Candy: Book 5 of the Lord Emperor Vampire Saga

This is a short chappie. Like the previous one, this one was very hard to write. Didn’t try for tears this time out kiddies.

In order to get with the frantic and frenzied feel, I discovered Voodoo & Serano “Blood is Pumpin’ (future freeze remix) and looped it until I had the chase scene completed. You kind of get a Miami vice vibe from it. It was so odd because it was visual. Tell me whatcha think.
Enjoy!


Chapter 196: Angel of Retribution

There was a hammer in my chest. Every beat broke my heart just a little more, cracking it on the surface but doing so much more damage internally. Haley was dead. My friend was dead. My very first, OUR very first friend was dead. There was a reason. There had to be. I wasn’t accepting this senseless act as..well a senseless act. Prince Haley, father of twelve, High Alpha was murdered. I was going to find out why and I was going to find out who and I was going to make the streets run red with blood.

I was Benedek. I owed it to my new four legged furry brood. I owed it to the two little girls who wouldn’t remember their Daddy. I owed it to Ping. I owed it to the brotherhood.

Cousin…

I snapped myself out of the sorrow loop. I had work to do. The Imperials were scent hounds. I was a sight hound. Vlad ran ahead of us, steadily searching for the trail. The assassin had walked away from the job site. Dawn was breaking but the trail was leading us back towards the core where suits and tie would be perfect camouflage. We were catching attention. The Imperials were in their usual natty suit attire. I was a vision of yuppiness but this was all negated as we ran in a pack with a white and grey wolf leading the way.

/His stride changed…the hunter knows he’s become the prey./ Vlad called back to all of us.

I scanned the people ahead of us. That was one thing I seemed to have better than the Lycan, the sight -- which truthfully was like a retroactive payment for our sight being fucked over when Sex was growing up. Regular office clones were trudging their way to work. Our prey would be smoking hot off the meter. Got him. Blue pinstripe suit. Short light brown business man haircut. He walked with a purpose and a silver metallic case swung in his hand. I sent out feelers of a mindfuck just to test the waters.

He bolted.

/Got him. Fan out./ Manu and Pyotr peeled out on my three now that they had the visual. I lightened my weight and stepped it a notch, passing Baojia and lengthening my stride. I didn’t care that the office meerkats were turning in our direction.

He was fit and he was young. The assassin took a runner deeper into the core. Crap. Sang Kyu and Baojia flanked me. Vlad was hot on the man’s heels. The assassin pitched the metal case at Vlad as he got close enough to nip. There was a yelp as Vlad went down hard in a tangle of fur and metal. I ended up vaulting over Vlad as he struggled to right himself.

/Secure the case./

The assassin took to a side street, the tall narrow glassed in buildings echoed his footsteps back to me.

I glanced side ways as I motored after him. The Maori and the red Russian paralleled our movement. He was mine. He booked into the side opening of an office building. I shoved my way in after him before the door closed. /Cover the exits./

He rammed his way through the service door. Bastard. I tried to drop a binding on him. He staggered then turned and took a shot at me. Fuck. My neck burned as the bullet ripped along the edge. Why wasn’t the binding working? I could do that right from the beginning.

I tossed myself sideways as he shot again. I dropped a dagger and winged him. I winged him real good. The hilt stuck out of his shoulder. The pistol and silencer hit the floor with a dull thud. I could feel blood running down the side of my neck. He turned and bolted around the corner. I took off after him, scooping the pistol from the floor. I had a blood trail now. It was just like ‘X’ marks the spot. Up the stairwell. Around and around climbing upwards. I wasn’t gaining any ground. The stairwell wasn’t big enough for my wings, but that didn’t mean I was out of tricks.

I took aim and shot off a couple of rounds just before the man’s head. He skidded to a halt. What goes up. Can go up higher. I took a run at the railing and lightened my weight, I jumped skyward. I got a hold on the narrow handrail across from where he huddled and hauled myself over. He gave me back my dagger. The pistol took the brunt of the blow but it flew out of my hand over the side of the stairwell. I almost followed it.

He kicked me in the stomach and shoved at my shoulders. My lower back hit the railing. His hand came up and knocked my chin up and back rattling my brains. I brought my knee up and caught him in the groin, which anchored me and kept me from going splat in the basement about fifteen stories below. He shoved at my shoulders again. His heart rate was elevated but he wasn’t in a panic. He was a professional and if I didn’t get the situation under my control soon, he as going to get professional on my ass. His hand closed around my throat.

I reached out and punched him in the knife wound. Cinnamon and chocolate cherry blossom scented the air.

I was using all my enhanced vampiric strength but I was only rocking him as if I was slapping around an equal. I kicked him on the inner knee and yanked him over my head. He went sprawling back down the stairs but skidded to a halt about three risers down. My ankle got jolted out from under me and I slammed hard into the stairwell. He grabbed my arm and pulled me forward. I took him with me as we finished tumbling down the stairs to the landing. I ended up as the bottom.

His hand came around my throat again. I took his thumb and wrenched it backwards but my hand was slippery from the blood on my neck. I took a punch right in the melon. He rang my chimes for a second and that’s all he needed to get back up the stairs. My eyes were unfocused a bit as I tried to follow him movements. There was a sheen of glamour about him. Then I knew.

Sex grew up with it. Just because X didn’t have a talent for it, doesn’t mean we don’t know it when we encounter it. Assassin had a talisman. A magical protection that was negating my strength. Whoever sent this human after Haley, wanted it done right. This was why Vlad took longer to find the scent. This was why this arrogant bastard thought he could walk away and not be traced. If he had got into a cab, we would have been fucked.

The stairwell echoed as Lycan hunting howls rose from the floors below us. I twisted back to my feet. He had half a stairwell between us again. And…the bastard broke some ribs. Sonofabitch.
Skell hit me with his best shot. I was engulfed in healing light, cured and upright in a bright flash. Woah…even Sex can’t do that trick that fast. /Thanks, little brother./

/Nada…/

Now that I knew cherry blossom had protection, I just had to find it and strangle him with it. How had Dad said it? Magic is like an eternal spring. It ebbs and flows. It reflects and shimmers, if it’s a white kind of magic. If it’s black or the dark art, it’s a dark sucking swamp. Its energies suck inwards like a vacuum. Heat-o-vision didn’t pick it up. I motored up the stairs after him. Sniper vision didn’t pick it up either. I tripped and stumbled forward then slammed my shin off the concrete lip. Holy…fuck that hurt. My eyes blazed blue.

Got it. I got you now you bastard.

There was like a black spot hanging around his chest from a ribbon around his neck. The talisman was eating his lifeforce, his essence, as it maintained a barrier of protection around him. It looked like cherry blossom was expendable. He turned and the air moved past my nose as his shoe nearly connected with my pretty face. I snatched my arm back hard after I closed my hand around his opposite ankle. He crashed to the cement floor and came up kicking.

I broke his ankle.

The Lycans were getting closer. I heard a match pair of howls from the floors above. Thank god for elevators. I pushed off the step with all the force I could muster. If he had been just a normal human, I probably would have taken him down our first encounter. As it was, I was going to have to remove that damned talisman before the mindfucking could start. I drove my shoulder into his upper chest knocking him backwards. I clawed my hand into a hard ‘c’ and raked it down his chest. I shredded his dress shirt as I searched for that bit of magical interference.

I touched it. It shocked my hand like a joy buzzer but I gritted my teeth and worked through the pain. I ripped my arm back and the talisman went flying across the landing, tipping over the lip of the stairs and disappeared from view. What a difference that little piece of stone made. Yes, he was a professional. The armies finest even being so young. Carter Wills. He could feel me invade his mind. The panic I expected never materialized. I guess after seeing all the horror this young human had endured in the war zone, this was nothing…still.

Crap. He had a false tooth filled with cyanide. Lycans to the left of him. Lycans to the right of him. He was not getting taken by a pack of dogs. I rammed my hand into his mouth just as he began to bite down. He clamped down harder. I cried out then rammed my elbow into his gut. That only tightened his jaw. Cinnamon filled the confined space as my blood poured out the corners of his mouth. You want teeth. I’ve give you teeth.

I dropped fang, full extension and I tore into his neck. His blood filled my cavity with a warm spray. I locked my mouth on his flesh and began to worry my head back and forth widening my fang holes and making sure he felt every inch of my enamel embed itself in his jugular.

Instinctively his mouth gasped. I turned my wounded paw into a fist and plucked at the suicide tooth with my fingers. At first my hand didn’t want to move then pain shot up my arm and I ripped that tooth out of his mouth then I dropped a hard physical binding on him.

He was dead. Actually, he died over in Afghanistan years ago, only today his body was going to join the boy who bled out in the sands. Carter Wills took the army green and died for his country. The assassin beneath my legs took greenbacks and was going to wish he had never left the farm. I looked at my hand. He fucked me up good.

/Skell./

Shock ripped through him as my hand glowed blue. I flexed it as most of the numbness of the talisman shock was burned away and the perfect semi-circular teeth marks were mended. /Thanks, little brother./

The little assassin only thought he was going up against Lycan. If he had been, the talisman would have been enough. He could have killed Haley and disappeared into the worker bee parade of Monday morning. My fangs were still out. I made a show of licking my lips and cleaning the chocolate cherry blossom essence from my fangs with my tongue. Blood was pooling from his neck were I ripped into him hard but I had more than enough time now to get what I wanted.

“Donth…” I had to retract my fangs to talk properly. “Don’t touch the pendant on the stairs. Secure the fire doors above and below.” I ran my hand along my neck were Carter Wills had grazed my neck. That was intentional. A warning shot. He was paid for one; that was all he was going to kill. He had a moral center.
“Now, this is going to be hard, Sergeant. You killed a very good friend of mine. He was like a brother to me. You don’t need to say anything out loud, but I am going to find out who paid you and why.”

I got the who. Wills didn’t have a name but I had the face. Lycan. Male. Older, closer to two hundred. Wills didn’t have that experience with the Blood, but just based on the feelings of the Sergeant at the time of the face to face, this Lycan wasn’t an Alpha. He didn’t have that Lycan danger vibe. A soldier would have picked that up. The Lycan was about five foot, six. He was running to paunch . His face was lined and he had three deep scowl lines etched into his forehead. His eyes were the typical Lycan gold but they were narrow and cold. While he met Wills in a darkened warehouse, he wore a tailored black suit and he had…a mullet. He was flanked by five other Lycan. This would be his Alpha pack. All hulking brutes in human form. I could only imagine what they hell they would look like as Alphas.

I could feel myself getting angry. A cool core was hardening inside my chest. This Lycan had wanted the entire bloodline extinguished. All the pups. The Eastern bitch was of no consequence. Wills had initially refused. He wouldn’t kill children, it didn’t matter if they were demon or not. Double the amount of money was still a no. The assassin had a moral center. Just the male then. The scowl faced Lycan provided silver bullets. He provided the dark talisman.

He was given a picture. He was given an address. Ours. He just had to wait. Haley… There wasn’t a clear shot until this morning.

I leaned in and whispered into the man’s ear. “You are dead, Sergeant Carter Wills. You know that as well as I do. You made the kill clean and quick. I can’t promise you the same thing. You will feel the pain of each and everyone of his children. You will feel the loss his wife felt at the news. You will know the ache in the heart that his grandmother; his compatriots and friends will have for the rest of their lives when they see the empty spot at the table, in the photos, in the celebrations of special events.”

Fear gripped him now.

I loosened the binding enough for him to speak. “Who are you?”

My pack ranged around us.

“He is our Lord Alpha.”

“He is the Angel of Death.”

“He is Saitou’s Benedek.”

There was nothing of understanding in him. That Lycan sent him to his death and left him ignorant. Sadly ignorant of the situation he has placed himself in. I lifted my hand and cupped the side of his face. “We…are the children of the night.”

I left my fangs descend and my eyes flared with the phoenix fire. “I have been called many things, Sergeant Carter Wills. Merciful isn’t one of them.”

I allowed him one scream then dropped the binding down on him. He was not content to go out into the dark night. Broken bones, blood lost and strips of flesh hung from his body. I knelt behind him and ran my hands up his stomach. I would have to stop his heartbeat. Even with the vocal binding on him, he gasped as I rammed my fingers up under his ribcage, tearung through flesh, puncturing his diaphragm, ripping into his lungs until…

I phoenixed his heart, there in his chest.

My Alphas lowered themselves to their knees and rubbed their faces into the pooled blood on the stairwell floor. Vengeance was a color we would all wear.

“Phone…”

Peytor offered me his cell. My hands were bloody. I shook my head. “Call my Dad. No one touches the talisman. We can’t leave it here to be stumbled upon.”

I had made him suffer. I made him pay but that didn’t bring Haley back. It didn’t ease my pain. It wouldn’t ease the pain of a fatherless pack.

“You did well, Lord Alpha.” Sang Kyu pulled the corpse from my lap. He set his hands on my shoulders and pulled me to him. “but you cannot grieve just yet.” He wrapped his arms around me and gave me a comforting hug which was strange, for the big scarred Lycan. He was very stand offish even with little Sexy.

“Prince Haley cannot be sent to the stars until his murder is avenged. No human would have done this on his own. “

“I have his face.”

“Share it with us, Lord Alpha. We are from the East. We wouldn’t know this traitor’s name but ten eyes and five noses will be at your disposal.”

My hand was shaking as I lifted it and pressed a bloody print to his forehead. A Lycan shield can only be shattered. That is what I’ve been told. Haley was different. He never shielded with me.

That was a precious gift I didn’t know I had been given. Mindfucking…no, mindwalking was easy with him. Now, Sang Kyu just gave me another one –a precious, awe inspiring gift. His life was long and the scars on his body told a tale of trouble and danger. He ran with the wild crowd when he was younger. He discovered the hard way that shared blood doesn’t necessarily mean loyalty. He came from the Interior when there were rumblings of a formation of a new Alpha pack. Ping’s father, Kiyoshi, had asked him to come. Kiyoshi asked him to accept the challenge and stand behind me. Few Lycans have dared to challenge Warlord Saitou. Fewer still have defeated him. Sex had impressed the big Lycan enough to have him call on his first born son from his first mate’s first litter to serve his second mate’s and his favorite daughter’s husband’s Lord Alpha. Did I get that right? Huh.

Sang Kyu was Ping’s half brother.

Unless Kiyoshi was going to tell Ping, this Uncle was going to remain silent. He would watch over the Benedek, the guardian of her litters from the shadows and in doing so, he guarded his nieces and nephews from harm. Sang Kyu was going to serve his Lycan Lord and Alpha Master until he fell in the line of duty. Few Alpha’s died of old age.

Sang Kyu leaned forward, “Show me the face of our enemy, Angel of Retribution.”

I gave him the image of the Frowny Lycan. I impressed upon his mind the vision of the five Lycan Alphas who ran with the would be Prince of the North. “We will clean this up quickly, Lord Alpha. Prince Haley deserves a phoenix send off.”

I sat back. Sang Kyu brushed at the blood on my neck. “I don’t understand.”

“Only Alpha’s of high status are given back to the night. It is tradition, Northern and Eastern that our Alpha’s are burned. It would be an honor to the Saitou name, if that flame was yours.”

Now that the adrenaline rush was gone it was rather disconcerting to be sitting here with a corpse. Rather it was sitting there all covered in the corpse’s blood that was disconcerting. Killing in the heat of the moment was fine. Sitting in the entrails…

Manu and Pyotr came up and began to lick at me, cleaning me up. Ewww, ick. “You need to be cleaned up before you can go out.” Manu was the voice of reason but still…

The cleaners arrived before a Mage from the Regency did. The area was almost cleaned of the mess I made and I had been given a clean tee shirt and jeans. Manu had stuck his tongue back into his mouth and was using wetnappies to clean up the back of my neck. I didn’t know the young woman who showed up to take possession of the talisman. From the look on her face, and the lingering tingle in my finger tips, it was a nasty piece of work.

“Can you tell me who made that?”

“The Regency is grateful for your tip on this item. However, we are not obligated to share information with the Empire.” I could virtually see the hackles on the back of my Lycan rise. The blonde woman carefully retrieved the talisman with magically null tweezers. Or something like that. We really didn’t pay attention to magic when we discovered that particular talent avoided us. She slipped it into a black metal looking box. Then into another one of those silver metallic cases. She straightened and looked over at me then gave me a big grin. “Of course, we’ll find out who made it. I’m Hayes, I work with your Father at the Mage Academy. I live nearby. Your Father called me right away. This thing is a nasty piece of work. It’s strong and it’s dark. Not too many could do it. Not too many should.”

Hayes nodded at me then turned and started down the stairs.

“Lord Von Drachenfeld, the area is secure. Your security is downstairs.”

“Let’s move out.” I gestured to the Lycan.

/Lord Emperor./

Oh holy crap. What now? /Bruce…/

/This is not a request. Britta needs you to come to her now./

I closed my eyes. /Bruce, Haley…/

/As I said, this is not a request. There is a car waiting for you downstairs. Bring your Imperials./

I frowned. Britta has sent over invitations over the years but they didn’t include me and the definitely didn’t include the Imperials. I still wasn’t forgiven, well it was really X, for decimating her prized Alpha males. There was an urgency in Bruce’s silent speak.

/What is going on?/

There was a long pause. I thought he wasn’t going to answer me. /Britta is dying. She wants to legitimatize your claim to the Northern Den before her soul departs. You need to come now, Blood Emperor. You need to get here before she breathes her last breath. If her choice isn’t declared publicly, the Nation will turn on itself and every blood line would via for the Den./

My shoulders just slumped. There was no rest for the wicked. “The things I’ll do for you, Cousin.”

I didn’t want to do it, but it looks like we just got drafted into the run for the Northern Crown. Now I was racing time for the sake of my Lycan friend; the destiny of my new Lycan brood and the stability of the Northern Pack.

/We stop at McDonald’s drive thru. Nobody’s eaten yet./

/Breakfast stops at 10:30./ Bruce called back.

I started back down the stairwell listening as the five members of the Imperials padded behind me. I could feel time fleeting before me. This was not going to be a good day. Tick tock.

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