Betrayed: Necromancer's Blight: Book 3 Read online

  Leda smirked.

  It was true enough, Serena’s wise ass sense of humor could be quite biting if the situation called for it, but she hadn’t gone there much that I knew of. I imagine that would change, now that she refused to remain under her father’s thumb.

  Matt looked uncertain, and glanced at Carl, who was still speechless.

  Leda said, “Listen, secrets are what led us all here in the first place. This information will change everything, and it needs to be shared with everyone.”

  Carl finally recovered, as if reliving the same argument he’d had countless times, “That makes it more critical to control the information, or the future could be filled with chaos as everyone goes different ways. It has to be carefully handled so we all move in one direction as a race.”

  Leda sighed, “You don’t have enough faith in our people Carl, you never have. They will come to their own conclusions, but they will also still look above for orders. No, what the council is really worried about is they’ll reject orders that make no damned sense. Worse, the Fae will agree with you and council that the details never be released, because guess what, they’re the bad guys in this tale, and the reason why my whole life was a lie. In fact, it would be good if we didn’t even inform the council until we have the local city commanders up to speed, because the Fae will strike out and try to silence all who know.”

  Carl frowned, “The Fae? What did they do?”

  Leda smirked, “Listen to Tom, and you’ll find out.”

  Carl still didn’t look convinced, I doubted he’d ever even considered bucking the system before. He did gesture for Matt to stand down though, and I relaxed a bit. I half believed they’d attack her as an evil vampire and then slit my throat. They all believed that, but Matt truly hated the vampires and necromancers deep down in his gut. In a lot of ways, he’d be harder to convince in the long run than Carl would. Maybe.

  Carl said, “Fine, how about I decide which to do after hearing it, and if I agree with you, we’ll bypass the council and let everyone else in the room hear it. Otherwise…”

  Christina said, “What if we agree not to tell anyone else, without your leave. On our oaths.”

  Carl sighed, “That’s the problem Christina, this is about my oath for the position I hold here in Chicago. New vital information is classified by default, then cleared by the council, and I made an oath to uphold that. If I’m going to break it, I’m going to need a hell of a good reason, a life changing reason which invalidates it, which I haven’t gotten yet.”

  I still didn’t like it, but I was also a bit shocked. I’d thought he was just a stubborn ass upholding stupid rules. If he’d made an oath that was different, although that didn’t invalidate the stubborn ass part.

  Leda rolled her eyes, “Fine, Christina, Matt, Timothy, come with me. We’ll… talk over old times.”

  She winked outrageously, and left the room, her plan was obvious, she’d be telling them the story the same time I was debriefing Carl.

  Serena choked while trying to suppress a laugh, while the others followed her orders.

  Carl frowned at the door for a minute, before he turned his eyes back on me.

  Finally. I told him everything. When I first learned of the prophecy from Macy, my interactions with Sara when I was a kid, and calling her to me that night to fix things. The request I’d made for her to search out the truth in the afterlife, and finally the story she’d told me when I summoned her back on last Wednesday night. The very same night Christina had betrayed me.

  I wondered what would have happened, if I’d summoned her on Tuesday night instead. If I’d told her after class on Wednesday, the truth, would she have fought for me then? Or even earlier, if the witches hadn’t kept me locked up for a week. Honestly, looking at Serena, and how much better we got along on a friendship level besides the attraction and deeper feelings, I think I was glad that it hadn’t happened that way. I shook that off, and ordered my thoughts.

  I told Carl about the true origin of the other paranormal races, all born from Nephilim and not apart as they believed, except for the Fae who were alien to this world and wanted to rule over it. I explained that each new race contained just a small part of the power the Nephilim once wielded. How the Nephilim had made mistakes, witches being female only, the shifters limited to one animal and too strongly connected to it, and lastly the worst mistake of all, how the necromancers lost their immunity to the blight after the first generation.

  Then I told him the rest of the story, that I’d learned last Thursday night. The solution, the creation of the Blood race, and how they could keep the first race of Necromancers pure from the taint, and even wash it away. How they could judge the ones too insane to save, and how future generations of inter-breeding would yield a combination of the races, free from the blight.

  Finally, I told him my concerns about the betrayal referenced in the prophecy, and that thanks to my bond with Serena I could wield my power safely, and took steps to ensure our safety. How Sara had passed the story on in the afterlife thanks to that second deal, and when I’d sent an invitation and not a summoning, it had been answered by his wife and many others.

  Carl looked, devastated, and I couldn’t blame him for it. I couldn’t even imagine what it felt like, learning the kills that had seemed righteous in the past, the sane necromancers because they were bound to go bad, were unnecessary. To find out he’d been turned into a butcher by a race of tricksters.

  “Is that everything?”

  Serena shook her head, “Tom is my partner, it’s what I want, and what our duty truly is. Will you cancel the transfer, and let us discover what we have?”

  It was less a question, than it was a demand.

  Carl frowned, “I’ll cancel the transfer for you, but I need time to absorb all this. If what you said is true, and I have to assume it is given my dead wife is hanging out with my other daughter and son in law, then telling the council would be foolish, not until we’re ready. I… wished for a very long time that this war would end, that the blight would be banished from the world permanently. But, there will be a lot of chaos in the future, possibly war. Splits in the races, and panic from those in power.”

  I nodded, “I understand, that’s why it took me almost a week to debrief you, it’s a lot to take in. There will be the shadow of war for sure, but according to the prophecy there is a way to stop that war if we figure out how. The necromancers will be hard too, to gain the trust of the sane ones I mean, although I imagine with planning and effort, it could be taken care of in as little as five or six generations.”

  Given our longer lifespan, that would be in my lifetime.

  Carl raised an eyebrow, “We’ve been fighting them for thousands of years, you think it will be that fast?”

  I replied, “Yes. Right now they avoid you. But the lure of being able to use their power safely after being bonded, and the fact you’ll be helping and not killing, will make all the difference. At first, they’ll be wary that it’s a trick, but once enough stories about it make it around their community, they’ll want it, and they’ll want it for their children. Plus, I imagine the bonded necromancers will partner with their Blood, which means they’ll be able to detect necromancer magic as well as the blight.”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  I shrugged, “What? We’ll still have to be the supernatural cops, at least until the oath is fulfilled. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have some part of it even after the oath, we do have that hero complex after all.”

  Carl laughed, and I raised an eyebrow.

  “Well, it’s just hard to imagine a bunch of necromancers running around doing our job.”

  Serena snickered.

  “Thanks dad, I thought…”

  Carl finished, “That I’d argue more? No Serena, I never wanted to hurt my daughters, or keep you from what you wanted. It was just impossible before I knew the truth. It’s still hard to grasp, I need time to think. Shit!”

  Serena gasped, her father
never cursed. At least I hadn’t heard him curse before.

  “What?”

  Carl groaned, “The witches know too. Which means I need to move on this, for all I know Katherine is on the phone with the council right now. We can’t assume she’ll believe Jo, not without seeing the proof for herself.”

  He looked a little lost for a moment, and then said, “I’m going to package up this interview, and send it out to all the locations. You two… get out of here. Tom, I’m going to suggest you take a room here, your dorm room is too isolated from the rest of us. If the Fae do find out tonight...” he trailed off.

  Serena squeezed my arm, “He’s right, stay here.”

  I nodded slowly, and blew out a breath. Guess I was staying at headquarters. That hadn’t been a part of any of my predictions either, I’d thought running was an option that might come up, moving in took me by surprise.

  Carl gave us both a hawk like parental look, and then said, “Cameras in the hallways, no midnight walks.”

  Serena blushed, I just nodded in agreement. We weren’t even close to that step in our relationship yet, so I wasn’t worried about it. I was extremely attracted to her now, and sure as hell wanted her, but more than that I wanted to do things right and not rush into things. We stood up and left the room to search for the others. I’d already had a suite assigned, so that wasn’t a thing. I supposed I’d just grab the rest of my clothes and the laptop from the dorm tomorrow, after my Wednesday morning business class.

  Despite the extremely rough start, that had gone far better than I’d anticipated. Which… was both good and bad. I was anticipating betrayal, and when it finally did come, I was afraid I’d be blindsided by it…

  Chapter Three

  The professor’s voice droned on, unfortunately I had to concentrate on what he was saying and take notes.

  Last night had ended fairly quickly for me after leaving Carl’s office. We’d tracked down the others for a few minutes of conversation. Matt looked stony, Christina upset, and Timothy shell-shocked. Leda had told them they needed to sleep on it, and proceeded to kick the three of us men out, so she could speak to her daughters alone.

  I hardly begrudged them that reunion, on the contrary I was happy for them, and it was getting late anyway. It appeared, so far, that I had my undead allies, as well as the Blood in the facility. I wasn’t sure what was going on with the witches yet, or the other Blood locations as they watched the argument with Carl, and then my debriefing.

  Things were calm right now, relatively, but I expected that when the storm came, it wouldn’t send announcements of its impending arrival. We could only plan and prepare so much, until our enemies, both internal and external, revealed themselves. I planned on getting my own time with Leda later today, to hopefully learn all the things that have so far been hidden from me.

  It would take a long time to learn every in and out of supernatural society, longer than I had, but I trusted that Leda would lead with the most important things I needed to know. I had to trust my advisors would give me the information I needed to know to make good decisions. Of course, I already knew the worst part of it, all the damned secrecy, that was my biggest threat right now in the early days. Suppression and assassination. Carl’s blow against secrecy last night, telling all the locations directly, would be a boon.

  I’d also need to be briefed on what Isaac and Jared were up to, and what they had the other thirty-eight wights doing.

  On top of that, I still needed to work out, spar, and patrol. There was still the specter of another insane necromancer, dark witch, rogue shifter, or half-demon showing up in town at any moment. Between all that and my school work which I was still a little behind on, and now I was sort of leading a revolution of revelation, my schedule was kind of full. In fact, the list never seemed to end, yet I was determined to take Serena on a date too, soon.

  Life required balance, and the spark of our attraction needed to be kept up, encouraged and fed. There was no way in hell I was going to take anything for granted, least of all my new connection with Serena.

  When class finished up I left quickly, and headed toward my dorm to pick up the rest of my clothes and a few other things. I supposed I’d leave some stuff, the dorm room was still mine, paid to the end of the semester.

  Christina walked up next to me.

  “Hi Tom,” she said in an unsure voice.

  Her presence didn’t hurt as much as the last time she’d ambushed me, just two days ago, but it wasn’t pleasant either.

  “What’s up?”

  She paused for a minute, clearly torn on if to speak or not, finally she did.

  “I’m sorry, but I have to know. When did you know all this? The bond I mean, and what it was.”

  I winced, why didn’t I see this coming? Probably because I tried not to think about Christina recently, much less what would be on her mind.

  I told her what she wanted to know.

  “After, Thursday night is when I learned about the bond. After we met up at the park with the shifter thing.”

  Of course, the park didn’t matter, the real information was that it happened after Wednesday, after she’d bonded with Matt and it was too late for us. Still, I told her what she wanted to know, without throwing it in her face, which was my intention.

  She seemed to deflate. Had she been hoping it had been before she’d betrayed me, so she could be angry at me about it? Blame it on me? Probably, human nature was like that. Of course, we were Blood, and denial wasn’t even on the table, she knew I’d told her the pure truth. I wondered if she regretted her decision now that she knew our relationship hadn’t been doomed after all, I also hated the drama this would cause.

  “Right. Talk to you later…” she said absently, and walked off in the direction of Blood headquarters. Where I lived now too. Damn, life was complicated at times…

  There was a bit of an awkward moment when I went into the gym for Serena’s and my daily spar after lunch, later that same day. New relationship, and all the usual questions were there. Did we hug, kiss hello? It was just sparring right? Were we supposed to show our affection every time we met? Would I scare the other person off, what were the boundaries and definitions of our relationship? I could read those questions and more on her face, and I’m sure she read it on mine. Yet, neither of us wanted to make assumptions.

  I reached out and took her hand, and pulled her into my arms gently. She came to me more than willingly, I’d dare to say there was an eager want in her eyes which were locked on mine. I leaned down slowly, giving her plenty of time to abort, but she went up on her toes and met my lips with her own, as her arms went around my neck. We didn’t kiss long, but it was far more passionate than just a chaste kiss of greeting. Her soft sigh and the way she melted her whole body against mine, had my heart hammering, her lips were pure pleasure against mine, and our breath picked up as our kiss deepened.

  I only stopped when my body started to react a little too strongly, in other ways.

  Serena smiled up at me a little dreamily, “Hi.”

  I leaned down and whispered in her ear, “I know this is new, but never doubt I’ll accept any kisses you wish to bestow.”

  She blushed, and said softly, “Me too.”

  Conversations like that are always a little awkward, but I thought that one went rather well. If the look in her eyes was any indication, the kiss had affected her as deeply as it had me. She felt entirely too good in my arms, and I was thinking of claiming another one of those kisses, but then she twisted her body and pulled down on my neck, and I went flying over her hip and slammed into the mat.

  She giggled impishly, “We can kiss more later, it’s time to spar.”

  I narrowed my eyes at my mischievous partner, and rolled back to my feet. This was going to be fun, and worth every moment…

  Everyone was present just after dinner. Carl, Leda, Isaac, Jared, Serena, Matt, Timothy, Christina, and myself. Leda tossed a thick book on the table which slid across in front of me.<
br />
  I looked up and raised an eyebrow.

  “RTFM. Between that, and the referenced materials in other books in Carl’s office, you should learn all you need to know about Blood operations, rules, and of course a few things about the other races you haven’t been told.”

  Awesome, I brought three people back from the other side to be told to read the fricking manual. I laughed.

  Carl said, “I’m also lifting the orders on the rest of you, on my authority. Feel free to answer his questions. None of you know anything he can’t.”

  Leda grinned, “Of course, you really don’t need to understand any of that in our situation, but it’s still good information to have.”

  I nodded, “So what do I need to know?”

  Leda said, “You know a big part of it. Secrecy. Knowledge is power, leverage, and influence. The council will be furious to lose their hold of the information before judging if they should hold it back. They’re more concerned about power nowadays than anything else.”

  She paused a minute, “The first thing there going to want to do is work out how to maintain power while actually doing the right thing. Our Blood leaders aren’t evil, they have the same… what did you call it?” she answered her question a moment later, “The same hero complex as the rest of us do. But power still corrupts, they’ve talked themselves into believing the rest of us are too stupid, and we need their guidance or all hell will break loose as our society goes through a meltdown of epic proportions.”

  Carl snorted, “That’s a little over the top.”

  Leda grinned, “I meant it to be. The point is, they want power and control over the information first, then and only then will they consider how to slowly and orderly make slow non-alarming changes over many years to get to the point we need to be. In other words, they’ll spoon feed us, and if the Fae get to them they might not get around to revealing the truth for a very long time. They will greatly fear the loss of power as the blood and necromancers slowly become a new combined race of necromancers.”