Page 5 of A Dawn Of Blood

My frown grows deeper. A midnight mass? I haven’t heard of one happening since the time of the Fausts’ first reign in sixteenth century.

It’s to the back of the standing crowd that the guards deposit me. When I glance over my shoulder, I see them getting settled in front of the now closed door.

This is mandatory? And it’s in strangely disciplined silence that the people are waiting. It makes the whole thing downright eerie, the way every movement echoes against the intricately carved walls.

My mind buzzing, I watch a gaunt male vampire in ceremonial robes climb to the raised pulpit under the largest set of three stained-glass windows to the front of the church. All eyes fix on him. It’s in that flat, dragged-out and somehow plaintive voice so characteristic of priests that he begins, “In the name of the Gods, the Mother and the Holy Blood.”

It makes my eyebrows shoot up, when everyone around me responds with a collective, echoing, “Fidelis sanguini.”

The ceremony continues in the same practiced, automatic tone, giving me the opportunity to look around for Lorcan and Raven. After all, this must be where the guards have takenthemas well.

But looking around only draws my attention to more weirdness.

One, the people in the pews all seem to be vampires — lavishly dressed individuals giving off aristocratic vibes. The ones standing to the back are all faes — drained-looking people wearing simple, inexpensive clothing with a blue badge on their right upper arms. As for shifters, I don’t just fail to find Lorcan and Raven. There doesn’t seem to be a single one attending this service.

Growing more and more confused, I pay more attention to the rest of my surroundings. It makes me suck in a sharp breath, when my gaze lands back on the priest.

The insignia on his robes, on the pulpit, on the stained-glass windows behind his back…

It’s all vampiric symbols, but there’s the familiar depiction of the sun and the moon thrown into the mix as well.

Baldur’sinsignia.

Fear floods me. When did he conquer France?

It’s at that exact moment that the people stop repeating the words of some prayer after the priest. There’s a moment of silence before he clears his throat and addresses us all inan equally pompous, but more conversational voice. “Beloved brothers and sisters…”

My ears prick up. Now I’m really curious to hear what he has to say.

“We are gathered here tonight to give thanks for the bounty we enjoy in our everyday lives,” he starts. “First and foremost, we give thanks for the Emperor…”

The Emperor?

“...our Sacred One, without whom we would be as lost as we were before Mother took us under her wing. His divine power he only ever uses for good — to put food on our tables, to build our cities, to protect us from those who would do us harm.”

“Fidelis sanguini,” the people all chant in unison.

Holy hell.

“Yet, despite all the selfless efforts and sacrifices of our Sacred One,” the priest continues, a healthy dose of self-righteous contempt coloring his voice, “there are still those among us with blackened hearts, who know not good from evil.”

Suddenly, there’s a disturbing restlessness all around me that makes me hold my breath in anticipation.

“As the Mother teaches us, there is no virtue higher than loyalty to the Empire, but even among you good, decent people of Troyes, there hide treacherous individuals. Tonight, we bring forth three of these plague-ridden rats, foryouto decide their punishment according to the will of the Gods.”

With this, the priest gives someone to his right a nod and three guards step up with three people in chains.

With the corner of my eye, I spot a woman standing next to me get on her toes, this malicious gleam in her eyes.

“What say you, people of Troyes?” the priest demands.

“Witches,” someone yells out, using an old derogatory term for faes. “To the work camp with them”

My eyebrows shoot up.

“Work camp,” people echo in unison, their voices growing more and more insistent.

The priest raises a hand to ask for silence, then gives a nod to the guards.

---