The Complete Vampire Project Series: (Books 1 - 5)

by Jonathan Yanez

  “We’re not going with you,” Abigail said to their mentor. “We’ve come to let you know and to thank you for everything you’ve done for us. But I can’t leave my sister.”

  Saber titled his head down, his eye still looking up at Abigail and then Jack. “And you, kid? Do you feel the same way?”

  “I can’t leave her.” Jack swallowed hard, forcing himself to meet Saber’s glare. “And there still may be a chance that Elizabeth was telling the truth about my father. I have to find out for sure.”

  “You realize you two are more valuable to our cause alive than dead, right?” Saber stood up straight. “Stay, and your fate is sealed. You’ll be dead in forty-eight hours. Come with us, and you live to fight another day. You’ll be alive and still have a chance at finding out the fate of your loved ones.”

  “I’m sorry.” Abigail shook her head. “I have to stay.”

  “Me, too,” Jack echoed her words.

  “Well then, I’m sorry.” Saber shook his head.

  “Sorry for what?” Jack asked.

  “For the headache you’re going to have when you wake up.”

  Saber was so fast, Jack was still processing his words when Saber kicked out and connected with the underside of Abigail’s jaw. Her head snapped back violently.

  Jack’s magic was already in his hand. He was raising his right fist to block the next kick coming for him, but he was too slow.

  The last thing Jack remembered was seeing the underside of Saber’s boot as it struck his right temple.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Sloan

  “Hi, my name is Babs, and I just want to start off this interview with saying how much I support what you’re doing. I’ve been following your exploits ever since you rose to rank of captain in the queen’s army. I mean, I know she’s our enemy and all, but still, I love to see a woman rise to the position you have. I guess what I’m trying to say is that you’re my hero.”

  The woman talked so fast, it was impossible to tell if it had all come out in a single breath or if she’d continued to somehow speak while she inhaled. Sloan sat in one of the many meeting rooms in the capitol building, with Croft to her right and whatever soldier she was interviewing at the time sitting across from her at the wide table.

  Babs was the seventh soldier Sloan had interviewed in the last few hours, and she had found reasons to disqualify all of them. Croft was becoming more and more impatient every time Sloan dismissed a prospect.

  “Babs, tell me in one or two sentences exactly why you want to become a vampire soldier.” Sloan leaned in toward the desk, holding the young woman’s gaze.

  “Oh, gosh.” Babs licked her dry lips. She fidgeted, rubbing sweaty hands on her uniform pant legs.

  Sloan could hear Babs’ heart beating as fast as any galloping unicorn.

  “I … I guess it’s to protect my family and my home.” Babs swallowed hard, breaking eye contact with Sloan. “I’m not strong enough to do it as a human, but I’m willing to make a sacrifice if it means protecting the people I love. There. I think that was two sentences.”

  Sloan looked over at Croft, who was hunched in her seat, playing with a pencil.

  “Thank you for your time, Babs.” Sloan stood from her chair and extended her right hand over the table. “We’ll be in touch.”

  “That’s it?” Babs nearly tripped as she rose. She returned Sloan’s handshake with a timid, sweaty grip. “You don’t need blood samples or saliva or anything?”

  “No, you can keep all of your bodily fluids to yourself.” Sloan released the girl’s palm, wiping Babs’ perspiration from her own hand onto her shirt. “You’re dismissed.”

  Babs gave a tight salute to Sloan and Croft before she left the room.

  Sloan waited for the door to close.

  “I can already guess.” Croft huffed as she made a note on an open file in front of her. “She’s not experienced enough, too cocky, doesn’t play nice with others … what are some of the other reasons you found to disqualify everyone else?”

  “Nope. I actually like Babs.” Sloan found herself amazed by the revelation. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but she was humble, she understood the sacrifice, and she’s coach-able.”

  Croft straightened in her seat and leaned over the desk much like Sloan had when questioning Babs. “Are you messing with me on purpose?”

  “No, not at all.” Sloan shrugged. “You’re the one who set up all of these meetings.”

  “Great.” Croft lifted her head to the ceiling, letting out a loud moan. “I have a werewolf who wants to bite everyone, and a vampire who wants the least qualified person on her team.”

  “No one said it was going to be easy.” Sloan glanced out a window to the dark night beyond. “We can pick up here tomorrow and interview the rest if you want. It’s late. You should get some rest.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do.” Croft yawned. Exhaustion laced her words as she continued. “But we should probably pick up here tomorrow. We still have a dozen or so interviews to go through. Who knows? Lightning might strike twice and we could find another member to join your team.”

  “Stranger things have happened,” Sloan agreed. She watched as Croft stood up and stretched her back. “You’re not really going to let Aareth turn every single one of the soldiers you’d suggested, are you?”

  “As much as we can use everyone we can get, no.” Croft gathered the files on her desk. She kept her eyes down at her work. “We’ll start turning the chosen few tomorrow. I can’t allow Aareth to turn twenty soldiers into raging animals. We’ll do a few at a time, and once we help them transition into their new life, then we’ll turn a few more. Come on Sloan, I’m not my sisters.”

  “Just checking.” Sloan was about to say more, when the sound of racing footsteps penetrated through the door.

  A moment later, Edison opened it. His face was flushed, his words falling out as fast as Babs had spoken. “Riders … riders at the gate!”

  Sloan exchanged a look with Croft before the vampire and the witch raced from the room. Edison followed in their wake, still trying to regain his breath.

  “Ugh…” Edison panted so hard, Sloan almost slowed down for the inventor. “I’m out of shape. Too many of Elwood’s pocket pies.”

  “Who is it?” Croft ignored the inventor’s words as they pounded down the stone lane connecting the capitol building to the rest of Azra. “Have Theo and Cherub been notified?”

  “They’re at the gate.” Edison slowed down, waving the women off. “Go on without me. I’ll catch up.”

  Sloan and Croft flew down the path at a sprint. The night breeze the ocean brought felt wonderful on Sloan’s skin. Lights from the many lanterns and street lamps added their strength to the stars and moon overhead to provide illumination.

  Sloan was surprised to find the witch keeping up with her strides. It was clear she was using some kind of magic to aid her speed. If Sloan looked closely, she could see a yellow glow flash on the bottoms of Croft’s feet as the women raced to the gate.

  It was late yet still early enough for citizens to still be walking the streets. More than a few curious stares took in the vampire and the witch, but no one moved to stop or ask them questions.

  Sloan’s heart was steady, the run not even causing her to break a sweat by the time they reached the front gates at the bottom of the hill.

  “Report.” Croft, however, sounded winded as she began to crest the stairs to the top of the wall. As promised, both Theo and Cherub were waiting for them on the battlements, the latter holding a two-foot-long spyglass.

  “It looks like three New Hope riders wearing cloaks.” Cherub extended her grey wings and lifted off the wall with strong strokes. “They’re coming at a trot. I can’t see any weapons.”

  “I don’t think it’s a trap.” Theo handed Croft his own spyglass. “There’s no one else for miles around. Maybe they’re bringing a message from the queen?”

  “Unlikely.” Croft accepted the spygla
ss and took her time studying the trio of soldiers. Then she gave the spyglass to Sloan. “What do you think?”

  Sloan’s eyesight was already better than most—a perk of her new abilities as a vampire. The spyglass further magnified the three figures approaching Azra. Sloan felt a swell of joy rise in her chest.

  “Open your gates.” Sloan lowered the spyglass. “They’re friends.”

  Sloan

  “Captain!” Pia dismounted her steed with no regard for anyone else who stood in the Azra courtyard. She threw her arms around Sloan with abandon. “It’s so good to see you.”

  “It’s better to see you” Sloan couldn’t help hugging the woman back.

  Sergeant Harrison and Lieutenant Baker followed Pia’s lead and climbed down from their horses.

  The square courtyard of the Azra palace was alive with activity. All around the reunited soldiers, Azra guards stood ready. No weapons were drawn, but every guard had a hand on his ax sheathed within it belt. Croft, Theo, and Cherub stood by, allowing Sloan to greet her friends.

  “Captain Sloan” Sergeant Harrison nodded. “I’d give you a hug myself, if I wasn’t afraid you’d break my kneecap again.”

  “It’s just Sloan now.” Sloan smiled at the big man. For the first time, she noticed the tense atmosphere around the courtyard.

  Sloan sidelined the greeting of her friends to address Croft.

  “These are friends.” Sloan waved an arm to the three rogue New Hope soldiers. “I can vouch for every one of them.”

  “I’m sure.” Theo took the lead in the conversation, something that shouldn’t have surprised Sloan. As far as everyone in Azra was concerned, he was the governor. “They’ll be treated as defectors and debriefed as such. You’re welcome to come with us as we perform the debriefings.”

  “We’ll be all right.” Lieutenant Baker moved forward. “There is a lot the enemies of New Hope need to know.”

  As the procession of Azra guards, the New Hope turncoats, and Croft started up the hill toward the capital building, Sloan slowed her pace to match Croft’s.

  “I’ll have to talk to them, of course.” Sloan let a mischievous smile play across her lips. “And I’ll still want Babs, but I think I found my vampire unit.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Jack

  The first thing Jack felt was pain—a deep throbbing, like someone was battering his skull with a steel hammer. Jack winced, realizing two things at the same time. First, he was in some kind of carriage, and the bumps had rattled him to wakefulness. Whoever was driving was in a hurry.

  Second, he wasn’t the only one in the carriage. Abigail sat across from him on a long, leather bench. She was slumped down in a sitting position, her eyes closed.

  Panic wrestled Jack’s thoughts away from the pain in his head, and he moved across the space between his carriage bench and the one upon which Abigail rested. He placed two fingers on the side of her neck.

  Immediately, he was relieved. Her skin was warm, her pulse steady. Jack let out a sigh and allowed himself to relax for a brief moment.

  Just as he let his guard down, the carriage jolted high into the air. Jack and Abigail were lifted off the ground and slammed down hard.

  Incoherent yells came from somewhere overhead where the driver and his passenger were arguing. Jack made sure Abigail was still in her seat before opening the carriage window and sticking his head outside. He had an idea as to the identity of at least one of the carriage drivers, and he was going to give his mentor a piece of his mind.

  Whatever Saber’s position was in the New Order, he had no right to knock them unconscious and take them along to Azra. He had basically kidnapped both Jack and Abigail. Jack hadn’t signed up to be a slave to anyone.

  Jack unlatched the black metal hook holding the thick window in place. As soon as he swung it open, the actual noise of the mayhem filled the carriage, along with a rush of wind.

  Shouts from multiple voices rang out, not only above Jack, but also behind and all around him. Jack’s eyes went wide as he took in the severity of their situation. Three carriages and at least a dozen riders had just exited New Hope, all riding hard as they left the city.

  Shouts echoed all around, the rushing wind playing with the voices, making them faint when they were actually only a few yards away. Jack recognized a few of the riders who made up their caravan. They were all members of the New Order.

  The stars and the moon gave Jack just enough light to also make out a rush of bodies exiting the New Hope gates behind them. Vampire soldiers—more vampires than Jack had ever seen or could imagine—poured after them.

  “I thought you said we had another day, at the very least?” Sasha’s voice reached Jack’s ears from a spot on the upper carriage bench. “I just got in from Azra. I could have just stayed there.”

  “Yeah, well, I guess our new queen gets over her grief quickly. I didn’t expect her to attack before her sister was even in the ground.” Saber leaned over from his spot next to his sister. He smiled at Jack with a surprised grin. “Glad to see you, kid. We could really use your help right about now.”

  “Are you crazy!” Jack screamed up at the grinning, one-eyed madman. “No, I can answer that myself. You are crazy. You knock us out and then expect me to help you?”

  “Just because I’m crazy doesn’t mean I wasn’t right in doing what I did.” Saber drew his pistol, pointing it at Jack’s face. He fired without hesitation.

  BAM!

  The bullet exited Saber’s pistol, whizzing so close to Jack’s ear, he could feel the wind as it passed. Jack turned just in time to see the bullet topple its target: a New Hope vampire soldier who’d managed to catch up to the fleeing carriage. Saber’s bullet took it square in its forehead.

  The vampire soldier toppled backwards. Once again, Jack’s gaze was directed behind them. The massive walls of New Hope were beginning to diminish in the distance. The vampires chasing the fleeing New Order members, on the other hand, were only growing in size.

  Jack was amazed by the vampires’ speed. Not only were they able keep pace with the fleeing horses, but they were also gaining on them little by little.

  CRACK!

  One of the other two carriages fleeing along with Jack had fallen behind. In seconds, vampire soldiers were climbing all over the outside. The sudden noise had come as one of the vampire soldiers had torn off a carriage wheel, and the horses screamed as the carriage tumbled into a pile of dirt and bodies.

  BAM! BAM!

  Gunfire tore through the air as the fleeing New Order members realized they weren’t going to escape without a fight. Hundreds of vampire soldiers still sprinted after them, looking like a black stain spreading over the landscape.

  “Kid!?”

  By the way Saber was yelling, Jack knew it wasn’t the first time he had called for him. He turned to the one-eyed leader of the New Order rebellion. Saber held out a gloved hand, offering to swing Jack up onto the top of the carriage.

  “Want to buy our friends some time to make a run for it?” Saber smiled through the dark. What little illumination there was glinted off his white teeth. “What do you say?”

  Jack accepted Saber’s hand. “I say we still need to talk about what you did.” Saber lifted Jack to an unsteady seat on the top of the carriage. “But right now, we need to save some lives.”

  “For what it’s worth, I told him he was wrong.” Sasha looked over her shoulder for a brief moment, both hands on the black leather reins. “Whether I agree with your decision or not, it’s your decision to make.”

  “Can we talk about this later?” Jack swayed on top of the carriage as they passed over an especially rocky piece of ground. He reached for the wand that stuck out of a holster on his right hip. “They’re gaining on us.”

  “Pull back a little, Sasha.” Saber barked over his shoulder. “Let’s get between our group and the vampires. We’ll be the buffer.”

  “Oh, great.” Sasha obeyed, allowing the horses to decrease their speed
by just a fraction. “When you refer to us as a ‘buffer,’ I can’t wait to follow orders.”

  Keeping steady on top of a speeding carriage was harder than it sounded. Jack wobbled and fought for his footing as he channeled his magic and sent green bolts of fire into the oncoming vampire ranks.

  “There’s too many of them!” Jack fired again and again. He hit both times, striking one soldier in the chest and another in the right leg. Both erupted into balls of green flame.

  “Naw, this is just what’s called a ‘target rich environment,’ kid.” Saber produced a pistol in each hand. “But I probably don’t have enough bullets with me for all of them.”

  BAM! BAM!

  Saber emptied his pistols. Two more vampires fell. As soon as they did, two others filled the empty spots in their ranks.

  So far, their plan was working. The other remaining carriage and the horses carrying New Order rebels were ahead of Jack’s carriage. The downside to this arrangement? All of the vampire soldiers were solely focused on Jack and his friends, and they were closing in fast.

  Another bump rocked Jack as he stumbled to a knee.

  “What the f—”

  Jack missed the rest of what Abigail had said as he blasted one particularly quick vampire who reached for their carriage with an outstretched hand.

  “Oh, you’re in for it now.” With a flick of his wrist, Jack extended his wand into a staff. The ranks of vampire were within yards of their carriage now, so close, Jack could see their red eyes hungry for blood. “She’s not going to be as nice as I was.”

  Saber grunted as he unsheathed his mage sword he had held on to since their escape from the armory. The sword shone to life. Saber took a kneeling position at the edge of the carriage, swiping his blade at the oncoming vampires.

  A moment later, Abigail’s head popped up over the carriage’s edge. She looked at Jack, then at Saber. “What in the name of all that is holy is going on!”