Rancor: Vampyre Hunter (Rancor Chronicles) by James McCann Read Free Book Online

people, usually by those who claim to be close to one deity or another, that to find true happiness one must stay away from all of Earth’s pleasures. ‘What, I would implore, are these things which you deny?’ Wealth, promiscuity and power over individuals, they tell me.
    “It is those people for whom I feel the most pity. Not because they have denied themselves life’s pleasures, but because they know not what pleasure is.
    “ When you love someone so much that even their imperfections move you, and they love you the same, that is when you learn true pleasure.
    “And it is that very thing which is denied to one who lives forever.”
    -Wulfsign

 
     
     
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    Rellik sat upon a wooden crate inside his loft, staring at a painting on an easel. Dawn broke through a window, caressing the painting’s half-finished, tender face. Doe eyes, a Mona Lisa smile, and long blonde hair came together to create more soul than in any other painting he had seen.
    For a bed Rellik had placed four crates together and cast a tarp over them. He had no pillow, nor any blankets. All his belongings, except for a palm-sized, intricately carved wooden box, he had left inside the trunk of his car, hidden in the woods.
    His makeshift bed was hard and uncomfortable to lie on, but it was not the worst place he had ever slept. Rellik was too tired to care about something as simple as furniture. He wondered where he would ever find the strength to complete his task.
    Wondering if the identity he had once clung to had slipped away . . .
     
    Rancor walked along the cliff, with one side a sheer drop to the ocean below and the other side rolling hills and woods as far as the eye could see. The salty air Rancor breathed in did nothing to wash away the grief that weighted his heart so heavily he had to sit. The ocean broke against the rocks below him, and though he sat too far away from the cliff to see below, he could hear the waves crash against the rocks. As he relaxed, every sensation came to him, from the salty ocean air to the tiniest blade of grass as it blew in the gentle breeze.
    “Brother!” he shouted, when he smelled Kendil behind a tall, mossy rock.
    Kendil laughed and walked out into the open. “Forgive ma impudence, but way’s da story?”
    Kendil sat beside Rancor.
    “I be tinkin’, Kendil. When I walk along dese paths, I do so ta clear ma mind.”
    “Tinkin’?” Kendil asked as if the very word had a sour taste in his mouth. “Ya need ta find a one, brother, so da she can do da tinkin’ for ya.”
    “I killed six men yesterday.” Rancor’s words carried with them the sadness he felt in his chest. But, as fast as that sadness left, it created more, as if to crush him.
    “Ya fought well in ya first battle, roy! Ya fought like a lion!”
    “I fought like a wulf.”
    The two brothers stayed quiet and still for as long as it took for Kendil’s shadow to move with the setting sun away from Rancor.
    “It’s time for ya to watch da prisoners. Forget ya foolishness.”
    “Ya angry?” Rancor asked.
    “Rancor, ya got kindness in your ’eart. Admirable ta other clans per’aps, but dangerous ta an Alsandair.”
    “I ’ave no fear o’ death!”
    “But do ya fear da gods? Tey are da ones who will punish ya should ya not make a sacrifice.”
    Rancor thought about the men who had attacked them, and how the Alsandair had taken them prisoner. He also thought about the reasons why the men had attacked.
    “Dey tried ta save da children, just as you would ’ave tried ta save me. What roy do we ’ave ta judge dem guilty o’ an action we would ’ave done ’ad da situation been reversed?”
    “Dey murdered one o’ us!”
    “Dey attacked way farm tools! Dey’re not warriors. Dese men are noy different dan us. I spoke way dem.”
    “Spoke way dem? ’ow could ya understand deir gibberish?”
    “Dey taught me.”
    “You spend too much time learning way your mind and ’eart. Ya speak way de animals too, do you