An unwanted heir, p.1
An Unwanted Heir, page 1
part #4 of Fractured Conclave Series
AN UNWANTED HEIR
Fractured Conclave – Book 4
Vanessa Nelson
Copyright © 2025 Vanessa Nelson
All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction.
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any real person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Reproduction in whole or in part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.
Find out more information about Vanessa Nelson and her books please visit: https://www.vanessanelsonwrites.com/
As I launch Hallie into the world for her next adventure,
I'm borrowing some words of wisdom from the great J.R.R. Tolkien to whisper in her ear:
"The greatest adventure is what lies ahead."
Contents
1. CHAPTER ONE
2. CHAPTER TWO
3. CHAPTER THREE
4. CHAPTER FOUR
5. CHAPTER FIVE
6. CHAPTER SIX
7. CHAPTER SEVEN
8. CHAPTER EIGHT
9. CHAPTER NINE
10. CHAPTER TEN
11. CHAPTER ELEVEN
12. CHAPTER TWELVE
13. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
14. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
15. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
16. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
17. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
18. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
19. CHAPTER NINETEEN
20. CHAPTER TWENTY
21. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
22. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
23. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
24. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
25. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
26. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
27. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
28. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
THANK YOU
CHARACTER LIST
PLACES AND TERMINOLOGY
ALSO BY THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chapter one
Hallie got out of the van and tried not to be too obvious in taking a deep, relieved breath. It had been crowded in the van’s passenger cab with her and two other people, particularly when she was used to working alone. And especially when one of the two men had insisted on taking up more space than she would have believed possible, sitting with his arms folded across his chest and knees spread. Hallie had found it impossible to avoid brushing her own arm and knee against him as she drove. He’d also been irritated when she wouldn’t let him take the wheel, even though he’d been there when their mutual employer and Hallie’s aunt, Gin, had given stern instructions that Hallie was the only one insured and authorised to drive. Aunt Gin had also made it clear that Hallie was in charge. The two men, as trainee skip tracers, were there to observe and learn.
“What now?” the annoying man asked. Daniel, she reminded herself yet again. His name was Daniel. He was at least a decade younger and a little taller than she was, broad-shouldered with close-cropped dark brown hair and sallow skin that looked as if he’d never seen sunlight. As well as crowding her when she was driving, he had a habit of standing too close to her which made her hands curl into fists.
The other one, a little shorter than Hallie with a lean, wiry build that suggested some surprising strength, stayed quiet, as he had most of the day. He had cool, deep black skin with his black hair braided close to his head and dark eyes that seemed to see everything around him. A few hints of grey hair and the faint traces of lines around his eyes suggested he was a good few years older than Hallie, perhaps somewhere approaching his forties. Old for a change of career, but not unheard of. Aunt Gin had introduced him as Aaron, and that name had stuck in Hallie’s mind far more easily than the other man’s. It also helped that he’d been unfailingly polite through the day so far, which Hallie appreciated. She didn’t look like anyone’s idea of a skip tracer, her outward appearance putting her about a decade younger than her true age, as if she was just coming out of her teenage years, with pale skin, long dark hair and dark eyes.
“Now we take a look around,” Hallie said, trying to keep her voice calm. When she’d gone to the office earlier in the day to pick up the van keys and the papers for the warrant, Aunt Gin had surprised her with the two companions, insisting that Hallie take them with her, show them what her job involved. Not wanting to argue with her employer and aunt, and certainly not with the two men standing right there, Hallie had had no choice but to agree.
“Doesn’t look like much,” the man complained. Daniel, Hallie reminded herself again.
Hallie took another careful look around their surroundings, as she had before she got out of the van. It might not look like much, but she’d been to any number of similar streets, and this very street, more than once before in her career and knew that appearances were deceiving.
They were in one of the many abandoned industrial districts that littered low city. The buildings looming over them were all in various stages of disrepair. Some had partially collapsed, the remains of their walls and roofs poking up into the darkening sky. Some were still more or less in one piece, with plants growing out of the brick work and along the roof line. Every window that Hallie could see was either missing its glass or the panes were broken. Most of the building doors were half-open or missing entirely. The ground outside the buildings was mostly cracked and old concrete with more plants struggling to survive in the gaps. Even with the heart of winter fast approaching, the vegetation in low city was trying to live.
“Always assume that there are people watching you,” Hallie told the two men. She locked the van and waited for the series of clicks that let her know that various security measures had engaged. Aunt Gin’s vehicles might look like ordinary navy blue vans, but she’d had them fitted with a lot of extras to keep her workers safe. The additional security had saved Hallie from trouble more than once. “We’ll start in here,” she said, pointing to the building nearest the van. It was an old printing shop, a single-storey building with a row of empty windows staring back at them.
“Why here?” Aaron asked as they started walking towards the empty doorway.
As the question seemed to be a genuine one, Hallie took the time to give him a full answer.
“This is an old printers. There are still some reams of paper and other supplies in the back rooms which make decent hiding spots and provide some shelter from the cold,” Hallie said. “I’ve found a couple of skips here before now.”
“So you’re just taking us back to places you’ve found people before?” Daniel asked, sneering.
Hallie didn’t bother to answer, focused on the door ahead of them and the thick layer of dirt and dust on the floor inside. She pulled a small torch out of her jacket pocket, a recent addition to her tool kit, and swept the narrow, bright beam over the entrance. She couldn’t see any signs of recent activity. No footprints, no disturbance in the dirt.
Putting the torch away, she turned from the building and headed to the next one in the row, which had been a garage. The rolling metal door at the front was warped with no way into the building from there, but she could see a side door that was slightly ajar. She ignored the irritated sound from Daniel and kept walking.
As she approached the door, her skin prickled with unease, making her pause for a half-step. It might just be the effect of having Daniel practically breathing down her neck, but she thought it might be something else.
Their quarry today was a veondken who had seriously injured several people in one of the city’s markets a few days before, somehow escaping from the law enforcement officers who’d been sent with Tasers to contain him. The last Hallie had heard there were eight people in hospital, at least one critical, another who might never walk again and yet another who had lost a limb. Matters hadn’t been helped by a dispute between two of low city’s largest criminal gangs spilling over into the streets, drawing the attention of every available law enforcement officer in low city. So rather than the police dealing with a violent criminal, they’d put the warrant out to low city’s skip tracers. It was a trade-off Hallie was used to. The skip tracers faced the danger, and only got paid on success. This particular warrant had been annoying unspecific about what type of non-human the target was. The term veondken was used for everything from small, harmless creatures to great hulking beings that seemed to be formed of various types of rock. But from the damage Gordain Gask had done, Hallie knew he was aggressive and likely physically powerful. It meant she should be cautious, but she would still do her job. She was working with an extra layer of caution as the warrant had authorised the use of tranquillisers to subdue the target. Hallie had never encountered that before, in ten years as a skip tracer. The police-issued syringes were tucked into her jacket and seemed to weigh her down as she put her hand on the side door.
Before setting foot in the building, she glanced at the ground. There was a single, clear impression of a footprint just across the threshold. It looked like a work boot of some kind, although it was bigger than any Hallie had seen before. Exactly the sort of print that might be left by a powerful veondken. Her pulse picked up, senses sharpening.
She looked back at Daniel and Aaron and pointed to the footprint. “He’s in here,” she said in a low voice. “Be careful and don’t get in my way.”
Daniel sneered back at her. “Scared of a fight?”
Hallie ignored him, trying to still her spike of temper. The man talked tough, but she had a feeling he’d never been in a real fight in his life and was trying to disguise his own nervousness and lack of confidence
Inside the building it was cold enough that she could see her breath, most of the available light blocked by the still-intact metal roof overhead. As Hallie’s eyes adjusted to the poor light, she picked out the main details. There were two maintenance bays, with heavy hydraulic lifts over them to allow vehicles to be raised up over shadowed inspection pits. The air was heavy and stale, laden with motor oil and a faint trace of something rotting.
Hallie moved slowly along the wall, letting her eyes adjust to the dim light, her steps almost silent. She winced at the heavy footfalls of Daniel and Aaron following her and, not for the first time, wondered why Aunt Gin had decided to burden her with the two novices. Going after a violent fugitive was not a good introduction to skip tracing.
As she moved, she automatically tracked the possible spots where her target could be hiding, or things she or he might be able to use as a weapon if needed. As with most abandoned places, anything small or useful had been robbed out a long time ago, but there were some loose boards on the floor near one of the inspection pits and a long, heavy chain hanging from the ceiling which could do some damage if it swung and hit someone.
Almost at the first corner of the building, Hallie spotted the faintest suggestion of movement in the closest of the inspection pits. Her stomach tightened. Of course her quarry would hide in there. She slipped a hand into her pocket, taking hold of one of the tranquillisers. The pen-like syringes were pre-loaded. All she had to do was press it to the fugitive’s skin and push the plunger home. It sounded simple. Hallie already had a feeling it was going to be anything but.
She cautiously approached the inspection pit, aware of Daniel and Aaron following her. They were both too close and she paused, waving them back. Aaron took a couple of long strides back at once, attention going past her to the pit. Daniel just scowled. Young enough to think nothing could harm him, Hallie thought, and she didn’t have time to deal with his over-confidence right now.
Hallie turned her attention back to the shadowed hole in the ground just as the veondken who’d been hiding there decided to make his move. He surged up out of the darkness, teeth bared and vivid white against his bronzed skin, horns at his forehead lowered, aimed at Hallie. She ducked sideways, neatly avoiding his charge and grabbed hold of one of his arms, using all her strength and her bodyweight to try to hold him and flip him to the ground. It didn’t work. He twisted out of her hold with almost insulting ease, pivoting and aiming a seemingly casual backhand towards her head.
Hallie dropped to the ground, not caring if she looked weak. The blow sailed over her head. She scrambled upright, balancing on the balls of her feet, and got a better look at the veondken, her heart and stomach both sinking. He had tightly curling black hair with a few streaks of vivid red, his skin dark, the metallic sheen glinting in the poor light along with those razor-sharp horns. She knew his kind. She’d gone after a woman of this species a long, long time ago and had been badly injured. The woman’s son had made it his personal mission to hunt her down not long ago. Findo Trask. He’d been physically immature, his horns not fully developed, but he’d still been a difficult opponent.
The man standing in front of her, with his horns standing proud from his forehead, was in his prime, watching her with angry eyes that matched his hair - black, with points of red.
“Gordain Gask, you are apprehended on suspicion of multiple counts of assault under a judge’s warrant. I’m authorised to take you into custody and deliver you to the police.” Hallie’s voice was calm, the form of the words one she’d repeated many times over the years. The plain badge she wore on her lapel would identify her to anyone in low city as a skip tracer. She wasn’t required to provide more identification than that.
From somewhere behind her, too close for comfort, came a snort of derision. “You’re going to read it its rights?” Daniel asked.
“It’s protocol,” Hallie answered, keeping her eyes on Gordain Gask. The veondken’s eyes flickered from her to Daniel and back again and his lips curled in an unpleasant smile.
“Pitiful. Taking orders from a woman,” Gordain said. He had a deep, rich voice to go with the broad, powerful chest.
“She doesn’t give me orders,” Daniel said. Hallie didn’t need to look around to know that he would have squared his shoulders and puffed out his chest. If the situation has been less serious, she might have laughed. As it was, she kept her eyes on Gordain and so spotted his movement as he made it. He charged forward. Not for her, but for Daniel.
Hallie shifted her weight to one side, getting in the veondken’s path. Gordain danced around her as if he’d been expecting that move. She lunged forward, the tranquilliser still in her hand. He spun on one foot, arm coming up to block her movement. Hallie jumped up, and the fist meant for her face hit her in the ribs instead, knocking all the air out of her. She was still moving forward, though, her bruised ribs connecting with the back of his shoulder. She locked one arm around his neck, her feet dangling in mid-air, shoving the injection into the tough skin of his chest, just below his collar bone. The plunger depressed and Gordain let out a howl of fury, whirling again. Hallie lost her grip on his neck, falling for one horrible moment, feet pedalling against air as she tried to find the ground. She landed on the floor, off balance and awkward. Gordain followed her, moving almost too fast for her to see, kicking out with one foot, connecting with her ribs again so she couldn’t help a cry of pain. Then she was falling back again, into the inspection pit, nothing around her but air for another moment that stretched impossibly long, arms and legs flailing as she tried to find something to hold on to. Then her back connected with the concrete wall and she slid down to the bottom, lungs empty, chest burning, her ribs a million points of pain.
As she fell, she saw Gordain whirl on Daniel. She opened her mouth to cry out a warning but no sound came out. Daniel stood perfectly still with wide, frightened eyes, as the veondken aimed a heavy fist at him, slamming into the human man’s head and sending him flying backwards. The attack was done with casual ease, the veondken’s movements smooth.
A great, gulping sound assaulted Hallie’s ears as she finally managed to draw a breath, then immediately wished she hadn’t as the million points of pain multiplied until her whole rib cage felt as if it was fragmenting into tiny pieces. She dropped the empty injector and scrabbled in her pocket for another one as Gordain Gask’s shadow fell over her and he dropped down to the floor beside her, landing lightly and with no sound. The dose she’d given him seemed to have had no effect. He wasn’t even breathing hard, she noted sourly, while she felt weak and battered.
Hallie struggled to stand, using the wall as leverage. She wasn’t sure what she could do against the veondken but she didn’t want to just lie down and let him hit her again.
“You’re Hallie Talbot,” Gordain said, his teeth flashing white as he grinned. It wasn’t a nice grin.
“Should I know you?” Hallie asked. Her voice was far too high. She wasn’t breathing properly yet.
“Findo Trask is my cousin,” he told her, still grinning. He leant forward so that the points of his horns were aimed at her face. “You spoiled his plans.”
“He deserved it,” Hallie said, lifting her chin and staring back at him, refusing to be intimidated. He seemed angry. And if he would just come a little bit closer, she could get another dose of tranquilliser into him.
To her surprise, the veondken chuckled. “He is an unpleasant little weasel. But he’s family, you know?”
“No, actually, I don’t. But I agree he is unpleasant,” Hallie said.
Before she could guess what he was going to do, his hand shot out and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her off her feet so that she was dangling in the air again. The edges of her vision began to fade as he squeezed her neck.
“Only family gets to insult him,” Gordain said, brows drawn together in a scowl, voice low and angry.
