Twilight Seeker: Daybreaker #1

by DaCosta, Pippa

  He’d told her enough. Maybe everything. I’d expected it but hoped he’d resist. Soulless, he was a threat, but one I understood. I descended the stairs, and the moment I stepped off the bottom step, he swooped in, snaking an arm around my waist. Another night I’d have thrown him off, but tonight I needed him close, for more reasons than I cared to admit.

  “Jealous, my darling?” he asked, walking me among the dancers before clasping me close. “Calm your human heart. You must resist my charms or all here will know I have bespelled their hostess.”

  I fought back a laugh. “My human heart is fine, thank you, and I am not bespelled.”

  His hand slid down to my lower back, where his fingers spread, delivering a wave of warmth that wasn’t entirely natural but wholly welcome. The fingers of his other hand entwined with mine, and then we were moving to the music as one, falling into its rhythm. His hips moved, his body a song of sensation that lulled the strung-out portions of my mind. His touch soothed, and the heat of him seduced, but I knew it was all incubi tricks and could pull away when I chose.

  The clock caught my eye. I had time for a little moment to call my own in the madness to come. There was no crime in dancing with a Dark One.

  “Our forbidden love is doomed, you know, Lynher girl.” His lips brushed my forehead, his tone soft and intimate.

  “Is it?” I asked. I’d folded my arm around his back and felt his muscles move through his waistcoat fabric. His warmth soaked deeper, like the sunlight I’d felt on my face while making my way back home. Maybe it was our deal or part of me that couldn’t help herself, but in all the times I’d had Rafe in my arms, whether to hit him or to hold, he’d never felt safer.

  “I am promised to another… a witch,” he sighed dramatically.

  “Don’t let Lilith hear you call her that.”

  “Shh.” He leaned back and pressed a finger to my lips, eyes sparkling with mirth. “She keeps me chained, and if—when I misbehave, she whips me.” He yanked me close, overacting his part. “Five wicked lashes for every indiscretion.”

  “Only because you like it.”

  He chuckled, and I rested my head against his shoulder. I could pretend too, couldn’t I?

  “Only true love’s kiss can free me from the wicked queen.” His voice rumbled through our bodies.

  “I thought she was a witch?”

  “Whatever.”

  “Well then, you’d better find your true love if you’re to be free…” I trailed off as he stilled, our dance over.

  “May I cut in?” Jack asked, his presence ripping away all comfort.

  I pulled out of Rafe’s arms, straightened in front of the overseer, and nodded tightly. Rafe melted into the crowd, throwing a withering glance behind him. People twirled and sparkled and laughed, and I knew I should take Jack’s offered hand. He’d arrived at the perfect time, yet taking his hand would begin the final dance, the turn of the final cog in this grand game, and I remembered so well how he’d kept me safe in a world determined to destroy all the good left within it. He wasn’t good. Far from it. I couldn’t think of him as anything but a queen’s pawn.

  The grand clock above us clunked and whirred, beginning its midnight chimes. All the while, Jack’s gaze fell into mine, neither of us moving.

  “Lynher?” He blinked, hand still outstretched.

  Chime.

  Eleven to go.

  The midnight train’s shrill whistle cut through the night. More guests arriving, the beat of station life ticking over like a heart. All around, Dark Ones grinned and hungered and believed themselves on top of the worlds, dancing on the bones of the dead.

  I took Jack’s hand in my left and reached behind me with my right.

  Chime.

  He’d pulled me with him over a cliff into raging waters, keeping me close then and later when the wyvern had attacked. Maybe Jack was different, but what did it matter? He’d killed countless, and he’d kill again. All vampires were a scourge on the world. This moment might be the only one I had to fight back.

  Chime.

  Behind my back, my fingers closed around the stake. People danced and nudged us, the world still turning while we stood frozen.

  Even now, his eyes were honest but sad. Did he know this was an ending? Could he sense the tension and the station holding its breath?

  “I know where Kensey is,” he said, hoping for a lifeline?

  My heart raced. “Where?”

  Chime.

  “With the elves. They drugged him with goblin fruit. He’ll be all right.”

  I still had his hand in my left, his fingers gentle and warm. He’d always worn his unremarkable act like I wore my dresses. We both had roles to play in this world. Our lives were not our own.

  The train thundered into the station, rattling the huge windows and filling the outside air with rolling steam.

  “They told you this?” I asked. I had to be sure.

  Chime.

  “I… have a key.” He reached into his pocket with his free hand and removed a skeleton key. A key exactly like mine.

  That was impossible.

  I had the only key.

  He smiled sheepishly, like this was all a silly joke, and wasn’t it amusing how the station had picked a mass murderer and marked him to keep him safe. And now he had a host’s key.

  There was only mine and… Gerome’s.

  An overseer was a station host.

  No, not possible. That key didn’t belong to him. It couldn’t. The station would never betray me. He had to have stolen it.

  I snatched my hand from Jack’s and stared at his impossible key. A sickening sense of dread and grief pulled at what I thought I’d understood.

  Gerome’s key had been cracked on one side.

  Chime.

  “Turn it over.”

  Jack held out his key and flipped it over in his palm.

  A jagged crack marked its spine.

  I tried to breathe, to fill my lungs, but the air lodged in my throat. Laughter and light danced around us, swirling and spinning, too bright, too sharp.

  Looking into his sorry eyes meant looking into the eyes of Gerome’s killer.

  “It was you…”

  Chime.

  He wanted the station’s power for his queen. It made sense now. The games, the distractions, his infamy. The fae had trapped him inside the carriage, not me, and spun a lie to protect themselves. Because they knew what he was. The Ghost. The most feared overseer. And here he was, his machinations at work. He had Gerome’s key. He’d driven a railway spike through Gerome’s heart. He had control.

  “Your brother will be fine,” he said, his lies making a mockery of his so-human appearance.

  He was a monster born of the suffering of others. He didn’t care about me or my brother. All he cared about was his queen and how she could control the station. As long as I breathed, that was never happening.

  “Gerome was like a father to me and you killed him!”

  “Lynher—”

  “Whatever happens, the worlds will be better without you in them.” I grabbed his hand and yanked him forward, right into the stake I plunged between his ribs. Lilith’s words came back to me, about how intent mattered to the station’s protection. I did not intend to kill Jack with this stake, or even really hurt him. This was all just a harmless distraction.

  Yet nothing had ever felt so right, so perfect. Someone screamed, and then the rest of the crowd joined in. A crescendo of shouts and cries rose all around, and the guests fled. The station didn’t protect him because my intention wasn’t to harm, just to distract.

  Chime.

  Jack clutched my arm. His key fell from his hand and rang against the floor.

  I stared into the eyes of a monster. “I hope you rot in hell.”

  His face fell, contorting with rage or fear or some other fake emotion he could wear at will. “What have you done?”

  The vampireguard rushed in like when Lilith had killed his stand-in. So many of them
, each one the queen’s drone, each one filled with hatred and a hunger for innocent people. From every door they poured forth, boots thundering like an invading army.

  Come… I silently urged. Come to your overseer’s rescue.

  I threw my head up and caught sight of Rafe on the landing, his wings clamped, his hands gripping the rail.

  “Now!” I yelled.

  Chime.

  He took from his pocket my folded note, and with a flick of his fingers, he folded the note into a small paper bird and launched it over our heads. Jack saw, and even while in pain he frowned at the fluttering paper bird, his attention on that and not on Rafe pulling free a rope looped around a hook on the wall. The wall drapes fell open. Their trailing edges cascaded over the ring of candles Rafe had placed around the room. Flames licked and leaped up the fabric, rising higher, sealing the countless vampireguard, Jack, and me inside a ring of fire.

  Jack’s snarl was more from surprise than malice. He stepped back, groped for the stake in his chest, and yanked it free, but it was too late. Light from the white symbols I’d asked Rafe to paint on the floor joined the firelight. They’d been hidden beneath rugs. Now activated, the summoning power shone, but I wasn’t bringing a demon here… I was sending something like one away.

  “Lynher… don’t.” Jack wore his fear openly on his face. His look begged me to free him.

  But I wouldn’t.

  Chime.

  Rafe’s paper bird flew above Jack’s head. Jack looked up, and the bird poofed into ash that rained down on him. His name had been written on that simple piece of paper, the name I’d insisted on calling him, giving it power. Just Jack.

  The trap had been sprung. A stake in the chest wouldn’t kill him, but death was too good a fate for a monster like him anyway. No, there was a special place reserved for him and all the wretched vampireguard infesting my station. A place between worlds. A place as evil as their human farms. A place vampires called hell, where demons roamed.

  Chime.

  One more to go.

  “Stop this at once!” He settled the full weight of his glare on me. “Your ignorance will see us all killed and your precious station lost. Imprisoning me won’t stop her. She’s coming tonight. You’re sealing your fate!”

  The black-and-red vampires swarmed in, surrounding us. They could attack. My mark wouldn’t protect me, not inside the summoning circle, a space between worlds.

  Chime. The clock had rung its final bell. The reverse summoning was sealed.

  “It’s too late.” I smiled. “For all the people you’ve killed”—I stepped back—“for those still locked in the dark”—I again moved back, the vampires hissing as they parted behind me—“I hope you suffer like them, Just Jack.” One more step and the circle would let me out. Only me, the summoner, because my name hadn’t been on that piece of paper.

  Jack’s eyes widened. So kind, those eyes. He’d almost fooled me, but Gerome had taught me well, and now my teacher, my friend, my father’s death was avenged.

  “This is for you, my friend,” I whispered, taking the final step.

  An arm swooped in from behind, locked around my throat, and hauled me back against a hard chest.

  “Caine, stop!” Jack threw out a hand, the one holding the stake. “Don’t!”

  He took a step closer, but Caine’s hold on my neck tightened, choking off my air. I gasped and dug my nails into his arm, trying to pry him off.

  “She’ll kill us all.” Caine’s voice rumbled down my spine. He smelled of decay and dust.

  It didn’t matter. The circle would close eventually, even with me in it. They were all going to hell, and if I had to go with them, so be it. The station would be safe. Kensey was alive. I knew that much. He’d be okay.

  Jack came closer. “Let her go,” he said, his glare fixed over my right shoulder, where Caine bowed his head, leaning in close.

  Caine breathed deeply, his lips close to my neck. “This pretty little thing was always going to be mine.”

  The vampires seethed and simmered, bubbling in agitation, realizing their fate. None could escape the fire.

  “All of you!” Jack raised his voice. “Don’t touch her. Let Miss Aris go.”

  Caine’s rage shivered through me. “You are a traitor, just like our queen told us.”

  Jack’s shoulders dropped. He tilted his head, his hand still reaching, the stake in his grip. “No.” And he smiled his cruel, hard smile. “As your overseer and the Queen’s Chosen, I command you— hand Miss Lynher Aris over to me. She’s mine.”

  The power in his words rippled through the crowd, calming them. Caine panted close to my ear, his body strumming as he fought Jack’s control.

  “Our queen’s voice is mine, her will my own.” Jack’s vampire eyes shone. “And I command you to let her go.”

  Caine threw me forward, and suddenly, I was in Jack’s arms again, just like when we’d gone over the cliff. He folded me in close. I waited for him to bow his head and tear out my throat in front of his subjects, because he was everything I’d been told, everything to be feared. I looked up, met his eyes, and let him see how ready I was to die for my cause. But he didn’t look enraged, or lost to bloodlust, or even monstrous. He looked like the man who’d gotten turned around in my station and found his way to my library.

  His hard smile broke apart. He pulled me close and said, “I did get that dance after all.” And then he moved, turning me around while stepping forward, and with a strange expression of sadness on his face, he shoved me through the flames.

  Chapter 23

  Night

  Heat wrapped around me then spat me out. I staggered backward, almost falling. Rafe’s sparks rained, his presence simmering to my right, but I couldn’t look away from beyond the rippling wall of fire. Inside, Jack had the stake raised. Caine turned toward him, and dozens of VG sprang into motion, lunging to attack Jack. Caine reached out, fangs bared to kill—

  The summoning circle collapsed.

  The fire gasped out.

  The white marks sizzled to nothing, forever scorching the floor.

  Soot and embers fell from above like dirty snow.

  But the vampires, Caine, and Jack were gone.

  “Lilith’s tits, it worked,” Rafe breathed.

  They were all gone.

  At the end… Jack had… saved me?

  “You’re looking burned around the edges, darling…” Rafe mused. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine,” I mumbled. I stepped over the burned summoning marks and entered the circle. Nothing remained. No hint that the vampires had ever been here.

  My boot scraped something hard. I looked down and choked on a gasp. Gerome’s key. The sight of it summoned a great swell of emotion that lodged in my throat. Scooping it up, I cradled it in my palm, closed my fingers around it, and finally said goodbye.

  Jack and his entourage were gone, their infestation over.

  The train’s whistle screeched its alarm.

  No. Not over.

  Jack’s final words about the queen…

  Darkness boiled outside and beat against the windows, trying to choke off the station’s lights. The train whistle blew again and cut off.

  The entrance’s arched double doors rattled on their hinges. The windows rumbled too. The dark was trying to get in.

  The mark on my arm burned to life, funneling both power and pain through my skin, and mine wasn’t the only one. The marks of any staff who had drifted back into the Hall sizzled to life. Dark Ones had spilled back in too, drawn to the force outside, searching for a weakness.

  “What is that?” Rafe asked, his face tipped upward. Enormous shadows played across his entire body, wings and all. They played across everyone, sweeping and searching. And I could feel her then, the thing that had been inside Jack’s head, the same terrible world-hungry presence I’d glimpsed in his eyes. The darkness inside him hadn’t been his at all; it had been his queen’s.

  And she was here, just like he’d
said.

  I grabbed Rafe’s hand, ignoring his querying look of surprise.

  The air thinned and stretched, lacing pain through my ears and skull. Some of the staff cried out. Some fell to their knees. The Dark Ones looked on, each one so small, as inconsequential as everyone else.

  All the station’s shutters slammed shut in a procession of booms that rocked the air, the ground, and thumped through my body. The world tipped, as though I were falling but standing still. Unbalanced and strangely detached, I fell to my knees but didn’t feel myself strike the Hall floor. Something was wrong. I pulled on the air, trying to draw it into my lungs, but it was too thin, too far away.

  Ahead of me, Rafe turned around, trying to see whatever he needed to fight, but he could not fight this. None of us could.

  The shutters ceased their slamming, the air popped, my mark blazed so brightly it bleached all color from the world, and then, with a final gasp, all the hurt and noise and pressure vanished.

  Murmurs quickly chased away the fresh, new quiet.

  Rafe grabbed me and hauled me to my feet. “Do your thing,” he mumbled, shoving me forward. I smiled at the approaching Dark Ones, like I always did, feeling broken and strangely unhinged inside.

  “What is this?” a female jinn asked, gesturing at the closed shutters. Embers fizzled beneath her green-tinted skin, sparking like fireworks. “Are we prisoners?” she asked, her Middle Eastern accent strong.

  “No, it’s just… a precaution.” I had no idea what it was. “The vampire queen was moments away from breaching these walls, and so the station protected us. We just… need to give it a moment.”

  “What happened to the overseer? Was this your doing?”

  More Dark Ones circled in. Others tried the shutters and the doors, but the station was locked down. In all the stories I’d read, this had never happened.

  “It’s fine.” I lifted my hands. “The threat has passed. Return to your rooms. When the station is ready, it will allow us transit again. Please… relax. Enjoy our hospitality.”