My blood debt system

Chapter9: The scout and the Long-Lost Aunt

Chapter 9: The Scout and the Long-Lost Aunt

The black SUV rammed the back of the van, sending them swerving across the road, Cole slamming into the door. Jules cursed, yanking the wheel hard, fishtailing around a sharp bend in the mountain road, trees whipping past the windows. The SUV stayed right on their tail, ramming them again, harder this time, the back window shattering, glass raining down on the duffel bag of ledgers.

“Hold on!” Jules yelled, slamming on the brakes at the last second, turning the van sideways across the road. The SUV tried to swerve around them, but it was too late. It slammed into the van’s side, spinning both vehicles into the ditch, metal screaming, airbags exploding.

Cole’s head hit the dashboard, stars exploding in his vision. When he came to, Jules was already kicking the van’s door open, pistol raised, firing at the SUV. The SUV’s doors flew open, and a woman stepped out, tall and lean, her silver hair pulled back in a tight braid, a scar slicing through her right cheek, wearing black leather armor covered in strange, glowing runes. She held a long, curved blade in one hand, and a small, glowing blue orb in the other—the same blue as the core’s text.

This was the scout. Veyra, the system had named her, in the brief flash of alert before the crash.

[Hostile identified: Veyra Rook, Core Steward Enforcer Rank 3. System fragment binding strength: 22%. Primary objective: Retrieve core + harvest werewolf DNA]

Veyra waved a hand, and the bullets Jules fired stopped mid-air, hanging there for a split second before clattering to the ground. She smiled, cold and sharp, and started walking toward them, the runes on her armor glowing brighter. “Cole Trenton. The core’s new little toy. I’ve waited a long time to meet you. Your father stole something that belongs to my order. I’m here to take it back. And the wolf blood, too. The stewards have been looking for a viable host for a century.”

Cole climbed out of the van, his ribs screaming, the core box warm in his jacket. He shifted his weight, feeling the wolf under his skin, ready to pounce. “You’re not taking anything. Not the core, not me, not anyone.”

Veyra laughed, a low, harsh sound. “You think you can fight me? I’ve been using the system fragment in this orb for forty years. I’ve killed men twice your size, wolves twice as strong as you. Your father couldn’t beat me. You think you can?”

She lunged, fast as a snake, the blade slicing through the air. Cole dodged, the blade nicking his arm, and grabbed her wrist, slamming her into the side of the SUV. She grunted, driving her knee into his ribs, and he doubled over, gasping. She raised the blade to strike, but before she could, Jules hit her from behind, a metal pipe she’d pulled from the van crashing into her shoulder. Veyra staggered, turning on Jules, her eyes blazing.

“You,” Veyra snarled, staring at Jules’s face, at the scar through her left eyebrow. Her blade lowered, her mouth falling open in shock. “Jules? Jules Marlow?”

Jules froze, her pipe raised, her brow furrowed. “How do you know my name?”

Veyra reached up, yanking the braid over her shoulder, showing a small, identical scar slicing through her own left eyebrow, a perfect mirror of Jules’s. “I’m Veyra. Your mother’s older sister. Your aunt. I was there the day you were born. I held you before your mother even got to hold you.”

The pipe slipped from Jules’s hand, clattering to the ground. She stared at Veyra, her face white. “My aunt is dead. My mom said she died in a car crash when I was a baby.”

“I faked my death,” Veyra said, her voice breaking, the fight draining out of her. “The stewards found out I was helping people escape their debts, just like you do now. They threatened to kill you and your sister if I didn’t join them. I’ve been working for them for twenty years, biding my time, trying to find a way to take them down from the inside. When I heard they were sending me after the Trenton heir, I thought… I thought maybe I could finally make things right. I tried to warn your sister, Jules. I tried to get her out before Morrow trapped her in that debt. I was too late. I’ve been carrying that guilt ever since.”

Tears streamed down Jules’s face, her hands shaking. Cole stood frozen, his mind reeling. The scout, the hunter sent to kill them, was Jules’s aunt. The woman who’d been hunting them for a day was the only family Jules had left.

[New individual update: Veyra Rook. Hostile status revoked. Outstanding debt to host: 0. Defection from Core Stewards confirmed]

Veyra reached into her armor, pulling out a folded leather map, handing it to Cole. Her hand was shaking, and Cole saw that black, vein-like lines were creeping up her wrist, under the armor, the same as the corruption on his arm. “This is a map of the stewards’ mountain compound, the one they’ve used for a hundred years. It shows every entrance, every guard post, where they keep the prisoners, where they store the core fragments they’ve collected over the decades. Morrow’s already there, negotiating. He’s offering to trade you and the core to them in exchange for full, permanent system access, immortality, the whole thing. He’s willing to let them kill every last person in the city to get it.”

Cole unfolded the map, his gut twisting. The compound was huge, built into the side of the highest mountain in the range, surrounded by walls and runes and hundreds of enforcers. It looked impenetrable.

“Why are you helping us?” Cole said, staring at her. “You could’ve killed us both five minutes ago. Taken the core, gone back to the stewards, been a hero.”

“Because I’m tired of being their puppet,” Veyra said, wincing, clutching her chest. The black veins were creeping up her neck now, spreading fast. “They put a kill switch in my fragment, years ago. If I disobey a direct order, it activates. I defied them by not killing you. I’ve got maybe twenty-four hours before the fragment consumes me. I want to spend those twenty-four hours making sure the stewards burn. And making sure Morrow pays for what he did to my niece.”

Jules ran to her, catching her as she collapsed, holding her in her arms, crying. Veyra brushed the hair out of Jules’s face, smiling weakly. “You look just like your mom. Same fire. She’d be so proud of you.”

Cole turned away, giving them a minute, staring out at the mountain road. The world was getting more complicated by the second. The enemy of his enemy was his family, the hunter was his ally, and the compound they had to infiltrate was bigger and better guarded than he’d ever imagined. And on top of that, Morrow was already there, making a deal to sell him to the stewards like cattle.

A small sound made him turn. Lila was standing in the cabin’s doorway—wait, no, they were still by the road. No, Lila had climbed out of the van’s backseat, where she’d been sleeping, Hale right behind her, her small face pale. She walked over to Veyra, tilting her head, staring at the black veins creeping up her neck.

“Are you dying?” Lila asked, her voice soft, innocent.

Veyra nodded, smiling sadly. “Yeah, kiddo. I am.”

Lila reached into her pocket, pulling out a small, crumpled drawing of a rainbow, handing it to her. “My mom says drawings make people feel better. Maybe this will help.”

Veyra took the drawing, clutching it to her chest, her eyes glistening. Before she could say anything, she gasped, arching her back in pain. The black veins reached her jawline, and her left hand started to turn to fine, gray ash, drifting away on the wind.

“Twenty-four hours,” Veyra gasped, grabbing Cole’s arm, her grip tight. “That’s all we’ve got. The stewards are planning to merge all the fragments they’ve collected with your core at midnight the day after tomorrow. If they do, they’ll be unstoppable. They’ll control every debt, every life, in the whole world. You have to stop them. You have to break the curse your ancestor started.”

“My ancestor?” Cole said, frowning. “What are you talking about?”

“Elias Trenton,” Veyra said, her voice fading. “Your great-great-grandfather. He was the first steward, the man who helped build the core a hundred years ago. He thought it would help people, make debts fair. But the other stewards twisted it, turned it into a weapon. So Elias stole it, ran, and bound it to his bloodline so no one else could use it. That’s the real curse, Cole. Not the debt. The fact that every Trenton man is born to carry the weight of his mistake, to fight and die protecting the world from the monster he helped build.”

Cole froze. The generational curse, the thing his father had talked about in his drunken rants, the thing he’d thought was just the debt, was so much bigger. He wasn’t just fighting for his mom, or for himself. He was fighting to fix a mistake his own family had made a hundred years prior.

Veyra’s eyes fluttered, her grip on his arm loosening. The ash was creeping up her forearm now, faster. “Go. Get back to the safe house. Prepare. And Cole? Don’t trust all of Morrow’s men. One of them is working for the stewards. He’s been inside Morrow’s operation for years. He’ll betray you both before this is over.”

Her head lolled back, her breathing shallow. Jules held her tighter, sobbing, as Hale knelt down to check her pulse, his face grave. “She’s alive, but barely. We have to get her back to the safe house. Maybe I can slow the fragment, buy her a few more hours.”

Cole nodded, folding the map and tucking it into his jacket. He looked up at the mountains, at the dark clouds gathering over the highest peak, where the stewards’ compound was hidden. Somewhere up there, Morrow was sitting at a table with monsters, negotiating to sell him. Somewhere up there, the stewards were preparing to merge the fragments, to take over the world.

He had twenty-four hours. Twenty-four hours to build an army, to take down Morrow, to storm a mountain compound, to break a hundred-year-old curse, to save his mother, to save Jules’s aunt, to save the whole damn city.

And somewhere in the shadows, a traitor was waiting to stab them all in the back.