Old World Cull (#8, Night Kings)

By Gregory Blackman

Start with The Lady in Red (#1, Night Kings) CURRENTLY FREE

Night Kings:
Humans own the day and yet it’s the supernatural that lay claim to the night. Vampires, the oldest of night’s children, have at last found a home in Salem and it’s a home they’re unwilling to part from. Their mortal enemies, the werewolves, lurk not just in the vast forests that surround the city, but inside the very fabric of the community. Salem has always been able to weather the storm that brew between both factions, but they’re about to learn that they aren’t the only creatures that go bump in the night.

Old World Cull:
The darkness has revealed itself to the citizens of Salem. Hundreds of dark robed assassins have descended from the forests and they aim to set fire to everything around them. The werewolves of the newly established Ramsey clan have ceased their infighting. Now they turn to the vampires and the witches to quench their rampant bloodlust. Who among the supernatural races will find the courage to cease this madness before it spirals further out of control? The only certainty tonight is that if nothing is done in the next few hours it won’t make much difference to those of human or supernatural origin alike. Everyone will be dead.

Please Note: Night Kings is a YA collection of eight episodic short stories based in the city of Salem. It is not intended to be read as a novel and should be noted before purchase that a single episode won’t take longer than a few hours to complete.

Warning: This eBook contains graphic imagery and coarse language.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gregory Blackman
• Release date: Dec 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9781927123881

Gregory Blackman

Born in Burlington, Ontario, Gregory Blackman is a business marketing graduate that discovered early on that he wasn’t interested in advertising the works of others and instead sought out to create his own products that spoke on his values, beliefs, and in many cases, his own fears and anxieties. His first novel, Johnathan Rush, released in 2011, was a children’s novel while all proceeding works have been intended for a mature audience. This can be seen in his following Reaper and Kingdoms of Ash series that deal with issues of gender inequality, racial tensions, and mankind’s fear of the unknown. Gregory prides himself on responding to each and every letter sent to him, and incourages all readers to send him their thoughts and questions to [e-mail]

Book preview

Night Kings

Old World Cull

By Gregory Blackman

Published by Gregory Blackman at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Gregory Blackman

All right reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form without the prior written permission from the author.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

Written in Canada.

Gregory Blackman’s Collection

*Released or Coming Soon*

The Reaper Series:

Duster and a Gun

Reaper’s Dogma

Short Story Anthologies:

Night Kings

Moon Gods

The Kingdoms of Ash Series:

The Unseen

Blood Ties

Tip the Scales

Join Gregory Blackman’s newsletter to receive updates on new eBooks. One email will be sent upon the release of every new book. You’ll never be sent spam and your email will never be disclosed to others.

Click Here to Join

Night Kings:

Humans own the day and yet it’s the supernatural that lay claim to the night. Vampires, the oldest of night’s children, have at last found a home in Salem and it’s a home they’re unwilling to part from. Their mortal enemies, the werewolves, lurk not just in the vast forests that surround the city, but inside the very fabric of the community. Salem has always been able to weather the storm that brew between both factions, but they’re about to learn that they aren’t the only creatures that go bump in the night.

Old World Cull:

The darkness has revealed itself to the citizens of Salem. Hundreds of dark robed assassins have descended from the forests and they aim to set fire to everything around them. The werewolves of the newly established Ramsey clan have ceased their infighting. Now they turn to the vampires and the witches to quench their rampant bloodlust. Who among the supernatural races will find the courage to cease this madness before it spirals further out of control? The only certainty tonight is that if nothing is done in the next few hours it won’t make much difference to those of human or supernatural origin alike. Everyone will be dead.

Please Note: Night Kings is a YA collection of eight episodic short stories based in the city of Salem. It is not intended to be read as a novel and should be noted before purchase that a single episode won’t take longer than a few hours to complete.

Warning: This eBook contains graphic imagery and coarse language.

Table of Contents

Night Kings: Old World Cull

Gregory Blackman

01 A Moment All Too Brief

02 City of Fire

03 Tooth Decay

04 Evil Begets Evil

05 Awakening

06 For the King

07 The Streets Run Red with Blood

08 Who’s the Bitch?

09 When the World Ends

EX Reaper

Chapter One

Night Kings: Old World Cull

Gregory Blackman

A Moment All Too Brief

To say that Salem had seen hard times over the centuries would be to say nothing at all about the city’s storied legacy. Its citizens, be they supernatural or not, had known loss, bigotry, and persecution in considerable doses over the years. Now they would all know damnation onset by those supernaturals rooted in their community.

Elsa Dukane lived for nearly twenty years of her life without knowing of the dangers that lurked outside her home, or the ones that lurked within. Now that her guiding white light shone on the dark and mysterious, Elsa’s life swirled around precariously amid a torrent of enlightenment. She learned of truths no human should ever have to know. Only she wasn’t human. She was the unknown girl surrounded by monsters of all shapes and sizes.

Elsa and her werewolf companion ran for miles from the crypt that housed them. Or rather, Lukas ran and she did her best to keep pace. He was no more the beast on four legs. It was his human body Lukas clung to in his hour of need.

Not once in the history of the werewolf race had one of their ranks turned against the moon gods. For werewolves it was a cardinal sin to refuse the bloodlust onset by the full moon. It was another thing entirely to keep the wolf at bay. That’s what he did now, in his human skin, and he did it with all the powers the gods bestowed.

The closer they drew to Salem, the more pungent the air became. Smoke clouded the air they breathed, slowly began to choke them, mile by mile until they were forced to head east. They didn’t know of the men that’d come to Salem, nor did they know of their reasons. All Lukas Wendish and the unknown girl knew was that in this city there were loved ones in need.

An unpleasant stench, Lukas said with his nose wrinkled in displeasure, to go with an unpleasant night.

Armageddon…

Lukas stopped his brisk pace and turned back to Elsa. What did you say?

You could call me non believer these days, she replied, in remembrance of her conversation with Gemma, but the description would seem to ring true. Gods be damned, what we’ve got here is Salem’s day of reckoning.

What are you talking about? Lukas asked. He stormed over to her and placed his hands roughly on her shoulders. It wasn’t anger that moved him, it was fear and the concern he had for friend and pack alike. We’re talking about werewolves on the hunt. I can stop this before it gets out of hand. I can save everyone.

Lukas didn’t know. Since the lady in red fell Lukas has been absent. Not from just his pack, but the friends he’d made over the years. It was easy for Elsa to forget how much had changed over the last few weeks. How much she changed along with it. She was no more the foolish girl that waited in a red line for her best friend to notice her. Elsa wasn’t sure what she was anymore, but she was damn sure what she wasn’t anymore, and she wasn’t powerless. She possessed the inner strength to fight back where others couldn’t. If monsters had come to their town for war then she would be there to block their path, every step of the way.

If a person’s life is said to happen too fast to truly appreciate it, asked Elsa, what can be said of the supernatural one?

"What does that mean? Lukas balked. For years now, Gemma’s held information over my head at every available opportunity. Now I have to worry about you, too?"

The darkness came while we were swept up in the vampire’s queen shit. Elsa looked down to the ground when she realized that the lady in red’s forceful hand still lingered heavily on her friend. Only it never left when the lady in red fell.

What are you talking about? Lukas asked. She was the source of it all.

Yeah, said Elsa, that’s what we thought, too, but it hasn’t stopped spreading. We found a temple, Gem and I. The sisters say it was built by Vikings during the early middle ages. Gemma thinks that temple is the source of the darkness.

In a fit of rage, Lukas let the moon god out for the briefest of moments and violently pushed Elsa away. He took a swipe out of a nearby tree to release that anger, but it served to further his descent into madness. He’d failed his father, failed his pack, and now he’d failed everyone in the city of Salem. This fight suddenly became larger than he could handle.

The smoke is getting thicker, Elsa noted.

It’s not the smoke or the flames that worry me, Lukas growled with his nose raised to the sky. We’re not alone in these woods.

Are you sure?

Elsa used the senses given by her other and reached out into the black. Despite those senses, not one of them came in use. The smoke choked her off from the world and limited what she could pick up both near and far, and no matter how hard Elsa tried, her best wasn’t enough to pierce the hazy barrier.

Unfortunately, he answered.

Lukas didn’t have the same difficulties and used his senses to penetrate the many layers of smoke. Under the full moon a werewolf’s senses were second to no creature on this world. Those senses warned of many dangers on their smoky horizon; dangers that were getting closer.

It’s not safe, Lukas said with eyes to the southwest. You need to get out of here.

The hell I do, Elsa fired back. I’m not that absentminded girl you abandoned on the steps of your farmhouse. You know, a lot’s happened since you left us in the lurch.

Her steely gaze met his, and in spite of her best attempts, broke under the pressure of a backlog of emotion. She wanted to tell him, right then and there, what he meant to her and what he’d always meant. Yet, when it came time to pull the trigger, she didn’t say a word to the lanky blonde with concerned eyes.

I-I didn’t mean, she stammered. You had every right to leave. Not like I haven’t thought of it a million times before.

You don’t get it, Lukas said hastily. I can’t protect you when they get here. You might have the strength to topple mountains and the ability to soar into the clouds up high in the sky. But you’re still flesh and blood and that means these beasts won’t stop until your blood and guts are laid out before you.

Then at least my supernatural life will have meant something, said a stone-faced Elsa Dukane. "What do you expect me to do? Do you know how sick I am of being caged up? If it’s not my father it’s a goddamn sociopath! I’ve had it up to here with people that want to do me harm. So whoever’s out there can bring it the hell on!"

She wanted to break down in his arms, but held true to keep her head above the rising storm. They needed to be strong in the face of the dangers that came. Anything less could mean for devastating results down the road. Elsa wouldn’t stand for that. Not even if it meant the suppression of everything she needed to tell him.

You need to find Gem, Lukas said with a hushed voice. "The witches have to know something about this, El, they’ve just got to. I don’t know where they are, but something tells