RBC05 - Bloodline (9 page)

“Why don’t you portal too?” Gruen asked.

“We need to check the entire distance for signs of trouble; it won’t take us long. See you there.”

I could see that that’s not what Alex and the other Watchers wanted to hear, but there was no sense in arguing with us. This time it was Quinn with the smug grin on his face as Alex passed.

Kentucky’s clan wasn’t far and it took less than an hour to get there at full vampire speed.

“This must be the border of our land, I can feel the protections,” El said.

“You’re right, let’s walk from here.”

The forest was inky black. The glowing eyes of nocturnal hunters followed us on our way. When we reached the clan compound, Gruen and Liridon were waiting along with clan residents Sun Jay and Baret, who were vampires that we had trained ourselves to be the first clan members in America. Each was ready to help us root out the evil here. Gunter had also arrived with enough new Watchers to keep us safe.

“What did you see during the day today, Gunter?” Kate asked.

“We found a place in the woods where they are hiding the dead instead of burying them. It appears that there are only seven hybrids here, but I overheard some of them and they seem to have a leader that travels to and from locations telling them what they need to do.”

“Hmm, that could be a Noctu, demon vampires that don’t have the cover of human scent. I would bet he stays in the forest containing and controlling fledglings as they rise.”

“That is my best guess too, Katrina,” Gunter agreed.

“Then we need to wait for him.”

“We can do that, Katrina,” Gruen said. “He won’t notice us now that you have masked our scent and there are so many other shape shifters around here that he won’t pay any attention to Liridon either, of course each kind of shape shifter carry a unique scent.”

“Other shape shifters?” Letta said with a note of surprise.

“Yes, you didn’t know?”

“No, but if they don’t mean us any harm, we don’t go looking,” Rosa said.

“That is interesting news all right, but we have hybrids to deal with. Where are they Gruen?”

“They are on the outskirts of the town.”

“They probably will take victims as they rise or take them from their beds, then sleep,” Liridon said.

“Is seven the number, Gruen?”

“That’s what I count, yes.”

“All right then, we’ll meet you in the forest surrounding them after we finish off the hybrids.”

“Knowing the five of you, that won’t take long,” Liridon laughed.

Quinn and Avery took the Watchers in first, remembering not to get too close. Gruen and Liridon headed for the fledgling camp to wait and watch for the leader and the seven of us circled around behind the hybrids.

One for each of us was hardly a fight. We beheaded them and left the bodies for the Watchers to dispose of this time before heading into the woods. We had not come across any of the demon army and hoped that Nathaniel’s clan would be the only one that had to deal with them.

It was just before dawn when to our surprise not only one, but three Noctu made their way through the trees.

“By the look of things we will have new recruits tonight and they will be starving; the first night of feeding is always so much fun, isn’t it?” said one.

“You won’t think so if we have to handle them all by ourselves.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone else enter the camp. It was Gruen!

“Sorry to disturb you, but you don’t happen to have anything to eat around here do you? I have traveled far and I’m very hungry. A small pig would be good, if that’s all you have.”

The Noctu stared at him and then started to laugh.

“You, my very large friend, are welcome to stay for breakfast. The only thing is, you will be the breakfast!”

Gruen started to laugh and the others joined in, and then all at once they lunged at Gruen, who not only stood his ground, but opened his huge arms and invited them in.

They hissed and knocked him to the ground, drawing erect as they poised to deliver a fatal blow. Before they could even move, daggers flew from Rosa and landed in the back of each of the Noctu. The look of merciless superiority on their faces was replaced by confusion and agony as they sank to the ground, mortally injured. It was Gruen who then rose from the ground.

 “Should have been nicer to a hungry stranger,” he chastised as he removed their heads.

With only clean up to do, Sun Jay, Baret, El, Rosa and Kate left us to begin healing the sick. Avery and Quinn accompanied them to provide for their safety.

The rest of us dealt with the ‘dead’ who soon would have become fledglings. Letta burned the bodies to ash and then washed the area clean again with a soft rain.

After we finished, we joined the others. We found them just finishing up the healings of five citizens.

I walked past the dazed human doctor seated by the door.

“He gave you trouble?” I asked indicating the doctor,

“You can’t blame him for being wary of strangers after what they’ve been through,” El said. “He’ll come out of it after we leave and not remember that we were ever here.”

“What we are doing is fine for these rural areas, but this is not going to work in the cities,” Gunter said. “I can’t see how we will ever totally be rid of them.”

“You may be right, Gunter,” I said. “But we have to try.”

“I have an idea and a way for Watcher’s to take a lead role,” Avery said.

“Go on little brother,” Gunter said.

“We are trained to watch humans. These hybrids are infiltrating human populations by essentially being human, right?”

“So we need to train more human Watchers?” Kate said.

“You are basically calling for us to form our own Volator to hunt these vampires,” I said. “Is this something you personally want to take on, Avery?”

“Yes, I feel it is my path. Who, other than Quinn and I are more qualified. We’ve grown up protecting the peaceful race of vampires. Now we are vampires ourselves and there is a new threat to not only us, but everyone who seeks peace.”

“Father is having elite guard trained, recruiting more Watchers may not be as easy as it sounds,” Kate said.

“There will be those like Patrick that would help,” I said. “It’s definitely something to think about. Avery. If it’s what you think you need to do, we’ll support you. Speak with Father about it when you get back. This may be something that Thomas and Simon can work with you on.”

“That’s a good idea, Katrina. What about you; what are you going to do now?” Avery asked.

“We are going to speak with Julian and his coven. The witches as warlocks need to know what’s going on and I want to see what they are able to do to help us,” I said.

“We might as well go and visit Mother in New York while we are in the area,” Kate added.

“Don’t look at me like that, you’re not going anywhere without me,” Quinn said.

“I really want you to go home, Quinn. You and Avery scent human, but the witches and warlocks will know what you really are, and I don’t want that.”

“Then Avery can go home and I’ll go straight to New York, I’m not going home until you do,” he insisted.

I sighed; it was no use arguing with him.

“We’ll see the rest of you back at home then as soon as we can.”

Damien:

“What is it that you want, Rafael?” I asked as we dismissed the two young humans.

“Perhaps we can help each other,” he said as the three pulled out chairs and started to sit down.

“Oh I doubt that. Your kind is causing too much trouble. Soon the royals will not be the only ones fighting you and neither my brother nor I want to be caught in the middle of that. The Cousins may serve you in order to save themselves, but we no longer serve others.”

“I see absolutely no use for that rabble. You and your brother however, have been in the inner circles and continue to be welcome from what I hear. You know intimate details of that organization and that knowledge would be very helpful.”

I could feel Cain’s anger building.

“All right, say for the moment that we would be interested in joining you. What’s in it for us?”

“Well, you and your immediate family would get to live,” he said with a sneer. “The rest would be up to you.”

“So
you
have the final word?” Cain inquired.

“Yes,” Rafael said angrily.

“That alone gives me little confidence that you will succeed,” Cain scoffed.

Rafael stood abruptly, followed instantly by the other two, causing those close by to stop their feeding and conversation to look over at us.

Cain and I were unfazed and casually leaned back into our chairs.

“Oh, Cain, you’ve upset poor Rafael and his entourage. We’ll think about your offer and let you know, now if you’ll excuse us, we came here for entertainment, not conversation.”

I called two more young women over and ignored Rafael, though I could feel him glowering down at me. I fully expected him to say something more, but they simply backed away and faded into the night.

“
That was interesting to say the least
,” Cain said to my mind.

“
He’s angry enough to make a mistake. It could be just what we needed.”

“Let’s get out of here and follow our new friends.”

Using our Jinn power, we made sure the girls were happy, then walked slowly to the exit, subtly changing our appearance as we walked, including our clothing.

Once outside, I flared my nostrils and found that the scent we’d marked was close by.

“
They’re upstairs. The other two we sensed earlier are still there as well. Let’s walk down the alley to make sure we aren’t being followed and then we’ll blend in and get closer so that we can hear, mark them and decide what to do next.”

“Look, at the end of the alley,”
Cain said nodding in that direction.

“Elite guard.”

Cain didn’t have a Watcher, but I knew Ivan was close by, if he’d noticed my new powers he didn’t mention it.

No one followed us, so we backed into the shadows of the staircase. Cain had taught me everything he knew about the power I now possessed, including how to use blending. This new skill made it easy for us to be wherever we needed to be without being detected. The only way to be sensed once blended, was by someone or something else that was blended as well.

In this case we were perfectly camouflaged into the building, but our pattern would change as we walked along to blend seamlessly into whatever surrounded us. Now undetectable, we simply concentrated on Rafael and were instantly transported into the room above, so that we could observe and figure out what we needed to do next. Rafael and his brothers were still clearly agitated.

“Calm down brother, these royals are of no consequence. Whether they decide to help us or not we will succeed,” one of the two unidentified vampires said.