The Night Warriors: The Warrior's Passion

Prologue

Everything was dark, even with her night vision the images seemed blurred and ghostly, or perhaps it was the fact that her bloodied face kept swelling, and her eyes could hardly open. For the first time in four centuries Katerina Rominov had a first row seat to what it felt like to be human. The smells were so putrid that for once she was glad her acute vampire senses were on vacation. The stench made her empty stomach heave in protest. The first day she had been down in the cage, she had vomited until there was nothing left to throw up. As an immortal pureblood vampire, time moved differently for her. Usually it seemed terribly fast when you were happy and dreadfully slow when you were down. Kat's adjustor Olanthe had told her it was much the same for humans. Time in captivity was somehow distorted, feeling both fast and slow. She had no idea how long she had been in the hands of demons and Malachi's minions. All because of a trap, a stupid trap she had fallen victim to. She felt sick just thinking about how easily she had been taken by the enemy. An anonymous tip had come to the Night Warriors Compound about a possible hiding place for a hive of zombies. The Night Warrior London had told her not to go alone, but she had been her stupid over confident self and decided she didn't need back up for a simple stakeout. Of course once there she had smelled the distinctive rotting flesh stench of the zombies and had decided to take a closer look. The problem was that while she proceeded forward, her mind was somewhere else, debating how to castrate Jay if he bothered Olanthe again with his stupid, ‘She is mine, I have to touch her’ deal. First rule of engaging in any way with the enemy is having all your senses on high alert, which she didn't do. Too many of the stupid vampire rogues had come at her at once, and she didn’t have time to reach any of her weapons. They threw a heavy ass net on her and attached the stupid torque that was now adorning her bruised neck. The magic emanating from the torque was so strong that she could feel it on her sensitive skin. She tried to fight her attackers, but it was useless. They seemed stronger and faster than her, which was impossible. They kicked her, punched her, beat her with bats, you name it they did it. Realizing her fists and kicks were futile, she immediately closed her eyes to teleport her ass out of there. Surprise, surprise she could not teleport. Something that she could do as easily as breathing was now impossible. She could not teleport no matter how hard she tried, and very quickly she realized she was not healing either. The cut she could see on her hand was still bleeding, when any other day it would have been sealed almost immediately. Then a fight broke out with the rogues and some newcomers who actually scared the shit out of Kat. The things were huge with molted red skin that looked like polished leather. The eyes of the creatures were bright red and orange and they had long sharp teeth.

What the fuck is that?! She heard one of the rogues scream.

It's demons, one of them screamed back, allowing all his fear to be evident in his speech.

Kat realized that the saying about preferring the devil you already knew was dead on as soon as she saw one of the creatures look her way. She would take the vampire rogues any day over whatever kind of demon those were.

We want the female, the demon said, in a low guttural voice that made Kat's skin crawl.

This female is for the Dark Overlord, you don't want to piss him off I assure you, said the rogue who was obviously the leader and the bravest of the group.

We are taking her, the demon said before he spit something in the rogue's face that melted his face on contact.

Most of the other rogues ran away or died right there in the street. Meanwhile Kat was trying to get up and run while entangled by the net, but it was almost impossible, so she began to roll away as fast as she was able, all the while trying to teleport away. She was caught, and the strike to the back of her head was enough to make her go night-night. After that, all she experienced and felt was passed through a weird filter of pain and delusion. Every time she awoke the pain was so excruciating that she ended up throwing up the little blood they were giving her. She prayed and waited, sure that the Night Warriors would come at any moment to spring her free from this inferno. She wasn't even sure if she was still in Rivercast. Perhaps she was in the underworld, in hell or wherever these demons came from. On the days when she regained consciousness she could hear them talk, but could not understand their language. Then she met a boy, Karl, who was being held in the cage next to her. He had been beaten, but not as badly as she had. He told Kat these demons were actually part of Malachi's army and that he had been captured because his father was part of the Vampire High Council Committee. Malachi wanted him to spy on the council; if he refused they would hurt his family. He had refused and that was why he was suffering next to her, praying for his family's safety. He also told her that the torque around their necks was placed to negate their vampire powers, and that he had tried everything to get it off, but he couldn't. Karl told her that the demon who had the key around his neck seemed kind of slow, so the next time he had a chance he was going to take it from him. Kat tried to persuade the young pureblood away from the terrible idea, but he was adamant about rescuing them. The next time Kat saw Karl he was beaten and unconscious. Every day the demons took her out of the cage and did whatever they felt like with her. She couldn't remember it all; perhaps that was a kind of blessing. In a moment of clarity Kat had come up with a plan. She needed to send the Night Warriors a message somehow because she could feel her body dying. The boy had a chance to get out if only he accepted to help spy for Malachi. The fact that his sister and mother had supposedly been taken was making him lean that way anyways. Katerina gathered as much strength as she could and told him who she was. She told Karl the Night Warriors would help him rescue his family and keep them safe. She asked him to send them a message and she promised again they would help him. After that the world had become a haze of pain and she was so weak she could hardly remain conscious for more than a couple of seconds. The last thing she remembered was Karl's voice in her ear, Hold on, I'm getting you out of here.

Chapter 1

Rivercast

Present Day

Katerina was the only female Night Warrior and even though she was pure beauty with her black long hair and citrine eyes none of the warriors treated her any different. To them she was a Night Warrior, and a very good one. She saw herself as one of the guys and they tried to see her as such; although when she walked around the Compound half naked it was a wee bit hard to do; at least it had in the beginning. Now most of her fellow warriors were mated and not even the debauched Norse prince Jay had eyes for any female but his mate; which in Jay's case had been her very own adjustor and friend Olanthe Darkon. It had not been an easy courtship for the pair and she had a lot to do with that. She loved Olanthe like a daughter of sorts and didn't quite trust Jay not to break her heart. In the end they had indeed been mated and as Fate would have it, it had been Jay who had rescued her after… No, she would not think about that now. No time to wallow in doubt and self-pity, not now after she had been back in the fray. That fight against the Necromancer had been a surprise even to her. She was no longer part of the patrolling unit; Calix, their leader, had entrusted her with the training of the recruits that had arrived in hopes of filling a spot at the Night Warriors’ table. After you have been kidnapped and almost killed by demons staying indoors sounds pretty good, and she had many skills she could teach the vampires that were now in the Night Warrior's Training Program. It was in fact the program's maiden voyage since the first Night Warriors had been mostly self-trained on the job, a type of learning by doing. This was probably why through all the centuries that they had been fighting the Dark Overlord Malachi, they had lost most of their members. Katerina was one of the original Night Warriors and she could remember when the war room at what was now the Old Compound seated twenty stalwart warriors; now it was only Calix, Thaddeus, SOB, Jay, the twins Keon and Brendt and her best friend London. She paused to think about the angelic face of her charming friend and smiled. Since the first day when London crept up on one of her parties she had felt an uncanny familiarity with the young man. With their black hair and perfectly carved features they indeed seem related. He looked a lot like one of her brothers who were no longer alive. A wound for her that still hurt, and London kind of filled the empty spot for her that her baby brother had left. He was now mated to his one true mate as well, Linda the old Compound's former Fae housekeeper. Linda had once been mated to one of the original Night Warriors, Lucaz, who had been killed decades ago; even though, Kat could still see the man's bright smile and chocolate complexion as clear as if he stood before her; he had been taken from this world way too soon. The pair's happiness had been short lived and the repercussions of the mating way too high if you asked Kat, but she knew nothing of the Fae and their rules. With Lucaz's death Linda had been adrift with nowhere to go, and Calix had reassured her of her position within the Night Warrior family. If one thing was true it was the fact that they took care of their own. She didn't really have to work to earn her place amongst them, but she had insisted and taken over the housekeeping and running of the Compound. Katerina adored Linda, the fairy was like a mother hen to all the Night Warriors and the best damn cook in all of Rivercast; better yet she was now completely devoted and enamored of London, who in Kat's view deserved the best, and any day now they would be welcoming their first baby; which was pretty cool and scary to think about, babies in a home of warriors. For pureblood vampires conception was hard, females only went through two fertile periods a year and even then conception was difficult. Half vampires had a better chance of conception especially if they were males, but turned vampires were for the most part infertile due to the major physiological changes their bodies had endured to become vampires. Of course when Fate decided something it was damn hard to fight against it and SOB, a turned vampire and fellow Night Warrior, was now also expecting a baby with his adjustor and true mate Xia. Shit had been changing so quickly around them it was hard to keep up. Hell, Brendt had found his true mate in a shifter for crying out loud and his brother Keon had actually mated a witch, and said witch was now a permanent fixture in the Night Warrior family. Calix hated witches, she knew why and she understood his animosity, but now he was forced to be civil not only because of their alliance to The Daughters of Justice Coven, but also because Keon would set the whole damn Compound on fire if anyone disrespected his mate. Personally, Kat had no beef with witches and The Daughters of Justice had proven themselves as worthy fighters and allies. They needed as many allies as they could get because Malachi's army had doubled, and with the inclusion of zombies and demons the fight had tripled. Malachi depended on his lieutenants, hiding behind them the bastard sent them to either collect followers or destroy life. Malachi had been part of the Vampire High Council himself centuries ago until one day he had wanted more than he had; he had wanted to rule them all. Of course that didn't go over too well with the elders, so he orchestrated a massacre like the vampire nation had not seen before, eliminating in one fell sweep most of the ruling vampires; as it was; only one of the council members had survived the attack. He then became and recruited the oldest living and most powerful vampires amongst them to fill the seats at the Vampire High Council. Their first order of business had been to create the Night Warriors to protect not only them, but also the citizens of Rivercast, and most of all to capture and kill Malachi and his accomplices. Katerina had been amongst that first group of fighters, an unlikely candidate for sure. As the daughter of one of the most affluent aristocratic families she was viewed as a prize for some lucky male, a pureblood vampire female is treated as a jewel because the race depends on her and her ability to procreate, and if on top of that you were part of the upper echelon you were pretty much revered and coddled. Katerina had played her part as a pretty aristocratic darling for years, but what she truly enjoyed was the fights and mischief she had found with her friends Calix and Merrick. She still remembered the first day she set eyes on the pair of young vampires. They had been at a ball and she had been bored out of her mind. At twelve years old she had hated her gown and all the boning and hoops that she had to wear to be seen in public. She was expected to sit properly while the boys played outside and got into all sorts of shenanigans. She wanted shenanigans and she knew the best of those were found with the pair of them. Every girl and boy knew Calix and Merrick, for once they were the most handsome of them all, all the girls were enamored of them and all the boys wanted to either be them or be accepted into their tight little group. Kat fell a bit into both categories, she was enamored and she wanted to be part of their group as well. She had seen mischief in their eyes at the ball and low murmurs filled with laughter coming from where they had huddled, next to the blood wine. They were up to something and she was determined to find out what. So that night she followed them out into the night, in her silk slippers making sure they didn't hear her. The pair had been walking towards the mansion of council member Fiore, a bigger stiff you would be hard-pressed to find. Merrick had retrieved a pouch from inside his jacket and shown the contents to Calix who had whooped and punched his friend good-naturedly. Of course Kat really wanted to know what was in the pouch so she moved to a nearby tree and fought her skirts until she was able to climb on the low branch.

You'll see better from down here lass, had come the voice from the lawn.

It had been Merrick. Kat had been scared, but Merrick and Calix had been surprisingly willing to share in their mischief with what Calix called the baby. She knew they were either eighteen or seventeen and of course to them she would be a baby, but with that first firework she set outside councilman Fiore's house she was in. They taught her many bad things those two, but way too soon they both went away. Merrick was first, going to France to study medicine; then a couple years later Calix had also gone to travel the world. Oh how she had wanted to go with him, but that was impossible for her. After almost half a century both Merrick and Calix had returned home to England. She had been worried about it. What if they no longer recognized her or wanted her to tag along? She had missed them terribly and there were now so many more things she could do. Surprisingly they had both remembered her fondly and treated her just the same; to most males she was the vixen, the prized beauty of the race; to them she was Kat, the baby, and they took up just where they had left off. So it came as no surprise to anyone when together they had crossed the ocean to the new world, along with the Vampire High Council, who believed they had found their haven in what they saw as a new Lore metropolis, where Lore races could flourish and live in peace and prosperity. The new settlement was called Rivercast. Vampire aristocracy soon followed the council, and just like that Rivercast had become their home. Life had been indeed ideal for a long time, well until Malachi decided he wanted to be the ruler of all. The massacre took out half of the Vampire population, her father one of the victims. It was her right to avenge her family and the new elders Kuran, Palomino and Dorotax gave her that chance. Many of those first Night Warriors had been recruited by the elders themselves, turned just for that purpose. After the first encounter with Malachi's then accomplices it was clear who their leader would be. Calix had the power, skills, and intellect, not to count the status amongst the race. He was, to all that could see, a force to be reckon with and he very much still was. So the Council made a declaration appointing him as leader and voice of the Night Warriors. He had been so proud that night; the memory made Kat smile now because the poor male was so fed up with the Council and all the bullshit they put him through that if he knew back then, he would have probably run away or at least give up the position to another.

As it was Calix had been petitioning the ruling Vampire High Council for permission to recruit more warriors for decades, but their governing body of elders and the Vampire Committee of Representatives especially, had always made it difficult. They needed the strongest of vampires to join in to fight the evil forces and to protect those who lived in the city of Rivercast, but the council had adamantly refused that Calix recruited any pureblood vampires at all, even if the individual was willing and in some cases eager to become a member of the best and most kick ass fighting force of the vampire nation. Not to toot their own horn, but The Night Warriors had fought on all cylinders for centuries against everything the warlock vampire Malachi had thrown their way. The Vampire High Council had given permission to Calix to turn humans for the purpose of refilling their ranks, but Calix had been opposed to it. You live and you learn, he had told her, for at the beginning when the first losses came he had done just that with terrible repercussions that Kat was sure still haunted their fearless leader. So no turning humans, something only purebloods had the ability to do. Calix and Kat were the only purebloods left in the Night Warriors. As a pureblood, being a vampire was their reality from birth, they had been born and raised in the vampire nation, but for those that did not it was a hard transition, and sometimes even impossible to reconcile. If you had no cemented higher purpose and driving force behind you, being turned into a being that needed blood to survive and could no longer abide the sun or perhaps even create life beyond yourself was in some cases too much to bear. They had lost some comrades that way, by their own hands. Not to say turned vampires were weak, some purebloods thought that, but not her, she knew better. Turned vampires weren't inferior or weak, not at all, and especially if they were mated to a one true mate. A thing of myth and legend, the one true mate's touch, the one that electrified and united two ends of the same rope was a gift from Fate herself. If you found that being, you never let go and your powers grew and in some cases manifested for the first time. If she had not seen it in her fellow Night Warriors she would never have believed such a thing existed outside of fairytales told to little girls at night. But the twins, Jay, her London and even their psychotic SOB had found their true mates in the span of a year or so. Thad had been the last victim or lottery winner as it may. He had just mated a fairy that had come to help them in the creation of an anti-zombie vaccine of sorts. Katerina liked the girl; she was very intelligent and would be an asset to them with all her knowledge of poisons and her apothecary skills. A message from Fate had come early on that they would all find their true mates before the worst of the worst came, and by the looks of things that time was quickly approaching. Would that mean her one true mate was out there just waiting to touch her and give her powers beyond compare? Perhaps, but as Calix had told her in the past, Fate was a bitchy, tricky and sometimes unfair entity and perhaps the true mate magic was done. He didn't seem worried by it, if Kat was honest Calix looked downright relieved by the thought. Whatever, if it happened to her now or in a hundred years, heck even if it never did, she would not lose sleep over it. What she had been losing sleep over lately was not being out there killing bastards and sending them to the beyond. This last week during her classes she had felt antsy and anxious. She had tried to hide it from her trainees, but that damn Russian ex-enforcer Niklav had been staring at her, almost through her the whole time. When the all call had come through to all the Night Warriors' phones the night of the Necromancer fight Niklav had stopped the sparring he had been doing with Kass, and had walked right in front of her, invading her personal space and risking a punch in the face to tell her just one word, GO!

Too many emotions had been unleashed at the sound of that one word, accented as it was, but it had been the shot in the air so to speak that she had needed to hear. She had immediately teleported to London at the old Army Cemetery where the Necromancer had been in the process of reviving a battalion of true zombies. Her whip hand had been itching and she could swear her sword was singing in anticipation. It had been beautiful, miraculously cleansing, a comeback. Every kill, every flying body part and grunt refueling her imprisoned confidence. She had reclaimed her place as a force of nature against evil; no longer will the demons hold her back. It was long past time to get rid of the stench of fear that had somehow clutched her heart in its punishing grip. She had felt free, she had felt her old self resurface and scream in her face, About fucking time! And now she just couldn’t go back. She didn't