I would give up everything to keep Will safe. Yet neither Blink nor Liberty had used that, and I didn’t know why.
Will was a bright kid. He’d played the game, and that flamed me with pride.
I tilted my nut. ‘Will’s coming with me.’
‘I’ve become fond of Pet,’ Liberty brushed at her fringe, as if imagining it was Will’s fingers caressing her, ‘he’s like a foul-mouthed cherub. I’d considered keeping him for myself, and to bleed for picky eaters – like you – as well as political leverage in our future dealings, of course.’
‘You know two weeks of my darkest secrets. All I’d suffer and the extremes I’d go to for my own. Do you want to unleash that on your own head?’
Liberty backed towards the filing cabinet, as she swung the door wider. ‘That’s why I’ve decided…’
An explosion of dusty blond curls burst across the room and into my arms; Will clung so tightly I could feel his heart – beat, beat, beat – next to mine. His quiet sigh.
This time I hugged Will just as tightly as he held onto me.
Then Will drew back. ‘Angel of Light,’ he stared at me like I was sodding...life. I blinked away tears, when I noticed the tramlines of white scars down his arms. That was because of me; I’d suckled there, lapping up his blood. I’d fed on him: I’d made him prey. Will softly touched my cheek. ‘It ain’t no thing. You’re safe, remember? All that matters, innit?’
Little git was trying to make me blub. I caught his wrist. ‘But how..?’ A green bracelet – two entwined greens knotted together in an eternal snake – was wound round his wrist. ‘The wankers cut it off.’
Will smiled shyly. ‘Blink gave me the threads. Been making it ‘cos I done know you lost yours.’ He attempted to look stern, as he slipped it off his wrist onto mine. I couldn’t stop staring at it: resurrected and green against my pale skin. I’d never take it off again. ‘I ain’t making another.’
‘I’ll be sure to look after it better, little man. But Blink..? Didn’t he…hasn’t he been..?’
‘He’s my mandem. He stopped his rents from, you know…’
‘Captain?’
‘Blink ain’t be letting him hurt me, least not when he was there. The thing about Blink? He just never gets how things feel. So I tell him how the world don’t feel so bad. We be tight now.’
‘Good for you.’ I wondered if I was allowed to veto Will’s mates from now on.
I slipped my arm around Will’s waist, and he let me, as I steered him towards the door. When he didn’t even comment on the starkers bloke in the box, I felt a twinge of guilt.
I guess Will had seen a lot worse behind the scenes in the Blood Life Council.
When I’d first noticed Will, I’d reckoned him innocent but then I’d learnt his innocence had long been stolen from him. Now? Because I’d hunted him, drawing him into our Blood Lifer world, he’d never know anything but darkness.
After tonight’s protest on London Bridge, however, nor would the rest of the world.
‘You ain’t no bad man,’ Will nestled closer. ‘You know, from the song? Blink lent me his iPod so I could… I listened to our song every night. It was like we were together. I knew you were coming for me.’
‘Because it’s what angels do?’
‘‘Cos it’s what true fam…our fam do. And that be shabby, man.’
All those days I’d been desperate to speak one word alone – away from Liberty and the cameras – to let Will in on the caper: so he knew he wasn’t abandoned. And all that time? He’d had faith in me – more faith than I’d ever had in any one in Blood Life.
Christ I hoped I could live up to it; I was bleeding well going to try.
Donovan sauntered to join us at the wide foyer doors. He was resplendent in a purple velvet suit; Liberty must’ve planned that too. I suddenly wondered if the only reason Plantagenet had ever fancied Blake was because of his choice in threads. Blake had been nothing more than a wretched substitute for his lost love: Donovan.
Except Donovan wasn’t lost now; he was coming home.
It was hostage release day.
Hartford – my angel leading the rebellion, who was ready to martyr himself for Donovan, was waiting out there…along with the bloke’s greatest love.
‘Alright?’ I bumped Donovan’s shoulder. He grinned, as he bumped mine back.
‘Let’s split; this scene has been a drag.’
‘Couldn’t have said it better myself.’
I grasped Will’s hand on one side, Donovan’s on the other, and we strolled out of those glass doors to the fanfare of Echo and the Bunnyman and the whirr of news helicopters above, which were like furious fireflies, towards a sea of faces, as if candlelit at an Easter Vigil.
Blood Lifers thronged amongst the First: predator and prey. I tightened my hold on Will. And for the first time? I realised what I’d done.
I’d cracked the world to save my family.
I didn’t have a scooby what came next.
Yet after a fortnight trapped in artificial red and blue – worse coffin black – I stared up at the silent stars; their infinite freedom reached as far as any bloke could dream. Then I roared with a predator’s victory: we’d done it.
We’d only sodding done it.
When Hartford saw me, a spark of rage blazed across his mush (so no hope the venom and cage had been forgiven and forgotten then), but fizzled out the second he clocked Donovan at my side.
A cream blur – then Donovan was swept up in Hartford’s arms. Hartford’s voice burst loud in joyful song, as he spun him round in the Charleston. Donovan laughed, clinging to Hartford.
They’d both been brought back to life; it was never the blood but love. Inside Abona? As slaves they’d needed each other. Out here? They needed each other just as much.
Icy fingers slipped around me from behind, teasing up my t-shirt and sliding over my shivering skin. They edged down towards my jeans, slithering under. I yipped.
‘The frickin’ fried thing? I forgot. It was, like, the new power, scents, drives and sensations were making me into someone different. It was wicked frightening to lose everything and feel changed: a whole notha species. I got confused on account of I love Plantagenet too. But I forgot,’ Sun nibbled my ear, her teeth drawing blood, but on my gasp, licking over the marks, ‘I’m still your Sun Girl, and that’s my choice.’
I hadn’t reckoned on hearing that again. Not said in that way. Not from Sun.
I could’ve danced – like Hartford and Donovan – right there in front of the Council’s glistening glass monstrosity. I beamed. ‘Still waiting to be scooped here.’
Sun dragged me round so fast and hard, I was pulled off my feet; I was flying. She was cradling my cheeks, like she was terrified I’d slip away – or fight her. But she’d already conquered me.
I was nobody’s slave, yet I belonged to Sun, even if she’d never be mine.
Then Sun was snogging the life from me.
At once I was back in the bubble, which had embraced me as I’d fallen – caught in Sun’s arms in Peter Pan’s. My perfect moment for eternity. I didn’t know where fantasy ended and reality started.
Until I felt a tug and realised I was still holding Will’s hand.
‘Work that nice!’ Will winked.
I struggled to untangle my tongue from Sun’s. Then tug my lips back. Her hands still held my cheeks tight. Embarrassed, I squirmed, as if I was Will’s dad caught out in some hanky panky. ‘Oi, none of that, little man. Angel’s don’t like… Sod it.’
This time it was me snogging Sun. Stroking her soft hair like I’d craved to do when she’d sprawled with Blake or Plantagenet. Hoping that even if she didn’t want to hear the word love, then she’d feel, taste and remember it in the kiss.
Sun smelled of…gardenias. Freedom – and our love.
At last, I drew back, and Sun let me. Bugger being caged. I was saying the two words, and she was going to hear them this time. ‘I love you.’
Sun scowled. I
looked down. Then I felt her finger under my chin, however, lifting it, until our gazes met. ‘I love you too, Light.’
And that was all the hope I’d ever need.
‘Well-beloved, we are merrily met,’ Plantagenet looked like a panther freed into the wild. And up close? I was beginning to have coat envy. In the dark Plantagenet’s golden peepers were twin fires. ‘Here are your Renegades to command and charge – and I too.’
‘No, mate, you’re free. No bloke’s commanding you again.’
Plantagenet gave a quick nod, before he turned towards Donovan.
Even though I knew it was coming..? I still cringed.
As it’d been with Sun at the beginning, it was like the world (and Hartford with it), had fallen into darkness for Donovan. Nothing existed but Plantagenet – his long lost lover, there was no doubting it.
Donovan wrested away from Hartford, leaving him midstep in his dance. Hartford broke off his song in surprise.
When Donovan threw himself into Plantagenet’s arms, I knew the routine: the silent snuffling, tender licking, fingers tracing the cheek and then…that gentle, intimate kiss. I could taste the oranges.
Donovan was draped around Plantagenet, as if Plantagenet was pure blood and Donovan was overloaded on him alone.
It was painful to watch because…Plantagenet…the blood…called to me as powerfully.
I was an addict too. No point denying it.
Seeing another in my place? It was like Plantagenet was shanking me through the heart.
Then I had a shufti at Hartford’s mush: I wasn’t the only one who was being heart-shanked. I understood the loss. Except for Hartford? It was a thousand times more bloody.
I tugged Will after me, as I edged over to Hartford; I was a sacrifice offered up as a distraction. ‘You can boot me in the goolies; folks seem to get their jollies that way. Or clout me in the nose; that’s also a popular choice.’
Hartford struggled to glance away from Donovan’s snog to me. ‘Tell it to the marines. I’m busy.’
‘I drugged and caged you. Must’ve pissed you off.’
‘What you doin’, man? He’s gonna switch on you.’ Will tried to haul me away.
When Hartford prowled towards me, I had to bleeding agree.
‘What you pulled? Double-crossing me?’ When Hartford reached out, I flinched. ‘Was nutty, screwy and…’ Hartford smacked me lightly on the cheek. ‘Just saved the fella I’m goofy over.’
I breathed out.
Plantagenet and Donovan were still at it. How did you make up for decades apart? It looked, however, like they intended to take a shot at it.
Even in front of an entire army, Hartford was alone.
I risked a manly pat on Hartford’s shoulder. ‘Families: love them one moment; want to rip out their throats the next. Yet you’d still battle to the last breath for them.’
‘Say, mac, you’re sounding dangerously like a Long-lived,’ Hartford’s features gentled, as he looked at Will. ‘It’s swell to see you too.’
Then Hartford grasped Will’s small hand – a First Lifer safe between two Blood – and we swaggered together towards our family, lovers, army, allies and Renegades – the start of a new world on that night-time bridge over the tongue of the Thames.
We saw the world. And the world saw us.
Betrayal, death, hope.
It’s how all truly great stories end too.
What comes next?
That’s where the bollocks vampire myths finish, and the age of the Blood Lifer legends..?
It’s only just beginning.
Need a conclusion to your inquiry?
I’ll never be ashes but I’m on fire.
My name is Light. Predator. Slave. Freedom fighter.
And I’m the bloody hero.
Blood Renegades over too soon? If you enjoyed Rebel Vampires Volume 3, you’ll love the next book in the series, Rebel Vampires Volume 4: Blood Legends.
Prepare yourself for Age of the Blood Legends to begin...
Before the release of Blood Legends, comes the start of a whole new series from Rosemary A Johns in 2018: Rebel Werewolves Volume 1: Moon Broken.
Why not escape into a world where the fox hunts the wolf… She’s the first female Wolf Charmer on CID; he’s the first wolf on the Oxford Were Unit. Both are chasing their families’ killers and hiding the dark secrets of their pasts. Welcome to Were Town…
REBEL WEREWOLVES VOLUME 1: MOON BROKEN
Omega’s first day on the Were Unit at Oxford police station was much like a puppy’s with its new family: petted for its novelty, before being smacked over the nose for growling at the Siamese cat.
Omega was sipping on his second mug of hot milk sweetened with rich honey, which had been heated by Detective Zach Little, the youngest member of the team - and definite pack material, Omega had decided with a determined nod – when the Wolf Charmer sidled into the office.
Omega stiffened. He could feel – the siren call of her – scratching under his skin. His human skin. Worming deep beneath to the wolf, who snarled his agony, clawing at his guts to escape, snap, bite…
‘A rabbit…thump, thump…under the wheels, and it’s my own fault for being #OverTheTop, like I’d hit a kid, but they convinced me to confess to Hawk. I was bricking it. You should’ve seen the Inspector’s face when I reported the death of Bright Eyes.’
Zach sniggered. He was still nattering, as Omega perched on the Detective’s regimented desk, which was alive with phones, computers and snaking cables, and casually swung his boots on the swivel chair. Still cracking jokes and trying to impress.
Sweet Alpha, Zach had called Omega in jest, better make it something decent, before the others choose… Omega hadn’t needed Zach to fill in the blanks: Fiend, Baby-Eater, Animal, Werewolf…
Omega couldn’t hear Zach now though. Not with that woman – all black hair and emerald eyes – stalking towards him across the open-plan office.
Omega was tense with the knowledge there was nowhere to hide.
The stink of the brand new carpets caught at the back of his throat: demonic red against the angelic white of the walls. There was a tangled web of Good Work letters, mixed with fuzzy photos of targets; someone had sketched cupid hearts between one couple. Omega smirked: so had to be his boy Zachary. As did the phone number for The Jeremy Kyle Show scrawled underneath the official list of Thames Valley contacts.
The Wolf Charmer had stopped next to Zach’s desk. Right beside his shoulder. Although she was shorter than Zach, the way she held her head so erectly on her neck..? Made her looked like she was taller. And had a stick up her arse.
Omega bristled, surging with unexpected protectiveness, before deflating: by the Moon this was a Wolf Charmer – you wrapped them around your little finger with manipulation, mind games and your own charms, whilst you tested for weaknesses…but you could never protect against them.
Omega hadn’t reckoned his handler would be a woman; the ones who’d trained him had all been men. He didn’t know why the feel of her already invading him, and her smell – a powerful wave of musk – choking him, was so much harder to take.
Maybe she’d still ‘friend’ him? He had a hilarious meme about a witch he could share…
Omega forced a smile. Time to play the game. ‘Guess you’re my new partner then?’
A snow white hand stroking his face; Omega hadn’t expected that. Nor the words whispered for him alone, stinging and vicious as scorpions, ‘Guess you’re my new dog then?’
Omega jerked away, crashing back Zach’s chair with a vicious – slam – as Omega overbalanced. When Omega heard Zach’s gasp of pain, he whimpered. Wounding his boy? Great job, Sweet Alpha…
Silence. For the first time that morning in the office.
Omega flushed when he realised they’d become the freak show entertainment.
Nothing new there.
Omega scowled at his handler, baring just a little tooth: even the enemy deserved a warning.
The Wol
f Charmer’s expression, however, was so still, you’d have reckoned they’d been discussing stationary.
Come to think of it: a decent fountain pen? Omega wouldn’t have minded chatting about that.
Nobody must ever learn of the nerd inside... His wolf could snap hard when he was cringing.
For a moment, the were and the Wolf Charmer scrutinized each other, and Omega shifted uneasily.
He knew what the Wolf Charmer saw: a tumble of pale moon blond curls and butterfly thick eyelashes heavy over golden eyes. He’d saved for suit trousers and an ivory shirt, in what he knew was a deluded attempt to fit in because he also wore the white woolen overcoat with moon symbol sewn onto the sleeve, as per regulation… Yeah, like he’d memorized those.
Omega also knew what the Wolf Charmer didn’t see: a were crouching, hunched over and gaze averted from her strict one, sniveling in submission because if she was waiting on that?
She could just go wait on another partner.
Omega supposed the Wolf Charmer was beautiful, but she was also cold, cruel, powerful…and she hated him already.
Not much beautiful about that.
Suddenly scarlet tendrils grew out of the Wolf Charmer’s hands; wisps of snaking shadow coiled, as if from her Soul: from her glowing eyes, chest and lips...a red, living thing intent on punishing him.
Omega could feel it pulsing; he could hear it hissing. Its sickly unnatural stench, like a rotting carcass or death, was reaching towards him. He started to pant and whine.
No Wolf Charmer had unleashed their charms on him. He’d behaved. Followed rules. He was one of the best in the Inclusion Program.
Call me Omega now, bitches.
The Charm slammed into him like a punch.
Omega cracked back against the desk. His mug of milk spilled, as if it was pale blood, in a pool across the papers, from his motionless hand. Pinned and spread-eagled, his wolf fought with rage, with its snout wrinkled in fury, it hurled itself against its cage.
Then Omega heard it: the music. Faint at first but still electrifying: a rowdy Mod revival of guitars and the joy of being young and free. Despite everything, as Kaiser Chief’s “I Predict a Riot” rampaged, louder and louder, as if it too was inside him, Omega’s lips curled into a smile. But then he jerked, gagging.
Blood Renegades (Rebel Vampires Book 3) Page 27