Page 14 of Stalk the Dark
But Padma ignored him, leaning forward across the table to drop the juicy gossip. “They were taking a cartload of humans to Ezekiel.” Ice filled my veins. “Criminals from New Town,” she continued. “But still humans for the slaughter. What the Order won’t tell you, and what we have here in our archives, is the truth. That beast feeds every rising. Feeds and kills. He has to; after all, he’s been asleep for almost a hundred years. That’s a lot of time to desiccate.”
I’d seen the damage. The skeletal form and papery skin. The blazing hunger in his eyes.
“They’re criminals,” Edwin said softly. “Murderers and…stuff.” But he didn’t sound too sure.
Padma shook her head. “Yeah, you tell yourself that, pigeon. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”
But Edwin was right. “They would have to be marked for execution for the Order to send them.”
“Who said anything about the Order sending them? The Sangualex is in charge. They decide what constitutes a crime and each criminal’s fate.”
This was bullshit. “There are offices in New Town. Order offices. That’s where we’re supposed to be working.”
“The Sangualex took over that building years ago,” Padma said. “We go into New Town when need be. But otherwise, we stay here.”
“That isn’t how it’s meant to be. The Order needs to be told what’s happening here.”
She studied me for several beats, eyes narrowing. “Been a while since I came across a true faithful. Such fervor. Such belief. Maybe you can ask your chapter why we’ve been left here to rot. Why I was bluntly told not to upset the status quo?” She slapped her palm on the table. “I can tell you why: unless it’s a rising year, they don’t give a fuck about us. We’re a front. A way for them to keep their foot in the door to this territory. The nobles are the ones in charge here, and we’re their lackeys.”
My ire spiked, tightening my chest, but I exhaled against it, forcing it into submission. When I spoke, my tone was calm and even. “If they’re in charge, it’s because you’ve allowed them to be.”
She sat back as if I’d slapped her, red mouth parted, eyes glittering with an undefinable emotion.She took a breath, about to unleash, but Haiden pressed his hand to her shoulder, and she slumped back into her chair with a whispered exhale.
“You don’t have to believe us,” he said to me. “You can judge for yourself at the Exciatio in a few days. Historically the only time all the noble houses come together, it’s the mandatory welcoming ball for their king. It’ll be your opportunity to gauge just how little control the Order has here.”
Arguing was pointless. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe the Order’s control has slipped. Doesn’t mean we can’t get it back. I’m in charge now and?—”
Padma let out a bark of laughter. “Uh-huh, great. Good luck with that.”
Haiden placed a bowl of casserole in front of her. “Enough. Eat. You need it.”
I took a closer look at her, noting the residue of dirt beneath her fingernails and the specks of blood partially hidden in her hairline. She’d washed her face but not properly. There were dark smudges beneath her eyes too.
She caught me watching and shoved her chair back. “I’ll eat in my room.” She grabbed her bowl and strode out the door.
Edwin watched her go, his expression haunted.
This made no sense. None of it matched the Order I knew and loved. To leave the suckers in complete control of the humans…? No. That wasn’t what we were about.
Haiden placed a bowl in front of me. “Eat. Sleep. We can reconvene tomorrow. Everything looks better in the light of day.”
I didn’t strictly agree with that sentiment, but one thing was for sure: a rested body and mind functioned best, and tomorrow I’d begin finding the answers to all the questions that today had raised, as well as a way to keep the resident devil in check.
Chapter 6
Iwas a creature of the night by habit, and sleep usually found me just before dawn. Edwin showed me where my cases were stowed and helped me carry them up to my proper quarters—not the room I’d found myself in earlier, but a larger, cushier one on the third floor with a four-poster bed, wood-framed, cushioned seating, a hearth complete with hot coals, and arched windows hung with thick velvet drapes. The wooden floor was scattered with deep piled rugs, and there was a small ensuite bathroom with modern plumbing.
“We have electricity in some of the house,” Edwin explained. “Most of the place is wired. But we don’t use it much.”
I set my case on the floor by the bed. “This whole living in the Dark Ages feels unnecessary.”
“Not the Dark Ages,” Edwin said. “Just a timebefore technology rose and our world crashed and burned for it. Vampires are creatures of habit and this…This is their comfort era. They don’t like change.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Heck, who knows how life would be if humans hadn’t pushed for change so fast.”
“We don’t know that technology was the cause of the rifts.”
“No. I suppose, not for sure, but I’m certain it helped. I mean, based on my research.”
I’d done my research too, and nothing was conclusive. Just theory and postulation. There was a world outside the magical dome that encased the city, but the details of that world were a mystery to me.
