Hunting the Blood (The Hunting Saga #1)

CHAPTER 1

WREN

∞

I’m going to fucking kill him.

The knock comes at the door again and I’m mentally reigning in my anger so that I don’t actually do something rash…like kill my first in command.

“What?” I snarl.

Alex opens the door and his eyes dart to the blood whore in front of me. I’m sure I look feral to all hell right now, with the blood oozing out of my mouth. I don’t take kindly to being interrupted during my feeding time, even if I don’t enjoy this mundane process. I haven’t felt satiated in centuries. No matter how much blood I consume, I still feel hungry. It doesn’t help that every single blood whore that I’ve come across tastes disgusting to me. Not a single one, out of the thousands I’ve tasted, has ever satisfied my need for blood.

“Sir, the enforcer you requested is here,”

he says quietly as he rips his eyes away from her to look at me.

“Get out,”

I growl. Alex looks confused but takes a step back towards the door. “Not you, you idiot,”

I sigh. I pull away from the girl in front of me and she looks at me with her post feeding haze. “You. I won’t say it again.”

She’s slow moving to grab her shirt off the table and slip it on. My patience is wearing thin already, and I still have to deal with the matter of the enforcer.

Vampires have been going missing for a few centuries now, with no rhyme or reason, but as of late, bodies have been turning up. It takes quite a bit to kill one of us. We don’t follow the mentalities that mortals have predicted, and for good reason. We fed them those lies to better protect ourselves. The younger ones and the ones with lower ranked bloodlines are easier to kill, but those like me…a pureblood…we’re practically immortal. Beheading obviously works because no one can live without a head.

I smirk to myself at the thought as I wipe the blood from my lips. I run my tongue over my canines, sighing as they retract back. “So, Adrian finally took my request seriously?” I murmur.

“Yes, sir. He sent his best in order to try and handle this issue quickly.”

“I don’t think even his best is going to be able to deal with this issue that quickly, Alex.”

He watches as the girl slowly slips past him and closes the door behind her. “Any other news?”

“There was another vampire killed last night. His body was found in the alley behind Syringe Nightclub.”

I cluck my tongue at the audacity of whoever is doing this. They’re no longer being shy about doing it practically out in the open. Whoever it is, has to be within our ranks. I know we have plenty of enemies within the dark world community, but we’ve been civil for the most part, especially over the last year. Things have finally quieted down, and the way things are being run now, has made our lives better.

I’m the ruler of the vampires here. I have my wardens spread out through each city within my territory, but when there’s an issue they can’t handle, they come to me. Over the last week, twenty vampires have been killed within my own city, and I just won’t stand for it. I don’t typically get involved myself, but clearly my wardens can’t handle this, and at the rate we’re going, I’ll end up with dead leaders as well as their charges.

“Send them in. Let’s get this started since my day is already ruined.”

“Sir?”

I glare at him, and he shrinks back a few steps at the power I let slip out. “You interrupted my dinner, Alex,”

I grumble.

“I’m sorry, Sir. I…I can get you another woman if you wish.”

“Don’t bother,” I sigh.

“Is…is everything alright?”

I get his concern. I haven’t been myself lately and it isn’t just because of the dead vampires. I’ve been short with him and the others in my unit, and I know it’s causing a bit of a rift to ripple through the tower.

“It’s getting worse, Alex,”

I finally admit, flopping down in my leather armchair. “My hunger is rampant and their blood tastes disgusting. I can’t even handle the smell of them anymore. I’m feeding because I have to, and with no longer enjoying it, I just…I’m angry.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“No,”

I say bluntly because it’s true. There’s nothing he can do to help me through this. “Don’t speak of this…do you understand me?”

“Of course, Sir. I’ll be back in a few minutes with the enforcer.”

He slips out of the office, and I lean my head back as exhaustion hits me. Living in this way is painful. I fucking hate it. I’ve been around for centuries. I took over from the last ruler when he handed down the reins to me because he was tired as well. I feel a pang of jealousy at the cushy life he’s currently living out in Italy with his mate and daughter. He passed it down to me because of my bloodlines. He hoped I would find myself a mate or at least someone compatible enough to breed with, but I don’t want anything to do with that anymore.

We still haven’t found a way to isolate the genome that allows for vampires to be created, let alone the one that identifies the humans we can turn and actually have children with. We can get humans pregnant, but we don’t want to. They wouldn’t be able to handle the pregnancy of a vampire child, let alone the birth itself. The child would draw on too much energy, and having the venom within them would take a massive toll on the mother.

That’s the privilege and the burden of a pureblood. We’re a small line that’s actually able to bear children as a vampire. The vampire virus doesn’t work on everyone. We’ve tried to turn humans at random and the majority just end up dying in the process.

It’s been a losing battle in trying to keep our lines going, and it seems that fewer and fewer humans are compatible each year. We have programs. Ones in which humans volunteer to be turned in the hopes of becoming one of us. Other than having to feed on blood, I wouldn’t say being a vampire is a bad thing. We don’t actually have any obvious weaknesses. Sunlight doesn’t affect us like the legends say it does. We may burn a bit easier in the sun, and our eyes are sensitive to it, so we try to use tempered glass as much as we can for our homes and businesses. We’re not afraid of garlic, or churches, or wooden stakes. A vampire can kill another vampire by overloading their system with venom and anyone can kill one of us if they cut off our head.

We can live as though we’re human and that’s probably why we’ve had no short list of volunteers. A normal vampire is a bit easier to kill though. They don’t heal as fast as a pureblood and an injury to the heart would surely kill them as well. Me? I could probably take a direct blow to the heart and still function, but it would hurt like a mother fucker.

As a pureblood, I’ve also developed some abilities, though there are some regular vampires who have also been gifted. Compulsion is a main one and surprisingly, not all of us get it. Not only do I have compulsion, but I developed a shadow born ability. I can move through darkness with ease without detection and I’ve even gone as far as being able to create a weapon with this ability if I so need it. It’s fitting really…the darkness in my heart has manifested like a plague. I was turned at thirty-five, completely against my will. I was dying and my friend…well, I thought she was a friend, turned me. I was unlucky enough to be compatible with the virus, and of course she just happened to be a pureblood herself.

I lived under her rule. She played me for a fool, making me believe she actually cared about me, but all she wanted was a puppet that she could control. I have no idea how I got lucky enough to get away from her. One day, she was just…gone.

Fucking cunt.

I hate her. To this day, I fucking hate the bitch for ever doing this to me. I should have ended my misery eons ago, but I vowed to find her someday and make her suffer as much as she made me suffer. My rage will know no end when I see her again and I hope beyond hope that the fates haven’t removed her from this world before I sink my teeth into her fucking neck.

A knock comes again and I drag myself up in the chair, straightening out my tie. “Come in,”

I grumble.

I fucking hate today.