Marked - Prophecy of Aries - Book 1 Read online

  That was one of the perks of having the silver blood.

  Early in the morning, they strode along a suburban street. Ciaran cautiously glanced around. He couldn’t afford to miss any sign of trouble. He had arranged two ordinary guns for himself and Madeline. They had their laser guns with them, but he wasn’t sure if they worked on Earth when they operated the gun as humans.

  He’d hoped they didn’t have to use a weapon here. But fighting with Hoyt over such important matters, not only blood but lives would be lost. Perhaps he should focus on minimizing the damage rather than stopping it from happening.

  It must be the weekend, as people looked more casual, and there was a festive spirit in the air. A small market was being set up. Cheerful Latin American music hovered somewhere in the air.

  “Antonio’s place is at the other end of the market,” Madeline said. Ciaran nodded and scanned the area.

  The market got crowded quickly. People poured out on the street as if they’d been staying awake all night to wait for the market.

  Ciaran didn’t care for it when he and Madeline were pushed along with the sea of people.

  A boy of about eleven fell over on to the road in front of Ciaran and Madeline. A man charged after the boy and slapped his hand on the boy’s head. The man let out a stream of Spanish that Ciaran didn’t need to speak the language to know it was abusive.

  But he did speak a bit of Spanish. He helped the boy up and pushed him behind Madeline.

  “What’s the problem?” Ciaran asked the man in Spanish.

  “He picked my pocket,” the man steamed.

  Ciaran cocked an eyebrow and looked at the boy. The boy shrugged and pulled out a wallet. When he gave the wallet back to the man, the man raised his hand, wanting to slap at the boy again. But he quickly ducked back behind Ciaran. The man sized Ciaran up and down, then he appeared to come to his senses and walked away.

  Ciaran crouched. “What’s your name?”

  “Michael Martina,” the boys said cautiously.

  Ciaran smiled. “Next time, don’t get caught, Michael.”

  “Ciaran!” Madeline exclaimed. “You’re encouraging him to pick pockets.”

  “Should I say go to school? What if he doesn’t like school?” Ciaran winked at Madeline.

  “No. School bores me. I have gifts for you,” Michael said in English and put on a wicked smiled. He pulled out two wallets. One was Ciaran’s and the other was Madeline’s. He looked at Ciaran, “You’re British.” Then he turned toward Madeline. “And you’re American.”

  “I see. Not only did you pick our pockets without getting caught, you’ve read our IDs too.” Madeline smiled in spite of herself, incredulous.

  “See, my wife is very understanding,” Ciaran said and got some money out of his wallet, which by his gauge, the boy didn’t take any. “Take this money, buy some decent clothes, eat some decent food. And if you feel like it, I think you should go to school.”

  “I don’t need to. My father teaches me. He used to be a teacher. He doesn’t have a job any more though.” Michael looked down, playing with the hem of his worn-out jacket. Then he looked up, glanced around, and looked back at Ciaran.

  “I never get caught when I pick pockets. I just wanted to see if you’d help me.”

  “Is that right?” Ciaran chuckled. Testing people this way was what he usually did to people. It was pleasant when he was at the receiving end. When he passed the test by doing the right thing, of course.

  “You both are in trouble,” Michael said, his voice lowered and he glanced around again.

  “What sort of trouble and how do you know?” Madeline asked

  “I got a wallet early this morning before dawn from a man. I saw a sketch of you both and an order to kill you. The sketch was in red ink, but now that I think about it, it might be blood.”

  “Where is it? And the wallet? It must have information about the man you took the wallet from.”

  Michael shook his head and for the first time since they’d met, he looked a bit nervous. “It melted in my hand. First the sketch, then the wallet.” It was clear he didn’t think the adults would believe him.

  “Look out!” Ciaran shouted to Madeline and pulled Michael behind him. He had spotted shadows of creatures that moved in incredible speed.

  The speed that human eyes wouldn’t capture — vampire speed.

  And the reason he could spot that was because he hadn’t turned his silver blood off, as he had asked Madeline to.

  Two shadows approached him. They slid between dimensions, dropping in and out of human conscious awareness. They couldn’t tell if Ciaran had his silver blood on or not. He stood still and they came close with fangs bared. He swiveled and switched dimensions, pulling his laser gun out and put two lethal beams to the heads of the creatures.

  He swiveled back into the human current dimension.

  The crowd and everyone around them were oblivious to what just happened.

  He looked at Madeline. She knew what he’d just done and she wasn’t happy.

  Well, he’d make it up to her later.

  Michael snapped back to reality as if he’d just fell asleep. He shook his head. He looked at Ciaran and Madeline with his blurry eyes. “I just wanted to let you know about the sketch. Now you know. Stay safe. I have to go let others know.”

  “Others? How many?” Ciaran asked.

  “It was a long list. But these are the people I know. That’s why I remember.”

  “Let us know, we can help,” Ciaran said.

  Michael considered it for a moment and conceded. “All right,” he said. “The other one is Uncle Antonio. He lives at the other side of the market.”

  “Antonio Castro?” Madeline asked.

  “Yes,” Michael responded, surprised.

  “He’s on the blood list of the vampires,” Ciaran muttered.

  CHAPTER 5

  M adeline and Ciaran followed Michael toward the other end of the market. The wind carried in the great gust of icy rain, making the walk unpleasant. A small suburban house stood quietly, lonely and isolated compared to the atmosphere of the market around it.

  It was how Madeline remembered Antonio, cool headed and quite aloof. They pushed at the door and stormed in.

  Antonio was lying on the floor. A vampire crouched next to him, preparing to feed on the prey. Ciaran said nothing and pulled his double guns with silver bullets he had made for this particular trip.

  The vampire shot up and switched dimensions. Ciaran pursued in a heartbeat.

  “They … they both disappeared!” Michael said in astonishment.

  “No, Michael. They just ran really fast,” Madeline said. She checked on Antonio. There were no fang marks on his neck.

  “Antonio,” she called and shook his shoulders. In a short moment, his eyes fluttered and opened.

  “Madeline!” he said from the ground.

  “Yes. Long time no see. How are you feeling?” She smiled and helped him up.

  Antonio glanced around. Still dazed. “Where’s the man?”

  “He knocked you out and ran away,” Michael said. “I saw your name and picture on a list written in blood ink this morning. Madeline’s picture was on it too.”

  “Blood list? Are you okay?” Antonio exclaimed and reached his hand out protectively to touch Madeline’s shoulder. Madeline felt the hilt of Ciaran’s dagger slide in between her shoulder and Antonio’s hand. She turned around and saw that Ciaran had come back, standing behind her.

  “This is Ciaran, my husband,” Madeline said.

  Antonio grunted out a greeting. The two men conducted normal greeting gestures that she could humanly refer to as hand-shaking; but it felt as if they were pulling their teeth out.

  “Are you bitten?” Ciaran asked.

  Antonio snorted. “The man might look a bit like a vampire, but he was certainly not a zombie. I wouldn’t worry about being bitten.”

  “You should. He doesn’t look like a vampire. He is one. Or at least, he
used to be,” Ciaran deadpanned.

  “You got him?” Madeline asked.

  Ciaran nodded. “Before he alerted his entire network of our whereabouts. I think he’s one of their assassins.” Then he looked at Antonio. “If he wanted to kill you, you would have been dead by now. Vampires use fangs for many purposes, not just to suck blood. You might have something he wanted, Mr. Castro. And he might have pried the information out of you already, using a little seductive venom on his fangs.”

  Michael winced, an expression of disgust crossed his face.

  “Michael, would you mind keeping an eye on the front yard? Make sure no one enters when we talk,” Antonio asked.

  Michael nodded and turned on his heel, exiting the room.

  “Don’t go too far,” Madeline spoke after him.

  “How did they find out about our arrival? Nobody knows, even at home!” Madeline said and glanced at Antonio.

  “It’s a target list. It mightn’t have anything to do with this trip. They might want to kill us at home.” Ciaran exposed his teeth in a ‘work with me’ smile at Madeline.

  She could see the twinkle in his eyes. He was amused. Yes, she didn’t want to tell Antonio that they came from another universe. He was her old friend when she was an ordinary journalist on Earth, and this could be a little much to take in.

  “Are you all right, really, Antonio?” Madeline asked.

  He wiped the sweat from his eyes with the back of his hand. “Still a bit hazy. But I’m fine. Really, I’m fine.” He took out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead dry. “And I don’t think I’ve been bitten. Welcome to Buenos Aires, by the way.”

  Madeline smiled. Antonio didn’t seem to oppose the notion of a vampire just knocking him out. So she probed, “Do you think there are a lot of vampires in Antarctica?”

  “Two weeks ago, I’d laugh at your question. But recently, there have been many strange deaths around research stations that I’ve been told have fang marks and are bloodless. Elsewhere, you could have blamed supernatural cults. But, not in Antarctica.”

  Ciaran nodded. “You’re right. The creatures wouldn’t mind the climate. Since you are open to the idea of these paranormal creatures, I’ll let you know this. Antarctica and the surrounding areas overlap with a paranormal world dimension, which, at the moment, is controlled by vampires.”

  “So you didn’t exactly just want to visit my sister’s research station. Rather, you want to get into that vampire’s territory?”

  “That is correct,” Madeline said.

  “May I ask why?”

  “We must retrieve an object. There is a group of evil people who also wish to obtain that object. If they get to it before us, we will be in big trouble,” Ciaran said.

  “What kind of object and what kind of trouble?”

  Ciaran shook his head. “Let’s say, if they succeed, they can detonate the entire Antarctica. You can figure out the consequences.”

  “Who are these people? If there is possibility for such catastrophe, I need to get my sister out.”

  “Right, help us get in there and we’ll help get your sister out,” Madeline said.

  They heard a cracking sound, as if some wire had been snapped. A stream of yellow liquid leaked out from underneath the door connecting to the adjacent room.

  “Run!” Ciaran yelled and picked Madeline up and ran outside in an incredible speed. As soon as they reach the front yard, the small town house exploded.

  Walls, bricks, furniture. Everything that resembled material in that house were torn into pieces, creating a bomb of unrecognizable objects flying toward them.

  “Get down!” Ciaran yelled.

  Antonio dove to the ground in a heartbeat. Michael froze. Madeline darted toward the boy to pull the kid down.

  She saw a piece of broken metal flying at her with speed. With the current flying path it was going to smash her head in. From behind her, Ciaran pulled her backward and shoved at her. She fell to the ground. When she turned back, the piece of metal was inches from Ciaran’s left shoulder.

  That was where her world had ended.

  Ciaran had left his eudqi — his silver blood — on so that he could move and see things in extreme speed. He’d wanted to protect her. The left shoulder was where his eudqi was located. If he was hit and the silver blood leaked, it would be the end of him.

  She screamed and lunged, trying to intercept the object.

  It was incredible how slow her movement was as a human.

  The piece of metal hit Ciaran’s shoulder and, to her horror, he fell to the ground.

  CHAPTER 6

  Emily gazed out to the white snow covered landing patch which was receiving a special flight route for supplies, researchers, and staff to and from the research station. To everyone else, it was just another day and another delivery to and from Antarctica. But knowing what she knew, every activity on this gigantic piece of ice was no longer ordinary.

  The Vampire Kingdom.

  She didn’t like to think about it that way. Even worse, it was a territory the vampires had been fighting for control for centuries. She was lucky enough to have an association with the dominant group of vampires. The current winners - the one in charge.

  As a psychologist, she knew what stigma by association meant. But she didn’t have a choice. She did this for love. As far as she was concerned, that was good enough to justify all of her actions.

  Her brother had called last night. He wanted to take two friends to the station to visit her. Her poor brother knew nothing about what she had been up to. But his friends might have been powerful enough to arrange a spot on the direct flight to the station. There was no skin off her nose, so she agreed to it.

  Antonio certainly didn’t know he and his friend were about to pass the most stringent scrutiny screen of the vampires in charge at the landing.

  But that was what having a good little sister was for. She was to make sure he and his friends were fine. As long as they were genuine tourists, the vampires in charge wouldn’t care less what they were doing in Antarctica.

  Speaking of Antonio’s friends, one of the names she recognized; Madeline. They dated ages ago. He’d been falling head over heel for this woman. Then somehow they parted.

  There they came. Emily peered down from the little snow hill where she stood waiting, looking into a pair of monoculars. There was her brother; walking off the plane to the gate. Right behind him was a tall woman; Madeline.

  Jesus, she must be in her thirties now. She didn’t have the head-turning beauty. Compelling was the only word Emily could think of to describe Madeline. For a woman, she wondered if that was even more important than beauty.

  Walking next to Madeline was a sinfully handsome man, with an arm sliding protectively behind her back. That must be her husband, Ciaran.

  They walked past the first vampire check point. Emily was sure from their human perspective, they were just walking by some technicians checking on the plane and the deliveries. Other staff members were unloading goods onto a sliding cart to get them straight into the ice storage.

  It was just another day, both for the visitors and for the staff at the station.

  But Emily knew, all of them would have been scanned visually by a vampire’s staff standing next to the loading cart in delivery uniform. The vampire hired human staff to do house-keeping chores such as scanning and spying on human daily activities.

  She didn’t have the direct connection with the vampire boss, but from what she was told, there was an office somewhere in the middle of Antarctica, someone was watching every movement of every creature in and out of this piece of ice.

  Something significant was going to happen in seven days in their paranormal world and required them to screen and kill any suspicious character who would ruin their plans.

  She knew the job of the screening vampire was to capture visuals of every passenger who disembarked from every flight. And at that very moment, the image of Antonio and his friends would have been in front of
a very powerful vampire for examination.

  She knew her brother. He was a retired journalist, he was human and he was here to visit her. He should be fine.

  She wasn’t sure about his friends.

  If they were up to anything. Anything. They would be dead. So would Antonio. So would she. And then the man she loved and worked for.

  CHAPTER 7

  I sabel tapped her long manicured fingernails on the table, glancing at the images the screening vampires had just sent her of passengers to and from all flights at each of the human research stations. This was a very tedious task for her, but she wouldn’t allow her attention to drift.

  It wouldn’t take long to look at this before she moved on to more hazard prone areas; the paranormal travelers to and from Antarctica — all paranormal creatures.

  She stopped at an image that had just came across the screen. She paused when a series of images appeared.

  A picture of a man filled the screen. He was a lot taller than average height for a Westerner human. She estimated his age at somewhere in his late thirties. Those intense grey eyes. It was the meaning of the gaze that made her hair raise — she had seen this man or his picture somewhere.

  He stood next to a woman who looked oddly familiar too. The energy screen suggested they were ordinary humans. Not creatures.

  But her gut instinct — the experience of a thousand year old vampire — flagged danger signals. But the danger of what? Who is this couple? What would humans want from her city, given they couldn’t even see it?

  Isabel had been in charge of Vampire City for a few centuries. In the next few days, she would be able to leave this job and be with the man she loved, given she completed her task.

  In seven days, she would be free to live for love — forever. At least, it was eternity for her. His natural life may be shorter than hers, but as long as he was with her for whatever time he had, she was happy.

  She needed to complete the task.

  She needed nothing to go wrong in the paranormal world in the next seven days.