Crimson Heir: Rise Of The First Blood

7

CHAPTER 7

BLOOD IN THE STREETS

Rylan stepped out of Shadow Manor with the Seal of Shadows settled deep within him.

The night air was cold against his skin, but he barely felt it. The shadows themselves seemed to greet him, bending toward him like loyal hounds. Every pool of darkness whispered possibilities of paths to step through, spaces to hide and places no living eye could follow.

Rylan had a satisfied smile in his face. He felt normal, completely different from what Kaelos said would happen if he bonded with more than one seal.

“Maybe they were words to scare me, he thought.”

The echoes in his head began to become clearer. The Seal of Flesh pulsed in rhythm with the Seal of Shadows, two hearts beating in tandem. They were not comfortable together, they strained against each other, ancient consciousnesses that remembered being one and resented being separate.

But Rylan didn't feel it yet.

Rylan pushed his thoughts aside and moved through the abandoned streets of Silent Ash. Mira was waiting at the district's edge, near the old fountain where he had left her. He needed to reach her, regroup, and plan the hunt for the third Seal.

He had barely made it three blocks from the Shadow Manor when the shadows warned him.

They rippled, not with his will, but with someone else's movement. Rylan stopped, his senses, sharpened by the Seals, reached out. Sound of boots avdbthe unmistakeable scent of noble blood, rich and heavily spiced, wafted into his nostrils.

Enforcers?

Rylan almost couldn't believe it.

They emerged from the ruined buildings on either side, six of them. Full-blooded vampires in House Vane colors—black armor with crimson sashes. Their eyes glowed faintly in the darkness, and their hands rested on weapons that had tasted more blood than Rylan had ever drunk.

"The Crimson from the Catacombs," one of them whispered. He was broad-shouldered, with a scar that split his lip. "Impossible.”

Another looked at him with pure anger. “No time to be in disbelief. We need to correct this oversight.”

Rylan's jaw tightened as he looked at all six of them, thinking of what to do next. For a second, he doubted he could actually deal with all six of them.

"You're a long way from your territory," Rylan said quietly, trying to boost his confidence.

"Territory doesn't matter when we're cleaning up vermin." The scarred enforcer drew his blade, a curved thing that gleamed with fresh oil. "Make this easy. Come quietly, and Lord Vane might let you live long enough to beg."

Rylan said nothing. He let his hands fall to his sides, making his posture slump into the defeated posture of a Crimson who knew his place. The enforcers exchanged glances, smiles creeping across their faces.

The scarred one stepped forward. "That's better. Just—"

But before he could finish, Rylan acted.

The Seal of Flesh surged through him, hardening his forearm into a blade of compressed bone and muscle. He drove it through the enforcer's heart before the man could blink, pulling out both heaart and blade as blood sprayed across the cobblestones.

The other five reacted instantly. They were trained killers, veterans of noble wars, but they had never faced anything like him.

The second enforcer lunged, his sword aimed at Rylan's heart. Rylan didn’t dodge, he let the blade sink into his chest, then grabbed the man's wrist as the wound healed around the steel. The enforcer's eyes went wide.

"Impossible," he breathed.

Rylan twisted, making the bone snap, and the enforcer screamed.

Rylan reached into the darkness and pulled, the Seal of Shadows obeying like an extension of his will. A wave of solid darkness swept across the street, swallowing torchlight, vision and hope.

“I can't see anything!” They all said at the same time, stumbling blindly.

Rylan moved through the darkness as if it were daylight. His hands, hardened by the Seal of Flesh, plunged into chests, ripping out hearts.

He killed the fourth bydecapitating his heard. And when the fifth tried to run, Rylan caught him at the end of the street, dragging him back into the darkness with a grip that wouldn't break.

"Please," the enforcer gasped, blood bubbling from his lips. "Please, I have a family. I have—"

"Cassian," Rylan said, his voice flat. "Where is he?"

"The manor, House Vane's old manor. He never left. He wanted to watch the purges from your father's study."

Rylan's grip tightened as his head brought back memories of his father's study. Cassian had taken everything… the house, the title, the room where Rylan's father used to read him stories about the First Blood. And now he sat there, drinking wine and ordering the death of the last Vane.

"Tell Cassian," Rylan said slowly, "that the Ghost of House Vane is coming home."

He released the enforcer and the man scrambled into the darkness, sobbing.

Rylan stood in the street, surrounded by bodies. His clothes were soaked in blood. Some were his, but most was not. The Seals hummed within him, hungry and satisfied at once. He looked down at his hands and surprisingly they were steady.

Three to go.

He turned to leave, but the shadows rippled again. This time they were informing him that someone was watching.

Rylan's head snapped toward a broken balcony overlooking the street. For a moment, he saw nothing. Then he saw a figure cloaked in grey with their face hidden. They weren’t an enforcer or a noble. They smelled like something else. The figure did not move, and Rylan could swear they weren't breathing.

Then the figure turned around and it was gone.

Rylan's heart pounded. He reached out with the shadows, searching, but found nothing. The figure had vanished as if it had never been there.

He stood there for a long moment, scanning the darkness. The echoes in his skull had gone silent as his mind was bringing up it's own chaos.

Rylan turned and disappeared into the shadows, heading for Mira.

Behind him, on the broken balcony, a whisper stirred the dust.

“Interesting.”