The Assembly Book 2: A Deliberate Act of Violence. Chapter One.

Out on the 25th March (and available to pre-order now), here’s the opening chapter of the 2nd Miles and Church book.

 Chapter One 

Sara Bakos would be the first to admit that she didn’t have the most difficult of lives. She was wealthy, she had an important role in a billion-dollar company, and she enjoyed the power and prestige that came with her role. Including a fifth-floor penthouse flat in Marylebone, situated in the City of Westminster, London. She’d considered living in one of the vampire-controlled boroughs, but she hated the idea of the Assembly having any control over the place she called home. Unfortunately, there was one part of her job that she despised, and recently that one part was becoming a full-time occupation.

She’d been about to feed—a lovely twenty-seven-year-old vintage she’d been looking forward to sampling—when the call had come through. Dom needs help. Dom always needed help. He was basically incapable of doing anything except fucking up and making more work for her.

Sara had told her new plaything to take the night off and had taken the private lift to the underground parking area. Her driver, Philip, was waiting outside of her black and silver Rolls-Royce Ghost wearing a dark grey three-piece suit, with black shoes polished to an almost mirror shine. The suit jacket was designed to cover the holstered gun against his side, and it did a pretty good job. Considering how much she’d paid for the suit, it should have done an excellent job, and she mentally reminded herself to speak to the tailor when she had the time.

“Madam,” Philip said, with a slight smile. He had pale skin and was clean shaven, with short dark hair. A scar ran from above his ear to just shy of his temple, the result of his time in the British armed forces. Sara liked Philip and trusted him not to blab her secrets to anyone who asked. She knew he had a family, a son, a little boy called Peter. She occasionally wondered if Philip knew how much danger they were in just by virtue of who he worked for.

“The King’s Head, Edgware,” Sara said, climbing into the rear of the Rolls-Royce and taking a moment to enjoy the white and orange leather trim interior.

Sara let herself relax a little as they drove, looking out of tinted windows at the still busy streets of the capital of the United Kingdom. Two AM or PM didn’t much matter in London; there were still places you could go, still people out and about. Sara wondered how many were vampires looking for a good time in one of the many vampire-friendly establishments, or out to hunt. Probably fewer of the latter. After she’d become a vampire, she discovered that there was very little need for vampires to actually hunt their meals anymore. She’d been quite disappointed about it at the time but had quickly adjusted, and now she was able to make a phone call and have her drink of choice come to her within a few hours.

“How is Peter, Philip?” Sara asked. “Being a good child?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Philip said, almost bursting with pride.

“Good, I hope that will continue,” Sara said, meaning it. “Do you know Dominik Greger at all?”

“I’ve driven for his father from time to time,” Philip said, his tone utterly neutral.

“Henryk is a hard man,” Sara said. “And, in my experience, hard men either produce hard children, or they try to overcorrect their own upbringing. And then they produce humans like Dominik.”

“You do not like him?” Philip asked, choosing his words carefully.

“I do not,” Sara said with a slight smile. “He is an imbecile. A fact that his father and I agree on. He’s little more than a thug and bully. The kind of man who would start a fight and then hide behind his bigger friends. I detest the little shit. But I owe his father, Henryk, more than I can ever repay, so I do what needs to be done. Even if it means holding my nose and getting on with it.”

“Will you need my assistance?” Philip asked.

“I hope not. Just stay in the car, keep the engine running, and be prepared to leave quickly.”

Philip nodded, his eyes trained on the road ahead.

Sara went back to looking out of the window for the next few minutes until they pulled down a road with a small park opposite an old warehouse. At the end of the road was a pub, the King’s Head. The entrance was illuminated by a streetlight that probably wished for a better standard of clientele. It said Traditional Pub on the side in golden letters, which, considering the state of those letters, Sara took to mean shithole. It looked like the kind of place the police would hear about on the radio and sigh, or pretend they hadn’t heard anything.

“Turn the car around,” Sara said. “Park up opposite the pub. Engine on.”

Philip stopped the car, and Sara stepped out into what was a cool February night. The scent of fresh rain lingered in the air, although it was quickly overwhelmed by something that spoke to a more animalistic part of Sara’s psyche. Blood.

Sara walked to the pub doors, occasionally sniffing the air, until she was close enough that the blood mixed with the contents of the large metal bins that sat along the side of the building. She looked down into the dark alleyway, took a deep breath, and followed the scent, expecting to find whichever unfortunate Dominik had decided looked at him funny.

She hadn’t expected to find Dominik.

He lay up against the cold brick wall, a large rat edging nearer to his blood-drenched fingers. The rat sensed Sara a second too late, and she kicked it hard enough that when it hit the far wall, it made a noise signalling that it wasn’t getting back up. Sara crouched down beside Dominik, who opened his eyes. Even in the darkness, Sara’s vision was able to spot how pale the young man was. His shirt was covered in blood, and one hand rested against his side, which was similarly drenched.

“What happened?” Sara asked, moving Dominik’s hand and peeling back the shirt to show several stab wounds. At least one had been deep enough to cause serious damage. Dominik wasn’t getting back up from this one.

“Will I be okay?” he asked.

“No,” Sara said, seeing little reason to lie to him. “You have been stabbed at least once in the liver. From the smell, they’ve perforated something else you need, too.” She moved his shirt again. More stab wounds. “Someone really did a number on you.”

“Three of them,” he said almost dreamily. “I don’t think they liked me. I don’t want to die here.”

Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten stabbed then, Sara thought, but instead she removed her mobile and called Philip. “Get the tarp and put it over the back seats.”

“I won’t make it,” Dominik said, sounding weaker by the moment. “You know that.”

“Then your body will be taken to your father,” Sara snapped.

“Turn me,” Dominik said.

“Fuck no,” Sara said, staring at the quickly dying Dominik. She stood and punched the wall, removing a chunk of brick from the force of the blow, and cutting open her knuckle in the process.

Vampire blood had revolutionised human medicine. It helped to alleviate pain, it aided in recovery after operations, and it helped make healing quicker. But vampire blood alone couldn’t cure what was done to Dominik, and she reallydidn’t want to do what it would take.

“Fuck,” Sara shouted at no one in particular. She removed the phone from her pocket and called Henryk, who answered on the first ring.

“What happened to my son?” he asked, his Italian accent coming through, coupled with more than a little irritation.

“Dominik is going to die,” Sara said. “He’s asked me to turn him.”

“Do it,” Henryk said without hesitation and hung up.

Sara put the phone away and looked down at Dominik. What would Henryk do if he died? He’d be angry, unbearably so. He’d definitely take it out on those who killed his son. Their deaths would be long and arduous. Would he take it out on the vampire who couldn’t save him? Probably not. He needed her. But that didn’t matter. Sara would know that she had lied to one of the few people she trusted. It had been a trust hard earned over the years working together.

She gingerly picked Dominik up, carrying him in her arms as though he were a child to the waiting car, the rear door open wide so that he could be placed on the tarp-covered back seats.

“Home,” she told Philip, who, true to his professionalism, didn’t ask any questions. She moved into the back of the car and crouched down before the seats. “Fast.”

Sara waited for the sound of the large engine to mask her words, then she whispered to Dominik, “This is going to take a long time, and it will not be fun. You are seriously injured, and to save you from death, you must drink my blood. I must take yours first, but I can’t risk using my vampire side to cause the euphoria you’d normally feel from the bite. Can’t risk you falling asleep, or your heart stopping.”

Dominik blinked twice. “Do it.”

Sara cursed everyone who had gotten her into this position, leaned into Dominik, and let her vampire side out. Her face became sunken, her eyes burning red, her fangs already out as if her body was waiting for what was about to happen. She sighed and sank her fangs into his neck. Dominik let out a little squeal of pain, which turned into a roar of agony, as she drank deeply for several seconds, before moving away, her vampire side now replaced with the more human appearance.

She raised her arm, and with one razor sharp talon, she slit her wrist, nicking the vein, and held it to Dominik’s lips. Blood poured into Dominik’s open mouth, and to his credit, he drank it down without trying to hold on when she pulled away.

“You will live,” Sara said, her hand placed over the wound on her wrist as the bleeding stopped and it began to heal. “But your days as a human are done.”

Philip pulled into the parking lot under Sara’s home, turned off the engine, and sat still in the driver’s seat.

“Do not help me,” Sara said from behind Philip’s ear. “You will wait for me to leave with Dominik, and then you will go home. You will mention nothing about what you saw here today. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Philip said, his eyes straight ahead.

Sara moved closer, her lips touching Philip’s earlobe. “Do not fuck this up, Philip. I like you. I like that you have a family, a wife. Peter … am I clear?”

Philip gulped and nodded once.

Sara opened the Rolls’s door and dragged the tarp and Dominik to the edge of the back seats so she could pick him up once again, this time with the bloody tarp wrapped around him. She carried him to the private lift a few steps away and up to her penthouse, where she placed the weakened man in the second bedroom, making sure the curtains were closed.

“Thank you,” Dominik said.

“I will see you in one day,” Sara said. “For the next ten days, you will slowly become a vampire. If you do what I say, when I say it, everything will be okay. If you do not, it won’t. Am I clear?”

“Yes,” Dominik said, now half asleep.

Sara stared at the young man in the bed and for the first time in a long while wondered what was going to happen next. He’d stopped bleeding, which was something, but his wounds would take several days to fully heal.

She closed the door, locked it, walked into the bathroom, and showered as the memories of who had stabbed Dominik flooded her brain. Ten days of having his memories in her head, and of hers in his, made her feel ill. When out of the shower, she poured herself a triple-sized scotch, the make of which she didn’t care enough to check, knocked it back, and poured another. After the second one went down, she called Henryk.

“He alive?” he asked.

“For now,” Sara said. “I’ve done all I can. It will take ten days. If he heals, and does as he’s told, your son will be a vampire. If not … he might still die. It’s possible he does everything right and still dies. Or, worst case scenario, becomes a desolate. And if that happens, he will have to be … dealt with.”

There was a pause for several seconds. “Thank you. I know it will be hard for you. Does anyone else know?”

“My driver,” Sara said. “He’s not a problem. I trust him.”

“If he blabs, it’s on your head,” Henryk said in a tone that left no doubt about the threat that was intended.

“He won’t,” Sara said firmly. “You should know, I saw the three men who attacked your son. His memories are all jumbled up at the moment, so it may take a few more days to get clearer pictures of their faces.”

“We’ll check for CCTV in the area,” Henryk said. “We’ll find them.”

“Don’t do anything until your son is healed,” Sara said. “Vampires need to learn how to hunt.”

Henryk laughed. “If my son survives, your debt is fulfilled.”

It was Sara’s turn to laugh, because they both knew that was never going to happen. Henryk needed her, and she in turn needed to work for someone she admired and trusted, if not always liked.

“Go sleep,” Sara said. “I’ll update you tomorrow.”

Henryk ended the call, and Sara knocked back another drink before walking over to the far side of the room, next to the sliding glass doors that led to a large balcony where she’d started to plant flowers. To cultivate a place for herself. She crouched down and placed a hand on the floorboard between the windows, and pushed slightly on one side. There was a click, and the floorboard popped up, revealing a grey metal safe. She placed the pad of her thumb against the safe and it too clicked open.

Inside was a passport in a name that wasn’t hers, fifty thousand pounds, the same again in dollars, and a phone. She removed the phone and switched it on, waiting for the old Nokia to power up. When done, she scrolled down the only menu on the black and green screen and selected Messages. She typed, We have a potential problem, hit Send to the only number stored in the phone, and waited.

The reply came quickly: Explain.

She did as she was asked and waited for a reply.

This needs to be monitored. Contact me after we know the outcome.

Sara knew that was the end of the conversation. She stared at the last message for several seconds, wondering just how bad things might get. She switched off the phone, replaced it back in the safe, and poured herself another drink.

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Audible.com