“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” sighed Mira, standing up from the bed. “It’s nearing sunset, anyway. We should be getting ready. Volandar told me yesterday that he has something special in store for us tonight.”
“Something special?” asked Jack.
“I haven’t the faintest clue what he meant by that,” said Mira. “But I suppose we’ll discover for ourselves, soon enough.”
She stood up from the bed slowly, making a small show of stretching for Jack before heading for the door. Katie shot daggers at Mira with her eyes as she slipped out through the door, blowing Jack a parting kiss. As soon as the door was shut, Katie redirected her ire toward Jack.
“You’re disgusting,” she said.
“Oh, come on,” said Jack. “She came in while I was sleeping and decided to wake me up in, uh, a sensual manner. It wasn’t exactly like I had a chance to resist.”
“Right,” said Katie. “I’m sure she forced you into grabbing her boobs and laying on top of her.”
“She’s right about one thing,” said Jack. “You really do need to learn how to knock.”
Katie scowled at him and stomped over to her bag.
“Come on,” she said. “Hurry up and get dressed. The thralls told me that Volandar has planned an early dinner for us tonight, so we have plenty of time for the event.”
“The event?” asked Jack. “Was that what Mira was talking about?”
“I think so,” said Katie. “But I’m not sure what it is, either. Whenever I pressed the thralls for details, they got quiet and uncomfortable. More so than they are normally.”
“Well, that’s reassuring,” said Jack.
He pulled on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and his leather duster, which he finally felt like he could wear openly without angering the fashion gods amongst the equally dated outfits of the vampires.
“Did Pierce have anything new to say about the situation?” asked Jack.
Katie shrugged.
“He thinks you’re right about the door,” said Katie. “He wanted me to see if I could get any of the thralls to divulge anything. None of them did. They seem scared about doing anything that might set off one of their masters.”
“Probably for good reason,” said Jack. “We’ll just have to figure it out ourselves.”
A knock came at the door. Jack opened it and let Mira inside, who smirked in Katie’s direction. She’d changed into a long-sleeve blouse and jeans and had pulled her hair up into a slightly messy bun.
“One of Volandar’s thralls brought a message,” said Mira. “We’re to wait for him at his table in the dining hall.”
“Alright,” said Jack. “What are your thoughts? Is this something we need to be on guard for?”
Mira frowned and folded her arms. She seemed uncharacteristically unsure, and it took her a few seconds to formulate her answer.
“I don’t know,” she said. “We should always be on guard around him. I made an attempt at pressing him into ironing out the details of our alliance last night, and he refused to discuss anything concrete. He said that he wanted a better sense of our capabilities. I would not be surprised if he had a test of some kind prepared for us tonight.”
Jack nodded. Mira’s thrall, Aiden, joined them outside the room, and the four of them headed down to the dining hall as a group.
CHAPTER 20
Only a few members of the Jade Circle were there already, along with their thralls. The soft rule about thralls eating separately apparently did not apply on all nights. Jack wondered if it might have something to do with the test Mira had been speculating about.
He furrowed his brow when he noticed the food that some of the thralls were bringing out and placing onto the tables. A dozen or more boxes of pizza were stacked on a dining cart, giving off a smell that seemed ridiculously out of place within the antiquated keep.
Mira led him over to Volandar’s table but signaled for Katie and Aiden to take a seat off to the side with some of the other thralls. Jack and Mira sat down, neither of them helping themselves to the food right away. Instead, they sat patiently, waiting for their host to arrive.
They weren’t waiting for long. Volandar entered with Vyara trailing a step behind him. Jack tried to keep his reaction from showing on his face as he watched them both make their way over, all too aware of the fact that one of them had very likely poisoned him the previous night.
“You need not stand on ceremony for me,” said Volandar, as he took a seat. “By all means, go ahead and eat. Our meal tonight will be somewhat truncated.”
He flashed a sardonic grin and opened the pizza box, taking a slice for himself. Jack hesitated as Volandar slid the pizza over to him and Mira. He waited for Volandar to take a bite before deciding that it was probably fine and helping himself to a piece.
“Does this have something to do with the surprise you mentioned?” asked Mira.
“It has everything to do with it,” said Volandar. “But we’ll talk about that in due time.”
They ate in near silence. Volandar and Vyara carried on a whispered conversation between themselves, but nobody else at the table said much of anything. Jack took stock of the dining hall while he ate. Anticipation bubbled amongst the vampires, who all seemed to be excitedly waiting for what came next.
“Ah,” said Volandar. “There we are. Our entertainment for the night should be arriving momentarily. If you would follow me, please.”
“Are you going to tell us what it is?” asked Jack.
Volandar’s smile had an edge to it that Jack didn’t like.
“You’ll see, soon enough,” he said.
Volandar and Vyara led the group, followed by Jack, Mira, Katie, and Aiden. The rest of the vampires, including Babish, to Jack’s dismay, followed a short distance behind them. They headed through the keep’s entrance and stood out on the drawbridge, staring down at the nearby road.
A large transport truck of the variety used for livestock came to a stop in front of the keep. Jack felt a surge of disgust as he saw a human face poking through one of the open wooden slats along the side. Volandar’s smile grew even broader, and he gestured for a few of his underlings to head over to the truck to unload it.
“Tonight,” said Volandar. “We shall have a Night Chase.”
Mira let out a small sigh next to Jack and shook her head slightly.
“A Night Chase?” asked Jack. “What is that, exactly?”
“Think of it as a chance for me to see your potential in action,” said Volandar. “The Night Chase is an honored tradition passed down amongst the oldest of our kind, those who came from The Origin.”
“It’s a hunt,” said Mira, sounding a little ashamed. “A manhunt.”
“The local towns send us their worst,” said Volandar. “The killers. The cheats. The rapists. A few orphans, here and there. We put them to good use.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?” asked Jack.
He already knew, but he needed to hear it said out loud. He needed to confirm that he truly was amongst monsters.
“We’ll release them into the woods,” said Volandar. “Then we’ll go after them.”
Babish and another of Volandar’s underlings were already opening the doors on the back of the truck and corralling a group of thirty or forty people out of it. Most of them were adult men and women, and most of them showed signs of hard living. Faded tattoos, missing teeth, disheveled clothing. Most of them, but not all.
A young girl no older than thirteen or fourteen had to be physically dragged out of the transport truck. She didn’t scream, but with the terrified expression on her face, there was almost no need for it. Babish gestured to her and said something that Jack couldn’t make out, and the group of vampires nearest to him burst out in laughter.
“This…” Katie was standing alongside Jack, and her body was tense with anger. “You can’t do this. Jack, you can’t let them fucking do this!”
“Shhhh!” Jack set a hand on her shoulder, hoping that Volandar an
d Vyara hadn’t overheard her. “Katie…”
What could he even say to her? Even if he managed to talk his way out of participating in the Night Chase himself, it wasn’t as though Volandar would call the sadistic event off. Jack could make a stand on principle, but to what end?
“No,” said Katie, pulling her shoulder free from his hand. “Fuck you, Jack, if you think this is okay. Fuck. You.”
She took a step forward, and Jack had to grab her again. Her hand immediately seized his wrist, and the look she shot him was full of defiance and disgust.
“Katie,” said Jack. “Head back to our room and wait for me there.”
He raised his voice, intentionally issuing the command loud enough for Volandar and Mira to overhear. Katie blinked a couple of times, knowing that if she refused him, then and there, it would reveal that she wasn’t actually his thrall.
Slowly, she walked past Jack and back into the keep. He would have worried about her walking around alone, if not for the fact that most of the vampires appeared to already be outside. Jack watched her disappearing through the entrance and then turned his attention back to Mira and Volandar’s conversation.
“It seems a bit of a waste,” said Mira. “Why not enthrall these people, instead?”
“We have enough thralls,” said Volandar. “These are the dregs. They are not suitable to serve in that capacity.”
“At least a few of them look healthy, fit, and attractive,” said Mira. “Those ones, at least, would make good thralls.”
Volandar laughed.
“Oh, Mira,” he said. “You truly are an Orphan. And I don’t mean that as an insult. Just an observation.”
Mira scowled at him, glancing over at Jack. She immediately seemed to notice the conflict on his face and drew in a little closer to him.
“Relax,” she whispered. “We don’t have to play this little game by his rules. We’ll catch one or two, perhaps have ourselves a drink, if it’s appropriate, and then turn them loose again. As long as we give Volandar a show using our blood magic, it should suffice.”
“Right,” said Jack, feeling much less convinced. “Sure.”
Vyara was moving amongst Volandar’s flock, placing something into each person’s hand. She let her overly large eyes lock on to Jack’s as she reached him, pressing several small, orange flags into his palm.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Place them through each body you leave in your wake,” she said. “It will make them easier for our thralls to find and dispose of come morning.”
Jack resisted the urge to throw the flags as far away from him as he could. He glanced back over at the people about to be hunted. The girl he’d noticed before was looking at him, and for a couple of seconds, they locked eyes.
There was no sense of pleading in her expression. She had a dull, terrified, and ultimately defeated look on her face. She let her gaze slip from Jack’s, staring at nothing in particular, as though her mind had completely checked out from the situation.
“You may want to change into any spare clothes you brought with you,” said Volandar. “In case things get messy. We’ll meet back here to begin in ten minutes.”
Jack walked alongside Mira back into the keep, feeling nearly as numb as the young girl had looked. Mira glanced over at him as they headed toward their rooms.
“I know this isn’t pleasant for you,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“What’s the point of any of this?” asked Jack. “Is it worth trying for an alliance with Volandar if he and his clan truly are monsters?”
“It is,” said Mira. “This is necessary, Jack. Because even if we aren’t monsters in the same way as Volandar, our real enemies will not grant us the distinction. We will be hunted like monsters. By the Order of Chaldea and by others. So we might as well become comfortable amongst them.”
She took Jack’s hand and gave it a squeeze. He gritted his teeth, still feeling the conflict raging inside of him. They reached their rooms, and Jack frowned when he saw that the door to his had been left open.
“Katie?” he said, as he entered.
She wasn’t there. Jack ran a hand through his hair, feeling his heart race as a few scary possibilities filled his mind. Had one of the other vampires abducted her?
No. He knew where she was. She was waiting, watching, somewhere nearby, and preparing to do something incredibly stupid.
CHAPTER 21
“Fuck!” muttered Jack. “Katie, you fucking idiot.”
He turned around and started toward the door of his room. Mira was blocking the way, with her arms folded.
“The door to my room was also left open,” she said. “And my revolver is missing.”
Jack shook his head, feeling his anxiety double as the situation went from bad to worse.
“It’s Katie,” he said. “She’s—”
“Not your thrall,” said Mira.
Jack stared at her, unable to find any words.
“You ordered her to go back to your room,” said Mira. “If she was actually your thrall, the compulsion would have been enough to keep her here.”
She stared at him with an unwavering gaze. She didn’t look angry or offended. She looked hurt.
“Yeah,” said Jack. “You’re right. She’s not my thrall. We’re still using the anti-enthrallment potions.”
“But you agreed to come with me?” said Mira, shaking her head. “I thought… you were finally coming around?”
“Mira,” said Jack. “You don’t understand.”
“You’re right,” she said. “I don’t understand. I trusted you, sweet Jack. That’s not something that I do very often anymore. I even thought, for a while, that I’d forgotten how to do it. To really trust someone.”
Her words struck him like a slap in the face, and he knew he deserved it. But he also knew that he didn’t have time to make an attempt at repairing the damage he’d done. Not unless he wanted everything to go down in flames.
“I have to go after her,” said Jack. “Mira, I’m sorry. But there’s no time. She’s going to get herself and maybe even the two of us killed if I don’t stop her.”
“Is there more to this?” asked Mira. “Have you been lying to me about anything else?”
How was he supposed to answer that? Jack opened his mouth, but couldn’t think of anything to say. He couldn’t find a response. He couldn’t answer her question about his lies with another lie. And in a way, that was an answer in itself.
Mira took a slow breath and pulled her arms across her body as though she was hugging herself. She blinked, and a single tear slipped from the corner of her eye, leaving a trail as it descended across her pale cheek.
“Mira…” Jack reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. She disappeared before he could, her body dissolving into the shadows behind her.
He swore under his breath, feeling torn between trying to find her and explain himself and going after Katie. It wasn’t much of a choice. Mira wouldn’t let him find her if she didn’t want to be found. At least with Katie, he could make an attempt.
Jack sprinted down the hallway. His feet pounded out a rhythm against the stone, and his leather duster trailed behind him like a cape. Outside the keep, the rest of the vampires were already taking off into the surrounding forest in pursuit of the humans, who had apparently been given their head start already.
Volandar nodded approvingly as Jack stormed by him, obviously mistaking the purpose behind his haste. Vyara watched him with those oversized, curious eyes, and it made him worry that she might decide to try to follow him. He didn’t have time to take any counter measures if she did.
Jack broke into the forest at a dead sprint, ignoring his body’s pains and the fuzzy feeling it brought to his head. He almost immediately discovered that trying to move that fast through the trees was a bad idea as a sharp branch slashed a cut into his cheek. He slowed down and took a breath, feeling the cool air resonate with the thin layer of sweat he’d earned from his exertions.
The forest was quiet, despite the chaos currently taking place within it. The sounds of the wind whistling through the grass and the rattling of leaves and branches served as background noise for the occasional scream from one of the humans being hunted. Or the occasional laugh from a vampire as they gained on their target.
He forced himself to move slowly and quietly, entering the mindset of a hunter despite having no interest in the hunt itself. He needed to find Katie as soon as possible. He sincerely doubted that any of the vampires who managed to catch up with her would care if she was technically supposed to be his thrall, in the heat of the moment. She was in as much danger as any of the other humans.
Jack pushed forward, fighting his anxiety as he considered the difficulty of the task he was taking on. He had no idea where to even begin looking for her, and it wasn’t as though she even wanted to be found.
He did have one option, however. The fact that he’d bitten Katie before allowed him to access her through the Blood Sight. Jack pushed forward and pressed his back to a nearby tree. He took a breath, trying to force calm in the place of his roiling emotions.
It was tough, and even just attempting to channel the amount of blood essence he needed for the spell served as an instant reminder of his weakened state. He forced himself to focus harder and closed his eyes. Katie wasn’t far from him. He caught a glimpse of her in the woods, clutching Mira’s pistol tightly in both hands and moving quietly.
Someone let out a roar from nearby. Jack felt a surge of panic as he watched Katie, oblivious to the danger, continuing forward. Then the scene dissolved in an instant as something slammed into the side of his head.
He was the one who’d fallen victim to the ambush, and he’d been too busy trying to see through his Blood Sight to make the slightest attempt at defending himself. Jack’s eyes refocused to the dark. He was on the ground, flat on his back. Someone was standing over him, shouting words in a language he didn’t understand and lifting a large wooden club up to strike him a second time.
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