to recruit them into the Order ranks. What better soldier to have, then a human that had already suffered at the hands of a vampire? “They would have attempted to recruit you.”
And if that hadn’t worked then Ellie didn’t understand how they were having this conversation, because the other option was Retrosis. A medicinal route that blanked the human mind completely, removing all knowledge of vampires. After that the Order dropped the blanked humans off at the nearest population center. Where they went next was up to them.
“They did attempt to recruit me,” the girl said. “But they quickly realized it was no good. The servants on the Belmont train were there because we wanted to be.”
Ellie repeated the statement back to herself, finding it almost impossible to believe. “You wanted to be slaves?”
“To be vampires,” the girl corrected. “All servants are rewarded with vampirism after five years of servitude. That’s what we wanted. That’s what I want. I wasn’t so keen to join the ranks of vampire hunters as you can imagine, and they quickly picked up on that.”
“But it doesn’t make sense,” Ellie said. “Humans that refuse to join are blanked. They would have wiped your mind and left you at the nearest hospital.”
The girl laughed again, but it was colder this time. “Is that what they tell you at your little hunting academy? I guess you’re not that high up to have been let in on the truth. Your group took two dozen of us off that train. Only three agreed to join, the rest denied.”
“What happened?” Ellie asked, staring into the large dark eyes of the girl. The night they stormed the train ended badly for the Order. The feral, or Jack as she now knew him, had taken out half the group with some strange electrical magic. The rest of the night was spent chasing the vampire across the forest, but nothing good came of it. The remainder of the group stayed behind to help process the prisoners, something that Ellie wasn’t a part of that night.
A knock came at the door behind them, breaking their conversation. They both jumped slightly at the sound, looking at each other in terrified silence momentarily.
“We can talk later,” the girl said. “I won’t tell anyone your secret. I promise.”
Straightening up, the girl walked across to the door and opened it. Rourke Valentine stepped through the other side and looked over to Ellie. “Your master is okay. Jack has been escorted to the guest house on the other side of the pit to recover. I’ll escort you there now, so you can be with him.”
“There is no other fight?” Ellie asked in trepidation.
Rourke shook his head. “No. Our terms were clear, and your master has gained passage to the North. There seemed to be a little confusion on my sister’s end.” Rourke paused and looked over at the servant girl. “Natalie here will accompany you to the guest houses. I will come up to check on you both at nightfall once it is safe for you to resume your journey. There have been strange things happening in the northern path recently, and it would be well for you and your master to know them.”
“Okay,” Ellie said with a demure nod. “Thank you.”
After that they left the cell and walked up the sloping corridors underneath the arena until they were back to the surface again. Rourke walked a few paces ahead of them, and Ellie followed close behind, with the servant girl on her left. The town wasn’t nearly as hectic now as it had been earlier. The festivities had clearly been brought to an abrupt end with Jack’s fight. Everywhere she looked, Ellie saw dull red eyes staring back at her as the vampires packed away their celebrations.
Rourke led them across the town up to another staircase on the far side of the pit. They climbed up the stairs and found themselves on the platform directly across from the one they had entered on earlier. They were on the other side of the bowl now, but they were still inside the ravine. There were more buildings on this side of the upper-edge, and Rourke led them to a three-story building made of wood and stone. Ellie followed the vampire through the entrance and found they were in a reception of some sort.
“I’ll leave you here. Natalie will guide you to your room and keep you company until your master wakes. I will come up to see you at nightfall. Until then.” Rourke gave a swift nod and with that he was gone. The servant girl, or Natalie, got Jack’s location from reception and led Ellie upstairs to their room. Once inside, Ellie sprinted across the floor to stop at the side of Jack’s bed.
The vampire lay unconscious on the sheets. His torso had been wiped down of the blood and dirt, and the wounds from his fight had already healed over. His chest rose and fell steadily with long and peaceful breaths. Relief flushed through Ellie at the sight. He was okay.
“They do a good job, right?” Natalie said as she took a seat in a chair on the opposite side of the bed. “Your master will be fine. He’s a good fighter. I dare say Monica is going to be pissed. She really thought he was an undercover Red.”
Ellie sank slowly into a seat on the opposite side of the bed from Natalie, looking slowly from Jack to the servant girl. Everything she said seemed to raise more questions inside of her. Just what the hell was a Red? She put the question to one side for now and pulled her mind back to their earlier conversation.
“Finish telling me what you were trying to say before. About the Order. What happened to the ones that didn’t join?”
Natalie shifted in her seat, brushing a crease from her too large dress. “What do you think happened?”
“I already told you,” Ellie said, leaning forward in her chair. “Non-recruits have their minds blanked and they’re sent to the nearest population center.” With their minds gone, the humans had no remaining knowledge of vampires.
“And you’ve seen this for yourself?”
“Well, no,” Ellie said after a moment’s pause. She’d never actually been part of the recruitment process. A small team of soldiers were permanently set aside to handle that. “But we recruit a couple of new people every month.”
“And think, how many potential recruits do you save? I imagine you cross large numbers of humans when raiding vampire camps.”
She thought about it briefly and had to agree. Big raids weren’t too common, they only happened two or three times a year. There might be one hundred potential humans saved in any given year, but maybe only ten to fifteen recruits. “I always assumed the vampires had just brainwashed people.” She paused and looked up, quickly adding: “No offense.”
“And you think these other humans just get ‘blanked’ and disappear wherever?”
She gave another nod. That was what the Order told her. That was what her father told her. What reason did he have to lie? The servant girl stared at her for a long moment before nodding to herself quietly. “You certainly seem like you believe it. You’re telling the truth. Or at least… you think you are.”
“What are you talking about?” Ellie asked, feeling her irritation growing. “What happened to those people?”
Natalie pushed her tongue around her mouth, chewed at the edge of her thumbnail and took a breath. “Your people didn’t blank the minds of any failed recruits. They killed everyone that refused.”
Ellie laughed at first, but then she saw the girl was serious. She shook her head. “What? No. No. That’s not possible.”
Standing up, the servant girl unbuttoned her dress and pulled it down from her arms, revealing a small red circle on her gaunt chest, just above her heart. “That’s where they shot me. That’s where they tried to kill me.” Natalie pulled the dress back up quickly and sat down, redoing her buttons.
Ellie sat there in silence, shaking her head slightly, unable to find any words.
“You think you worked for heroes,” the girl said as she finished redressing herself. “In actual fact you were just another band of murderers.”
“That can’t be right…” Ellie said, finding that her words
trailed off before she could finish the sentence. There’d always been things about the Order that bothered her. Natalie’s revelation was horrible, but in all honesty… Ellie felt that it was possible.
“You can believe me or not,” Natalie said, sitting back in her chair again. “I don’t really mind. You know that I’m telling the truth though.”
Ellie almost felt sick. The Order was meant to protect humans. What purpose was there in killing them mindlessly? “I believe you,” she said after a long pause.
Natalie’s brows raised. “You do?”
Ellie gave a solemn nod. “There are… lots of things wrong with the Order. I didn’t know about the killings, but it doesn’t surprise me now that I know about it. How did you survive?”
“I was lucky. A group of men us took us out into the woods and dug a pit. They lined us up in front of it and shot us one by one. I felt the bullet spear me as the gun went off. The force of the blow alone was enough to send me falling into the pit. It took me a whole minute to realize I was still alive. The bullet had missed my heart and lodged in my ribcage.”
“But how did you escape?” Ellie asked. If the Order were taking such drastic efforts, it seemed impossible that Natalie would have made it out of there alive.
“There were five men in total carrying out the executions. They’d just fired the last shot when I heard a commotion break out. I lay there in the pit, surrounded by bodies, when I saw the flashes and heard the fight. A rogue vampire coven had stumbled across the firing squad. They killed the soldiers, and one of the vampires realized I was still alive. It was Rourke. He pulled me out of the pit, gave me his blood and pulled me back from the brink of death.”
“And now you’re here,” Ellie said. Now she thought about it she did recall an Order group going missing just a few weeks ago, and it was one of the teams involved with recruitment. Her father, Valdis, had been furious at the time, but hadn’t bothered to provide any further explanation to Ellie. It was unusual, but not out of the ordinary. These were trying times and hunters died all the time.
“And now I’m here,” Natalie said, standing from her chair as she brought her story to a close. “Rourke saved me and for that I’m eternally grateful. He took me in as a servant in exchange for saving my life and now I’m loyal to the Valentine coven. Things aren’t the same here as they were with the Belmonts… but I’m not complaining. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for Rourke.”
“His sister, Monica. What’s wrong with her?”
Natalie chuckled slightly, stopping at the foot of Jack’s bed. “Wrong? She’s just a classic vampire. Feeding off chaos and mayhem. Rourke and his coven have only been at this gate for a month or two, but other vampires have started to appear on the north side. Vampires from red portals. They’ve been attacking their own kind. Killing their own.”
The news didn’t strike Ellie as that unusual. Vampires killed other vampires all the time. The Order referred to it as ‘free ones’. “So?”
“These Reds have been giving Rourke and his coven quite a bit of trouble. Asking questions about lost daughters, killing vampires that refused to answer their questions. Monica set up the fighting toll as an excuse to start killing them. She thought your master was one of them.”
Ellie looked over at Jack, lingering her eyes on his face momentarily before looking back at Natalie. “I’m sorry. Reds?”
“Red Circle. You must know them, right? They’re a vampire organization. They’re kind of like the vampire police.”
Ellie held a hand up to signal that she understood. She was familiar with the Red Circle. The Order had worked with them recently to hunt down the very girls that Natalie was talking about. Ellie’s attention drew to the spiral mark at the base of her back and she felt her stomach turn with nausea. Try as she might, it seemed she couldn’t escape the talks of this prophecy¸ no matter where she went.
“Anyway,” Natalie said with a sigh. “Rourke realized after watching the fight that your master wasn’t part of the Circle.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, but he took control of the arena after realizing that Monica wanted to send an innocent vampire to death. He would have died if she sent more men in there. Rourke spared him.” Natalie looked at Jack for a moment, pulled away from the bed and walked across the room. “Look, I’m going to get some sleep. I suggest that you do too, you look pretty damn awful, no offense.”
Ellie would have laughed if she had the energy, but she had to agree. She was running on fumes, and only awake because of the adrenaline left from watching the fight. “I’ll try and grab a few hours,” she said, turning in her chair to face Natalie. “Will you be far?” It was strange, but Ellie felt a slight comfort being around another human, especially after Natalie had helped them so much.
“Just across the hall. Knock if you need me.”
Nodding, Ellie stood after a moment and called after Natalie before she left. “Natalie?”
“Huh?” the servant turned and looked at Ellie. “What is it?”
“Why help us? Why cover for me like this after what my group did to you?”
Her large brown eyes flicked across the room for a second before coming back to Ellie’s own. “To be honest… I’m not sure. I just got the impression that you were a good person.”
“But I’m a…” she paused and lowered her voice, worried that anyone might be listening. “I was a vampire hunter. I go against everything you stand for. Why help me?”
Another shrug came from the servant girl and she simply smiled. “Something tells me you were never meant to be there.” She looked over to Jack on the bed behind her. “Something tells me you’re meant to be here, with him.”
Ellie looked back at the sleeping vampire on the bed, confusion stirring inside of her. She turned to look back at Natalie. There were a hundred questions burning at the edge of her mind, wanting to know more about the servant and her past, but only one managed to make it passed her lips. “You said you were a slave to the Belmont family…”
She trailed off momentarily, weighing up her words. The Belmonts. The royal family of the vampire world. The Order wanted to end them badly, especially after recent rumors that they’d found a breeder. What was her name again? Claire?
“Did you hear anything about the breeder they found while you lived with the family? This girl. The girl that supposedly mated with a vampire…”
There was a spark of curiousness in Natalie’s eyes. “Yes… I mean, I worked the trains most of the time, so I never spent that much time in the castle, but I’m familiar with the girl you’re talking about. Claire Eldridge. She is Eric Belmont’s mate.” Natalie turned her head and looked at Ellie with enquiring eyes. “What about her?”
“What was she like? What were they like? Did you ever get to see the children? Did you ever get to meet her?” The questions barreled out of Ellie like bullets, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself from wondering. If Jack was right and she was one of these lost daughters, it meant this Claire Eldridge was her sister. A sister. Ellie had never had a sister before now.
“What was she like?” Natalie asked. “I don’t know. I never really met her. Eric was very protective. I only ever saw her once.”
“But what did she look like?” Ellie said.
“Well… she looked good. She’s beautiful. Dark hair, dark eyes. She’s got curves to boot. I don’t swing that way, but I could see what Eric saw in her. She’s a real beauty.”
Nodding, Ellie’s gaze drifted down, her smile fading from her face. If Natalie’s account was right, then they looked nothing alike. There was no way Ellie was her sister. It had been foolish to even entertain the idea.
“Is that all?” the servant asked with bemusement. “Am I free to go and sleep now, Ellie?”
Ellie gave a slight chuckle and nodded to Natalie, who disappeared through the door with a curious smile, mentioning that she would be back in the morning. Ellie walked back over to the bed on the wall opposite to Jack’s, and sank into it,
sighing as her tired bones melted into the soft pillows. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d stopped and slept properly.
Sitting there, she watched the sleeping vampire across the room, as her eyelids drooped down, lulling her into a sleep that was much needed. She thought of castles, parapets, turrets and great mountains. She thought of the prophecy, and whether she really thought she was a part of it or not. She thought of Claire. This other human girl that had supposedly done the impossible and bred with a vampire.
What would it be like if she was her sister? What was this mysterious woman doing now?
7
Claire watched Eric as he paced across their bedroom, rehearsing his speech, clutching the paper tightly in his hands. She sat at her dressing table, watching him through the mirror as she got ready. The corner of her lips twitched with amusement the longer she watched him. It might have been the first time she’d seen him this nervous.
Placing her brush down, she swiveled on her seat and rose to face him. “You know dear, if I didn’t know any better I’d say that you were slightly nervous.”
Eric stopped mid-sentence and looked up from his papers at Claire. “Huh? Oh. Not nervous… I just feel as if this is important. Today has to go right. Our very future could be in jeopardy.”
Nodding, Claire stalked across the room and met her vampire prince, taking much care to rake her eyes over his glorious form. He was dressed in smart black trousers and wore a white vest that clung tightly to the muscle of his torso. He looked his usual handsome self. Full jaw, sparkling red eyes, head of neatly cropped jet-black hair. One look never failed to make her stomach feel as if she were falling. She sunk her teeth into her bottom lip, imagining what it would be like to undress him.
“Our future is secure as the foundations of this castle,” Claire said as she settled a hand onto his shoulder. She brushed her palm down his chest and stepped closer, closing the distance between their bodies. A slight whimper escaped her lips. She wanted him, but that was no different than usual.
