Absolution (League of Vampires Book 3)

by Rye Brewer

  I wondered how the girls were doing. They all went home with somebody, even Jenna. I was happy for her. She deserved a fun night. I only hoped she was smart about it—I had the feeling she was a virgin, and I felt sort of protective of her. She wanted so much to fit in with the rest of us. I made a mental note to call her first thing in the morning.

  Oh, wait. It’s almost first thing in the morning now.

  It would be dawn in a little while, and I was still following Gage down half-empty streets, all the way across town. I wondered what I planned to do once I caught up with him, or if I wanted to catch up with him at all.

  What if he walked into a brothel? Did they even have brothels? Or a drug den or something like that? What then? I wondered if I should maybe quit while I was ahead, cut my losses and get a cab. It would’ve been better to believe he was a good guy and leave it there.

  Finally, after what felt like forever, he walked through the tall, glass doors of a high rise. I was across the street when he did, and I craned my neck to look up, up, up. It seemed to go on forever. All glass, sparkling in even the dim pre-dawn light. Very swanky. So, he lived there. Lucky him.

  He wasn’t the only one going in, either.

  It was like everybody in the building had gone out that night and was just getting home. All of them were dressed roughly the same—club clothes, sort of like what I was wearing but more like what the other girls wore. Sexy. Fun. The clothes a person wore when they wanted to get noticed. I never could dress like that, no matter how many times Maddy or any of the others tried to convince me I should. I guessed I had the body for it. It was decent enough. I just never felt right, like I was wearing a costume that didn’t quite fit. How could I have fun when I felt awkward and not like myself?

  The sun was rising by the time I decided to head home. He wasn’t coming back out.

  I almost missed him, but I chalked that up to feeling tired and rumpled and disappointed. I didn’t know him before I left the club, and life would go on without him.

  I hailed a cab and climbed into the first one that stopped, leaning back against the seat with a sigh. Comfortable shoes or not, my feet hurt after all that walking. I guessed they would hurt no matter what I was wearing.

  My friends from the gym would be impressed with all that walking—I wished I wore a pedometer or something to record how far I had actually gone. But pedometers didn’t usually go well with dressy clothes. Even I knew that.

  It didn’t take long to get back home—dawn was the one time of day when traffic seemed to slow down a little. Not like I would’ve known that before then. I wasn’t exactly the early bird going after the worm.

  I climbed the front stairs with heavy feet, then went up another three floors. I half-hoped somebody would spot me and think I was doing a walk of shame. But no. For once, none of my nosy neighbors was around. Some people were actually asleep.

  “Hey, Chloe. I’m coming.” My kitty was purring away at the door as I unlocked it.

  Poor thing would’ve been waiting for me all night—I never stayed out as late as I had. She wound herself around my ankles the second I stepped through the door. I didn’t know whether she was being affectionate or trying to trip me as punishment for leaving her alone all night.

  “It’s not like I didn’t leave food for you, you big baby.” I pushed her out of my way before falling onto the bed without bothering to take off my dress first.

  She purred and rubbed herself against my back until I had to smile. At least there was somebody at home who was happy to see me.

  “Why didn’t he want to at least give me a goodnight kiss?” I rolled over to snuggle her. “I mean, a hug, even. Or a handshake. Anything. Why did he run off like he did?” I looked down at her, like she would give me an answer other than “Purrrrr.”

  “Maybe his girlfriend was coming down the street, behind me,” I guessed. “Maybe he freaked out when he saw her coming along and thought he could run away. Or he’s with Witness Protection. No, that’s stupid. People don’t move to New York to go into Witness Protection. They’re usually moving from a big city, not to one. Jeez. I wish I knew.”

  I tucked one arm under my head and watched the cat play with a random bit of lint. I wished I had her problems. She had her food and water and a litter box and she basically walked around the place like she owned everything and was being generous by letting me share her space.

  His name was Gage.

  That was all I knew about him.

  I also knew that he made me feel special, that I never felt that sort of spark with another guy, ever. Would I ever see him again? Would he even remember me? I hoped I would, and I hoped he did. Because I knew I would remember him.

  I was still thinking about him as my eyes slid closed, imagining his face in my head, remembering how he laughed until he couldn’t walk anymore.

  29

  JONAH

  “I still can’t get a hold of her. She turned her phone off. Did I tell you that? It used to ring, but now it does straight to voicemail.” Scott looked more and more desperate every time he tried, and failed, to get a hold of Sara.

  It was getting harder every time to tell him she was all right and sound convincing while I did it. Except that I knew that where she was, there probably wasn’t any cell coverage.

  I couldn’t imagine that there were any cell towers around where Allonic lived, and that was probably where he’d taken Anissa and Sara to meet with their mother.

  I vaguely remembered hearing that she had recovered there, back at the caves with the rest of the Shades.

  “She’s all right. Who knows how far away they had to go?” I wished I could change the subject. I hated having to make things up to get him off-track.

  He was too smart for that, anyway. And way too devoted to Sara. Not that that was a bad thing. I was devoted to Anissa, and she didn’t even want me anymore. That didn’t change my feelings for her, not a bit. So I could sort of understand where he was coming from. It didn’t help contain my frustration, however.

  “I wish she could’ve let me know where she was going,” he muttered before disappearing into his bedroom. I was almost relieved when I heard the slamming of the door. One less thing to worry about for the time being.

  Gage came in from the balcony, and I reflected on how weird he’d been, too.

  He wouldn’t say what was up with him or even why he’d disappeared from the club a few nights earlier. When we got home, he hadn’t been there, but he came back just before dawn and went straight to his room. He was keeping secrets again. Didn’t he learn the first time?

  “Where’s Philippa?” he asked, going to the kitchen. He pulled some blood from the fridge and poured it out into a glass.

  “Where do you think?” I made sure Scott’s door was tightly closed before saying anything else. “She hasn’t been able to stay out of the vault.”

  “I’m worried that somebody will see her going in or coming out,” he said.

  “I know. But you know how she is. It doesn’t matter how many times you tell her something, or how sensible it is. If she doesn’t want to listen, she’ll tune you out.”

  “She would refuse help if she was on fire,” Gage agreed.

  We smiled together, and for a second, it felt like the old days. Back when we were friends.

  I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but it wasn’t easy when he wasn’t giving me much to work with. When he wouldn’t even tell me why he acted like somebody killed his dog ever since we went to the club together.

  “How’s the brand feel?” I asked, glancing at his arm.

  “The same. There. Like it’s been since it appeared. But it doesn’t hurt, at least.”

  “Yeah. Same for me.” I agreed. I could tolerate its presence as long as it didn’t bring pain or any surprises.

  I turned my head at the sound of footsteps.

  It was good to see Philippa walk in, even if her face was as sad and distracted as ever. She was going to waste away in front of
us if she didn’t get it together.

  Gage poured blood from the bag and handed her a glass without saying a word. He was right. She needed to feed and get her strength back. She shook her head.

  “What good are you to him if you starve to death?” he asked.

  “I’m far from starving to death,” she insisted.

  “Even so. Drink. Do it for me, if you won’t do it for Vance.”

  She rolled her eyes but drank.

  Gage always knew how to get through to her, even better than I did.

  My phone buzzed.

  For a second, my heart leapt with the thought that it was Anissa.

  How ridiculous.

  She had already told me she had no intention of being with me anymore, hadn’t she? I was kidding myself to think she would go back on that so easily. Anissa was stubborn. She didn’t change her mind that quickly.

  It was a text: Go to the roof.

  The sender was unknown.

  I wondered what I was risking by going at all, and what I’d risk if I didn’t go. Who would send me such a cryptic message?

  I laughed humorlessly to myself. Who wouldn’t at this point?

  “What’s up?” Philippa asked. Even so soon after drinking the blood, her color looked better.

  “Nothing. Be right back.” I slid the phone into my pocket.

  “Where are you going?”

  “The roof.”

  “Why?”

  “Because that’s where I feel like going right now. I want to be alone for a minute.”

  Her eyebrows knitted together when she frowned, but she let me go without argument.

  I went outside into the darkness and asked myself again who would send such a message. My senses were on overdrive, trying to pick up any little trace of a person. Or a creature like myself.

  The wind whipped around me, the way it always did so high up. I looked around me and saw nothing. Then, there was a shifting in the shadows.

  “Hello?” I called out, ready to leap if I had to.

  “Hello, Jonah.” Out stepped Fane.

  “Oh, wow.” I let out a deep breath and bent over, hands on my knees. “You could’ve let me know it was you who was texting me. Where did you even get a phone?”

  “Don’t worry about that. I have my ways.”

  “Evidently. What’s this all about?” My heart raced.

  It was never exactly good news when Fane showed up out of the blue.

  “We need to have a family meeting.”

  I bit back the slight hiccup of emotion that hit me when he said those words.

  Exactly the way he used to say it back in the day, before everything happened. When we were just a family—an unconventional family, a vampire family, but a family nonetheless. Whenever it was time to get together and talk something over, be it about the clan or about where the family would take a vacation that summer, he would announce that it was time for a family meeting.

  And we would roll our eyes and drag our feet—those meetings could last a long, long time, depending on how many opinions there were and how deeply they contradicted each other.

  I would’ve done anything, given anything, to go back to those days.

  I shook off the memory. There was no time for that. “Are you talking about the entire family? Scott, too?”

  “I think it’s time for him to know the truth, yes. He’s around?” His voice cracked just enough for me to hear it.

  “Yes. He’s downstairs. At least, he was when I came up here.”

  He nodded. “Bring him, too.”

  “Where are we going to have it? Here?”

  “No, not here. Someplace private. I’ll take care of that.”

  “Yes. Great. He’ll enjoy that.”

  Fane smiled. “Just go get everybody. I’ll be waiting here for you.”

  I nodded and went back down to the penthouse. Philippa and Gage would probably be glad to hear Fane was back, but Scott?

  I dreaded what was about to happen.

  Scott was with the others when I walked in, and Philippa was trying to make him laugh—unsuccessfully.

  I cleared my throat and shot her a look. “I think we all need to go to the roof,” I said, feeling like a complete idiot.

  “Why?” Scott almost laughed.

  “It’s important. Somebody up there wants to see us. All of us.”

  Gage and Philippa looked stricken, and they both shifted their eyes to look at Scott.

  He was oblivious, too busy wondering why we would do something that he thought was out of character for us.

  “On the roof.” He cocked his head.

  “Yes. Come on. We have to go.”

  “Yeah, come on.” Philippa took him by the arm. “I think it will be okay.”

  “You don’t think this is weird?” he asked.

  “Honestly? No.” Gage exchanged a look with me before walking out.

  Philippa and Scott followed, and I brought up the rear.

  We climbed the short staircase leading from the balcony to the roof.

  I came up on Scott’s right while Philippa remained on the left. I thought our brother might need a little support when he saw Fane.

  And I was right.

  Just like he had with me, Fane stepped out of the shadows.

  He looked at Scott with a mixture of pride and sorrow. “Hello, Scott.”

  Scott froze. His mouth fell open.

  I remembered how I felt when I first saw Fane, that rush of conflicting emotions and thoughts. Disbelief, elation, confusion, even anger. The anger of knowing that he’d been alive all that time.

  “What is this?” he asked, looking back and forth, eyes wide. He started shaking. “Is this some sort of joke?”

  “No. It’s no joke.” I took his arm, just in case he staggered. “It’s all right, man. Just hang in there.”

  “Hang in there?” He shook my hand away. “You knew about this? You all knew about this? You’re not even surprised to see him!”

  “Yes, we all knew about it. I’m sorry. We didn’t want to keep him from you, but there was no choice.”

  “Oh, spare me.” He looked at Fane. “Dad?”

  “No. Not Dad. I’ll explain everything.”

  “Explain?” His bitter laughter cut through the wind blowing around us. “Yeah, you’d better explain. You show up after all this time and act like it’s no big deal? And the rest of these guys knew before I did? I wasn’t good enough to know you were still alive? And you stand there and tell me you’re not my father? Who are you, then?”

  “As I said, I’ll explain everything, but not here. There’s no safety here.”

  “We’re on a roof!” Scott bellowed.

  I rolled my eyes and wished he could control himself a little better—even Philippa didn’t freak out the way he was, and she had always been the dramatic one.

  “Quickly,” Fane said, and he threw up a portal in the blink of an eye.

  Gage moved Philippa aside and took Scott’s left arm, while I took his right.

  He wasn’t going to shake me off again.

  Scott was still yelling and cursing up a storm when we pushed him through the portal and into Duskwood.

  He’s in for a lot of surprises tonight, I thought as we went through.

  30

  JONAH

  It was just as I remembered, just as it always was. Dark, still, with fog that swirled around my feet.

  Scott had stopped yelling and was stuck in a sort of stunned silence. I couldn’t blame him. Again, I remembered how I felt the first time I found myself there. At least he had us with him. I would try to walk him through it as gently and carefully as possible. If Fane wanted to bring him up to speed, he was going to have to absorb a lot of information in a very short time.

  “What is this place?” Scott whispered almost reverently. Like we were in a church or some other sacred place.

  I could understand that.

  There was something special about Duskwood. An ancient cemetery—wasn’
t that right? The writing on the tombstones in a language so ancient, no living creature knew how to speak or read it.

  “It’s called Duskwood. An alternate dimension.” Philippa walked up to him and placed her hands on his chest, with Gage and me still flanking him. “There’s a lot we haven’t been able to tell you, and I’m sorry. There were reasons, good reasons. You’ll understand them all, I promise.”

  “You promise,” Scott muttered.

  “Yes. I promise. But you have to listen, and you have to keep an open mind. Okay? Please. It’s so important that you at least keep an open mind. Everything will be all right.”

  He hesitated, like there was nothing he would like less, but nodded anyway. He could be stubborn, too, just as stubborn as any of us. It was a genetic thing.

  “Are you finished?” Fane asked. I knew he didn’t mean to sound so cold and unfeeling.

  It was just a way for him to distance himself from us. He couldn’t afford to think of us as his children anymore—even though there were moments when he obviously did, when he couldn’t help it. Like when we saw Mom-not-Mom AKA Nivea in my Mother’s body, back in Sorrowswatch.

  “How dare you?” Scott whispered in a tight, dangerous voice. “You show up after all this time, and you have the nerve to talk to us that way?”

  The rest of us exchanged a look. It seemed like we had all gone through the same progression of emotion and shock and indignation.

  “He’ll explain everything, Scott. Just trust us, all right?”

  “I don’t want to hear it from him.” He looked at me with cold, narrow eyes. “I want to hear it from you.”

  “What?”

  “I want you to tell me. Tell me what you know and why you couldn’t be honest with me from the beginning.”

  “If you weren’t always with Sara—” Philippa cut in.

  “Don’t you start that with me right now. Just don’t.” Scott glanced at her, then glared at me again. “Go on.”

  “There’s only so much I know,” I said. “But what I know—what I believe—is that there was a good reason for Mom and Dad to go away. We were all in danger. They left in order to protect us. That’s the truth.”