Ancient Blood: A Novel of the Hegemony (The Order Saga Book 1)

by Brian McKinley

  Fuck ‘em all. Whole Order can fucking die for all I care.

  * * * * *

  I had spent hours drifting in and out of painful memories, enraged thoughts and bitter plans as my body healed. The slow torture of bones, knitting themselves back together and ruptured organs repairing themselves kept my thoughts in a red haze as I lay on my bed. As my plans to kill Valmont and his Dhampirs got more detailed, I found myself thinking back to his rape of Caroline. More and more, I remembered that kiss and found it difficult to accept the innocent explanations I’d taken for granted so far. I didn’t want to think this way but Sebastian’s words taunted me with the idea that there was some element between Caroline and Valmont I was missing.

  Had Caroline and Valmont been lovers?

  The idea was repulsive but at the same time, a cynical voice in me said that Caroline had manipulated me already. That voice wouldn’t go away. In fact, it got more insistent the hungrier I became. There was something horribly comforting in putting the blame for everything that had happened onto Caroline. I know it was cowardly of me but it was so much easier to be angry than to deal with the emotional reality of what had been done to Caroline.

  It was easier to believe she’d been betraying me all along.

  My memories colored until I felt certain I’d seen Caroline’s secret enjoyment. This was before I ever saw the video and heard what passed between them. All I remembered was Valmont’s little mocking kiss and wink, his whispers in her ear and the way her eyes closed while her body flushed with excitement. The way she’d welcomed his bloody kiss.

  Every moment of doubt I’d ever had about her came rushing back, every similarity I’d ever seen between her and Michelle. If Caroline was capable of using me like that after I’d trusted her with my heart and soul, then she deserved to die.

  All at once, it seemed, an energizing sense of power and purpose came over me and I moved for the first time in hours, swinging my legs off my bed and sitting up. My regeneration, however, had used up all the energy I’d consumed that night. I was voracious. My mind supplied a ready answer. To keep myself awake past sunrise and make my escape from the island while under its glare, I would need the extreme energy found in Vampyr blood.

  My mouth watered at the memory of all the times Caroline had fed me from her own veins. It was a taste I associated with happiness, love, pleasure and contentment. Fully healed and with her blood pumping through my veins, I wouldn’t need a weapon to kill Valmont. Then I could drink him dry as well, using his blood to sustain me through my escape.

  Without another coherent thought, I stood and crept down the servants’ stairs to the second floor across from Caroline’s door. I knew she’d locked it and would be hiding inside. Checking to be sure the hallway was clear, I rushed across and put all my weight and strength behind a kick to the left of the knob, the way the cop shows had taught me—

  It worked, just like on TV. The door cracked and flipped open, whacking the bookcase on the wall with a resounding bang. Caroline sat at her desk, typing on her computer. She’d changed into jeans, sneakers and a sweatshirt. The look of startled horror on her face as she spun toward me is a memory I don’t think I’ll ever be rid of. I see the redness of her eyes, the scrubbed rawness of her face and the way the strands of wet hair that had pulled free of her ponytail hung limp around her.

  I think she said my name but I don’t remember hearing it. Even now, or maybe, especially now, this whole episode is like a series of grainy clips and images with an emotional soundtrack. I don’t want to remember it, would rather just skip over or summarize it but writing this has been about being honest with myself and I won’t take the coward’s way out now and hide behind phrases like “it all happened so fast” or “it’s just a blur.” It may not be completely clear and my mind may have done its best to shove this in a closet but I remember damn well what happened.

  I remember my hands tightening into claws as I rushed her, almost able to feel the softness of her neck between them. She reacted quicker and more resourcefully than I expected, jumping out of her chair and flinging it at me as she moved to the side.

  The chair slowed me for a second but I batted it aside, my eyes already tracking her as she moved. I caught up to her before she reached the bed and when she spun to duck back or throw me, I punched her hard enough to knock her back onto it. I followed her with a leap, intending to pin her down and bite or choke her but she rolled backwards off the other side of the bed and I landed on the mattress. She screamed for help and I ripped the covers in frustration as I scrambled to my feet.

  She held what looked like a remote control in one hand as she pressed against the door to Sebastian’s room. It was locked, of course. She edged along the wall toward the hall. “Please, Avery, stop!” Her voice was choked, I remember that clearly. “Fight this!”

  I wish with all my heart that I could remember feeling some conflict in that moment. That my love swelled up and made me hesitate for a crucial second or two but it didn’t.

  I attacked her again.

  I still give thanks to the Goddess every night that what she held in her hand was her stun gun and she was prepared to use it. As I reached striking distance, she dropped to one knee and stabbed the electrified ends of it into my abdomen. While not as powerful as the “stunners” that Ash and company used to capture me on the Turnpike, the charge proved sufficient.

  She’s had the stun gun for as long as I’ve known her, it was just something she carried in her purse as a precaution. Ash must have let her keep it when he caught us.

  I thank the Goddess for Ash, too.

  * * * * *

  A few hours later, with sunrise due in a little over an hour, four of Wilkes’s house guards dragged me into the council chamber and shoved me into a large armchair at the foot of the massive council table. Most of my bruises were from my earlier fight with Sebastian but the guards gave me a few new ones.

  All around the chamber, the other Hegemons waited as Sebastian entered, closing the two massive doors behind him. They then demanded to know what the fuss was about.

  I just sat, numb, while Sebastian used his rich speaking voice and official, dignified Latin to explain how I had planned to murder Hegemon Valmont after I killed Caroline and drank her blood.

  Sebastian and his guys had worked me over a little but I hadn’t been interrogated. He got the whole story from Caroline and Bishop, who had been the only person to respond to the cries for help. I hadn’t seen Caroline since it happened and was glad. I had no idea what I could say if I ever saw her again. I remembered what I’d been thinking and feeling but it felt like a nightmare I’d just woken up from.

  Sebastian explained, taking the occasional question from the assembled Hegemons, while I tried to reason out what had happened.

  “All you have demonstrated so far is an inability to maintain the order of your own house,” Julia told Sebastian in English. “Forgive my informality but I am weary of such foolishness and see no good cause for us to convene in this … domestic affair.”

  “Unless Hegemon Valmont intends to seek some penalty against Hegemon Blackwood for his Pupil’s confessed intent,” Draco suggested.

  I glanced up and caught Valmont’s eyes as he considered me but Sebastian spoke before he could answer. “Bear in mind, I pray, that his intention did thee no harm. Thou would not have even the knowledge of it but for my honest revelation.”

  “And the strange fortune that your sweet rose had her thorns at hand,” Valmont said, turning back to Sebastian. Geoffrey, Jade Tiger and Julia chuckled. “Still, I shall be magnanimous and content myself with seeing this intemperate beast put down.”

  Draco raised a hand to halt the general movement toward the doors. “I must speak further. I feel that this occurrence puts into question the veracity of Hegemon Blackwood’s claims against the Judicis.”

  Iago attempted to interrupt Draco but he steamrolled on. “Therefore, I ask that this body return to proceedings as scheduled and terminate,
without prejudice, my appointment as Judicis Proviso.”

  “Hear me, I beg, good and gentle colleagues,” Sebastian said. “Before my suit be tossed aside in the moment’s haste, allow me this small time to defend it. Having heard most closely the recounting of my Caroline, Hegemon Plantagenet’s man and this villain himself, I cannot make myself content that these pieces give forth the whole and unobstructed truth. The girl asserts that Avery was a creature possessed, slave to a cruel and terrible rage quite out of keeping with the loving nature he was wont to show her. And look now at him sitting not grieved, not angered and not terrified as his situation warrants but dumb and insensate with confusion. I admit puzzlement at his actions and strange turn of humor but do not think he should likewise.”

  Valmont snorted, folding his arms. “Sebastian, the boy was caught up in a jealous rage, which we have all seen evidenced. He’s now in denial or simply affects madness in an attempt to win leniency.”

  “You suspect hypnotism, Bastian?” Geoffrey asked, sitting on the arm of one of the throne-like chairs.

  Sebastian planted his hands on his hips. “I say ‘tis well worth eliminating ‘fore my aspirations to judicatus are scoffed away.”

  Geoffrey rose. “I’ll take a look.”

  “No,” Draco said.

  “Don’t worry, I promise to report honestly.”

  I thought I saw Draco’s lips hint at a smile. “That is not the cause of my objection. As this issue informs the greater one of Hegemon Blackwood’s charges against the Judicis, I feel protocol compels me to conduct this investigation as Judicis Proviso. Do you concur with my interpretation, Hegemon Julia?”

  Julia pretended to reflect before nodding. Iago sat slumped, dreading something he knew was coming.

  “Have I your leave to interact with and influence your Pupil, Hegemon Blackwood?” Draco asked.

  “Aye, on yer word that thou shall report honestly and stay within that part of his knowledge directly bearing on the question before us.”

  Draco did that trick of growing taller without moving again. “Given.”

  I have to admit that the seriousness of the situation hadn’t hit me yet. I didn’t get scared until Draco strode over to me, removed his sunglasses and knelt.

  His face alone is enough to give you goose-bumps but his eyes bring it to another level. They’re large for his narrow face with irises a pale, frosty-blue I’d never seen before and pupils so small they look like specks of dirt. He must be extremely sensitive to light for them to stay so tight in dimness like the chamber. I’ve since discovered that the condition is a rare genetic defect called ocular albinism and that the blue color is an illusion. His irises have no pigmentation whatsoever, what you see is the tissue of his cornea showing through. Considering the huge genetic restructuring that occurs in Creation, it’s amazing to me that a flaw like that escaped unchanged … unless it happened during his Creation.

  With his personality behind them, those eyes are like pools of liquid nitrogen.

  “Your mind is open but unfocused and distant,” he said, staring until I could feel him inside my skull like a spider. Iago had been subtle, unobtrusive; this felt like a dental exam. “Do not draw away—”

  Without taking his eyes off mine, he broke my index finger so fast that I heard it before I felt it.

  “Let the pain focus you.” Now I felt it all right, like a needle sewing its way up my arm! My eyes flooded and I tried to turn my head but he grabbed my chin and held me. “Open to me.”

  I felt his spider burrow through the frontal lobes of my brain. Images and memories of my attack on Caroline and the hours leading up to it flashed through my thoughts as the spider dug deeper and pawed through them. Every memory it touched got covered in greasy fingerprints but still it clawed and pried at their edges.

  Through the haze of discomfort and nausea, Draco’s voice: “There is indeed evidence of false memory here. I will uncover the true ones.”

  No! I can’t! There’s nothing there! Nothing! I won’t do this! NO! I’LL DIE FIRST!!

  He twisted my broken finger until the agony made the world fade to whiteness. As I faded back in, his industrious mind-spider peeled up a fresh scab of my memories. Digging its claws into the wound, it burrowed under again…

  In flashes at first, then in larger chunks, the memories returned…

  * * * * *

  I lie on my bed, head full of plans of killing Valmont and avenging Caroline. I’m nearly healed now, so moving is no longer the agony it was an hour ago. I’ve already decided that, along with a knife, I’m going to need to grab a few blood packs. Healing is thirsty work.

  Sometime later, there’s a quiet knock on the door. By the time I’ve finished sitting up, it opens and Iago slips in, closing it behind him. “Ah, nearly healed, I see. A welcome sight, for there is precious little time to have your revenge.”

  He eases himself onto the bed beside me with a conspiratorial air that brings Geoffrey to mind.

  “How did you know?” I ask.

  He smiles and I don’t think anything of the fact that he’s looking me in the eyes. “Elementary, my boy. In your circumstances, I should think I’d pursue a similar course. However, mark my words with utmost care now, for such a bold undertaking wants deep commitment and thought.”

  With that, he has me. Hooked, reeled in and flopping on the boat.

  I feel a sense of total relaxation as his mind washes over mine, like sliding into a warm pool. The relaxation increases as he speaks until I have no sense of myself at all. Nothing exists for me but the sound of his voice, his words and the deep wells of his eyes.

  “I never came here. You will repress the memories of my presence with all your will. You’d rather die than reveal it. Instead, you will remember only that you have lain here for many hours as you healed, boiling with a terrible hunger for vengeance upon your enemy Valmont. Slowly, ever so slowly, the memory of your Caroline’s passionate desire for him returned to taunt you. Try as you would, it did not release you and in fact, only grew stronger as your body’s hunger increased. Could it be they were once lovers? The suspicion ate at you as you reviewed every touch, glance, sigh and kiss. You have been most ill-used in her game and such a woman, that could so cruelly betray your trust, does not deserve to live.

  “From this moment of decision shall come a great feeling of power and purpose. Your rage shall consume all doubts, just as your hunger shall consume her precious blood. That blood which first gave you this new life shall be yours again and with it, all the strength you need to defeat your adversary and escape retribution. You are newly-Created, the sun holds less sway upon you. With her blood and that of Valmont, you shall have the strength to flee this island even under the sun’s glare. Still, ‘twould be best to have it quickly done. Kill Caroline and Valmont before sunrise to make better your escape. Even now, your hunger for her blood and your rage at her betrayal grow in concert. They give you the power of ten. So, lay back down now and listen for the closing of the door. When you hear it, your thoughts shall assume their new pattern for a thousand beats of your heart. At the thousandth beat, you shall decide her fate, sit up and make good your plan.”

  I become aware of my body again once I am lying down.

  The door shuts with a click.

  * * * * *

  Back in the council chamber, I retched as Draco withdrew from my mind, both from the physical pain and the assault of the new memories.

  Iago!

  I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. As much as I’d made a point of not trusting him, I realized that I still had. He’d charmed me with his grandeur, his romanticism and his self-depreciatory wit.

  The room erupted into chaos as Draco described his findings, Sebastian roared, Julia muttered in Latin and Valmont quipped something to the effect of “I didn’t know the old boy still had it in him.” Geoffrey and Jade Tiger studied everyone else’s reactions.

  Iago rose, letting out a little of his majestic dignity. “I dis
pute these findings and demand leave to disprove them.”

  “Thou’ll have no opportunity to tamper with my Pupil’s memories again, Iago de’ Medici!” Sebastian shouted. “But ‘tis the very boldness thou show in further disrupting the order of my house to escape those very same charges that leaves me undecided ‘twixt admiration and outrage.”

  Julia smiled. “The Judicis has never lacked for boldness.”

  “Judicis Proviso Draco,” Iago said. “I insist that you re-examine the Pupil’s memories for another layer, for I swear upon my life that I did not commit this crime.”

  Draco, who had put his sunglasses back on, looked more grim than usual. “I did already examine each fragment of the revealed memory for any trace of counterfeit and found none. Much though it pains me, I must pronounce it authentic.”

  Only then did Iago turn to Julia, eyebrow raised. “A glamour, Pina? I’m most flattered by the effort.”

  “Do not think to disentangle yerself by casting about groundless suspicions!” Sebastian closed the distance between them, the tide of his rage forcing the Judicis to shrink back. I could feel the room tense, expecting Sebastian to assault Iago right there. “Thou could not have suspected the boy’s attack would fail, so either killed by Valmont or during his escape, his memories could cause thee no fear. But why my beloved Caroline, thou most base and thrice-damned villain? Was it merely to weaken my spirit or did she possess some secret knowledge of thou? If ‘tis the latter, then be certain we shall discover it at trial!”

  Turning, Sebastian made another of his dramatic exits from the room, leaving Draco with the details of announcing that Iago’s trial would proceed tomorrow evening as scheduled.

  PART FIVE

  Research into the subject by such Order notables as Galen, Denys and Schreck has proven that our weakness to ultraviolet radiation and conditions such as feralism, are the result of inherent genetic flaws in the Vampyric Creation Retrovirus. This idea has met with considerable resistance, of course, because it strips the Vampyr of his “Divine perfection of form.” However, in shedding the mystery, this discovery grants us the possibility of cures for these issues. The Vampyr no longer need remain in darkness; he can evolve and be free if he chooses to embrace that opportunity.