A Life In Blood (Chronicles of The Order Book 1) Read online

  “Good morning, Deimos,” she called cheerfully, which was an attitude I never expected from vampires. I had thought they were all miserable, malicious sadists, but then like most of what I knew of vampires, that was what I had been told. It didn’t take me long to work out that for eighteen years, I’d been fed nothing more than propaganda.

  “Good morning Corvina,” I answered, wincing as I pulled the T-shirt on and straining my left side. Even then the bruising hadn’t completely faded, and just getting dressed was a chore.

  “Please, call me Corvi - I only get called Corvina on formal occasions, and this is not one of those.” She smiled at me, a genuine smile born of genuine humour which still made me nervous. I wasn’t used to seeing those elongated teeth and not having to reach for a weapon. It was a hard habit to shake.

  “Ok, Corvi. I take it the doc has told you I’m free now?”

  She nodded.

  “He has, although from his report I’m rather glad you decided to stay for a while. You still have quite a lot of healing to go through, but at least now we can move you to a real bed and some private guest quarters.”

  That sounded just great to me. Hospital beds were not the most comfortable, even here, and privacy was almost non-existent.

  Plus, I was getting so bored I had started poking my bruises just to see what colour they turned under pressure. It was a long month.

  I stood up, a little too hastily it seemed as a sudden stab of pain through my wounded leg drove me to one knee - or would have, if Corvi hadn’t appeared by my side and caught me in time. She helped me to stand properly, making sure I was stable before finally letting go. She seemed to be quite a gentle woman, so much so that I had trouble believing this was the same woman who tore a man’s head from his shoulders in my defence. Eventually we left the medical area and finally began the walk to my quarters.

  “What’s the book?” I asked, unable to contain my own curiosity any longer.

  “Oh, sorry, this is for you.” She handed me the book, a thick, red-covered tome titled Ancient Vampiric - The Origins of the Immortal Tongue. I wasn’t sure why she thought I would like this in particular, but the gesture had been appreciated.

  “I figured it might be useful to you, regardless of whether or not you stay with us. Plus,” she grinned at me again, “you looked like you could use some entertainment.”

  “That’s an understatement, hospitals are hardly known for their rowdy parties.”

  “Indeed, and ours even less so. Sadly our standing army can get some pretty unpleasant injuries in service to us.”

  “Standing army?” That was a phrase that concerned me. It rarely preceded anything good, although it turned out my concerns had been unjustified.

  “Yes, Omega Company. They are formed from volunteer soldiers from around the globe, people who believe in us and our cause. Sometimes we are drawn into conflicts with other vampire groups who have less virtuous intentions, but more often than not they are called on to aid us against mortal military forces specifically formed to fight us. We owe a lot to them, really.”

  We spoke at length about Omega Company, and the threats the vampires faced from military anti-vampire units - as a hunter, I had been part of a different society, one that lacked the specialist training or government funding, instead using whatever we could afford and using skills that had been developed from first-hand encounters. As I talked to her about my side of things, I realised how imperfect it was, but I also began to see much of what I had been told growing up for the lies they were.

  As we came to the ‘residential’ area of the base, Corvi showed me the dining hall, social areas, libraries (more than one, because there was far too much lore to cram into one) and exercise areas, and then finally brought me to my own quarters.

  “Here you are, Deimos. I admit it isn’t much, but it is designed for people who are with us on a temporary basis. Obviously if you choose to remain here then you will be moved to your own permanent room, but until then this is your room. I’ll visit you again in a few days to see how you are getting on, but if you need to speak with me before then one of the staff here can arrange that. And, one more thing.”

  I raised an eyebrow in question, wary of the sudden seriousness of her tone.

  “You are a guest here, with all the freedoms that represents...but you are not trusted. Even I do not know you that well, and we as a people can be...unsure of outsiders, especially someone who used to kill our kind. I’m afraid for the time being you will be monitored, you will have an escort while you are outside of this room, and your phone has been destroyed.”

  That had certainly been a change in tone. I understood the vampires feeling unsure of me, but surely they didn’t think I needed to be escorted around the base like some lost child?! Well, evidently they did, and I was hardly in a position to argue about it. I was also a bit upset over the destruction of my phone - more because that had been my sole means of contacting my sister. My brother was a complete arse, why I still kept his number was beyond me, but my sister...

  She had never wanted the hunter’s life, and I had never wanted it for her. As the middle child her protection was my responsibility, with Remus being too busy trying to be dad’s perfect heir to the Black family name, and so when she told me she wanted to run away from home I had helped her. We had an aunt on my mother’s side who lived down on the Isle of Wight, and Tis had wanted to go stay with her. As long as I could get her out to Oxford, she could handle the journey to Portsmouth herself and get a ferry from there, and although it took a few days of planning, we managed it.

  She was sixteen at the time, just after she had finished her exams. I had only just turned eighteen, and not long before my fateful lone hunt.

  I missed her so much, but I knew she was safely away from a life she never wanted. Keeping my part in her escape hidden from dad and Remus was tough, but I was certain they never knew.

  I sighed, and nodded reluctantly. I knew I had to follow their rules while I was here, but that didn’t make it any easier knowing I couldn’t speak to Tis if she wanted to call me. Or worse, if she needed me.

  “I understand Corvi. Your house, your rules, right?”

  She smiled weakly. I guess she didn’t like telling me as much as I didn’t like being told.

  “I’m glad. I’ll be back to check on you in a couple of days. Have a pleasant stay, and remember to take it easy on that leg.”

  With that she turned and walked off, leaving me on my own for what felt like the first time since my arrival here.

  My quarters were definitely a bit sparse - the walls were painted in a neutral, boring pale cream colour, and there was some generic artwork on the back wall above my standard single bed. Clearly they didn’t want their guests to have company overnight. I had my own en suite bathroom, with a standard shower, toilet and sink. I had a single chest of drawers, which seemed to be more for sitting the miserable-looking TV on than actually storing anything (not that I had any clothes with me to store - the ones I had been wearing were ruined.) All in all, it looked like the world’s tiniest hotel room, although it could still have been worse. It could have been the world’s tiniest hotel room - in France.

  I sat down on a small chair - the only other piece of furniture in the room - and read through some of the book Corvi had given me. The vampiric language was unlike anything I had ever seen, created by the first vampires to communicate with their thralls or non-telepathic vampires without their secrets being seen by prying eyes. It was a brutal-sounding language, and when written it looked like a mass of angled lines and dots with very little resemblance to any known language.

  Which, of course, had been the point. Astoundingly, I actually found myself enjoying the book, and even picking up a few bits o
f the language. At least there didn’t seem to be anything overly technical about it, unlike languages such as German where the sentence structure gets re-arranged as it gets translated. Eventually though I grew restless, and decided I would stretch my legs a bit and go for a walk. McEwart said I needed to exercise my leg anyway. With that plan in mind I rose steadily to my feet and limped out of the door.

  My escort was waiting just outside my room, and immediately fell into step beside me. Judging from his mottled grey combat trousers and grey shirt, black military boots and rank insignia, I assumed he was from Omega Company, which was quickly confirmed when I noticed his black epaulette with a silver omega embroidered onto it. At first I was unsure where I was actually going, but a sudden growl from my stomach reminded me I hadn’t eaten breakfast, so I headed for the dining hall in the hope of finding something to eat.

  It was surprisingly busy when I entered, presumably because some of those present had been doing some form of night shift and were having their last meal before they go to bed. I didn’t know what people did there at the time, so it was a little mystifying. I found they were serving a variety of foods for mortals and vampires alike, and I settled on something familiar - a proper English fried breakfast. Bacon, egg, sausage, a slice of toast and some orange juice (which they told me was proper Florida orange juice. It sure tasted better than any OJ I’d ever had before.) Apart from the really large dining area and military personnel, it really was like being in a hotel.

  I sat and ate alone, although my escort was at least polite enough to have a glass of OJ himself. I enjoyed the solitude though, as it allowed me to think through a lot of what had happened to me. I also needed time to adjust to the fact that I had apparently been lied to my entire life, and that is not an easy thing to just move on from.

  I also thought a lot about Corvi. She was a beautiful, fascinating woman, but there was an under-current of threat there. Not to mean that I felt threatened by her, more that I sensed her capacity for violence even when she was doing nothing in particular. I found her unbelievably captivating though, something...indefinable about her just made me want to be around her. Which would work out well, because I still had a lot of questions, but even still, I wanted to know more about my enigmatic saviour.

  After spending most of the day pottering around the residential area, and talking with a few of the Omega Company soldiers about serving vampires, I eventually called it a day and returned to my quarters. However, before I drifted off to sleep I resolved to take a more proactive approach to this whole situation - if Corvi wanted me to see what things were really like with vampires, she was going to have to give me access to more than just a glorified holiday resort.

  I woke the next day screaming, and drenched in sweat. A nightmare. Christ, I hadn’t had nightmares in...fifteen years? Not since my dad had first told me what was really out there, in the dark depths of the world. That night, though, I relived the night of my hunt. I heard each break as clearly as the night it happened, felt the pain bloom just as viciously, only this time there had been no saviour. My subconscious took the liberty of imagining how it could have ended, an act I intended to repay it with a large quantity of alcohol sometime in the near future. A knock at my door startled me further, until my escort from the previous day spoke up.

  “Is everything alright, sir?”

  “I’m fine,” I managed, still trying to slow my breathing back down. My side still pained me, more so if I breathed too hard or too fast, and I was almost hyperventilating at this point.

  I got up, washed and dressed, finally feeling a bit more human again. I took the opportunity to check the progress of my bruises - still visible, but fading - before heading out to meet my escort again.

  “Sorry, I never got your name yesterday,” I told him, and extended my hand. “I’m Deimos, if you weren’t told.”

  “Lance-corporal Stevens, sir,” he told me as he shook my offered hand. “You can just call me Stevens, if you like.”

  I liked Stevens straight away. Polite, professional and unobtrusive, he would probably have made an excellent bodyguard if he had gone that route.

  “Can you contact Corvina for me?” I thought it best to use her full name this time, in case using her familiar form offended him in some way. I don’t know, you just can’t tell how people perceive things when they work with someone you don’t.

  “Yes sir, I can put a call through to Her Ladyship.”

  Her Ladyship? Did he think we were in the Middle Ages or something?

  “What do you mean, ‘Her Ladyship’?” I was a little confused, and I hate confusion.

  “Lady Delacore is a peer of the realm, sir. Her family have been members of the aristocracy for centuries. It’s partly why she was given command of this place.”

  That threw me. My saviour, the woman who changed my life and who I was starting to get just a tiny crush on, was the base commander?! I was slightly embarrassed, although I’m still not sure why. It’s not as if I had started outright fantasising about her - yet - nor had I been having...inappropriate thoughts, and certainly not while she was present.

  Okay, there might have been one or two instances. Short ones.

  Alright, so I had thought about her a lot. Stop judging me, you never saw how stunning she looked.

  I recovered from my astonishment as quickly as I could, before Stevens started thinking I’d had a mental breakdown of some kind.

  “Ok, um...Right. Could possibly get a message to her, please? Could you tell her that if she wants me to see her kind as they truly are, I need to see something on the Operations side - something that proves that vampires are not trying to rule the world.”

  Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t believe that they were - so far I had seen just enough to make her point. But I still wanted to see their side of the war, to understand how they worked and what they were trying to achieve.

  Stevens put my request through as we walked to the dining hall, where I grabbed a slice of toast and a glass of milk. I wasn’t in the mood for a big breakfast. Stevens gestured for me to follow him as soon as I had acquired my food, which I took as good news.

  It was, as it turned out, good news. I had been granted access to their main Ops room, as long as I stayed out of the way, didn’t interfere and didn’t interrupt. That worked for me, because at least I could see what I needed to.

  The room in question was large, busy and loud. Everywhere there were people moving, calling out updates, and as soon as I entered the room there was a severe ache in my skull, indicating that a few of the vampires were communicating psychically. There were computers and monitors everywhere, showing video feeds from an array of different sources, some displaying satellite images, and on one wall there was a large, paper map of England, stuck with a variety of different coloured pins. I walked around the vast room, slowly, taking in everything I could. One screen I remember, with alarming clarity, was of a man - who I learned after the fact was a vampire - surrendering to a group of soldiers. The man was on his knees, arms in the air, clearly surrendering...and the soldiers gunned him down anyway. Then they took a shotgun to his head, and seemed to celebrate afterwards. To think, I wanted to be like that. There was also a video feed, I think it must have been a shoulder-mounted camera that an Omega Company solider was wearing, from a contact situation. It was one of the occasions that Corvina had told me about, where they tried to bring other vampires into The Order. I listened intently to the conversations, and it was funny how some of that vampire’s reservations echoed my own.

  And yet, the one sent to speak to him wasn’t talking of war, or of dominating the human species, he spoke of safety for him and all his kind, of protection.

  Of family.

  I walked around to the map I had seen, where there was a
nother vampire, a tall, brawny male named Valden, making notes on a clipboard and adding occasional pins.

  “What is this for?” I asked him, when he seemed to be slightly less fixated on his task.

  “It’s a map of known vampire hunter bases and outposts,” he replied in a calm, slightly-accented voice. I couldn’t place where he was from, but I guessed somewhere around eastern Europe. It was always eastern Europe. “We keep track of them so we know the places to avoid when we’re hunting, or on a welcome mission, or if we’re trying to establish a safe house of our own.”

  I nodded in understanding. So far I was seeing no sign of deception, no sign that they were attempting to rule us.

  “What do the colours signify?” I pointed at the pins, just to make sure he followed my meaning.

  “Red ones are military groups, yellow ones are government-funded freelancers and the white ones-”

  “-are the Independents?”

  “Indeed, just so,” he said, smiling. Damn, I wished these guys would stop doing that. The fangs still unnerved me.

  “Why do you need to know that?”

  “It dictates the level of threat they pose, and that dictates how and when we move in those areas. If it is a military group, we avoid it if at all possible, or get through quickly and quietly. Open conflict with them does not end well for us. Government-funded freelancers are like mercenaries, they are in it for the money - they can be reckless, they can be forced into retreat, but still requires a degree of force. The Independent hunters we can generally deal with one-on-one, or in pairs for safety.”

  I thought over what he had said for a a little while. It seemed like there was indeed a war going on, and they weren’t doing well in it. And, I was beginning to see, that the main reason for that was that they were trying to maintain a peace that the mortal society was not interested in.