Endar chuckled. If he heard the annoyance in my voice, he’d chosen to ignore it. “Of course. You never fail in your duties.”
“So?” I asked. “What do you want? I’m trying to enjoy my time alone. Don’t you have somewhere more important to be?”
“So cold,” Endar said. “Don’t you want to chitchat with your father?”
“Not really.”
“Hm.” Endar smiled. “On to serious matters, then. You might find this intriguing.”
I tilted my head.
“We think there’s a chance for us to find a new queen.”
“What?” I stiffened and frowned at my father. “A queen? That’s not possible. We can’t make one anymore.”
“But we think there’s a way. Isn’t this great? There’s hope. The vampires are weakening without one. We need more fullbloods. We used to be three families strong, but because of the war, there are now only two of us. This isn’t sustainable. Eventually, either you or I will die, and that would be a tragedy for our race. We need more support. More numbers. We can’t face the hunters or wolves with such little strength.”
I hated hearing Father’s words, but I knew they were true.
“We can’t have a queen,” I said, glaring at Endar. “The fullblood females have all been hunted and killed.”
Father folded his arms across his chest. “What if I told you that there may be one of them remaining?”
“How?”
“We caught a witch dealing in illegal spells amongst vampires, and to bargain for her freedom, she let us know of a hidden Elvira girl.” The Elviras were one of the old fullblood vampire families. They were supposed to have gone extinct during the Ravaging. “She’s masked as a human. Her vampiric abilities have been suppressed with the witch’s spell, but there are ways to get around that. We want to use the Sanctum to weed her out. Once we find her, I want you to mate with her. Make her your queen.”
My nostrils flared. “No.”
“No?” Endar looked disappointed. “But you must.”
“What about you? You can mate with her.”
To create a vampire queen, a fullblood male at least three hundred years old had to mate and pledge his allegiance to another fullblood female. My father qualified.
“I’m loyal to your stepmother. I would only do it if I had no other choice.” Endar might be a strict father, but he had always been a loving husband. His first wife, my real mother, had died to the hunters two hundred years ago. Father took a hundred long years to get over her. Thankfully, since they’d never truly mated, Father could continue living. Once vampires mated, their lives were bonded to each other, and if one died, the other perished too.
“So, you can’t make the sacrifice. And you’re looking at me to take on the burden instead,” I said. I made no attempt to hide my bitterness. “I don’t want it.”
“We have to do things we don’t want to sometimes.”
“Hypocrite.”
Father shrugged. “Consider it. We need you, son.”
Son. Always that way of addressing me. It sounded like a lie. Endar saw me as a tool instead of his kin.
“I want to be alone,” I said. “Let me think over this.”
“It is not such a bad thing to have a mate.”
“It leaves you vulnerable. You share your life with another.” There was a time when I might have entertained the idea, but I’d grown cold since then. I’d locked my emotions away and promised myself I could never love again.
“You’d be more powerful than you are now. You’d be mating not with a normal vampire, but with a queen. The only one to exist. Just imagine.”
“I’m imagining it,” I said. “And it doesn’t sound too appealing, honestly.”
“Why?”
“Power and love don’t mix. Why didn’t you mate with my mother? She would have been a queen, too. You hesitated.”
Bringing her up caused my father to waver. Perhaps he’d never truly gotten over her. “I wanted to wait for the right time. For the best moment to call her mine. I wasn’t with her just because she was a fullblood. She was… Your mother was something.” Endar brushed his hand through his hair, then blew out a deep breath. “I regret that. Always did. Your mother was an amazing woman and she deserved better.”
“And this new fullblood?”
Endar shook his head. “Mating with her would break Gisella. She and I… We want to spend the rest of our lives together. You, however, are unattached. You’re free to take a new mate. There’s nothing holding you back.”
I growled. Father didn’t understand. My past still had a noose around my neck. “Don’t ask me to do something you yourself are incapable of.”
“If the vampire race truly needs me to sacrifice Gisella, I would. But you’re an alternative—”
“Do it yourself.”
“Why are you so adamant about this? This is to save the vampires.”
“There are limits to duty.” And I’d been betrayed too deeply to mate with anyone, to let anybody this close to me ever again. Love was a thing of a past. Something the innocent me had fallen prey to. Letting people in made me too vulnerable to hurt, and I couldn’t risk that, not even if it meant putting my whole race in danger.
I’d grown selfish.
I’d grown cold.
It was how I protected my heart.
“I’m losing faith in you,” my father said.
“Yeah?” I asked. “I’m not sure if I care anymore.”
“You’ve changed so much,” Endar said, shaking his head. “You used to get excited about things. You were one of the best vampires around. Someone for our race to look up to. What happened?”
Too many things.
“I need to rest.”
“You’ve rested long enough,” Endar said. “I know that Edrik’s death bothers you, but that was years ago. You have to learn how to let go as an immor—”
“Leave!”
Endar tensed. We glared at each other, silence surrounding us. “You need to move on. Janella isn’t alive anymore, and it’s time for you to mate with someone else.”
“Please,” I said. “Get out.”
“A queen, son.”
“Get. Out.”
“You’ll come around eventually.”
Endar sighed, shook his head, then sauntered back up to the amphitheater’s entrance. The door creaked open and slammed closed.
Stillness.
I breathed in the remaining solitude, letting it calm me.
Three
Verity
I hated vampires.
I knew for sure they existed. I’d figured that out a couple years back. Jonas, a thirty-two-year-old man who smoked too many cigarettes, had confirmed my suspicions about vampires.
We’d met during my search for my grandma’s killers. He taught me most things I knew about vampires. He was a good friend.
He’d died six months after my meeting him.
He’d been taken out by one of the suckers during a hunt. I missed that bastard. I told him that I loved the shit out of him—in a friendly way—before he was gone. At least I didn’t have too many regrets there. Not like with Gran and how her death haunted me every day.
The damp humidity of the city’s alleyways clung to my skin. Today, I hunted down another one of those suckers. They’d been getting more numerous lately. They were pests, loitering about my city, putting innocents in danger. I still felt guilty about what had happened to Gran, so I took it upon myself to ensure that the vampires stopped wreaking havoc around the streets here. I made a turn on Hart Street, then lowered myself to the bait I’d set up. I flipped over the trap.
The blood bag was torn.
Bingo.
It’d taken the bait. I’d learned that they were not the brightest creatures, especially when driven mad with hunger. It had eaten the charmed redseed I’d placed inside the blood bag I’d left out in the open. With that, I could track it easily using my compass. I stood, then ensured I had all my supplies in o
rder. Knives. A couple of pistols. Ropes.
And craw oil.
Jonas had emphasized the importance of craw oil. Vampires absolutely hated its stench. The oil drove them wild and threw them off their game, giving me the openings I needed.
The sun shone brightly and the city bustled. That put me at an advantage. Jonas had taught me to never hunt vampires at night. The sun killed them, and fighting them without its rays was akin to being handicapped.
He should have listened to his own advice. The sun was down the night he died. I should have stopped him from the chase, but we’d been hunting that vampire for two weeks, and he’d grown impatient and desperate.
I retied my shoelaces, just in case, checking they were tight. I’d nearly tripped over them once, and it had almost gotten me killed. Once I finished, I took out my compass. The metal was rusted and one side was chipped. In the center was a red gem that would light up if a creature of the night stalked nearby. The compass looked like it belonged in an antique shop, but it did the job of finding vampires well enough. Jonas had given it to me around a year back. He told me that he’d gotten it charmed by a witch he met in New Orleans ten years ago.
Jonas had heard that a girl—me—was looking for information on vampires, and decided to recruit me. I now followed his legacy and avenged Gran while doing so. I’d taken down fifteen vampires since he’d gone. Still, I didn’t think that was enough.
I wasn’t going to stop until I exterminated all of them.
I glanced at my hand. The arrow of the compass moved back and forth, wavering. It settled on northeast.
I followed its direction, stepping over an empty can of Coke and some rubbish. The city was noisy, but I was always wary about making too much noise. I walked past the brick walls and messily scribbled graffiti. There were too many alleyways and corners for the vampire to hide in. I feared I might get ambushed.
The arrow of the compass halted. I looked into an alleyway. It was gated. Blocked by a wrought-iron fence.
My heartbeat quickened. I should be braver after facing so many of these creatures, but nervousness got me every time. One could never be too comfortable while chasing down bloodthirsty immortal beings. Remembering the way Jonas died also made me wary. His death had happened in a fraction of a second, with the vampire tearing his head from his neck. If I hadn’t thrown the craw oil at the vampire as quickly as I had, I would’ve been killed too.
In the distance, a police siren blared. Someone was causing trouble, but my compass pointed the other way. I steeled my nerves and continued onward.
I stopped in the middle of an alleyway. The red gem in the middle of my compass glowed, indicating that the vampires were nearby. While hearing the beating of my own heart in my ears, I unsheathed my stake and then twirled it, readying myself for battle.
I flipped open my sling bag and took out the craw oil. It was kept inside a green bottle. Expensive stuff. I’d had to work part-time at a fast food chain and spend my entire month’s savings just to buy this bottle. Vampire hunting was a pricey activity. Slowly, I uncapped the bottle, then poured half of it onto the ground.
I waited.
It took a while for the smell to permeate my surroundings.
And then I heard it.
A shriek.
The vampire entered the alleyway as a silhouette, its form human but its movements animal-like. It landed on a metal staircase and bared its fangs at me. My first instinct was to shrink back and run. Still, I held my ground.
Adrenaline buzzed through me, heightening my senses.
I squinted, attempting to make out the vampire’s features in the darkness. It was male and wore a torn, raggedy shirt. He tied his hair in a messy ponytail. He almost looked beautiful, but his stark red eyes gave him a monstrous appearance. The creature curled his fingers around the metal railing and hissed. The sides of his mouth were covered in blood, most likely the contents of the blood bag I’d left out in the open.
“Come at me,” I said. I held a stake in one hand and a dagger in the other.
In response to my taunt, it slammed its hands against the railings and hissed again. The sound echoed throughout the alleyway, its tune hollow, intimidating, disturbing.
In a flash, the creature leapt over the staircase and blitzed toward me. It was too fast for my eyes to follow, but I had my equipment ready. As soon as I felt it grab me, I tossed the craw oil at where I thought its eyes might be. My heart pounded and my instincts to run and hide rang in my ears. I could die just like Jonas had. Every time I faced a vampire, it felt as if I was confronting death itself.
My craw oil hit its mark.
The vampire stumbled backward, releasing a sharp cry.
I didn’t know why vampires hated the oil so much—I thought it smelled pleasant, but they treated it as if it might be the plague. The vampire rubbed its hands over its face, losing its balance and more of its composure. It clawed at its eyes in an attempt to get rid of the oil.
And there was my opening.
I plunged my dagger at its arm, disabling it, then thrust my stake through the creature’s heart.
Blood splattered over me.
I huffed, my shoulders rising and falling because of how hard I was breathing.
“Die,” I said.
The creature took a step backward as it made a weak sound. My stake slid out of his chest. The weapon was covered in his blood, which dripped down my hand, warming my skin as it snaked its way toward the ground.
The vampire convulsed before collapsing.
I nudged it with my boot and received no response.
It was dead.
Good.
The streets had one less predator, and I’d survived another day. It took a minute or two for the rush of adrenaline to subside. I let out a heavy breath, then brought out my rag so I could wipe my stake. The vampire’s blood smelled more pungent than the craw oil, and there was a tinge of bitterness in its smell.
“Disgusting,” I said, tossing aside the old rag and re-sheathing my blade. I thought the battle was over.
I’d let down my guard too soon.
The vampire writhed and recovered in an instant. It pushed itself to its feet before baring its fangs at me.
Shit.
My stake must have missed its mark. I had little craw oil left, and the same trick usually didn’t work twice. The creatures were too smart for that. I turned and ran as fast as I could, escaping into the sun. Jonas had taught me to do that whenever we were overpowered. The sun was my protection and last resort. Its warm glow bathed me, protecting me from the vampire.
The vampire made another hissing noise and stared at me from the shadows, its eyes red and beady. It craned its neck away from me, and faster than I could give chase, it bounded out of the alleyway, smashing through a window and into one of the buildings. It hugged the shadows closely, since the sun would burn it alive.
I huffed.
That was close.
There was no way for me to get to it now that it’d escaped. Vampires were far faster than humans. I had to rely on my cheap tricks to capture and kill them.
I glanced down at my empty bottle, once filled with craw oil.
All that work. The long nights in my part-time job. The careful planning. Confronting my fears.
And I had nothing to show for it.
I walked out of the local library, into the cool winds of the autumn. A street lamp was broken. It was nighttime. The lamp flickered a couple times before dying out.
I shook my head. I’d let the vampire get away. Tonight, it might prey on another unsuspecting victim. I told myself it wasn’t my fault if anything happened to someone else, but I still blamed myself for my ineptitude. I should have made sure I’d properly driven the stake in. I had to get more craw oil somehow. And fast.
What if that creature got someone else?
I’d returned to the library to study after my failed escapade. I still needed to get good grades in my major, biochemistry. My parents wanted me to qua
lify for a scholarship from the local university I attended. It’d give them bragging rights, and me a free place to stay at the dorms. They wanted me to move out. They said it was best for me to be close to the school, but I wondered whether it was because they didn’t want me around.
They’d always loved Hannah more.
I did, too. She was an easy person to like.
The library was a couple blocks away from home. I strode down the street toward my house, bag strapped tightly against my back. My killing supplies were tucked away in the bottom of my bag, away from the eyes of my parents. They’d flip out if they ever found out what I spent my free time doing. I craned my neck up and sighed. The moon hung brightly in the middle of the night sky. I thought I heard a wolf howling somewhere, though that might have been a figment of my imagination.
I should get back soon. The night wasn’t safe, and a stray vampire lurked about the neighborhood due to my miscalculation.
I stopped in front of my apartment, keyed in the passcode, and waited for the door to unlock. A sinking, dreadful sensation weighed in my chest before I entered. I hated coming home. Not because of Hannah, of course, but my parents didn’t make staying with them easy.
Mom was flicking through the television channels, lounging on our old couch. She had her hair tied in a messy bun. Work always tired her out, and as soon as she got home, she liked to switch out her work clothes for a loose, baggy t-shirt and a pair of yoga pants. Mom had her feet propped on the coffee table and her hand draped loosely over the arm of the couch. The house had a citrusy scent permeating it. She must have cleaned up the place before I got home. Gran used to do most of the cleaning at home, but ever since she was killed, Mom took over most of the chores. The interior hadn’t changed much since Gran’s death. They’d left Gran’s favorite chair right where she died, as rickety as ever. Mom treated it like a keepsake.
“You didn’t clean the dishes before leaving the house today,” Mom said as soon as I stepped through the doorway. I hadn’t even had have time to take off my shoes. “I was hoping you’d help out a bit more. Hannah’s been carrying out her fair share of chores, and I think you should, too.”
Fullblood Academy: A Vampire Academy Mild Bully Romance (Vampires of the Sanctum Book 1) Page 2