Night Moves: Blood Tithe, #2

By Hargrove Perth

When a sudden spike in Risers begins happening all over London, Gunnar enlists the help of Tamsin Waterhouse to unravel the mystery. The deeper they delve into what is happening, Gunnar realizes it may not be witches from the Necro or Diablo communities in the West End that are behind the strange happenings. Not only is there trouble brewing in the Fae community, there's a surge of risings that appear to be werewolf related, all with strange clan oriented tattoos. Gunnar seeks the help of Emmanuel Markum inside the Diablo community about the strange tattoos hoping he can provide her with Intel. 

However, something is strangely amiss with the Risers as Gunnar is forced to face the truth and the fact that Charlaine Tepes, a witch responsible for creating the fanger vaccine, might be behind some of what is happening in London.

With time running out, and the Blood Tithe being held over Gunnar's head, she has to solve the case quickly before those she loves are drawn into her dark bargain with the Fae - where death is the only ending possible for all creatures that don't fit into the plans of the dark and mysterious Fae Queen known as Anwen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hargrove Perth
• Release date: Nov 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386697060

Hargrove Perth

A perpetual night-owl and lover of all things paranormal related, Hargrove spends a great deal of time researching the larger than life characters of history to formulate characters unforgettable and strangely adored. She writes horror, dark romance, fantasy, and paranormal in the Adult, New Adult, and YA categories. When asked why paranormal, she said, "I'm the girl who cries at the end when Frankenstein is misunderstood, who wants Dracula to keep Mina in his arms forever... I see the humanity in them that others cannot." 2014 Author of the Year by Double Decker Books in Historical/Horror Dark Days Remy Broulette. DDBA 2015 Author of the Year YA Fantasy Miss Crabtree's School for Unnaturals, DDBA 2015 Nominee YA Fantasy Chronicle:Dark Sea Triad, and DDBA 2015 Author of the Year Horror (comedic) Coven Wives.

Book preview

Night Moves

Blood Tithe Book Two

Hargrove Perth

COPYRIGHT July 2018

Night Moves, Blood Tithe Book Two

Hargrove Perth. All Rights Reserved.

No portion of this work may be reproduced by any means whatsoever without the explicit written consent of the author and the author's publisher. This work contains people who have been used in a fictionalized setting for the purpose of entertainment. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased is used strictly for the embellishment of the story to lend creditable influence to the fictionalized work. The copyright laws of 1988, namely the Berne Convention Copyright Laws of 1988, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, enacted by Congress protect this work from piracy and any transmission, trade, or sale through means electronic, printed, shared, or otherwise is strictly prohibited and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Cover art Design, 2018 by Dark Water Arts Designs.

Publisher, 2018 Obsidian Cat Press.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

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Dedication

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For my mom who accepted me as the quirky little individual I’ve been since birth and just let me embrace it.

For my dad who only treated me like a girl when I wanted it.

For my dear friend Holly Mauk. Who knew 44 years later we’d still be the same minus the years?

For my fans who have supported me across the years. You are simply the best.

With special thanks to conceptual editor Author JA Stone whose suggestions and support made these books possible when others said not to try, and special thanks to Indie Editor Nancy for all her hard work.

Glossary, Characters, Tidbits

VAC- Vampire Area Council, the ruling faction in each city that controls the fanger population, and the Hunters who work for them. Also responsible for handling all vampires and assuring they get the vaccine. If they don’t, they are brought in for reprogramming. Also handles all abnatural creatures inhabiting their respective ruling areas.

EVE- extended vampire executioner’s license, a license that allows killing without an order from the Vampire Judicate.

VE- standard Vampire Executioner license - a one time kill license issued for a specific case.

WELL- Witch’s Executioner’s Limited License, a license assigned to witches who are working cases with the VAC so they can’t be prosecuted in the event of a death.

ADSY- the Abnatural Division of Scotland Yard, the division that handles anything to do with those who are of a ‘non human’ nature.

MEXT- Military Extraction Teams, they work for the VAC, chances are if they are sent for you, you’ll never be heard from again. They are the last ones called when something goes bad.

ARE- Abnatural Risers of Europe, licensing required by Diablos to use resurrections.

ICU- Investigational Center Unit, where all the corpses are brought after a Hunter takes them down or are found in the city for follow up investigation.

Gunner Kyle - originally, from Pittsburgh, PA she now works for the VAC in London hunting rogue abnaturals who don’t follow the rules.

Algernon Vale - the oldest living vampire in London and the highest-ranking Vale. Gunner’s go-to fanger when she needs a little... attention.

Joe Glory - former Special Ops, he was in the same unit as Gunnar in the States. Now he’s the head of the VAC Hunter division.

Tamsin Waterhouse - a Necro and longtime associate of Gunnar Kyle. She lives in the West End and has been known to raise a few dead for Gunner for... aggressive interrogations.

Ovelian - a mysterious Fae that Gunner once helped who lived in the Narrows. She loves sweets.

Ashley - the VAC receptionist. She’s got rules that you better follow... or else.

Jet - perhaps the most dangerous immortal the world has ever known. She has no last name and doesn’t need one either. Now that she’s been dispatched by the Dearg-du, Gunnar is figuring out her legacy as it unfolds.

Devin - the black market operative who collects a steep price for her services but always delivers.

Fangers - the term Gunnar uses for vampires.

Fae - the wee folk, creatures of the faery realm.

The Narrows - the docks by the Thames where an entire city of floating houses are on the river that the Fae have retreated to and claim as their own. Humans are not welcome.

The West End - where all the witches, Necros, and Diablos are required to register and live.

Necros - witches who raise the dead by crossing into the Underworld and bring their souls back for one last meeting with their families before they are gone forever.

Diablos - those who raise the dead and bring them back to life. According to Gunnar, they just aren’t right in the head once they are brought back to the land of the living. The Diablos reside in the West End with the Necros.

Risers - those the Diablos have brought back, zombies that don’t usually eat flesh... usually.

Blood Raves - VAC sanctioned bars where vampires can get a human meal within reason.

Habitues - humans willing to be familiars to the fangers, blood junkies who get off on being an all-you-can-suck-buffet.

Diaboliques - dangerous dark demons that raise the dead for their own agenda.

Vales - oldest of the vampires, those who once ruled all the other fangers but now only hold the title as a last name by VAC law.

Pooka - ancient Irish Fae shapeshifters with brilliant red eyes. They serve both courts, the light and dark, and claim loyalty to neither.

Anwen - Queen of the Dark Fae, specifically the Dearg-Du, a dangerous race of vampires from Ireland who only feed twice a year.

Necrire- Necros, witches that cross into the Underworld to retrieve a soul for its finally goodbye and resting ceremony that have been bitten by a vampire. It’s punishable by death, especially if completed by one of the Vales.

Cambions- children born of a human and succubus or incubus union. They have no pulse and no breath.

Hellblazers- what adult Cambions become if they have not been accepted and raised by the Fae community, a demon like essence worse than a Succubus or an Incubus and whose loyalty only extend to themselves.

Summoner- witches who can raise demons that have been banished behind the gates.

Songs to set the mood

Hinder- Get Stoned

Collective Soul –  December, Shine

Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun

3 Doors Down- When I’m Gone

Everlast – What It’s Like

Stained – Outside, It’s Been Awhile

Saliva – Click Click Boom

Rob Zombie – Living Dead Girl

Soul Asylum – Runaway Train

Metallica – Moth into the Flame

Kansas - Wayward Son

Days of the New - Shelf in the Room

Seether- Country Song

Audioslave - Cochise

Metallica - One

Billy Thorpe - Children of the Sun

Greta Van Fleet - entire first album

Queens of the Stone Age - No One Knows

Black Sabbath - War Pigs

Alice in Chains - The One You Know

Steve Miller Band - the Stake

You don’t get to choose who or how you love. The important part is that you were brave enough to do it. Gunnar Kyle

Chapter One

Gunnar

THE VAC OFFICE IS SO full I actually have to take a number. That’s something that rarely happens, but for one reason or another there’s been higher than normal rates of rogues roaming the country.

It’s not just here in London.

It’s happening worldwide, and no one knows the reason why.

I look at my ticket and grimace.

13

The Vales have moved back into the majority of the castles around London. Algernon still possesses the Danson House, estate, and surrounding park. Something is happening inside the VAC but no one is talking about it.

Windsor is still the main office, all Hunters are still housed on site in the community building. Higher-ranking officials live inside the castle itself.

The occasional message is still rendered by locking up fangers and other abnaturals, sticking them in the Tower, though I cannot say I remember the last time they put anyone in the cages as a grim reminder of what happens when laws are broken.

Algernon is lucky to have the estate at Danson. At least it’s on the outskirts of the city.

The Selection hasn’t been reinstated, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. The VAC is just biding their time until things are calm enough for them to go back to status quo, of that I have no doubt.

My contacts are dry today, making me blink more than normal. I’m about half afraid that one of the fangers sitting in the waiting room is going to think I’m flirting with them.

Highly unlikely, even on the worst day.

The only saving grace in all of this is it’s become pretty common knowledge that I ‘belong’ to one of the Vales, and the highest ranking one at that.

I guess being the main squeeze of a vampire has some benefits other than the obvious ones, especially when said vampire just happens to be the oldest living Vale and is a Master. The term I use of fanger has changed slightly for me, does it still apply to all the other vampires? Yeah it does, but now I see the difference. Algernon is a vampire, a Master Vale, and he’s more than what the fangers in this room could ever hope to attain.

Right now all I care about is dropping this completed assignment file and getting a new one. There’s dirt under my fingernails from being in the graveyard all night digging up a corpse to see if it had any Diablo brands on it.

Of course it had to rain in the middle of digging. There’s mud caked in the cracks of my knuckles, flaking off in tiny pieces every time I move my fingers to re-adjust how I’m holding my coffee mug, which is nearly empty.

Ashley, do you have a fresh pot brewing? I shout.

She nods but doesn’t look up from stamping the papers in front of her and dropping them into the completed file box to her left. Help yourself. I’m busy.

I walk to the coffee station and pour a cup from the last of the second pot since the other one is still brewing.  I fill my cup, lift to my nose, inhaling deeply. It smells burnt, at this point it doesn’t matter even though there is simply nothing in the world worse than a cup of burnt coffee when you really need one. It just needs to keep me awake until I can sign out for seventy two hours and not have to think about anything that has to do with the VAC.

Ashley laughs as she sees the personalized words on my cup. It was a joke gift from Joe last Christmas. It says, ‘beautiful yet deadly.'

I sit back down on the hard-ass chairs that they have in the waiting room, considering comfort probably doesn’t mean anything to half the fangers who have to report for first time check-in and their vaccine voucher. They’re too busy trying to not crawl out of their skin with hunger pains.

It’s something I can relate to... sort of anyways. It took me a while to adjust to being whatever I am. Joe being super understanding during my ‘permanent bitch face’ phase was a plus.

Eleven, Ashley shouts and a beautiful fanger with long blonde hair steps up to the counter. Get behind the line! Ashley shouts. I can’t say I blame her. She’s been attacked before, hence the line on the floor. It gives her time to drop the barrier if needed and the time to pick up a weapon.

What the average abnatural reporting in can’t see is the arsenal of weapons available to Ashley including a pump shotgun mounted beneath her desk that's loaded with iron pellets, garlic, and silver - custom shells courtesy of yours truly. That’s enough to stop a fanger, a Fae, or a shifter in their tracks. Ashley is far too great a person to see anything happen to her again, especially after what happened last time.

Belinda Cassick, the fanger says. She’s obviously been here before if she knows to give her name.

I tune out the conversation, thinking about the corpse that I dug up, performed rites over and then decapitated. His name was Arnold Jackson. He was short, an asshole in life, and I was pretty sure he was going to be a mega asshole if he successfully rose from the dead. They never come back right. It’s a given.

A smile forms thinking about him. He wasn’t much to look at, not good looking, but that man had women beating down his door when he was alive. I guess he had a tool that was worth every inch of it.

Twelve! Ashley shouts and looks at me, then gives me a nod, not calling my number.

I stand and walk into Joe’s office and close the door behind me.

Everything go okay? he asks as I hand him the file, and he motions for me to sit down.

Yeah, I mean I need a shower but it went fine.

Rot setting in? Damn it takes forever to get rid of that smell.

No, it was just there I am digging, a helluva storm rolls in, I get soaked, I’m standing in mud soup up to my knees while unearthing his coffin. It was just messy. I guess I should be thankful that he wasn’t in the third stage of decay and hadn’t started to seep yet, otherwise I would be stinking to high heaven right about now. He was covered in symbols so whoever reported it was correct. His family paid a resurrectionist. It was definitely a Diablo. His corpse had that stench all over it. The photos are on the SD card taped inside the file.

Any distinctive markings to let you know who it was that did the resurrection? Joe asks while looking at the photos of the corpse.

You know, they didn’t look familiar this time. We might have a new Diablo that hasn’t registered yet. That always leads to trouble. The last time that happened, we had those murders in Hyde Park that were linked to the bad Risers running loose.

Joe smiles, shakes his head, and offers me a glass.

Stepping up in the world, are we? No paper cup? I’m disappointed. I pour my cup of coffee in his plant and hand him my coffee mug instead.

Nice to see you’re back on your game. I’m glad the time off did you good after all that happened. You lookin’ forward to your long weekend? Heading up to the estate?

Possibly. I take a sip of bourbon and wait to see what the next assignment will be, hoping it’s not