Corrupted blood lord

The western bridge had been abandoned long before sunset.

It crossed a narrow ravine beyond the city walls, its cracked stones overgrown with moss and weeds. Merchants used the newer northern road now, leaving the bridge to smugglers and anyone who preferred not to be seen.

Teclos waited beneath the western arch. Harven’s watchers were already in place: two beggars beside a broken cart to the north and a charcoal burner near the southern road. Serenna waited somewhere farther west. Teclos could not sense her unless she allowed it.

The courier boy arrived first.

He came from the city at a nervous jog, pushed the leather tube beneath the third stone, and left without looking back. Teclos remained hidden.

The bridge stayed empty for nearly half an hour.

A blackbird landed on the rail.

It pecked at the stone, tilted its head, and stared toward the western road.

Teclos watched it through Dark Sense.

No heartbeat.

The bird opened its wings and dissolved into a streak of black mist.

A man stepped onto the bridge where it had been.

He wore a gray traveling cloak and carried no visible weapon. His skin was pale even in the fading light, though not enough to draw attention among the people of Tessania. He paused near the center of the bridge and looked toward each road.

Then he crouched and removed the tube.

Teclos did not move.

The vampire broke the wax, read the false report, and remained still for several seconds.

A second figure emerged from the northern slope.

Then a third from the trees below the western road.

The collector had not come alone.

All three looked human. One was broad and shaved-headed. The other appeared younger, with long blond hair tied behind his neck.

The blond man approached the collector.

"Well?"

"He’s here," the collector said. "Working for Veyron. The other bloodline is still unconfirmed."

The broad vampire looked toward the city. "Then we take him tonight."

"Orders were to observe."

"Before he killed the last pair."

The blond vampire glanced toward the western road. "We should move. The courier may have been followed."

The broad one laughed. "Let them come."

Teclos heard enough.

He opened a narrow rift in the darkness beneath the bridge and stepped through.

The shadows released him behind the collector.

The vampire turned at once.

Fast.

Teclos caught his wrist before the knife reached his throat.

The broad vampire lunged from the side.

A dark tendril struck him across the chest and threw him into the stone rail.

The blond one backed away instead of attacking.

He looked toward the western road.

"Now," he shouted.

Something moved in the trees.

Serenna appeared behind him.

Her borrowed male face wore no expression.

"You were louder than you thought," she said.

The blond vampire spun and slashed at her with clawed fingers.

Serenna leaned back. The claws passed an inch from her throat.

She caught his arm, twisted, and drove him face-first into the road.

Stone cracked beneath his jaw.

The collector tore free from Teclos’s grip.

His knife opened a shallow line across Teclos’s ribs before darkness wrapped around his elbow. Teclos pulled him forward and struck him in the mouth.

Teeth scattered across the bridge.

The vampire staggered, then smiled through the blood.

"You really did break the pact."

Teclos formed a blade in his hand.

"Disappointed?"

"No. Curious."

The collector dissolved into mist. It rushed around Teclos and reformed behind him, one hand closing around the back of his neck.

Before the vampire could bite, Serenna kicked him across the bridge.

He struck the rail and went over it.

Teclos looked at her.

"I had him."

"He had his mouth open."

"That doesn’t mean he had me."

Serenna glanced toward the ravine.

"Then you can thank me later."

The broad vampire pulled himself from the broken rail.

His coat tore as his body expanded, arms lengthening while dark veins spread across his neck. His mana rose well above the others.

"Seren," Teclos said.

"I noticed."

The blond vampire rolled away from Serenna and regained his feet. Half his lower face had already healed.

He stared at her borrowed features.

"You’re not human."

Serenna flexed one hand.

"No."

"What house?"

She moved before he finished asking.

The blond vampire crossed both arms in front of his chest.

Serenna struck once.

The impact launched him through the bridge rail and into the trees below.

The broad vampire charged without the collector’s precision, relying on speed and weight. Teclos opened a rift beneath himself, and the man smashed shoulder-first into the stone arch.

The bridge shook.

Teclos emerged from the man’s shadow and drove his dark blade beneath the ribs.

The weapon entered several inches, then stopped.

The vampire twisted around and struck him with the back of one hand.

Teclos flew across the road and rolled before the far rail.

The broad man tore the blade from his side as the wound began closing.

"Minor calamity," he said. "That’s what they called you?"

Teclos wiped blood from his lip. "They talk too much."

The vampire crushed the dark blade in his fist. "You’re smaller than the report suggested."

Darkness spread across the bridge beneath Teclos. "Come closer and check."

The vampire’s smile faded.

Tendrils rose from every crack in the stone.

Several wrapped around his legs. Others seized his wrists and throat.

He pulled.

Three snapped immediately.

More replaced them.

Teclos closed both hands and dragged the man down to one knee.

The collector rose from the ravine as a cloud of mist.

He reformed behind Teclos again.

This time, Teclos expected it.

A spike of darkness erupted from his own shadow and pierced the collector through the stomach.

The vampire looked down.

Teclos turned.

"You used the same trick twice."

The collector grabbed the spike and tried to pull himself free. Teclos expanded it, tearing darkness through his torso and out his back.

His body collapsed into mist again, but the cloud did not reform properly. It drifted low over the bridge, thin and ragged.

The broad vampire roared and tore his right arm free.

He grabbed one of the tendrils around his throat and pulled Teclos toward him.

Teclos allowed himself to be dragged forward, then opened a rift between them.

The vampire’s fist entered first.

Teclos closed the darkness around his forearm, severing the hand at the wrist.

He landed behind the vampire.

The man turned, more furious than wounded.

His remaining hand caught Teclos by the chest and lifted him.

"You little—"

Serenna struck him from the side.

The broad vampire left the ground and crashed through the stone railing.

Part of the bridge collapsed with him.

Teclos landed near the edge.

Serenna looked down into the ravine.

"You were letting him hold you?"

"I was waiting for him to stop talking."

"That looked uncomfortable."

"It was."

A branch snapped below.

The blond vampire climbed back toward the bridge, using his claws to tear into the rock. His coat had vanished, and blood covered one side of his face.

He saw Serenna and stopped.

Recognition entered his eyes.

Not of her face, but of the way she moved or the pressure of her mana.

"You," he whispered.

Serenna’s gaze hardened.

Teclos looked between them.

"You know her?"

The blond vampire ignored him.

"You shouldn’t be here."

Serenna stepped toward the broken rail.

"And yet I am."

"Your house agreed to remain outside Tessania."

"My house agrees to many things."

The vampire’s expression shifted from surprise to calculation.

"If Vael’thorr learns you’re protecting him—"

Serenna dropped from the bridge.

The ravine shook. Stone split below, and the blond vampire cried out once before falling silent.

The collector’s mist slipped toward the northern road.

Teclos turned.

The cloud had reached the end of the bridge.

He raised one hand, and the shadows beneath the trees rose like a wall.

The mist struck it and recoiled.

The collector reformed on his knees.

His torso remained torn open, healing slowly around the dark residue Teclos had left inside him.

"Wait," he said.

Teclos approached.

The vampire lifted both hands.

"You want Luther."

Teclos stopped several steps away.

"That’s not difficult to guess."

"I can tell you where his people gather."

"Can you?"

"Yes."

"Then why haven’t you?"

The vampire looked past him toward the ravine.

"Call her off."

"No."

"She’ll kill me."

Teclos glanced toward the broken side of the bridge.

"That seems likely."

"I can give you names, routes, safe houses."

"Start with one."

When the collector hesitated, a tendril tightened around his ankle.

"House Drennar keeps a residence outside a mining town called Sorn, three days west. They move Vael’thorr messages through a cellar beneath the old tax office."

"Who commands it?"

"Lady Mereth. Drennar blood, but bound to Vael’thorr."

Serenna climbed back onto the bridge.

Blood marked one side of her borrowed face, though none appeared to be hers.

The collector went pale.

"Serenna."

Silence followed.

Teclos looked at her.

She looked at the collector.

The vampire seemed to realize what he had said.

Serenna crossed the distance between them.

Teclos stepped partly into her path.

"He has information."

"He said my name."

"He already knew who you were."

"He guessed."

"He doesn’t look uncertain."

The collector shook his head.

"I won’t tell anyone."

Serenna looked at him.

"You came here to report on us."

"I was following orders."

"So were the last two."

Teclos kept his voice even.

"Let him finish."

She turned toward him.

Her borrowed eyes were flat, but the pressure behind them made the cracked stones vibrate.

"You’re protecting him?"

"No. I’m delaying you."

"Why?"

"Because dead men stop answering questions."

The collector swallowed.

Serenna held Teclos’s gaze for several seconds.

Then she stepped aside.

"One minute."

Teclos faced the vampire again.

"Who sent you?"

"Mereth’s steward. Corven."

"Where is he?"

"Sorn, unless he’s returned north."

"How many vampires?"

"Six, maybe eight. One Vael’thorr noble visits every few weeks. Selrik."

Serenna spoke from behind Teclos.

"Does Mereth know you found me?"

"No."

"Did anyone else see me at the bridge?"

The collector glanced toward the ravine.

"The others."

"They’re dead."

"Yes."

"Did you send anything before coming here?"

"No. We expected the courier to be clean."

Teclos looked toward Serenna.

"Anything else?"

She shook her head.

The collector released a breath and relaxed.

Serenna appeared beside him and drove one hand through his chest.

The vampire stared down at her wrist.

His mouth opened.

No sound came out.

She tore his heart free.

The body folded onto the bridge.

"You said one minute," Teclos said.

"It passed."

She dropped the heart beside the corpse.

Darkness gathered around Teclos’s hand.

Mana rose from the dead vampire, thicker and colder than what he drew from humans or beasts. It fought him as it entered, twisting through his channels with a faint trace of foreign will.

He tightened his control and pulled harder.

The body began to dry.

"Stop before you take all of it," Serenna said. "Vampire mana carries memory more strongly than human mana."

Teclos felt something flicker behind his eyes.

He saw a stone house beneath heavy rain, a woman with silver rings, and a cellar full of sealed coffins.

Then the images vanished.

He released the corpse.

"You could have mentioned that earlier."

"You didn’t ask."

Teclos looked at her.

"That excuse is becoming familiar."

Serenna wiped her hand on the collector’s cloak.

Below the bridge, stone shifted.

The broad vampire climbed from the ravine with one arm missing and half his face crushed.

He dragged himself upward, growling through broken teeth.

Serenna looked over the edge.

"He’s persistent."

Teclos stepped beside her.

"You threw him down there."

"You let him catch you."

"That was different."

The vampire reached the top.

Teclos opened a rift beneath him.

The creature fell through and emerged above the ravine. Serenna jumped and struck him in the chest, sending him down hard enough to split the rock below.

She landed beside it.

Teclos followed through the shadow of a broken tree.

The vampire tried to rise.

Teclos pinned his remaining arm with darkness.

Serenna placed one boot against his neck.

"Drennar?" she asked.

The vampire laughed weakly.

"Go to Sorn and find out."

She pressed down.

His neck snapped.

The body went still.

Teclos placed his hand against the corpse and drew out the mana more carefully this time. He stopped when the first unwanted image surfaced.

When he opened his eyes, Serenna was watching him.

"What?"

"You listened."

"To what?"

"My warning."

"Don’t sound pleased."

"I’m surprised."

A watcher whistled twice from the northern road. No pursuit. The area was clear.

Serenna looked toward the city.

"We need to remove the bodies."

"The Black Thread will handle the bridge."

"They cannot handle vampire corpses."

"They’ve handled worse."

"No, they haven’t."

That was probably true.

Teclos opened his storage ring.

The broad vampire barely fit. Serenna watched as Teclos forced the shoulders through.

"You could cut him in half."

"You could help."

"I already killed him."

Teclos shoved the corpse inside, then picked up the severed hand.

"You were held against his chest for part of it," she added.

Her borrowed mouth shifted, almost smiling.

Teclos threw the hand into the ring without answering.

They climbed back to the bridge.

The first of Harven’s watchers approached from the northern path, still dressed as a beggar.

He stopped at the sight of the broken rail and blood.

"How many?"

"Three," Teclos said.

"Anyone escape?"

"No."

The watcher glanced at Serenna. "Harven wants to know if the message worked."

"It worked."

The man left without another question.

Serenna watched him go.

"They trust you."

"They trust the coin."

"That isn’t all."

Teclos looked toward the city.

"No."

She stood beside him in the failing light. When the wind shifted, their sleeves touched, and neither moved away.

"We’re going to Sorn," Teclos said.

"I assumed you would."

"You’re coming?"

Serenna looked at him.

"Lady Mereth will know my face."

"That sounds inconvenient."

"It will be if she survives long enough to use it."

Teclos glanced at her borrowed features.

"You should keep the amulet on."

"I was planning to."

"Good."

Serenna looked toward the western road.

"When do we leave?"

"After I speak to Harven."

"And after you find a better coat."

Teclos looked down at the tear across his ribs.

"It still works."

"It looks like something died in it."

"Something almost did."

Her gaze returned to the blood on his side.

The wound had nearly closed, but not completely.

Without comment, she reached into her coat and handed him a small vial.

Teclos took it.

"Healing potion?"

"Yes."

"I have my own."

"Then give it back."

He closed his fingers around the vial.

Serenna turned toward the city before he could answer.

Teclos followed her across the bridge.

He used the potion on the way.