Raving Moon, Lords of the Night Book One

Chapter 7: Wolfblood

I walked through the security checkpoint dressed in my specter suit and armed with combat knives. I checked my cell phone for the third time, but gleaned no more information from the device than I did when I awakened at sundown. Two important texts had arrived while I slept. The first informed me there had been another savaging in Stygia matching the jogger attack. Preliminary investigators were already enroute, but the scene would be held for me to examine. The second and more pressing message was from Lord Clovis ordering me to report to HQ immediately.

I reread the message again as I travelled to his office. Nothing new jumped out to me except that someone else wrote it. His ineptitude with smartphones aside, the wording lacked his characteristic curtness.

I walked into Lord Clovis's office, and his assistant was hard at work typing up reports. Two thrones waited patiently. Both were young, I could still sense the last vestiges of life clinging to their flesh. If they needed to see Clovis, they were likely about to receive a scathing reprimand. They'd never want another.

The typing stopped as I took a seat.

"Lieutenant, Lord Clovis, and captains Hawkins and Shaw are waiting for you in Sitting Room 8."

"Hey, I've been waiting since last night," one of the others said.

"And you'll continue to wait until Lord Clovis is available!" The assistant snapped. He winked at me as I left.

I wondered what the two had done to gain Clovis's attention.

Sitting Room 8 was on the other side of the complex. The quickest route would be to cut through the training corridors, but I wanted to stop in my own office and have my assistant look into a few things for me.

I went down two levels and followed a long hall to a huge cubical bank. As I walked through, young thrones stopped what they were doing to salute me. Most were unfamiliar faces, the others were men and women assigned to my unit. Few had been vampires for more than a score of years. There had been an era when the thrones were composed of vampirekind's greatest warriors. In more modern times the only vampires who applied to our ranks were those rejected by the local Houses, hoping to prove themselves worthy through service. Increasingly that service meant data entry and administrative work.

I found my newest assistant taking notes as he searched through a stack of reports. He was stocky with short cut curly hair, thick sideburns, and glasses. He was also one of only a dozen black vampires within the Gorgon City thrones. Whenever we received a new recruit of color they somehow always ended up at my assistant's desk. Captain Hawkins was in charge of assignments, and I guess he saw it as a funny joke. I might have been quicker to call the desk instead of walking down, but I never knew who'd be sitting there from day to day. I'd raised concerns about the inconsistency with the captain more than once, and each time he dismissed me with a racist insult.

I didn't even know the vampire's name.

"Evening, Lieutenant," he said, jumping to his feet. He stood at attention and saluted.

"Evening..."

"Khaleel, sir. Khaleel Stevens. It's a pleasure to be working with you." He was so fresh he was still breathing.

"At ease, Khaleel."

He sat, looking up at me expectantly.

"Did anyone tell you how to use the file system yet?"

"No, sir." Of course they hadn't. They probably hadn't even shown him around. "I had to find my cubical on my own too." He leaned forward and lowered his voice. "Nothing I'm not used to already, sir. I used to work in corporate."