New Blood
The Cardkeeper Chronicles
A. C. NICHOLLS
Chapter One
Stumbling down the grass verge toward the sewage plant, I could sense two of the werewolves behind me, as well as one guarding the gate in the distance. I kept my cool, the Sword of Lucada hidden inside its hilt and tucked away safely inside my pocket. If I needed it, I wouldn’t hesitate to use it, but that wasn’t why I was here. More than anything, I just wanted to talk – to find peace between the Cardkeepers and the werewolves.
“How ambitious of you, Jack,” Keira would have said sarcastically. Keira was my predecessor, and having just taken the job from her only last month, I desperately wanted to show her that she’d made the right choice by selecting me to fill her boots. If that meant putting myself in harm’s way… well, I wasn’t one to shy away from a fight.
I continued down the hill with a burning sensation running up and down the length of my spine. Any minute now I would be at the gate of the sewage plant, the home of the werewolves and their alpha. My plan was to gain an audience with her, and hopefully, get her on my side. It was past time this ugly business with them and the vampires ended, and here I was trying to make that happen. Maybe the new job had already sucked out some of my brain cells.
As I reached the gate, the man on patrol raised his palm up to block me. He was a short, stocky guy, wearing an AC/DC shirt that had shrunk in the dryer, and a receding line of thin, black hair. His five-o’clock shadow made it look like he was already in beast form. That, or he was just dirty.
“What business do you have here?” he asked.
“I need a word with Lena.” I peered over his shoulder at the front door, which was slightly ajar. If it came to it, I would force my way past this man and head inside. “Could you summon her for me?”
The man’s frown broke into a look of amusement, his lips turning up into a devilish grin. His eyes drifted beyond me and met with the two guys who stood behind my back. “Hear that, guys? This moron thinks that Lady Lena can be summoned.”
I spun slowly toward the condescending laughter, my eyes falling to their boots as I reached into my pocket for the sword. I’d been trained by the best swordfighters in the underworld, and my first lesson – which had taken all of six months – was to always assess my opponent before striking. It was second nature now. I found myself instantly studying the dirt on their boots, the tattoos on their arms, and the cigarettes hanging loosely from their lips. But their real giveaways were in their hands. The smaller guy – who looked no older than a kid in his late teens – stood with his fingers shaking. The other guy had an itch on his knuckles, eager to transform into the raging beast. I would be sure to take him out first. Bully the bully, and the sheep will fall back.
“I have no interest in fighting you,” I said, turning back to the man at the gate. “But I’m here on official Cardkeeper business. If you don’t step aside right now, I’ll be forced to give you the ass-kicking of a lifetime. After all the wars between our peoples, don’t you think you should be avoiding that kind of conflict?”
The man’s teeth clamped together, grinding as he assessed me with angry eyes. “Oh, yeah? What business is that, then?”
“I’ll only discuss it with someone of importance.” I gripped the hilt of the sword, ready to rip it from my pocket at a moment’s notice. “Now, one last chance. Move out of my way before I move you myself.”
I actually heard the footsteps behind me before I saw any movement. My instincts kicked in within an instant, and I stepped to one side while pulling the sword out in front of me. The bigger man, whose fur already sprouted from his filthy flesh, recovered from his lunge and gazed down at the sword. How much of it was on show, that was – the Sword of Lucada was a perfect weapon. Not only did its mystical enchantment deal with supernatural beings, but the blade itself also retracted into its hilt. Most people saw the hilt as a warning and wisely chose to back off. Others – this dumbass werewolf for example – only mocked it with uneducated laughter. It only made it easier to push the button on the grip, shooting the blade out and piercing the beast’s chest in the blink of an eye.
The wolf clutched at the gaping wound where his heart belonged. I ripped the sword out, pulling droplets of blood along with it, and raised it back over my shoulder for another swing. Just as I got into my defensive stance, the wolf doubled over and then fell to the floor, dead.
“Anyone else want to argue?” I said cockily.
The smaller man stepped back, his muzzle shrinking back down to the average-sized nose he’d had before. The guard at the gate, however, seemed to have a different plan. Before I had time to stop him, he ran back through the door, leaving it swinging open as he screamed bloody murder, calling together his band of werewolf warriors as he made it to safety.
This wasn’t what I’d wanted, but I couldn’t show my weakness. Not now. Not ever.
Paying no mind to the werewolf, I wrapped my hand tight around the hilt of my sword and stomped toward the building. I stormed through the door into a dark, narrow corridor until I came to a small, square room. I wish I could have said that the room was empty – that the alpha was waiting for me to sit down and have a pleasant conversation with her – but I had no such luck. Instead, I had the honor of facing five fully-formed werewolves, each one snarling and drooling with their razor-sharp claws slashing around like knives. There was no way I could beat them, but I had to try.
I closed my eyes for only a second, drew in a deep breath, and then charged.
My sword came down like a cleaver, tearing through the air with a whistle while the blade glowed a burning red. If only for a second, I felt the resistance as it met with a werewolf’s arm, slicing through like it was made of butter. The howl that followed was deafening, but I had no time to stop and cover my ears. I swung the sword around again, shoving the disarmed wolf to the side and advancing on the next, which was twice the size and even uglier than the last. My sword struck its claws and held there while we both forced pressure through our arms and fought for the advantage. I thought I was going to win – that I could overpower a werewolf with the additional strength of a Cardkeeper. Truth was, I was so distracted that I never saw the others leaping toward me.
The wind left my lungs as I was pounced on, and the full weight of the wolf crushed my ribs. The sword clattered to the ground and the ringing sound echoed all around as I stared into the huge, dog-like face of my attacker. It was all I could do to clench my fist and rocket my best punch into its nose, making it yelp as it rolled off me and onto the floor, whining.
I sprang to my feet, poised like a scorpion ready to sting the next son of a bitch who came at me. The three remaining wolves glanced at their two fallen comrades, crouched onto their haunches and snarled once more. Slowly, I edged toward my sword, dropping to my knee to pick it up. When I finally had my fingers around it, I felt power once again, like nothing could harm me. All the same, I would rather have avoided a battle.
“I’m done fighting,” I said calmly. Sure, it was a dumb move, but I pushed the button on the grip and watched the blade shrink back into the hilt, leaving traces of its glowing red light to wisp around like smoke. I raised my hands, stood up straight and backed toward the nearest door – the one that led further into the plant. “Let’s just stop trying to tear each other’s throats out and work together, shall we? Now, take me to your alpha.”
The words had barely left my mouth when the door behind me fell open with a clunk. I turned my head for only a second to identify the newcomer, when the wolves took advantage of my distraction and attempted a second attack. This time my cheek met the wall, crashing like a racecar with an explosion of pain. My vision blurred instantly as the strength flooded from my body and I slumped to the ground.
In my passing moments, I caught only a glimpse of a woman’s heel beside my face, before the lights went out.
How very ambitious of you, Jack.
Real smooth.
Chapter Two
I awoke on a soft bed, with a sore cheekbone and a violent waft of lavender drifting up my nostrils. My head was groggy and my muscles were weak. This immortality business wasn’t as good as I’d hoped – I’d expected to become unstoppable. And yet, they’d still knocked me out cold.
Struggling under my weight, I sat up and glanced around the room. Well, it was more like a chamber really. The walls were made of gray stone and there was a cold chill in the air. The little pools of darkness were saved only by the orange glow of nearby candles, where the flames rose high into the air like snakes from a basket. There was no way this was my own bedroom, and it was way too feminine to be the sleeping quarters of the Vault – my home base, for lack of a better term. So then, where the hell was I?
“Hey there, stranger.”
I started at the sound of the voice. It was soft and exotic, with subtle hints of controlled aggression. I leapt to my feet. Rubbing my eyes with the heels of my hands, I turned to see who it was. I suddenly felt like a lost little boy, stumbling into a war with little more than a toy sword. Not my best move.
Lena sat in a chair beside the bed, thick ringlets of red hair sweeping down over her bare shoulders. She wore a silky, scarlet gown that exposed a significant amount of her cleavage, and parted at her legs, which were propped up on the bed. The color of the robe matched her perfect lips, which sucked teasingly on the butt of a cigarette held delicately between two stiff fingers. It was exactly how I remembered her, except I honestly believed I wouldn’t be attracted to her anymore. I thought those days were long gone, but the tingle in my testes begged to differ.
“Cat got your tongue?” Lena said, grinning widely. God, those teeth were perfect. When they weren’t extending into long, curved fangs, anyway.
“More likely a dog,” I said, adjusting the sleeve of my long, black coat. The chill on my skin intensified. “Do your boys treat every stranger like that?”
“You mean the werewolves you attacked?”
“Yeah, those.”
Lena watched me in silence, rolling the smoke around her mouth with her red, wet tongue before blowing it out into a perfect ring. The smoke rose into the air like purple magic, before drifting apart and dissipating into nothingness.
“I told them I wanted to see you,” I added.
“Did you identify yourself?”
“I told them I was a Cardkeeper.”
Lena sat up, leaned over the bedside table and rolled the cigarette around the edge of the ashtray. The action displayed her breasts, but she didn’t seem to care. Besides, it was nothing I hadn’t seen before. “Ah,” she said calmly. “See, that was your problem. My wolves only know one Keeper, and that’s Keira Poe.”
“Her time was up,” I said.
“You killed her?”
“No. She just ran her cycle. I’m the newbie.”
Lena smiled at that, took one last puff of smoke and then stubbed the cigarette out in the tray. A thin line of smoke rose in its wake, protesting its demise as Lena extinguished it. She rose from her chair. “You must be very new to the job.”
“Very much.”
“So your visit here is…”
“Professional.”
Still smiling, Lena crept around the bed and took small, graceful steps toward me. I backed up as far as the wall would allow, refusing to get dragged back into this toxic dance between us. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the sex was great. Great. But that didn’t mean we were meant to be together. I’d tried explaining this to her before, but she didn’t want to hear it. Only now it seemed that a reunion might be in the cards.
Lena pressed her body up against mine, pinning me to the wall like a butterfly in a display case. Her fingers touched my lips before sliding softly down my chest, leaning in slowly to kiss my bearded neck. “How come you never came back, Jacky-Boy?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“But how come?”
“I had things to do.”
She ignored that, kissing down my neck as her hand explored my body.
“We need to talk,” I told her firmly.
“Talking can wait.”
“No.” Somehow, I found the strength inside me to step away from the wall, grabbing her gently by the shoulders and forcing her to step back. That slick maneuver was met with a look of confusion as she slumped onto the bed and covered herself fully with her robe as if she wanted to punish me by taking her feminine glory away. “We’re on the same side, but that doesn’t mean I want to go back there. I have some wrongs to right and I can live without the distraction.”
Lena rolled her eyes. “On a path of redemption, are we?”
“Something like that.”
A silence fell in the room, during which my sight fell on the open door at the back. I considered calling it a day, buttoning up my coat and just leaving. At this rate we weren’t going to come to any kind of arrangement, but then again, I probably wouldn’t make it to the front door without being mauled to death by my angry ex-lover’s wild dogs. I felt inside my pocket for the Sword of Lucada. My fingers stroked the hard metal, reassuring me.
“Tell me,” Lena asked, rising from the bed and crossing the room, where she lit a splint from a candle and used it to rekindle another, “what’s the real reason you’ve come here? You obviously haven’t come to be with me one last time, and I did hear you say that you didn’t want to fight. So then, what is it? Have you come to slay me, Jacky-Boy?”
“It’s nothing like that.”
“What is it then?”
I blew out a breath, sighing as I sat on the edge of the bed. From that vantage point I caught a glimpse of myself in the nearby mirror. I needed a haircut – it made me look scruffy, which wasn’t fitting for a man in his thirties. “I want to bring peace between you and the vampires.”
“Ha!” Lena dropped the splint as she laughed, quickly stomping it out on the thin, tattered rug before it could set it ablaze. She bent over and swept it up, placing it to one side as she smacked her hands together like she’d just played with sand. “You do, do you?”
“I think it’s about time.”
“Yes, my love. Keira Poe thought the same thing. Do you know how hard she tried to make it happen? For hundreds of years this war has been haunting us all. Your predecessor did the impossible by bringing the werewolves and Cardkeepers together. But now you want to just swoop in and tie up the remaining conflict. Is that it? Don’t tell me you have some kind of hero complex.”
I showed Lena my teeth, wincing at the sound of Keira’s name. In my own way, I loved that girl for helping me along my path, but there was nothing I hated more than being compared to her. After all, we were very different people. “I’m not Keira Poe. Actually, I don’t even want your help with all this.”
Lena’s smile dropped. “Then what do you ask?”
“A promise.”
“Of?”
I hesitated before meeting her gaze. “I want you to return to the shadows. The vampires will do the same. After that, we can all live free once again. It will be like there was never a war in the first place.” I ignored Lena’s humored expression and rose to my feet, placing my hands on her shoulders. From there, I stared deep into her eyes, compelling her with the strength of my conviction. “It really is as simple as that. You go, they go. Job done.”
Lena turned her head to one side. “It’s not that easy.”
“Believe me, it is.”
A hurry of wolves passing by the open door attracted our attention as they stormed across the hallway outside. I suddenly remembered where I was – right in the middle of the enemy’s den. It was lucky that Keira had formed this truce between our species, as I likely wouldn’t have made it past the front door otherwise. Perhaps being compared to her wasn’t the worst thing after all. She’d cr
eated a legacy. Now all I had to do was to live up to it.
Lena finally returned her gaze to me. She placed the palm of her hand against my still-aching cheek and kissed me softly on the lips. Her mouth was warm, her lips tasting like cherries. “Get rid of the vampires and we will keep to ourselves. That is my only bargain.”
“And that much is a promise?”
“It’s a promise.”
I sighed against the disappointment of the compromise. A reluctant agreement to retreat, from one of the two leaders. Now, if I could only get the leader of the vampires to agree to the same terms, my job as Chicago’s Cardkeeper would be a lot easier. Somehow, I got the sense that it wouldn’t be that simple. If it was, it would probably have been done already.
On the wings of her oath I made for the door, rushing for my exit before she could renege.
“Not going to say goodbye?” Lena said from behind me.
I stopped and turned to see her curl her lower lip like a young girl in a tantrum. It was endearing in its own way, but as hard as it was to refuse that beautiful woman, I had to keep my mind on the job.
“Maybe I’ll be back,” I said.
“When?”
I shrugged. “When the vampires back down.”
Lena smiled, but it wasn’t the same charming smile she’d been giving me these past few minutes. It was one of dreadful knowing, like she held a great secret that only she knew. Finally, she cleared her throat and raised a hand, waving me off. “Then I guess this is goodbye.”
Chapter Three
I had nothing left to do but return to the VHS store. Of course, it wasn’t really a VHS store – that was only a front, but whoever’s idea it was to put an obsolete product as the face of our hidden business was a genius. In this day and age, very few people would bother us. It was safer that way, for them and for us.
Inside, a small bell jingled and I coughed at the first sign of dust. Bringing a closed fist to my mouth, I approached the counter and shook hands with the frail old man behind it. “Evening, Stanley.”
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