Eternal Reign (Age of Vampires Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  So far, Callie and I hadn't been tested. But every time that bell rang it sounded ominous, like an oncoming storm.

  “Get inside,” Dad murmured and I hurried to obey.

  I placed the linen bag down on the single work-top in the kitchenette; the room made up half of our living space beyond the tiny bedrooms.

  My spine tingled with nerves as the bell continued to ring, on and on. And there was only one thing I could think about.

  Callie, get your skinny ass back here.

  I’d done it. The smile on my face was staying put all the way until tomorrow at the earliest.

  We’ll eat well tonight.

  That wasn’t something I’d been sure of in months. The thought alone stopped my stomach from growling for the first time in a long time. Energy ran through my limbs from the sugary treat I’d devoured and I ran through the drain excitedly. I couldn’t wait to get home with my haul.

  I made it to the ladder and quickly clambered up it. I wanted to sprint all the way home and show Dad and Montana what I’d found. My sister was going to freak out. I’d told her what Thomas was up to and she hadn’t believed me. She could eat her words alongside her meal.

  I released a laugh of pure smug satisfaction just as I made it to the top of the ladder and climbed out into the rain.

  “Bitch!” I barely recognised Thomas before his fist made contact with my jaw. I flew backwards, landing heavily on my side and slamming my elbow into the concrete. I reeled from the sudden attack, blinking through the muddle of my thoughts and the raindrops slamming down on my face.

  I rolled over, rising onto my hands and knees but his foot connected with my stomach before I could gain my feet. I yelled out in pain as I fell back to the concrete and rolled away before he could kick me again.

  My heavy backpack jammed into my shoulder, one of the tin cans catching my ribs painfully.

  “Wait,” I gasped, raising a hand to stave him off.

  Thomas advanced on me again, rage glittering in his eyes. I’d always pegged him for a mean bastard but I’d underestimated him. He was more than just mean; that look made me think he might just kill me.

  I scrambled back, keeping myself out of his reach as he advanced. I had no weapon; we were forbidden to carry anything that could be used as one. He was half as tall as me again and twice as heavy. If he wanted to kill me, I was dead. Why the hell did I let him catch me?

  I spat a wad of blood from my mouth and managed to get to my feet, backing away further.

  “I won’t tell anyone else,” I swore, holding a hand out defensively. I was pleased that it wasn’t shaking despite the fear licking its way down my spine.

  “You won’t be able to when I’m through with you,” he growled. “How did you even find out?”

  “You’re not as clever as you think.” I slipped my bag from my back as he closed the distance between us, catching it in my right hand. “It was easy to figure out what you were doing as soon as I started paying attention.”

  Thomas’s lip curled back as he lunged towards me but this time I was ready. I ducked aside and used my momentum to swing my pack at his head. It connected with a solid thunk. Eleven cans of food slammed into the side of his skull and dropped him like a sack of crap.

  I stared down at him in shock, the silence in my ears punctured by the plink of raindrops hitting cement. Thomas lay in a growing pool of blood which seeped into the murky puddles surrounding him. I released my pack and it fell beside me, splashing water over my boots.

  My heart thrummed in my chest. I’ve killed him. Holy shit.

  I started to back away then stopped. If I really had killed him I’d have to confess to it. If the vampires found him... they hated dead bodies, wasted blood. Maybe I could come up with an excuse or something. Tell them he’d attacked me or… Pull yourself together Callie. Check his pulse.

  I battled against my fear and moved closer to Thomas’s fallen body. I leant down slowly, edging the toe of my boot away from the blood beside his head. My fingers shook slightly as I extended them towards his neck.

  His skin was warm beneath my cold fingers. I couldn’t feel anything at first but then the faint beating of his pulse came alive beneath them. I sagged in relief. He was an asshole and I’d have to tread very carefully around him from now on, but better a living asshole than a dead one.

  He groaned and shifted beneath me, making me stumble away. I backed up quickly and tripped over my pack on the ground but managed to stay on my feet.

  Thomas opened his eyes at the noise and I stared at him as he met my gaze.

  “I know your secret and now it’s mine too,” I said more bravely than I felt. “So just keep your mouth shut and so will I. They’ll never know.”

  His face contorted angrily but I didn’t give him the chance to reply. I grabbed my pack from the puddle beside me and turned to sprint away.

  The cans rattled as they bumped into each other and despite the blood I could taste from my split lip, I still knew it had been worth it.

  I kept running towards the occupied part of the Realm. There were no rules against exploring the ruins but hardly anyone bothered anyway. There wasn’t anything left out here worth taking and most people didn’t see the point in wasting their energy. I liked it in the ruins though. It was the only place that I could go where it was truly quiet.

  I ran on but suddenly the pounding of the rain wasn’t the only sound. A high-pitched ringing was coming from the town centre. I knew that sound. And it meant that I had to get home right now.

  I increased my pace and started sprinting. The pack on my back suddenly seemed so much more conspicuous. I didn’t know if I should try to hide it before I got back or if I was better off concealing it in the safety of our home.

  The ringing grew louder as I made it to the outskirts of town. The roads were deserted. Everyone had already headed back to their homes. There was no time for me to try and hide my treasured pack. I’d just have to get it back to our apartment.

  I raced down abandoned street after abandoned street, the emptiness making my skin crawl. I was late. I didn’t know what that would mean if they came knocking on our door but it couldn’t be good.

  I finally made it to the junction of our street and turned onto it. I pulled up short, my boots skidding in the mud as I spotted a group of vampires heading straight for the doors to our apartment block.

  I didn’t move. I’d never seen them wandering the Realm like that. Not in a group. There were five of them; four stood in a kind of formation around the one in the centre. They all moved with cat-like grace. It wasn’t natural.

  The four guards wore thick coats lined with golden thread, the hems trailing in the mud. They had long swords strapped across their backs but they looked more decorative than practical. It wasn’t like they needed weapons to overpower us anyway.

  Their skin almost glowed in the sunlight which made it through the rain clouds. I knew it wasn’t enough to hurt them but if the clouds just broke then poof. Or maybe not poof, maybe it would be more of a slow burn. I wasn’t sure exactly how it would kill them but I suspected it would. The one thing we could be sure of was that they couldn’t face direct sunlight. If the sun was shining we never saw them. Not that there was much hope of that during this storm.

  As if he’d felt my attention on him, the vampire in the centre of the group stilled and turned towards me. His movements were so unnatural. When he froze he literally stopped moving. I didn’t even think he was breathing. Do they even need to breathe? His icy blue gaze locked with mine and his too-perfect mouth curved into a mockery of a smile.

  I knew he was one of the Elite without having to be told. I hadn’t seen many of them in my lifetime but even amongst the other vampires they stood out as something… more.

  Their beauty was beyond eye-catching; it nearly stole your breath. Everything about them drew you closer but a feeling in the pit of my stomach always warned me away too. It was like I could feel how dangerous they were. Like some ingraine
d primal part of my makeup recognised the predator that lay beneath their stunning exterior.

  His clothes were like something from one of our Dad’s stories. He was wearing a cloak. An emerald cloak. What the hell? It would almost have been funny if I couldn’t see my death glittering in his eyes.

  The vampires guarding him stepped forward and he turned away from me as they guided him inside.

  As if a spell had been broken, I reclaimed the use of my limbs and turned back the way I’d come. No way I was following them inside but I could make it in through the back.

  The dumpsters behind the apartment building were overflowing as usual and I leapt up onto the closest one. The fire escape ladder hung a meter above my head and I jumped up, catching hold of it. My shoulders throbbed with pain, reminding me of the many injuries I’d sustained today but I had no time to listen to the protests of my body.

  I heaved myself up onto the ladder and started climbing. I made it to the top and onto the metal walkway that marked the first floor. I crossed it quickly and climbed off the other side of it, gripping a thin lip of concrete that lined the brickwork as I shimmied towards our window.

  I tapped on it urgently as I reached it and Montana’s worried face appeared through the glass a moment later. She shoved the window up and I half fell inside.

  “Callie, what the-” she began but I shushed her as I turned to secure the window again.

  “Look,” I whispered excitedly as I pulled the bag from my back and opened it to reveal the contents.

  Her eyes lit up as she spotted the haul of food and clothes but before she could ask me anything else, a sharp knock came at the front door.

  We both froze, looking towards our bedroom door in horror. We’d never been tested before. Why would they come for us now? I hoped it had nothing to do with my trip out of the Realm.

  My heart started to race and Montana snatched the bag from me, tossing it beneath her bed before pulling the worn blanket down to cover it.

  “What the hell happened to your face?” she whispered urgently and I raised my fingers to my split lip guiltily.

  “I’ll explain later. How bad does it look?”

  She shrugged and bit her lip letting me know it was pretty awful. I quickly shed my jacket and kicked off my mud-caked boots as I heard Dad heading for the front door.

  Montana grabbed a clean shirt from my closet and tossed it at me as I threw my saturated one to the floor. We repeated the process with clean pants and I kicked my sodden clothes into a corner before moving to stand beside her at our door. It was the final barrier between us and something that I really didn’t want to face.

  The sound of Dad sliding the deadbolt out of place rattled through the silence, filling my mind with images of the vampires who were waiting beyond it. The icy blue gaze of the Elite had burned its imprint onto my retinas and I didn’t relish the prospect of facing him again.

  With a deep breath, I moved beside Montana and we stepped toward the door, ready to face our fate together.. If anything I’d done today had placed my family in danger then I wouldn’t hesitate to take whatever punishment the vampires required of me. I just had to hope it wouldn’t come to that.

  “The Ford daughters are to be tested today. Bring them to me immediately,” the demanding voice filled our house, sending a tremor through my heart.

  I gazed at Callie, curling a hand around her wrist as we pressed our ears to the bedroom door. Though neither of us voiced our fears, I knew we were both putting off going out there.

  “Of course,” my Dad answered in a flat tone. “Please make yourselves comfortable, I'm afraid we've only got three chairs but I'm sure some of your Elite asses will be quite comfortable on them.”

  Jesus, why was Dad jabbing at them? No answer came from the vampires and I wondered if they even knew what humour was at all.

  Dad's footsteps thumped in our direction and Callie and I nodded, opening the door before he had to beckon us.

  I came eye to eye with Dad whose mouth was stretched into a painfully thin line.

  “Girls...” He didn't finish that sentence as the vampire's voice cut the air to ribbons again.

  “Out here. Now.”

  Callie threw a glance back into the bedroom before we moved past Dad, rounding into the kitchenette.

  My heart stumbled at the sight of three vampires before us. The front door was wide, revealing two more standing on either side of the entrance.

  The obvious leader was dressed in an emerald robe and had a dangerous glint in his eyes as they swung between Callie and I. His dark hair was neatly cut and his sharp jaw was perfectly clean-shaven. A beautiful, deadly bastard. There was no doubt he was an Elite.

  None of them had taken up Dad's offer of a seat – not surprising. But two chairs had been pulled out before the tiny kitchen table, evidently waiting for us.

  “Sit,” the leader ordered and we dropped into the chairs side by side, our hands clasping beneath the table. “Out,” he spat at Dad and I forced myself not to look at him as his footsteps pounded out of the room.

  The vampire's eyes slid between us, surveying, calculating. “I am General Wolfe of the New York Elite. Do you know what that means?”

  I shrugged and Callie shook her head.

  “It means I own you. Every damn hair on your head and every single blood cell in your veins. And I will not tolerate disobedience during the testing, understand?”

  “Yes,” Callie bit out and I gritted my jaw as I nodded.

  This vampire wasn't like the guards who patrolled the fences. He emanated power. And when he said he owned us, I had no doubt he was telling the truth.

  He gazed at Callie with narrowed eyes. “What happened to your face?”

  Callie touched her swollen lip and I tightened my grip on her hand, my heart thundering in my ears.

  Lie well, Callie.

  “I fell,” she said easily and I relaxed a fraction.

  “Hm,” Wolfe grunted, evidently satisfied. Turning, he gestured to the dark-robed vampires beside him and one of them produced a syringe with a slim needle on the end.

  Callie was first and she didn't even flinch as the guard drew out a large vial of blood from her forearm. When the guard moved to my side with a clean syringe, a shudder cascaded down my spine like cold water. I folded up my sleeve, offering the pale skin of my forearm to him. My eyes remained on the needle the entire time. A sharp pinch followed a vile dragging feeling in my veins.

  Next, they cut a small lock of our hair and put it in separate bags then wet our fingers in ink and took our prints.

  The house was deafeningly quiet. Wolfe's sharp orders were followed by our ascent and the soundless movements of his guards.

  They wrapped up everything they'd harvested from us in a sheath of leather which Wolfe tucked inside his robes.

  “You will be notified with your results in twenty four hours,” Wolfe said, moving toward the exit.

  I rose from my seat, my heart pounding frantically as my chair screeched backwards across the floor.

  “What happens if we pass the test?” The words left my lips before I had time to rethink them.

  Wolfe glanced over his shoulder with a menacing glare. “You will only find that out if and when you pass.”

  “What if we fail?” Callie demanded and tension spilled through the air.

  Wolfe grew eerily still, his dark gaze flicking between us. “Questions are for sentient beings. But unfortunately for you, the law does not recognise humans as such.”

  Anger flared in my veins hot and fast. I took a step forward, but a hand slammed down on my shoulder. A quick glance informed me Dad had returned.

  “Thank you, General,” Dad spoke loud and clear, forcing the conversation to end.

  Wolfe eyed him with disdain before exiting our home and leaving the door wide open as he sailed away with his guards in tow.

  Dad darted around us, slamming the front door and pressing his back to it. His jaw ticked as he looked between us, stress
evident in his rigid posture. “You're going to pass...I just know it.” He pressed his fingers into his eyes and both Callie and I hurried forward into his arms.

  He hugged us tight, placing a kiss on each of our heads. “We must be prepared.”

  “What happens if we pass?” I asked.

  “You'll be taken away,” Dad sighed.