Pitch Black (Until Dawn, Book 4)

by J. N. Baker

  “Glad you decided to join us,” Baldric said, raising his wine glass toward me.

  I nodded in response but didn’t say anything.

  While Baldric’s people chatted amongst themselves about nothing in particular, I studied them over my mug like they were aliens from some distant planet that I couldn’t quite figure out.

  “So, how do you like the castle?” Philip asked, coming to sit on the floor beside me. I noticed how Baldric’s dark eyes followed the shift’s movements. The look on his face wasn’t exactly threatening. Wary might be a better word for it. He wasn’t sure who he could trust around me, even amongst his own people. Roland’s betrayal really messed with his head.

  “Um, it’s really something,” I said, turning my attention to the big shift.

  “I helped design it,” the shift said proudly.

  “Really? That’s …” I trailed off as a mop of bleach-blond hair toddled into the room.

  The toddler, no more than eighteen months old if I were to guess, waddled behind the chair Baldric was reclined in and all hell broke loose.

  Baldric vanished from the chair, reappearing behind the child and grabbing her around the middle, lifting her into the air with a growl.

  “No!”

  I was on my feet and moving before I could think it through. And I wasn’t the only one.

  Olive lunged for me in a flash of fangs. I easily dodged her, leaping over another vampire as I dove for Baldric. I ripped the small child out of his clutches and threw my arm out, the white-hot lightning dancing around my hand, ready for anyone who attempted to take the girl from me.

  “You stay away from her!” I shouted at Baldric, who was gawking at me with wide eyes. As was everyone else in the group, including Lindsay and Philip.

  The toddler let out a small whine, her lip quivering as she—much to my dismay—reached out for Baldric.

  “Baldy!”

  “What on Earth are you doing?” Baldric snapped, taking a step toward us.

  Ignoring the child’s continued reaching for the so-called king, I held her tighter against me, stepping away from him, the lightning burning my hand growing brighter in warning.

  “You will not kill her!”

  Baldric’s brows furrowed and he exchanged a look with Olive. “Again, what are you talking about? Of course, I would not kill her.”

  “Yeah right,” I scoffed. “Just like I’m sure you didn’t kill Markus’s little girl.”

  He looked utterly disgusted by that accusation. “I did no such thing. I would never do anything to hurt a child, let alone kill one.”

  As if to drive his point home, the little girl in my arms squirmed once more, reaching out to him. Ignoring the threat of being electrocuted, Baldric stepped forward, taking the child from me. She nestled into his chest, playing with a tiny handful of his long hair before putting it into her mouth. The lightning receded from my hand, leaving charred flesh and confusion behind.

  Despite how comfortable she looked in his arms, I couldn’t get Markus’s words out of my head. He killed my wife and five-year-old daughter when I failed to complete a mission on time.

  “Liar,” I all but snarled. I probably should have filtered myself around a child, but I was no saint. Far from it, actually. “You killed hundreds of thousands of children the second you destroyed the whole godforsaken world to start your bloody war.”

  Lindsay came up and took the child from a now seething Baldric, soothing her as she hurried to remove her from the room.

  Baldric stepped into my space, his nose damn near touching mine as he glowered down at me. “You are right, this is war. And in war we do things we do not particularly like. I have done many things I am not proud of for the greater good of my people, but let me make myself perfectly clear. I never harmed a single hair on Markus’s daughter’s head. I cared deeply about that girl and I did not kill her. That heinous act belongs to William. You have been fed many lies,” he continued, “but remember, my dear, all stories have two sides.”

  Olive all but threw me into my room, though she didn’t lock the door on her way out as I expected her to. After all, I had sort of attacked her king. I figured I’d pretty much obliterated any trust he and I had started to form, however shaky it might have been.

  I sat on the edge of my bed with a huff, wishing I’d managed to at least grab my book and maybe my mug of whiskey before being not-locked back up. I could use a drink—or ten—after that maddening scene with “Baldy.”

  All stories have two sides.

  I scrubbed my hands over my face, hating that I felt like I had egg on it. I groaned, falling back on the bed.

  My door creaked open and I turned my head to see Lindsay stepping inside, a dog bed of all things tucked under her arm.

  “I’m supposed to be your guard overnight,” she said evenly. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d much rather stay in here where it’s warm than out in the hallway. Fur only does so much, you know?”

  “Um, yeah, that’s fine,” I told her, pushing to sit and shoving away the odd urge I had to apologize to her for who-knew-what. It was Baldric I had attacked—both physically and verbally. Though, I guess in attacking him, I was also attacking his people.

  She dropped her “bed” by the door and pulled something out of her back pocket. “You left this behind,” she said, handing me the book I’d taken from the library.

  I ran a hand over the cover before setting it on the bedside table. “Thanks,” I muttered. I didn’t bother asking if she’d also grabbed my beverage. Books and booze would have been too good to be true. At least I’d have new reading material—something other than the collection of eighties smut decorating my small bookshelf. Sometimes I wondered who the hell stocked it. Maybe Baldric thought they would get me in the mood for him. Ha.

  Lindsay plopped down on her little bed, looking only mildly ridiculous. “He meant what he told you,” she said. “Baldric would never hurt Scarlett.”

  “Scarlett?”

  “The little girl you thought you were saving from the big bad wolf,” she sneered. “The king would never do anything to hurt her. She adores him.”

  Rather than bring up Markus’s daughter again, I asked, “Is she yours?”

  “Oh no. No munchkins for me yet,” Lindsay said with a laugh, and then her face dropped. “No, Scar’s parents both died during the Great Battle.”

  “Both of them?” She was an orphan? The thought left a lump in my throat and a knot in my stomach. “Baldric forced them both to fight even though they had such a young child?”

  She shook her head. “Not at all. They both wanted to fight. The king actually tried to convince Scarlett’s mother not to go, just in case…you know. But she refused. She believed in our cause; they both did. They died fighting for what they felt was right.”

  “And Scarlett has no other family?” I asked.

  “She has us,” Lindsay replied curtly. “She’s a shift—or at least she will be. Both of her parents were powerful shifts. They’d tried for over two centuries to have a child. Shifts normally conceive rather easily.”

  A pang shot through my chest knowing I’d never be so lucky—no matter how many centuries went by. Chosen were like vampires. We were not born…we were created.

  “Scar was their little miracle,” she continued. “They loved her so damn much. That little girl was their whole world. Now she’s ours.”

  And yet they both chose to fight and die for Baldric’s war—a war that had stripped me of my own ability to have children. They chose to risk their lives so a power-hungry monster could take over the world rather than stay with their daughter. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

  “He’s right, you know?” she went on to say. “You’ve been force-fed a lot of bullshit from William and his people.”

  “Maybe it’s you who has been lied to,” I countered. “Have you ever thought of that?”

  She shrugged in response. “That’s a valid point. But I know it’s not true. I trust Baldri
c entirely. Can you say the same about William?”

  I opened my mouth to respond but no words came out. Did I trust William? He was the man who’d ripped me from my old life. The one who took me away from Cody and Josh, and even Lindsay. He’d beaten me bloody and forced me to be a heartless monster, just like him. And still, I found I trusted William a hell of a lot more than I trusted Baldric.

  But completely?

  “Maybe while you’re here with us, you’ll finally discover the truth,” she continued when I didn’t respond. “The real truth.”

  “And what is the real truth?” I asked. “What is this other side of the story?”

  Lindsay sighed, stripping off her clothes to shift. “That isn’t my story to tell,” she said. “But what I will say is that we didn’t start this war, Zoe. But we sure as shit are going to finish it. Now, get some sleep. I was told you’ll be training first thing tomorrow.”

  After a night of tossing and turning, I awoke to find Lindsay and her doggy bed already gone. I assumed that meant Josh was standing outside my door at his new post. That thought alone was the only thing that had me dragging my tired ass out of bed and scrambling to get into my training clothes.

  As I expected, when I swung open the surprisingly-still-unlocked door, Josh was there, his blue eyes finding mine. Heat pooled in my stomach at the sight of him, at the memory of his lips on mine in that dark corner of Baldric’s library. That was quickly becoming my favorite room in this whole damn castle for a number of reasons.

  “He’s in a mood today” was Josh’s only greeting to me. “Watch yourself.”

  Josh turned and led the way through the castle and out the main gates to the large training ground, lit up by a circle of burning torches. So many, in fact, that one could almost forget we were living in absolute darkness. I was honestly shocked the heat from all those torches didn’t melt the snow.

  Baldric was already there, as usual, though he wasn’t waiting around for me as he normally was. I watched him in silence, the hulking muscles under his black thermal flexing as he swung the massive longsword at his target. The target being a male vampire who moved far too gracefully for someone so big.

  The vamp had a sword clutched in his hands, bringing it up to block Baldric’s blow—a blow that would have knocked a lesser vampire on their ass. His speed and agility, and his ability to withstand Baldric’s attacks, made me want to spar with him too. Then again, maybe that was why he was there. Maybe I was to fight them both.

  I glanced over my shoulder to ask Josh but he was already gone. Baldric apparently wasn’t the only one in a mood today. Or perhaps after nearly being caught the night before, Josh was being extra cautious.

  The would-be king roared, drawing my attention back to the melee as he lunged for the vamp again, swiping his blade at the man’s stomach and missing by no more than an inch. I plopped myself down where I’d been standing and kicked out my feet, more than happy to watch someone else get their ass kicked instead of me. Plus, I was pretty sure this was what it looked like when the gladiators fought in the Colosseum. All we needed now was a lion. Maybe Josh’s shift buddy would volunteer.

  I watched the two giant men go at each other like true warriors and, as much as I loathed to admit it, I was impressed with how well Baldric wielded a two-handed longsword with only one hand. Each blow was swift and controlled as he descended upon the vampire, pushing him back despite how well the vamp danced around each well-placed swing of his sword.

  The fanger’s sweat-slicked bronze skin glistened in the surrounding torchlight as he moved, his muscles on full display unlike Baldric’s. The vampire’s gray eyes shifted to where I sat, throwing me a wink which inevitably threw him the fight.

  A second Baldric appeared behind him, snatching away his weapon while the real Baldric brought the tip of his blade to the man’s throat, drawing the thinnest line of blood.

  “Never let yourself get distracted, Felix,” Baldric said, patting the big man on the shoulder. “Not even by a pretty lady.”

  The vampire laughed, retrieving and sheathing his sword. “As you say, Your Majesty.”

  “Find Olive,” Baldric told him. “Help her prepare for the next hunt. Our supplies are a bit lower than I’d like.”

  The vampire, Felix, nodded and then bowed before turning and leaving the training grounds. But not before flashing me one last wink on his way out.

  I stood, dusting the snow from my pants before approaching Baldric. When he didn’t bother looking at me, I knew he was still pissed. This was about to become our most brutal training session yet if I didn’t say something…and fast.

  I could be the bigger person and apologize—whether I meant it or not.

  Putting on my big girl panties and smoothing out my resting bitch face to something closer to neutral, I stepped in front of Baldric so he was forced to look at me. “I’m sorry for what I said last night,” I told him. “Sometimes the truth is hard to find, but I’d like to find it. Whatever it may be.”

  His dark eyes searched mine for an uncomfortably long minute. “You have nothing to apologize for,” he finally said. “It is not your fault you have been lied to for so many years. Now, let us train.”

  Was it really that simple? One half-assed apology and he was over it? Maybe he and William weren’t so alike after all.

  “Today I want you to project your power out to multiple points,” he continued. “Much like you did when you killed a number of my pets.”

  By pets, he meant the Sythen. Only a monster like Baldric would consider those vile creatures “pets.” The dragon-like serpent beasts were the bane of my existence. They—along with Roland—were the cause for my temporary insanity along with Cindy’s death. They were also the reason I’d nearly died, and I thought Josh had as well. If I could, I’d burn all the winged fuckers to the ground and then piss on their graves.

  Speaking of the Sythen, I hadn’t actually seen a single one since coming to Baldric’s kingdom.

  “Where are they?” I asked, eyes going to the blackened sky.

  “The Sythen?” he responded. “They do not enter the kingdom unless called upon. As you can imagine, being wild beasts, they are a bit unpredictable. Typically, they stick to the islands farther north.”

  “Good.”

  Baldric chuckled. “Not a fan of my beasts, I see.”

  I glowered at him, fists clenching and unclenching at my sides. “You think? One of the damn things made me kill one of my best friends. Not to mention the same beast almost killed me. Then where would you be now?”

  His face hardened at my words, whether from what his creature did to me or the thought of not having me, I wasn’t sure. Likely both. “Yes. Using the blood of the Sythen was a trick Roland loved to play. I did not much care for it.”

  “And yet you let him,” I snapped back, feeling the same old rage building within me all over again.

  “War is not always pretty,” he said flatly, stepping closer to me. “Though you should know that I did not order him to poison you as he did. I did not even know he had until the damage had already been done.”

  I hated that I almost believed him. After his reaction to Roland’s treatment of me in the dungeon, I didn’t have much reason not to believe Baldric when it came to my safety.

  “I don’t know how I used my power like that,” I said, bringing us back to a safer topic: fighting. “The power overcame me. It just happened.”

  “And during the battle?” he prompted, referring to when I’d fried a couple hundred of his people on my wild rampage.

  “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I was angry and wanted to kill everyone who’d wronged me, namely you. I lost myself to the rage.”

  I left out that I was in such a rage because I’d thought Baldric’s beast had killed the man I loved. Probably best not to bring Josh up too much, especially not how I felt about him.

  “So, it seems the level of your power is connected to your emotions—to your anger and likely your need to protec
t those you care about. Perhaps you just need a little push…”

  I braced myself for him to grab either Josh or Lindsay to use in order to bring my powers out, just as William and Jade had done to me and even I’d done to Annie. I still wasn’t proud of stooping to William’s tactics. Even if they had worked.

  Only Baldric didn’t move to grab either of them. Instead, the image of Annie flickered into existence in front of me.

  I slapped a hand over my mouth to stop myself from crying out. I reached for her with shaky fingers, watching them go straight through her. An illusion. A perfect likeness of the sweetest person left on this wretched Earth.

  “You want to protect her, do you not?” he asked, walking forward until he was standing beside her.

  “Of course,” I retorted. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  After all, I’d exchanged my life for the lives of my people. For Annie’s, who Baldric was threatening to rip to pieces. When I closed my eyes, I could still see her hanging between those two giants, screaming in pain. It was an image I wouldn’t soon forget.

  “Then protect her,” he said simply.

  Annie’s image vanished, only to reappear in the center of the training area. And then five more illusions flickered into existence around her. Images Baldric knew I would hate.

  The Sythen hissed in unison, saliva dripping from their massive jaws, blood-red eyes locked onto Annie.

  “It isn’t real,” I said. And I knew it wasn’t, but that didn’t stop the image from making my stomach roll. I truly hated those damn beasts.

  “Of course not,” Baldric agreed. “It does not need to be for you to learn how to reach the full potential of your power. You just need to believe it is real.”

  “Use my imagination, is that what you’re saying?” I almost laughed. I likely would have if it weren’t for the five enormous beasts creeping closer to Illusion Annie.

  Baldric shrugged. “I suppose so. If this is not enough, I can show you what it would look like if they were to rip her limb from limb.”

  “You nearly showed me that for real with your stupid giants,” I ground out, palms starting to sweat as the beasts closed the distance to the image of my friend.