Blood on the Sun-ch 6
Song of the Sangamar book 2
The next morning, nine vampires stood together in the driveway. Leon was perpetually checking his watch, sipping from the mug of coffee in his large hands. He shoved his glasses up the bridge of his nose with the tip of a finger, squinting slightly to get a better look at the two vehicles that approached.
“About damned time,” he muttered under his breath. “I have a class to teach in twenty minutes.”
With Richard’s urging, Aubrey had finally contacted the Brewster and Carver clans. Although their numbers were greater, Hannibal and Fear also each had a sangamar that had been abducted. Their father’s first suggestion had been to bring the issue up to the leaders of the other North American clans, and he wasn’t surprised to hear the news that his suspicions were correct. Disappointed? Yes. Aggravated? Also, yes. But shocked? Unfortunately, no.
One of the vehicles was a sparkling white limousine. Hannibal Carver emerged from the back of it. He walked around to the driver and leaned down to have a word with them. He lifted his head and hollered to Aubrey: “You don’t mind if the driver comes in and has breakfast, do you? We’ve been on the road all night.”
“Nah, send him in. Someone in there can lead him down to the banquet hall.”
“Thanks!”
Richard rolled his eyes. “Sounds like you’re inviting friends for a sleepover, not having a meeting between grown ass vampires.”
Aubrey gave him a fang filled grin that bordered on a sneer. “After the way you and Daniel traumatized me and half of the staff with your homecoming noise, last night… Perhaps Carver and I should return the favor.”
Rather than the intended effect of grossing him out, Richard laughed and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at his eldest son. “Oho. You and Hannibal have never gotten along very well. Rivals to lovers seems to be all the rage among the youth. I’ll bet that you two would have one hell of a spicy time together.”
Aubrey shook his head with a laugh of disbelief. “I swear to God, something is broken in your brain, old man.”
In total contrast to the pristine ivory limousine, a mud covered, black, lifted Jeep pulled up to the curb. Fear Brewster leaned their shaggy blonde head out the window, while keeping one hand on the steering wheel, waving a greeting to the assembled Winterbournes. “Now, I know y’all aren’t planning on leavin’ me out of a good time!” They had driven alone, not bothering to let someone else do that job for them.
“Wouldn’t dream of it, Fear! Park that thing and get over here!” Aubrey cupped his hands together and shouted to be heard over the noise of the Jeep’s engine.
Richard pursed his lips and nodded almost imperceptibly as Fear jogged over to join them. He gazed slightly down at the vampire in question with a fondness that Aubrey didn’t fully understand. Fear returned the look with a sly smirk, crimson eyes warm with mirth.
The Winterbourne patriarch opened his arms to them in welcome. “I wasn’t sure I would have believed it if I didn’t get to see it with my own two eyes. Masculinity suits you, darlin’.”
Fear laughed, embracing him tightly. “It’s been near on twenty years, now, hasn’t it? I was definitely in my pixie princess phase last time I saw you, Dick.”
Richard nodded, holding them back at arm’s length to get a good look at the changes to their physique. “You were a slender, feminine young lady, to be sure. But I think this form is more fitting. One of the many perks of long life is that we can change our bodies as we wish. And if we hate it, it only takes a little time to revert.”
Fear nodded. “Dakota doesn’t mind it either way. As long as I’m happy, she’s happy. She loves me for the shape of my soul, not just my body. As it should be.”
Richard’s face softened at the hitch in Fear’s voice when their sangamar’s name passed their lips. “Oh, honey… The werewolf girl, right? She’s your favorite! Is she the one that got taken?”
Fear’s gaze lowered, but their jaw and fist clenching were the only confirmation he needed. Richard was about to speak some words of encouragement, but he saw that they weren’t necessary when Hannibal approached and wrapped his arms around the shorter vampire shoulders. They seemed comforted by both his touch and presence, and Richard stepped back with a small smile.
“This younger generation is truly a marvel,” he said.
Hannibal’s eyebrows raised to meet his hairline, and he let out a disbelieving chuff. “Younger generation? If that wasn’t coming from you, Richard, I’d feel insulted.” Fear leaned more fully into his embrace, and he rubbed his hand up and down the toned flesh of their bare upper arm absentmindedly. “Remind me how old you are, again?”
Richard chuckled, giving the ginger a little wink. “Old enough to know better than to answer a question like that. Besides, can’t be giving away trade secrets now, can I?”
Hannibal shrugged, and Leon cleared his throat, gaining everyone’s attention. “I hope I don’t seem terribly rude, but I’m glad you’ve both arrived safely. I’ve got to run and teach a class. So, I will catch up with you all after that has finished.”
“Go do your thing, sugar. We’ll give you the rundown once you’re done. Give those youngins the knowledge their empty noggins sorely need,” Fear said with a sigh.
Leon took his leave, and the rest of them headed inside to discuss strategy over a proper meal. The estate staff had produced a truly impressive spread. The Winterbournes and their guests devoured the offering with minimal chatter, everyone mentally and physically preparing for the arduous task that lay ahead of them. When everyone seemed to finally be slowing down their consumption, the twins took the helm to begin the conversation.
Orion spoke directly to Fear and Hannibal, who sat beside each other. “Obviously, Lily was the only one taken from us, since she was our sole sangamar. But each of your clans has also had abductions, right? Did they take more than one person from your groups, or was it the ones you personally held dearest that were stolen?”
Hannibal and Fear exchanged concerned glances. “The only one kidnapped from the Brewster clan was my Dakota.”
“Halcon was the single sangamar taken from the Carvers. And yes, it’s no secret that he was… Is my favorite.” A spike of pain prickled behind his eyes, and he rubbed circles into the flesh of his temples to attempt to soothe it. “And the fact that you’re leading with that question means that you think this was a coordinated effort by one group, not just the random clan on clan violence of the past.”
Oberon nodded. “We do.” He paused to finish the last dregs of coffee in his mug. “Did either of you receive anything from whoever took your people?”
He wanted to trust them. Neither Fear nor Hannibal had ever given him reason to doubt them, or suspect they were capable of something like this. But in the past, relations between the clans had been contentious, at best. Outright aggressive and warlike, at worst. After all, a small rogue clan was responsible for the death of Maverick’s mother. The best way to ensure that neither the Brewsters nor Carvers had been involved was to probe them without any accidentally leading questions.
Hannibal nodded, immediately pulling out his phone to show them the evidence he’d received. “Just a taunting, untraceable text message with a grainy ass photo. But to be frank, I have no idea how they managed to subdue Halcon. He is… Not exactly an average, human sangamar.” He handed his phone to Aubrey, so the eldest could pass it down for Orion and Oberon to inspect the picture.
Fear did the same, passing their phone in the opposite direction through Draven to reach the twins. “Same, here. A stupid fucking photo of Dakota, all passed out and beaten bloody.”
With both phones in their hands, the twins took a quiet moment to inspect the photos. They searched for anything that could be identifiable in the backgrounds of either one, coming up as empty-handed as they had with the photo of Lily. They passed the phones back, their hearts heavy and their minds racing.
Orion turned his gaze to the ruby eyed vampire at the other side of the table. “I heard dad say that Dakota is a werewolf. Is that right?” Fear sat up a bit straighter in their seat, giving a single nod in response.
Oberon and Orion shared an exhausted sigh before the younger twin spoke. “Unfortunately, that seems to be the common thread between the three victims. None of them are human. And in the cases of Halcon and Lily, they’re even more extraordinary and rare.”
Jaxon lightly tapped his fork on the edge of a plate, his posture tense and agitated. “So that’s it, then. Whoever took them is likely planning some sort of coup. A power grab. But to what end?”
“Does the reason really matter? We found a similarity, which is good. But… I really think that we should be more focused on locating them and rescuing them.” Draven put in.
“And making whoever took them rue the day that their mother ever looked at their father,” Maverick added with a growl.
Richard leaned forward, his elbows resting on the edge of the table. He steepled his fingers together beneath his chin as ice blue eyes addressed them all in one sweeping gesture. “The most positive thing for us to take away from this is that the likelihood of our sangamars still being alive is fairly high. Blood from a corpse is certainly not infinite. Since we are running with the idea that the abductor is a vampire, it stands to reason that our dear ones are worth more to them alive than dead.”
Fear rubbed the heel of their hands against tired red eyes. “Some dumber than a post vampire took our people because they wanted high-octane juice boxes? Could it really be that simple? There has to be more to it than that.”
Hannibal leaned back in his chair, suddenly feeling the weight of the exhaustion and the stress of the last month catching up to him. “Simplicity aside, we have no fucking clue where they are. Without being able to trace the number the pictures were sent from, and there being no geo-tag on the photos, we may as well be adrift in the ocean looking for dry land with nothing but our eyes.”
An agitated silence settled amongst them for a few tense moments.
“Did anything else weird happen, before Lily was taken?” Fear asked.
“Aside from us having to mute the notifications on all of her social media accounts after the big vampire soirée, not really. But then… it did get worse after we let those kids snap the photo of us at the mall.” His dark eyes seemed to sink back to their outing, not seeing anything that was currently in front of him.
“You’re right,” Jax added. “That fae girl, her two female friends, and the photographer kid.”
Draven nodded. “Her phone wouldn’t stop blowing up, after that. We sort of anticipated it would get a little crazy, but it was more extreme than we were expecting.” Draven replied.
Fear perked up. “And you said her phone is still here, after she was taken?”
“Yeah, it is. We keep it charged and one of us always has it on our person, just in case the kidnapper tries to get in touch. For ransom, or anything else.” Aubrey pulled Lily’s phone from his pocket, resisting the urge to pan though the photo roll that contained so many of their memories with her over the year she was under the same roof. “You look like you have an idea, Fear. Share with the class?”
He handed it off to them, and they hurriedly opened up the social media app with the highest unchecked notification count. Crimson eyes flicked to him for the barest of seconds before going back to the phone screen. “Aubrey, if I’m right about this… We might be able to use those posts to get our sangamars back.”
Everyone in the room waited in hushed anticipation as Fear scrolled through Liliana’s Instagram feed, fingers moving rapidly while their eyes absorbed everything. “Come on, come on. Almost there.” They held up the device, the photo with the eight of them and the three other girls prominent on the screen. “Is this the photo you were talking about?”
Maverick squinted at it from the farthest away. “Yeah, that’s the one. It sucks, because that was such an amazing day.”
Fear clicked through the other accounts that were tagged in the picture. “You said there was a kid who snapped the shot, right? But he isn’t in it anywhere.” The twins nodded. “He’s got to be this other account, then.”
After scrolling through the photographer’s feed, Fear went uncharacteristically silent and still. Their voice came out cold in a way nobody assembled had ever heard before. “How long has it been since you fellas actually looked at the things this guy has been posting?”
Aubrey shrugged. “Probably not since the night Lily went full hell spawn. Why?”
Fear’s hand trembled, and they fought for their voice not to shake with rage. “Take a gander, Aubrey. Tell me that you’re smart enough to pick up on the same things that I am.”
Confused, Aubrey took the phone and did as they asked. His brothers watched his expression shift from uncertainty to anger that rivaled that of Fear. Previously, the account had been full of artfully done photos of normal things you would expect from a photographer. Landscapes, portraits of people, arranged still life shots of various objects. But in the last few weeks, the subject matter of the photos had become more disturbing.
The images may have been close-up shots, so that no full bodies or faces were shown, but these photos were almost medical with their precision and pride. Wounds in all stages of healing. Bruises so dark and severe that they were almost onyx in hue. Older bludgeoning traumas that were almost imperceptible and yellow, tinged with green. Those weren’t what really got under his skin.
It was the gashes, the piercing wounds where the flesh had been artfully parted by something sharp. The spatters of red that marred the perfection of olive skin that Aubrey had seen, touched, and tasted too many times to forget. He knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the subject of those particular pictures could be none other than their sangamar, Liliana. And judging from the smattering of freckles across porcelain pale skin, that was Dakota. And the third subject, who had been the victim of much greater acts of violence, had the ghost of iridescent, shimmering reptilian scales. That must have been Hannibal’s Halcon.
“Are we really so fucking dense that it’s been under our noses, this entire time?” His voice came out in an agitated, breathy rush that bordered on a whisper.
Fear crossed their arms and leaned back in their chair, expression warring between anger and disgust. “Give it to Hannibal, then let the others look. I’m glad you’re seeing what I saw, but we need to make sure before we jump to any conclusions.”
When the phone finally made its way to Richard, all he could do was shake his head. “Have I gotten soft in my old age? This brutality just seems completely unnecessary. And the worst part of it all? The sickening comments from uneducated fools who think that this is just an art piece.” He set the phone down on the table, turning off the screen. His stomach churned at the mere memory of the damage and pain he had been forced to witness.
“If this is the work of a vampire, that makes a sad sort of sense. But humans reacting to these photos as if they are… Beautiful, somehow? They can try to say that we are savage purely because of what we are, but human beings are the true monsters.”
Fear nodded. “You said the name of the kid who took the photos was Luis, right? If his ridiculously obvious screen name is any indicator of who he actually is, then things just got a whole hell of a lot more dangerous. AZTKBLDGLD? Aztec blood gold?”
The Winterbournes and Hannibal stared at them, obviously not following where they were leading. Fear rolled their eyes. “Y’all Northerners suck at history, don’t you? If I’m right, we are not just dealing with some kid. We’re dealing with Luis Cortes, son of Hernan Cortes. The colonizing conquistadors who came in and fucked up what we know as the country of Mexico, when the Aztecs were still running things.”
Author’s Notes: This is the last chapter you can enjoy for free, until the book is published! If you’d like to keep reading along while the story’s being written, pop on the paid option! And if you’d like to keep reading other free things I’ll be posting, plenty more is coming!