Thirst for Vampire (Kingdom of Blood and Ash Book 2) by D.S. Murphy

Author:D.S. Murphy [Murphy, D.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Urban Epics
Published: 2020-07-18T05:00:00+00:00

At dawn, we started moving again. We traveled during the day, and at night took shifts sleeping. We lit fires to cook in the afternoon, before the night fell – it was too dangerous to have a fire in the dark and give away our position. During the day, the ash would hide our smoke, and the warm glowing coals gave us a sliver of warmth against the cool night air.

The meager rations we’d grabbed before fleeing Havoc ran out the third day. I felt naked in the woods without my father’s bow. We couldn’t use the guns, except in an emergency, because the retort would circle for miles.

Once we stopped, I took the hunting knife and carved a few simple traps, with string and fresh green wood, which I’d leave around our camp overnight.

“You’re pretty handy, for livestock,” Luke said, when I returned with a furry blue rabbit. It was only partially mutid, with large, veiny ears.

“Are you sure you were raised in the compounds? I thought you weren’t allowed outside the fence?”

“She wasn’t so good at following the rules,” Trevor smirked. “You’d think a twelve-foot, electric fence would have been a deterrent.”

“I did what I had to, to feed my family,” I shrugged.

Luke frowned at this.

“But I thought they fed you. I thought that was the whole point.”

“Nobody starved,” I said. “If we couldn’t support ourselves, we’d be given rations or handouts, but it’s a small community. In Algrave, we were raised to be self-reliant and resourceful; productive members of society. We were supposed to earn our keep. When my dad died, we received less rations, and my mom was already working too hard. My siblings were too young to earn. We were in a unique situation.”

“They were lucky to have you,” April said, turning the wild yams we’d been roasting over the fire.

“Plus,” I said, “I guess part of me liked it. Being outside. Alone. Free. Even if it was dangerous.”

Luke nodded.

Finally, something we could agree on.

“Where’d you grow up?” Jazmine asked, turning towards April.

“I’ve never left the city,” she said quietly, sipping from a metal thermos. “In the city, there are fewer animals, and a lot of places to hide in a pinch. Out here,” she gestured. “All this open space, on every side. It’s terrifying.”

“What about you?” Camina asked, flicking a twig at Luke. “I’m not really sure, actually,” he said.

“We were nomadic, until I was about ten, and my parents heard about Havoc. At the time, it was harder to find. Jacob was paranoid, but he made space for us. I scavenged, traded at the markets. When my mom died, my dad took off out East, said he needed to find a guy for a big score, never saw him again. That was when I was thirteen. After that, I spent a lot of time with Beatrice and Frank.”

Beatrice. My throat tightened as I remembered her last moments, just before Nigel killed her. We’d left her body to be ravaged by scavengers. She deserved better.

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