LUCAN MERCER
I scanned through the pages of the tattered old book labelled ‘History of Lycanthropy’ and tried to take in everything I was reading. According to the book, while vampires had at least six different Houses with six different insignia’s, werewolves had none. Only a handful of them managed to survive the war with the vampires. Those few stuck together throughout the centuries as one single pack under the symbol of paw print with the eye of their leader, Morbeus, at the centre of it.
I closed the book and let out a frustrated sigh. Apart from finding out that bit of information this research thing was starting to hit a dead.
Just as I was about to rest my head for a few minutes Caleb suddenly came charging in through the door looking like he’d just struck gold.
“Where’s Officer Dawson?” he asked.
“Downstairs with Shang and the EMT’s...” I answered giving him a strange look. “You’re looking perkier...” The last time I saw him, Caleb was drunk off his ass.
“I’ve found it!” he declared excitedly. “I’ve found where the mark on Dawson’s body comes from!” he shoved the book I’d left him with towards my face and pointed at one of the pages. “Check it out...”
I glanced up at him in disbelief. Typical. I spend half the night looking through that damn book to try and find the mark and Caleb manages to find it after just five minutes. The ass.
I took the book from him irritably and scanned the picture Caleb was pointing at. Sure enough there it was clear as day and drawn in black and white. The upside down crucifix with a snake coiled around it.
“According to the book this is the brand of the Addicts,” Caleb explained.
“The what?”
“It’s a long story. Basically, after what happened during the Great Purge, the vampire houses came together to form a set of rules to help protect their blood-lines from future threats of extinction from the humans...”
I nodded. “The Pledge of Sanctity,” it was the name the vampires gave to their 'rules'. All supernatural creatures knew about it. “But, none of this tells me what an Addict is.”
“I’m getting to that, bro...” Caleb rolled his eyes. “So one of the rules made it forbidden for vampires to hunt humans and drain them of blood directly. Instead, they had to agree to use blood banks or special serums so as not to attract attention from the humans...” Caleb turned the page of the book and continued. “Unfortunately, this didn’t go down too well with a minority of the vampires because vampires, by their nature, hunt and kill, and this pledge meant an end to that. The weakest vampires couldn’t deal with it and started breaking the rules by hunting humans. By the end of the 19th century all six vampire houses were having difficulty keeping these weaker vampires in line.”
“These weaker vampires became known as 'Addicts' and they were becoming a real problem for the rest of the vampires because every human an Addict would kill brought with it more suspicion from the humans who were starting to wonder if the vampires that they thought they’d killed off during the Great Purge had been enough. The Addicts became seen as a danger to the existence of the vampire race, so, not knowing how else to deal with them, the Head’s of whatever House those Addicts belonged to, decided to throw them out of their covens, ostracising them from the vampire community forever. According to the book those Addicts that were thrown out got together and decided to form a new House, one that didn’t have to follow the Pledge of Sanctity, under the leadership of an Addict named Sonya...”
“That’s the vampire that you saw back in the campus, the one that killed those humans?” I asked, feeling like some things were slowly starting to fall in place.
Caleb nodded. “Apparently, she’s a former member of the vampire House of Markav. She’s supposed to be the most ruthless of all the Addicts.”
“Why is that?”
“Apparently, she’d roam the streets at night disguised as a hooker to try and lure human men and women to drink their blood.”
“Classy,” I mused, mulling over everything Caleb had just told me. “So let me get this straight, you’re telling me that the mark on Officer Dawson’s body belongs to the Addicts who are basically just a bunch of hungry vampires that don’t like following the rules?”
“Yup,” smiled Caleb. “I mean it makes sense. It explains what that vampire – Sonya - was doing in the campus.”
“But it doesn’t explain why she decided to go from killing men and women at night to killing a whole bunch of kids in such a public way,” I shook my head, “And, how do you explain the other vampire, the one I saw killing all those werewolves? She said she had nothing to do with what happened.”
“You mean the one that tried to kill me?” Caleb paused to think for a moment. “Well, there could be two explanations for that little ray of sunshine...a) she could either be lying to save her ass – hardly likely in my opinion, or b) she could belong to the Blood Knight’s...”
I raised a brow. “What are the Blood Knight’s?”
“They’re supposedly an armed wing of vampire soldiers with members from all six vampire Houses. Their job is to hunt the Addicts and kill them off one by one. My guess is that the vampire probably came to the College to catch Sonya and got more than she bargained for when she found the werewolves.”
“Maybe...” I ran an uneasy hand through my hair. “But, I mean, none of this answers why this ‘Sonya’ chose to mark Officer Dawson in the first place. Why didn’t she just kill him instead? And what about the werewolves, what the heck were they doing at the college?”
Caleb shrugged. “Beats me...”
I suddenly felt my cell phone vibrating. It was Shang who I’d left down in the basement with Officer Dawson. “What is it?” I asked him down the line.
“You’d better come down here,” Shang responded. “There’s something you need to see...”
“I'm on my way,” I hung up and got to my feet before turning to Caleb. “That was Shang. I think something’s happened..."
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