With Australia having asked us for a stronger presence, and Canada now trading with us, we were rapidly gaining the recognition we needed to start operating more overtly, and that was something that would always make our lives easier.
“You know, if we keep this up we’ll soon be in a place where we have to openly announce our existence to the world,” Lorelei told me after the meeting, sitting on the edge of the table in front of me.
“I know, and I’m not sure that’s a bad thing,” I told her, and she shot me a scathing look.
“You can’t be serious, surely?”
“I am. We’ve existed in the shadows for so long, mortal society has become afraid and superstitious of us,” I told her frankly. “Just imagine, for one moment, that if we make ourselves known, let mortal society see us as we are - the way I was shown, when I first came here - then their fear would dissipate. Humanity fears most what it doesn’t understand - so let them know us, let them understand us, and we eliminate most of that fear.”
“I have to say, you raise a good point, hon,” she told me, sounding almost impressed. It was hard for anyone to impress Lorelei. “By the way, what did Mother Dearest have to say this time?”
I couldn’t reply immediately. I had to stop myself being sick again at the memory of her kiss.
“She was a little cryptic, but she said she will have ‘other business to attend to’ when she carries out her plan, hence why she wants me to be the heir to whatever legacy she’s trying to build.”
I buried my face in my hands, wishing I knew how to stop what was going on. I knew I was going to have to kill The First at some point, but I couldn’t help but wonder how I would do that - she seemed to wield power that surpassed even the power I had.
“I don’t know how long I can keep doing this, Lori,” I told her, hoping I sounded less broken than I was starting to feel. “She’s not normal. There’s a...a wrongness to her that makes my skin crawl, whenever she’s near I feel immensely uneasy, and her obsession with me is deeply unsettling. I can’t face much more of it.”
Lori slid off the table and wrapped her arms around me, and I buried my face into her neck.
“It’s alright, Eyathehn,” she said softly. “We’ll start making arrangements and then we’ll take her down, okay?” She kissed me on the head gently, stroking my hair with one hand. “And I promise you, I’ll be at your side every step of the way.”
“Thanks hon,” I told her, putting my arms around her waist. “Isha kasahn, vahd tuvoris kai’an.”
She giggled softly at me, pulling away slightly to kiss me on the lips.
“Flatterer,” she told me, and kissed me again.
If only it had been such an easy task.
We spent the next few days planning, sorting out attack routes and estimating the numbers of Greater Ferals - as some in Omega Company were now calling them - within the city of Canterbury.
Early indications were...less than promising.
Lorelei pulled up some satellite imagery again, which showed that within the grounds of the cathedral there were a lot of those ferals, clearly acting as some sort of deterrent. How she kept them under any semblance of control was a complete mystery.
“Captain Weinasse, I’ll need you and your troops to keep the city locked down,” I told the captain near me, a soldier who’d spent time with Germany’s GSG-9 counter-terrorism unit before joining the German Army as an officer. “I’ve already got our people in the area helping with evacuations, but we can’t guarantee that we’ll get everyone out. You’ll be tasked with keeping these ferals off our backs, keeping any remaining civilians out of the way and ensuring our exfil routes are clear.”
Weinasse nodded, looking intently at the map of the city. It was a city with a lot of narrow streets and alleys, the kind of environment he’d faced numerous times in his time with GSG-9. That was one of the main reasons I’d asked for him for this mission.
“Lori, obviously you’ll go in with me, I doubt I could get away with leaving you behind on this anyway-”
“Damn straight.”
“- and we’ll have support from Corvus Team as well. Although I will be entering the cathedral alone.”
“Like hell!” Lorelei snapped suddenly, and it took me several moments to calm her down enough to listen to me.
“Lori, listen. You don’t know what she can do - hell, I don’t know what she can do - but I have a better idea than most, and I am not going to put you in any more danger than I have to.”
“You really think I can’t look after myself?” she spat, and I gave her a wounded look.
“Far from it hon, but after last year...I can’t risk losing you as well. You’re too important to me.”
That, at least, seemed to mollify her.
“Fine,” she mumbled with her teenager’s pout, “but you owe me big time for this.”
“We can discuss that later,” I told her with a crooked smile. “So, as long as there’s no questions, we should get moving on this - we have far too little time as it is.”
The assembled leaders and fighters moved away from the table to make their own preparations, while I stood staring at the map. I was already in my combat suit, my two blades already in place at my hip and back, so there was nothing for me to do but worry.
I felt Lorelei’s hand on my shoulder and looked at her for a moment, looking away when my mind decided to give me a very unhelpful image - that of Lorelei suffering one of any number of horrid fates.
“I’m sorry, Eyathehn,” she said to me softly. “I guess, like you...I’m too afraid to see you hurt. But you’re the boss, and you gotta do what you gotta do. I don’t have to like it, but I’ll obey. This time.”
I smiled at her, and placed my hand on hers.
“Thanks hon. I’ll come back to you in one piece, I promise.”
“See that you do,” she warned, “it’d be hell trying to find another date around here.”
I laughed at her dry humour, and turned to hold her close for a moment.
“Go on, get ready. We’re leaving soon.”
“Yes sir,” she replied with her usual grin, and stalked off to her own quarters to get her combat suit.
Despite her high spirits, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that this was going to go badly.
Instead of flying to Oxford and then on to Canterbury, my main teams flew straight down to Canterbury and Kalin sent some of his finest to join us. We soon learned that Kalin’s forces were already on the ground, clearing a landing zone on the western side of the city.
However, my Osprey was heading to the eastern side, landing us in the old ruins of Saint Augstine’s abbey. I spared a thought for whether or not Saint Augustine was a vampire as well, then brushed it aside as the boarding ramp lowered, revealing a city that seemed little different - except for the occasional screams on the wind.
It was surprising how rapidly the ferals found us - within seconds of our aircraft lifting off a mass of ferals surged from the surrounding trees and street entrances, rushing towards us at an insane speed.
“Fire and move, people, don’t make it easy for them!” I yelled, drawing Black Terror and holding it back-handed. We broke for the nearest exit to the streets, Corvus Team maintaining a stream of steady yet accurate gunfire. Any that came too close were dealt with quickly by Lori and myself, since we had the speed to face them on an equal footing.
Not that they were easy to contend with, by any means - they had been given The First’s blood straight from the source, so while they were insane they were also immensely strong and fast.
Dark blood misted the air as silvered rounds tore into them, shotgun blasts ripped ragged chunks from them, and Lori and I removed limbs and heads at an alarming rate, and yet still they surged forwards. One of Corvus Team was dragged down by three of the creatures, torn to shreds before we even managed to put down his attackers. Two of them leaped for me, but a shotgun blast obliterated the head of one. Its blood fell as a dark, grisly rain, and several
of the soldiers cried out in pain - where the dark ichor contacted their skin, it burned like acid.
The second one that leaped for me I caught myself, my hand locking around its throat. It clawed at my arm, desperately trying to free itself, but I held on as I focussed my will again.
It shrieked in pain, a high-pitched wailing noise that never should have come from once-human throats, but other than that...nothing.
I dropped the thing and simply took its head off, dancing back to avoid the inevitable blood spray.
“I can’t burn them,” I told Lori. “They just seem to shrug it off.”
As we made it through the gap to the straight, the hedgerows that bracketed the street entrance forced the creatures into a bottleneck, making it all too easy for Corvus Team to put them down in short order.
I gave one massive psychic push, sending out a shockwave that knocked down any of the creatures within a hundred feet of us, and beckoned for the others to follow me.
We were wasting time, and that wasn’t acceptable.
The main reason for dropping where we did was its proximity to the cathedral grounds - it was only a few hundred metres down the road to reach the wall, although we were hounded by the ferals behind us the way ahead seemed much clearer.
Two more of Corvus Team were caught and killed by the feral vampires, which actually bought enough time to set a claymore trap for the others. We carried on running, ignoring the boom behind us and the howls that spoke of unspeakable wounds, until eventually we came up against the thick oak gate set into the vast wall.
“Well, this is bloody grand, innit?” One of the soldiers offered in his cockney accent.
“Stow it, Gaz,” murmured the calm Scottish tones of none other than Kelly Dumfries. It was beginning to look like wherever Corvus Team went, so did she.
“My Lord, if you two go over the wall, we’ll join you when we’ve blown this gate to kindlin’,” Kelly told me, and although it was a risk I decided we had to take it.
“Good call. Come on Lori, let’s move.”
Using the speed and agility that only vampires possessed, we went over the top of the defensive wall and began to look for The First.
At least, that was the plan.
The vast horde of ferals altered that plan somewhat.
“Perhaps we should have waited for Kelly after all,” Lori said unhelpfully, and I had to agree.
“Well...try not to let them bleed on you.”
At that I charged at the massive group, knocking them off balance with another telekinetic push. I used the time I’d bought to pull Crimson Raven free from its scabbard at my back, and I pushed all of my senses to their limits as I tore through the group.
I ducked a flurry of grasping hands, rising to carve a bloody gash through four of the ferals at once. I spun on my heel, flicking both blades out at head height and beheading another three, lashing out with a kick that broke the neck of one more. I slammed both blades behind me to impale the two that tried to grab from behind, ripping them free in an upwards swipe that completely bisected another pair. They were fast, but I could still read their attacks, thanks to my psychic abilities.
But even that couldn’t last.
One of them - maybe more - managed to tear my left shoulder guard off, and suddenly I felt large fangs burying themselves in the meat of my shoulder. I cried out in pain, stabbing the offending creature through the eye with Black Terror, but that arm was virtually useless until my regeneration kicked in.
Down to just one blade and my wits, I was soon getting overwhelmed - until something caught a glint of starlight, and I ducked as I threw up a psychic shield.
The grenade detonated, not in flame as I expected, but in a cloud of glittering smoke. The sound of burning flesh was audible just below the screams of the creatures, until automatic gunfire tore through them.
There was a brief lull in the slaughter, during which my saviours approached.
They weren’t Omega Company. They weren’t even military, if their lack of functional uniform or body armour was anything to go by.
“Deimos Black?” One of them asked casually, someone who may or may not have been the leader. They all looked as unprofessional as each other.
“That’s me.”
“Your daddy said it’s worth us helpin’ you,” the speaker told me, and I could barely believe what I’d heard.
“That don’t mean we like it, mind,” another one told me, his words partially obscured by an immense beard. “But still, ‘ere we are.”
“Here you are,” I echoed, and pointed at the corpses with my sword. “Silver powder?”
“And silver casing, for extra shrapnel damage,” the first speaker told me proudly. I had to admit, there was a kind of twisted genius at work there.
“Deimos!” I turned just in time to be greeted by Lorelei’s fist, smashing against my jaw shortly before she grabbed my face and kissed me.
“And you were worried about me getting hurt?!” she snapped, and kissed me again.
“It’s just a bite hon, I’ll live,” I told her, moving the wounded shoulder to demonstrate the regeneration already taking hold.
“Just a bite, he says, fucking idiot...”
She continued mumbling to herself in a similar vain, until Corvus team jogged up to us and saluted me smartly.
“I see you already met John and the boys, sir,” Kelly said, gesturing to the hunters. “They helped us get through the gate. Looks like your da came through after all, eh?”
“Yeah, but I still wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw that overgrown barn over there,” I said, pointing to the cathedral.
“Speaking of which, do you want to go do your thing while we fire up the party out here?” Lorelei asked, and I could tell how concerned she was by her tone. She was trying to hide it with her humour, but she was afraid.
For me.
“Sure thing hon,” I told her, pulling her close with my left arm and kissing her. “I’ll be back in a little while. I hope.”
I hurried off towards the massive building, while the renewed sounds of gunfire echoed behind me.
The main door was locked, so instead I found an entrance to the catacombs beneath the cathedral and entered that way. The door had been old, and didn’t stand up at all well to being kicked in by a vampire.
I thanked my heightened senses as I moved through the inky darkness, finding nothing in there but the stone reliefs of those interred within. I carried on through the catacombs until I found the entrance back up into the cathedral proper, discovered it was unlocked, and made my way inside.
I could hear chanting from the main cathedral hall, and if I didn’t know about the peculiar nature of The First’s voice I would have sworn that there were several people speaking the same words.
“Mother!”
I called out to her because I doubted I could hide my presence from her for long anyway. Better to announce my presence immediately than try to maintain an element of surprise I’d never have.
She appeared in front of me, and as soon as she saw me she actually smiled in joy.
“Deimos!” she cried gleefully. “You came to see me! Oh, this is such a lovely surprise, if I’d known you were coming I would have had a nice meal prepared, or someone to drink, or something, but as it is...”
She shrugged sheepishly, and moved to embrace me-
- and stopped, as she saw my drawn swords, the blood dripping from their blades.
“Ah. So that’s how you want to do this, my child?”
“This is madness, mother,” I told her, using the only name I really knew her by. “You have to see this is insane.”
She seemed to deflate a little,ad her expression seemed pained.
“I wish I could say I’m not disappointed, Deimos, but I would be lying,” she said sadly. “I’m no stranger to lies, by any means, but I would never lie to you, my sweet.”
“You can’t really think of yourself as my mother, surely?” I asked incredulously.
>
“And why shouldn’t I?!” she growled, the heat-glow pulsing through her veins again. “You are as close to being my child as if I’d raised you myself! My blood runs in your veins, in a near-pure state, and you think that I have no right to call myself your mother? Now you wound me twice, my dear child. I will give you one chance to either leave or drop your weapons.”
I said nothing, merely taking a ready stance and holding my blades ready.
“Fine,” she snarled, and as she curled her fingers a sword made purely of...darkness, it seemed, coalesced into existence in her hand.
There were no other words after that as we ran at each other - and I rapidly learned the mistake I’d made.
I’d acted before I ever knew what she was capable of.
My blades bit nothing but air as she disappeared during my swing, reappearing behind me and slicing open the back of my calf. An icy cold sensation began to spread from the wound, and I wondered what new poison I was facing.
As I spun to face her she shifted again, appearing on my right and punching me across the face. The strike was like being hit by a train, and it definitely cracked my jaw and broke two of my teeth.
I spat blood, but I had no chance to recover as she appeared at my front again, unleashing a rapid flurry of strikes that broke through my guard and opened three separate gashes on my arm, and another on my exposed shoulder. Again the burning cold began to set in, and I felt my arms moving slower, responding a split second after I’d made the choice to move.
Of Angel's Blood (Chronicles of The Order Book 2) Page 14
