Vampire Captives (From Blood to Ashes Book 1)

by Kestra Pingree

  “Have you seen any slayers?” I asked the nearest scavenger to make sure I wasn’t wasting our time. “I’m looking for White Team.”

  The scavenger paused her work and bowed her head. “Yes, White First. Keep going south.”

  I nodded my thanks and proceeded with Gala on my heels.

  “Where are you taking her body?” Gala asked.

  I would have told the Crimson Caves vampire that a slayer never left a teammate to rot or burn to ash on the battlefield, but that wasn’t true. Instead, I said, “I’m taking her home.”

  After a moment of nothing but the earth squelching beneath us, Gala spoke again. “Why? Leave her to the sun. Uncover her, and she’ll take to the wind.”

  The black-metal sword at Gala’s hip clinked with her every step. It was clunky and long compared to my aassu. She was better use with a firearm, but I didn’t pick fights with the Crimson Caves vampire. I knew how important it was to make a good impression on her. With any luck, she’d report our success to Crimson Caves, our strength too, and their queen would offer us reinforcements. They were powerful allies we sorely needed to put an end to the Schengs once and for all—if we wanted to avoid unacceptable casualties like Tuel.

  That didn’t mean I had to like her, though.

  Static jumped inside my ear as my commsbud came to life with harshly accented Lyris. “Lisette, Gala, where are you?”

  I shifted my hold on Tuel and pressed my finger to the small pebble-like device sitting in my ear to transmit my response. “North, White Leader. I killed a Scheng general who was filled with moonlight, and Gala is with me.”

  “The two of you killed the bastard?”

  A rare ghost of a smile slipped onto my lips. “No, I killed him. Gala joined me later.”

  “Are you broken?”

  “No, but I am sore. I had to drink two vials.”

  “Two? You digested both of them?”

  “I was initially injured, so that had something to do with it, but I still surpassed my previous conditioned limit.”

  “I’m impressed, First. We have our gliders, and Claire has a lock on your location, so we’ll head north to retrieve you both.”

  “Lisette has Tuel, too,” Gala informed. Heat prickled up my neck when she added, “She’s dead.”

  I kept walking. Though a cooldown pain focused on my navel, I didn’t stumble. Likewise, Fyefa didn’t comment on Gala’s report. Insolent Crimson Caves vampire. Fyefa was White Leader, but I was White First. Gala had no business undermining my position, tattling on me like a petulant scamp.

  And yet, it was true I was doing something unnecessary. Warrior or not, a vampire’s body was empty once her spirit had been reclaimed by Yessma.

  I could say nothing. For so many reasons, I could say nothing. But I also couldn’t let go of Tuel. Her limp form was a burden with no purpose, but I wanted to take her home.

  The rumbling engines of incoming combat gliders signaled White Team’s arrival. The sleek black vehicles blazed gold in the morning sunrays. The fat wheels screeched, but the vehicles’ power ensured they didn’t get stuck. A wet crunch followed the glider taking up the rear when it trampled a corpse. Vampire or werewolf, I didn’t know. I knew it shouldn’t matter.

  The gliders slowed to a stop when they reached us, sparing us from a mud spray. The bottom half of the vehicles were covered in gore. The heavily tinted windows were no exception, but the windshield wipers maintained adequate visibility.

  Fyefa stepped out of the driver’s-side door of the first vehicle. Wind howled past us, and the silver-wreath insignia glinted off the back of her white cloak. Fyefa held her hood steady, pulled up her mask, and gave me a once-over. Her eyes lingered on the bundle in my arms.

  “You’re shaking,” she said.

  “I took two vials,” I reminded and winced as my veins writhed like parasitic worms.

  Fyefa folded her arms and nodded as our teammates poked their hooded heads out of the gliders. “But you’re still standing. This is why she’s your first, White Team.”

  “I don’t know what happened to Tuel. I found her body after I’d finished my fight with the Scheng general. Are all others accounted for?” I peeked at the faces observing me—observing Tuel.

  “Yes.” Fyefa spared Tuel another glance before returning to the driver’s seat. “Get in.”

  As soon as I sat down, I knew I wouldn’t be up again until we arrived at Silver Hollow. At least it would give me half a day to fight through cramps—unless my entire body seized up by being stationary for so long. It was undesirable, but I had my team, and we were going home. I wouldn’t die, and I was confident I would fully recover.

  Gala climbed into the backseat of Demsneh’s glider as I took the free space in the backseat of Fyefa’s. Tuel’s body was becoming stiff, but I held her close and propped her up against my chest so she wouldn’t disturb Scarlet, who wore a scowl. Scarlet removed her hood and pushed her short black hair out of her eyes once the door was shut and all sunrays were kept safely outside of the glider; she needed a haircut. Olive sat on the window seat opposite of me, staring at the tinted glass; she was as oblivious as usual. Claire sat up front next to Fyefa, snoring.

  As Fyefa turned the glider around to continue on our way south, no one said a word. The terrain was bumpy, but we’d reach a dirt road soon enough. Perhaps we should have been celebrating, but Tuel was White Team’s first casualty with Fyefa as White Leader. Age twenty-five was young to be honored with such a privilege, and I knew she didn’t take it lightly. I was a year younger. I had grown up with her and didn’t take my position lightly either. None of us did. Slayers in any position were Silver Hollow’s highest-ranking warriors. Each member of our team had earned her place. This loss was a blot on all of our records, regardless of age and experience.

  I stared out the window as we drove through the battlefield. Most everything was rendered black and white by the nearly opaque tint, a scene out of time. More ashy motes and freed cloaks drifted into the sky by a sudden rush of wind whistling across Low Grassland. They could have been carrion birds.

  Werewolf remains usually lingered longest. Bodies piled on top of each other until the living Schengs gave a damn enough to return on a night when the moon showed face to burn them. Supposedly, it was the only way their dead could return to their God, Lureine—or moonlight. I didn’t pretend to understand werewolves, but I thought about honoring the dead.

  Sometimes I thought about the deceased vampire warriors trapped under their cloaks and left to rot like the werewolves. A part of me wished to scour the entire battlefield, to unearth them and let the sun turn them to ash. I knew Yessma had their souls. I knew their bodies held nothing after death, but I thought warriors shouldn’t be left to rot. They deserved more than that.

  I adjusted Tuel’s stiff body to find a more comfortable position, but there was no relief from the smell of decaying blood. As vampires, we were extremely sensitive to that smell. Preserving blood was no small feat. Still, my team said nothing, so I held Tuel and searched the cloudy sky to praise our God.

  Let Tuel rest easy until Yessma’s chosen prevail. Then let her celebrate with us.

  CHAPTER 3

  LISETTE

  “LISETTE.”

  My eyelids fluttered open as I squeezed the sizable weight on my lap. Tuel was the first thing I saw, quite dead and astoundingly stiff. Her hood had fallen, revealing skin dyed dark red by blots of dead blood. I refused the urge to gag and covered her up quickly as the glider doors opened. I expected the sun and White House, mind fuzzy with sleep, but we were in the royal garage. The queen’s gaudy silver glider was parked beside us.

  Odd, I thought.

  I struggled to open my door. My fingers refused to cooperate, but I succeeded after a couple of attempts. Standing was another matter. Tuel felt much heavier than before, but I refused to let her go. I stood.

  White Team wasn’t the only team in the royal garage. Several other combat gliders were lined up next to ours.
They expelled Black Team and Gray Team. We were all called here, then. Together, we were Silver Hollow’s absolute best, even among the slayers. White Team was composed of first-line brawlers, Gray Team was composed of second-line shooters, and Black Team was composed of third-line assassins.

  My arms shook as I fought to hold Tuel. I’d drop her at this rate.

  “We have an audience with the queen,” Fyefa whispered as she brushed past me. She removed her hood and shook out her curly white-blond hair.

  I took a step forward, prepared to follow our team leader, but no one else moved. Every pair of eyes in the garage glared at me. They gleamed sharp as knives.

  “Disgusting. You’re not taking her in there,” Black Leader said. The silver badge pinned to the collar of her uniform had four tight coils, the silhouette resembling a four-leaf clover.

  “Why not?” I replied.

  Fyefa folded her arms as Gray Leader and Black Leader turned their gazes to her. “Lisette, leave her in the glider,” Fyefa said. “You can barely stand.”

  Scarlet muttered under her breath, “Just dump the body outside and let the sun do the rest. I can’t take that smell anymore.”

  Claire waved her hand in front of her nose.

  I couldn’t deny any of it. Tuel smelled terrible, and the shakes racking my body had gotten worse.

  I offered a half bow. “As you say, White Leader.”

  After gently laying Tuel’s prone form on the backseat of the glider, and shutting her inside, I returned to the other slayers. None of them had moved an inch, and the same was true of their glued-to-me stares.

  A door leading into the castle cast a block of artificial light on us and revealed a half-bent-over guard; the silver-accented gray uniform she wore was standard guard attire. “I am to escort you to the queen,” she said.

  “Let’s go,” Fyefa ordered, her words sharp. Her hands were clenched into fists at her sides as she led the way. It was enough to get everyone moving, but she didn’t relax. I knew bringing Tuel home would be seen as strange, but I didn’t care. I had put no one in danger, and I alone claimed the burden. Though, I could do nothing about the smell that assaulted our noses.

  Why did no one see it the way I did? Tuel was one of us. Death didn’t change that.

  My heart palpitated, followed by a pang. I pressed my fingers to my chest and rubbed, but it didn’t soothe as intended. Gods, I thought, maybe I went too far.

  I rubbed my wrists and took a deep breath. It would have been easier to clear my head and numb the pain if Gala wasn’t practically stepping on my cloak. When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw why. She had her nose stuck in a pactputer. It had no keyboard, but that didn’t stop her from furiously typing on the thin glass-faced screen.

  Multicolored banners embroidered with the silver-wreath insignia of our kingdom lined the castle’s looping halls along with concentric squares and rectangles. The architecture was impractical, albeit beautiful. One could easily find herself lost if she didn’t know where she was going, because the halls weren’t straightforward.

  Silver, as our name implied, was our most valuable resource, with a quantity to match, but our mines yielded many valuable minerals and metals. All of them were used in Silver Hollow Castle. Silvery concrete made up its base, molded into abstract hard edges that had no other purpose than to impress. Any architect would have been impressed, I heard, but I wouldn’t have known. This kingdom was all I knew. Nooks, fake stairs, and elaborate twisting chambers that led to nothing came with the territory.

  Gala stepped on my cloak, wrenching my neck. She backtracked and apologized at the same moment I spat, “Watch it.”

  She continued tapping the pactputer’s touchscreen as if nothing had happened. It grated on my nerves, but I held in my rage. Fyefa’s fists were still clenched at her sides, bloodless from the strain. I wouldn’t cause her more trouble. Not when it would have been counterintuitive. I had never caused trouble just to cause trouble.

  Gala is a Crimson Caves vampire, I reminded myself.

  I clicked my tongue to keep myself from grinding my teeth as we reached the square double doors that led to the throne room. One of the two guards stationed outside of it pressed a button and the concrete retracted inward, one square layer at a time, until the throne room lay before us.

  CHAPTER 4

  LISETTE

  “WHITE Team, Gray Team, and Black Team have arrived as requested, my queen,” our guide announced before bowing and exiting the long room. The sliding concrete doors produced an echo that multiplied through the rafters, where several lightbulb-rimmed chandeliers lit up the silvery space. My head kept ringing after the echoes died, and I had to blink the bright lights away; I didn’t know why we had so many lights when our vision worked with visible light and infrared radiation equally well and rather seamlessly.

  To alleviate my swimming head, I concentrated on a single point: the silver throne.

  Queen Maud sat tall on the throne with two male thralls to either side of her. They wore nothing but intricately woven leather ropes that did little to hide their nudity. I assumed it was a fetish of some sort. One thrall sat on the arm of the throne, leg draped across the queen’s lap. The other stood prim and proper with the queen’s hand curled on his hip. In the castle, I’d only seen male thralls. Once-humans turned mostly vampire by our venom, I wondered how much they resembled the males of our species. I had never laid eyes on a vampyre before, but it was safe to assume they appeared quite similar. To the untrained eye, one might think a thrall entirely vampire. The most telling sign was their skin. It never grayed enough to match a real vampire.

  Well past her two hundredth year, the queen showed signs of aging. The silver crown atop her head was adorned with various precious crystals mined from our very own mountains, mostly rubies. They produced a rainbow array, glittering with the slightest movement of her head. They amplified the pinkish undertone of the queen’s sagging skin. Her blond hair was piled high and interwoven with the crown as if it were made of strands of gold. Fire-like eyes skimmed each one of us as we bowed before her, the harsh color accentuated by the orange of her elegant dress.

  I steadied myself on one shaking knee and tucked my chin in the utmost sign of respect. I hoped I wouldn’t pass out. Based on how lightheaded I was feeling, I didn’t discount the possibility.

  Queen Maud snapped her fingers. “Ednis.”

  The queen’s primary advisor stepped out of the blue velvet curtains decorating the back wall. She had a pactputer tucked under her arm and offered a curt bow before claiming her place on the lowest step of the dais. She was the kind of skinny that would never grow enough muscle to contend with an average warrior, let alone a slayer. She had a metabolic disorder that ensured this. It was due to inbreeding. As a result, she suffered from other ailments most vampires wouldn’t—such as inefficient eyes that required she wear her circular wire-rimmed glasses. I speculated infrared radiation was something she couldn’t see at all. Despite her physical inefficiencies, her mind was as sharp as any well-honed blade. As well as the queen’s primary advisor, she was a physician too. She had her own title: Ednis the Wise.

  “Rise,” the queen said, and we did, but Gala hesitated—likely because our queen spoke in Chezquan. After fixing Gala with her fire eyes, the queen switched to perfect Lyris. Though a secondary language to Silver Hollow, Lyris was prevalent because those who founded Silver Hollow were a mix of western and northern vampires speaking Lyris and Chezquan. Then, when Jade Spring was overrun with Schengs, Chezquan became our primary language.

  “We have much to celebrate,” the queen continued. She squeezed the leg resting on her lap, causing the male thrall to jolt violently. Blood trickled down from where her nails pierced his skin, painting her dress. She licked her lips as some sort of signal. The male thrall shuddered but he leaned in close, and she sunk her fangs into his neck. The thrall’s eyes rolled and his once-soft member grew quite hard, no doubt a reaction to her venom. When satisfied, the queen l
icked the blood from her lips and shoved him aside. He fell off the throne and landed in a crumpled heap on the stairs. His chest rose and fell in a natural rhythm, but his body convulsed.

  I looked away.

  Queen Maud tightened her grip on the other thrall’s hip and said, “After eighty-seven years of fighting with the Schengs, we’ve gained the upper hand. We’ve created condensed blood, boosting. While it’s something only our finest warriors can utilize—for now—it’s revealed itself to be the piece we needed to alter the course of this standstill. How many did we lose today compared to the werewolves, White Leader?”

  “An estimated one to every ten, my queen,” Fyefa answered.

  “A fine change indeed. What say you, Gala?”

  Gala raised her chin. “Queen Maud la Ruenan, it is as you say. Crimson Caves will be most impressed to hear about the hidden strength a vampire can claim by surpassing her natural blood-consumption limit. There is much to be explored there. I’d like to tell Queen Vesne la Demunet the importance of our alliance and quickly. If Crimson Caves and Silver Hollow unite, the Schengs will be decimated without many more losses on your side—our side. Together, we’ll be an unmatched force in the Prime War. I believe, with my report, there is a high chance Crimson Caves will soon send an army your way, and Jade Spring will be returned to its rightful vampire hands.”

  “Excellent. I will send you back to Crimson Caves tomorrow with an escort to make your report.” Queen Maud ran her hand over her thrall’s hip, then she withdrew so she could trace the line of his pelvis down to his thick member. He hardened at the barest hint of her touch, a moan on his lips. On my left, Scarlet shuddered. It was almost imperceptible, but I wasn’t so far gone that I’d missed it. Scarlet was likely thinking of her own male thrall.