Crimson Dawn (14 page)

"This city has a thriving Extras community, and I haven't scented one vamp, wolf, big cat or anything, not even the hint of one. Impossible." I pulled out my phone and mapped the city’s businesses that marketed to Extras. "We're right in the middle of an Extras district called Lands End, but so far, the only Extras I've seen or sensed are us.”

Irulan walked over to a shop window and looked inside. "As far as I can sense, nothing but Humans." She looked back at the street behind us and closed her eyes. "Reach out with your aura and tell me what you feel, Valeria."

I relaxed the barriers on my mind and felt my awareness ease out of me, searching the area around me. "I feel Humans, that's all. Nothing but Humans."

Irulan frowned, "Exactly. Nothing but Humans. I don't feel any wildlife, or even the murmur of Pixies among the trees.” She headed back in the direction we came from with a determined look on her face. She had an idea of what was going on, I was sure of it, but she wouldn't voice her assumptions until she had conformation.

"Open your shields all the way, Valeria, and tell me if you hear anything."

I reached out and grabbed her arm forcing her to stop, "Are you crazy? I'll catch glimpses of every mind within a mile radius. Do you know what that'll do to me?"

Irulan huffed with exasperation and shot me a look filled with ice. "There are times when I forget how trying the years of youth can be, but you never fail to remind me, Valeria.” The lines of her face changed from exasperated to insistent. "Drop your shielding now," she said with a timbre to her voice I had never heard there before.

I reluctantly closed my eyes, braced myself, and did as she asked. Just like ripping off a Band-Aid, I threw open the floodgates to my mind. What hit me after they were open was just as confusing as the lack of Extras presence around us. "Nothing.” I opened my eyes to find Irulan sporting a look that said,
I told you so.

"Tristan knew exactly where you were staying and that one of the first things you would do was try to find a nest.” She grabbed my elbow and pulled me a few feet further back the way we came and knelt to one knee putting her palm flat against the sidewalk. Her glamour faded some as she loosened the hold on the energy within her and directed it into her palm. The rose-colored skin of her hand glowed as she began to speak in her native tongue. "Senauvah nue une," she spoke in an unfamiliar voice.

Foreign languages were never my strong point during my studies. I gravitated towards the more physical subjects. From what little I could remember from her tutoring, I believed she said something close to, 'make yourself known'. Once the words left her lips, she held her head up to look around, frowned, and then dropped it again. "Senauvah nue une,” she repeated this time with even more force. The air around us buzzed with a faint charge as a dampening net appeared around us.

"Fuck me,” I exclaimed as I turned in a slow circle taking in the sheer size of the net surrounding us. As far as I could see, the glimmering haze was everywhere, like a huge umbrella covering the city for blocks.

Irulan stood and ran her hand along the net, "There's a lot of magic in a net this size. It had to take more than one practitioner to do this. The energy feels familiar but uncommon at the same time.” She sent a small burst of her own into the net and smiled, "This is Gullah, tastes the same as Sophie but not as sweet." She jerked her hand away and rubbed it on her pants leg as if she were trying to rub it clean. "It's tainted, twisted with something dark, but I believe I can break it.”

Irulan took off her jacket and passed it to me. "Turn around and move away from me. Close your eyes tightly, and cover your head with my jacket. Am I clear?” For once, I didn't argue, I just locked down my mind and did as she said. Once I was away from her, she explained what she was about to do. "I'm going to overload the net with power and short it out. Hopefully, it'll dissipate and not explode because if it does, every aura sensitive Human and Extras under it are gonna have a hell of a headache once I'm through. To do it, I'm going to have to drop my glamour, and your eyes can't handle that."

I felt it the instant her glamour melted away. The very air I breathed began to burn its way down my windpipe and into my lungs, set afire by the sheer magnitude of power that radiated off her. Irulan was bad assed as hell.

I struggled to breathe the smoldering air for almost ten minutes. Just when I thought I couldn't take anymore, I felt the air begin to cool around me.

"It's OK, Valeria," Irulan called, "You can look now.” I stood and handed her jacket over to her. After she had put it back on, she leaned forward onto her knees and took a deep breath.

"The Gullah are stronger than any Witches I've ever known and their bloodline makes them stronger even than Elves. As far as I know, the arcane division is staffed by only those two races.” She dropped to one knee again. "If I wasn't with you, this dampening net would have been around you the entire time you were here."

She pressed her hand to the ground for an instant then stood up straight again. "All traces are gone. Try scenting the area again."

I took a deep breath, and the air became alive with a variety of smells. "I smell wolves and panthers, can't tell if they're males or female, um, Gullah, so many Gullah.” I headed off, crossing the street and letting my nose guide me. "I smell Vampire, but it's not strong enough to name the house.”

Purebloods alone possess a sense of smell acute enough to differentiate the minute variations in the blood of Vampires. They teach us at a young age to recognize both the taste and smell of the blood of other Pureblood families. If I’m on a hunt and my marks are ‘made Vampires’, the trace of the maker's blood is still within them. A few of my hunts have ended before they started once I informed the appropriate house.

Unpleasant publicity is bad business for the houses, so they usually end up taking care of the problem for me. The ability is extremely useful in my line of work, but I was the only Pureblood I know of working as a Sentinel, and we didn't advertise that bit of information to outsiders. The CMS wasn't going to be using us as bloodhounds anytime soon. Well, except for me. We left that to the huge Were and Shifter population on payroll, their noses were even better than ours were.

The longer I followed the scent trail, the stronger it became, until I was sure at least a dozen Vampires had traveled this same path. The majestic homes and modern storefronts gave way to an oceanfront warehouse district. Huge iron cranes worked, tirelessly loading and unloading trucks and forklifts, manned almost entirely by Humans. This was a perfect spot for a large nest. Most Humans were still scared shitless when it came to us. Although they're all over the place now, I'm sure the night shift would be a different story. If I came back here in four or five hours, I'll bet money that the crews would be mostly Extras.

My nostrils flared as we walked past one abandoned-looking building, "On point, Irulan, this one has potential.” The building was small compared to others around it, three stories, tops, and the loading dock was so dilapidated it might as well be nonexistent. The building sat off in a corner away from the main activity, but even if it didn’t, I’ll bet not one of those guys would come near it. The lonely-looking building oozed ‘stay the hell away’ loud and clear.

We found an entrance secured by a rusted out lock close by. Irulan raised her hand to get rid of the lock, but I beat her to it. I grasped the lock and flexed the muscles in my hand, grinding it to dust. "Show off," huffed Irulan as we slipped in unnoticed.

Once we were inside, the scent of Vampire was so strong I knew we had hit pay dirt. "They're here somewhere," I spoke, with no regards to try to be quiet. Long southern days had to be a bitch during the summertime for made vamps. Priest was lucky. The CMS provided him with a cocktail that he ingested. Whatever was in it allowed him to gain a few more hours of light time. These guys were deep in the throes of the day sleep and wouldn't be able to move around until the sky was completely dark.

The inside of the warehouse was darker than I expected, but when I looked up at the windows I realized that they had been painted over, "I'm going ultraviolet, Irulan, stay close to me.” I relaxed my concentration, retracted my films, and slipped into UV. I didn't have to look far before I saw the cool blue outlines of sleeping vamps huddled into a nearby corner.

Shit! Part of me was hoping I'd come up empty. I had a real problem with killing vamps while they were helpless in the day-sleep. It turned my stomach. To me, it seemed like such a coward’s move. "They've got to be put down, Irulan."

She looked taken aback by my unpleasant revelation. "I thought we were just identifying a possible nest."

I nodded, "We were. Now that we've done that we move on to the next step.” I took a deep breath, found my resolve, and drew one of my kodachis. "Tristan's kill order is an instant death sentence to any Deadborns he may have created. As long as he's still alive, they're the most susceptible to his will."

Irulan quickly moved to block my path. "This is wrong, Valeria, condemning innocents based on the crimes of their sire is murder, not justice". I tried to step around her, but she moved into my path again, "How can you be sure the Vampires here belong to Tristan anyway?” she asked. "Just scenting their blood isn't enough and you know it.” She was right. Scenting wouldn't fly as a means of identification when I turned in my final report, but I knew what would.

"You're right," I said and advanced into the darkness. I reached the closest body, dropped to my knees, and leaned forward searching for his neck.

Irulan pulled at my shoulder just as my fangs dropped. "Just what in the hell are you doing?" she franticly whispered as if they could actually hear us.

I jerked away from her, laid my sword on the ground beside me, and pulled the comatose vamp up to rest against my thigh. "I'm getting the proof you need. If this is Tristan's turn, I'll taste it in the blood.” I was already having a hard time with this, and Irulan wasn't making it any better. I gathered the Vampire closer to me and took a deep breath. My nose knew the truth, but she wanted proof. I'd give it to her.

My anger swelled, and I felt the features of my face melt and rearrange themselves as I brought the boy's neck to my mouth. I bit into his neck with no hesitation or any semblance of gentleness. My emotions had gotten the best of me. Irulan had pissed me off, and I took it out on the Vampire in my arms.

The boy came to screaming and struggling against my hold, but he did little in the way of breaking it. I wrapped my hand around his mouth to quiet his pleas for mercy, took a deep breath, and drew his life from the wound I'd made. The first spurt of blood that hit the back of my throat confirmed what I already knew. They were Tristan's. I should have stopped there, but I didn't. I fed from the Deadborn until there was nothing left for his body to give.

I committed total consumption for the second time in my life, after I'd sworn to myself that I'd never perform it again. I felt like shit inside, but I wasn't about to let it show. I kept my face calm and impassive as I dropped the lifeless husk and picked up my blade. "He was Tristan's, and, from what I can tell, he couldn't have been turned more than a week or so. His sire's blood was still strong inside of him."

I stood and walked over to the next sleeping form without looking back to see if Irulan followed me or not. "If one is Tristan's, that means they all are. Newborns are too territorial to share space with a Vampire of another's blood. But you know that, so am I allowed to carry out my duties now?"

I took Irulan's silence as a ‘yes’ and began dispatching the newborn Vampires. I moved methodically through the expanse of the warehouse separating the heads from the bodies of over sixteen Newborns. . I couldn't allow myself to think of them as people.

Some remained asleep and went quietly into whatever life awaited them, but some broke the chains of the day sleep and tried to run. It shouldn't have been possible, but the will to survive is a powerful thing. Those that tried to run I dispatched with throwing knives through the heart. That alone didn't kill them, but it incapacitated them until I could finish the job.

I pulled the knives out of each one and told them why they got the death sentence. Some accepted their fate as the will of their sire, some pleaded in vain, and some got angry and tried to fight back. I drained the fighters. When I was finally done, a thick layer of blood covered me from head to toe, and I had committed total consumption four times. My body was buzzing with the raw strength their blood provided me. I ran a hand through my hair pulling out the congealed clots of blood then finally turned to look at Irulan.

She looked at me with a horrified expression on her face before turning to walk away. As she headed for the door, she said, "Congratulations, Valeria, Today you proved to me you're every bit the Trumaine your father hoped you would be."