Dawn of a New Age: A Sons of Satrina Novel (12 page)

“I was protecting my family! Can’t you understand that?”

“Horse shit! You were thinking only of yourself! Your family? You don’t give a shit about your family. Are you there with them now? Protecting them? Taking care of them? No! We are! The warriors that you turned your back on are the ones that are keeping them safe.”

Merion suddenly crumpled to his knees and sobbed pathetically. Still, Kelton felt nothing for him. The man had brought this all on himself. He deserved no pity.

“I was wrong. I didn’t know how bad things were going to get. I didn’t mean for this to happen. Any of this. You have to believe me. What can I do to make things right? There has to be something I can do.” Merion begged.

“There is nothing that you can do. Amends cannot be made.”

“I’ve known you for so long. You are not the kind of man to turn your back on someone who needs you, Kelton.”

“I help those that deserve help. You deserve nothing.”

“Kelton, please. I implore you. You know me. You know that I would never have done this lightly. They were going to slaughter my entire family!”

“Bullshit! I don’t know you!” Kelton roared. “I thought that I knew you but I was clearly wrong. I thought that you were someone to rely on. I thought that you were strong. I was wrong. You’re nothing. You’re weak.”

Merion sobbed at his feet. “Forgive me, my brother.” He pleaded.

“You are no brother of mine.”

Merion sucked in a shuddering breath. “I can’t go on like this. I can’t live with this. You need to do what you came here to do. Please, Kelton, I beg of you.”

“Are you asking me to end your miserable life?”

“That is why you came here, is it not?” Merion looked up at Kelton, a broken man with tears of self-pity streaming down his face.

“I sure as hell didn’t come here to ask for your permission to do it.”

“Well, what are you waiting for? Just do it! Exact your revenge! End this misery!” Merion wailed, grabbing hold of Kelton’s trouser leg and tugging as if to egg him on.

Kelton looked down at the man who had once been his friend with utter disgust. Roughly kicking him away, Merion stumbled across the floor and sprawled on his face. Kelton couldn’t believe that this snivelling wreck had once been a respected warrior.

“Do you have no respect for yourself? Get up off your knees and face me like a man.” Kelton demanded of him.

Merion shoved himself up off the floor and struggled to stand, swiping at the tears that fell from his cheeks. “Please. Let me make this right by dying an honourable warrior’s death. At least let me die in the right way even if I didn’t live it.”

Kelton knew what he was asking. He wanted death by the blade. Kelton couldn’t bring himself to do that. The broken man in standing front of him, staggering on his feet, was no warrior. He didn’t deserve a death worthy of a warrior of honour.

“I can’t do that for you.” Kelton replied in a dull, lifeless tone. He placed one of his hands on a gun. Merion looked alarmed for a moment before resignation crossed his features.

Raising the gun, Kelton said no words as he screwed the silencer on the end. The thoughts that flitted through his mind were along the lines of hoping that Merion could find forgiveness through his death that no one could give him in his life.

Pulling the trigger, Kelton shot Merion straight through the heart and watched as the body fell silently to the floor, dead even before he hit the dirty carpet under foot.

It was done.

Vengeance was served.

Holstering the gun, Kelton felt nothing. With one last scathing look at the crumpled body on the floor, he walked out of the house and didn’t look back.

Chapter Eleven

“It’s done.” Kelton said as he approached Patrick.

“Are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he snapped.

Patrick narrowed his eyes. “Because you’re not a fucking robot. That man you just killed was once like a brother to you.”

“Not anymore he isn’t.” Kelton replied stubbornly. He refused to think of the man that Merion had once been. He could only focus on the back-stabbing, lying worm he had become.

Patrick signalled to his guys that were loitering in the shadows nearby, sending them on their way. “You look like you could do with a drink. A stiff one.”

“I don’t need anything.”

Patrick smirked. “Well, I don’t give a shit. I need a drink and I need to talk to you, so you’re coming with me.” He strode off to his bike and called over his shoulder. “Follow me.”

Kelton didn’t reply, but he didn’t need to. They both knew that he would follow. Patrick needed to talk to him and after everything he had done to help with the Merion case, Kelton felt like he owed him. Sure, he wasn’t exactly in a very socialising mood right now, but he also wasn’t ready to head back to the academy just yet. He wasn’t ready to tell the others what went down. A drink was starting to sound more and more inviting by the second.

He followed Patrick as best as he could, but the guy rode like he had the devil on his tail. There was no way to keep up with him on the winding streets of the city. Finally, Kelton pulled up outside one of the seedier biker bars on the outskirts of Brandestowen. Patrick’s bike was already parked up and he was nowhere in sight.

Pushing his way through the heavy wooden double doors, Kelton instantly felt more relaxed. The sound of the eighties rock music was blaring out from the old jukebox at the back of the bar, the smoky atmosphere and the raucous laughter was all familiar to him. It was good to be back.

This wasn’t the kind of place that anyone would come looking for him. The Lamia didn’t hang out in places like this. It was a relief to know that he had a little time to get his head together and chill before going back to the academy to face the music.

Spotting Patrick standing over at the bar, he was talking to a sexy blonde that was wearing little more than underwear. She was typical of the type of girls that hung around the bar, hoping for a piece of action with one of the bikers. Grinning to himself, Kelton shouldered his way through the sea of leather clad men.

“Damn, Kelton. You took your time.” Patrick grinned. Picking up the beers and chasers, he dismissed the blonde and led Kelton to one of the empty tables at the back.

Sliding the beer across the table, Patrick said, “Here. You might say that you don’t need it, but you sure as hell look like you do.”

Kelton accepted the beer and the chaser, quickly tipping the shot down his neck. The burn in his throat was somehow comforting.

He noticed that the blonde was still hovering near the table, but Patrick didn’t even glance in her direction. That didn’t surprise him in the least. Patrick could be a total flirt, but he had a woman at home that he loved more than life itself. He wasn’t any kind of cheat and wouldn’t dream of sleeping around. He had more respect for him woman than that.

“Come on, then. Spit it out. What did you want to talk to me about?”

Patrick took in a deep breath and put his beer back down on the table. He glanced around furtively to make sure that no one could over hear them before leaning across the table, “We have a bit of a problem.”

“What kind of problem? I’m guessing that it’s something I can help you with, seeing as you’ve asked me here.”

“I sure hope you can. Two of my boys have received the mark.”

“What mark?” Kelton looked puzzled.

“Your goddamn warrior mark.” He hissed.

Kelton abruptly sat up in his chair in total shock, the beer sloshing on the table. That couldn’t be right. There was no way this could have happened. He had to be wrong.

“Are you sure about that? Are you positive it’s not something else?”

Patrick laughed bitterly. “You don’t think that I have been through every single other option? I’ve been around you bloodsuckers long enough to know what it is when I see it. It’s the warrior mark of the Sons of Satrina. I’m sure of it.”

“Shit.” Kelton whispered.

This was not something he had ever expected to happen. It was bad enough that the warrior mark had appeared on Aisline, the first female warrior of their race. But, this? None of them would have seen this coming.

“I need you to help them.”

“Of course.” Kelton nodded. His thoughts were running a mile a minute. It wouldn’t be easy, that’s for sure, but he would do everything in his power to make sure that things worked out for them. “When did this happen?”

“Seven days ago. I tried to give them a bit of time before I contacted you. I had to make sure myself that this really was the warrior mark that we’re working with. I had to see if there was any way to fight it.”

“I’m guessing that hasn’t been going so well?”

“Not at all. They’re full of the urge to train and fight, but they had no idea what to fight or who. The confusion is eating them up. I wish that I had called you sooner. It’s been tearing them apart.”

Kelton nodded. He understood completely what Patrick was saying. The lure of the mark was undeniable. Once the mark appeared, the need to train and fight was the main thing that drove you.

This was different, though. They had no real idea of what they’d be facing. They weren’t even Lamia Matris.

“They need to come to the academy as soon as possible.”

“I thought you would probably say that.” Patrick nodded solemnly. “The pack has done everything they could for them, but this isn’t something we’re equipped to handle. I can’t believe that I’m handing my boys over to you fangers.”

“I can’t believe that I’m going to have to babysit a couple of your fur-balls.” Kelton quipped.

They had always had good banter between them, even in serious times such as this.

The vampire and the shifter.

Patrick was the Alpha of the local shifter pack and had been for several decades. He was a huge hulk of a man, tattoos covering his rippling muscles and he generally looked like a badass that you wouldn’t mess with if you had half a brain cell. Patrick was the kind of guy who would do anything for the ones that he loved, but if you crossed him, then the full weight of his wrath would be unleashed. He was a fierce creature, even in his human form.

Luckily, shifters weren’t controlled by the call of the moon or any other cycle. They could change at will, but it didn’t happen as often as they liked to portray in the books or the movies. Patrick preferred to keep his pack in human form as much as possible. The last thing any of them needed was to lose their humanity.

When the two of them had first started speaking, the others in his pack had been a bit perturbed by it. There was no age old war between the two races, but they never went out of their way to socialise before. Each kept to their own drama. Now, here they were, mixing it up. Kelton and Patrick had set a precedent.

However, this situation with the boys was going to have to be handled very carefully. They had a good friendship going on between them, but their family and race would always come first. This would the first time that something as monumental as this had happened. Kelton didn’t want to get any of this wrong, especially for the kid’s sake. They were caught up in the middle of this and it wouldn’t be easy for them to deal with.

“Do you think that they’ll be okay?” Patrick asked, the concern for his pack members clear in his voice.

“I’ll make sure of it.” Kelton assured him.

Of course, he wasn’t entirely sure how this was all going to work yet, but Kelton was determined to get it right. Those boys were being thrown into a situation that was beyond their control and he would try to make their transition to their new life as smooth as possible. This was a hell of a thing to have happened and, despite their best efforts, they both knew that it wouldn’t go without a hitch. Kelton just hoped that he wouldn’t screw up too badly and that the problems would be kept to a minimum.

“Who is it? Do I know them?” Kelton was quite familiar with some of the pack members, but not all of them. They were a large pack, one of the strongest in the country.

“No. You’ve never met them. One of them is eighteen, and the other is only sixteen.”

“Sixteen? Jesus Christ.” Kelton whistled. This was getting worse than he imagined.

“They looked to me for help as soon as the mark appeared. I couldn’t do anything to help them.” Patrick glared down at the table. He was the goddamn Alpha of the pack and there wasn’t a problem that he couldn’t solve. Or smash to pieces with his fists. Until this had happened.

“I’ll text you the address of the new location. Bring them both by tomorrow night and we’ll get them settled in and assessed.” Plans were already starting to formulate in his mind. “We’ll get somewhere ready for them to sleep and I’ll get them introduced to the rest of the trainees that they’ll be working with.” He was already thinking that he could rope Trey into showing them around. He was an excellent warrior in training and a laid back kid, and would hopefully be a reassuring presence for the new guys.

Patrick let out an audible sigh of relief. “Thanks, Kelton. I have no idea what I would have done without you. This isn’t something I can deal with.”

“Not a problem, man. We’ll deal with this. I’m sorry that this happened to your pack” Kelton stood up to leave after polishing off his beer. He had put off returning to the academy for as long as he could and now he had to get back. There was so much to do.

“I’ll call you tomorrow when we’re on our way to you.” Patrick said as he waved Kelton off and settled back in his chair with another beer. He’d had a hard time of it in the last few days and he knew that there were more troubles to come. Sending his boys off to the academy to live with the bloodsuckers wasn’t making him feeling very easy, but he knew that Kelton would look out for them.

What a night, Kelton thought to himself. He couldn’t wait to get it over and done with so he could collapse into bed. There were still several hours before dawn approached and there was even more work ahead of him now that he knew about the boys. He had to arrange for an emergency meeting to pass on the news to the others that Merion had been dealt with. He had to call up the council to inform them and he had to speak to Merion’s wife. That wasn’t going to be an easy conversation. Also, he had to speak to Kayleigh and arrange accommodation for the boys.

After all that, he may have a few peaceful hours to spend with the woman he loved. Well, he it was something to hope for, anyway.

The meeting went pretty much the way he thought it would. Outwardly, the warriors were all pleased that the enemy had been eliminated and that Merion had gotten what he deserved, but Kelton could see that each and every one of them had wished it had been them. They all wanted revenge on Merion, but they had to settle for the face that the job had been done.

Kelton also filled them in on the fact that the warrior mark had appeared on two new recruits and there was a loud murmur of conversation when he told them exactly who had received the mark. This was not something any of them had seen coming. It was going to take a lot of work to make things right.

One of the good things was that shifters were naturally physical and would be able to keep up with the training no problem at all. In fact, they would have to go a long way to trying to tire the shifters out, but that was something else that Kelton was looking forward to working on.

He had already decided that the boys should be in his training team. It was Master Warrior Verynai who suggested that it may actually be a good idea to split them up. Kelton thought that it may have been more reassuring for them to stay together, but Verynai pointed out that if they were in separate classes, the warriors teaching them could focus on them better.

In the end, Kelton had to agree and assigned Verynai to one of the shifters. It was settled. The basics, anyway. They still had to find them somewhere to sleep and make the rest of it work, but that would all have to wait until tomorrow.

It wasn’t going to be easy, but the warriors thrived on challenges.