Crandall spoke with pride. “I present to you my son, Erendall, a man that will heed the call to serve.”
Yep, right up to the point the vampire rips his heart out. Erendall was almost worthless as a warrior. The scar on his face was earned during the trials. Dal and I had come out of ours unscathed. Dal had danced circles around Erendall in the ring while I'd hit him so hard he was in the regen tank for a week.
The council looked uncertain. Dal and I split apart and took a few steps back from where we had been standing. It let Erendall move towards the center of the room and in front of the council. I could feel my brother almost laughing through our bond. It was good that despite what had happened today, we were still of one mind.
My father looked at the other members of the council waiting until he received a nod from all of them before speaking. “It is customary to kneel when presenting yourself before the council.”
Crandall shot my father a withering glare, but Erendall just dropped to one knee and spoke. “Please forgive me, lord. I have forgotten myself in my eagerness to serve.”
“Rise Erendall, you have been called to serve. Will you accept any task this council grants you?”
“I will, my lord,” Erendall whispered.
“Then as Lord of the Light, I order you to go forth and vanquish the abomination.”
“Your will be done.”
Erendall turned and strode from the room. Before he passed me, I caught a look of haughty disdain. It was his funeral. Most people believed that the texts had overstated the capabilities of a true vampire. Dal and I were firm believers that the texts had been grossly understated. If that was the case, we were about to be down one ship and one member of our order.
Dal and I shared a look before turning back to face the council. Crandall stood there looking smug, the other council members looked slightly put out as if they just now realized they had been maneuvered into making a bad decision. Our father looked pleased. When Erendall failed, he would have removed a key piece of the opposition against him. God, I hated politics.
Crandall waved at us with the back of his hand. “Go, your presence is no longer required.”
A second after he had finished speaking, he flew from where he was back into his chair. The look of shock on his face was priceless.
“You overstep yourself, Sam,” our father said.
“Maybe not for much longer,” Crandall said with defiance.
“Until then mind your tone, and your actions,” our father growled. Crandall looked slightly put out as our father turned towards us. “You may go.”
“Yes, lord.” Spilled from our lips in unison.
We turned and walked out of the chamber together. Both of us still trying to come to grips with what had just happened. Our father was the Lord of our Sanctuary, and yet we had been left off of the front line. Our family’s honor had been called into question, and for what? So Erendall could die a quick and brutal death. All we could do now is wait, and I hated fucking waiting.
CHAPTER 3
D’AVIN
The antechamber didn’t seem anywhere near as glorious on my way out. The platinum had lost its shine, and the bright colors of the room seemed washed out. Had we really waited all of our lives for this moment only to be shoved aside by politics? I hated the reminder that the council held so much sway over us. It didn’t matter when your father was the Lord and Warden of the Sanctuary when his council could so easily overturn his decisions.
“D’avin you need to relax,” Dal said with an easygoing smile.
“How can you be so calm?” I forced myself to take a breath. “That was everything we had been waiting for, and they took it away from us.”
Dal stopped walking forcing me to look into his eyes before speaking. “I’m sure Father had his reasons. He probably wanted to shut the blowhard Crandall up. The guy goes on and on about his son being just as good if not better than us.”
“That’s a harsh lesson, sending his son to die.”
Dal shrugged and started walking again. “You know Dad, he was never one to pull punches.”
“So how long do you think it will take?” Dal looked at me questioningly, trying to figure out my meaning. “You know, for Erendall to die?”
“Not long. I’d say we’ll be back in front of the council within the week.”
Dal smiled, and I let one of my own spread across my face. Within a week, we might be back on the path of our destiny. As we stopped in front of the entrance to my quarters, I couldn’t help but think about how much I loved my brother. Today I loved him even more. He turned down the opportunity to chase history alone. That wasn’t something most men would do, even for family.
“You had better spend the week in training then, I’d hate to lose you out there,” I joked lightly.
“I think I’d rather spend the week in meditation. I like to leave the heavy lifting to you.”
I turned and headed into my room. “Is that what you are calling him now, meditation?”
Dal’s smile dropped, and the look on his face grew serious, but only for a moment. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Not quite the witty comeback I had been expecting, but he also hadn’t expected to be confronted with the truth. I knew his secret. Dal continued down the hallway, and I moved into my rooms. Dal didn’t think anyone knew about his little love affair, but I had stumbled across it almost a year ago. I was never sure if he was ashamed to tell me because it was with a man or if it was because he just liked to keep that part of his life to himself. He should know better than to think I cared about his sexual preference. He was my brother, and I loved him no matter who he chose to sleep with.
The thought of his little indiscretion reminded me I was long overdue for a trip to Savile Station. It was about time I introduced myself to a few of the new girls. I could almost see them standing before me now. I let the thoughts play out in my mind for a few moments and then let it go. Despite what my brother had said, I planned to get in some serious training today. That meant stripping out of these ridiculous robes and into my combat gear. Today I planned on beating my newest T-7 droid into the ground.
A hard training session was just what I need to get my mind off what happened last night and just now. Maybe the Sun God was punishing me for my folly. Hopefully it would also help purge the last of the alcohol from my system. I wanted to be clear-headed when we received the call that Erendall had failed at his mission.
Sure those assholes deserved a good beating, but even that should have been below me. The Sun God frowned upon such actions. Thinking of how many people they must have hurt over the years made me feel a little better, but not as much as I would have thought. Still, I had killed a man, and no matter how vile he was, I should have been able to keep my temper in check. The fact that he had actually wounded me had pushed me over the edge. My biggest consolation was that I probably stopped someone else from being tossed into the trash chute that night. Well that and the two ladies that pampered me for three hours made me feel like slightly less of an asshole.
Still, Bill had been able to sneak up on me with that knife and that was unacceptable. If Dal had been there, he would have been able to sense him. It just proved to me again how much I relied on my brother. His powers were stronger than mine when it came to being able to sense people and search them out. I made up for it by being able to kick the shit out of anything that moved. It gave me an edge not found in most of the Brotherhood, but sometimes you needed to get nasty to get things done. Now I had to work on expanding the other half of my gift. Next time someone like Bill tried to get the jump on me, they weren’t going to succeed.
Walking into the gym, I activated my T-7 training droid. T-7 was seven feet tall and built lanky. The silver droid had two eyes and a slit where a human’s mouth would have been. The droid didn’t need either of these things to function, but the designer had decided making them look a little more human made people more comfortable. I kind of thought it was creepy, especially when all
I did was kick the crap out of the damn thing. The droid was a lifesaver, especially when most of the brotherhood no longer wanted to spare with you. It wasn’t my fault they couldn’t keep up.
I typed in the program that I wanted to activate and then drew my staff. I made sure to keep my power in check. The last thing I wanted to do was fry another damn droid. The last one had come out of my monthly stipend, and I hadn’t been able to visit Fletcher’s for three months. That couldn’t happen again, I cherished the time I spent with those ladies.
As soon as I turned around the droid attacked. The damn thing was fast, faster than I remembered, and I had trained with it just last week. Had we just gotten upgrades that I didn’t know about, or had someone tweaked my personal droid to give it a boost. I barely had time to get my staff up to deflect its first strike. What in the hell? I used a blast of power to push T-7 back a few feet. It didn’t matter how fast the damn thing was, I was faster.
Instead of focusing my power on the droid, I turned it inwards. My muscles rippled with it, and I knew the damn thing wouldn’t be able to stand up against me now. This time when it charged towards me, it seemed as if it was moving underwater. I dodged the clumsy swipes it made without even raising my staff. I went to sweep the droid’s legs out from under it, and it leaped into the air. That was new. The droid spun in midair and kicked out sending me flying backwards. I’d have to find out who upgraded this, but for now I was enjoying it. The alcohol was coming out in my sweat, and after this workout, I’d be feeling more like myself again.
The droid charged lashing out with both hands and throwing in a random kick here or there. I was able to deflect all of T-7’s attacks, but I wasn’t making any headway. I was starting to get tired, and my power was starting to wane. Maybe if I shouldn’t have started this fight weaker than normal, I’d let this play out just to see what T-7 was capable of now, but I’d had enough for tonight. The constant use of my power was wearing me thin, and I wasn’t up for playing games. If I didn’t end this fight soon, it would be the first time I lost a battle to a droid in over ten years.
Upping the power I was feeding into my limbs, I dashed forward. My staff slammed into the droid with a clang. I reversed the momentum and spun with it dealing a blow to the droid’s knee. It stumbled, and a small burst of power sent it tumbling to the ground. I brought my staff down on its chest again. This time, it grabbed my staff and used it to toss me over the top of him. I was forced to let go so I could spin and land without crashing into the wall behind me.
I landed safely, but now the droid was rushing towards me, staff held above its head. A strike like that might do more than end the match. “Halt program. Code three-four-two.” The droid didn’t stop. The staff started to descend and I was scared during training for the first time in my life. I reached deep inside of myself and blasted the droid with every ounce of my power. It flew across the room and slammed into the wall. The metal frame buckled and a small wisp of smoke drifted out of T-7’s chest.
Clapping sounded from the edge of the room. I turned to see my father standing there. He had a satisfied look on his face. “Well done, son.”
That thing could have killed me. I wanted to shout at him, but it wouldn’t have made a difference, this was just another test. Shit, it might have even been payback for the crimes I had committed on the station. I just bowed to my father and watched as he left. I collected my staff from the remains of the droid and walked out of the training facility. Someone else could clean that shit up.
CHAPTER 4
CAPTAIN DRAKE
When my comm beeped, I jumped into the air even though I had been waiting for the call. I don’t know why, maybe seeing a woman jump twenty feet to the top of my ship and cling there like she was a fucking magnet had something to do with it. We were in deep shit now, and despite years of pulling myself out of eerily similar piles of waste, I couldn’t see any way to claw out of this one.
The N.E.A. had pulled us into their ship, and Dr. Marcom had offered us a job. Not that we had a choice when any refusal would have led to the arrest of my crew and the destruction of my ship. It seemed like the Drake name had earned us a fan in Dr. Marcom, and no one else would do to smuggle the box they wanted delivered to Mars. Like a dumbass, I had opened the box to see what was inside, and now we were forced to deal with the repercussions of my impetuous actions.
There was no way to talk my way out of this. The N.E.A didn’t appreciate a silver tongue, they were more of the 'do what I say or get turned into space dust kind' persuasion. The only way out of this now was to shove the woman back in the box. Not a half bad idea considering she had some kind of weird powers. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself, but she hung on the roof like a normal woman would have lain on the ground. Pretending this didn’t happen wasn’t an option, so I hoped Doc at least had some good news for me. I mean my whole day couldn’t be pure shit right?
Taking a few deep breaths to steady myself, I opened up the comm line. “Drake.”
“Captain, we're ready for you in the medbay.”
What in the hell did that mean? Ready for what? Couldn’t the man just tell me whatever it was he wanted to say over the comm? I grumbled to myself as I started walking in their direction.
There must be something that Richard really wanted to show me in person if he was asking me to come see him. That or he had some really shitty news and hoped he could use the two women to deflect some of my anger. He hadn’t sounded worried though so maybe I was just blowing this out of proportion. What in the hell was I thinking opening that box? I should have just dropped the damn thing off like they asked and gotten back to my life. Instead, I had to be curious. You know what curious did to the Martian? It fucking ate him.
“On my way.” There was no hiding from whatever this was now. I needed as much information as I could get and I needed it now. How in the hell else was I going to get out of this mess? At least Doc hadn’t activated the quarantine protocols. That meant we still had a fighting chance to get out of this in one piece. It also meant that the lovely black-haired beauty currently in my medbay wasn’t some kind of biological weapon. Well, at least not with any of the diseases our system scanned for.
Hitting the button to the hatch, I had to dodge around Kyra before making it into the hall. She should have been in the engine room or on the bridge with Ice. What was she even doing down here? “Where are you off to in such a hurry?”
“I just dropped off some clothes that we found in the box to Maze. Now I’m heading back to the bridge. You know how Ice gets when I’m around other naked women.”
No, I didn’t fucking know how she got, nor did I want to. Since when did captain become a job of managing people’s emotions? Maybe it was when the number of women on this ship passed the number of men. I liked it better when I just got to issue orders, and people followed them. Now I had to care about all of these people’s feelings. It was downright tiring, and all of them needed my best now if they wanted to see more than the next few cycles alive.
A little growl escaped my lips, but I managed to rein it in enough to say. “Maybe swing by the galley and get her a cup of that new coffee.”
“Great idea, Cap. That’s why I love you.” She leaned in and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before bouncing away.
It must be nice to be so damn happy all the time. Shaking my head I continued deeper into the ship. Even a blind dog got lucky sometimes, that’s how I was with giving advice. Sometimes I got it just right. It wasn’t that I couldn’t handle close relationships or that I didn’t pay attention to what my crew wanted or needed. I just preferred to keep things simple. Do the job, make the credits, spend the credits. Now I had gone and fallen for my second and then made the biggest mistake of my life. Never, and I repeat never ask what’s in the box.
A few quick turns brought me to the medbay. Doc was waiting for me in the outer chamber. I looked past him towards Maze who was helping our newest problem get dressed. Maze met my eyes, and I
made sure to keep them locked onto hers. I would not look at the creamy white flesh next to her as it shrugged into a form fitting t-shirt. Maze nodded to me once and turned back to help the girl. Now it was my turn to look away. I focused my gaze on the doctor and tried to find a smile. I failed.
“Tell me, Doc, how much shit are we in?”
Richard was smiling, but a little bit of nervousness danced around his eyes. If I was reading him right, it was the excited kind of nerves, the kind you got when you just needed one last thing to fall into place to accomplish your biggest dreams. “I’ve never seen anything like her before. I’m not even sure where to start.”
Yeah, I knew what the doc meant. She was beautiful, the kind of beautiful that drained your bank accounts and then moved on. “Let’s start with how she could jump twenty feet straight up and cling to the roof of my goddamned ship with her back.” The woman inside of the room stopped as she finished pulling on her pants and turned to look at me over her shoulder. Her eyes were cold, calculating, and eerie as fuck. She shouldn’t have been able to hear what I said through the barrier, but I had the distinct feeling she had. Our eyes met for the briefest of moments, and I felt like she was sizing me up for dinner. I turned back towards Richard, hoping to shake the tingle of fear that had just crept up my spine.
“That’s the best part. I have no idea.”
“Come on, Doc.” I was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. “How is that the best part?”
Genetic Purge (The Galactic Outlaws Book 2) Page 3