Ancient Blood: A Novel of the Hegemony (The Order Saga Book 1) by Brian McKinley Read Free Book Online Page B

into my personal space, he stabbed his finger into my breastbone. “You listen to me, smart ass. You better check your facts before shooting your mouth off about things you don’t understand!”
    Knowing I had the moral high ground allowed me to meet his otherwise withering glare. “Yeah, well, I understand the difference between wine bottles and people!”
    The Dhampir’s eyes narrowed but they also couldn’t meet mine any longer. There was a guilty conscience inside the loyal solider after all. He turned and marched into the maze’s opening.
    I was familiar with Dhampirs as a type of half-vampire, born with the ability to see and slay the invisible vampires of Serbian folklore. Caroline, however, tells me the word originates back in the cloudy mists of Vampyr prehistory, along with Vampyr itself (which Order “historians” also claim predates its usage in the Slavic Mediterranean) and probably means something like “sub-Vampyr.” As long as they consume Vampyr blood regularly, their aging process is arrested and they gain some of the superior healing abilities of a Vampyr. As well as being daytime protectors and servants, Caroline’s historians also say Dhampirs were probably created as a means of extending one’s blood supply in areas where humans were hard to find after dark.
    “You’re gonna need to memorize the routes to the center and to the tunnel entrance,” Ash continued, like nothing had happened. “I’d suggest you take notes. This place can be a real pain in the ass if you get turned around.”
    The interior walls that formed the maze corridors were considerably shorter than the surrounding ones (about eight feet high) and made of mortared stone rather than concrete. I could see that this allowed the floodlights above to light everything. “Brighter than I expected,” I remarked. “With his eyes and all, I’d have figured Sebastian would want it dark.”
    “Hegemon Blackwood prefers the lights on. Doesn’t want the advantage.” There was grudging admiration in his voice, with an undercurrent of disgust that I heard because I was listening for it. “Right turn, here at the first junction.”
    “And I’m just supposed to come in and clean up the bodies when he’s done, right? It’s bullshit, like I said.” I ran ahead to block his path. “Sebastian’s dumping this on me to fuck with my head, Ash and you’re helping him. Why?”
    “Wasn’t always like this,” he muttered.
    “Yeah, so Caroline keeps telling me. That doesn’t explain why you didn’t just put the sonofabitch out of his misery fifteen or twenty years ago when you saw it wasn’t getting any better.”
    The storm-blue eyes found mine again. “It wasn’t like that. All this, it happened gradually, a piece at a time. Not as easy as you think to see where things are leading.”
    “Fine,” I acknowledged. “But now you can. You know exactly what he’s doing and you know where he sleeps—”
    “Look, you think you’re the first guy to come in and start talking like that?” Some of the spirit seemed to flow out of him and he leaned back against one of the stone walls, tilting his head toward the sky. “I doubt you’d understand what I meant if I spoke of things like duty and commitment, so I won’t even bother.”
    I stayed quiet.
    “This isn’t a normal, human place that can operate by normal, human rules. Nobody comes here who hasn’t already had some experience in a high security environment. Even so, it’s a tough atmosphere to work in. The ones who snap end up in the cellar or worse. We’ve got a ten percent suicide rate among the island’s staff and that’s down from ten years ago. Part of my job is screening out the people who can’t handle this place. The unfortunate side effect is that you end up with guys like Wilkes. You say the wrong thing to the wrong person and it’ll get back to the Hegemon. If I don’t do my job to the best of my abilities, he’ll replace me with somebody who will.