After Darkness Falls: After Darkness Falls Book One

by Sage, May

  Tired as she was, the descent seemed to take forever, but she finally arrived in an empty, dark, and damp chamber carved in the belly of the mountain.

  She looked around and, finding nothing, slumped on the floor, throwing her head back.

  Finally. Rest. Now if she could only close her eyes…

  "Don't."

  Chloe froze. There was nothing around. Her vision was clear, even in the darkness, and she didn't see anyone at all.

  "Don't close your eyes, little daughter. You're already fading from this world."

  She got to her feet with great effort and walked to the center of the room, looking around.

  "Where are you?"

  "Not far."

  "Why can't I see you?"

  "You will not wish to gaze upon me. You're frightened enough."

  She huffed. "Right. Because hearing voices without seeing their source isn't frightening at all."

  A second passed as Chloe once more wished she'd held her tongue.

  The thing in front of her was terrifying. A frail, graying corpse with eyes too bright and no substance at all, like a dried-up mummy.

  She gasped.

  "Stay here for a few thousand years and we'll see how pretty you are then."

  His voice was so light, teasing. And even in his state, she could tell he was smiling. It was a horrifying smile, but a smile nonetheless.

  "You're Eirikr," she said.

  The mummyish corpse inclined his head. Long silver-white strands of hair were still attached to his skull.

  "You look terrible."

  "I see you inherited my tact and kindness."

  Inherited. He said it like…

  But she knew that. Somehow, she'd suspected she was linked to him so long ago. When she'd stood at the end of the path leading to his cave. When she'd been told there were seven families, and Blair had refused to talk of the last. She'd been incredibly frustrated. Tell me, she'd wanted to scream.

  Tell me about my family.

  "What's your name, little daughter?"

  She cleared her throat.

  "Chloe. Chloe Miller…"

  "Chloe Eirikrson,” he corrected. “That's what they'll all call you, whispering behind your back like it’s a curse. You may as well claim the benefits."

  She didn't understand what he meant.

  "Because you went crazy?"

  The corpse seemed to smile again. "Our kind have unlimited power here. We outnumber all those who could tame us on Earth. And we outpower everyone else. For long—too long—vampires lived as gods, taming humanity under their heels. I was focused on my own missions, ignoring their barbarism. Then, I looked at the world and decided to change it. I forced them all back into the shadows. Because I am the monster they fear, and fear means respect."

  Even now, so frail and all but exsanguinated, he held an air of power that made her believe every word.

  "Then they locked you up."

  He inclined his head. "But my heirs continued my work. And when they, too, were betrayed, the huntsmen I'd armed had grown powerful enough to pose a real threat. So, our pestilential species didn't slaughter their way through countless mortals with impunity, as they used to."

  There were always three sides to the story. She'd heard and doubted the one her friends knew. Now she heard and doubted his. She suspected the truth was somewhere in the middle.

  Not that it mattered. Nothing mattered anymore. She felt it. She had moments. Minutes, if that.

  Chloe knew the blood of an ancestor was the answer, but she didn't ask for his. Even she could see that he had none to give. No more than a drop coursed through his veins.

  "Don't despair yet, little daughter. Help is on the way."

  She blinked, cheering up.

  "Tom?"

  The creature's eyes flashed. "Not quite."

  Then, he was gone. A burst of wind heading up the stairs.

  With her new immortal eyes, she'd been able to detect Levi's movements, but she couldn't see his. She doubted anyone could. Frail, powerless, decaying.

  Eirikr was none of these things.

  Monsters

  She heard the screams. The heart-wrenching yells. The pleas.

  "Spare me, I beg you. I'll serve you!"

  And the horrifying crushing sound of bone breaking.

  Then the smell. Blood. So much blood flowing.

  Chloe heard suctioning, gulping, and then an appreciative moan.

  She was going to be sick.

  After killing and draining she didn't know how many of her pursuants, Eirikr walked back down to the cave.

  Chloe couldn't believe her eyes.

  The dry corpse was gone, replaced by a man so handsome he put Levi to shame. The portrait in the huntsmen’s quarters in London hadn’t done him justice. Lean, with a muscular, well-built frame. The rag on his hips looked like the remnants of a kilt that once had some color. There was mud and blood on his golden skin, which she felt looked very natural and appropriate on a predator.

  Eirikr looked like her brother Tom. He even had the same hair as the rest of her family—dark at the roots and then unnaturally light an inch later.

  No one would have doubted that they were family. A family of crazy, beautiful creatures that didn't belong to this world.

  "Better, don't you think?"

  She had no words.

  Eirikr brought his wrist to his lip and bit down, drawing blood. At least she thought it was blood. But it was black—dark as night.

  She looked up to his eyes as he reached out, close to her mouth.

  Nothing had ever smelled as appetizing. Not even candy. She wanted that blood like she wanted her next breath.

  But there was something else she wanted more.

  "I can't…"

  She closed her eyes, the smell of his blood making her feel dizzy, mindless. Uncontrollable.

  "I can't be a monster," she finished.

  She couldn't become her father. Or end up locked in a cage like Eirikr because everyone was afraid of her. Better for her to leave this world now, when everyone could recall her with fondness, than to linger as a thing from their nightmares.

  Eirikr tilted his head.

  "Then who will? I have no way out of here, and your brother is no leader. Who will stand when the world needs justice?”

  She shook her head, too weak to argue. Plenty of other people were more suited to the task. Tris, Jack, and the rest of the huntsmen. Levi, who could move like lightning and command the likes of Cat and Mikar. Anyone.

  “Chloe, you were born to lead our house into the light. Because you have compassion, heart, and strength. Without you, our kind will rise again. There will be another Age of Blood, and none to stop our rule. The six clans will systematically destroy all threats—the witches, the huntsmen, anyone with a good heart, while they're scattered. You will unite them. You can rule all."

  She snorted. That certainly was another level of flattery.

  "Right."

  Just one word, but it dripped with the perfect amount of sarcasm.

  This time, Eirikr's smile was devastatingly beautiful.

  "Prove me wrong, then. Unless you're a coward. Which would be unseemly. My house has never fathered any spineless wenches."

  Anger. He was trying to provoke her, and it was working, awakening her mind a bit.

  She was no coward. She was just…

  Tired. So very tired.

  "As we debate, one of your friends is dying. There is no stopping it, but how many will follow? Another one has been bitten by a feral. Will you wallow in self-pity at my feet when the blood in our veins is the only cure?"

  Her eyes widened.

  "Who…where—" As difficult as it was, she closed her mouth to swallow some saliva before forcing out a complete sentence. “I thought there was no cure?”

  Levi had said a feral’s bite was contagious and impossible to reverse.

  “There wasn’t. Not with me stuck in here and your mortal blood still running through your
veins.”

  She was confused, and to her relief, Eirikr didn’t wait for her to ask questions before explaining, “I do not drink human blood. From the very beginning, my everything recoiled against it, and for a time, I drained whatever game I could hunt in the woods—bears, deer, even rats. But as Ariadne’s sickness spread through the lands, I found another food source.” His lip curled over his teeth. He had two elongated canines on each side.

  Then she understood. He drank vampire blood, not human blood.

  And he wasn’t crazy.

  “My house has evolved to survive on vampire blood without giving in to the frenzy that renders the ferals mindless. Those two thousand years of evolution course through your veins. A few drops of your blood would be enough to reverse the process.”

  Then Eirikr extended his arm again. His dark blood still marred his skin, but the wound he’d inflicted on himself had long been healed.

  "Drink, little daughter. Drink and rise. For their sake, if not yours."

  She wrapped her fingers around his forearm. Her eyes focused on the veins. The blood moved faster at each of Eirikr’s slow heartbeats.

  She felt a strange numbing pain around her gums and tasted iron in her mouth. Her blood. Sweeter than she remembered. Unfamiliar.

  Chloe opened her mouth wide to accommodate her new fangs, then closed it around her ancestor’s wrist, trying to aim for the veins.

  And then she drank.

  And drank, and drank again.

  She’d never been one to get drunk, because no cocktail had ever been so succulent, heady, addictive. She moaned in delight, holding on to Eirikr’s arm with her second hand.

  He laughed.

  “Try not to drain me, will you? It has been long since I’ve enjoyed the benefits of having a decent amount of blood in my system.”

  Oh. Right.

  Chloe let go of his arm. Right. She was drinking from a person, not a martini glass with a little umbrella.

  “Sorry?”

  He shrugged off her apology.

  “How do you feel?”

  She paused, having failed to notice any difference, but now that he pointed it out, she was…good.

  Great.

  The very notion of having been exhausted, spent, and ready to give up moments ago confused her.

  She got to her feet, wondering why she’d been on her knees at all.

  How did she feel?

  Restless. Unfocused. Chaotic.

  But above all…

  “Angry,” she replied.

  Eirikr grinned.

  “Good.”

  Newborn

  Whoever was behind the attack had been smart, Levi had to give them that. Sending their feral dogs first had ensured that the huntsmen and knights alike were occupied, and then their foot soldiers had been scattered throughout the unmanned territory.

  Levi and the huntsman at his back made short work of the group they’d encountered before sending Chloe on her way, then headed downhill to aid the others.

  It wasn’t pretty.

  Levi hadn’t dealt with huntsmen for an age, but he had to admit that they could certainly be useful. Not all of them were Jack Hunter, however. They were losing ground.

  Another hundred ferals had surrounded three of them, two young men and a woman who was quite gifted with her many knives. Her, he knew of. They weren’t acquainted, but there was only a handful of born vampires at any given time, and Levi made a point to remember their faces. Tris. Adrian’s daughter. He positioned himself as her six, guarding her back as they fought through that lot.

  Once they were dealt with, Levi said, “I hear three other groups—two south, one east. Let’s split.”

  Jack went south with the boys while Tris headed east with him.

  She froze as they arrived, screaming, “Bash!”

  The warning came too late. A feral behind the huntsman plunged its eight sharp fangs into his shoulder. From where he stood, Levi could smell the blood; it had broken the skin, which meant the man was already lost.

  Most would have fallen and screamed in agony, but Bash was strong. Not only did he remain on his feet, he also kept fighting, swinging his ax at any threat around him.

  Levi held Tris’s arm as she rushed toward her friend. She glared at him, but he just shook his head.

  “There’s nothing to do now. If you get close…”

  “Touch me again, you lose that arm,” the woman growled.

  She would make a devastating immortal when she changed.

  If she didn’t turn feral first.

  “If you want to help your friend, let’s clear the beasts,” Levi told her.

  She seemed to agree.

  The woman launched herself at them with a battle cry. Levi was no less brutal. He hated losing lives, even those he didn’t know. Hence why he remained on his hill, in his tower, behind a red door. Out here, people died, or worse.

  One head ripped off. A knife through a heart. A kick so hard it cracked a skull. One after the next, they fell, until there was silence.

  Levi turned to the huntsman. Bash.

  He’d given up standing and was now panting hard.

  His friends were approaching.

  “Stay away,” Bash said before Levi could caution them against getting too close. “I feel…”

  Levi knew how he felt.

  He took one step. Right away, four weapons were unsheathed as the huntsmen focused on him.

  They knew what his kind did to those who were turned when they wished to be kind. Give them a quick death.

  He held his hands up in the air.

  “I won’t hurt him. I can make him sleep, however. He won’t feel pain through the change.”

  “Is that a euphemism for death? Try, bloodsucker. We’ll see who’ll go to sleep.”

  They certainly didn’t lack guts.

  “Children, quiet. I don’t intend to dispense with a perfectly good test subject.”

  Cold, but true. And hopefully, it would get the point across.

  “I keep ferals for observation while I work on a cure. If we take him to my lab…”

  “Is there one?” Tris asked, her voice breaking. “A cure?”

  Levi shook his head. “Not yet.”

  He wished he could give a different answer, but he wasn’t one to lie.

  “I want to go. In the lab. I want to go,” Bash said, proving to be the wisest of the five.

  Levi walked forward again, pulling one of Alexius’s potions out of his jacket, glad he’d taken to keeping the sleeping draught with him.

  “Drink this.”

  The huntsman obeyed, and faded almost right away.

  Now that this immediate potential threat was dealt with, Levi listened to his surroundings. No more large groups, but he heard and felt plenty of intruders.

  He pulled keys out of his pocket and threw them at the fledgling.

  “You should be able to slip out now, if you take the ravine west. Head to Night Hill, last house before Skyhall. When you go in, there’s a study to the right. You’ll find suitable restraints in the chest of drawers. Do not leave him without chains.”

  The girl nodded. He hoped she obeyed. Students turning feral en masse was the last thing he needed right now.

  One huntsman carried each of Bash’s arms, a third walked in front, and the fourth closed the circle as they walked away. Levi started to hunt.

  Clearing ferals wasn’t fun. It equated to having a rat infestation. But hunting down vampires in full control of their senses was another matter altogether. Levi knew they heard him coming, felt the air cool as he closed in on them. He watched true fear in their eyes before bringing them to their knees.

  Killing a vampire wasn’t easy. He couldn’t just slit throats; that sort of wound could heal. He had to cut through the spine, rip out the heart. Fire or water could have done the job, but as he had none at hand, he had his work cut out.

  At first, Levi ripped his way through skeletons, ignoring the blood on his hands, but as the nu
mber of enemies thinned, he changed tactics.

  Finding a group of three, he made quick work of the first two, and then wrapped his bloody hand around the third’s throat before pulling him off his feet and holding him high.

  “Who sent you?”

  The first four vampires he questioned could not answer. They choked on any reply, not only because he was strangling them. Something prevented them from speaking.

  “True to the blood!” is what most would say.

  Just those four words.

  They were bound by magic, that much was obvious. Dammit. He stopped attempting to spare anyone, instead focusing on clearing his territory and, more importantly, finding Chloe.

  He couldn’t sense her location, not even through the faint bond that had always existed between them.

  As if she was fading. Losing energy. And no wonder.

  He couldn’t focus on that now. First, he had to kill the enemy to protect Oldcrest, his home, the hundreds of students here. Then, he’d find her.

  She was alive. He had to believe that. He’d find her and then hunt Tom down to get more blood for her. Or demand it from Ariadne herself if that’s what it took.

  He had to…

  Levi stopped in his tracks midway through striking a curly-haired blond vampire near Eirikr’s cave.

  Fire.

  As sure as there was water in his soul, the woman in front of him was all raging blue fire.

  There was nothing sweet about her. Nothing beautiful. She was too terrifying to be called that. Bewitching, fascinating, and irresistible would work, though.

  Chloe moved like a shadow, kicking the blond’s head and pushing the heel of her muddy boot into his chest.

  “Who sent you?”

  The man looked frantic as he struggled to break free. She pushed more of her weight forward, leaning in.

  “Who?”

  Her voice was so very beautiful, melodious, like honeysuckle.

  “We serve the queen,” he replied weakly. “She said there was an imposter. Someone who wanted to take everything she’s worked for these past hundred years. We were told it’d be a human girl with tricks.”

  The vampire looked ashamed now.

  “What queen?” Levi asked.

  Many bore the title. A hundred queens ruled around the world.