Blood Hunt

by Michelle Bryan

  Blood Hunt

  A New Bloods story

  Michelle Bryan

  Copyright © 2017 Michelle Bryan

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by Rebecca Jaycox

  r_jaycox@hotmail.com

  This book is a work of fiction. People, places, events and situations

  are products of the author’s imagination.

  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or historical events, is purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means,

  without the written permission of the author.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Awaken

  About the Author

  Also by Michelle Bryan

  1

  The soldiers were on the prowl again, which could only mean one thing. The Prezedant needed fresh blood.

  Rease crouched low behind the crumbling rock wall, trying to make herself as small as possible and blend into the background. She could not be seen. She could not be taken.

  A cuss word fell from her lips as the sound of crunching rocks under dozens of feet drew closer, and she twisted around on her haunches searching for any sign of Lily and Maya. She spotted her kin about to emerge from the doorway of the abandoned building they had camped in last night. Waving her arms to grab their attention, she was relieved when Lily’s gaze met hers. Rease pointed two fingers downward in a walking motion; the signal for soldiers. Lily understood the danger as she pulled her younger sister back into the building and disappeared into the shadows.

  Not for the first time this morning, she cursed their luck as she turned her attention back to the contingent and prayed for them to move on. They were in an isolated part of the sand lands outside the city of Littlepass. There was no reason for the soldiers to even be here. There had been no reports of army activity in this part of the sand lands for weeks now. All had been quiet. So quiet they had seized the opportunity to go on a supply hunt. Just their damn luck the soldiers decided to do a walkabout on the very same day.

  All three women knew it wasn’t safe to be outside the mountains, especially for their kind. But they didn’t have a choice. Supplies were running low, and the taters hadn’t sprouted again this year. The harvest had failed miserably for the second year in a row. Even the wildlife had been scarce, and a village could not survive on the meagre offerings of dirt-dogs and vultures alone. Her people were starving.

  That story was nothing new. The Shift wars of the old settlers had left a devastated world. The green, living planet the old folk said had existed years ago was long gone. The settlers changed that. They destroyed it with their war, leaving the barren, dead land it now was. Every sunrise brought with it a new struggle to survive, especially with the Prezedant growing stronger every day. The fact that the backbone of his strength came from the bloodletting of her people meant it was not in their best interest to be caught outside the mountains. No one was positive what the Prezedant did with their blood, but the fact remained that once their kind was captured they were never seen again.

  But hunger had made the decision for the three women to chance it. Their kin were depending on them, so searching the outlying fields and dumping grounds of Littlepass had to be done. Sometimes what the soldiers and the elite few living inside the city limits called garbage, the mountain people called food. Sometimes the refuse they found was all that kept Rease and her clan alive until the next successful hunt.

  At least they were still alive, which was more than she could say for the rest of her kind. The altered and mutated were disappearing at an alarming rate, and she knew it would only be a matter of time before her people were discovered. No one could hide from the Prezedant forever. They would be flushed out sooner or later but not today.

  The heavy footsteps grew closer, and Rease hugged the stone wall, making herself as small as possible.

  Just keep moving.

  But as usual, lady luck was being a bitch today, and a sharp “Halt” resonated through the air.

  The marching soldiers stopped as one practically on top of her, and a silence fell over the morning sand lands. A silence broken only by the occasional moan of the southerly wind that echoed through the abandoned building behind her, drawing attention to Lily’s and Maya’s hiding spot. Rease sucked in her breath and held it, afraid even that would give away her position.

  “You six, search that building over there. The fugitives were reported in this area.”

  No, no, no!

  Lily and Maya couldn’t be seen. And what reports? They had been so careful. They hadn’t been spotted by anyone. She was sure of it.

  Her gaze flickered back to the ruins hiding her accomplices. It had been a roof over their heads last night to protect them from the lightning storm that had sprung up out of nowhere. If it weren’t for the damn storm, they would have been halfway back to the mountains already. The place was practically an empty shell, offering no place for the two women to hide. No other reachable way out than the empty doorframe now being approached by the enemy.

  The soldiers passed by her hiding spot within an arm span so close she could reach out and touch them. She pulled her dark hood further over her head, almost thankful the heavy footsteps masked the sound of her pounding heart. Her friends were not going to be able to hide so easily. She had to do something.

  Summoning the power that tagged her as the mutant the soldiers desperately sought, the flame of her chi lit in her belly and quickly spread. The feel of the power surging though her blood had terrified her as a child, but now it was as familiar as an old friend. She welcomed the energy as it swept over her body, causing every nerve ending to come alive and each fine hair to stand at attention. She never understood this power that pulsed through her or why it had even chosen her, but she was grateful for its presence at this very moment.

  The energy pulsed between her fingertips almost like a living thing, begging to be released, and she knew it was ready. Targeting the soldiers about to enter the building, she focused her chi on them.

  There was no warning. No sound or smell or sight accompanied the powerful surge. One moment the soldiers were about to walk through the door, and the next they were blown off of their feet and flying through the air like they had just stepped on live explosives.

  One flew her way and hit the wall beside her with a sickening crack. He slid almost in slow motion down the wall, leaving behind a trail of red. He landed at her feet, his head twisted at an unnatural angle, and a look of surprise still etched on his wrinkled face, staring up at her with unseeing brown eyes. Rease swallowed her revulsion and glanced away. The familiar guilt of taking another life washed over her, and she tried to tamp it down. She had grown up in this new world with only one rule: kill or be killed. But that knowledge didn’t make it any easier. It never did.

  “New Bloods! Find them!”

  The shouting broke her out of her guilt, and she peeked over the wall to the army contingent. They were moving her way. She was no longer safe.

  She needed to act fast. As powerful as her chi was, it was a fickle thing. Use too much in one shot and be burnt out. She had learned that the hard way. Even with her years of practise, the control and amount of power was not something she could predict. Drawing on her chi, she was relieved to feel it flickering back to life again like a relit ember.

  There had to be at least twenty or more soldiers rushing her way, their boots whipping the sands into a frenzy. She refused to let the number overwhelm her. She had handled much more than this and lived to tell about it. Today would be the same. Drawing her
self to her full height, she focused her chi. The hood hiding her distinctive black and white hair fell away and long strands whipped about her face, but she no longer cared. The hair coloring that betrayed her lineage didn’t matter anymore. They already knew what she was. She wasn’t afraid they would shoot her with their iron weapons, even as they yelled and pointed them her way. They wouldn’t kill her. What she carried inside of her was way too valuable.

  She knew what she had to do. Disable them long enough for her and Lily and Maya to get away. No one else had to die.

  The power danced at her fingertips, and she targeted her thoughts toward the advancing army, letting loose her chi, expecting them to drop like dead birds from the air.

  Nothing happened. Not to the soldiers at least. Instead the very air around them shimmered as her blast hit, then appeared to bounce away. The sands on either side of the army whirled like tiny twisters as her power came in contact with the earth itself, but the soldiers remained untouched and kept coming closer.

  Puzzlement quickly turned to fear as realization set in. They had been protected from her attack, but only one thing could have deflected her blast. Another New Blood.

  She felt his presence before she saw him, a tall man at the back of the pack. His crisp, pleated uniform and hat were no different from the other soldiers, but he stood with an air of arrogance and met Rease’s gaze of disbelief with amusement.

  A New Blood was working for the Prezedant? For the very man who stripped them of their power and life force? An ultimate betrayer of their kind.

  Hate for this man mingled with her fear but she pushed it aside since she couldn’t let it cloud her judgement. She needed a clear head.

  She could sense his influence even across the span between them. He was powerful. She wouldn’t be able to fight him and the soldiers at the same time, so she wouldn’t fight. She would run and distract them away from Lily and Maya. She only needed to get far enough, so her friends could escape under the cover of the sand dunes and into the mountains. She could disappear into Littlepass. If she could reach the cover of the city, she knew she could block the New Blood. He wouldn’t be able to track her. She just needed the city’s population to lose herself in. Decision made, she turned and sprinted into the sand lands toward Littlepass.

  A slight pricking at the back of her brain told her Lily was aware of her choice and was terrified by it. Rease blocked out the telepathic reprimand. She didn’t have time for it, and more importantly, she couldn’t have the other New Blood pick up on it. Lily needed to be kept safe. She wasn’t a warrior like most of their kind. Lily’s chi was a healing power, and their people needed her much more than Rease. Maya depended on her older sister, and Rease would do everything in her power to keep them both safe.

  So she ran. Every pounding step throwing dust up into the air, filling her mouth and lashing at her throat. But she didn’t slow down. She couldn’t. Capture meant eventual death, and she didn’t feel like dying today. All she had to do was make it to the city gates sprawling on the horizon like a mirage, and then she could disappear.

  Thumping echoed in her ears, and she glanced over in shocked alarm as two black beasts flanked her right side. Where the hell had the horses come from? She couldn’t outrun those. The soldiers astride the animals were yelling at her. Their lips were moving, but whatever they were saying was carried away by the hot wind. Didn’t matter. She wasn’t interested in their threats. Without missing a step, she called her chi and concentrated on the two soldiers. With a simple flick of her wrist, the men were torn from the saddles and landed in a dirt dune at least five arm spans away. They tumbled over and over like prickly tumbleweeds in the wind, but she didn’t bother to pause and see if they were alive. She hoped the two young men survived, but the others hot on her heels were her prime concern right now.

  Just keep running.

  She heard more pounding hooves behind her mere seconds before a rope struck the top of her head and looped over her face, burning the skin on her nose as it scraped down and settled around her neck. The lasso pulled tight at her forward momentum and jerked her back so hard it felt like her neck snapped. Her feet lurched from underneath her, and she sailed backwards through the air, hitting the ground hard and knocking the air clean out of her lungs. Winded and terrified, instinct took over as her hands grabbed at the rope blocking her airway, managing to loosen it enough to gulp in the tiny breaths her lungs would allow.

  Blackness threatened to overwhelm her as she frantically called her chi. Shadows approached, blocking out the sun and leaving her blinded. Hands grabbed at her, pinning her to the ground as she struggled to overcome the loss of air and concentrate on her power.

  Come on chi, before they—

  A sharp jab to the neck told her she was too late. Pinpricks of ice emanated from the contact point and tore at her veins as the tiny barbs spread like wildfire. Even as the coldness spread over her in waves, she still tried to ignite her flame. But like rain on a campfire, the poison spreading through her blood was effective in dousing any spark. Her hands went as numb as the rest of her and fell away from the rope at her neck. They had gotten her with the serum. There was no escaping now.

  As the serum spread, numbing her body and her brain, her last thought was directed to Lily and Maya.

  Are you safe?

  The terrified response ricocheted in her head. “Yes. We got away. But you…’

  Rease didn’t hear the last of Lily’s message. The serum won. As she faded into the blackness, a smile flitted across her lips at knowing the other two New Bloods had escaped with their lives.

  2

  Rease had no idea how much time had passed. Weeks possibly. There was no window in her tiny cell. No way to differentiate day or night. The only light she was accustomed to seeing was that of the fluorescent tubing in the corridor outside her cubicle that shone through the opaque wall with an unyielding glare. She hated that light just as much as she hated the tall man standing in her cell right now, staring down at her with a mixture of concern and sympathy.

  “The guards tell me you haven’t been eating your rations. You have to eat, 2066. You need to keep up your strength.”

  She glared up at the man from her prone position on the narrow cot beneath her. Other than the guards that patrolled the corridor continuously, this man was the only one she had contact with. He introduced himself as doctor something or other, but Rease hadn’t paid attention. She’d been too infuriated and too obsessed with wanting to tear his throat out. But regardless of her wishes, she’d done nothing. The poison they’d injected in her body kept her weak enough for them to extract their prize.

  “My strength?” Her harsh laugh bounced around the tiny stone room causing the man to wince. “You’re a funny man, Doc. Trust me; you don’t want me to have my strength. If I did, I would tear you from limb to limb. No, it’s not my strength you’re worried about. It’s this.”

  She yanked at the plastic tubing imbedded in her arm, pumping her blood into the bag hanging at the side of the cot.

  The doc held out a hand in warning. “Please, don’t pull it out again. You know what happened the last time.”

  His anxiety seemed genuine enough. He really did appear worried at the possibility of another beating. That had been her punishment for her small rebellion. The guards had worked her over good, and it would have been a lot worse if the doc hadn’t intervened. Still, she hadn’t been able to straighten up without pain for days.

  “I’m touched by your concern, Doc.” Rease hurled the words his way, but her tone had lost some of its venom, and she stopped toying with the tubing. The bruises were just starting to fade, and she was not looking to repeat that experience, especially with her healing abilities out of whack at the moment.

  The doctor sighed and ran a hand through his sandy hair. “You really could make this so much easier on yourself, you know. I’ve told you before; there’s no reason for you to be kept down here in the cells. The Prezedant is very rewarding to t
hose who carry powerful gifts and willingly offer them up. Your blood is the most potent I’ve seen in a while. You could live quite well along with the rest of us.”

  Rease couldn’t help the curl of disdain on her lips. “Like the traitor who helped take me down? Or worse, as a submissive in the Prezedant’s blood harem? No thanks. I’d rather die down here with the rest of my kin than give him anything. Your serum keeps me too weak to stop you from stealing my blood, but I refuse to give up anything else willingly.”

  For an evil henchman, he had a very open face and at the moment it appeared forlorn as he studied her. “It really doesn’t have to be this way—”

  “Aye, it does,” she interjected. “The Prezedant is a monster, and anyone who works for him is tainted with the same evil.”

  He looked as if he would argue the point, but instead he tore his eyes away from her face and walked over to the blood bag, checking its level. He must have been happy with her offering today since he hit the off switch and approached Rease. Sitting beside her on the narrow cot, he started removing the needle from her arm.

  There was none of the fear or hesitancy he had shown her on their first meeting when he started the bloodletting. He knew she was too weak to be any threat. He didn’t even need to use the serum anymore. He had taken so much blood she could barely stand at times but not enough to kill her. Oh no, she couldn’t die. Not when she had so much more to give.

  Rease hated her weakness. She wanted nothing more than to grab that needle and plunge it straight into his heart. But that action would gain her nothing but her own death, and she wasn’t quite that desperate yet.

  “Tell me, Doc, how do you live with yourself being that monster’s pawn? Knowing you have so much blood on your hands?”