Revealed
Necromancer’s Blight: Book 2
Author: D. L. Harrison
Copyright 2017. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Afterword:
About the Author
Other books by D. L. Harrison:
Book Description
Chapter One
“The Blood screwed up Carl, it’s as simple as that, what was the oath again? The exact words, I don’t think I was ever told.”
I was beyond angry, my words were sharp, and my heart pounded in chest. It’d been a week since Christina, Serena and Matt had rescued me from Macy. A week since I’d seen her face, touched her, and kissed her. Seen the twinkle in her cerulean eyes as she looked at me, or the way the light reflected off her silken curtain of liquid midnight black hair.
A week, of being poked and prodded, and treated like an experiment.
I’d expected to be debriefed right away, what I got was locked in another room. I hadn’t been tied down, but I also hadn’t been allowed to leave, or talk to anyone. It’d been a week since I’d been to my college classes, and it was three days’ past when I should have summoned Sara Reilly back from the other side to see if she’d found any information for me, I wouldn’t do it while under observation. Which meant I couldn’t have done it around the witches, and definitely not in this place. The sub-level of this building was full of cameras and recording devices, I was sure of it.
Plus, the witches’ protections would have kept her out anyway, I needed to get out of here, and see my friends. I needed a reminder of why I shouldn’t just tell them to go screw themselves, and go my own way and damn the consequences.
It’d been a week since I’d been back to my dorm, or seen my roommate, not that we were at all friends thanks to my new screwed up life. No, for the last week I’d seen no one but the witches Katherine and Sally, as they poked and prodded at my bonded connection with Christina. They’d been at me for a week, and had finally declared they didn’t understand what it was or what its purpose was.
They’d stripped my necromantic magic shield when I’d refused to lower it for them, and I’d felt their magic invading my body, searching, it was an invasion I couldn’t even convey properly. I’d felt used and horrified. I’d felt like a damned prisoner, instead of someone who’d been rescued. About the only good thing I could say about it all, is that they’d fed me and I had access to a bath and shower.
They’d finally let me go, and did they allow me to return to my dorm, go to class, or see Christina, Serena, or Matt? Or even just have a free moment to myself to summon Sara, or just breath and exist? Nope, none of that actually. Right then, I was in Carl’s office for that debrief that should have happened a week ago. Sadly, I almost felt sorry for him, that the witches got me first was very telling on who held the true power.
Carl said, “Our ancestors swore an oath to protect the other races, and hunt the necromancers until the blight was removed from the world.”
I shook my head stubbornly, “That sounded paraphrased Carl, what was the oath?”
Carl frowned at me, but turned and got up from his chair and walked over to the wall, and pulled down a book. He walked over and handed it to me.
I opened it curiously, but of course it was all Greek to me, literally Greek.
“I don’t read Greek.”
Carl smirked, and took the book. It took him a minute to find the page he wanted.
“To this we pledge and give our oath, the other races we will protect so long as they keep the peace, the necromancer’s we will hunt until the blight is driven from this world.”
I sat back, suddenly unsure, I don’t know what I’d been expecting, but that wasn’t it.
“I don’t know Carl, all I know is Macy hadn’t used her power, and hadn’t been planning to. Maybe I grew up too human, but killing fourteen-year-old girls just doesn’t sound right to me. I have to say that in this case it definitely backfired, the Blood and Witches hunting her made her what she was.”
Carl nodded, “Perhaps, but we’ve been at war for thousands of years. Maybe to you it does sound like a weak excuse, but eventually they all go crazy, and when they go crazy those innocent humans you’re talking about start to die. That’s usually what happens, we hear about it, and then stop it. It’s rare that we catch a necromancer before they go nuts and start killing, so when we have the opportunity we take it, to save those lives that would otherwise be inevitably lost.”
That was hard, and horrible. But I couldn’t argue with the logic either. If they all went bad shouldn’t they be stopped? I felt my anger drain, the witches deserved my ire, but Carl didn’t. He was just doing what he was told, and I imagined after this debriefing I’d get to pick up the pieces of my life, try to catch up in school, get some privacy to finally summon Sara, and perhaps the thing I was looking forward to the most, seeing Christina again.
It was no longer a one-sided obsession, she’d declared herself, and as stupid as it sounded in my head after knowing the woman just a month, I was right there with her.
Carl asked, “So what did she want, what did you talk about?”
I replied, “She knew she was off her rocker, and wouldn’t last much longer. She planned to make me her replacement. First, she told me her personal story, which was listening to her declare how her mother got killed, and then how she ran on the streets as a fourteen-year-old girl. The witches and Blood hunted her, and she eventually gave up on hiding, and decided to hunt you all back.
“She told me she knew about me, and what I was, she also told me if I raised a vampire it would take too much energy, and would make me tainted. So that was her plan, she kept me tied down, tossed a corpse in the room, and said I had two choices. Starve to death, or raise a vampire to lift the key off the wall and release myself.
“She was insane, and went from childlike delight, to great anger, and back to giggling in seconds. Either way, I thought I was going to die, until Matt and your daughters saved my life.”
I had to be very careful, I didn’t want to reveal all she’d told me, specifically about the prophecy, or the other version of me that was still running around in one piece, and slightly tainted. I didn’t want him to know and report that I knew the headquarters for the Blood was in London, or that I knew far more about their military organization than I did before I was taken. Not that I knew all that much, but it was still far more than they would be comfortable with.
I liked Carl, and liked his daughter Serena a lot. Even Matt had grown on me of late, even though I knew he was pissed about how Christina felt about me. Christina… I was madly in love with. I knew they all liked me too, to different extents.
But I couldn’t trust them. Not one of them. If orders came down to slit my throat, each and every one of them would choose duty. I suspected even Christina would, even though
she said she was passionately in love with me she would, that’s how messed up this was. Bloods were a slave warrior class, bred for duty, brainwashed, and they all had a hero complex that made it easier for the leaders to maintain that control.
I should know, I was a born sucker too. Especially for a pretty face. That didn’t mean they were all wrong or bad though, the blight did need to be stopped, but there was so much wrong about their society I didn’t even know where to start.
I’d fight alongside them while I gathered the intelligence and the truth that I needed to make a solid decision, but in that moment I still knew far too little to take a stand on anything, except perhaps the need to get rid of the blight. Not necromancers as a whole, just the ones that were tainted.
The two things I wanted to know most were all about the blight, how did it start and how could we stop it without killing all the necromancers. The second thing was the strange bond I had with Christina, and the pleasant feeling and exchanges of power when we touched, what was it, and why was it.
Honestly, that was it. To be truthful I didn’t give a rat’s ass about the Bloods rigid command structure past what I knew already, and I hoped I never would, because that would mean I was planning to fight them. That thought was unthinkable, especially when I pictured Serena and Christina. For me it was the opposite, oath and duty to a faceless master didn’t mean anything next to those I cared about.
He asked, “What do you mean she knew about you and what you are?”
I answered, “She knew I was both half Blood and half necromancer,” I shrugged, “She also knew that I’d need to raise a vampire or do something as equally demanding with my magic to become tainted.”
He frowned, “What else did she do?”
I sighed, “She ate an Italian sub right in front of me, teasingly, as if to tempt me to raise the dead so I could have the other half and not starve. In other words, she was totally off her rocker, and her twisted plan was a ridiculous way to get me to side with the necromancers, or if not that at least become an enemy of the Blood by tainting myself, but she thought it was pure genius. If we hadn’t stopped her, she’d have made a lot of mistakes in the next city, and probably got a lot of innocents killed.”
He nodded, “Think carefully, is there anything else she told you that could be important?”
I shook my head, “Nothing you don’t already know. She didn’t tell me about other necromancers, or where any were. She knew she was helplessly insane, and that trap, and her twisted plan to starve or convert me was her last effort to continue her work, her words not mine. I made sure she didn’t escape.”
Yeah, that first sentence was a whopper, because he already knew I was an experiment, a way to try and force the prophecy. He knew my mother had been a necromancer who was raped in an effort to finish the war. He knew I wasn’t the first try to ignite the prophecy either, that I was the fifth attempt in a misguided effort to activate a prophecy over ten thousand years old. That little sentence covered a lot of stuff I hadn’t said, because he knew already. I also added that last because it was the truth, and I hoped it would make him trust me. I’d still seen to her death, after all she’d told me.
The only reason I was able to get away with a truthful deception like that, was because his question was so non-specific, if he dug in deeper I’d be screwed. Not even a blood could lie to a blood and get away with it, guarded truth was the best I could manage that way.
I took a deep breath, I didn’t want to get worked up and angry again.
He narrowed his eyes, “How is that?”
I replied, “They didn’t tell you? When she knew I was being rescued, she tried to run. I destroyed her piggy back vampire, and then the rest of them so she wouldn’t be able to escape Matt and Serena, while Christina was still searching for me.”
He cleared his throat, “Of course, they did tell me I just didn’t put it in context with your statement. How do you feel?”
I said, “Annoyed, but ready to move on and get back to our job, and my education.”
He asked, “Why annoyed?”
I frowned, “The witches weren’t gentle with me, and despite violating me with their magic over and over they still don’t understand the connection I have with Christina. I’d like some fresh air, and to see my friends, and if I can dig out from under missing a whole week of classes.”
I had to be careful, both telling him nothing of substance but sticking to the truth while at the same time trying not sound too pissed about it.
Carl said, “I understand, enough about Macy. Now, tell me what’s going on between my daughter Christina and yourself.”
I ruthlessly pushed down the surge of anger, he was her father. I could also tell by his tone I wasn’t going to get the girl after all, even if she did love me, and I loved her.
“We care about each other, the magical bond we share is a mystery, but would make us a very effective team. We want to be partnered, eventually in every way, unless something unforeseen separates us. We get along on every level. She told me she informed you of this, and I have plans to take her on a date very soon.”
If I ever get out of here and saw her again.
Carl asked, “And what about your children? You will face unfair judgement from the community for your whole life, both the Bloods and Witches, if not some of the Shifters and Fae as well. I don’t agree with it, but it’s the reality of things and we can’t change it. Do you think it’s a good idea to subject my daughter, and any children you might have to that kind of life?”
I didn’t feel anger, I was so far past that, I felt numb. Like his bosses gave a shit about that when they had one of theirs rape my necromancer mother? Why did I ever allow myself to feel happy, or believe her kisses and declaration could mean we could be together.
I said calmly, “I think your daughter is old enough to decide for herself, and I think she’s been yearning for a relationship past duty since she turned fourteen, and I think if you keep us apart she will obey. She will follow her duty, but she will also hate you for the rest of your life, and she will live a miserable gray existence without love. There are many kinds of pain Carl, in my opinion lost love, and the betrayal of a parent trumps whatever the damned community might feel or say. I’m curious, where was this logic when you partnered me with Serena?”
When I’d said that Christina would never have love, it wasn’t because I was so arrogant I thought she wouldn’t ever get over me, it was because she’d told me she couldn’t and didn’t feel it for Matt. A normal woman would move on, and find love somewhere else, for most people, lost love was a tragedy but hardly an insurmountable one, time healed all wounds. But… in this screwed up society she’d mate with Matt for duty… and she’d always remember the love she’d lost, and regret it.
Not lost… stolen, by her commander and last living parent.
Carl shrugged carelessly, “Serena assured me before I did, that she liked you as a friend and no more. It was a temporary arrangement to get her into the field, until her real partner got here. We were desperate to catch Macy before she finished her plans and started murdering the coven, and us. I was going to have you go out as a third to both pairs in the future. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be unfeeling toward your plight and lot in life, but I love my daughters and would save them that suffering if I could. I’m sure a human would be overlooked were you to find one, but a Blood mating with a half necromancer would cause problems you can’t imagine.”
I ground my teeth together at this unwelcome revelation. The sad truth was, that Carl did see me as an experiment after all. He didn’t want me to dilute his bloodline with my half blood status. Or was he ordered not to, and threatened? Perhaps… I’m not just a tool they made, but a tool they’d discard if I somehow made the prophecy come true. A temporary abomination they would suffer to survive, until their goal was met, and they could be freed from their oath. I was wrong, only Serena and Christina cared about me at all, and possibly Matt might piss on me if I was on fire, wh
ich was an improvement over where we’d started.
Still, it had been Matt that suggested to me I was being set up with Serena, so it was clear he wasn’t… in the know, about most of the bullshit.
“What do you suggest Carl, she loves me, and if we’re being honest with each other, I feel the same about her. Have you already told her no?”
He nodded, “I told her last week. I waited until you got rescued. She was already upset at the time, and I figured why tell her when…” he trailed off.
I finished his thought in a dead tone, “When I might already be dead, which would have solved the problem without you being the bad guy.”
He cleared his throat uncomfortably, but didn’t say anything to refute my comment. Good, the bastard should feel guilty and uncomfortable.
“So enough asking questions Carl, since what I feel and think doesn’t matter anyway, why don’t you just tell me how it’s going to be?”
He asked bluntly, “Can we still trust you to fight with us, to be true to the oath?”
Right, I’m the dirt under his heel, but will I still die for him? Like I had a choice? If I tried to leave they’d kill me, and I didn’t know enough about the world yet, or this war, to navigate that kind of thing. They must have government connections, the ability to track people, then there were still the witches. Witches that had poked and prodded me for a week, I was sure they had plenty of things to track me with after the last week, both blood and hair.
I also wasn’t mad at the people I’d be patrolling with, so of course I’d fight with them. The blight still needed to be stopped, it was one of the only things I was sure about, and while I wanted nothing more in that moment than to strangle the bastard, I still needed to find my feet in this world before I could act.
Admittedly, in that moment there was still a hopeful part of me in denial. I knew there was a snowball’s chance in hell that Christina would choose me over duty and orders, but I felt a small ember of hope despite myself.
“I will be true to the oath, and will protect your daughters and Matt with my life when we’re out on patrol together. As for you, avoid putting me in that position, sir. I don’t like it, but I hold nothing against those three, and the tainted necromancers do need to be taken out.”
Revealed: Necromancer's Blight: Book 2 Page 1