The Fifth Clan Read online

  I pulled up to my apartment after reliving the memory of that snowy blood filled night. Heading straight upstairs I unlocked the door, the old memory drawing me inexorably forwards. I didn’t want to look, but I knew I would.

  Inside I dropped my keys onto the table by my bed and slowly turned to face my wall of swords. Hanging in a spot of honor, right in the center was a Wakazashi.

  The Wakazashi.

  The one Tatsuhito was carrying the night I killed him.

  “That’s the sword isn’t it?”

  I didn’t turn around to face the woman standing behind me.

  “This is the second time in as many days that someone has snuck up on me. I must be losing my touch,” I said. I looked to my right at the Tai Chi sword I’d been practicing with earlier that morning. It was too far away for me to get to and draw before the person behind me could attack. There was only one option available to me at the moment. One that I did not want to use for personal reasons but I had no choice.

  Moving as quickly as I could I snatched the hilt of the Wakazashi as I spun on one foot drawing the blade and bringing it around and down to point directly at the nose of the woman. “It’s been a while, Vera,” I said, purposely repeating what I’d said to Claus the previous evening.

  “Yes it has,” she said. “I’ve missed you. My bed has been rather cold without you.”

  “I don’t appreciate being treated as a pet,” I snarled. “And spending 20 years chained to you was more than enough for any lifetime.”

  In case you, who are reading these words were wondering or hadn’t guessed by now, I am a vampire. I am three hundred and twenty seven years old, born in the year 1678. I no longer remember where I was born, only that I lived for a time in Ireland before I was turned at the age of 18. I have worn many names over the centuries, a requirement that only grew after I cut ties to the Brotherhood of Vampires and Werewolves and hid myself amongst humans. Today I am known as Gabriel Winters.

  Contrary to popular belief Vampires are nearly indistinguishable from humans. We sweat, we breathe and sleep. We also do enjoy the pleasures of the flesh as it is sometimes called. I’ve read a number of vampire stories where the vampires depicted shun all forms of physical intimacy, preferring instead just to bite their chosen victim. Just goes to show they were wrong as I did not feed from the lovely Rachel the night before.

  “You’ve had a woman here.” Vera said, bringing me to the present. “I believe I will have to find her, now that I have her scent, and kill her… painfully.”

  I swore mentally. My face showed no signs of the turmoil going on inside. Vera, was a werewolf. As such her sense of smell rivaled even mine and I have frequently, in the past, tracked a person by their scent alone.

  This was not good.

  What made it worse was that I knew that with my current armaments I had no way of killing her. Damned Lychen immunity to all damage except that caused by silver. I had promised myself a long time ago that I would never wield Tatsus’ Wakazashi except against one man. Threntü would be the first and only creature to feel the bite of Tatsus’ blade. The vampire that turned me would die by the edge of that sword.

  Vera, would not.

  “Why kill her Vera?” I asked. “She’s just a human, practically a child, far beneath your notice.”

  “You belong to me,” she growled. “I cannot let some slut share your bed and get away with it without retribution.” Her left hand came up and she slapped the blade away from her face at the same time darting in past my guard. Her hands hit my chest and she shoved me up against the wall behind me before I had a chance to react. The next thing I knew her lips were crashing violently against my own, my lip splitting open against my teeth. She held the kiss, if it could be called that, for several moments as she dug her fingernails into my chest, drawing blood.

  She finally broke the kiss and pulled back, licking my blood from her lips.

  “Are you quite finished?” I drawled, acting as bored as I possibly could manage while struggling to keep my revulsion from my face. “Because, if you are, I’d like to know what prompted this little visit.” I pushed her away slightly and turned to re-sheathe the Wakazashi and placed it back on the wall.

  “The Brotherhood has placed a price on your head my pet,” she whispered in my ear, pressing herself against my back. “You won’t give me any trouble now, will you?” I felt her hands slide down my chest towards my belt.

  “Define ‘trouble,’” I growled as I reached down and tightly grasped her right wrist. With a sharp twist I snapped her wrist and both of the bones in her forearm. Before she could even gasp in pain I spun out of her grip and smashed my elbow into her face. I felt at least three teeth break under the force of the blow and her head snapped back so hard I could hear the bones in her neck popping.

  “Oh you’re going to pay for that, Pet,” she growled, blood dripping down her chin.

  “Probably,” I agreed, “but not quite yet.” Leaning back I braced my shoulders against the wall and planted my right boot in between her rather generous breasts. The next second she was flying backwards from the force of my kick right through the tall windows of my apartment.

  I grabbed my keys and my bike jacket and shrugged it on as I sprinted forwards and jumped out of the window after her. Below me, as I fell the three stories to the street, I could see a crowd already beginning to gather around the broken and bloody form of the were-bitch from hell. They had no idea what they were getting into.

  I landed silently behind them and sprinted as quickly as possible down the block to my bike, leaping on and tearing off into traffic at top speed. I ignored the blaring car horns and occasional crash that I caused as well as I ignored things like traffic lights, street signs, and basically traffic laws in general.

  It was roughly six miles from my apartment to Rachel’s college and I knew that if I didn’t beat Vera there then Rachel would have very few moments of life left. Luckily it was only three in the afternoon so I’d still have a couple hours of daylight. As soon as night fell it would become very dangerous around here.

  During the drive I had just enough time to remember a few things; things I didn’t really want to remember. My past seemed to have a habit of catching up to me, and it looked as if there was no escaping the inevitable.

  4

  New Orleans: September 24, 1725.

  I loved the Big Easy. The city of New Orleans was always so vibrant, so full of life. There was a party every night and never a shortage of beauties to share a bed with, or a couple hours of diversion at the least. As the thought occurred to me I glanced to my left at the young creature walking beside me.

  Gorgeous long hair, a slim tapered waist and dark bronzed skin, I couldn’t stop myself from leaning in for a kiss, not that I tried very hard.

  “What was that for?” he asked, turning to face me after my lips left his neck.

  “You’re just too gorgeous for words to describe, James,” I whispered. We were on our way to a gala ball, sponsored by the Brotherhood. None of the humans attending knew that of course, and only a few would find themselves on a dinner plate.

  James being one of them.

  I liked him, and I intended to get as much pleasure from him as possible before I disposed of him. We entered the estate grounds from the south side, milling amongst the other guests. A quick glance around told me that nearly three quarters of those present were human. I smelled a few werewolves and at least a dozen vampires of a couple different clans were within my line of sight. There were a couple of the Kargoni clan and at least one of the Shadu was present.

  I smiled. Threntü really went all out for this one. The party rapidly got into full swing, wine and blood flowed like rivers before the end of the night and I awoke from a slight stupor induced by alcohol and large quantities of blood to find myself lying naked in a bed next to James.

  Or what was left of him at least. His body had been ravaged by my fingernails and teeth. A quick glance showed that even his genitals were
mutilated. I smiled, licking at some still moist blood clinging to my lips.

  “Quite the tasty morsel, wasn’t he?”

  I glanced up at the sound of a voice.

  She was sitting in a chair against the far wall of the bedroom. I stood up, blood staining my mouth and neck and running down my chest, naked before her. I didn’t care about my nudity however. ‘Let her look all she wants,’ I thought. ‘No harm in giving the woman a last thrill before she dies.’

  Moving so fast that no human would be able to follow my movements, I darted across the room and lifted her out of the chair by her neck. Spinning about I slammed her body forcefully into the ground, listening to bones crack and internal organs rupture as her fragile form made contact with the hard floor.

  I stood, stretching the muscles in my back as I did so, and stared down at her broken form. She was quite beautiful. Long wavy blond hair, eyes a dark blue and skin so flawless she could have been made of porcelain. She had rather large breasts and an overall beautifully proportioned body. I found myself getting slightly wistful over the fact that I never got to fuck her. While she was alive at least.

  So lost was I in my own musings that I failed to notice her move until her heel had been planted firmly into my gut and all the wind left my lungs in a rush as the force of her kick sent me flying against the far wall. I groaned and sat up just in time to see her broken limbs mend themselves and her broken neck sharply fixing itself as she sat up.

  “That wasn’t very nice, sweetheart,” she growled. Her eyes began to shine with a distinctive yellow light and I felt a feral grin touching my lips as her body began to grow and change.

  “Bring it on, puppy,” I said to the werewolf.

  This was going to be fun.

  5

  Long Beach, California: February 4, 2005

  I pulled into the parking lot at Rachel’s college and parked my bike in a conveniently located motorcycle slot between a couple of hedges, right next to an exit out of the lot. Jumping off the bike I reached up to tear off my helmet and cursed when I remembered I hadn’t grabbed it in my leap out the window of my apartment.

  Cursing in every language I knew I sprinted through the school, keeping my movements to that of a very fit human, I didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself though I knew I wouldn’t be able to avoid it. As I ran I kept sniffing at the air hoping to grasp a hint of Rachel’s scent, praying that she was still on the campus. If she’d moved on it would take me too long to track her and Vera would get to her first.

  As I crossed the quad behind the Cafeteria building I caught a whiff of her scent, still mingled with mine after our night of drunken debauchery. Skidding to a halt I looked wildly about and spotted her about 100 yards away from me across the campus. I noticed as I ran up that she was sitting at a drawing easel and she was working on a very good two point perspective drawing of the art buildings.

  “She would have to be on the other side of the campus practically from where I parked,” I muttered ruefully to myself as I walked up to her.

  “Rachel.”

  She turned when I spoke and pulled a set of headphones out of her ears. I could hear faintly the sounds of a Disturbed song playing through the tiny ear buds.

  “Oh hey,” she said brightly, her eyes lighting up as she saw me. “What’re you doing here? I honestly wasn’t expecting to ever hear from you again.”

  “What, you didn’t think your beauty and stunning wit made an impact on me?” I said, dropping my voice to a low purr and letting a smirk cross my lips. I was playing a role, and I was playing it to the hilt. I had to get her out of there and now. “How’d you like to join me for a little ride? I was thinking it’d be nice to get away from school and work and get to know each other a little better.”

  “Love to sweets but I can’t,” she said, turning back to her drawing. “I’ve got too much class work to do, and besides,” she tossed a coy look over her shoulder. “What’s to tell me you’re not a stalker or something? You could be attempting to lure me away to kill me.” Her smirk told me she was joking.

  I fought to keep my frustration from my face. Sometimes I really wished those vampire stories about being able to overcome the will of a human and force them to do my bidding was true. I could really use some help like that right now.

  “Look, Rachel,” I said. “The truth is while I do want to get to know you better we need to get you out of here quickly. It’s important that you leave or you could get hurt.” I looked around again, expecting to see Vera coming towards us at any moment. Paranoid? Me? Of course I was paranoid. I was a good fighter and pretty damned strong but Vera was absolutely deadly and I didn’t have the time or the right type of weapons to put her down. At least not for any real length of time.

  “What’re you talking about?”

  “A crazy ex-girlfriend of mine was waiting at my apartment when I got back. She saw us together, she knows you go to school here and she will try to hurt you. Please, you have to believe me. You have to leave now for your own safety.”

  She looked doubtful, but she didn’t look like she completely didn’t believe me. I went in for the kill, so to speak. “Look, I don’t know what I can say to convince you that I don’t mean you any harm but I can promise you that if you stay here things are going to get very difficult. I promise that I won’t hurt you and I’ll do my best to keep Vera from hurting you but we have to leave right now.”

  She looked at me for a moment, apparently weighing her options. I intentionally avoided reading her mind, I didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot with her. The next thing I knew she was nodding and getting up.

  “Alright. I’m not sure why I should trust you but… something about you strikes pretty deep with me. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt in this case.” I felt a flood of relief wash through me but I bit down hard on it to keep from letting my guard down. I wasn't sure what had convinced her but I wasn't going to look the proverbial gift horse in the mouth.

  She gathered together her stuff and I took her hand, leading her rapidly across the campus towards my bike.

  Within the course of a couple of minutes, which felt to me like hours, we were within sight of my bike. Or, what was left of my bike. It had been torn into roughly twelve distinct pieces, and I think I saw a part of the exhaust pipe stabbed into the hood of a hummer parked nearby.

  “Shit,” I swore. I continued to swear in Japanese, German, Russian, and Dutch simply because I was annoyed and didn’t want to completely freak Rachel out, even though I already was doing an admirable job of that.

  “Is that your bike?” she asked when she saw the wreckage, fear beginning to enter into her voice. “What the hell happened?”

  “Vera happened,” I snarled, looking around desperately. I could feel an itching between my shoulder blades and I knew that she was moments away from descending on us in a frenzy of claws and teeth and ripping flesh…

  I shook my head violently to rid myself of those images. It would not do either of us any good to have a complete meltdown in the middle of the parking lot with Vera who knew where and time slipping away from us.

  Rachel was looking at the remains of my beloved motorcycle a look of confusion and dawning realization running across her face. Confusion as to what happened, realization that she was in it up to her neck.

  “How could a person do this? There are finger marks in the metal of the gas tank,” she said, turning to look at me. She turned just in time too. My fist struck her squarely between the eyes and she dropped like a rock, unconscious before I caught her. You might think that’s a little harsh, to knock out the girl I was trying to save, but that was exactly the point. I needed to save her, I needed to move fast, and I didn’t have time to answer questions or coax her into doing what I said.

  Throwing her over my shoulder I rushed over to a nearby car and smashed my fist through the window. Unlocking the door I pulled it open and deposited Rachel onto the passenger seat. Running around I jumped into the drivers s
eat and ripped the paneling off the steering column. Reaching under it I pulled a few wires, and with a little tinkering soon had the Honda Accord roaring to life. I sat up, looked through the windshield and nearly bit my tongue as I looked directly into a pair of glowing golden eyes.

  Vera smiled viciously at me and pulled back a fist to smash it into my face just as I tromped hard on the accelerator. The car jerked forward and she lost her balance tumbling over the side. I felt the vehicle lurch as I ran over some part of her body and tore out of the parking lot onto the street.

  “Only one place to go,” I said to Rachel as she lay unconscious in her seat beside me. “Looks like I’m going to have to visit an old friend.”

  * * * * *

  “Open up Claus,” I shouted, pounding my fist on the door to his rather large hotel suite. “He would have to get the Penthouse at the Marriott.” I growled to myself. The trip into the Lobby with a young gothic looking girl tossed over my shoulder was not an experience I wanted to soon repeat. I raised my fist to knock again when the door opened on its own.

  Claus stood inside the room, one hand on the door, a glass in the other and one eyebrow arched questioningly at me over his pale blue eyes.

  “Don’t ask, just let me in and pour me a drink, or three,” I muttered as I brushed past him and into the suite. I walked through the front entry way into the sitting room and gently deposited Rachel on a very large and very plush couch.

  “So what happened and who’s this?” Claus asked as he stepped over to the bar and poured a good amount of Bourbon into a bucket glass without ice.

  “You remember,” I noted as I took the glass and gulped down its contents. I winced at the burn but savored the smoky aftertaste on my tongue as I walked over to pour myself another glass. “And I thought I told you not to ask,” I threw over my shoulder at him. He dropped into an armchair with a sigh and crossed one leg over the other, eyeing me over the rim of his glass.