Page 13 of Orion: Galaxy Huntress

Chapter 6

Reznor

“Kill her,”I ordered the three vampires restraining the female at my feet. Brought to me for failure to pay her debt to the coven.

“No!” she shrieked, futilely fighting their hold with what little strength she possessed. “Please, don’t.”

Mascara streaked her sculpted cheeks. Scabs marked her once porcelain skin, indenting it like acne scars. Scalp showed through her severely thinned hair. Bones protruded from her sickly, gaunt frame. What a waste of beauty. Waste of motherhood.

“What about my baby?” Her wild, frightened eyes dropped to her son. A skinny, pale child clinging to her leg, whimpering for his mother. “Please. I’ll pay you back, I promise.”

An excuse she used on others, and one that probably worked in most cases. Were it not for the dots trailing the length of her elbow crook. Meth injection tracks. Money sunk into drugs instead of caring for her offspring.

“It’s too late for that,” I intoned. “You’re behind on payments and cannot meet them. The contract is clear. Repayment in blood is demanded on default.”

In my coven, I was in charge of loaning money and collecting on debts.

“Take him.” She gestured with her chin. “Care for him. Raise him as one of your feeders.” One final act of desperation for a pitiful soul.

“Kill her.” I flicked my wrist, and three of my brethren dove into the soft flesh between the female’s neck and her wrist.

“No,” she moaned, swaying on her feet.

They drained her almost to the point of death and hissed as they came up, offering me the honor to take the last of her beating heart. I waved them away, refusing to taint my body with her foul, compromised blood.

“Mommy!” the child wailed as she slumped to the ground.

“Take them away.” My final order. “Keep the child.”

“But he’s too young for a feeder,” Janelle debated.

“The boy would be taken care of here.” I was in no mood to be argued with. “Fed. Fattened up. Tutored. More than he would get from foster care or institutionalized housing.” I strode away, unbuttoning and rolling up the sleeves of my shirt.

Redemption was beyond my grasp. Compassion blackened and burned. I cared not for the fate of humans when my humanity died a long time ago. Like the young mother who lost all passion but for the drug that thrilled her mind and nerves.

Commotion and arguing voices at the head of the coven called me to the front door. Something had happened that brought everyone to crowd around our leader.

“Are you sure there’s another star?” Vexlel’s question had me snap my book shut. His long, clawed fingers steepled then curled as if he imagined getting his hands on the treasure they discussed.

Vanguard, his second in command, hung his head at our leader’s red eyes glowing with greed and hunger. The back of his skull was smashed in, oozing inky, congealed blood. Fiend had taken quite the beating. My dark little heart kicked up with a laugh.

“Positive,” Bex said, looking less worse for wear. Black bruises. Cuts and scrapes. Injuries that would heal within a day. Child’s play. I’d had worse. Been punctured through the lungs on three occasions. “Saw her produce a dagger from pearly, glowing light.”

Hisses filled our cave as if a horde of bats had taken to the air. Hungry vampires eager to devour the power of a fallen star.

Me, I was more intrigued by the story behind Vanguard’s cracked skull. Fragments of bone hung loose, slowly sealing over from the alchemy of his vampire blood. The witch’s doing, no doubt. Fiend deserved it. Heavy handed techniques he employed finally earned him a magical blow that flung him into a wall or something.

Vexlel shot out of his chair and paced, hunger hardening his gaze. Greed blazed in his eyes. Lust for ultimate supremacy and strength over neighboring covens made his fingertips curl. Ambitious and desperate for respect amid the Umbra community, he’d want to get his hands on the starlight, absorb her power, make himself invincible, so that no one would threaten him or his clan.

Word had traveled across the Umbra world of shooting stars streaking the night sky, lighting it with colors of the galaxy. Crash sites were burned, crushed, and destroyed. Beautiful women dressed in fine gowns were found wandering from these locations, some located and captured by the Umbra, others escaping them and going on the run. None had landed in Australia, and certainly not this close to our coven.

Fallen starlights had immense powers. Magick of the gods. Their blood and power were like a drug to us, intoxicating, rich, and addictive. Far more potent than a human’s blood and one taste wasn’t enough. Just a few swallows from one could empower a vampire and give it the strength of three. All this made the starlights highly sought-after commodities, especially to the Umbra, the clan of creatures to which we belonged. Draining a starlight would feed and sustain the coven for years. Not that Vexlel would share one drop. He’d take it all for himself. Become the strongest vampire in all of Australia.

A thrill ran along my spine at apprehending a fallen star. Tasting one. Drinking down her pure starlight, being radiated with power, enhancing my own. My ticket out of this wretched family for good if I hunted her down and brought her to my leader.

Mother had locked me into membership when she admitted defeat to Vexlel. A werewolf bite had weakened her to the point that she could no longer protect her coven against external threats. Brutal and ambitious, Vexlel had descended on us at our most weakened point. To preserve her legacy and ensure our survival, she’d merged her coven with Vexlel’s before she perished.

I hated our new leader. Cruel, cold, and vicious, he only cared for power, territory, and control at the expense of his family and mine. Ruthless bastard killed for the slightest offense and didn’t tolerate fools. Across the hundred years I’d suffered under his leadership, I’d seen ten brethren die at his hands. Unless they were his two offspring, Bex and Vanguard. Idiots who should never have been converted to our kind. But, sadly, they acted as sires for all new members, preserving their master’s power and making him stronger.

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