Burning Ash

by N. J. Walters

  The woman went to her knees beside him. “I’m sorry,” she cried. Tears filled her eyes as she looked to Bernard and then him and finally Jo. “I’m sorry, but I was angry. Don’t hurt William. He and Harrison were friends.”

  Asher released the young man, who sat upright, still gasping. Fear had replaced his anger. “If you were such good friends, why were you not with him and the others?” When William remained quiet, he crouched beside him. “Don’t make me do this the hard way.” If he had to tear into the man’s brain to get answers, he might not survive.

  To give the young male credit, he looked to Bernard first, waiting until he’d received a nod. “He and the others were going off on some stupid hunt. Something about being paid money to kill someone. But the sire always says we shouldn’t harm anyone. It proves nothing since we’re already stronger than they are. Plus, we need them to survive. If word got out about us, we’d be hunted.”

  Truth. Too bad the others hadn’t followed the rules.

  “We have existed for millennia only because we remain no more than myth. That was not always the case and almost ended us all.” Asher straightened and offered William his hand. The young man swallowed hard and then took it.

  “Do you know how Harrison found out about the bounty? How he was contacted?”

  “An email.”

  Bernard shook his head, an aura of sorrow surrounding him. “The young do not always listen. You hope their mistakes will not be fatal ones, but that is not always the case. Get his laptop.”

  William bowed. “Yes, sire.”

  “The rest of you, go amuse yourselves but stay nearby.”

  He cleared his throat.

  Bernard sighed. “You wish to speak with them?”

  “Any of you who were close to the men who died, please remain.”

  “I need another drink.” Bernard signaled to the bartender. “Would you join me?”

  “I will. Jo?”

  She sheathed her sword and lowered her crossbow. “I don’t suppose you have any beer, do you?”

  “A full selection. The younger ones enjoy it laced with blood. It’s not to my taste but I provide it.”

  “I’ll take mine without the blood. Whatever you have in a bottle or can will be fine.”

  “As you wish.” He nodded at the bartender again. “Please join me.”

  Asher placed his hand on Jo’s back to keep her in front of him as they went to the booth. She scooted in but kept her distance from their host. The angle and position would serve her well if she needed to fight or if they were attacked. His hunter was always thinking.

  Strategically the booth was the best vantage point in the room. The most comfortable, as well. Not that he was expecting much trouble from the others. They were all young, confused, and afraid. They also respected their sire and would follow his lead.

  Bernard seemed to have a rein on his people. Which begged the question, “What happened?”

  The bartender arrived, placed their drinks in front of them, and quickly withdrew. Not that there was really any privacy since they all had preternatural hearing, except for Jo. It was more the illusion of privacy.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I know my children. Or thought I did. Some of them sometimes do things on a lark, you understand. Any breaking of the rules is met with swift punishment. The Council is quick to intervene otherwise. In the early days, I lost some of my loved ones to bloodlust. It took many years before I dared to add to my family. This is the worst episode in two hundred years.”

  He looked to Jo. “There was no misunderstanding? They weren’t simply trying to scare you?”

  “I’m sorry.” The note of compassion in her voice surprised him. “You really care about them.” She twisted the cap off her beer but didn’t drink.

  “They are my children.”

  William hurried back into the room with the laptop and placed it on the table. “Sire.” He hovered next to his maker until Bernard motioned him away.

  “Here. You may as well look. I admit this is one area where I have fallen short. I have people that handle these things.”

  “Stanley,” Jo guessed. She rolled the bottle clasped between her hands back and forth.

  “Yes, he is quite accomplished with the things and actually enjoys them.” He shook his head as though he thought the young man crazy.

  Asher booted up the machine. Getting beyond the security was the work of a moment. Most people used simple passwords.

  Since the most obvious place was Harrison’s email, he checked that first. There was nothing more than the expected chatter between the friends. There was one email that caught his attention.

  “Anything of interest?” Bernard asked.

  “An email between Harrison and Nevin Spears. Is Spears one of yours?”

  “No, he is not.” He looked out over the lounge. “Do any of you know of this man?”

  It was William, the one he’d had almost strangled, who raised his hand. It struck him how young they all were. While physically he was in his mid-twenties, maybe a year or two younger than Jo, she seemed far older and much wiser.

  “Come here.” Bernard motioned the man over. If he’d been nervous before, now he was petrified. He was shaking so hard, Asher was surprised he could walk.

  “What do you know?” his maker demanded.

  William licked his lips and glanced to the side. “Nevin was Harrison’s best friend growing up.”

  “He turned him, didn’t he?” Jo took a long swig of beer. “Christ, what a mess.”

  Bernard hissed, displaying the first bit of temper. “And you did not think to tell me?” While his voice was calm, the fury bubbling beneath it was anything but.

  The young man fell to his knees, his hands clasped together as though in prayer. “I didn’t know. Harrison missed him, talked about him all the time. But I had no idea he’d actually turned him. You told us not to.”

  Bernard threw back his head and roared. The younger ones all fell to their knees. Stanley suddenly appeared in the doorway, his face pale. He, too, knelt and lowered his head.

  “You are not old enough to make another. Not if you wish to stay sane. I have told you this many times. Now, it has been proven. This is my fault. I take full responsibility. Obviously, Harrison was not as stable as I’d thought. To do such a thing…” With a deep sigh, he inclined his head. “I will accept whatever punishment is deemed fit. If that requires my death, all I ask is that you spare my children and see them settled somewhere safe. They are too young to be left on their own.”

  Some of Bernard’s children protested. Others cried but tried to hide it. Stanley wept openly. All of them were afraid, except for Bernard. He was more resigned.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, stop it,” Jo ordered. “You’re giving me a headache. No one is going to take the fall for someone else. There’s no justice in that.”

  The corners of Asher’s mouth twitched as they all stared at his hunter with varying degrees of disbelief. She did have a way of cutting to the core of a matter.

  “This hunter speaks for you?” Bernard seemed more curious than outraged, as might have been expected from one of his age.

  “In this case, yes. The innocent are safe. However, hide something from me and I will deem you an accessory to a crime.” He peered out over the group. “Anyone have the urge to confess anything? Now is the time. There will be no second chances.”

  Expectation and fear mingled. William raised his head. “I told you all I know. If I’d known Harrison was going to do something this crazy, I would have told the sire.”

  “Hear me and hear me well.” Bernard’s cultured tones rang throughout the room. “It takes time to grow into vampirism. You must learn to control yourself. A task not as easy as it sounds. The newly made must be monitored constantly to ensure they are stable. A making is not always successful. Th
ere are some reborn who become mindless creatures lost to bloodlust. They can be cunning, hiding behind a mask of sanity. You must be strong enough to see it and control it. If necessary, you must be able to destroy one of your own. If you do not, the Council will come for you.”

  The air was thick with trepidation, but this was a very good lesson for them all. It might keep some of them alive. “I’d suggest you ease up on making more until you’re sure those you have are stable,” he suggested.

  “I believe you are correct.”

  “Anything else on the computer?” Jo asked. She might be the only human in the room, but she was the one he’d want at his back in a fight. Asher reached beneath the table and gave her thigh a squeeze, very aware of the fact her crossbow was trained on Bernard.

  He went back to the laptop, combing through the browser history. “Interesting.”

  “What?” When she leaned closer, he tilted the screen in her direction.

  “That is not a coincidence.”

  He agreed with her. “No, it is not.” Asher addressed the room at large. “What do you know of the Forgotten Brotherhood?” When Bernard went to speak, he held up his hand, commanding silence.

  Several of the men looked at one another. “Is that like a video game or something?” one of them asked.

  “It’s a secret society of assassins that slays paranormal monsters. Not us, but the ones that break the rules and get out of hand.” Stanley, the resident tech geek, slowly pushed to his feet. “I spend a lot of my time online hunting for information.”

  Bernard cursed under his breath but remained silent.

  “Come here,” Asher commanded.

  Fear rolled off him in waves, but he did not hesitate. There was bravery there, along with intellect. A deadly combination. While the others in the room had obviously relegated Stanley to the role of geek, his sire had seen something different, hence his position as assistant.

  Such a post was not given lightly.

  Asher had been as guilty. There were layers to this young man. He would need to be monitored as he matured.

  “How much do you know about the Brotherhood?” And how had he gotten through the layers of security to their private pages? It was how they communicated with one another and prospective clients. No one. No one should have been able to do so. Fury radiated through him.

  “All of it,” he blurted. “I didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t stop myself. I know about the job postings. I know who most of you are.”

  The lights dimmed, and the walls undulated. Jo gasped but stayed steady. The others glanced anxiously around the room. Asher took a breath, leashing his anger. “You are more than good with computers. You have a rare gift. Who is the leader of the Brotherhood? And do not lie to me.”

  “Ah, that would be Maccus. He seems totally badass. Not that you’re not or anything.”

  “Stake me out in the sun now,” Bernard muttered. He knocked back his drink and raised his hand to the bartender. “Bring the bottle.”

  “I appreciate the vote of confidence.” Asher’s tone was as dry as the Sahara Desert in midsummer. “It would be best if the rest of them left the premises. This is a conversation we must have in private.” The less people knew about the Brotherhood the better.

  “You’re right, of course.” He turned to the rest of his children. “Pack your things and move to the Long Island estate. Go straight there and stay inside. Do not contact anyone.”

  “Be smart and listen to your sire. Because I am the boogeyman. Daylight won’t stop me. Nothing will. I can always find you. If you remember something that might be pertinent, contact Bernard and he will relay the information to me.” They feared him now. Good. It would keep them alive.

  There was a flurry of movement and in less than two minutes the apartment was empty except for the four of them. Jo was more relaxed now that the vampire population had shrunk considerably, but she still had her crossbow poised to fire.

  Bernard reeked of sadness and introspection. He’d created too many children and been unable to properly monitor them. Several of them had paid for that mistake.

  As for Stanley, there was no way such a young man, no matter his skills, should have been able to hack the site. But since he had…

  “Have you found any anomalies? Anyone else snooping around?”

  …

  Her life had taken some unexpected twists over the years, but the past few days had turned everything so topsy-turvy that she didn’t know which way was up or down.

  She actually liked Bernard. How insane was that?

  While Gregori was slick and sophisticated, Bernard was more family oriented—a disillusioned parent who’d discovered his child, or in this case children, had done something horribly wrong. Now he was suffering a whole pile of guilt over the entire affair.

  And the fact he taught—no, demanded his children adhere to the rules was admirable. Didn’t discount the fact he had way too many of them and had lost control.

  Stanley seemed more…conscientious than the others. Not quite sure that was the word she was searching for, but if he was Bernard’s assistant, he had a leg up on the rest in terms of maturity, in spite of his little display of aggression when they’d met. Hell, if she’d have been in his shoes, she’d have shot first and asked questions later. That he hadn’t spoke well of him.

  While he wasn’t showy, he didn’t lack courage.

  “I did see something that seemed out of place, my lord.”

  “Call me Asher. I am not your sire or your lord.”

  “Yes, my lo— I mean, Asher.” He motioned to the laptop. “If I may?”

  Jo had one eye on Bernard, but he seemed just as fascinated as she was. When he saw her watching him, he simply poured another glass of blood-laced wine and raised his glass to her. She raised her bottle in return and took a small sip of the warming brew.

  Meanwhile Stanley’s fingers were flying over the keyboard, making it impossible to follow what he was doing. Odd symbols and codes, numbers and letters raced over the screen.

  “Yes,” Asher muttered. “I see what you mean.”

  Good thing someone did, because she was totally lost. And how was this even relevant? “How will this help? I mean, I know Harrison shouldn’t have known about the Brotherhood, but the contract on me is not going to be on the website.”

  “No, but if someone is intent on fucking with the Brotherhood, they’d want to monitor the situation. It also has a forum where we can communicate with one another, share information, or leave messages.”

  “Makes sense.” She should have figured that out on her own. While the vamps could go seemingly nonstop and fuel up on blood, she needed actual food. Her stomach chose that moment to growl in agreement.

  Asher frowned and looked her way. “I’m good,” she assured him. He needed to keep his head in the game.

  “Here it is.” Stanley pointed to something. While Asher seemed to understand what it meant, the symbols were a foreign language to her.

  “A tiny backdoor. How is that possible? I built the site myself, and that was not in my coding.” Taking the laptop back from the younger man, he hunched over the machine and went to work.

  Stanley’s eyes widened with awe and filled with what might be called hero worship the longer he watched. Bernard seemed as bemused as she.

  “How did you two come together?”

  Since neither of the computer geeks was paying them any attention, she decided to engage the older vampire. “On a hunt. We both received an anonymous email. I was there to kill a vampire who called himself Vlad the Impaler.”

  Asher muttered, “I ended that bastard years ago.” Proving he was paying attention to them.

  “You’ve said that. Many times,” she teased. He shot her a glare and went back to work on the laptop. “Anyway, this fake Vlad had gathered a couple dozen followers with promises to
turn them. Frankly, from what I witnessed, he was going to murder them all for fun and sport. So I killed him.”

  “We killed him,” he corrected.

  “Who’s telling this story? You keep your fingers moving and your mind on what you’re doing.”

  Bernard leaned back and a smile touched his lips. “Fascinating.”

  A low growl permeated the room. The table shook and the bottles behind the bar rattled. Shit, was that coming from Asher?

  Bernard held up his hands in a sign of peace. “No need for that. I find your hunter fascinating in a purely intellectual way.”

  “Keep it that way.”

  Wow, was Asher jealous? The glare he gave her would suggest he was angry, but there was no denying he’d gone all territorial. Was it wrong of her to be turned on by that? She tried to rein that in because…well…vampires. She didn’t want either of the other men catching a whiff of that.

  Replaying her bloodiest battles helped throttle back her wayward emotions. Keep your head in the game.

  To lose focus was to die. That was her mantra.

  Asher’s fingers finally stopped moving. “Well?” she asked.

  “I shut the backdoor to the site, but I couldn’t trace the source. I should have been able to.”

  “He totally should have,” Stanley agreed. “You have mad skills.”

  “As do you, my young friend.” At his praise, Stanley actually blushed, his cheeks turning a pale reddish shade.

  “What does that mean?” While the mutual admiration society was adorable, she wanted cold hard facts.

  “It means that someone has been monitoring what we’ve been doing. I don’t think it’s been going on for long. I do a complete system check once a year. That didn’t exist the last time I checked six months ago. I’ll have to be more diligent. And you need to stay out of it,” he warned the young man. “I’ll be watching for you.”

  From the crestfallen expression on his face, Stanley was disappointed, but he nodded. “I get it. I won’t. Maybe I’ll hack the Pentagon instead.”

  Bernard groaned and hit his head on the back of the seat. “No hacking that will bring government officials to our door.”