The Savage Truth (The Vampire World Saga Book 4) Read online

  The Savage Truth

  The Vampire World Saga Book 4

  P.T. Hylton

  Jonathan Benecke

  Contents

  What Came Before

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Author’s Note

  Copyright © 2019 P.T. Hylton & Jonathan Benecke

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events, or locales is purely coincidental.

  Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.

  Thank you for supporting our work.

  What Came Before

  ALEX GODDARD is the captain of the Ground Mission Team, an elite task force that supplies the ship New Haven with resources recovered from the vampire-infested Earth’s surface.

  The people of New Haven recently learned of the existence of another city, Agartha. Built into the side of a mountain, Agartha is protected by one hundred intelligent vampires, led by JADEN.

  DANIEL FLEMING, New Haven’s charismatic leader, believed in Resettlement, and he tasked former GMT member FIREFLY with leading the effort to bring humans back to the surface of Earth—an effort that ended in tragedy as Firefly and all the Resettlers were turned into vampires by MARK and AARON, disgruntled vampires Jaden had once tried to help.

  With the help of Jaden and his vampire army, the GMT was able to defeat Mark and Aaron and free Firefly and the Resettlers. They then defeated Fleming and restored the City Council of New Haven. Alex, along with her commanding officer CB and her team of OWL, CHUCK, PATRICK, and ED, then began the difficult task of locating the parts Fleming had stripped from the ship.

  Jaden launched his own plan for Resettlement, one he’d been formulating since the fall of human civilization, and he recruited Firefly and the vampire Resettlers to help put his plan into action.

  Prologue

  Dr. Michael Starling stepped into the conference room, the fate of the world tucked into a folder under his arm. His two senior team leads stood as he entered. The air was thick with anticipation, and even from across the room, Starling could see the sweat standing on Jeff’s brow. They all knew what was at stake.

  Starling glanced up at the monitor mounted on the wall. Nothing had changed since the previous day, when he’d looked at it last. The screen displayed four simple lines of text: Project Black Horse, Project Pale Horse, Project Red Horse, and Project White Horse.

  Project Black Horse and Project Pale Horse were both displayed in red text, indicating a halted status. The other two were yellow. Starling knew that by the end of the day, his project, Project White Horse, would be listed in green.

  The room was silent for a moment, except for the sounds of the newscast playing on the television mounted in the corner. The female anchor’s voice filled the room.

  “—are calling last night’s battle in Pittsburg astounding. What do you make of it, Tom?”

  Another newscaster, apparently Tom, chimed in. “Well Paula, astounding really is the word. By all accounts, the city was considered lost. We’re told the Pentagon was planning on pulling all military forces back to Philadelphia. They expected nightfall to bring the city’s destruction. But that didn’t happen. Instead, reinforcements arrived.”

  “Yes, they did,” Paula interjected. “Video footage shows a small group of fighters, working their way through downtown Pittsburg methodically and efficiently. This lends more credence to the unsubstantiated rumors that some of the vampiric creatures are fighting on the side of humanity. Let’s go to Pittsburg, where we have field correspondent Helen Groves standing by to—”

  Rachel, the other team lead, clicked the remote, and the television turned off. She hesitated, her eyes wide as she looked at Dr. Starling. Finally, she nodded at the folder under his arm. “Is that…?”

  “It is,” he confirmed. “The ink’s not even dry.”

  “And?” Jeff asked. His voice came out higher pitched than usual, and it held a twinge of annoyance. Starling couldn’t blame him. None of them had slept more than three hours a night in weeks.

  Starling looked at his two team leads, savoring the moment. “Eight days.”

  Rachel gasped and a hand went to her mouth, as if she were suddenly unable to speak.

  Jeff, on the other hand, pumped a fist into the air. “Hell, yeah! Are you kidding me, right now? Hell, yeah!” He raised his hand, as if to give Dr. Starling a high five. Then he grinned and grabbed the doctor in a hug, instead. “We did it, man!”

  Dr. Starling’s face broke out in a wide smile. “Yes, we did.”

  Rachel threw her arms around both of them. Tears stood in her eyes. “That’s even better than we’d hoped. It’s hard to believe. This will all be over in eight days.”

  Starling felt his own eyes welling up. They’d worked so hard for this moment, and it was about to become a reality. The last few months had been so dark. So many had died. Humanity had been desperate for a way to fight the vampiric creatures tearing their way across the globe. But, now, finally, humanity had the means to stop them. And it would only take eight days.

  Finally, Jeff let go of the other two and took a step back. “We have to tell the others.” He paused. “Wait, did you tell General Carlsen yet?”

  “I wanted you two on the call with me. You’ve more than earned it.” Starling reached into his pocket and fished out his phone. “Listen, there will be plenty of kudos in the coming days and weeks, but I want to make sure you hear it from me first. Thank you. On behalf of the world, thank you.”

  Rachel grinned back at him. “You had a little something to do with it, yourself.”

  He didn’t argue with that point. It was time to share the good news with General Carlsen.

  Before he could unlock his phone, an alarm sounded.

  “What the hell?” Jeff muttered.

  They didn’t have long to wonder what was happening. A moment later, the doors to the conference room burst open.

  In less than five minutes, every member of Project White Horse was dead.

  1

  “You sure about this, Captain?” Hector asked. “Almost sunrise. We could wait for tomorrow night.”

  Firefly drew a deep breath in through his nose. Though he no longer needed to breathe, he was finding it difficult to kick the habit. Besides, it was useful for smelling. Though the first hints of light had yet to peek over the eastern horizon, the sharp tang of sunlight stung his nostrils. Hector was right; it wouldn’t be long before the sun rose.

  Beneath that was another smell: the earthly, pungent rot of Ferals.

  No, he wasn’t about to give up on his plan now. Sunrise be damned.

  He nodded toward the cave in front of them. “This is perfect. The ones we don’t kill, we can drive out into the sunlight.”

  Mario grinned. “Then what? Spend the day huddled in this cave, like
the animals we are?”

  “You know it.” Firefly raised his right hand and closed it into a fist, a signal to the twenty vampire soldiers behind him to prepare to breach the cave. Then he brought his fist down, and his team surged forward.

  The first Feral was crouched on the ground, not thirty yards from the mouth of the cave. It hissed at Firefly as he charged it. When Firefly didn’t stop, it leapt to its feet, its misshapen hands held in front of it like weapons, its hideous teeth bared.

  It didn’t stand a chance.

  Firefly held his sword in a two-handed grip, just as Jaden had taught him. He struck hard, slicing the blade horizontally through the air. The blade barely slowed as it cut through the creature’s neck.

  As the Feral fell, Firefly was already turning toward the deeper part of the cave, looking for his next opponent.

  He felt a rush of pride as he saw the battle taking place all around him. His team was moving quickly and efficiently. Their swords cut through the darkness, killing most of the Ferals before the creatures even understood that they were under attack.

  It was so much different fighting the Ferals now than it had been in his human days. Even setting aside his vampiric speed and strength, the way the Ferals reacted was different. Every time he’d encountered them as a human, they’d been driven nearly mad by his very scent, and they’d attacked with a mindless hunger. They’d been forces of nature.

  Now, it was different. Their instinct was to avoid rather than to attack. They’d fight to defend territory or to defend themselves, but not to feed. That made them less aggressive, but more cunning. While they didn’t possess human intelligence, their powerful instincts made them dangerous enemies.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a Feral crouched on an outcropping of rock, twenty feet up the wall of cave.

  Hector saw it, too, and his hand went to the holster on his belt.

  “Not an emergency,” Firefly said.

  He shot Firefly a displeased look, but he moved his hand away from his holster. Instead, he grabbed a small rock off of the ground and threw it at the Feral. The rock sped through the air and struck the creature hard in the head.

  The Feral snarled and leapt at Hector. He removed its head with his sword before it even landed.

  “See?” Firefly asked.

  “Yeah, yeah. After we resupply—”

  “We’ll still need to be careful.” Firefly cast his gaze around the wide-open area of the cave where his team was fighting. By his count, his squad of twenty had already taken out more than thirty Ferals. There were only a few left. Not bad, for less than three minutes’ work.

  Mario charged at a Feral in the deepest part of the cave. He brought his sword down in a perfect arc, but somehow the creature was ready. It leaned back and the blade sliced through its shoulder, rather than its neck.

  The Feral threw back its head and let out an ear-splitting howl.

  Mario struck again, and this time his blade hit the mark.

  Though that had been the last of the thirty or so Ferals in the cave, Firefly felt something in his chest. It was like a wriggling mass of hunger and rage. He knew the feeling. He was sensing Ferals. A rousing horde of Ferals.

  For a moment, all was silence.

  Then Ferals began to pour out of side tunnels, filling the main chamber of the cave.

  “Form up!” Firefly shouted.

  His vampires immediately complied, collapsing into a circle facing outward, making sure that they had every angle covered.

  “This count as an emergency, Captain?” Hector asked.

  “No. Stay focused. We’ve got this.”

  Hector didn’t reply, but his face betrayed his annoyance at this order.

  Firefly scanned the small horde racing toward them. There had to be fifty Ferals. Twenty against fifty wasn’t great odds, but they’d faced longer.

  The first wave of Ferals reached the team, hitting them from two sides at once. Steel flew, removing heads and piercing hearts. The Ferals were unarmed, but what they lacked in weapons, they made up for in aggression. Still, the vampires held their ground, taking down the Ferals as fast as they advanced.

  Firefly glanced at the side tunnels. The Ferals were still pouring through. There had to be seventy of them, now. Still, as long as they held their formation, Firefly was confident that the vampires could—

  “Ow!”

  Firefly spun toward the scream. The shout had come from Caleb, a vampire with blazing red hair and a tall, gangly build. A Feral had sunk its fangs into his shoulder.

  Caleb staggered forward, and Firefly cursed.

  Mario was next to Caleb, and he quickly dispatched the Feral. But the damage had already been done. Caleb had broken formation.

  Ferals raced to the gap created by Caleb’s stepping out of line, breaking up the circle the team had formed. Now, the vampire soldiers had Ferals coming at them from all directions instead of just one.

  Firefly cursed again. If they wanted to get out of this alive, they were going to have to resort to drastic measures. He spoke loudly, so that all of his soldiers would be able to hear over the din of the battle. “I hereby declare an emergency.”

  As one, the vampires drew their guns.

  “About time, Captain,” Hector replied as he fired his first round, dropping a Feral who was lunging at Firefly.

  Firefly returned the favor, shooting a Feral scurrying across the cave floor toward Hector.

  He hated that he’d had to do this. Supplies were extremely limited on the island, and nothing was more precious to their survival than ammunition. Well, maybe blood. But both were limited resources, and had to be rationed extremely carefully. He and his team stuck to melee weapons on their nightly raids, saving ammunition in case of emergencies.

  But now they had no choice. The Ferals just kept coming.

  And slowly, Firefly had the terrible realization that even the bullets wouldn’t be enough. They weren’t going to win this fight. The Ferals were coming at them too quickly.

  He looked around at his team. In the last few minutes, they’d scattered throughout the cave. They were all fighting their own battles. Any semblance of a military formation was lost.

  He glanced toward the exit of the cave and saw the first light of morning seeping through the eastward-facing opening.

  Damn, that meant that exit was lost to them. Their only options were to hold their ground or try their chances in one of the side tunnels. Assuming that they could even get to one.

  A burst of static came through Firefly’s radio, a faint, unintelligible voice underneath it. Firefly ignored it. Probably just a member of the recon team checking in before they turned in for the day. He didn’t have time to deal with that now.

  He fought hard, working his way toward the bulk of his team. It seemed like a futile effort. He’d lost count of the Ferals in this cave. As much as he didn’t want to, there was a hard truth that he needed to face: he and his team were about to be overrun.

  Suddenly, a bright light poured through the tunnel opening and the Ferals near it began to scream. The closest ones burst into flames.

  It was as if the sun had suddenly turned its face on the opening of the cave. But the brightness, its abrupt appearance, and the electric smell it carried with it told Firefly it wasn’t sunlight. At least not the natural kind.

  Firefly smiled.

  Four figures stepped into the cave. It was hard to make out their faces since they were backlit by the bright light, but Firefly didn’t need to see them. Even if he hadn’t been able to smell them, he would have known who they were.

  The GMT.

  As one, the Ferals turned toward the cave entrance, the vampire soldiers almost forgotten as the smell of living humans reached them.

  The smallest of the humans leapt forward, stepping out of the illumination cast by the daylight mounted on top of their rover and into the shadows of the cave.

  Three Ferals lunged at her, but Alex had her pistol ready. She dropped all of th
em before they reached her.

  The GMT surged into the cave. The air filled with the sounds of gunfire as the humans joined the fight. Patrick’s shotgun. Ed and Chuck’s automatic rifles. Alex’s pistol.

  Firefly shouted to his team. “Form up, people. Press the Ferals toward the light.”

  The GMT worked at the edge of the daylight’s reach, sometimes standing in its protection, sometimes, racing into the shadows after a target. They were efficient killers, dropping Ferals as fast as they could race forward.

  Firefly’s team was a moving wall. Most of the Ferals had their attention focused on the humans, leaving the vampire soldiers free to cut them down from behind and drive them toward the daylight. Some of the Ferals turned toward Firefly and his team and retaliated, their instinct to live apparently stronger than their instinct to feed, at least for the moment. The vampire soldiers easily handled the ones who took this route and pressed forward.

  Firefly glanced up ahead toward the entrance. Alex had stepped out of the daylight and was about twenty feet into the cave. Somehow, three Ferals had wormed their way between her and the entrance.

  “Shit,” Firefly muttered. He dispatched the Feral in front of him and pressed his way forward, angling past the Ferals, toward Alex.

  Sensing an opening, a few other Ferals had focused in on Alex, now. She was nearly surrounded.

  She fired three times, and three Ferals fell. Two more quickly took the places of the fallen.

  She spotted Firefly racing toward him. “You take those three. The other two are mine.”