Half Blood Rising: (Moonlight Academy Book 1)

by Joanna Mazurkiewicz

  Ramona rolled her eyes and pulled Lachlan to her, then gave him a passionate kiss. My stomach churned again, and I looked away.

  “I don’t even know what he sees in her. She’s a total bitch, although she does have a nice arse,” Karina told me, wearing an eye-catching pink dress. She insisted that I wear it, but I blatantly refused. I was too self-conscious to wear such a provocative dress.

  I couldn’t take my sword on the plane, and I hoped someone would be able to supply me with one in Russia. I bought it on the black market from a Japanese warlock, so it felt a little odd travelling without it. Going through security and then the gate was pretty stressful. I wasn’t used to being around so many humans.

  Once the plane started moving, I grabbed Karina’s hand, feeling even more nervous than before. I still wasn’t sure what to expect. My heart and stomach flip-flopped during take-off. Ramona was laughing, staring at me and joking with her boyfriend, who seemed bored. The cabin pressure was making me a little light-headed. Karina was telling me a story about when she’d shifted into a bird and was caught by a human family. She was attempting to distract me from the turbulence that had begun after the captain switched off the seatbelt sign. The flight to Moscow wasn’t long. Karina had some Ukrainian Hryvna, so she got me a drink. She told me that vodka would help me relax a bit. I felt slightly less anxious afterwards, but I made a mental note that flying in general wasn’t for me.

  “You just have to get used to it,” Lachlan said once we were getting off the plane. “This trip is relatively short but there will be others. Moonlight has missions and special assignments all over the world.” That didn’t sound great at all, so it was yet another obstacle I needed to overcome. Lachlan most likely saw me looking unwell. Ramona gave him a look that said, “Why the hell are you talking to her?” but I just ignored her.

  Maybe there was a magical spell or a pill I could take that would allow me to forget about being on the plane. The airport in Moscow was huge and it was at peak time, so we were in a long queue for about an hour. Sweat was dripping down my face as I pushed my suitcase that had been supplied by the school, thinking that this was much worse than sleeping in the rain. At least there I wasn’t a nervous wreck.

  I kept on breathing and thinking about blood. For some reason my craving for it returned. My earlier encounter with Lachlan, and the fact that he was walking in front of me, wasn’t helping, either. Karina was talking the whole time, telling me about the trips she used to go on with her pack of shifters. It seemed that she led a colourful life before everything had gone tits up—her words.

  “Keep up, Donovan, no one is going to wait for you if you get lost,” Ramona barked at me, and I gave her the middle finger. She’d taken the leading role within the group, but she needed to be reminded that we were all equal. I didn’t give a fuck that she was a pure vampire.

  Once we passed passport control and all the extra security, my anxiety diminished. Marco had managed to secure three phone numbers of some human chicks on the plane, and now he was bragging about it. Judas was silent as usual. Ten minutes later, we were approached by a huge bald Russian who was wearing a leather biker jacket. He was holding a sign that said, “Moonlight” on the front.

  He was a werewolf with massive broad shoulders, and an even broader chest. His energy was sharp and intense, his grey eyes swept each of us quickly. Lachlan shook hands with him, then the two supernaturals embraced. It seemed like they knew each other well.

  “It looks like there’s a lot of newbies here, and I hope they are much better prepared than the last lot,” he said with a thick Russian accent.

  “Oldman picked the team, and their skills and experience vary,” Lachlan quickly said. “It’s too busy here, too many people are listening in. We should leave.”

  Pretty Boy, seeing as he’d completed this kind of mission before, appeared confident. I sensed several supernaturals around, walking amongst humans. Once we were outside, a black van was waiting for us. This was another journey, and it had me thinking that this whole thing was happening very fast.

  “My name is Dimitry, and I will be your point of contact here in Moscow. Here is the briefing: The Svaltana’s Clan has been quite active lately, but it’s a race against time. Dorothy was taken three days ago. Her father is becoming inpatient, and he’s willing to negotiate a ransom,” he explained, handing everyone a file on the missing girl. The driver was hidden behind dark glass, and we couldn’t see him.

  I started flipping through the pages, seeing the faces of the vampires, and, somehow, I started remembering. This was odd, but I was getting a sense of déjà vu, like I’d been in this situation before. I tried to shake off the strange sensation, as that insane feeling completely overwhelmed me.

  Chapter Twelve

  First chance.

  “She’s dead, and it’s a race against time. There’s no way we’re going to get her back, Adam,” Mum said. I didn’t understand why everyone was so upset. I was missing Kerry. She had been gone for a little while, and I missed playing with her. We had been best friends for so long.

  My little sister. Mum and Dad looked worried as I squeezed my doll tight. We were driving in this large, strange black car. My Aunt Emilia was there, too, with Uncle Peter. My fingers were tingling, and light was coming out of the packages in the back. I wondered what it was.

  The drive was bumpy, too.

  “It’s the fae, they are involved. I told them the other day that I wanted nothing to do with their world. I stepped away from it when I married Roger.” Mummy was saying. She was holding Kerry’s pink shirt. Daddy had touched her hand. There were tears in his eyes.

  “We don’t know, and, so far, no one has received any phone calls or letters,” Aunt Emilia said. “This might have nothing to do with the supernatural world.”

  “Emilia, don’t talk about them in front of Jaymin,” Mummy said, almost in the same tone of voice when I had done something I wasn’t supposed to do, then Mummy would start getting upset, like now. “Roger wasn’t supposed to know. When I married him, you swore to me that they had accepted my decision. Obviously, they are punishing me for cutting my family away from magic.”

  “She’s too small to understand any of it. The fae never tell the truth, and I thought you already learnt that lesson from experience. I will call one of the members, see if I can find something out,” Aunt Emilia added, taking out her mobile phone.

  “But what would they want from her?” Daddy asked. “She’s just an innocent child.”

  “Her gifts, she’s the first born in that line, so there is a lot they can gain …

  “Jaymin, are you even there? What the hell is wrong with you?” a voice broke through to me. It was Lachlan; he was squeezing my arm. The memories from the past were quickly fading away. His energy rushed through my veins instantly as I tried to breathe. I closed my eyes, trying to keep this memory intact. It seemed important, and now I knew for sure I had a real family before I was turned.

  Everyone was staring at me. We were still in the van, driving through the streets of Moscow. I must have drifted off for a minute or so. Damn it.

  “There’s nothing wrong with me,” I snapped at him, pulling away from his touch and thinking I had to stay away from him from now on. Another flashback from the past—Lachlan—his touch could make me see my life before I was turned? This was the second time it had happened now, but this time, without having to drink from him? The images were so surreal, but it was difficult to concentrate as I was supposed to be listening to Dimitry’s briefing at the same time.

  This was why others thought I couldn’t be trusted. They still believed I was only half-vampire and half-human, but that wasn’t the case.

  “Dimitry just asked you about your experience, and then you seemed to zone out,” Lachlan said. Ramona was smirking, staring at me and whispering something to Judas. I hated her.

  “I’ve been tracking convicts for the past three years, so none of this will be new to me,” I said, a bit too aggres
sively than I’d intended.

  “If you give her a job that requires the least responsibility, the better. The newbies always ruin everything,” the bitch commented, and I wanted to punch her in the gut.

  “This is a very delicate job, and you need to be focused,” Dimitry said, giving me a sharp look. “Everyone will be going on a stakeout, we need results quickly. We have two days to rescue the warlock’s daughter.”

  I needed to avoid touching Lachlan, he was making this trip difficult for me, and I had to prove to everyone here that I was capable of working in a team and staying in the academy.

  Then Marco began asking questions about certain locations of the clan and then read the briefing. This was going to drive me mad. I needed to get some answers, but when? I couldn’t do anything while we were here. This job was important to me.

  Was I part fae, as everyone I’d ever met tended to insinuate? Half-vampire and half-fae, was that even possible?

  There were a lot of half-breeds, but I’d never come across anyone who had mixed genes—fae and vampire? Maybe the other vampires wanted to create a monster, and they had found me. I had to stop thinking like that. This scared the shit out of me.

  “We’re here,” Dimitry said as the van stopped abruptly, and I nearly ended up in the front seat. “Come on, let’s get inside before anyone sees us.”

  “This is getting real. I can’t wait to get out in the field and use my abilities,” Karina said to me once we were inside a large house. This was probably going to be our headquarters, where we were going to stay and report to. Moscow was much more developed than Kiev or Lviv, but I figured that Dimitry didn’t like bringing too much attention to himself, so he lived in a human neighbourhood.

  The house smelled of burnt cabbage and sage. There was an older Russian lady hiding in the kitchen when we all walked in. It seemed she was Dimitry’s housekeeper or something. I didn’t think he was married.

  “Roxana is going to show you to your rooms. We have several hours yet before the evening, and most of the members of the clan are active in the night. There is no movement before six p.m.,” Dimitry announced. Moments later, Roxana, the Russian lady who turned out to be another vampire, walked into the room. She nodded to me and Karina first, sniffing. She had a red scarf around her head, and yellow teeth.

  The room was basic, much smaller than our dorm in Kiev, but it was enough for us.

  “I’ve done a bit of research on my phone about this girl, Dorothy,” Karina announced, jumping on the squeaky bed. It was much colder in Moscow in July, but it was a relief from the constant heatwave in Eastern Europe.

  At some point, I had to get a smart phone. The budget that we were given was limited, but it was something I was going to need in the future for research purposes. Right now, it was probably impossible for me to get to the library. At times, human technology was useful.

  “And what do we know about her?” I asked, starting to unpack all my stuff. My senses picked up the smell of blood, and it definitely wasn’t human. Since I’d been around other vampires, this had been happening to me much more often.

  “She was accepted into the Elite Academy only last year. Her father is a member of the High Council, and she’s been excelling in everything, really. Pure breed of Southern vampires, she’s a champion in archery, and she’s written several books on urbanisation of breeds. She’s been dating Prince Eric from the Spanish Vampire Clan. I mean, this girl is a total celebrity.”

  “And this is all online?” I asked, a little shocked that she managed to find out so much about this girl. “I thought information about supernaturals was confidential.”

  “It is, but my pack leader was a hacker, and he showed me a few tricks here and there. It’s called the dark web,” she explained, giving me a look that said, “I was naughty.”

  “She must have always been a high target, so presumably, she would have been carefully guarded, too. We need to find the weakest link in the nest. There’s always one,” I said, wondering if this was such a good plan.

  “Dimitry has a plan, and I bet we’re going to end up in some Russian clubs in the city,” she said, and that made sense. Clubs were an easy target, and a lot of vampires enjoyed hanging out there. “And after we get this girl home safely, we’ll have to celebrate. I’ve never been out in Moscow. The whole team needs to bond.”

  Karina was partly right, but she was getting ahead of herself. We needed to track this girl first. Everything was still new to me, and the fact that I had to bond with Ramona made me a little nauseous. I had to give her a chance, even if she did want me to fail.

  Later on, Roxanna served us lunch in a small dining room that still smelled of cabbage. The vampires didn’t need to eat, but the traditional stew with potatoes looked delicious. She probably worked closely with Dimitry.

  After the food was consumed, Dimitry poured us all a shot of vodka and ordered us to drink it.

  “Here are the profiles of everyone in the clan. Your job is to watch the subject assigned to you tonight. One of them should lead us to the girl. Once you establish her location, return here. I don’t want any screw-ups. Her father might be visiting tomorrow, and we need to show him that we are making progress,” the big Russian said, wiping his mouth after he drank another shot.

  When I opened the envelope, my subject was Vlad Slvatan. He was older, probably in his late forties, with dark blond hair and several scars along his neck. The one thing that caught my eye was a tattoo on his collarbone. A star with a cross: maybe it was a distinctive mark of the clan. I read somewhere that every clan had one. Outside on the photograph, there was an address.

  “You will all be in close proximity to one another, but every clan member enjoys different things,” Dimitry added. “The councillor, Savannath, should be here tomorrow evening. The kidnappers haven’t asked for a ransom yet, and that’s what concerns us the most.”

  “They will ask for something, they always do,” Lachlan said, then he grabbed his envelope, gave me a smooth look, and vanished.

  We all left Dimitry’s residence ten minutes apart from each other. Around nine p.m., I stepped outside the house, wearing Karina’s leather jacket and my old jeans. This was exciting enough, like I was returning to my old life, with one small exception: this time, I wasn’t hungry or cold.

  The taxi driver talked to me in Russian the entire drive, and I didn’t understand a word he’d said. My Ukrainian was shoddy, too. I recognised a few words, but I mostly nodded and smiled at him.

  He dropped me off by the Museum Park of Arts. I had a map and the name of a strip club where Vlad was supposed to enjoy hanging out. I didn’t know the city, so it took me a while to figure out where I was. Dimitry had insisted that we leave headquarters, one by one, to avoid any sort of suspicion. As it turned out, Karina and Marco were going to be in the same club. The stakes were high, and I wanted to show everyone that I was a good tracker.

  It took me longer than I expected to locate the strip club. The main streets were busy; a lot of human girls were out and about. I smelled blood, and in the distance, I saw Lachlan with Ramona—they’d just left the club and were walking towards the north side of the city.

  I wondered why they left the club, and where they were going. We were supposed to keep an eye on our targets, unless Dimitry had given them another job to do.

  Two huge bouncers checked my I.D. at the entrance and then let me through. The music inside was blasting, and there were several girls dancing on the stage. I was so glad that the academy had provided us with some cash for this trip; otherwise it would have been completely embarrassing for me. It was one of those supernatural strip clubs. I was seeing vampires, shifters, wolves, and even fae walking around, dancing and drinking blood. Obviously, there were humans here, too, so most of the drinks were spiked with charms.

  I went to the bar and bought a cocktail, sensing a mixture of different energies rippling around me. My craving for blood returned, and I licked my fangs.

  “Hello, beautiful
, can I buy you a glass of pure?” asked a vampire, approaching me out of nowhere. He didn’t have an accent, or I just couldn’t recognise it.

  How did he know I wasn’t from around here?

  My nostrils picked up his scent: it was musky, sweet, and it made me completely forget about why I was here in the first place. The vampire in front of me was an ancient one, very handsome, and young looking, with a pale complexion. His eyes were crystal blue and he was smiling at me. The music was so loud, and it was either getting hot in here, or my body temperature was skyrocketing.

  “Yeah, sure, why not?” I answered, feeling light-headed again. His gaze was so intense, and my craving was making me a little crazy. I had to drink from him, and he must have realised what I wanted, because he moved even closer. My fingertips and the bottom of my feet began tingling.

  Then he leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Are you waiting for someone? Your vibes are sexy, and I’ve been thirsty the entire evening. We will be more comfortable in my booth.”

  A bead of sweat ran down my spine. I shivered as he stared at me, not knowing what to say. He awakened a desire inside me. He was damn handsome, ready to give me what I needed tonight.

  He spread my legs and stepped closer, rubbing himself against me. I inhaled the sweet scent of his cologne, seeing another vampire walking across the dance floor. And it was Vlad, the one I was supposed to be watching for.

  Chapter Thirteen

  All at once.

  I suddenly felt like someone had just dropped a bucket of ice-cold water over my head. The vampire was hard as he rubbed himself against me, and his lips caressed my neck. Damn it, was I slowly losing my mind? Did he just hypnotise me? Use his glamour?

  I pushed him off me, which required a lot more self-control than I’d expected. My mind was racing, and the world around me was spinning.