Before he could figure it out or try and stab me again, I reached out breaking the man’s wrist. Spinning around behind him I lashed out with all of my power sending him crashing into the alley wall. This time I heard something break. If he was lucky, it was just his collarbone. A darker part of me hoped that it was his neck.
I pulled on my power scanning the alley for signs of anyone else. I couldn’t read the energy of anyone else around. Moving towards the limp body on the ground, I tried to cast my senses out in a wider arc. This was more of Dal’s area of expertise, but it was worth a try. I wouldn’t be able to count on him being by my side forever. Just outside of the alley, I picked up the nervous energy of four men huddled together. None of them were moving in this direction so I ignored them for now.
Bill hadn’t moved since he hit the wall, and now that I was standing over his broken body, I could see why. His collarbone had snapped, but the force I had used to throw him against the wall had sent the shattered bone into his jugular. He was dead. I checked the entrance to the alley again, and with the coast clear, I picked up his body and carried it to the nearest sanitation chute. I dumped the body in, thinking it was fitting that he would be incinerated with the other trash from the station.
Stripping off my robe, I placed my hands on either side of my wound and focused all of my energy there. The skin slowly started to knit itself back together. I knew it was done when the skin turned a light pink color. Well, at least I got one thing on my birthday, a fresh scar. I wasn’t sure how I would explain it to Dal, but that was a problem for later. I was still covered in blood, and Fletcher’s wouldn’t let me inside looking like a madman.
Taking my personal belongings out of my robe and slipping them into my pockets, I tossed the garment into the trash chute and started moving towards the bar I had left. If I remembered correctly, one of Bill’s friends had a pretty nice coat on, and I needed something to cover up my bare chest.
I stepped around the corner pretending to fall to one knee. This would go easier if they thought I was wounded. The four men rushed forward to finish the job Bill started. I caught the first man’s foot as he aimed a kick for my ribs. I snapped his ankle and then flipped him into the man behind him as I stood. The two men crashed to the ground as the third moved around them to attack. The air around me shimmered slightly as my shield came back up. The punch he threw slammed into it. I heard his hand break as I shoved my power outwards knocking him from his feet. Moving quickly I tapped his head with one finger, and the jolt it gave him knocked him unconscious.
The two men that had fallen to the ground were trying to get up, but one of them was just starting to realize he had a broken ankle. I’d lost track of the fourth man, which meant he was probably behind me. Turning I took a punch to the chest, it sent me staggering back for a foot before I regained my balance. That was the only punch he threw. Stepping inside of his guard, I sent the same pulse of electricity into him. His body shook for a moment, and then he hit the ground.
The last man in good health looked at me and then his three friends and turned to run. I put up a wall in front of him and then pulled him back towards me with my power. I was spending more than I ever had before and it was starting to take its toll on me. The man flew back towards me, and one more tap to the temple sent him to the ground.
The last conscious member of the group was using the wall to hold himself up. When he realized his friends were all down, he tried to hop away on one foot. I blocked his path, and he froze like a rabbit cornered by a coyote. “That’s a nice coat.”
“You want it?” the man stammered.
I could see the beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead as the pain of his broken ankle was catching up with him. If these weren’t the type of men willing to kill someone in an alley just for kicks, I might have even felt bad for him. “That would be appreciated.” There was no reason I couldn’t be civil.
He stripped off the coat and handed it to me. I shrugged the leather jacket on. Just my size, perfect. The man was watching me intently, noticing that his friends on the ground hadn’t moved since they went down. The look of fear on his face brought me back to my senses. I couldn’t let these men tell anyone about what happened here. The last thing I wanted was to get banned from the station or have to get involved with the authorities. My position in the Brotherhood gave me a little bit of leeway for my actions but not this much.
“I’m going to need you to do one more thing for me.”
“Anything,” he said with reverence, “just don’t kill me like my friends.”
That was cute, he thought all of his friends were dead. I stared into his eyes and placed a hand on his forehead. “Forget what happened here tonight.” My power slammed into him, and I used it to make him susceptible to my suggestions. “You lost your jacket in a game of cards, and broke your ankle falling down the stairs.” His eyes glazed over. “Bill got angry with you and stormed off, you haven’t seen him since and don’t care if you do again.”
I pulled my power back in and then tapped him gently on the forehead, sending him to the ground in slumber. I repeated the process with each of the men, changing the story just enough that they would wake up with something believable in their minds. Exhausted, I walked back into the alley and continued my trip to Fletcher’s. This really was a nice coat.
CHAPTER 2
D’AVIN
Being stuck waiting in the audience chamber reminded me of when I was a boy, only this time I was hungover and pissed off instead of terrified. I knew this meeting wasn’t about what happened on the station, but I was still on edge. Dal knew something was up. He kept shooting me concerned looks, but whatever. If he was so concerned, then he should have come to the station with me. That probably wasn’t fair, but I wasn’t in the mood to worry about his feelings right now.
We had been awakened by a disturbance in the Allspace and both of us knew exactly what that meant. One of the nosferatu had returned, and that meant we would be sent to deal with it. A century had passed since the last reported vampire had been seen. Now it would be our turn to bring honor to the family name. And to think just a few hours ago I had been thinking about leaving the order altogether. Now I’d get to share my destiny with my brother just as the Sun God willed it. I might have missed my life’s calling if I had acted on the impulse to leave, but the Sun God placed this task before me just in time. Now it was time to put away the fantasy of my life outside of the order. I would show the council I was ready for this mission.
Still, I hated the gaudiness of this room. It was used to impress dignitaries that visited our Sanctuary. The room wasn’t meant to be used to make members of the order feel worthless. As a child, this room had filled me with terror. I had only seen it twice. Once after I had passed my trial to join the order, and once when I had been granted the highest rank a warrior in our order could obtain. Now I just felt cold anger and disdain at being called before the council in this place. Dal and I should already be out there, instead we had been forced to wait here for what felt like hours. What was there to debate? We were the best the order had, so we should be sent to deal with the vampire.
It wouldn’t have been Father’s idea to keep us waiting. That meant Crandall had swayed at least two of the council to his side. Three votes could overrule a standing order from the leader of the Brotherhood. In times of strife, it had been used to keep the Lord of the Brotherhood’s power in check. Now it was mostly used for political positioning. Wealth and power drove the order now. We had almost fallen to the level of mercenaries for hire. Hopefully that would change with the emergence of a true vampire. Based off how long we had been waiting, I was obviously giving the council too much credit.
The wait could have also been a power play to remind the two of us that despite our heritage, they still held significant power over us. It wasn’t as if we could both ascend to lord, so really this was a big fuck you to my brother, which tended to make me angrier than an attack directed at me. All of them knew we wer
e the strongest, and Dal was devout enough to make his ascension almost impossible to stop. That didn’t mean there weren’t those that would try. Despite their feelings, the council should have known better. None of them had the mojo required to take down a nosferatu, and all of them had grown complacent with age.
Still, the waiting was driving me mad, but at least it was giving me a little time to sober up. The guards watched me as I drank water and paced the room. It wasn’t very dignified, but it kept me from using my power to rip the doors off their hinges before storming into the room. I kept trying to center my thoughts, but they continued to evade my grasp. I waited my whole life for this moment, and now some miserable politician was using it to try and advance his own personal status. It reinforced that this might not be the place for me, but I couldn’t leave now. Not until we had seen this task through to the end. I stared at the door to the council chambers, willing it to open.
“D’avin, if you stare any harder at the damn thing, you’re going to melt holes in it,” Dal said with an easygoing smirk.
“Maybe that would get their attention.” I shook my head clearing the thought from it. There was a lot our power could do, but melting holes through doors made out of solid gold wasn’t one of them. “It’s not right to keep us waiting, all they are doing is wasting time. We should already be on our way. If this was a true master vampire, we can’t let him slip through our fingers.” Dal moved forward placing a hand on my shoulder.
“Try and relax little brother. Anger can cloud your judgment. Remember that we need to find balance to achieve greatness.”
Shaking his hand off my shoulder, I scowled in his direction. “Words spoken straight from the text. We grew beyond such teachings long ago, and one minute doesn’t make you old enough to call me little brother.”
Dal lowered his hand. “Perhaps that is why they make us wait, to reinforce the teachings. We were taught them for a reason.”
That might be true but it didn’t make me any less impatient. There was no reason for them to keep us waiting. Only my brother was keeping me from smashing the door down and demanding what was rightfully ours. “Together we are always in balance. You are the light to my darkness, the reason to my anger. Together we are the hammer and the anvil.”
Dal smiled. “So it shall be.”
“So it needs to be if we are to succeed. I could have used your help celebrating last night. Where were you?”
Dal looked down at the ground almost in shame. “I had an appointment.”
“An all-night appointment? How odd.” I hit him with my patented smirk. At least he wasn’t showing up to this meeting after murdering someone reeking of alcohol and sex. Still, if my brother thought I didn’t know where he was going at night, he didn’t know me very well at all. We could never really keep anything from each other, our connection went deeper than that. I didn’t care who he was sleeping with, I just wished he trusted me enough to tell me. He looked lost when our eyes met, my heart went out to him.
“Yes,” he murmured.
Dal moved to stand by my side and as he stepped into place the doors to the council chambers opened. The gas lights were burning low, and the smell of incense weighed down the entire room. The four members of the council and the lord of our order were seated before us. Both of us dropped to one knee, and I felt the words tumble out of my mouth before I could stop them. “I am here to serve. Service leads us to the path of enlightenment, and through enlightenment, I may better the universe.”
I wasn’t sure how much of the old words I believed anymore. They had been beaten into my head through years of training, but until now it had all seemed like a sadistic game. My brother believed the words. I could feel the joy of being called before the council wrapped all around him. He smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back. Despite our differences or maybe because of them, we were stronger together.
Our father stood, and the rest of the council followed his lead. “Rise warriors of the citadel. We have news to share.”
Standing I couldn’t help but thinking we had all felt the creature’s power, so the fact that a nosferatu was alive wasn’t exactly news. As if the damn shockwave that woke us hadn’t rippled through every person on our station. All of us knew what it meant. A true vampire had crossed into our space for the first time in over a century. Finally, we would get to stand before evil, and see who was truly righteous.
Our father sat down, and the council followed. Dal and I rose from our knees to stand before them. Anticipation tore at my very core. This was it, our chance to make history. A quick glance at Dal showed he was anticipating our mission just as much as I was. Although his was more of a religious fervor compared to my excitement to test myself in a true battle.
Our father looked down upon us, and for the first time since waking, I felt a sense of dread wash over me. He didn’t look pleased, which meant the council had ruled against him. The look on his face was almost sympathetic as he started to speak.
“I won’t waste time going over why we called you here. I know that both of you felt the disturbance before we did.” Councilman Crandall snorted slightly in disbelief. My father shot him a glare before continuing. “The council has decided in its infinite wisdom, to only send one of you to dispense the judgment of our order.”
My heart sank. I knew exactly who they would send and it wasn’t going to be me. Dal was the model member of the Brotherhood while I was always pushing and challenging our teachings. I looked over at my brother and felt my love for him blossom in my chest. His smile had slipped from his face, and he looked back at me with determination in his eyes. I nodded once and almost as one, we broke our gaze and turned it back towards our father.
“The council, against my better judgment,” that line earned him a few glares from around the room, “has decided to send Dal to deal with this threat.” He turned his eyes to me, and I could see sadness and just a hint of anger simmering there. “They feel as if D’avin is not ready despite passing the trials almost six years ago.”
The rage bubbled up from inside of me. Before I could lock it down a vase on the other side of the room exploded. My father rose one eyebrow in question, almost as if he was telling me this was exactly why the council didn’t think I was ready, before turning to face my brother. I felt the mask I used to cover my emotions slip into place, and I waited to see what was going to happen next.
“Dal Isenguard, you have been called by the council to serve. Will you accept whatever task we lay before you?”
I stood facing my father, making sure to keep my eyes off of my brother. The rest of the council looked smug, but I noticed their eyes kept darting to look at what remained of the vase. When they did, I could sense the fear rolling off of them in waves. The energy coming to me from the link I shared with my brother told me he was conflicted. It was his calling to serve, but he didn’t want to go without me.
“Lord of the Light, I must refuse.”
I felt my jaw drop and then I covered the smirk that was forming. My brother had shown them just how important it was that we were sent together. I loved my brother in that moment, more than I could express. The council looked at each other and then towards our father. He shrugged off their glares almost with indifference. His eyes were fixed on Dal and almost seemed to be beaming with approval. A hint of a smile cracked at one corner of his mouth, and then it disappeared just as quickly.
“Tell me warrior, why would you refuse the call to serve?”
Dal never looked my way, but I could feel him through our bond. For the first time since we had entered the room, he was radiating anger and resolve.
“I cannot go to face this threat without the aid of my brother. Together we would have a chance to succeed, alone we would surely fail.”
Councilman Crandall rose to his feet. “Do you really think the vampire will be too much for you? All of my reports say you are the strongest warrior in our order.”
All of your reports are wrong.
“Then
they must not have included any information about my brother,” Dal said.
It was true. I could beat Dal in a fight nine times out of ten and yet he surpassed me in every way with his mental talents. That is what made us so formidable when we worked together. He could keep the enemy off balance while I mowed them down.
“You haven’t answered my question. Is one vampire too much for you to handle?” Crandall pressed.
“There is no way for me to answer that question. No one that is alive today has faced a nosferatu in combat. We have only proven ourselves against the shades that were left behind from the blood wars. If the texts are to be believed, they are a pale comparison to the real thing.”
Crandall looked over at his fellow council members. “See I told you they weren’t that tough. Not anywhere near as special as we have been led to believe.”
We weren’t special, at least not in the way he meant it. We were the best because we trained harder than everyone else to refine our gifts. That and the talents we were born with put others to shame. It drove me crazy when people assumed because we had a natural affinity for the Sun God’s gifts, that we never had to put in any effort.
Our father turned towards Crandall. “I take it you have someone else in mind for the job?” He sounded almost haughty as if he had expected nothing less.
I wondered just what kind of game my father was playing. I hated politics, always had. The amount of fawning and ass kissing required left my lips numb and mind bereft of any clear thought. My calling was different. I was a warrior pure and simple. Point me towards the enemy and get the fuck out of the way.
The door to the council chambers opened, and a man marched in. He was covered from head to toe in a black robe with his hood pulled up. He stood out in stark contrast to all of our white robes. Someone was trying to make a point. He lowered his hood, and I felt a smile slide across my face. The man sneered at me. The effect of the scars pulling tight across his face mixed with his intense eyes might have worked on one of the younger warriors, but it just reminded me how far below our ability level he really was. A shadow would have never been able to touch either one of us, and here he was wearing that scar with pride as if almost being killed by one somehow made him better than us.
Genetic Purge (The Galactic Outlaws Book 2) Page 2