All Souls' Night - Renee Rose Page 0,55

am.

The monk in question is the monster who forcefully turned us after Erik and I were felled at the Battle of Hastings—not in a humane way, but instead using us as a violent, religious science experiment… the stuff nightmares are made of. A millennium might be long enough to heal some wounds, but it isn’t long enough to let me forget that month of hell living in a bird cage. When we finally escaped, no longer as humans but as vampires, no longer enemies, but as brothers united by the hatred of one common enemy, we thought we’d left him behind, dead.

Two hundred years later, we found out the truth. We should have stayed long enough to make sure he had stayed dead. Instead, he had been turned, by the vampire who turned us. One last act of vengeance before he walked out into the sun: he turned his captor into the one thing he hated more than anything else on the planet. Orderic has spent every day since trying to destroy the vampire species. He is on a hunt to find a cure or eradication for it. He hasn’t been successful yet, but he has grown in power and following, turning an army of vampires who hate vampires. He has it out for Erik and me, mistakenly believing it was one of us who turned him. Blinded by rage and revenge, he’s never allowed us to convince him otherwise.

He is one of the reasons for the added security, privacy, and extra guns surrounding me. He’s my arch nemesis and I will finish him, if it is the last thing I ever do. He is the only reason I would allow tonight to be interrupted.

Fuck.

I wave Erik over. Whatever this guy has to say, Erik will want to hear it. Erik is even more raw in his anger than I am—we are pretty sure it was a group of Orderic’s vampires who killed Erik’s last love, his wife, in cold blood.

“He says he has news about Orderic,” I tell Erik.

“Name is Ableard.” He nods to Erik. Ableard. That’s right. The arms dealer. I remember him now. I’ve never had reason to distrust him.

“Speak quickly because anyone who knows anything about Orderic automatically goes on my endangered species list, if you get my drift.” Erik clenches his fists at his sides.

“I’m a weapons and arms manufacturer. My company designs individual one of a kind weapon systems. We also do a lot of private security work. The majority of my clientele are vampires and wolves. Most want specific weapons from the time they were turned, weapons which are hard to find, or they want to design their own.”

I nod. I’m familiar with his work.

“What does this have to do with Orderic?” Erik is getting impatient, very unlike his character.

“One of his minions came to me recently, asked me specific questions about two weapons they want made. One is a telescope, and the other a loupe. They want to lace both with a specific, toxic new drug, which only affects vampires. It leaves you paralyzed completely on the outside, while you can still feel everything on the inside. This drug, in order to work, has to come in contact with saliva or body fluids. The best, fastest acting way of delivery is getting just a drop into the victim’s eyes…” He goes on to talk about the pathway to the neurological system and the acting effects of the drug.

“How did you find out it was Orderic who wanted these pieces?” I ask.

“The brand. The vampire had it. I had never seen anything like it before, knew it wasn’t from anyone around here. I asked Lucius about it, he said you two would be most interested in this information.”

“He still hunts us,” I acknowledge. I use a loupe often in my work, it is what I look at the gems through, and Erik, a well-known astronomer, just today bought a house with a large telescope coming out of the top of it. In fact, he took a job as the head of astronomy at the local university as a cover.

“Did you take the job?” I ask.

“I did. They are paying in gold and diamonds. I took the job before I knew it was you they were looking to target. I told them it would take some time to get it all together, what with the request being as unusual as it is, and all.”

“How long before the drop?” I inquire.

“Six weeks.”

“Gives us time to