by Max Turner
NEW
ORDER
A NIGHT RUNNER NOVEL
MAX TURNER
Dedication
For my family. You are my
greatest adventure.
Table of Contents
Dedication
IN NIGHT RUNNER …
AND IN END OF DAYS …
CHAPTER 1: PARTY CRASHER
CHAPTER 2: THE UNBREAKABLE RULE
CHAPTER 3: GERM OF CORRUPTION
CHAPTER 4: CHAPTER ARACTER FLAW
CHAPTER 5: THE NEW ORDER
CHAPTER 6: FAILED RESPONSIBILITIES
CHAPTER 7: TRAPPED IN A NIGHTMARE
CHAPTER 8: MEETINGS
CHAPTER 9: A HOUSE DIVIDED
CHAPTER 10: INVASION
CHAPTER 11: DESCENT
CHAPTER 12: SON OF THE BEAST
CHAPTER 13: PLAN B
CHAPTER 14: CASUALTY
CHAPTER 15: PARTING WAYS
CHAPTER 16: A SHORT REST
CHAPTER 17: PARADIGM SHIFT
CHAPTER 18: THE SPY
CHAPTER 19: A SHORT INTERROGATION
CHAPTER 20: SHORT-TERM PLANS
CHAPTER 21: L’ESPRIT SAUVAGE
CHAPTER 22: THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE
CHAPTER 23: FAILED RETREAT
CHAPTER 24: DEATH
CHAPTER 25: AWAKENINGS
CHAPTER 26: GOOD COP/BAD COP
CHAPTER 27: ONE TALENT TO RULE THEM ALL
CHAPTER 28: THE OFFER
CHAPTER 29: A JOURNEY IN THE DARK
CHAPTER 30: THE TRIAL
CHAPTER 31: SON OF THE DRAGON
CHAPTER 32: TRIAL BY COMBAT
CHAPTER 33: CHAPTER ANGE OF PLANS
CHAPTER 34: TESTING THEORIES
CHAPTER 35: UNDEATH
CHAPTER 36: THE CHAPTER ANGELING
CHAPTER 37: REUNION
CHAPTER 38: FLY BY NIGHT
CHAPTER 39: BUDAPEST
CHAPTER 40: COUNTERMOVE
CHAPTER 41: THE LABYRINTH
CHAPTER 42: THE END OF WAR
CHAPTER 43: BITTEN
CHAPTER 44: THE HORDE
CHAPTER 45: BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
CHAPTER 46: SIGNS AND SIGNALS
CHAPTER 47: ULTIMATUM
CHAPTER 48: DUELLING WITH DEATH
CHAPTER 49: AN UNEXPECTED TURN OF EVENTS
CHAPTER 50: OUTLAWS
CHAPTER 51: A VALUABLE DISCOVERY
CHAPTER 52: THE GRAVE
CHAPTER 53: LÚ-YÍNG, THE SHADOW ROAD
CHAPTER 54: DUELLING SHADOWS
CHAPTER 55: THE RETURN OF JOHN ENTWISTLE
CHAPTER 56: CATCHAPTER ING UP
CHAPTER 57: REVELATION
CHAPTER 58: MISPRONUNCIATION
CHAPTER 59: SUMMONS
CHAPTER 60: TERMS
CHAPTER 61: APPARITIONS
CHAPTER 62: STALEMATE
CHAPTER 63: THERE IS NO ANTIDOTE …
CHAPTER 64: THE PUPPET MASTER
CHAPTER 65: TWO WEEKS LATER
CHAPTER 66: IMMUNITY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
About the Author
PRAISE FOR NIGHT RUNNER AND END OF DAYS
Copyright
About the Publisher
IN NIGHT RUNNER …
ZACK THOMSON HAS BEEN living in the psychiatric ward of a hospital since his parents died. His degenerative blood disease, mood swings and strange allergies have all the local doctors baffled. Despite the occasional visit from his best friend, Charlie, and dinners with the intriguing Nurse Ophelia, his life is one of boredom, loneliness and isolation. Then Zack’s Uncle Maximilian arrives out of the blue and reveals missing pieces from Zack’s shadowy history: first, that Zack’s late father, Dr. Robert Thomson, was a vampire hunter, not an archaeologist as he always claimed; second, that Dr. Thomson didn’t die on an archaeological dig but was murdered by a vampire lord, Vrolok, who is now searching for Zack; and finally, that the same vampire infected Zack shortly after his father’s death, making him a vampire, too.
As he waits for Maximilian to complete the process of adopting him, Zack is flushed from the ward by a police detective. Fearing that the detective is actually working for his father’s killer, Zack escapes with the help of an elderly vampire, John Entwistle. But the older vampire is later trapped in a fire at a blood donor clinic, leaving Zack alone and uncertain.
Anxious to find a safe haven, Zack calls Charlie and they head to his friend’s cottage at Stoney Lake. There, Zack meets a beautiful girl named Luna, and for a short time he gets a taste of ordinary teenage life. This comes to an abrupt end when a local cottager is murdered, and the police, believing Zack to be the culprit, taser him into submission.
En route to Peterborough with the police, Zack is rescued by Maximilian, who takes him to his place of business in Montreal, Iron Spike Enterprises. There Zack discovers that his uncle is very sick with lung cancer, and that his condition has prompted him to cut a deal with Vrolok, who turns out to be the notorious Vlad the Impaler. In exchange for his nephew, Maximilian has been promised eternal life and membership in the Coven of the Dragon, an elite vampire secret police. The extent of the betrayal intensifies when Vlad drags Charlie and Luna into the room and reveals his intention to impale them.
Enter Ophelia, Zack’s nurse from the hospital. She also happens to be a vampire—and Vlad’s wife. Fulfilling a promise she made to Zack’s father, she tells Vlad to leave the kids and scram. A nasty fight ensues during which Zack bites Charlie to make himself stronger, inadvertently killing his best friend. Maximilian flees, but not before blowing out the windows and letting in sunlight. As things get toasty, Zack forces Ophelia from the room before he and Vlad die of exposure. Luna is left alone with their remains and Charlie’s corpse.
Zack awakens in a hospital bed, following a massive blood infusion. Ophelia is there, along with Charlie. Having been infected with the vampire pathogen, Charlie had risen from death starving and fed from Luna, so now she, too, is a vampire.
AND IN END OF DAYS …
ZACK LEARNS ABOUT an ancient vampire prophecy. It foretells that an orphaned blood drinker and son of a great vampire hunter will die and rise again to lead his kind to salvation … or to destruction. This makes Zack the target of a mysterious creature called Hyde. Likened to the Beast of the Apocalypse, Hyde is killing both vampires and those who offer them support.
Following the suspicious death of a police inspector, Zack is once again arrested as a murder suspect. He is freed from jail by Charlie and Mr. Entwistle, who, to Zack’s surprise, survived the deadly fire at the blood donor clinic and has been in England gathering information on the prophecy and an impending vampire war.
The three go to one of Ophelia’s safe houses, where Zack learns that Mr. Entwistle, once called John Tiptoft, the Butcher of England, was an executioner who tortured and impaled his enemies during the Wars of the Roses. Unwilling to offer him shelter, Ophelia sends Mr. Entwistle away, then takes Zack to Tibet via the Dream Road, a spiritual highway that connects people who are dreaming. On the Roof of the World, Zack is introduced to Baoh, a twelve-hundred-year-old vampire prophet, who helps explain the prophecies and what Zack must to do survive.
The next night, after reconciling with Mr. Entwistle, Ophelia leaves to smooth things over with Detective Baddon, the man leading the police investigation into the crimes committed by Hyde. At the same time, Mr. Entwistle takes Charlie and Zack to meet Maximilian, who is looking to make amends after his disastrous dealings with Vlad. Following their strange visit, Charlie and Zack discover that Detective Baddon has a son convalescing in the hospital. His symptoms lead them to speculate that this boy, Vincent, is a vampire. As Zack and Charlie leave the hospital, Hyde appears and attacks them. Mr. Entwistle saves the day, bu
t not before Zack is poisoned. He awakens to find that Luna and her sister, Suki, have joined them after driving up from their home in New Jersey. Following a failed search for Hyde, Zack and Charlie find themselves back in cottage country with the girls. Unbeknownst to them, Mr. Entwistle confronts Hyde alone and is killed.
The four teens return to Peterborough to regroup with Ophelia—only to discover that she’s missing, their base of operations is on fire and Hyde has kidnapped Vincent, Detective Baddon’s son. Charlie and Zack take up the chase, which leads them to the Warsaw Caves. In a confrontation there with Hyde, both are beaten badly, but Ophelia arrives and, using wolfsbane, turns Hyde back into his human alter ego, Detective Baddon, revealing that both he and his comatose son are werewolves.
Before the group can make an exit, the detective turns into the Beast again and tries to kill Ophelia, but Maximilian shows up and causes a partial cave-in. Hyde sacrifices himself so his son can be taken to safety. A larger cave-in follows, killing Hyde and Maximilian and burying Mr. Entwistle’s corpse under millions of pounds of rock. Vincent also dies, but Zack is able to revive him, leading Zack to speculate that Vincent might be the true subject of the prophecies, given that Vincent is also the son of a vampire hunter and an orphaned blood drinker who has died and come back.
The story ends at Iron Spike Enterprises, where Zack becomes heir to Maximilian’s fortunes. Two months later, the story continues …
CHAPTER 1
PARTY CRASHER
THE BOUNTY HUNTER arrived as I was setting the dinner table. I had a punch bowl in my arms, blood donor bags piled inside. As I made my way across the rooftop, my eyes strayed over the pool to the patio, eventually settling on the crystal goblet at my place setting. The man’s reflection was fish-bowled across its surface, a tiny silhouette superimposed on the skyline of Montreal.
“A last supper,” he said. “How fitting …”
His voice was peculiar, slow and deep, with just a hint of Southern drawl.
I set the punch bowl on a centrepiece of rose petals, then turned around. I don’t know what part of his getup shocked me the most: the large, gem-encrusted rings that sat on each finger, his thick mutton-chop sideburns, his gold-rimmed aviator sunglasses, his white, rhinestone-studded jumpsuit that flared just below the knees or the matching cowboy hat embroidered with gold thread. He would have been a dead ringer for Elvis had it not been for his tanned skin and Arab features. And his guns. Long-barrelled six-shooters hanging in snakeskin holsters. He started walking towards me, the wooden soles of his cowboy boots double-clicking on the patio stones.
It was Halloween. All week, my best friend, Charlie, and I had been planning a surprise dinner date with the lovely Abbott sisters, Luna and Suki. I’d left my sword-fighting lesson early so I could get things ready. There hadn’t been time to remove my body armour, which was just dumb luck, but I wasn’t armed for a gunfight. Against a normal man, I’d have fared well with a paper clip and an elastic band, but this guy moved with a fluid grace particular to a higher brand of killer. He was a vampire, like me.
“Aren’t you a bit old to be trick-or-treating?” I asked, glancing over the tabletop.
Of the two guests we’d been expecting for dinner, only Suki, Charlie’s girlfriend, was human. Her salad was at the far end of the table, along with the steak knife she’d need for her filet mignon. It was the only weapon in sight. Thinking to pull it closer, I put my hand on the tablecloth. It was meant to look like a casual gesture, but I was so rattled I probably looked less like 007 and more like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz after a good week of rain.
The bounty hunter stopped about six paces from me, placed a toothpick in his mouth, pushed up the brim of his hat, then removed his sunglasses and tucked them into his suit pocket. Normally, a vampire’s eyes faded over time. His sparkled like amethysts.
“You sure you want to go that way?” he said.
The correct answer was no. What I wanted was a hot shower and some quality time with my Xbox, but there seemed to be little point in saying so.
His right hand moved closer to the handle of his pistol, his fingers undulating slowly so his gem-spangled rings sparkled red, white and blue in the candlelight. The toothpick rolled from one side of his mouth to the other. I tightened my grip on the tablecloth. He drew. I yanked the material towards me and raised my hand to catch the knife.
Nothing happened. The entire length of cloth pulled free. Everything on top stayed exactly where it was. The dishes, the punch bowl, the cutlery, Suki’s salad. Even most of the rose petals. For a fraction of a second I stared in mute horror at the undisturbed place settings. Then he opened fire.
The bullets left a trail in the air. Gyrojet ammunition. Each round was like a rocket that sped up as it left the gun. A full clip cost more than a U2 concert, so you either had to be good or filthy rich to use them.
I twisted sideways and the first shot ricocheted off my shoulder armour. The second trimmed a lock of hair from over my ear. I spun the tablecloth like a cape to block his view, then dove to the far end of the table, rolled to my feet and reached back for Suki’s knife. He stared at my hand with an expression of disbelief. I guessed he’d never seen a young vampire move so quickly.
I guessed wrong.
“You really think you can beat me with a fork?” he asked.
I glanced back at the table and blanched. Wrong cutlery. This was shaping up to be one of those nights.
Bullet number three hit my chest like a mallet. My armour stopped the round, but the force knocked me through one of the Plexiglas panels of the pool fence. I landed hard and rolled away as two more bullets shattered the patio stones beside me. Hoping to create some space, I leapt for the diving board and sprang onto the roof of the penthouse. My feet touched down on either side of the peak just as another bullet clipped the vambrace over my arm. I glanced behind me. The vampire smiled, holstered his gun and pulled out a short, curved dagger.
I took a deep breath and focused on the instructions Ophelia, my guardian and sword-fighting instructor, had given me.
Be like water. A thousand pounds crashing down the mountain. Fast. Fluid. And unstoppable.
The only part of me that felt like water was my stomach. The rest of my muscles were knotted rope. I could feel the fork deforming in my fingers.
Be like water …
The vampire leapt upwards, caught the edge of the eaves and slung himself over the lip of the shingles so we were staring at each other from opposite ends of the roof. He closed in at a run. I flicked the fork at him like it was a throwing star, then threw a desperate jab. He tapped the utensil aside, ducked my punch and swung his blade. A sound like a firecracker followed as it sparked against my armoured forearm.
The barrage that followed had me bobbing and weaving like a master of drunken kung fu. I should have been circling away from his knife hand, but on a pitched roof that would have given him the high ground, so I had to back straight up. In no time, I was dancing at the end of the peak. He thrust high. I ducked and slipped and would have tumbled over the side had he not grabbed me by the wrist. He pressed the tip of his blade against my throat and smiled. “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin.”
The pool was just beneath me. I twisted my hand free, kicked out hard and aimed for the deep end. My execution was slow and his blade sliced though my skin, sending ribbons of pain up and down my neck. This was followed by a shocking jolt when, instead of splashing gently down into the pool, my back landed flush on the diving board. One bounce later, two hundred pounds of flailing idiot was soaring over the patio.
I landed on the dinner table. The wooden legs collapsed. Blood donor bags burst, plates and crystal goblets shattered, tea lights spilled their wax and sputtered out, the smell of balsamic vinaigrette gummed up my nostrils. Suki’s steak knife clattered to the patio beside me. By sheer luck, my hand came down over the handle. I turned it so the blade was hidden under my wrist, then tucked it up my sleeve.
The bounty hunter w
as doubled over, laughing on the penthouse roof. “And they say you’re going to be T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Trouble.” He straightened up to wipe his eyes. “All those crusty elders holed up in their tombs, too scared to face the night. Unbelievable.”
I was lying on my side. Blood from my neck ran through my fingers and down the inside of my armour. A burst blood donor bag was lying on the patio stones near my hip. I picked up the bag and drained what was left. A short-lived euphoria carried the pain away. My heart was still stuck at the Daytona 500, but at least all my leaks were sealing.
The vampire leapt from the roof, hit the diving board, executed a perfect straight-legged front flip and landed like a rhinestoned ninja right in front of me. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. He drew his gun, cocked the hammer and put the tip of the barrel against my forehead. “Any last words?”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
“There’s a bounty on your head. If you can match your price tag, I might forget I found you.”
“How much?”
“Five billion dead. Ten billion alive.”
I quickly did the math. “You’re saying killing me is going to cost you five billon dollars?”
“A word to the wise, youngblood. Never wrong a person and leave them alive to take revenge on you. Five billion dineros is nothing to pay for peace of mind. And a good scrap is priceless. You’re the first target who’s ever tried to kill me with a fork.”
He watched as I lowered the empty blood donor bag to the ground. As soon as his eyes lifted, I let the knife slide down into my palm. He took a quick step back.
“Ah-ah-ahhh!” he said. “Too Much Monkey Business. Drop it. NOW.”
I raised both hands and spread my fingers. The knife slipped to the ground. “You don’t miss much, do you?”
“Wouldn’t be good at my job if I did.”
“Did you know you were out of bullets?”
He peered down and noticed his chambers were empty. “So there’s still room for improvement …”
I threw the salad bowl at him. It hit his chest. Dressing and lettuce flew everywhere. I grabbed the knife and rolled to my feet.