In the Dark Read online

  “Wait here,” he said. “I will return.”

  I hunkered under the tree and watched him slip off soundlessly back the way we’d come. He ran like a cat: boneless, sneaky. In seconds, he vanished.

  My hair trailed into my eyes with the rain. Lightning flashed and I tried to stay in the shadow of the evergreen, tried to listen to the dark around me. All I heard was rain and thunder. Trembling all over, I leaned against the house and waited.

  HOUSE

  Sebastian stayed in shadow as much as he could as he made his way back to Ian’s home. The odd flash of lightning made keeping under cover more difficult. Damn the storm. He stayed low, eyes open, ears tuned for sounds that didn’t match the rhythm of the rain. Nothing.

  At the house he flattened himself against an outside wall and inched to the window he’d opened. With as little of his face as possible, he looked inside. Empty. Shadowy equipment, no movement. He pulled his face back and checked the yard again. Nothing. He slid his back along the house to the next window, checked inside again, then behind himself. Empty again. Quiet outside the house.

  At each window he repeated the motion until he’d circled the house. Empty. Outside the broken window he found one set of footprints. Heavy boots that could have belonged to a male or female, indented at the ball. Sebastian took a close look at the prints – whoever had made them had walked backwards into them, setting identical boots into identical prints. She had come in and left the same way, backward, into her own steps. He traced them back to the sidewalk, then followed the muddy prints as far as they went. In the rain the mud washed off the cement quickly, but he knew her direction.

  Watching for tracks in the grass, he picked up his pace. Aha. Footprints, same size, same weight, leaving the sidewalk. Heel indented this time. Walking forward. He traced them, easy enough in the mud the rain created. Over a fence. Through yards.

  There!

  A dark-haired woman, small and sleek, wearing black, vanished around the corner of a house. She turned and glanced at him as she did, only a moment. Sebastian broke into a run after her.

  He made the edge of the house, sword in hand – no sign of her. He turned full circle, searching, then checked the ground for hints. More footprints tracked from the grass onto the pavement, across, to the street – no prints on the other side of the street.

  Car.

  An engine roared to life behind him, the way he’d just turned his back to. He whirled in time to see the vehicle scream away, leaving a patch of rubber in the street.

  Damn!

  Sebastian gave chase, pushing himself, leaning forward so hard he would fall over if he didn’t run. For a moment he kept up, sure his speed would win him the chase.

  The car squealed around a corner, gunned the engine, and left him behind. Even his unnatural speed couldn’t catch it. He stopped running, instead straining his ears to pick its direction. It headed toward Seattle proper. Not enough information for him to continue chasing. Sebastian strained, listening, listening . . .

  Thunder crashed, ringing in his overly-sensitive ears until his head hummed. One moment passed. Another. His ears continued ringing, no other sound penetrating the racket. The car was well out of sight, too far for him to catch on foot.

  Damn.

  His head buzzed. He doubted his ears would clear before the end of the night. Jaw tight, he turned and jogged back to where he’d left Ian.

  One small victory: he’d seen the woman’s face. Not the one Ian had pointed out. Very different. Too different for a simple mix-up. So Ian had not one, but two hunters on her tail. Perhaps more?

  The thought didn’t merit serious consideration. Against Ian? A waste of resources. Even Kent shouldn’t have required more than one. No. Sebastian did not think they would find more than those two.

  Unless a pack had taken interest in Kent and his progeny, such as Sebastian himself had once belonged to. A group of vampires hunting together. If so, this pack must have been small, else Sebastian would have heard of it. He would, however, keep the idea in mind.

  Keeping all his available senses alert, he made his way cautiously back to Ian. The house and the evergreen he had left her beside came into view, but not the girl herself. He crept closer, searching. She may have been taken while he chased the dark-haired woman. There were, after all, two.

  A shadow moved – Ian. She hunkered under the tree, hugging herself and shivering. She jumped as he came closer, flattened against the wall and held still. She could hide, at least. Good.

  “We’re going back to the Half-Moon,” he said. “She escaped. There’s something I have to check.” He could not hear his own voice over the buzz of his head.

  With a nod, Ian pulled herself up and let him lead her through the rain.

  IAN

  When we reached Sebastian’s car, I dropped into the seat and shook. Someone was in my house. A strange woman who could only have broken in for one reason. I didn’t have one enemy, I had two.

  Or more.

  Sebastian got in, started the car and pulled away from the curb. I stared out the window, numb and trembling. Eventually I found the sense to wonder if I was okay.

  If you can wonder it, you probably are.

  I tested my arms and hands, flexing them, reaching up to rub my face. I moved a little slower than usual, still shaking, but everything acted how I expected. That seemed like a good sign. I looked out the window, watching the buildings go by, letting myself calm down. After a few minutes, I stopped breathing and didn’t feel like screaming.

  “Why are we going back?”

  Sebastian didn’t answer. I frowned at him, then threw my hands up. Now he’d stopped speaking to me.

  “What?” He glanced at me. I’d expected those blue eyes of his to look hard and angry; instead they seemed dancing and confused.

  Everything on my mind evaporated in concern. Something was wrong with him. Had he been attacked? Had she hurt him?

  “Are you all right?”

  He paused as if he had to think about it, then nodded and went back to watching the road. He didn’t seem all right. I waited quietly for him to tell me the truth. He stayed silent.

  “Why are we going back to the club?” I tried instead.

  No response. I waved a hand at him, hello, anyone home? He turned to me. “Why are we going back to the club?” I repeated.

  He looked back at the road. “I have something I need to check.”

  “What?” I asked. He stayed quiet. I wanted to stay worried about him, but frustration jumped up and grabbed me by the throat. I’d really had enough shit happen to me for one night.

  “Dammit, pay attention to me!”

  He looked over at me, confused and getting angry.

  Something snapped into place in my head.

  I frowned at him and didn’t say anything. He watched me, waiting for me to repeat myself, then looked back out the windshield when I didn’t.

  “Can you hear me?” I asked. No answer. I waved a hand at him to get his attention. “Can you hear me?”

  His eyes darkened. “Not for the moment,” he said. Reading my lips.

  Not for the moment. So that meant he hadn’t been deaf all this time.

  “What happened?”

  His eyes got darker. “She got into a car. I tried to listen to which way it went, and the thunder deafened me.”

  “Thunder?” I’d been out in the weather the same as him and I could still hear fine. But he’d turned back to driving. I decided to save the questions for when he could hear again. Or at least when he didn’t need to watch the road.

  We reached the Half-Moon. Sebastian parked his sporty little thing in the same lot as my car and got out. I couldn’t help glancing at my own car – still locked, waiting for me or a tow truck to come and get it.

  He walked around the back, quick. I had to stretch my legs to keep up. He rounded the corner a few steps ahead of me. I paused and opened my mouth to ask what the hell he was after – but I knew he wouldn’t hear. He wou
ldn’t find anything back here but garbage and puddles. And I was getting rained on. Mouth shut, hair dripping into my eyes, I sighed and followed.

  As I rounded the corner, I saw him kneel next to something that looked like garbage. Coming closer, what looked like garbage at first resolved into a person. Someone huddled against the back wall. I paused while rain trickled down my face. Then hurried to catch up.

  “Ian,” Sebastian called. The person jerked away from him, pushing closer to the wall. Crying.

  The person became a woman, dressed in club clothes, not rain clothes. She looked up at me hesitantly, one hand pushing wet, honey blond hair away from her makeup-smeared face.

  It was her. The one who took Kent. I froze.

  “Come here,” Sebastian said.

  I shifted my weight from foot to foot.

  “Come here,” Sebastian repeated, his voice flat.

  I forced my trembling legs a step closer, making sure to stay out of her reach. Her mascara must have started running a while ago, the rain had matted her hair to her head and she shivered in her little sequined top.

  My eyes popped wide open. Watery tears. Shivers from cold, not emotion. She was mortal.

  “Is this the woman you saw with Kent last night?” Sebastian turned to me so he could read my lips.

  Her terrified silver eyes flicked from one of us to the other. Not a gesture I would have expected from the cool, mean way she looked at me last night.

  “Y-e-e-e-s?” I said. “I mean, I think so. It looks like her.”

  “This girl is human,” Sebastian said. Like I couldn’t tell.

  “Yeah.” I shifted my weight. “I don’t think . . . I don’t know, but I don’t think the one last night was. She looked different last night – more like you. I mean, she moved like you, had the same kind of eyes . . . you know?” I bit my lip while Sebastian waited for me to finish. “Could a mortal . . . could a mortal even hurt . . .” I paused, not really wanting to say it.

  “It is possible.”

  We stared down at her, silent. She whimpered.

  “Twins?” I asked out loud, dubious.

  Sebastian’s eyes glittered as he took in the idea. “One a vampire, one not? Or both human, perhaps, one some sort of vampire hunter.”

  I nodded as if this all made sense.

  “Don’t hurt me,” the woman pleaded. “Don’t hurt me anymore.”

  I frowned.

  “What did you do to her?” I asked. Then, “Why did you leave her out in the rain?”

  “I fed from her,” Sebastian told me. “And I told her to wait here. The rain started while I followed you home.”

  “You left her here that long?”

  “I told you to wait for me in the club. If you had, she would only have been here a moment.”

  I ignored the jab. “Feeding isn’t supposed to hurt. What did you do to her?”

  “She’s frightened. Wouldn’t you be?”

  “Why are you scaring her?”

  His eyes turned impatient. “Enough, Ian. She will live.” He focused back on her. “You have a twin?”

  She shook her head, wet hair trailing into her eyes.

  “You have a sister?” he asked.

  She shook her head again.

  “Do you know anything of Kent, or Ian?”

  She shook her head miserably.

  Sebastian hissed to himself. “Do you know anything of vampires or other supernatural creatures?”

  “M-my roommate has a Ouija board,” she offered in a tiny voice.

  I threw my hands up. Worthless. I got the wrong one, I had to have. Different posture, different expression, different attitude . . . she looked less and less like the woman I’d seen by the second.

  “Ouija board?” Sebastian asked. He didn’t know what she meant.

  “It’s a game,” I said. “A stupid game where you’re supposed to talk to spirits. It doesn’t work.”

  He nodded slightly. I got the feeling he’d just cataloged that.

  “I can see no reason to further detain her,” he said to me. “She has no information. She is apparently not the one we seek.” He cocked his head at me, waiting for me to agree or not.

  I glanced down at the woman against the wall. She looked at me like she was waiting to be beaten. I looked away.

  “I’m sorry Sebastian,” I said. “It might have been the lighting . . . or something. I really thought this was her.”

  “Are you satisfied of your mistake? Do you no longer believe this woman to be the one we want?”

  I snuck one more look at her. She kept shivering. “I – I don’t think she’s the right one.”

  Sebastian nodded once, then turned to the girl. “Leave.”

  She scrambled up and ran down the alley as fast as her high heels would take her. I watched her, wishing I could apologize for the mistake. As if it would mean a whole lot – “sorry my friend here dragged you off and drank your blood. We thought you were someone else.”

  As her back vanished around a corner, I shifted my weight again. “Won’t she remember some guy biting her?”

  Sebastian shrugged. “Perhaps.”

  “But what about hiding? Staying secret?”

  “Who will believe her? And if they do, who will think to look for monsters?”

  I kept watching after her, even though I couldn’t see her anymore. “You didn’t have to hurt her. Or scare her.”

  His eyes flashed. “She is still alive. That is enough.”

  I knew what he meant. I wanted to forget what he’d said about killing anyone, though.

  “She won’t lead anyone to us. No one ever has.” Sebastian turned to go.

  “What do you mean, no one ever has?” I said to his back. “You do this to a lot of people or something?”

  I expected him to whirl back and yell at me, tensed for it, ready to yell myself. He didn’t turn. Of course, he couldn’t hear me. I stalked after him out to the car. He had his hand on the door by the time I reached him. He turned calmly, eyes curious.

  “No one ever has? You’ve done that before?” I gestured toward the alley.

  He blinked. “I’ve done worse, Ian. Much worse. You didn’t bother to question that when I told you.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m questioning that,” I snapped, pointing. “You don’t just go around scaring the daylights out of people or forcing them to sit in the rain or making them feed you!”

  “Why not?”

  My mouth flapped. I sputtered a few incoherent starts at a sentence, then stopped. He waited patiently for me to answer. I didn’t have one. Or rather, I didn’t have words for what was obvious to me.

  “You just don’t!” I finally came up with.

  He smiled, a nasty, skin-deep fake smile. It seemed angry. “You just don’t. I will do as I please.”

  “Does being a monster please you?” I snapped out before I could edit.

  It hit him. I could see it. His eyes turned light, sky blue, then dark and dangerous, suddenly, like he’d been rocked back on his heels. He stared me down, eyes boring into mine, wordless.

  I stared back, wondering what he would do to me. Because I knew. Something was terribly, terribly wrong with him. Inside. And he knew it – he was in pain. I suddenly felt sorry for him. And here I stood, pushing his buttons. I might as well have asked him to lop my stupid head off for me.

  But he won’t.

  He stared at me, eyes hard. “Get in the car.”

  I started shaking again, scared – afraid of him, afraid of what he must feel to make him glare at me like that.

  He didn’t move. Staring me into submission. I swallowed once, then turned and went to the passenger side and got in. He followed suit, not looking at me now that he had me cowed. Dead silent, he pulled into traffic and headed for his apartment. He wasn’t going to hurt me, just stare me into obedience. I felt kind of bad for snapping, so I supposed a little submission on my part was a fair trade.

  Halfway there, I reached out and touched his arm. When h
e glanced my way, I met his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  His eyes stayed flat while he looked at me. Then he lowered his eyes to my hand and brought them back up to my face. I ducked my head and took my hand back. He didn’t say anything, just went back to driving. I didn’t press.

  PENTHOUSE

  The drive home was . . . tense. Sebastian refused to look at Ian again, using his temporary deafness. He did not want to know what she had to say. He pulled into the parking garage, left the Vector and strode for the elevator. Part of him hoped he could leave her behind. He had taken her in only from boredom and curiosity, and she had pushed the limits of what he wanted to endure from her. She stayed with him, though she fidgeted in the elevator car.

  When the doors opened, he left her in the living room. She did not try to follow him. He went down the hall to the practice room and locked the door behind himself. Coat off, sword hung on its rack, he threw himself at the uneven bars, hauling himself up in one hard movement. Arms stiff, he held himself upright, then swung down and around to catch the higher of the two.

  He couldn’t hear if Ian moved in the apartment. The thunder had seen to that. If he had been paying attention, not caught up in the hunt, he would never have strained his ears. Of course the thunder would deafen him if he did, he knew that. He berated himself for carelessness.

  Monster, Ian had called him. Asked him, why do you do that?

  He swung around and held himself upright on the higher bar, then slowly lowered his body and raised it again, to keep from punching something. What was the use? He’d been gone for decades, hoping his absence might in some mystical way clear his mind and show him where he belonged. All he had to show for his time were some vague feelings of sympathy for a strange girl and a handful of used up memories of a long-ago mortal life.

  His eyes clenched shut.

  His mortal life.

  It pained him to think of that time, though he no longer knew why.

  Slowly, and almost unnoticed over the decades and centuries, he had forgotten. He’d had a life. Family. Friends. He’d been taken from them violently, against his will. But these were cold facts that held no emotion for him any longer. He knew them to be true, but he couldn’t remember them anymore. Even the moment in the alley with Kent, watching him die, listening to him ask after Ian – whatever emotion that had stirred, it was only an echo.