BloodPledge

by Tima Maria Lacoba

  ‘Same,’ Alec replied.

  ‘Marcus’s armour,’ I said. ‘The stained glass window, the library, all those first-edition books...’ The beautiful interior, with rich and unique Gothic architecture – the lost heritage – were all burning before my eyes. What the flames didn’t destroy, the water used to douse it would. I wanted to cry.

  ‘Let’s hope they put it out before it destroys the whole house,’ Alec replied.

  We made our way to the gate leading down to the harbour, past the expansive lawn and the wisteria-covered pavilion where the Ritual – which introduced me to the Brethren community – was held only a week ago.

  Alec set me down when he stepped onto the jetty. Its entire length was lit by a string of LED lights sunk into the timber planks, their reflection dancing on the ripples that bounced off the sides of the pier. Judy stood waiting with Kari at the other end.

  Beneath the dim jetty lights, Judy’s face appeared ghostly pale as she ran up and enveloped us both. ‘Thank God, thank God.’ Then she looked past us toward the burning house and panic sprang into her eyes. ‘Where’s Luc? Why isn’t he with you?’

  ‘He’s on his way. I can hear them,’ Alec assured her. ‘Terens has been hurt.’

  ‘Oh, no!’ Judy’s hand flew to her mouth.

  ‘What’s she doing here?’ Kari said, pointing to Baroness Milena.

  As she and Karl approached, Baroness Milena’s eyes narrowed in response. ‘As a Prefect, I’ve more right to be here than you.’ She spat back and pulled her hand away from Karl’s and faced Kari, fists at her side.

  ‘Now, now, girls,’ Karl said, stepping between them.

  But the two continued to glare at each other until Kari turned her head and cried. ‘Jake!’ Her eyes were round like saucers, gazing towards the fiery darkness. ‘And Luc’s carrying...’ Her breath caught.

  Three figures made their way toward us, their silhouettes outlined against the fiery backdrop. Two were shirtless and one appeared to be carrying something large over his shoulder. Cal uttered a loud roar and sprinted toward them.

  ‘Get him onto the boat,’ Alec said when they reached us.

  Sam and Cal eased Terens’s semi-conscious body from Luc’s shoulder and carefully carried him to the launch. Blood-soaked bandages – Luc and Jake’s shirts? – bound his shoulder and chest, and where his left arm should have been. His face was ashen and taut with pain. The sickly, metallic smell of blood invaded my nostrils and I had to turn my head away to stop from gagging.

  ‘What happened?’ I asked, as we stepped into the motor launch.

  ‘I’ll kill that Hungarian bastard.’ Jake said through clenched teeth.

  ‘Timur did this?’ Kari asked. She pushed Milena out of the way and slid her hand into Jake’s.

  ‘White-oak ... in ... his ring,’ Terens managed to say. ‘Never ... smelled it.’ He groaned as the other men laid him across one of the seats in the launch and sat at either end of him.

  I perched on the seat opposite and watched as Alec crouched by Terens’s side, undid the bandages and examined the gaping wound. Jake sank to his haunches next to him.

  ‘Hell!’ Sam exclaimed. ‘Just as well it’s not his sword arm.’ He glanced at Jake. ‘Sure you got it all?’

  Jake nodded. ‘Bastard scratched him on the hand. Had to amputate his arm before the poison spread.’ He touched the sword strapped to his side.

  I couldn’t imagine how hard that must have been for him to do.

  ‘Fucker! I’ll just add that to the list of excuses I need to rip his miserable head from his shoulders,’ Karl said.

  ‘Nice job, Jake. Bleeding’s stopped. Nothing more I can do,’ Alec said. ‘Take him to the yacht and administer a regional.’ He turned his attention to Terens. ‘Jake’ll give you something to kill the pain. The rest is up to you.’

  My stomach hollowed out. ‘What do you mean, “Jake’ll do it”? Aren’t you coming?’

  Alec gently grasped my shoulders. ‘I can’t leave. As princeps, it’s my responsibility to stay – make sure everything’s okay.’

  ‘Can’t Luc–’ I started to protest.

  ‘He’s got to check the vault and hide those cages before the firemen get down there.’

  ‘But–’

  He placed a finger over my lips. ‘Darling, the Brethren are still here. I can sense them, and they need to see the Principate hasn’t lost control. Now, more than ever, we need to present a picture of stability. If I run away....’

  He didn’t need to complete the rest for me to understand the implications – the Brethren would see it as a sign of weakness and Alec would lose all credibility, perhaps even his life. He was right. I had to let him go, although my stomach churned in revolt.

  ‘Besides, Jake’s a medic,’ he continued. ‘He’ll give Terens a regional anaesthetic to make him comfortable. No more than I would do.’

  I sighed and kissed his finger. ‘So much for Marcus marrying us tonight. Be careful and ... don’t be long.’

  There was a pained look in his eyes as he leaned down and kissed me, long and hard, before releasing me. He turned to Jake. ‘You know what to do.’ With that, he, Luc, Karl and the other men disappeared into the darkness.

  ‘He’ll be okay, dear.’ Judy clasped my hand and led me down the jetty, where Jake and others were already aboard the launch.

  I glanced at the serpent ring and experienced a thrill of relief – the eyes glowed a healthy, and safe, red.

  ‘We need to get Terens onto the yacht before he regains consciousness,’ Jake said, as he helped Judy and myself step down into the boat.

  ‘Will his arm regenerate?’ I asked.

  ‘During the day sleep. He was lucky.’ He went past Milena to the front of the launch and steered us into the dark waters of the harbour.

  I had to take a reality check, for apart from the garden-variety lizard I occasionally shooed out of my kitchen, I knew of no other species that was able to regrow an entire limb overnight. Being half-vampire, did my body have that ability? I really didn’t want to find out.

  Milena sat primly on the padded bench directly behind Jake, facing away from Kari and the rest of us. She’d plaited her thick, curly hair over one shoulder, presumably to prevent the wind from blowing it around.

  I joined Kari who knelt by Terens’s unconscious form. ‘Hey, Sexy Terry,’ she said, and smoothed the hair off his forehead.

  ‘He hates it when anyone calls him that,’ Jake said.

  ‘I know,’ she replied. ‘If he can hear me, it’ll make him mad enough to stay alive.’

  Jake turned his head and smiled at her, before resuming his scrutiny of the way ahead as the boat bounced over the waves.

  ‘He can still die, then?’ I asked Kari.

  ‘Hell yeah. Shock. Our blood flows more slowly, so there’s no chance of bleeding to death, but shock is the same as with a human, and if it’s bad enough, it can interfere with regeneration. But,’ she added, as she scanned Terens’s face, ‘we’re a pretty tough breed. Aren’t we sexy Terry?’

  ‘“Sexy Terry”’? I asked.

  ‘It’s short for Sextus Terentius. His real name, but no one’s called him that for ages.’

  A light sheen of sweat coated his brow, and in the boat’s artificial light, his face appeared waxen. My heart lurched. I’d only met my father’s men a week ago, yet in some respect, they’d always been in my life – unseen bodyguards, who’d made sure none of the Brethren learnt of my existence. Of the four, it was Terens I’d come to know the best. The diamond stud in his ear glinted as he’d flirted with me at the Ritual. Later, when we’d been captured by Maris – and in spite of his own painful injuries – Terens had tried to keep my spirits up and had won a special place in my heart.

  I gripped his hand and said, ‘Hang in there, Terens. We need you.’ It could have been wishful thinking, but I’m sure I felt a gentle pressure on my fingers in response.

  The launch slowed, and I peered ahead at the lights of a four-deck yach
t. We pulled alongside. Jake secured it with a rope. Stepping past Milena, he bent, whispering something in her ear. Then he hoisted Terens onto his shoulder, leapt up over the bow of the craft and landed nimbly on the main deck.

  Milena rose, turned to me and said, ‘Allow me to help you onto the yacht, my lady.’ Presumably, we weren’t going to use a ladder. I stood, and she scooped me up. With one deft leap, she cleared the bow and landed lithely on the main deck of the four-deck yacht.

  Milena set me on my feet, and I waited till Kari, with Judy in her arms, joined us. Together we passed through a door that opened onto a brightly lit stateroom.

  Chapter 13 - Lines Are Drawn

  ALEC

  ‘I want those two sons-of-bitches dead!’ Sam growled as we ran back to the burning house.

  ‘That makes two of us.’ Karl echoed, with good reason.

  ‘Don’t ask me how,’ Sam continued, ‘but Rasputin managed to pick the lock, start the fire then leave the two Rebels behind to burn.’

  ‘I heard them.’ Their screams filled my ears, and I’d experienced a moment of horror as I knew it was too late to help them. ‘Did you manage to—’

  ‘Yeah.’ An expression of disgust crossed his face. ‘Nobody should be left to die like that. Raced up to Luc’s study, grabbed the gun, went back down and shot ‘em with white-oak bullets. At least they died quick.’

  ‘And we won’t have to explain any charred remains to the emergency services,’ Luc finished.

  That was true, although I felt responsible for their fate. I’d promised them a second chance. Leaving Rasputin unguarded had been a mistake, and they had paid the ultimate price. I was determined to see Timur and his henchman exterminated.

  The acrid smell of smoke filled my nostrils as we approached. I picked out fire fighters hosing the lower storey windows from which smoke was still pouring out. Several others were inside the house, searching, calling out any survivors. One – on the street – was telling neighbours to keep their distance. I isolated Marcus’s baritone from the cacophony of voices, assuring the fire chief his “brother’s” guests had all been evacuated in time. Although Luc had inherited his mother’s fair hair, the resemblance between him and Marcus was unmistakable. And since they appeared a similar age, passing themselves off as brothers was a necessary ruse in the human world.

  It had been Marcus who’d urged us to flee, while he’d stayed behind to co-ordinate the prefects. Having resided in a French monastery for the last seventeen-hundred years hadn’t dampened his ability to command.

  The fire was contained to the lower and ground floors at the rear of the house, the worst damage where Rasputin had disabled the sprinklers. Sam had them installed throughout the house a few years ago. Tonight proved the worth of that decision.

  ‘Want us to go after them?’ Cal asked, as I stood transfixed by the sight of the firemen battling the flames.

  Luc’s eyes flared dangerously at the sight, and the anger that emanated from him was almost as scorching as the heat radiating from the house. As far as I knew, he had never been challenged on this scale. And he was torn – I could see it in his eyes – between seeking vengeance or retribution. When he turned his head and looked at me, his indecision was clear. Which side of him would win: soldier or politician?

  I didn’t have time to wait. ‘Sam, go to the airport and locate Timur’s private jet. Disable it. I don’t want him leaving the country.’ Without a glance at Luc, and with a nod, he sprinted away. To Cal and Karl who stood at my side, I said, ‘Go hunting. Pick up Timur and Rasputin’s scent. Let me know where they’re holed. Don’t confront them. We don’t know how many of those poison white-oak rings he’s got.’

  They sped off.

  ‘You okay?’ I asked Luc.

  ‘Just pissed.’ The tip of his fangs glistened as he spat the words out. ‘I’ll go check the vault.’ He sprinted around the side of the house.

  I sensed two Prefects stalking one of the fire fighters.

  Here was another problem – too many excited humans in close proximity and the scent they exuded was like catnip to the hovering vampires. I extended my senses, knowing all the prefects would hear my voice. ‘Gather at the pavilion, now. Feed later, in the city.’

  I was about to turn and make my way to the pavilion when I spotted a familiar face – Matthew Sommers.

  What was he doing here? The last time I saw Laura’s ex-boyfriend, he’d been languishing in hospital with a head wound after an encounter with Maris’s rogue group. I’d found him lying unconscious in Laura’s apartment, treated him then called the ambulance, only to discover white-oak bullets in his possession. Bastard had been planning to kill us. I deprived him of his memory, though Luc would have preferred to kill him.

  I moved closer to get a scent – gauge his intention – my movement a blur to the humans.

  Sommers looked like he’d just gotten out of bed – hair mussed and the beginnings of a beard on his face. He stood on the other side of the road, hands deep in his jean pockets. A police car drove up and stopped a few feet in front of him. The door opened and Dave Delaney stepped out – the detective in charge of the investigation into Sommers’s assault. They were colleagues.

  Why were they here? Only one way to find out. I listened in.

  ‘Matt! What the hell are you doing here at this time of night? You’re still recovering.’

  ‘Couldn’t sleep. Switched on the telly and saw this.’ Sommers pointed to the house. ‘You mentioned my ex-girlfriend was staying here with an aunt. So....’ He shrugged.

  ‘Yeah, sorry to hear about your break-up.’

  He shrugged again. ‘Can’t remember anything about her. Damn amnesia.’

  Delaney turned his head and looked at him. ‘Doctors say anything?’

  Sommers shook his head. ‘Don’t understand it themselves.’

  ‘You were lucky you only lost a few months. Could’ve been a year.’ Delaney placed his hand on Sommers’s shoulder. ‘Take it easy, okay? Give it time.’

  Sommers huffed.

  Delaney titled his head toward the house. ‘Did everyone get out?’

  ‘Think so. Overheard some guy tell the fire chief that. Didn’t see anyone come out, though. Check it out.’ He looked up and down the street. ‘They’re the neighbours – in dressing gowns, right? So, where are the guests?’

  He was observant.

  ‘What did you hear?’ Delaney asked.

  ‘S’posed to be a couple hundred people in there. Neighbours said cars started coming round midnight.’

  ‘Mmmm.’

  Both stopped speaking, until Sommers said, ‘First her flat’s broken into, and now the house she’s staying in is set alight. All in one week. What are the odds?’

  They stared at the house.

  ‘My thoughts as well,’ Delaney said.

  ‘Alec,’ Cal’s voice sounded in my ears. ‘Everyone’s assembled.’

  ‘On my way.’ I wanted to stay and hear more, but Matthew Sommers was a lesser threat then the one I currently faced.

  It took me less than two seconds to reach the pavilion around which the prefects had congregated. To any human, their pale skin, utter stillness and otherworldly beauty made them resemble garden statues – albeit clothed ones. And I’m one of them. It had taken a long time to reconcile myself with that fact. Now that my servitude had ended, and I was no longer regarded as a juvenile, it was time to assume the full trappings of the office of princeps.

  As I alighted on the pavilion, Marcus appeared with Kwome and Zhao. They stood behind me, while Luc, who had returned from inspecting the bloodvault, stood by my side. He gave me a nod, indicating all was well. Considering the strength of its construction – a double layer of reinforced titanium that was flood, fire and nuclear bomb proof – I would have been surprised if there had been any damage.

  Karl perched on the top step and lit a cigarette.

  I did a quick scan to see how many of the original two-hundred-and-twenty prefects had remained. B
y their absence, the nine who were missing publicly declared their allegiance to the Rebel cause.

  I stood and faced them. Taking the executioner’s sword from Marcus’s hand, I raised it in the air. ‘Brethren, we are at war. Tonight was round one to the Rebels, those who would see the Principate and the Brethren law destroyed, who want to bring us back to the dark ages and the killing times, when humans knew of us and hunted us to near extinction. Is that what you want?’

  There were cries of ‘No!’

  ‘Look around you.’ I pointed the sword. ‘See who’s absent. See who took the opportunity to run rather than take the Pledge. I can guarantee you’ll find them at Timur’s side, decimating the human populations in their territories. Once they’re done there, yours will be next.’

  ‘He’s already encroaching on mine,’ Karl remarked. ‘His minions are opening hotels and dealing in blood-slaves. Young humans are disappearing. The decimation has begun.’

  ‘Imagine if he had the Ingenii in his possession,’ I added.

  Prefect O’Toole swore, as did a few others. All of them owed their exalted positions to either Marcus or Luc, and as long as they remained loyal and kept the Brethren laws, they enjoyed autonomy in their regions. The Elders rarely interfered, and the few times they did, it had been at the behest of a prefect. Should Timur and the Rebels win, all that would end.

  ‘Brethren.’ Marcus stepped forward. Almost as one, each of the prefects fell to their knees. ‘I remember the days of chaos and hiding. Should this rebellion spread, and more humans be killed, it’s only a matter of time before they believe in our existence again. For the last two-hundred years we have enjoyed anonymity and unprecedented freedom to live inconspicuously among them. Their populations have grown, and we have fed well. We have forgotten what it’s like to fear the vampire hunter; to fear white-oak. The Principate is the only thing which stands between our existence and disaster.’

  ‘My lord, you will always have our support,’ one said. This was followed by cries of, ‘Aye.’

  Marcus placed his hand on my shoulder. ‘Here is your princeps. Show him your allegiance.’