Gamma No More - Book 3

Toni looked at her watch, she’d been looking forward to chatting with Iris but she hadn’t yet made an appearance, part of her had wondered if someone so close to Leif and Alaric had information that may help her, but maybe she’d ask another time she decided.

Leif walked in. He took in the room, frowning.

“Did Iris not come back with the file?”

“Not yet,”

Leif picks up the phone

“Find the Novitius Iris and bring her to me. She was supposed to go to my study to pick up a file and was due in my living quarters ten minutes ago.

If you can’t find her, use the security tapes to track her outside my wing.

I’ll be in my study when you find her.”

He puts down the phone, looking puzzled

“This is very unlike Iris. She is always most diligent in her tasks.

Even with Alaric out of the castle, she has continued in her tasks without prompting or question.”

He has a brief look of concern before it passes, forgetting that Toni had been mid-sentence before.

“Right, well, I needed that file for the next part of our conversation.

Walk with me if you would.”

He gets up and starts walking towards the door, as he opens it to let Toni through, a Thrall is about to knock, he’s out of breath and looking disturbed.

“My Lord, it’s Iris. She’s in your study, but someone had attacked her.”

In seconds Leif has disappeared, but the Thrall is running in the direction he came from, so Toni jogs behind, concerned about Iris, until the smell of metallic human blood is obvious enough for her to follow without a guide.

Standing at the door, even she felt shocked at the blood that has already painted the inside of Leif’s office. A large gash covers the front of Iris’s throat. The only saving grace was it had been badly done.

Toni surveys the scene with the detachment of a trained killer. There was no arterial spray which would have signed her immediate death warrant. Instead discarded, like a piece of trash, left to suffer a slow, painful death, this was the work of an amateur.

Her heart was still beating, but it was faint and erratic and filled Toni with dread. She had heard that sound many times before; it was a heart beating out its slow but almost inevitable death song.

Iris’s eyes are losing focus and her hands, covered in blood from a last-ditch attempt as she tried to stem her blood loss, are now together on her chest as if in a silent prayer for the dying.

Leif had already torn his wrist open, using the blood to seal the wounds on her neck, but she doubted it would be enough. Even wolves, with their higher healing rate, wouldn’t survive that amount of blood loss.

She could hear the quiet moans of pain as the wound stitched itself together. If Iris felt the same pain that she had from a few drops of Vampire blood, she would have thought it kinder to let her pass on.

In moments like this, Toni wishes she didn’t have training in the Medical side of injuries, but she knows Iris is living on borrowed time, the effects of shock from her blood loss already visible, her nail beds have turned blue, her skin has taken on a grey pallor and her once rosy lips drained and dull, the smell of death as her organs began shutting down, started to fill the room.

Her breathing is shallow and ragged, sounding harsh against the gently whispered words of encouragement from Leif, who is now cradling her gently, but the anger behind his eyes has turned them black, not the red she had seen before.

Toni kneels quietly next to Iris, holding her hand, letting the warmth of her own hands fill the coldness of Iris’s, letting her know she wasn’t alone, unsure the icy touch of a vampire would be comforting.

As he turns to the Thrall at the door, Leif’s voice turns cold and hard as he gives out his orders.

“Lock down the castle, shut it down for as long as it takes.

Full headcount, including security personnel, and I want to know if anyone is missing within five minutes.

After that, check the security tapes for suspicious activity and sweep every room for traces of blood.

The only exceptions to the lockdown are security personnel once cleared and those tending to the newborns.

Though I doubt they will leave their chambers.

I also want the security footage for anyone who left the castle in the last fifteen minutes. Track them down and bring them back.

Alive is the only requirement if they try to resist your orders.

If there was an accomplice, they need to be in this building for me to deal with.”

“Yes, My Lord,”

The Thrall turns and leaves, and in seconds, Toni can hear an alarm going off.

‘Alpha, are you in trouble?’

Felix’s voice breaks into her mind

‘I am fine. There’s been an attack on a Novitius, so follow every command and give them no reason for concern.’

She looks on at Leif, who is still cradling Iris gently.

“Toni, I need you to witness this.”

Leif’s voice is softer but his eyes are now glowing red as he compels Iris, but his features have taken on a softer caring look, his voice full of warmth and support.

“You will not fall asleep nor try to speak. Your vocal cords sustained damage and need time to heal. For now, I need you to communicate with eye blinks: one for yes, two for no.. Do you understand?”

Iris slowly completes one blink

“Do you also understand you are dying?”

The words softly spoken sound harsh, far too blunt, and clinical.

“Even if we give you a blood transfusion, your body is shutting down from the shock. There’s a good chance you won’t survive it.”

She blinks once again.

“Do you want us to try saving you?”

Two slow blinks leave Iris but it makes Leif release an unhappy sigh

“If we try to turn you, the process may not work. You’ve lost a lot of blood, your organs are shutting down, you’ve taken a lot of damage, all of which hinders the process.

It will cause you more pain than you are in now and I could not make it pleasant for you. The pleasure hormone suppresses the transformation.”

Leif stops briefly, brushing hair back from her face fondly.

“Blink once if you want me to turn you, knowing the risks, twice if you want me to ease your passing.”

Iris tries to do a single blink with a small smile but ends up coughing up blood.

“Toni, you witnessed her request?”

“I did,”

Leif reopens his vein and holds it to Iris’s lips, his hand cupping her head and angling it sideways to expose her neck as she tries to drink

“Drink for as long as you can Iris, every mouthful counts.”

His words are soft and as gentle as a parent trying to encourage his child to eat. Toni watched as Leif’s fangs descended and he bit into her neck, causing Iris to groan in pain.

She could hear his slow but deep swallows as Iris’s heartbeat became weaker and more erratic. All the while, he had his wrist to her mouth; but even Toni could see Iris hadn’t managed more than a few mouthfuls.

As her heart stops beating, he tears open his wrist with a larger injury, letting as much as he can run into her mouth and down her throat twice more.

When his wrist has healed for the third time, he carefully picks her up and carries her gently to a sofa, placing her there as if she had fallen asleep, but as soon as he looks away from her body, his face hardens as he walks back to his desk picking up his phone and dialling a number from memory.

“Alaric, get back to the castle immediately. There’s been an attack. Iris was hurt.”

He cuts the call before Alaric can ask questions, making another quick call.

“I need a newborn pack outside my office immediately. Do not enter.”

Finally, he speaks to Toni

“You probably don’t want to be here, if this works,”

He shakes his head

“Newborns are nothing like the person they were. It comes back to them, but initially they are driven mad by the bloodlust. At least until they fully transform. They are savages.

I can get a Thrall to escort you to a room until the lockdown is over, assuming we find the attacker.”

“I’ll stay unless you feel it’s detrimental to her. Keep the Thralls out searching for her attacker. Taking one off to escort me seems a waste of resources.”

Leif sighs

“If she wakes, she will be far more violent than you’ve witnessed and I may have to be harsh if she cannot listen, for your safety, do not interfere.

Trust me, it will not hurt or kill her, after all, she’s technically already dead, it’s just the way of vampires and as I am her sire, she will need to live with my rules, and I demand manners, even from newborns as my sire did of me.

As a second-generation vampire, assuming it’s successful, she will be powerful and needs discipline from the start; I like to see how much control they have before I force my will onto them.”

He walks over to her, looking at her tenderly.

“She deserved to have longer to decide on her future and to take a calm, relaxed transformation. She was a sweet girl and under my protection, I will not rest until I find out who is responsible.”

Five minutes later Leif’s phone rings and he walks over before placing it on speakerphone, his eyes only ever leaving Iris briefly, but the time since Iris’s last heartbeat is concerning Toni, she had always assumed the change was almost instant and the time was dragging on.

“My lord, all headcount accounted for, cameras all confirmed no one had left the castle grounds overland or via the tunnels.

Starting the room sweeps, but which Vampire should we take with us? All retreated to their rooms when the lockdown sounded.”

“Take Willow. Her newborn is the most advanced and can be alone for a short while in a locked room.”

He glances at his desk, frowning, then looks around the room.

“Search also for a green file. It will have my seal on the front.

Oh, and expect Alaric to come in hot in about ten minutes, allow him access. But DO NOT stop him, just send him to my study.”

He cuts the call

“How long before you know if it’s worked?”

Toni can’t avoid the question now. Six minutes have passed and there’s been no reaction from Iris.

“Normally a minute or two, but her body has to repair the damage, both internally and externally, before it can start the re-write process.

Anything up to ten minutes is possible. After that, they have lost higher brain functions, more likely to be an animal, a killer with no control.

If that is the case, while I hope for Iris’s sake, it isn’t true. It may be more humane to end their life. Otherwise, they have to live in captivity, consumed by an insatiable thirst that cannot never satisfy. The vampire blood permanently trying to fix their damaged brain, something it cannot do.

Vampirism is effectively a parasitic virus. The primary goal is to force the host to survive.

A mouthful of blood in a healthy human improves their healing, but also their speed and strength; our security Thralls all use it to help with threats, in limited amounts, but their immune system stops it from taking hold.

For a wolf, your high metabolism and strong immune system both seek to get rid of the virus by being sick if you ingest too much, or just neutralising it if it’s in your bloodstream, even if we drain you of blood beforehand.

But for a human, their immune system is almost wholly carried within their blood, so once they don’t have the blood to fight it, then a few mouthfuls are enough to force the transformation.

Usually, they have far more to be sure of a quick transformation and that’s with no damage to heal.”

Internally, Toni quietly chants her encouragement to Iris.

“The waiting is always…”

As he speaks, Iris convulses on the couch and some of the tension appears to leave Leif’s body.

“Grab the blood bags from outside the door please and place them in the warming cabinet in the corner.

And don’t physically get between us. She’s coming round and will try to feed from whoever is nearest. It’s better for her, and you if that’s her sire.”

Iris lets out a single bloodcurdling scream and launches herself at Leif, her eyes are unfocused, fangs out, but Leif catches her easily in one hand, holding her by the neck off the ground, her arms are clawing at Leif’s hand and arms, gouging deep track lines through his skin.

“Iris, look at me.”

His voice is calm, but she can see the power in his body as he holds her aloft by the neck as if she were a feather. Iris screeched louder in frustration and anger at being denied food.

“Manners are important.

You do not simply grab at your food.

Especially when the food source is me. Do you understand?”

Iris continues fighting to get out of his grip, hissing and screeching at the source of her frustration, her Sire.

Leif, who continues to hold her aloft calmly, just shakes his head slightly. The gouges in his arm heal quickly, only to be replaced by more; as Iris’s need to feed increases. It’s almost a self-fulfilling cycle. The blood she draws in her attack calls to her hunger, which increases her frenzied actions, which in turn draws more blood.

“I will let you feed only when you show me you have some control.

I’ve already told you to look at me and I won’t wait all day.

Toni watched as Iris’s attempts to escape his grip continued for five more minutes. She could see that Leif was slowly tightening his grip on her neck.

“You have a few minutes to calm down before I decide you will not feed.”

His words are cold and disinterested, but have just the smallest feeling of power to them, as if helping her to make the right choice without fully forcing her to comply.

Gradually, her fight slows, and the inhuman noises she is making quieten to whimpers as she tries to focus on Leif’s face.

“Good girl, I am going to help you feed off me, but you will resist any sexual urges you may get, and you will be calm. Do you understand? Blink once for yes.”

This time, Toni can feel his words are power laden, as if not trusting she can comply fully.

Toni watches her complete a single blink and Leif hold her neck at the nape with his other hand, releasing his first hand to scoop her up, holding her at the top of her legs and bringing her close he positions her carefully on his neck, holding her gently as a father may hold a child.

Iris sinks her fangs into his neck as soon as she is close enough, letting out a satisfied sigh as she does so. Toni can hear her guzzling and slurping messily at Leif’s neck, unlike the calm, measured swallows Leif had taken earlier.

It doesn’t take long, but Toni watches as the tension left Iris’s body as the bloodlust that drove her gradually waned, and like a baby feeding her breathing slows, falling to sleep with her fangs still in Leif’s neck, finally, she gets why they refer to the newly turned as newborns, driven by instincts to eat and sleep only.

Leif detaches her carefully, placing her onto the couch and covering her up with a blanket, before taking the blood Toni had put in the warmer and drinking two bags down quickly, finally taking a damp cloth to wipe away the blood from his neck, watching Toni’s curious face as he does.

“She needs to feed from me at least twice to give her the best chance against the blood lust.

Initially, the virus does just enough to change them, leaving them craving blood but not fully transformed. The more Vampire blood she drinks, the faster her body changes, as a vampire, the increased viral load speeds that up, meaning the unquenchable hunger will pass sooner.

That’s when they regain their voice and start becoming the person they once were again.

I’ll try to wean her to Alaric. He planned to feed her for the first week anyway, but that was a very promising start, especially considering her violent entry into the process. She could listen with just a little help.

Usually, they don’t, making it very messy.”

Toni finds it surreal that Leif talks in this way about the process, quite clinically, after he had held her so tenderly.

“Anyway, we need to talk.”

Leif sounded tired as he uttered the last sentence, but she’d just watched Iris drink from him for a long time, which left her wondering just how much blood she had taken.

“The green file I had sent Iris for, contained details of your pack and where they are based, it referred to you as Alpha Ant, but anyone with a modicum of intelligence would know no legal pack is there and probably put two and two together.

So as soon as the search completes, and the Thralls have finished tearing the castle apart to find out who attacked Iris and what happened to the file, I will give you any assistance you need to protect your pack.”

He runs his hand over his face

“I’m sorry Toni,

I am slacking, fourteen hundred years since someone felt strong enough to attack me in my home has left me complacent.”

Toni is concerned, but a blame game won’t help anyone.

“We can worry about that later, but the fundamental question I have is why do you have a file on my pack?”

“The file held a draft treaty His Highness had put together,”

Leif reaches for another blood bag, but decants part of this one into a glass, drinking it far slower than before.

“The idea was he was officially annexing the Desolate Waste from werewolves, ostensibly because of the infringement of the Royal Pack of our borders.

But he’s also claiming the route from Vampire lands makes the land better placed to come under our control.

The Royal pack has fought me on it, as the negotiating vampire, but agreed to a temporary loan for fifty years, during which it will be Vampire territory.

After that, they can negotiate either its return or an extended loan agreement.

The Prince was giving it to you for that period, technically it would be our protected ground, but you had full and final rights.

In return, he asked that you sign a peace treaty with the vampires on behalf of all Lycans, a standard we won’t hurt you, or any wolf or Lycan under your protection and you offer us the same courtesy for any vampire, or human under either his or his brother’s sire lines.”

Toni sits back confused for a moment before asking what she thinks is the key question

“And what tithes did you specify?”

Leif smiled at her

“No tithes, no sacrifices or offerings of goods or services and no blood price.”

Leif loses himself in his memories briefly

“Toni, you don’t understand how strong your Lycan will be when it finally comes to you. Once you hit adulthood, around a hundred, your Lycan side will be fully matured and lethal.

After you find your Erasthai, it would only take a few hundred years, but you could raise an army against vampires.

While you may not win, the devastation you could do to the vampire numbers, hell even without Lycans, a large amount of half-blood Lycans would make a formidable force.

Prince Einar doesn’t believe that is your plan, but he’s looking to forge an alliance with you, so we have long-term peace.

A no-strings-attached, no hidden clauses, plain old, we won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt us, treaty.

At some point, he believes Lycans will once again rule werewolves and, more than that; you have earned his respect.

As a token of his trust and belief in you, he wants to provide you with a sanctuary, an autonomous region so that you can live in peace, and grow in numbers by providing you and your pack with a safe spot.

One that wolves will be loath to attack, for fear of Vampire retribution, but we will not interfere and legally for fifty years, it would be owned by you.”

Toni sat back shocked, she would need to read the treaty, but if that were the case, she had made a huge mistake in her assumptions about the vampire’s desires to control her, and it didn’t reflect well on her, in her mind, Tyra sits looking smug

Told you

Tyra huffs out.

“Ah,”

Leif smiled at the confusion written across her face, thinking more deeply over her questions

“I think I see the problem you had now.”

Taking a deep breath, Toni decided to admit why she had been avoiding Leif’s calls. Better to look foolish and eat humble pie now than for it to come out later.