The executed, p.1
The Executed, page 1
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2024 by YD La Mar
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or used in any manner without the written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review.
Contents
About the author front
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Playlist
About the Author
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Prologue
“Have her executed by the end of tomorrow.” Her commanding voice was devoid of emotion—as if the conversation was merely a continuation of inquiring about what the dinner menu consisted of.
The beings before me weren’t normal. These menaces of Clan Cirse were of the many nightmares told around the fire to ward off children from being tempted to stray too far from home.
In this fallen world, it became easy to blame the mutations in genetic code because of some unknown virus from the past. Humans easily became divided into those who evolved and those who remained the same. At least, that was what the rumors were along my journey away from home.
They considered themselves the elite in this world, developing a hunger for the blood of their own kind. Four major clans branched off, each one against the next—and every one of them hungry to use humans as chattel for their own pleasures and feedings.
Memories of my father’s warning of Clan Cirse ran through my mind. I missed my father, my own home… the way my mother used to comfort me. But the smell of his blood continued to linger in my nostrils… or was it my own?
My muscles ached as I hung here, a prisoner of war, if one could call it that. Clan Cirse happened upon me during my travels through some of the dilapidated, heavily human areas. I looked around my torture chamber and noted the abundance of tools they had, and how much we lacked out there. Humans were left to live in wastelands, looking for scraps, trying to hold life together through small communities while the clans lived like royalty.
With another stuttering breath, I took in the scent of blood and decay, along with the chill from the outside. It didn’t make any sense why a northern clan would be so far south.
Growling to myself, I hung my head. I wanted it to be over. I was tired of it all. I should have never crossed the path to the East. The last human encampment with burning bodies on crucifixes drove me into a fight or flight response. I never witnessed anything as horrendous as the cooked bodies of vampires shrieking in agony while flames continued to come to life, consuming everything in its wake. Their suffering burrowed itself under my pores until it became a part of me—as if I were one of them, charred for the pleasures of men and their ‘retribution’.
Hung on this wall by the shackles at my wrist, I pondered the stupid probabilities of my past decisions. Running seemed easier at the time, but now, I wasn’t sure which was the better choice—if death was imminent no matter the chosen path.
Like a horrible aftertaste that refused to wash away, the smell of charred flesh buried itself into my memories.
“You still alive?”
The voice of one of my tormentors broke me from the recollection. The images of skin peeling off bone faded into the background, now replaced by his wicked smile.
“Darius, don’t play too much. The queen wishes for an audience in her final hours, if you please.” As if it was a request and not a requirement, her voice lingered in the air like the devil’s advocate. “Remember that she will be used for Queen Isabella’s peace treaty with Clan Sira.”
“Yes, of course, Mistress Tyre.”
Tyre. The vampire with short grey hair, eyes as blue as ice, and pale skin gave me one last glance before she exited the torture chambers without another word. Her air of superiority revealed she was one of the few close to the Queen’s side.
Purebreds were all alike, I quickly came to find. The chosen among the elite in a world that was beneath them, and they wished to eliminate the unworthy.
Purity, indeed. More like a holocaust among a pathetic excuse for existence, a world already brought to its knees. Was there no mercy to ever be found again in this wretched place? Life should have been obsolete for all of us.
Clan Cirse was everything I heard it to be, down to the gritty fact that they were barbaric in their agenda to find peace. It was just my bad luck that I ran across the wrong group on my way to ask for water.
The ache in my shoulders made me moan, igniting interest in Darius who stood by watching me with a wicked smile.
Peace was for fools who still believed it existed. Hope was an infection that didn’t discriminate.
My torture master sliced my ribs once more to bring my attention back to him. My skin itched from healing itself. His corrupt smile made my gut churn with bile that threatened to spew in his face.
Perhaps I should let it.
I watched as he licked his lips in anticipation of the ‘fun’ he’d be privy to before the night ended—the night before my final execution per the orders of the Queen.
It was always going to come down to this, wasn’t it?
“Pretty little thing, aren’t ya? What were you doing out on the streets, hmm? Were you playing bait for Clan Sira?”
His mouth hovered around my neck, then down to my naked breast—his eyes that of a devil who waited to devour the soul brought forth before him. Little did he know that Clan Sira knew nothing about my existence, so their offer of a peace treaty would be for nothing. I made sure to keep that little tidbit to myself.
With a harsh inhale, he pulled back and gathered himself. “Your lack of enthusiasm bores me, hybrid. Good riddance. We don’t need abominations like yourself running around, anyhow. At least you will prove your purpose in a larger plan now.”
His fingers brushed my skin with a false sense of reverie. He teased my flesh until I wanted to claw my own skin off to rid myself of his touch.
Unable to help myself, I spat blood in his face, smiling with crimson-coated teeth. If I am to die this day, let it be known to the world that I died with my pride still intact.
Right at that moment, the image of my father’s eyes haunted me. He would have blamed me for this, told me I should have prepared for the possibility. Soon, a different kind of hate lurched in my gut. If hiding me wasn’t enough, his disapproval for my own downfall would have killed me anyway.
I lifted my head with a smirk, watching my undertaker wipe his face off with the back of his hand. He smiled back and undid his buckle, and I lifted a brow in challenge. It didn’t matter anymore. Nothing did.
He brought it down in rapid successions against my chest, drawing my hisses through gritted teeth.
I felt my skin fileted off bone by the time Mistress Tyre came back with the intention of escorting me into the court before the Queen.
“Darius. Really?” she grumbled.
Grabbing my arms, she broke my wrists with an audible crack to slip them out of the shackles. I pressed my lips tightly together to stifle a moan. My body was tossed onto the floor and kicked one last time for good measure.
Clan Cirse can burn in the depths of hell.
Groaning, I buried my face and hands away from her lest they see how quickly I heal. It was something that led to my troubles back home, back in Silverforge. The community turned against me the more I began to change. I had never compared the extent of my healing abilities to a normal vampire, but today was not the day. No, I’d rather take all my secrets to the grave.
Father would at least be proud of that… if he knew what I was capable of.
Hard hands grabbed my body and lifted me. My legs dragged behind me over concrete and carpeted flooring as the one called Tyre continued to pull me toward a room I had never seen.
She threw me a few feet in front of her. My arms automatically extended to cushion the fall and I instantly knew my mistake as the wind was knocked out of me. Hopefully, no one else noticed.
A boot landed on my back the same moment I tried to push myself up. Darius stomped on me again, slamming my face on the floor, rattling my brain.
“So this is she?” came an unfamiliar feminine voice in a bored tone.
My anger rose with every breath. What was with these Clan Cirse members? If they were so bored of everything, they should exterminate themselves to rid themselves of their misery.
I should cool it. I shouldn’t lose my temper but these vampires were testing me.
“Not much of a hybrid, is she?” Tyre scoffed.
The adrenaline in my body morphed into something that overtook my senses, a phenom enon that had only happened a few times in the past—my exponential increase in strength. The moment my father found out was the moment everyone else in the community did, much to my dismay. The smell of their blood still lingered in my nose to this day.
I didn’t understand it myself, but at this moment, I let it take over.
With a quick twist of my body, I grabbed Darius’ ankle and broke it with a loud crunch that echoed in the room. He howled in pain and the smile grew wider. The others in the room pulled him back when he lunged at me, screaming profanities. I looked over my shoulder and blew him a bloody kiss.
Queen Isabella stood from her throne, her long grey hair played behind her and stepped forward from her dais. I wondered if this was a common trait of the northern vampire clan or if she was merely related to Tyre by blood. As she took each step, she looked down at me with disgust. With a knee on the ground, I glared back at her. The feeling was mutual.
“Deliver her at nightfall,” she snapped. “Make sure you drop her right at their doorstep and they see your face, so they know who calls for them. Tyre, you will accompany Darius to make sure the proposition of the peace treaty is articulated correctly and effectively to Clan Sira.”
“Yes, my Queen,” Tyre replied. Her continual calmness irked me.
The vampire queen bent down, grabbed my chin, and forced my face toward her. Her eyes bored into mine with such internal hatred that I could not help but reciprocate the same energy. My body buzzed with the need for bloodshed, but my mind knew I was outnumbered amidst this horde.
The room suddenly dropped in temperature, goosebumps prickling my skin. Isabella’s other hand shot out toward me, her claws piercing the side of my throat as she lifted me up. The warmth of my blood seeped down my sides as I struggled to spew my hate in her face.
The queen’s eyes flickered before she bore her fangs. “Fool. You are nothing to me! A mere hybrid piece of scum amidst a world led by the elite. The others will come to accept the fact that I was destined to rule this world. Clan Sae, is only the first and they will be destroyed by my hand.”
Her grip tightened, the sound of blood squelching overshadowing my gargles as my eyes began to roll back.
“They think to offer me a truce?” She laughed humorlessly. “Pathetic. The only thing they could offer me is a knee as they bow before my throne, worshiping me as a God.”
Another set of nails dug into my neck, ripping away at my flesh as my consciousness began to fade, my soul trying to leave my body.
The queen’s growls echoed in the room and bounced in the back of my skull right before she pulled her arms outward, and everything turned into darkness.
1
ELISEO
“We’re organizing the next group. You in?”
I gave the kid a look. He must be new to have asked me such a stupid question. I was usually the one who led the scavenge groups here in Ashborne.
“Yeah,” I grumbled while looking him over. “I’m in.”
I gave him the benefit of the doubt. He might just be that stupid.
Over the past few years, Ashborne accumulated a multitude of new arrivals. The mass increase in unfamiliar faces made me uneasy but that was the way of the world. Humans were all trying to survive and the best way to do that was to inject yourself in established communities like this one.
The last hunt we organized ran us into a small human encampment, threatened to be overtaken by new, rogue vampires. My eyes zoned out before me as I went over the information we had accumulated over the years through our experience. Newly created vampires were stronger than usual, nasty and had a brutal hunger for sex and death. Knowing this, we couldn’t allow the human group we came upon to be slaughtered like a buffet—and we couldn’t leave them to fend for themselves after most of their fighters were taken down in bloodshed.
Blinking a few times to rid myself of the memories, I realized the kid was still standing there as if waiting for more words from me. I got to my feet, dusted myself off and walked away, ending the conversation. He could find me when they were ready. I didn’t need to babysit his ass.
Making my way past the center of Ashborne, I headed toward Samuel’s residence and knocked on his doorway. “Fucker! Are you up?”
“Shit, with you banging on my door, I’m up now.” A groan floated past his hung curtain—a makeshift door and barrier. Samuel had a tiff with someone’s husband, ending up shattering the original wooden door that came with his place right off the hinges. Why he chose to never find a replacement after that incident, I would never understand. This fucker was just asking for trouble.
Samuel popped his head out from behind the fabric with his hair all over the place and his dick out, glistening for all to see. I scowled. This was what happened when the world went to shit—respect and decorum went out the damn window.
Ignoring what was in front of me, I continued. “We got a group rounding up.”
He rubbed his face and threaded back his hair with his fingers. A feminine groan floated out through the curtain, and I raised an eyebrow. Samuel smirked and clasped his hands behind his head, shrugging.
“Look, you should know this by now.” His dick rose halfway when the next feminine moan came out, causing him to turn his head over his shoulder as if by an invisible force.
I punched him in the arm to get his attention back. “Asshole. Tell your pussy to leave. Get ready. We head out in a few. I don’t trust this new kid they got going around gathering folks. Too young, too stupid, and I ain’t dying today.”
Samuel’s face sobered as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Fuck. Why are they letting the newbies go out? Didn’t we just save them from themselves?”
I wondered the same thing. But I was simply another soldier in this place, just like Samuel was. They needed us for our muscle and our survival instincts, nothing more.
“I don’t know, and I honestly don’t care. I’m sure it has something to do with making everyone feel ‘welcomed’. I just want to come back alive, you feel me?” In a world gone to shit, we had to watch out for ourselves first and foremost.
“Yeah, I feel you.” Samuel turned around and yelled out, “Hannah! Get your ass out of here. I need to leave.”
“You asshole!” came a feminine screech.
He smirked and tilted his head in acknowledgment before heading back inside. The sound of arguments grew louder and louder, but I refused to stand and listen. Samuel and his girl went through this every time he had to leave. I honestly began to conclude that it was her weird way of showing him she was afraid he wouldn’t return.
He should be grateful someone wanted his ass to come back at all.
I left his porch and looked over the sea of heads that had accumulated during my short talk with Samuel. Ashborne was lively during this time of the day. I walked past the next few homes, keeping my eyes out for my usual crew. We always scavenged together and we always came back fruitful. Every time we tried different groupings, the men always came back complaining about someone wrecking the mission, or someone didn’t come back at all.
A dark, familiar head crossed my line of sight and I focused in. With two fingers in my mouth, I put out a whistle over the growing crowd around the center of the town. Reed’s head turned, over a block down, and whistled back.
“We got a group heading out?” he hollered over everyone, making a few turn and scowl.
We ignored them as we continued to communicate loudly. “Yeah, go find Gunner, and tell him to meet me behind the market.”
We used to have one more to our crew, Khalil, but he was a lone wolf, and couldn’t handle the rapid growth this place brought. That scary fucker was a force to be reckoned with, but his nightmares always got the better of him—a past he never spoke about. I hoped wherever he ended up, he was still surviving. We needed more men like him in this world.
