“Can I get you something?” a pretty, petite blonde asked him when she arrived at his side.
“A tankard of ale.” He threw some coins across the table toward her. “And keep them coming.”
“I sure will,” she replied as she eagerly scooped up the money and slid it into her pocket.
His fingers tapped the surface of the scarred table as he tried to control his impatience and annoyance. He’d set out knowing this could be a lengthy process, but secretly he’d expected to find Kane and settle this as quickly as possible. He’d never been one for waiting; he didn’t like being denied what he sought.
He had to keep a hold on his patience; he would only end up getting himself killed if he didn’t. It went against his nature to be so methodical and restrained about something he truly wanted. Unable to sit still any longer, he rose to his feet and walked over to a poker game in the corner.
“Can I join?” he inquired.
“Do you have coin?” a human man inquired.
William slapped some coins on the table. The man beside him slid over to the empty chair, making room for him at the table. He sat in the vacated chair and took hold of the cards dealt to him. The first hour passed in mundane conversation about the weather and the crops to be planted in the spring.
William listened and offered his advice as the game progressed before finally asking the question he asked in every town he stopped in. “Has a man, by the name of Kane, passed through here over the past five months?”
They all looked up at him before focusing on their cards again. “Never heard of him,” the human across the way told him as he tossed some more money into the growing pot in the middle of the table.
“He’s about five ten, stocky build, cropped brown hair. Has a scar that starts at his hairline; it goes to his chin before twisting up to his bottom lip.”
The human beside him stopped dealing the cards and turned toward William. His mouth pursed, a line creased the bridge of his nose. “I saw him once, about three months ago. Not here, but in a town about fifty miles north of here. He was with a group of other men. Ugly son of a bitch with a personality to match his face. I left that town before the winter set in.”
William sat up straighter in his chair; he barely managed to keep himself from crushing the cards in his hands. It was the first lead he’d stumbled across since Kane had run him through. “What was the name of this town?”
The man’s eyes narrowed as he shrewdly assessed William and the money sitting before him. “How much is it worth to you?”
William’s fangs tingled with the urge to rip the man’s throat out. Steadying his anger, William pushed a few silver coins toward the man. “That’s all you’ll get from me, and if I don’t get my answer, I’ll beat you into a bloody pulp.” The man froze in the middle of grabbing his coin. “And if I find out you’re lying to me, I’ll come back here and kill you myself.”
The man’s hand hesitated over the coins before he snatched them up and shoved them into his pocket. “The town is Chester. I’m not sure if he’s still there or not.”
“It doesn’t matter if he’s still there or not, it only matters that he was there. Are you going to stick with your story?”
The man glanced nervously at his friends. His heartbeat kicked up, it beat more loudly in William’s hypersensitive ears, causing his fangs to tingle more. The foul stench of panic wafted off the human as beads of sweat broke out across his forehead. “Ye… Yes,” he stammered out.
William bit into his wrist. He moved so fast from his chair the man never had a chance to react before William jerked his head back by his hair and held his wrist over the man’s mouth. Beads of blood plopped onto his lips and chin. His lips clamped together to keep from swallowing the blood.
Bending low, William almost rested his chin on the man’s shoulder as he spoke, “Now, with the knowledge I can track you anywhere if I force my blood into you, are you going to stick with that story?”
“Hey now…” the one vampire at the table started.
“Stay out of this!” William snarled at him. The vampire’s mouth shut as he quickly settled back into the chair he’d half risen from. The eyes of the human William held slid toward him, but his head didn’t move an inch. “Are you going to stick with your story?”
“Yes,” the man squeaked.
“Good.” William released his hair before rising to his full height. He straightened his loose fitting, green flax shirt, before grabbing his cloak and swinging it over his shoulders. The men at the table stared at him with frightened eyes. They glanced nervously at each other, before sliding their chairs away from the table. “Have a good night.”
William turned and strode away from the building. He should feel bad for what he’d done to the man, to a human. It went against everything he’d been as a human. He’d become the thing he’d once hated most, an overpowering, vicious vampire.
Two years ago, he would have gladly killed himself for what he’d just done. However, two years ago he’d only cared about taking back what had been ripped away from the humans years before he was born. He’d believed all vampires were evil, they were all on the wrong side, and his side had been the only good one, the only right one.
I was so naïve and stupid. He gave a disgusted shake of his head.
The man he’d been two years ago never would have understood or condoned what he’d just done. The man he was now understood there was much more at work within this world; there was no clear right or wrong. There were many things he would become and do over the following years. Many lines he would cross he’d never believed he would, and he would gladly do it all if it meant accomplishing what he had to. No matter how badly he wanted vengeance though, he would never risk the peace they’d established since the war, and being arrested for what he’d just done could do that.
He’d intended to spend the night in this town, but it would be best to get out of here before those men regrouped and possibly reported him to some king’s men. The brother of the queen being arrested for threatening humans would be a gigantic set back he couldn’t unleash on the newfound, tenuous truce between humans and vampires.
A sliver of guilt pierced his gut, but it was drowned out by the excitement pulsating through him. This was the closest he’d come to Kane; the first real lead he’d uncovered. He couldn’t feel guilty when he was finally gaining on him.
Reclaiming his barely rested horse, he paid the stable boy for enough grain to last a couple of days. He didn’t plan to go far, only to the closest cave. Achilles could rest then, but he would need more food. He climbed into the saddle and nudged the horse out of the town at a trot.
***
William rode by the small white sign announcing, Chester pop. 604. He took in the serene streets as he progressed down the main street of the town. The log cabins lining the road were all quiet and dark, none of the curtains stirred. No one stepped outside to stare at or greet the new arrival.
His eyebrows drew together as he surveyed the pristine, snow-covered roads. No footprints or hoofmarks marred the snow. It looked as if no one had traveled through here since the last snowfall, but that made no sense, the residents would have at least walked outside at some point.
Uneasiness churned in his gut when he pulled up in front of the stable. He tied Achilles to the post outside the building when no one came out to take the animal from him. He stood and stared, uncertain of what to make of this place. Perhaps everyone in town was like Hannah and Lucas and couldn’t be out in the daytime. However, he doubted an entire town would be afflicted with such a condition, and unless there had been fresh snow this morning, there still would have been footprints somewhere.
He glanced at Achilles, the horse stared back at him, seemingly asking the same questions rolling through him. Where was everyone and if they weren’t here then what had happened to them?
He pulled his bow from his back and an arrow from his quiver. Nocking the arrow against the bow, he climbed the steps to the tavern
and pushed the bottom of the door open an inch with the toe of his boot. He turned his head and strained his ears, but he heard no movement within. The smell of cooking human food didn’t tickle his nose; he didn’t detect the more metallic odor of blood either. He glanced back at Achilles before thrusting the door the rest of the way open.
Standing in the doorway, he stared into the shadows of the empty tavern. The three overturned chairs in the middle of the room were the only sign anyone had ever been here. Cobwebs, dangling from the wooden beams above him, fluttered in the breeze flowing through the door behind him. He pushed aside a web tickling against his cheek.
Stepping forward, his boots kicked up dust that swirled around him. The small particles of it danced in the light filtering through the windows. With his eyes, ears and nose, he probed the building, but he didn’t detect any heartbeats or smell anything alive within it as he continued onward.
He made his way to the back of the tavern and through the empty, small kitchen before walking out to the porch. He lowered his bow as he surveyed what he could only call a ghost town. Tucked into the mountains, it was remote, but not so remote that all of the residents would have fled before the winter set in. The humans and vampires who had lived here knew how to survive the icy temperatures and snow. They would have been prepared for it, and they wouldn’t have willingly left their homes behind.
Or perhaps, they were still here, somewhere.
He turned and strode back through the tavern. Stepping outside the front door, he stared at the silent town. He jogged down the stairs and across the snow-covered road to the buildings on the other side of the street. He peered in the windows but didn’t bother to go inside anywhere until he came to the log cabins on the next road. The lack of signs hanging from the porches, or painted on the windows, led him to believe he’d reached the residential area of town.
These may be the homes of vampires and human, but no smoke spiraled lazily into the air from the chimneys; he didn’t smell any fires in the hearths within the homes or hear the crackling of firewood. No footprints disturbed the snow on any of the roads or porches of the homes.
He walked up the steps of one of the homes and opened the unlocked door. Like the tavern, everything looked normal, except for the faint scent of something rotten wafting from one of the back rooms and the complete lack of occupants.
He put his bow on his back again and returned the arrow to his quiver before pulling out a stake. Entering the dining room, he discovered the remains of a family dinner. Four plates of rotting chicken and the moldy, shrunken remains of corn and potatoes sat on the table. A fork still stuck out of one baked potato.
“What is going on?” he muttered.
Striding into the bedroom, he opened the closet doors to reveal all of the clothes still neatly hanging within. Closing the doors, he turned his attention to the bureau next to the closet. Pulling open the drawers, he discovered socks, underwear, and undershirts. He found no empty drawers or empty spots where clothes had once been. He went through the other two rooms, where he discovered children’s clothing but nothing more.
Returning to the main street, he glanced up and down it before walking to the next home and jogging up the steps of the porch. He made his way through three more homes; two of them were human homes with food rotting in the cabinets and fridges. The other was a vampire residence with no food in it at all. All of the buildings were as vacant as the tavern and first home had been.
Confusion filled him, his mind spun as he tried to figure out what had gone on here, but for the life of him, he couldn’t even begin to guess at it. The vampires hadn’t killed all the humans and ditched their bodies; they would still be residing here if they had. The humans hadn’t turned on the vamps and had a bloodbath; there would be evidence of that. There would be survivors, but there was no one.
He walked back to where he’d left Achilles. The horse looked up from the scoop of grain William had given him before returning to his meal. William turned as he stared up and down the street again. Around him, snow began to fall in lazy spirals. It stuck to his clothes and hair; snowflakes melted against his cheek and nose. He wanted out of this town, but if there were any answers here, he had to uncover them before moving on. His feet sank into the snow as he walked up the stairs of the prison and opened the door.
The hush of the building was as complete as it had been in the other homes he’d gone through. A broken window in the back had allowed snow to enter. It formed a three-foot high drift against the back wall. The curtains billowed inward as more snow fell through the busted pane. A crow lifted its head from the top of the pile and let out a loud squawk when it spotted him. Its wings kicked up swirls of snow as it took flight. Black feathers gliding lazily to the ground were the only sign it had been there after it vanished out the window.
The bird was smarter than he was, he realized as he looked around the dust-covered desks in the room. Both cells were empty, but multiple blankets lined the floors, along with makeshift pillows created from rolled up coats and other clothing. There were at least fifteen of the beds in each cell. William’s confusion continued to mount as he stared back and forth between the two cells.
What had happened here that they’d been forced to house so many prisoners within the cells?
For the first time he wished he hadn’t decided to strike out on his own. Something truly bizarre was happening here. Daniel or Xavier might be able to figure it out, or maybe Xavier had seen something like this before, but he had no idea what was going on. He turned on his heel and started to make his way out of the prison when he heard a muffled sound.
Turning around again, he searched the empty room. He didn’t see or smell anything, but he knew he’d heard something. His brow furrowed when he heard it again. Moving back into the center of the room, he studied the walls and opened the one closed door to reveal the closet sized bathroom. He looked at the ceiling and then the floor.
He didn’t hear the sound again, but just as he was getting ready to go, his eyes landed on a different pattern in the wooden floorboards. His boots were noiseless against the floor as he made his way to the desk over the top of the panel in the floor. He grabbed hold of the end of the metal desk, lifted it, and moved it aside.
With the desk out of the way, he knelt to examine the panel placed discreetly into the floor. He ran his fingers over the edge, looking for some way to pull it up but finding nothing. Years of living with Daniel, and watching his ingenious traps and designs had taught him there was always more than met the eye when it came to places others wanted to keep hidden.
Finding no way to pull it up, he began to press down on the flooring. When his fingers pressed on the top left hand corner, he heard a small click. It rose up a quarter of an inch. Rising, he walked over and grabbed a lantern from where it hung on the wall. He placed it on the desk and opened the drawers in search of some matches. Uncovering a matchbox, he pulled out a match and lit it before pressing the flame to the wick of the lantern.
He turned the flame up before bending down to pull the panel away from the floor. Rustling sounds drifted from below when he moved the lantern to reveal the stairs leading into the basement room. A hiss that sounded like it came from a couple dozen snakes sounded from below, but nothing appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
The mildew odor of the room, body odor and something much more foul and pungent filled his nostrils. He had a feeling he really wasn’t going to like what he found, but he pulled his stake from the holster at his side and began to descend the stairs.
The steps creaked beneath his weight; the wood sagged in the middle. He kept his back to the stairs and his body turned to face any menace coming at him. Stepping off the last stair, he lifted the lamp to chase away the shadows filling the room the size of the building above it. His blood ran cold, his deadened heart plummeted as the lamp revealed the dozens of gleaming red eyes across from him.
- CHAPTER 7 -
Tempest kept her head bowed while she walked d
own the street as twilight descended upon the town. Trying to stay invisible was the best way to get by since they’d been invaded. They’d all come to realize dissenters, and anyone who questioned what was going on, soon found themselves dragged to the prison or locked within the growing number of stocks being built outside the prison.
She still had no idea what was going on, who this woman claiming to be the queen was, or what would become of them all, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that things weren’t going to get better anytime soon. They weren’t allowed to gather in groups of more than four. Any weapons they’d had were confiscated and burned the second day after the invaders arrived.
The power of the queen was whispered about amongst those that had taken over here. They spoke of the vampires taking back power, of putting right the wrongs committed by declaring humans equals and allowing them to have equal rights. Tempest’s skin crawled every time she heard one of them say they had to take back the world and reestablish their place as the superior species. They had to put the true and proper queen back on the throne, where she belonged.
She had yet to see the queen, but the way these vampires talked about her made her seem as if she were something almost mystical. Something completely unstoppable.
Someone had to do something before they were all imprisoned, slaughtered, or enveloped by the group who had invaded. She’d tried to deny it in the beginning, but she could no longer ignore the fact that the invaders numbers had swelled with residents of her town. She didn’t know if the new recruits actually believed the rhetoric they were hearing, or if they were simply trying to survive whatever the invaders had planned for all of them. Either way, it made her terror grow to watch them being indoctrinated into these new beliefs without having even met their new leader.