Ordained Read Free Page B

insubordination - very unlike his normal subservient demeanor.
    To Ethan, he explained, “We have had only one Abigail since the hunter line began.” Switching his focus to Emily, he continued, “I was told that she too died against Eraticus.”
    “Really?” Emily mocked, crossing her arms. “Did you ever find a body?”
    “Her whereabouts were unknown to the Order during the years that preceded her death.”
    A sense of annoyance overcame Emily’s face. “You keep saying that like she’s actually dead.”
    His forehead creased as his eyes sharpened. Surely she was. She was the one hunter the Order had hoped could defeat Eraticus. Apparently she was the most skilled hunter to have ever been produced, but when subsequent hunters in birth rank continued to fall on their twenty-fifth birthday, it was determined that she too must have fallen. Eraticus didn’t simply skip a hunter, particularly one with an aura as strong as Abigail’s. Hers would have fed him for a long time.
    He turned the key to a hidden locked drawer within the desk and pulled out an aged journal. The moleskin edges were rolled up and the ratty journal spilled a few of its pages as he untied the thin straps. He flipped to page thirty-four, to a passage accompanied by a hand-drawn portrait of a teenage girl, no older than fifteen. She had an angelic face but her eyes were drawn cold and sullen, almost evil. The name Abigail Sorrensten was written in calligraphy underneath the portrait.
    Moore passed it to Emily. “Is this the Abigail you speak of?”
    Jayden and Ethan angled to study the journal from a distance.
    Emily needed but a second. “Yes.”
    Moore closed his eyes briefly. He was beginning to understand why Emily thought the Order would fear Abigail’s return, should she truly be alive.
    Ethan’s eyes squinted to read the date on the journal. “This can’t be right. This was drawn in 1809. That would mean she was born in the eighteenth century.”
    To his surprise, Emily did a double-take on the journal entry.
    “1794 to be exact,” said the Chancellor.
    Emily’s face recoiled back to normal. Her knowledge was so extensive that she couldn’t have come upon the information on her own. Someone was feeding it to her, someone who had managed to unearth these secrets. If it really was Abigail, she would be more than two hundred years old, a feat that would make her immortal. A hunter, immortal, when all others have fallen but twenty-something years in.
    Emily flipped to the following page, to another portrait, one of a man in his mid-thirties. A kinder rendition than the artist gave on the previous page. The drawing of Noel Berekin showed confidence and humanity.
    Emily passed the journal back to Moore. “Here. You’ll be asking for him too.”
    “Noel is alive as well?”
    Curious . Noel had been Abigail’s guardian from childhood that was asked to collect her at sixteen. How could a hunter and an honorary advisor from different genetic lines be alive to this day? Surely a magical reason was the cause. Or reincarnation. Was this the original Abigail or a recycled version of some type?
    Better the latter, for the former would surely kill them all.

 
    Chapter Five

    Outside the wind lashed a mixture of rain and snow against the structure. The windows whistled at Emily as she traveled through the hallway on the exterior of the manor. A huge burden had been lifted off her shoulders. She hated lying to her friends about Eraticus. They had asked her over and over again to tell them the tale of the greatest fight their organization had ever known. She tried to avoid it but it always came up in conversation. As the weeks went by, Emily removed herself from the common areas and sought solitude. It was with great relief, after her meeting with Ethan and the Chancellor, that she could pull Darby and Mira aside and tell them the truth about what happened that devastating night.
    “You mean to tell me there’s a vampire huntress out there