The Lady in Red (#1, Night Kings) Read online

  Chapter Two

  Night Kings: The Lady in Red

  Gregory Blackman

  Peacekeepers

  Far from the woods of Salem stood another forest of an equally sinister nature. This was one made of stone and cement, one where the predators walked on two legs and wore suits of immeasurable worth.

  In the center of it all was the mayoral office of Salem where a one man finds himself unable to keep the supernatural from sweeping across his city at the turn of night. He called a closed meeting with as little councilor support as he could readily afford given the nature of what’d been uncovered a few hours ago. These were his chosen few, the ones that knew the dark truth behind Salem’s origins.

  “So it’s concluded,” the mayor said. “The man is what we thought him to be.”

  Victor Dukane had sat in the same chair for two decades, through thick and thin, although in a city such as this there was plenty thick and little thin. Despite the odds, Victor managed to keep his post and see all opposition washed away into a sea of oblivion.

  None questioned his leadership, not even the three jackals that stood five feet away from him.

  “We believe he is,” Hans Brackhaus confirmed with a nod of his bald head. He was Victor’s oldest friend on the council, and as such, had risen to a prominent position over the years alongside the mayor. He wasn’t the easiest man to speak to, but when Victor needed someone in his corner it was Hans that would answer the call.

  “And cause of death?” Victor asked.

  “Indeterminable,” said the mountain of meat sitting next to Hans. “The only certainty was that it was an animal of considerable size.”

  “How insightful, Bernhard,” said the only female in the room, mockingly, “because we all know this town has an animal problem. I know of no animal capable of doing this to a reaper. Do you?”

  Cetra Altaras was a mystery to those around. Her ties to the city were unknown, but all that came to meet the sultry brunette with eyes of azure crystal swore that she was the right woman for the job. Not a single person knew what that job entailed outside the mayor and herself, but none would dare question her worth in city council. Not that she’d hear of it.

  She was testing her fellow councilor, prying him for information she thought he might’ve possessed. It was, after all, his son that mysteriously came across the body in the woods. The fact the mayor’s daughter had been present, as well, only added the fuel to her fire.

  Bernhard Wendish wasn’t one to be taken lightly and he kept those cards close to his chest. “You know the answer to that question as well as I,” he replied. “I can’t speak on information I don’t have.”

  The burly councilor stood a foot taller than the already too large Hans Brackhaus. He was covered in fiery red hair from head to toe with the nasty temperament to match. While men of Bernhard’s ilk never seem to last long in cities such as Salem, it didn’t stop him from throwing his weight around every which way he pleased.

  “I see no choice around it,” the mayor said as he reclined in his chair. “A reaper has been slain inside our city borders. I needn’t remind you of the severity of that statement. The body shall be cremated and all traces of his existence here wiped clean. The Order of the Reapers will not learn the truth of what has happened here.”

  “And if they do uncover the truth?” Cetra asked.

  “Then hope the culprit has been found before that happens,” a solemn Victor answered. He rose from his chair and moved to the window where a waxing crescent moon waited beyond the drapes. It was a difficult decision that’d been forced upon him, one that could prove troublesome for more than just the accused.

  The Order of the Reapers was a brotherhood of soldiers bred for the sole purpose of vanquishing the monsters that plagued mankind. To think something had not only taken a reaper’s life, but torn him limb from limb was a prospect both equally intriguing and terrifying to the city’s enduring mayor. The Order would rain political hellfire down on Salem and they would do so without abandon for those caught in the middle. The town of Salem would survive, as it always had, yet an embattled mayor and his closest of confidents wouldn’t be so lucky.

  “None of our positions will survive such scrutiny,” the mayor continued after some time at the window. “We turn this city over in search of those that may have had a hand in the reaper’s demise… and we do it without city council’s support.”

  “We find out how it happened,” Hans said in concurrence, “and then we uncover what the hell a reaper wanted with Salem in the first place.”

  These were the most influential people in the city. Victor Dukane had chosen them for a reason. Not just for close allies, but for those to share in his darkest of secrets. If there were any people in Salem to see this done it would be them. He knew they wouldn’t fail him. Their lives hung in the balance every bit as much as his.

  “So,” said the mayor as he turned back to face his councilors, “we’re all agreed on what needs to be done?”

  Cetra looked to each of her councilmen, and with a nod from all of their heads, she turned back to face the mayor, and said, “We are.”

  “So say we all,” the assembly of four said in harmony. “So say we all.”