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I m m o r t a l S i n s P a g e | 2

© 2012 by Nicola C. MatthewsAll rights reserved. Except as permitted under theU.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this

publication may be reproduced, distributed, ortransmitted in any form or by any means, or storedin a database or retrieval system, without the prior

written permission of the author.

Published byX-Isle United Press

The characters and events portrayed in this bookare fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living

or dead, or to any other written publication iscoincidental and not intended by the author.

Cover art byBloody Feather Graphics Team




This book is dedicated to my very dearfriend, Sergeant First Class Steven Hall.

Thank you for not hating me for turning you

into the bad guy.

XOXONicola




Special Acknowledgements:

Many thanks to Connie Peck-Saucier for

being such an awesome person and getting

Bret Michaels his first autographed copy of

the book which was dedicated to him, The RedFang , the first book in the BEFORE THE SUN

RISES series.

Special thanks to

Author Michael C. Laney

(For telling it like it is)

Don Henrie

(For not being afraid to be himself)

Bret Michaels

(For rockin out every chance he gets)

Morgue

(For making sword swallowing cool again)

Author Anne Rice

(For making vampires awesome)




Chapter 1




fter her escape, he had beatenher twin sister until she was

consciousness, the woman finally

succumbing to her injuries. He hadn't meant

to kill the girl, but he was so enraged after her

sister's escape that he had done just that,however accidental it may have been on his

part. It didn t take long for him to realize that

his escaped prize would be back with

reinforcements. He had packed up quickly and

left the secluded cabin. The twins were cops

after all, and damn good ones. He had gotten

as far away as he could as fast as possible,

leaving the bloody and broken body of the

twin still shackled to the basement floor.

That had been more than five years ago.

He had wanted Altania Lewis like no other

woman before her or since. He had dreamed

about her every night for years now, his

evenings spent systematically plotting out her

capture and eventual conquering. No matter

how much he daydreamed and planned, he

never could entertain the notion of killing the

A




woman. That was what pissed him off morethan anything.

Ashton Jones was a serial killer. He had

started his craft when he was only ten years

old. At the age of twenty-six, his craft had

been honed down to a fine art. He had gottenso good at it, in fact, that he had been

recruited by The High Council a good three

years ago. He had spent the first year

following their rules, jumping through hoops,

proving to all of The Elders that he would not

go rogue if he was embraced.

Twelve months after his initial

recruitment, one of the little fledgling

vampires had been allowed to embrace him.

The High Council wanted to be sure he would

not be too powerful once he was turned, so

they allowed a young novice vampire to do the

embracing. Despite this, Ash was still strong

enough to continue to be an assassin for The

Elders. Now he had an endless supply of

victims that he was allowed to torture and kill

at his leisure. Perhaps best of all, with his




victims now being members of the undeadinstead of mere mortals, they would stay alive

for as long as he wanted, allowing him to

spend days or even weeks trying out new

inventions and increasingly grotesque

methods of torment.Now he discovered himself in one of the

many, many buildings owned by The High

Council, waiting on his new partner to arrive.

Except what was standing in the middle of the

room was not the partner he was expecting,

but the object of his obsession.

"I don't give a shit if he is under the

protection of The Council, Stealth. I am going

to kill that son-of-a-bitch!" Altania Lewis was

being held by both arms by The Council's

oldest vampire assassin, the vampire known

as Stealth.

He was having a hard time holding onto

the woman, her constant twisting and lunging

causing his long, black hair to come

unfastened from the loose ponytail at the nape

of his neck. She was thrashing against the




vampire so hard that his sharp nails weregouging out deep gashes in her skin.

The five-foot-six inch woman paid little

attention to the piercing pain in her arms. Her

sapphire blue eyes were glowing with rage.

She was babbling incoherently, tossing outcurses, death threats, and tales of castration

with a rusty razor blade.

Ash had not moved from his position

inside the doorway. He had been asked to

come down to meet his new partner. The last

person on Earth that he had ever expected to

see when he entered the room was the woman

whom he had vowed to conquer...mind, body,

and soul.

"She is under the protection of The

Council, Ash. If you harm her in any way, you

will be marked for death." Requiem spoke

quietly to the vampire who stood as still as a

statue just inside the door. "She is now your

partner, an appointed Vampire Assassin just

as you are. As such, she is entitled to the

same privileges and protections as all our




assassins. You will protect her with your life.Do you understand this, Ash?"

Stealth was repeating the same speech to

the wriggling woman in his arms. Ash wasn't

so sure that she was listening, though. The

woman was still screaming obscenities at himin addition to her vivid recounts of what she

had planned for his testicles and penis. The

whole thing felt like a bad dream, one he

hoped he would wake from at any moment.

Ash merely nodded his understanding to

the vampire that stood between him and the

screaming woman, still too shocked to think

about much of anything. His mind just kept

going over and over the fact that he had

dreamed of nothing but this woman and what

he intended to do to her once he found her.

Now The Council was practically handing her

over on a silver platter.

Stealth had finally released his grip on

Altania, her initial anger burnt out to nothing

but a glowing ember. Her rage gave way to

tears, her emotions so overlapping each other




that she stood in a far corner, crying quietlyand rambling on about how she had

discovered her twin sister, Altoya, beaten to a

bloody pulp and chained like an animal to the

cold stone floor of Ashton's basement.

Stealth attempted to console her as bestas he could, but she was so deep into her

anguish that she didn't seem to hear him.

Stealth tried to turn her around to face him,

thinking he would use his vampire glamour to

quiet her down and help ease her emotional

pain. Altania, however, kept her back to the

vampire. She had her hands over her face

and her entire body crammed into a corner of

the office. She didn t want to be here, didn t

want Stealth to hypnotize the pain away, but

at the same time, she wasn t sure how to deal

with all the emotions that were crashing down

around her.

Ash still wasn't sure what to make of the

whole situation. He finally had the woman

who had haunted his dreams for years, and

now she was protected by vampire law. To do




anything other than protect her with his lastbreath would mean his immediate death. His

immediate slow, and very painful, death.

The situation was not any easier to

understand for the woman who was still

crying in the corner. For five years she hadcriss-crossed the entire country, going from

one crime scene to another in search of clues

that would ultimately lead her to the monster

who had so brutally killed her twin sister. Her

obsession with finding and bringing Ashton to

justice had caused her to lose her job with the

Shadow Cove Police Department. She had

been so preoccupied with Ashton's trail of

blood and gore that she had nearly gotten

herself and her fellow officers killed during her

last assignment.

Concerned with her declining mental

stability, her former captain had her

reassigned to the Vampire Council's assassin

division. He had hoped that the change of

scenery would help her to heal after the death

of her sister. Instead, she discovered herself




in the same room as her sister's killer. Itbegged the question of whether or not her

captain knew The Council was going to

partner her with Ashton, or if this was solely

the perverted plans of The High Council

Elders?"How could they do this to me, Stealth?"

Altania asked with a calmness that worried

the nearly three-hundred year old vampire.

She still had her back turned to him, so he

wasn't sure if she really was calm or if she

was slipping into some sort of manic state.

"To help you heal, Altania," Stealth

answered just as quietly. "Ash is a valued

member of the Assassins now. He went

through the same training as you. He has

been taught the value of life. His only victims

are assassinations that have been sanctioned

by The Vampire Council. He is forbidden to

harm any other being or face the same

tortures and demise as his victims. He knows

the rules, Altania, and he follows them to the

letter. He has changed."




The woman turned around swiftly andglared up at Stealth, her hands balled into

fists. "He has not changed , Stealth,” she said

through clenched teeth. “You of all people

should know that it takes more than a few

years of study with The Council Elders tochange a heart blackened by decades of

immorality. That monster there will never

fully understand the value of a life, not even

his own. He would just as easily give up his

own mother if it meant getting what he

wanted. And what he wants, is me. Now

thanks to your Council, you just delivered me

to my sworn enemy." She looked at Ash with

disgust. “You might as well have put me into a

cage with a rabid werewolf and have just been

done with it.”

She was angry, but that anger gave way to

a deadly calm as she pushed past Stealth.

She walked up to the eldest vampire on The

Council, a man whose name no one knew

except for the other members of The Council.

"What happens when this bastard tries to kill




me in my sleep? Do I at least have permissionto defend myself? Or would you all rather I

just roll over and let him kill me?" She glared

up at the vampire, looking at his eyebrows

instead of directly into his eyes.

The vampire looked back and forthbetween the frail looking woman directly in

front of him and the much taller, much

stronger fledgling vampire who had finally

moved into the room to stand a few feet away,

his dark eyes intense as he watched the whole

scene quietly.

"The two of you listen, and listen well.

You are partners now, and as such you will

defend each other with your very lives. If

either one of you should come up dead, be it

by your partner's hand or another's, the

remaining member of your team will be

tortured to death, along with any and all

remaining members of his or her family."

The old vampire's gaze shifted from Ash

and back to Altania as he spoke. "A better

question, Miss Lewis," he said in hushed




tones, "would be exactly how much of yourfamily are you willing to sacrifice to avenge the

death of one?"

Altania glared up at the Elder. "You think

that threatening him with death will keep him

from killing me the first chance he gets? ” Shelaughed hysterically. “ He would happily put

the gun in his mouth and pull the trigger

himself so long as he got to be alone with me

first. Has the centuries of immortality

replaced your brain with cobwebs?"

The High Council Elder stared at the

young woman for a few moments before he

moved to where Ash stood. He walked around

the still form of the vampire as he spoke. "Do

you notice anything different about your,

'sworn enemy,' as you call him?"

She watched the vampire as he circled

around Ashton, the younger man still

standing perfectly still as he watched Altania s

tirade. For the first time, Altania looked at him

closely. It was only then that she noticed

Ashton s normal dark brown eyes were now




flecked through with gold, the iris ringed witha yellow-gold hue.

Her mouth dropped open. "You turned

him," she mumbled in quiet surprise. “You

sick son-of-a- bitch, you actually turned him.”

Altania stood in stunned silence for amoment before the vampire's threat and all it

implied finally settled into her brain. The

Council was not just going to force them to

work together without killing each other. They

were going to make certain that they protected

each other with their final breath. While her

family was being used against her to make

sure she didn't chop Ashton's head off in his

sleep, The High Council was using his new-

found immortality to keep Ash in line as well.

He would be given access to an endless

supply of victims that he could keep alive and

torture for as long as he wanted. If he were to

harm her, The Council would hand him over

to an assassin who had been applying his

tricks of the trade to vampires for centuries

untold.




Seeing that neither was going to arguewith him, The Elder moved back to his desk.

"You two have your orders. You will go now. I

expect updates every morning." He sat down

in his leather chair, going back to his

mountain of paperwork, effectively dismissingthem all without as much as an upwards

glance.

Requiem and Stealth ushered Ash and

Altania out of the room. Neither vampire

spoke as they turned and made their way

down the hall, moving from the front entrance

to go deeper into the building, Ash and Altania

both eerily silent as the older vampires left

them alone, together.

.




Chapter 2




ltania rushed out the door andtowards her parked car, not

waiting around to see if Ash was

going to follow her. She was half way across

the parking lot by the time Ash got outside. It

only took him a few quick strides to catch upwith her.

"I don't care what the Council says,

Ashton. If you so much as look at me like you

might be reverting to your old ways then I will

cut your dick off and hand it back to you."

The thin-boned five-foot-six woman did not

look at him as she spoke.

Her shoulders were hunched over, her

hands balled into fists as she tried to control

her anger. Her dark brown hair was pulled

into a complex-looking French twist. The last

time he had seen her, Altania's hair was just

past her shoulder blades. He wondered if it

had gotten any longer in the last five years.

"My name is Ash. When I was embraced, I

was required to take a new name. I'm

forbidden to even speak my old, human name.

A




And I have changed, Alty," he said, choosing,for the time being at least, to ignore her crass

comment about his possible castration.

Altania stopped to glare up at the man

who towered over her. "Changed? People like

you don't change . They just get more andmore deranged with each passing day." She

turned her back and moved a few feet away

before turning around to once again glare at

him coldly. "And don't you dare call me Alty.

That was my sister's name for me."

"I have changed," he insisted, hurrying

after her as she walked towards a black SUV

parked in the very back of the parking lot. "I

don't want to die any more than you want

anyone that you love to die."

Altania whipped around and marched

back up to him, the anger making her blue

eyes almost glow with undisguised hatred.

"Then pray tell, Ash ," she said, drawing out

his new vampire name, "exactly what

happened to change your mind? Five years

ago you would have cut off your own hand if it




meant getting to your next victim. What onearth could The Council have said to suddenly

make you fear for your own life?"

Ash stood still for a few seconds before

quietly saying, "It's not what they said,

Altania, it's what they did." With thatstatement, he lifted the edge of his tee-shirt

and pulled it over his head, turning around so

Alty could see his back.

For one second Altania started to turn

away from the man. She had seen more

horrors in her years as a cop than any one

human should have to be exposed to, and a

lot of that carnage had been created at the

hands of the man standing beside her. But

once she saw the disfigured flesh on Ash's

back, she forgot the smart-mouthed retort

that she had been about to say.

Without realizing it, Altania moved closer

to the new vampire, her hand unconsciously

moving to lightly trace the zig-zagging pattern

of scars. The pattern reached around onto his

chest, the muscles beneath making the scars




appear puffy and angry-looking. His armsshowed signed of healed lesions as well, the

scars snaking their way down his body to

disappear inside the waistband of his jeans,

the raised welts marring otherwise perfectly

sculpted abs."The Council did this?" she asked in a

hushed voice. She swallowed back the bitter,

acidic taste that rose in the back of her throat.

She knew The Council was capable of a lot of

things, but to torture someone, even someone

as demented as Ashton Jones had once been?

That was a new low even for them.

"Yes," he answered quietly. He stood still,

allowing the young woman to satisfy her

curiosity. After a few seconds he decided to

tell her what had transpired between him and

The Vampire Council Elders.

"When I was first recruited, about three,

maybe four years ago, I went through the

same 'behavioral' training that all the other

assassins are subjected to. But seeing as I

was a special case, The Council decided that




they had to instill in me a better appreciationfor life. ”

“Since I obviously didn't give a shit about

my own family or even my own death,” he

said, “they had to get a bit more creative.

What they ultimately decided on, andimplemented over the course of the first years

of my training, was to subject me to every type

of torture that I had inflicted upon my victims.

And you, Altania, know firsthand just how

creative I had gotten at what I did." He gave

her a few moments to let that information sink

in good.

"But these scars look like the wounds

were inflicted months apart. How did they

manage to inflict this much damage without

killing you?" she asked.

Ash slowly turned around, putting his

shirt on as he did so. "One thing about

having so much time on your hands, it allows

you to make huge scientific and medical

advances. The High Council is centuries

beyond what the humans are capable of in the




medical field. They kept injecting me withsome sort of serum that sped up the healing

process in my body. Whenever I got too close

to death, they would inject me and allow my

body to heal up, and then start the torture

process all over again.” “For one solid year,” he continued, “three -

hundred and sixty-five days, I lived my life

chained to a stone wall in the bowels of that

building." He jerked his head back towards

the brick and mortar structure they had just

exited, one of the many strongholds owned by

The Vampire Council.

"My body and mind were subjected to any

and every type of horror that I or anyone else

could ever imagine. Twenty-four hours a day,

seven days a week, for one full year, I was

repeatedly tortured and healed, tortured and

healed, until my mind and will had been

completely broken so many times that I lost

count. It was only then that they trusted me

enough to begin my apprenticeship as an

assassin."




"Once I was embraced,” he said, “theystarted the torture sessions all over again. It's

one thing to be tortured as a human, when

you know that they will eventually inflict so

much damage to your body that it will simply

stop functioning. But you don't have thatluxury when you are immortal. You live in the

constant agony of pain beyond measure while

knowing that there are only two things that

will kill you.”

“But they won't do that,” he said with a

dry, humorless laugh. “Instead, they allow

your body to heal itself so that they can

continue to torture you in ways you could not

even begin to imagine."

Ash's deep, black-brown eyes had taken

on a far-away look, as if he was reliving the

terrors that he had endured. "So you see,

Alty, ” he said in hushed tones, “ I not only

have a new respect for my life, I even have

respect for those who I would have given my

right hand to be left alone with for just ten

measly minutes."




Altania shuddered at his remark. Shehoped that he had changed. She really did.

And not just because she didn't want to die by

his hand, but because she knew without a

doubt that if he hadn't changed, she would be

able to kill him without so much as a secondthought. It didn t matter how many family

members they threatened; she would not

simply lie down and accept death by his hand.

She had dreamed for so many years about

how much she would love to see Ashton have

the same pain inflicted upon him that he had

so eagerly dished out to her sister, to her, and

to his countless other victims. She had

wanted that more than she had wanted her

next breath. In her heart-of-hearts, she had

not wanted him brought to the human's idea

of justice. She had wanted him to suffer, to

feel the complete mental anguish of knowing

there was nothing he could do to save himself

from the inevitable torture and pain. Now,

seeing the handiwork of The Council, knowing

that Ashton had suffered as not even his own




victims had suffered, the images that used togive her so much comfort were now making

her incredibly sick to her stomach.

Altania turned, fighting back the bile that

threatened to rise in her throat. She dug in

her pocket and pulled out her car keys. She just wanted to sit down for a moment, clear

her head, concentrate on something other

than the strange feeling that was being

invoked in her by the images of Ashton

chained to a wall, naked, whipped and

bleeding, his dark brown hair hanging down

to half-cover a set of haunted brown eyes.

A pale hand reached out and plucked the

keys from her trembling hand. Ash gripped

her elbow lightly as he guided her towards the

passenger side of her SUV.

"You look like you've just seen a ghost,

Altania. Maybe you should sit down before

you hit the pavement." He used the remote of

the keyless entry to unlock the doors and

deposited her into the passenger seat.




"Here," he said as he produced a smallPDA out of his jean pocket. He handed the

device to her before he moved to the driver

side of the truck. “Get caught up on our

mission. That ll help clear your head.

Regardless of your feelings for me, we stillhave to work together. Best to get used to it

now.”

Altania narrowed her eyes at him as she

muttered, “Stop reminding me,” under her

breath.

She took the small PDA from Ash. She

had the hand-held computer on and was

flipping through the files by the time Ash slid

into the driver seat.

"What is all this?" she asked, the detective

in her taking over as she read through the

information.

"It's all the files from SHiELD," he replied

as he adjusted the seat to a comfortable

position, moving the seat further back to

accommodate his long legs.




"How the hell did you manage to get yourhands on this?" she asked in astonishment,

her eyes skimming over the files as fast as the

small computer could load them.

"The CRNH received it anonymously about

a year ago. They think it came from one of thescientists who were hired by the SHiELD of

Humanity. I'm pretty sure it came from

Tannitha, although after all this is over with,

she'll probably be kicking herself in the ass for

sending the information."

Altania's brow wrinkled as she read

through some of the files. "What's the CRNH,

who is Tannitha, why is she kicking her own

ass, and why would she send classified

information from the agency that she worked

for in the first place?"

"The CRNH is the Center for the Rights of

the Non-Human. I know that PDA belonged to

Chief Scientist Tannitha Johnson because I

was the one who smuggled it into the agency

for her. Sergeant Hall refused to allow any of

their research to be stored on computers. He




was convinced the government could hack anycomputer system, and he didn t want his

„work falling into someone else s hands. He

was more than a little paranoid, and for good

reason."

Alty looked up from the device. "If theresearch wasn't backed up on computers then

why did this Tannitha Johnson go against

policy and then send the CRNH the files?

Better yet, how did The High Council get a

hold of this information?"

Ash took the PDA from Altania and flipped

through the files on the computer until he

came to the one he wanted. He handed the

PDA back to Alty who read the file name

aloud, "Subject Number 6349, Formerly

Subject Number 6103." She looked back at

Ash expectantly. "Is this supposed to mean

something to me?"

Ash gave the young woman a wry smile.

"Just read it," he said.

Altania turned her attention back to the

small computer, her eyes drinking in the




information as quickly as it appeared on thescreen. It only took her a few minutes before

she had read over the entire file.

"Let me get this straight," she said with

astonishment in her voice. "The Council has

hired us to bring in the son of the man whoorganized the entire SHIELD of Humanity?"

Ash's smile held no humor as he started

the SUV and pulled out into the deepening

night. "Th at s the idea," he said.

Altania turned off the computer and put

her seatbelt on before she turned in her seat

to look at the vampire's profile. "Alright, I

think you need to start at the beginning."




Chapter 3




sh settled back into the seat ofAltania's black SUV. He tilted his

head slightly in thought as the

streetlights zoomed by them in the night.

"This is going to be a bit of a long story, but

we have a long road ahead of us, punintended."

His attempt at humor reminded her of a

question that had been on her mind since

before she had arrived at The Council's

stronghold. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"First, we stop at my place. After that we

have to go by the old SHiELD headquarters to

get a few answers that Tannitha's notes did

not divulge. What we learn at HQ will

determine our next move." He glanced over at

Altania, eyeing her black slacks, business-like

overcoat and stiletto heels. "Did The Council

have the good sense to tell you to pack?"

Altania had pulled out the little PDA

again, flipping through the files as they drove

along the darkened streets. She looked up at

him briefly, frowning. "Yes, my bags are in the

A




back of the truck." She moved her attentionback to the handheld computer. "I take it you

don't approve of my current attire."

Ash shrugged as he made a sharp right,

pulling into the parking lot of Melody Lane

Apartments. "No, you look good, it's justgoing to be very inappropriate for the job we

have to do tonight," he said as he pulled into a

vacant parking spot.

"What job?" she asked as she looked up at

the three story tall complex. "How the hell did

you manage to get an apartment at Melody

Lane? ” she asked in astonishment. “ I've been

trying to get an apartment in this place for

years. The manager keeps telling me there

aren't any vacancies, which I find incredibly

unlikely, given as how people don t normally

take up residence in a little town like this."

Ash put the truck into the parking gear

and killed the engine. His face was a mixture

of surprise and amusement as he asked, "Are

you serious?"




The young woman snorted at him as shelooked back down at the PDA. "What? I'm not

good enough for Melody Lane or something?"

she asked, crossing her arms over her chest in

a defensive gesture.

Ash rolled his eyes and then laughed."Alty," he said, "Melody Lane is owned by The

High Council. There's nothing housed here

but vampires. Humans are strictly forbidden."

Altania uncrossed her arms and stared at

him with wide-eyed amazement. Ash opened

the door to the SUV, laughing as he did. "Stay

in the truck, and keep it locked. I'll only be

gone a few seconds."

He flicked the electronic lock on the

vehicle and shut the door. He looked inside

the truck to make sure she wasn't going to

come after him, and then he vanished quickly

into the deepening darkness.

Altania blinked, forgetting for a moment

that Ash was now a member of the undead. It

always freaked her out that they seemed to

disappear into thin air. They didn't really




disappear, of course; they just moved so fastthat the human eye could not keep up with

them. It still annoyed her to no end. It always

made her feel like the sucker at the magic

show that knew there was a simple

explanation to the trick, but was unable to gether mind to grasp the simple concept.

She sighed, looking back at the file she

had opened on the computer. She had not

even read the first word on the screen when a

light tapping came at the driver-side window.

Altania screamed, her whole body jerking

as she looked fearfully at the other side of the

truck, the PDA falling unforgotten into the

floorboard. Ash was standing there holding a

duffle bag and a sledgehammer, looking at her

expectantly.

"Shit," she said under her breath. She

reached down and unlocked the door, her eyes

still watching Ash warily.

Ash slung his bag into the back seat.

"Sorry," he apologized. "Didn't mean to scare




you, but I said I was only going to be gone fora few seconds."

"Yeah, I know," Altania said, retrieving the

PDA from the floor of the truck. "I hate it

when vampires pull the whole 'disappearing

into thin air' trick. Freaks me out," shemumbled.

"Can't be helped," he said as he settled

into his seat and pointed the truck eastward.

"Now why are we going to the old SHiELD

building?" Altania asked. "I thought it was

destroyed a few years ago."

"It was," Ash said. "The Council had the

place cleaned up real nice too. We thought

the destruction of the building would be the

end of it, but after the CRNH sent us

Tannitha's PDA, they realized that SHiELD

had a lot of buried secrets where that building

used to be."

"You are talking way above my head," Alty

said. "You plan on filling me in on what you

know, or do you plan to keep me in the dark

the whole time?"






experimenting on those same supernaturals,both living and dead."

He looked over at his passenger. She

looked like she had paled considerably. "You

want me to finish or what?" he asked harshly.

"Yes," she said, drawing out the last letterso the word sounded more like a hissing

sound. She turned to look out the window so

he wouldn't see the parade of emotions

marching across her face.

She hated that their government did not

consider the supernatural beings of this great

nation to be citizens; it was even worse that so

many humans had never been brought to

justice for killing them because the

government did not consider it murder. It was

disgusting, plain and simple. Every single

lycan and vampire started out human; the fact

that they were now something that science

was having a hard time explaining shouldn t

make it any less illegal when one of them

came up dead by another s hand.




"Fine," Ash said, his voice a bit morecallous than he intended. "Before I do, Alty,

you need to get something straight. I've

always worked for whoever had the deepest

pockets. Now, money means very little to me.

My life, however, does , and since I am now aformal member of the immortals and a

sanctioned assassin, my life is all I have left to

me, so I will do what I am told when I am told

and how I am told. I have my orders and I will

follow them to the letter. I've been given

clearance by The Council to do whatever it

takes to bring the subject into custody.

Whatever it takes. Get it? So you better get

used to playing hardball because in this game,

there is no room for error … for either of us."

Altania shuddered at both his tone and

words. "Okay, Ash, I get it. Step up or move

aside, right?"

Ash nodded his head. "Right.” His voice

softened a bit as he continued, “I'm sorry,

Alty, really I am, but this is the way it has to

be. You're an ex-cop. You know how to follow




orders, so you either do what The Council tells you or you can be easily replaced. And you

don't want to be replaced, Altania. Trust me .

You know what happens to people when they

are no longer of any use to The Council."

The woman swallowed down thediscomfort that had come over her. She knew

that Ash spoke the truth, knew it even before

she agreed to this mission. She guessed that,

somehow, she hadn't really thought the rules

applied to her.

She had gotten away with so much while

being a detective. Her captain had covered her

ass more times than she could count. But

after hearing about Ash's five year stint with

The Council, she now had absolutely no

doubts whatsoever that if she did not follow

her orders then she would be taking a long

walk down a very, very short road.

Satisfied that the woman beside him

understood the gravity of their situation, Ash

continued his story. "I was only brought

inside the agency s many buildings a few




times over the years I worked for them. One ofthose times was when I brought Tannitha

Johnson that PDA. That's why I'm sure she

was the one who sent it. I don't think she

quite agreed with the methods of the agency."

"Then why was she working there?"Altania asked more to herself than to Ash.

"I think she had a thing for Dakota Hall."

Altania's head snapped around. "I would

ask, but I'm assuming you will be getting to all

of this," she said.

Ash nodded his head again as he pulled

into a long driveway that was lined with small

magnolia trees. It would have been pretty,

had it not been the site of so much pain,

destruction, and heartache.

"SHiELD learned all about how the

vampire and lycanthrope bodies work. They

experimented with the blood and various

drugs and even did DNA splicing until they

had created their own little fucked-up army of

hybrids. I think Tannitha was curious at first,

but the longer she stayed the more she




realized that Sergeant Hall was totally bat-shitcrazy. By that time, she had already fallen in

love with Dakota, who had also become a

prisoner of the agency. Even if she had not

loved Dakota and wanted to leave, she

couldn t. Steven Hall ran his organizationmuch like The Council. You are either in, or

you are out, and if you go against them or are

of no use to them, then you are out. And „out

is not what you want to be in either of these

instances."

Ash pulled into what used to be the

parking lot of the old SHiELD headquarters.

He parked the truck and reached into the

backseat for his bag. He rummaged around

for a flashlight, pushing the button a few

times to make sure it worked before he tossed

the bag back into the backseat.

The two of them got out of the truck.

Ash stuck the flashlight in his back pocket

and opened the backdoor, pulling the

sledgehammer out and slinging it over his

shoulder.




Altania wondered what the hammer wasfor, but she figured she would find out soon

enough. For now, she allowed Ash to continue

his story as they walked.

He led the way towards a large statue

sitting towards the far end of the grass-covered field. "Dakota had volunteered for one

of the agency's experiments. Tannitha

thought she could stop the internal decay

caused by the vampire blood. She was wrong,

of course, and by the time she realized it,

Dakota was already dying. She forced one of

the vampire prisoners to embrace him. It was

risky, seeing as how Steven Hall hated all

„pure supernaturals. But Dakota was his son,

so he kept him on as another variant of the

experiment, to see if any of Dakota s

personality traits and morals would still be

intact after he was embraced.”

Alty snorted as she mut tered, “I m

beginning to think this Steven Hall didn t have

two brain cells to rub together when it came to

the supernatural community.”




Ash chuckled. “There is a lot more to thestory than just his warped perception. But

that s a story for a different time,” he said.

“ The vampire who embraced Dakota was

named Viktor ,” Ash continued as they neared

the far end of the grassy plain. “ He initiallyrefused Tannitha s demands, of course. That s

when they brought me back in to see if he

couldn t be persuaded to co operate."

Arriving at the statue, Ash felt around the

base of the marble figure until his finger found

the hidden mechanism. The entire statue

rumbled slightly and then slowly began to

move, the grating sound of marble against

cement eventually revealing a hidden stairwell

beneath the monument.

"Holy hell," Altania whispered.

Documents

Immortal Sins - Sample