The Red Circle: A Seven Sons Novel (Bad Moon Rising Book 2)

by DB Nielsen

  Aislinn stepped up, giving her an approving smile. “You must retrain your mind. Know that you are immortal.”

  Caleb snorted, calling their attention. “Don’t get cocky. Don’t believe that you can’t die.”

  Varya rolled her pale eyes at him. “Caleb’s right. You can die. But it takes a lot to kill a vampire. And we’re about to prove it to you.” She assumed a fighting stance.

  Facing her, Aislinn did the same.

  They began by cautiously circling each other, assessing the other through narrowed eyes, until Varya gave a short, feral war cry and launched into a furious attack at incredible speed, her fists and feet striking from every angle as she pressed forward. But each and every blow was blocked effortlessly by Aislinn so that the fledgling vampires were forced to open their minds and eyes to see beyond normal human vision and make sense of the whirling dervish that blurred time and space before them.

  A well-aimed blow and split-second timing allowed Varya’s boot to connect with Aislinn’s face, splitting her lip open. She wiped the blood away with the back of her hand as she gave Varya a filthy look. The ruddy-faced Sanguis smirked.

  “My turn,” Aislinn pronounced and, with a sudden spring into the air, flew into an attack, delivering a triple kick with sufficient force to send Varya reeling backward. Landing lightly on the mat, as graceful as a ballerina, she discharged a brutal follow-up of front kicks and round kicks to Varya’s ribs without pausing, taking her opponent apart.

  For every blow that Varya blocked, several others hit their mark.

  By now, the recruits had their eyes glued on the fight, finally forgetting to breathe, and trying to learn moves and techniques that they wouldn’t master for centuries more, if at all.

  Aislinn caught Cooper’s eye in the crowd. He looked tense but with a thoughtful expression upon his face. She had this uncanny understanding that for Cooper, it went against the grain to watch her fight without getting into the arena himself. In that, he was like Cole, her firstborn. Chivalrous. Gallant. And just a little bit sexist.

  She would need to make him understand that she was no damsel in distress.

  Aislinn raised her pale eyebrows and smiled, firing out a final devastating sidekick at Varya, who dropped onto the mat with incredible force. Panting on her hands and knees, spitting blood from her mouth which speckled the floor of the dojo, Varya called a halt to the fight.

  “Enough,” she said as she instantly healed. “It’s time for the recruits to get in here.”

  Aislinn’s smile was darker now. “Fine. I choose Cooper.” She swiftly moved off the mat. “Varya, he’s all yours.”

  Cooper’s hazel eyes widened in surprise. He wasn’t expecting his maker to volunteer him to fight against an esteemed warrior like Varya, and it made him feel both proud and nervous. After Aislinn’s elegant performance in the arena, he didn’t think that anyone could match her. She made it look easy, and he knew from his training as a hunter that it was anything but easy.

  Cole was right, she was poetry in motion, and that wasn’t even in the arena. He would often watch her out of the corner of his eye, waiting for her to notice him noticing her. And there was a part of him that longed to impress her, to make her see that she hadn’t misplaced her faith in him.

  But he’d also seen her opponent. And Varya was every bit the skilled fighter that others had admired her for. A member of the head of the coven’s elite personal guard. Formidable. Daunting. A man-eater.

  Holy fuck! I’m gonna get slaughtered.

  Chapter 8

  He didn’t know why getting into the arena was more intimidating than training at the hunter academy in Vegas, though he suspected that the holo-rooms there gave him a false sense of security, and he’d always hoped that the monsters were bigger. And badder. And just more monstrous.

  And now he knew they really were.

  And now he was one of them.

  It was strange that Cole, his vampire brother, was the only one who understood him. Before he’d been turned, Cole had given him some weird, big brother-styled pep talk on their way to the Crypt, somehow sensing that he was “half in love with easeful Death”. He smiled to think of Cole and his plagiarized poetry which, at least, was far better than his own poetry. But Cole didn’t know the half of it. All the fucked-up stuff he’d done in the past.

  He’d come to London to escape all that. He’d put in for a transfer because his friend was badly hurt, and they all got in trouble with Rebekah and the church, and his dad was so disappointed in him.

  But he’d found the life of a hunter stifling. He’d tried. But he always knew something wasn’t right.

  Now he knew that some of the stuff they taught at the academy was based on absolute garbage, just stereotypes that humans came up with, which continued to be part of their mythology. Such as vampires being able to fly.

  Man, that would be kickass.

  But they didn’t fly. And they had nothing to do with bats. In fact, shapeshifters had more ability to change into bats than vampires ever would.

  He almost smiled at his former ignorance.

  Cooper had thought he could be happy as a hunter. That it was his calling. And for a time, it was. But it felt like a lifetime ago now. And Aislinn, the girl he had thought to be just another evil motherfucker vampire when he’d first met her, had turned out to be his savior. And so much more.

  His eyes fixed on her as he entered the arena. She looked like an angel framed by the halo lighting of the Carvery. But then Aislinn’s lips twitched, fighting a smile that was filled with dark humor. He knew she was testing him.

  Varya cracked her knuckles, and Cooper’s eyes finally swiveled to look at her directly. The voluptuous Sanguis was looking at him with a lustful light in her eyes, as if he was the cream and she was the cat that got to lick him. Actually, she looked like she wanted to bite him. Hard. And kick his butt. Like that was her idea of sexual foreplay.

  He swallowed.

  He’d been taught to exploit his opponent’s weaknesses. But he didn’t know if she had any. She didn’t look like she had many soft spots. And he suspected that she wasn’t about to show him any mercy.

  But he had to try. If he could just stay on his feet and maybe get one or two jabs in with Varya, maybe he’d do Aislinn proud.

  “You okay there, blood-binger?” Varya taunted, reminding him of the very first time they’d met in a fight. “Do you need a safe word?”

  Over Varya’s shoulder, he could see Aislinn standing by Caleb, who was tapping his foot impatiently, his muscles bulging under his tight T-shirt. The tattoos on his biceps testified to his elite military background, and Cooper could only be glad he wasn’t fighting the other, more experienced Malum.

  Varya immediately dropped into a fighting stance, like she was ready to spring.

  The thought of being flattened before he’d even begun had Cooper delivering a left body switch kick, driving his hips forward and hitting his target. Bouncing his foot off the floor, he used his momentum to throw the next kick. But there, his luck ran out.

  Varya avoided the follow-up attack and gave a devastating elbow blow to Cooper’s temple, making his vision go black at the edges momentarily. He blinked and lurched to the side.

  “For Vlad’s sake. You’re not human. Don’t act like one.” He could hear Caleb shouting from the sidelines, and he realized he was letting his mindset dominate his reflexes.

  He opened his eyes and moved in the split second in which he saw Varya’s fist coming toward him, narrowly sweeping past his cheek. He responded with a jumping side kick, skipping forward on his back leg to generate great momentum into the attack which pushed Varya halfway across the arena.

  The realization that he could generate more force in his extensions as a vampire made him blink in surprise. But he barely had time to pat himself on the back before Varya was back with a roundhouse kick, followed up swiftly with a series of jabs.

  But this time, Cooper was prepared. Even though there was blood crus
ting on his face and above his right eye, making it difficult to see, he blocked and parried and then spun in the air, darting around Varya as fists and feet flew with incredible speed, until she delivered a well-aimed kick, hard as a wrecking ball, to his abdomen.

  His legs gave out beneath him as he flew back, crashing to the dojo floor. The leather was cool against his cheek, and he thought about giving in as he peeled himself off the mat to face his opponent once more.

  Get up. Stay up. On my feet. Make Aislinn proud.

  Varya gave a powerful, high left kick, targeting Cooper’s weaker side, as Caleb’s voice yelled, “Get on with it. I don't have all century. I don’t want to see you lot stop unless you’re knocked out, collapse, or puke.”

  He’s got to be fucking kidding me! Cooper thought. His wide hazel eyes met Varya’s. She gave a nod and a feral smile. No fucking way!

  He had no wish to be pummeled endlessly by Varya.

  He looked over at Caleb, stuck his index finger into his mouth, reached toward the back of his throat, and puked his last meal all over the arena. Blood splattered everywhere to a chorus of revolted yelps and groans and dry retching.

  “Vlad’s tits!” Caleb roared at Aislinn, his forehead creasing into deep frown lines. “Did you tell him to do that?”

  “No,” she protested her innocence, holding up her hands in surrender. She was barely able to contain her laughter, especially when the more weak-stomached recruits could barely hold their drinks. There was a lot of gagging going on.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you bloodsuckers? Are you trying to ruin my immortal life?” Caleb snarled, baring his teeth at the fledgling recruit. “You made this mess. You clean it up, kid.” Then he turned toward Aislinn and Varya, who were now laughing openly. “And you two troublemakers? You get to help him.”

  At that point, Cole, who had just returned from a poetry recital, walked into the dojo, his pale blue eyes widening in surprise as he took in the bloodbath before him and a couple of young vampires puking their guts up in a corner. “Woah. Did you guys have a party without me? I haven’t seen anything like this since Dorian’s hundred twenty-first.”

  They all ignored him, but the effervescent young vampire failed to notice. He continued to look around curiously, trying to avoid stepping on the congealing blood as he made his way toward his younger brother.

  “Wait, Caleb, where are you going?” Varya called after him as the beefy Malum drill sergeant stormed out the door, leaving behind the group of bewildered recruits.

  Caleb called back over his shoulder. “Where do you think I’m going? To the local hospital’s emergency room.”

  “Why, is someone dying?” Cole asked innocently, watching Caleb’s retreating back.

  “No, but they will be. I need a stiff drink.”

  Caleb was back by the time they’d finished cleaning the dojo arena, something that Aislinn decided was an important lesson for Cooper to learn in self-sufficiency and humility—but ulteriorly, she didn’t want to piss off the Cleaner any more than she already had. Caleb was ready to accompany them to see Benjamin. Only Varya decided not to tag along, not because she was still upset with Aislinn nor because she had any duties to perform for Julius, but because she still had some dark, twisted feelings for Benjamin which had resulted from their torrid affair during the Industrial Revolution. It was short lived, as all Benjamin’s affairs were, only lasting a turbulent thirty years, but he was a sexy bastard, and she found it difficult to resist the attraction still.

  Benjamin, like all vampires in the coven, had a private suite in the manor house, but he often preferred to stay in his penthouse at an exclusive address in South Kensington when not in the surveillance hub.

  Aislinn decided to drive them there in her Aston Martin in super-quick time. The landscape was just a streaky blur from the car windows until she reached the city limits and slowed to human pace. It was, for a vampire, like new human mothers pushing a baby’s pram, careful not to wake their infants. It was excruciatingly slow and tedious but necessary for their coexistence among the other species. Not exactly a rule but more an unspoken agreement.

  Arriving at the modern building in the center of the city, they took the private lift to Benjamin’s penthouse. Security, as always with the high-tech obsessed Malum, was state of the art and incredibly discreet.

  “Selfie time,” Cole murmured, pulling out his phone. He tipped his fedora rakishly to the side and smiled as he posed in front of the postmodern, floor-to-ceiling artwork which Benjamin had commissioned for the interior of the elevator.

  “You should put it on your Facebook page as your profile pic,” Caleb said, his tone emotionless. “Maybe replace that one that makes you look like you’re constipated. It gives us vampires all a bad rap. Do you know how much entertainment you’re providing the shapeshifters?”

  Cole, who had been aiming for wistful melancholy in his profile pic, looked up eagerly, like a puppy hoping for a treat. “You’ve seen my Facebook page?”

  Caleb’s bored expression didn’t change. “Of course, I’ve seen your Facebook page.”

  “We’ve all seen your Facebook page,” Aislinn said with an indulgent smile.

  “Did you like it?”

  “Yes—”

  “No—” Caleb said at the same time as Aislinn. She elbowed him in the side. Hard. He cleared his throat. “I mean, yeah, I guess.”

  Cole beamed as if he was about to compose a poem. Pushing his mop of fair hair back from his face as he rearranged his fedora, he asked Caleb, “Can I invite you to follow my poetry page? And you won’t ignore my next friend request?”

  Caleb sent a murderous glance Aislinn’s way. No way was he going to follow anything of Cole’s. Not unless it was in the pulsing urgency for survival and he was threatened with root-canal treatment, castration, or the pits of Demura. Or all three. At the same time.

  He was saved from having to reply to the enthusiastic Sanguis as the elevator halted and gave a ping. When the doors opened on the top floor of the building, they all gave a synchronized gasp as Benjamin bid them welcome.

  “Welcome, friends, to my humble abode,” the sexy Malum said with a wink.

  Holy Vlad!

  Benjamin’s penthouse had expansive views of the illuminated city skyline at night from the full-width windows and skylights that ran the length of the building.

  “Vlad’s nuts!” cried Cole. “Your view is awesome.”

  Cooper looked over at his brother quizzically. He still had lingering human sensibilities and couldn’t understand what the attraction was as Cole gazed lovingly upon the Royal Marsden and Royal Brompton Hospitals in the distance, ignoring the grassy parklands nearby the notable Victorian architecture and museums on the opposite side.

  “Aren’t you afraid of getting fried?” Caleb asked, scanning the enormous end-to-end windows. He leaned in to whisper in Aislinn’s ear. “Makes the solar cells at the manor house seem pretty tame.”

  Benjamin laughed. “Flick of a switch, Caleb. Besides, there’s a panic room if I need it.”

  “I thought that was your playroom,” Aislinn teased, flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder as she moved closer to the windows to admire the view.

  “You have a gaming room?” Cooper asked, suddenly interested, wondering what video games he played. “Xbox or PlayStation?”

  “She means a red room, kid,” Caleb said with a roll of his eyes. “What I’d call a dojo, since it has the same instruments of torture but used for different purposes.”

  “Not all the same,” Benjamin said, not without a surge of deep satisfaction. “I’d like to think I’m a little more progressive. I have quite a few that require batteries or plug-in. Would you like a tour?”

  “No—”

  “Yes—” Cooper said at the same time as Aislinn. This time, she elbowed her offspring in the side. “Um, I mean, no, I guess.”

  Benjamin laughed and ushered them down the entrance hall into the dual-aspect reception area to sit. White le
ather sofas faced a mirrored wall framing the long, rectangular fireplace which was lit and emanating an unnecessary warmth, since vampires didn’t feel heat nor cold like humans. It was all very modern and decadent.

  “Trading in hedge funds must be lucrative,” murmured Caleb.

  “Oh, I get by.” His moss-green hazel eyes flashed sardonically as he held up a crystal decanter. “Anyone care for a drop? It’s a rare vintage. Quite refreshing. Twenty-five-year-old hacker who attempted to breach my firewalls. Transfused in individual vacutainers. Nicely aged with 70ml anti-coagulant.”

  “I’ll pass, thanks,” Aislinn said, raising a pale eyebrow. “So, can we expect all the people who piss you off to be decanted?”

  “Oh, Aislinn, please, I’m not that much of a monster,” Benjamin said self-deprecatingly, filling Caleb’s glass with the rich, ruby liquid. “I really don't have the time nor energy to personally kill everyone who pisses me off. There are plenty of creatures at Styx I can hire to do that for me.”

  Caleb choked on his drink, and Cole attempted to be helpful by whacking him on the back. “I’m fine. I’m fine. Stop it—”

  “Perhaps we can focus, boys,” Aislinn chided with an imperious gesture that reminded them all that she was the daughter of Kayne. “Benjamin, I need a crash course in living energy.”

  Benjamin’s moss-colored eyes glittered, full of slightly wicked humor. “Oh baby, I thought you’d never ask.”

  Chapter 9

  “Where should we start?” He posed the question thoughtfully. Then, narrowing his eyes, he placed his empty glass on the table and gestured for them to follow him. There was a modern-day philosopher hidden in Benjamin which others failed to appreciate. He led them down a long, mirrored corridor with framed prints running its length, and unlocked a room with the highest level of security, a high-tech retinal and DNA scanner.

  Aislinn stepped out from behind the taller Malum to enter, scanning the enormous room with fascination. Entering his workspace, the wan winter moon filtered through the windows and danced across the thick, Persian carpets before Benjamin turned on the lights, bathing its beauty in a soft warm glow.