He pulls a huge tome off the shelf and lugs it over to a table along the wall. “I’ve spent a lot of time looking over every book in this room, and when you told me about your family at the water tower, it reminded me of something I read a long time ago. It’s why I was silent for so long. Not because it changed the way I saw you, but because I was putting the pieces together.”
“The pieces together to what? You’re not about to tell me there’s some kind of prophecy about me in there, are you?” I say with a teasing lilt to my voice.
“Wellll…” Without saying anything else, he flips the book open and rifles through the pages.
My heart skips a beat while nervous sweat blooms across the back of my neck. “I was kidding, Sebastian. I am not part of some prophecy.”
He finally finds the page he’s looking for. “Actually, you might be.”
I stare down at the foreign words. “How do you know? It’s not even in English. I don’t even know what that is.”
“It’s Irish Gaelic. And this part right here,” he points to a section halfway down the page, “says a descendant will be born Heaven kissed with powers over life, death and the elements. This person will break the curse and free the Ó Ceallaigh family, but at a great cost.”
“You can read Irish Gaelic?”
“Most chasers are fluent in several languages.”
“What other languages can you speak?” I hold up my hand and shake my head. “Never mind. It’s not important right now. Back to this supposed prophecy. What does it mean? What great cost? What curse? Or should I say which curse? Is it referring to the one born from creating bloodsucking monsters, the one caused by the practice of dark magic, or the one forged from siblings becoming mortal enemies? Because my ancestors have all three of those covered.”
“I don’t know. That’s all it says. It doesn’t give any specifics.”
“Of course it doesn’t. Because that would make everything too easy. What makes you think this descendant is me?”
“Your father is a literal angel of Heaven who escorts the souls of the dead into the afterlife. Your mother was an elemental witch. You brought both Jack and me back from the brink of death when, by all rights, we should have died. You cured Seth of his vampirism when it should have been impossible. It all adds up. And I bet once we find Seth he’ll confirm it. I bet it’s why Ludvikas wants you dead and why the Dark Heart coven wants to control you. You have the power to change everything.”
“No, I don’t. And you’re wrong. I’m just a girl who wants her mundane life back, not some prophetic descendant destined to break some un-named curse on the Ó Ceallaigh family, only to pay some steep price for it, okay? I’m not.” I close the book and shove it back onto the shelf. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to go break into Gavin’s secret lair now and find Seth so he can un-confirm everything you just said.”
30
Sebastian steps on my toes as he bumps into me in the darkness. I yank my foot out from under his boot, biting my lip to keep from cursing. He sways within my arms, and I grab hold of his shoulders to steady him.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to how that feels,” Sebastian whispers, a hint of disorientation lacing his words. “How do you do it and not have the urge to vomit?”
“Just lucky, I guess. Are you okay to stand on your own?”
He reaches out, bracing a hand against the wall. “I think so. The world is spinning a little less now.”
I take my phone out of my back pocket and turn on the light. A shadowed hallway stretches out before me, the darkness engulfing everything the light can’t reach. The hairs on the back of my neck rise at the thought of coming face-to-face with the vampire girl I saw last time. What if she calls out to me again, or to Sebastian? What if he can’t resist her compulsion like I somehow could, and he lets her out?
I grab hold of his arm. “I have to tell you something. The last time we were here, I found a vampire girl locked up in one of the rooms—a powerful vampire girl. She was able to compel me with just the sound of her voice through an intercom. I almost let her out before I came to my senses. What if this time I can’t refuse her? What if this time she compels you?”
Sebastian pulls a thin stake out from his boot. “I’d like to see her try.” The gleam in his eyes suggests he actually would like to see her try.
“You don’t understand. She’s strong. Stronger than any vampire I’ve ever felt. She’s dangerous.”
He twirls the stake through his fingers, a devil-may-care smile forming over his mouth. “They’re all dangerous.”
“You really do have a death wish, don’t you?”
He shrugs, and I swallow down the fear bubbling up my throat. “I know you have more experience than I do when it comes to vampires, but I’m telling you, she’s different. She’s not like the others. At least not like the ones I’ve run into.”
“You don’t have to worry about me letting her out. I’ve been trained how to resist vampire compulsion. Not to mention, I have this.” He slips his arm out of his leather jacket, but my brain is too hung up on the ‘I’ve been trained how to resist vampire compulsion’ part to really notice.
How exactly does a person train to resist a vampire’s commands?
His arm slips out of the sleeve of his t-shirt next, and he pulls it up over his shoulder, leaving him standing half-undressed in the middle of the darkened hallway.
“What are you doing?” All thoughts of torturous mind games in learning how to resist compulsion falls away as my gaze latches onto the smooth skin of his chest and follows it all the way down to his well-defined abs. Our most recent make-out session bombards my mind, sending heat straight to my face. I lower the light of my phone, hoping he can’t see me ogling him in the dark.
A grin tugs at his mouth as my gaze meets his. So much for him not noticing the ogling.
He twists and points to a small black sigil located on his ribs about three-fourths the way up his side I hadn’t noticed before. “It strengthens my will and helps protects my mind from being compromised. It’s not one hundred percent foolproof—some compulsion can still get through, but it does leave me aware so I’m able to resist and break free. Every chaser gets one.”
My fingers reach out to touch it of their own accord, tracing the lines crossing and circling over his skin. His stomach muscles tighten, goose bumps blooming along his side. “This is what you rely on to protect you when you face vampires?”
“That and my impressive fighting skills. Neither one has let me down yet.”
“Yet,” I whisper beneath my breath, my mind going back to the vampire girl locked away, but no less dangerous. If she could compel me without having to look at me, who’s to say Sebastian’s anti-compulsion tattoo—or whatever it is—will be strong enough to protect his mind? What if it’s useless against her?
He tilts my chin up. “Nothing is going to happen to us down here. I promise. We’re in one of the most protected places we can be. The only thing we need to worry about is Gavin catching us. If that happens, you’ll be wishing he were the vampire girl instead.”
“Thanks for the pep talk. I feel much better now.”
He laughs, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “You don’t know Gavin like I do.”
I drop my hand once I realize I’m still tracing his tattoo. “Sorry.”
He pushes his arm back into his sleeves. “No apology necessary. I know how hard it is for you to keep your hands off me.”
I shove him, and he laughs.
“Let’s just get this over with.” I close my eyes and send out a silent prayer for everything to go according to plan. A plan I’m mostly just winging, but still. Fingers crossed.
I pull out a pocketknife I ‘borrowed’ from Jack and prick my finger with it, having no idea if the blood-to-blood spell I’d memorized from the Book of Shadows—the one I swore to never cast from again—will even work or not. Seth and I aren’t related, and what blood we did ‘share’ was when he’d tried to kill m
e at Night Life months ago. But if my blood had anything to do with him becoming human, maybe there’s still some kind of connection between us, as disturbing as that sounds. Still, I’ve got to at least try. It beats having to search every hallway and room in the hopes Sebastian and I will find him before we’re busted where we don’t belong.
Bringing my finger to my mouth, I whisper the incantation, infusing it with as much intent as I can. I squeeze a few drops onto the floor and wait. Nothing happens and my shoulders droop. It was a long shot, anyway.
I turn to face Sebastian. “Guess we’re stuck searching behind every door.”
“Or not.” He points over my shoulder. “Look.”
The splattered blood on the floor coalesces into a ball and begins rolling over the tile. Sebastian and I follow it, and I heave out a sigh of relief when it takes us in the opposite direction of the vampire girl. Providing she hasn’t been moved anywhere else, or that there aren’t others like her stashed away down here too.
The blood ball leads us past twelve doors down what seems to be a never-ending hallway before it suddenly turns right and comes to a stop outside a door with no window.
Sebastian eyeballs the keypad, his fingers hovering over the numbers.
“What happens if you enter the wrong code?”
“The alarm will sound, and Gavin will know we’re here.”
“I can try to whoosh us in there.”
“Won’t work. Holding cells are warded against magic. We’re going to need the code. Unless you have some hacking skills I don’t know about.” He stares at me from the corner of his eye, his gaze becoming more contemplative the longer he looks at me. “Then again, you were able to whoosh out of one of the recovery rooms, and the both of us out of Gavin’s lair the last time we were here. And you just whooshed us in. So maybe you can whoosh into Seth’s cell without any problems. But if you can’t…”
My mind fills in the blanks with horrible scenarios where he trailed off. Blaring alarms. Gavin catching us sneaking around his lair red-handed. The both of us held captive in one of these rooms and interrogated until we confess why we’re here.
Or, if Seth cracked and told my secret, a sterile white room where I’m studied and dissected under someone’s microscope. Maybe even Gavin’s. I mean, the dude does have a secret lair. Maybe he gets a sick kick out of torturing supernaturals off the books, or…
My thoughts drift back to the copy of Frankenstein used to open the secret entrance. Or, he likes experimenting on them. What if he already knew Seth was a vampire, and when Sebastian’s friends brought him in with a heartbeat, he couldn’t resist finding out why?
If that’s the case I’m already screwed, and even more screwed if Seth told him it was me who cured him.
“You stay here and keep watch. I’ll see if I can whoosh to the other side.” I roll my shoulders, take a deep breath, and attempt to clear my head of all the panicky thoughts assaulting my mind without much success.
What if Gavin really does already know about me? What if he catches me down here? Will he hold me prisoner, take my blood, run experiments? What will he do with Sebastian?
And then there are my secret worries about Seth? Like what if the compulsion Ludvikas had him under to kill me is still there? Or what if the humanity I gave him was a fluke? A temporary respite from the monster he truly is because vampire cures don’t exist. Not really. What if when I materialize behind the door he’s waiting to finish what he started at Night Life? What if this time I won’t be so lucky because I’m still nothing more than a newbie witch who’s afraid I’ll cross a line I can’t come back from if I use my magic? That even with the training Sebastian’s been conditioning me with, I’m still too much of a weakling to be anywhere near the skill level I’d need to be to hold my own against him.
I jump at the touch of Sebastian’s hand on my arm. He rubs his chest with the heel of his hand, the emotions in his eyes shifting between his concern for me and my palpable fear. “You don’t have to do this. I’ll get the code, and we can come back and do it together.”
I shake my head. “We’re already here. I can do it. I’m just nervous the wards will hold, and I won’t be able to get in.” It’s not a total lie. If the wards hold and I get repelled back with force, I highly doubt it will be fun. “Just catch me if the wards activate, and I get thrown back so I don’t bash my head off the wall or something.” Without waiting for a reply—or for my nightmares to creep back in—I close my eyes and let the familiar weight of the air wrap around my body until I can no longer feel the hard concrete floor beneath my feet.
“Who’s there?” a small voice calls out from somewhere to my right.
I lift my phone, shining the light in the voice’s direction. Hiding his face behind his arm, a guy shimmies over a dingy mattress and into the corner.
“No more. Please, no more. I’ve already given you what you want.” He presses himself further into the corner and begins to rock back and forth. His arm shifts with his movements, and I catch a glimpse of several gnarled bite marks in various stages of healing spanning from his wrist to his elbow. “Please, no more.”
“Seth?” I wasn’t sure what state I’d find him in when I whooshed in here—a vampire, a human, or some mix in between, but it certainly wasn’t this. He’s completely broken. Human, from what I can tell. Thankfully. But broken. What did they do to him?
His whole body stiffens at the sound of my voice. He slowly peeks over the tops of his knees, the hoop in his eyebrow gleaming in the light. “Indi?” He tilts his head to the side, his eyes narrowing and then widening. “You can’t be here. It’s not safe. You have to leave. You have to leave now. I told them. I didn’t want to, but I told them.” He stares at the bite marks, his whole body racked with shivers.
“You told them what? Who are they?” I ask, even though I already know the answer. The chasers. They know I’m a cure for vampirism. Or at the very least, Gavin does.
Panic buzzes around the edges of my frozen state where it seeks a path to set up shop in my gut. This is bad.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to, I swear I didn’t, but they made me,” Seth says, pulling my attention back to him and off the rising panic digging into my bones. “And then they brought her.” He stares at me so intently I take a step back. “She shouldn’t be.” He goes back to staring at the bites. “She’s wrong, Indi. She’s all wrong.” He jumps up from the bed so fast I nearly drop my phone. He grabs hold of my arms, the tips of his fingers digging in so far they’re about to push through fabric and skin. His eyes dart to the corners of the room as though he’s frightened there will be something there. “You have to leave before they find you. Before they give you to her.”
“Give me to who?” His panic fuels my own until I too am searching the corners of his small room.
He drags his fingers through his greasy hair, the look in his eyes unhinged. “The girl.” He grabs hold of my jacket, his face only a hair’s breadth away from mine. “She’s all wrong. She’s something that should never be.” He pushes me toward the door. “You have to leave. You’re not safe here. Leave and never come back.”
My heart slams against my ribs, and I force myself to calm down before the panic attack Seth’s enticing gets a full grip. “Okay, I’ll leave, but I’m taking you with me. I can’t leave you here like this.”
He nods, his eyes darting to every dark space of the room.
“Give me your hands.” He does as I ask without hesitation. “Now close your eyes. This next part can be a little disorienting.”
Something hits the door with a grunt.
Seth squeezes my hands, his whole body trembling.
“Sebastian?” I call out.
The door swings open. Blinding white light floods into the room.
Seth’s hands jerk from mine. He rushes back to the cot, balling himself in the corner. “No more. Please, no more.”
I turn my attention back to the doorway. A tall, broad-shouldered man with dark hair and familia
r blue eyes, fills the entirety of the space. A syringe in his hand drips a clear liquid onto the floor. Before I can open my mouth, he lunges at me and sinks the needle into the side of my neck. The world blurs and sways as he hooks his arms under mine and drags me out into the hallway. I catch a glimpse of Seth still cowering in the corner and open my mouth to yell for him to run, but my tongue is so heavy and thick I can’t make any coherent sounds.
Out in the hall, I’m placed down on the floor beside Sebastian. He’s crumpled on the hard concrete, lying on his side with one arm tucked behind his back and the other flung out in front of him. I try to reach out for him, but my hand doesn’t move. Nothing moves. I stare into his unconscious face until the hazy gray outlining my vision pulls me into oblivion.
31
My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth, releasing a bitter taste the moment I’m able to remove it. Rolling onto my back, I pry my eyes apart, my gaze settling on a large water stain in the center of the ceiling. Cocking my head to the side, I stare at it in confusion.
Where am I?
Pushing up onto my elbows, I take in the derelict motel room before me. Across from the bed, an ancient TV with a channel dial perches on a narrow dresser, using a brick as a substitution for a missing leg. Three faded lighthouse paintings hang crookedly behind it, adding muted colors to the mud brown paneling. On the left, a dark stain of some sort near the bathroom door runs from the middle of the wall to the floor, where it meets ugly green carpet I suspect didn’t start out that color. On the right, heavy dark brown curtains pulled most of the way closed shade the room from the sun. What light bleeds through streaks across the bed, highlighting dust moats dancing in the air. In the corner, a small microwave sits on top of a mini fridge, and tucked beside the door is a small table with a single chair.
Of Darkness & Light: Blood Descent Book 2 Page 31