The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire, Book 1) by Clay & Susan Griffith;Clay Griffith;Susan Griffith Read Online Free

brought him
closer.

    After several frightening minutes in the dark, the door flew open
and Colonel Anhalt appeared with a horrid gash marring his dark face,
his tunic torn and drenched in blood. He carried a trooper's carbine and
his saber, smoking with boiling blood. "Highness, quickly if you please.
The ship is going down."
    Adele climbed to her feet. "Lifeboats?"
    "No." Anhalt shepherded the royal pair from the room. "Too
unsafe." Airship lifeboats were small gondolas attached to chemically
inflated balloons; easy prey to vampires. Three soldiers moved ahead and
four fell in behind. As the group climbed to the gun deck the chemical
lighting went out, plunging the ship into pitch black. The hallway was
listing at a rough angle, and footing was treacherous. Ahead, sailors were
filling a room with mattresses and rolled hammocks. Anhalt indicated
for Adele and Simon to go inside. "Stay here, Your Highness. And don't
worry. "
    Adele pushed Simon to the floor, where he stayed compliantly.
Sliding her hand off her brother's stiff shoulder, she moved back to her
trusted Gurkha colonel and whispered, "What's our situation?"
    Anhalt hesitated, but after staring into the steady eyes of the young
woman he admired, and again realizing why he admired her, he said,
"The vampires have destroyed most of the sails and damaged the dirigible. And we can no longer stay aloft. The White Guard is losing the
deck."
    "How is this possible?" she asked, incredulous. "Raiders don't-"
    "These aren't raiders, Your Highness. This is a full-scale attack by
clan packs. They mean to destroy this ship. Perhaps the entire convoy."
    "That's incredible! Surely we have the firepower to stop them."
    "I hope so. Vampires are desperately hard to kill. The monsters do
not know they are injured until they are in pieces. Even with a Fahrenheit blade, you have to destroy a vital organ or sever the head."
    "How many are there?"

    He shook his head and hefted his red saber without outward emotion. "Fewer now."
    "How many men have we lost?"
    "Many," Anhalt answered, and turned to leave.
    Adele noticed the bloody footprints left by the colonel and his four
White Guardsmen, and anger raced through her. The door closed and
she knelt beside Simon, dragging a mattress over them. She sang softly
to her brother, a lullaby she used to sing to him when he was a baby.
They waited.
    Adele heard a strange sound mixed with her own voice.
    But there was so much noise enveloping the ship that at first Adele
dismissed the sound as just part of the battle. Then it came again from
just by her ear. It was coming from the other side of the bulkhead. She
strained to hear. Men running? The creaking of stressed timber? Rats
scurrying for safety? There was something about it that didn't seem to
fit any of those.
    "What is that noise?" asked Simon in a small voice.
    "Nothing," Adele responded. "It's nothing." But the anxiety inside
her wouldn't go away. She shifted and eased Simon away from the wall.
From within her cape emerged her Fahrenheit khukri dagger. The glow
from the blade gave her some small comfort, but couldn't stop the wild
pounding of her heart.
    Then the wall started to break apart.

     

CHAPTER

    D AND S were showered with splinters as a hole
was punched in the wall and a thin object snaked through.
Something sharp dug into the young woman's side. There was a horrible
hissing noise, almost one of pain as it grabbed her. Arching back with a
cry, Adele instinctively slashed at what held her. Her blade came into
contact with something long and bony. An arm!
    Simon was shouting. The pale arm of another vampire had reached
through another hole and was dragging him toward the bulkhead.
    "No!" Adele grabbed Simon and stabbed the arm holding him.
There was no satisfying screech of pain from behind the wall, only the
smoldering stench of burning flesh from the khukri's chemical, which
would continue to burn for some time.
    A skeletal hand slapped