Ordained Read Free

and pretend she was another link in the chain of Eraticus’ rage. To her disappointment, she was unable to do so.
    Emily was incredibly grateful for the interference that extended her life; she would have done anything towards repayment. But her savior would only accept two promises: to hide her identity and involvement in Eraticus’ death and to not sever ties with the Order. The latter was disheartening, but she had managed to endure silently over the years.
    “You know, Sunday is the one day we get to sleep in around here. Would it kill you awfully to have this tiff on another day of the week? May I perhaps suggest Wednesday? It’ll give me time to prepare.” She figured he had. He certainly didn’t use the time to clean himself up for the day.
    She huffed. “Come on Ethan, you won’t have a life to get to on that day either,” replied Emily as she handed him a cup of coffee.
    “Fine. So what the hell are you going to blabber on about this time?” asked Ethan. He softly blew air over his coffee before tasting.
    “No blabbering. Just leaving.”
    “You can’t bloody leave,” he said, looking annoyed. “You’re in the middle of a competition, which you’re winning and which makes me look good.”
    Emily fought the urge to roll her eyes into the back of her head. “Ethan, I left this school nine years ago. I don’t bloody care about competing with hunters I grew up training with. Who the hell cares who’s best? You’re not gonna fire any of the losers. We’re in limited supply. I believe the real world calls that job security.”
    “You can’t leave. You’re here for a purpose.” Ethan reached for the cream in the center of the table and began stirring it into his coffee.
    Emily sighed. She was tired, stressed and becoming more impatient with each passing day. “Let’s just cut the crap. I’m here for one reason.”
    “Charm school?” Ethan interrupted. “I’m afraid you missed that class. It was last month.”
    She looked him firmly in the eyes. “Has the containment spell surrounding Morphus worn off yet?” She had him at the name.
    Dumbfounded, he slowly extended each word twice longer than necessary, “How the hell do you know about him?”

 
    Chapter Four

    C hancellor Moore stared down the coffee pot in his office, commanding the dripping to stop. He needed his coffee. Contemplating the morning’s issues was going to require an attention span he no longer seemed to have.
    He had spent forty-two years developing young children into full grown hunters, knowing full well that each and every one of them would perish on their twenty-fifth birthday. None of his pupils were any more remarkable than the others training in the school. Perhaps that was his fault. For forty-two years he taught them to defeat vampires but not the demon destined to kill them.
    Long ago, after several years of death, the Order was simply upset. After ten years, they were desperate for help. After one hundred years, it had long been accepted that Eraticus was undefeatable and hunters were destined to die. Five hundred years later, death was absolute and hunters were automatically replaced after twenty-five years. Eight hunters had died under his direct expertise. Their memories were burned into his thoughts with no chance of relent. Robert, Lilley, Willis, Kierse, Irma, Bethany, Mallory, Amanda. For forty-two years he failed them. Then, something remarkable and unexpected happened.
    Emily Davis was good, well skilled, he had to admit. But compared to every other hunter released over his time here, she seemed no better, no more special than the rest. Yet she alone returned. She alone gave him hope for the future of the Order. For the first time since he took over the post of Chancellor, he was able to rest - at least momentarily.
    For within two years he learned the time for Morphus had come, a foe far more deadly and devastating than Eraticus had ever been. Far beyond Emily’s capabilities, he was sure. How he