Visitor's Blood Series [Book 1 + Preview of Book 2]

Chapter 4: Malook

"I am going to beat Sulru's ass," Zofra complained under his breath.

"Good luck with that," I scoffed, "From what I can tell, she's the better fighter."

The vampire didn't acknowledge my observation and neither of us turned to look at each other as we were both watching Riven play on the juvenile recreational equipment in the mall's park. I had been fortunate to get the man beside me as one of my new guards, though with all of the fuss we'd been dealing with, there hadn't been too much time for casual conversation.

During the initial weeks following my release, most downtime was focused directly on keeping Sulru and John safe whilst seeking out a way to get them back home. Otherwise, the multitude of individuals wishing me well or offering apology for what had happened had kept me on my toes. Now that it seemed these things had died down, I had been able to spend this day discussing intimate details with Zofra concerning our mutual friend.

My only experience with him personally were times that I'd seen him at work in passing until a single instance to do with the faction when I was relaying a detail to Sulru. She had spoken of him in terms of this only for me to find out he'd been aware of me much longer than I had of him. Vampires were strange with how they kept families.

Not that I judged it. I knew the majority was because of how they were forced to split their homes as per the law. But Zofra was more or less a part of her family. Apparently, he had known her and Lotac, her deceased mate, for many years. Even though this had still been early in our own relationship, I had been somewhat pained by it. A tad of jealousy, perhaps, knowing he could be so close to her and I hadn't so much as known of it.

So I'd started our dialogue by sharing some good news with him. General Sheif had been very busy by means of the rebellion. Although she hadn't done anything negative, it still seemed...distrustful. It didn't help that she was not personable by any means. Nonetheless, Otahn hadn't felt that there was a problem.

Whether she was bothered with helping the common person, including the vampiric race, or simply wanted in for her own gain, she had shown deep-seated interest in aiding the cause and furthered our standing a great deal. It might eventually prove to be more selfish than presented, but the outcome was the same- we were growing, a move in the right direction. Not to mention there was suspicion of another General who shared our collective interest.

Here was how it worked: when someone was thought to be of like enough mind and will to join us, the person who saw them as a possible ally was the one to bring them in. There was a series of steps. First, to gain positive acknowledgment of the idea of the cause. Second, confess existence of the cause. Then, arrange meeting between new party and the senior member who inducted you. From there, you and the senior member would keep an eye to be sure they were safe, loyal material. Obviously this chart was all secondary to having judged the individual of stability and strength.

To keep the secrecy of faction at the utmost, all meetings were done through typical business or personal encounters. Outside of that, we had taken pointers from our current regime in that the number of members present at one location in a single instance should be strictly controlled and few. Furthermore, the rebellion was divided into groups with one senior member keeping the names of those beneath him hushed so that nobody else was aware of who exactly was with us.

It was amongst these few elder officers that the entirety of the faction's information was kept. Therefore any random member hadn't a clue as to who everyone was, though of course, many had come to know each other by way of induction, simple familiarity, or need caused by our motions.

My status had allowed me to become considered one of the elite so I was privy to the extent of our current reach and who under my order were within, but not about members outside of my chain of command. Now having myself, General Otahn, General Sheif, and soon, should all go well, Feru, we were close to beginning preparation for war, should that be the outcome of actually beginning the upheaval. And since that meant saving Sulru, I was itching to press for acquiring Feru and informing the last Generals as well.