Blood-Kissed Sky (Darkness Before Dawn)

by J. A. London

  “Why don’t you just make yourself at home?” Michael says.

  Faith smiles and winks at him. “I will, thank you.” She grabs three glasses between her fingers and comes over to the sitting area, where Richard has joined me. She pours the deep red wine into the glasses. “Vintage cabernet, 1855. You simply must have a sip. And don’t use your age as an excuse not to indulge. You’re old in soul, that’s all that matters. Not what some, oh … identification card says.”

  A chill goes through me at the thought of being an old soul. I’m not sure why it bothers me. Maybe because Father referred to Lord Percy as an ancient soul. I guess sometimes he got tired of writing “vampire.”

  Richard doesn’t hesitate to take a glass and clink it against hers. In spite of Michael glaring at me and Tegan studying me with curiosity, I lift a glass and salute the vampires before sipping the wine. To my surprise, it goes down smoothly. I don’t choke or cough. If I didn’t know better, I would think I’d been drinking wine since I was born instead of only since I’ve become friends with vampires.

  After we exchange pleasantries—everyone slept well, no evidence of other vamps onboard, lovely moon out—I retrieve the document, unfold it, and flatten it on the coffee table.

  “Can you tell me which symbol represents the Carrolltons?” I ask Richard.

  Without hesitation, he places a finger beneath a symbol right beside the Valentines’.

  “So you have that inked on your shoulder?”

  He studies me for a minute, maybe wondering how I know about that. Then he figures out that Victor must have told me. Vampires try to stay so mysterious and, as my father noted, tend to guard their secrets. He finally nods.

  “And Faith, you have this one?” I ask, pointing to the one Victor has.

  “Yes. What is that document anyway?”

  “I’m not sure. But there are fourteen names clustered together; then we have this one over here. My father thought it represented all the families, and so far, I’ve had no luck discovering more by reading his journal. I don’t suppose either of you read Ancient Vampiric.”

  “It’s a dead language for a reason,” Richard says. “Vampires have a way of overcomplicating everything, including their own language.”

  “So that’s a no. Do you think your father can read it?”

  “Probably not. But if old father Carrollton is anything, he’s eccentric.”

  “Probably” gives me some hope. I’ll take this with me when I meet with him.

  “Is that the symbol you’re dreaming about?” Tegan asks. She’s moved to the foot of the bed, her feet tucked beneath her as though fearful that if she places them on the floor she’ll be connected to the vampires.

  “Yeah.”

  “You’re dreaming about it?” Richard asks.

  “This one that’s off by itself. The dream is so freaking real. But then all my dreams are, recently.” I decide to ask Faith about something that’s been nagging me all day and ease to the edge of my seat. “Speaking of dreams that seem really freakishly real, last night I dreamed I was at Valentine Manor.”

  “With Victor?” she asks.

  I was going to keep the Victor part of the dream private, and can feel the heat of embarrassment rushing into my face. I wish I’d asked Michael to leave.

  “We walked into a part of the manor I’d never been in before. I’m sure that it’s just what I imagine that part of the manor would be like, but as I said, it’s so real. I can feel things, smell fragrances, hear sounds … I sound crazy. Never mind.”

  She lifts a shoulder. “So what did you see in this ‘never-before-visited’ part of the manor?”

  I can tell by her tone that she’s just humoring me, but I decide no harm can come from telling her.

  “It’s a hallway. Pedestals line both sides and on each one is a mythical creature.”

  “What kind of mythical creatures?”

  Humoring me again.

  “Oh, I don’t know. Werewolves, dragons, goblins. A woman with snakes growing out of her head.”

  “That hallway is in the manor. Maybe you saw it at some point and just don’t remember.”

  I know I’ve never seen it. I would have remembered it. Whenever I saw Valentine, I was on a very strict path, where any deviation would’ve meant death. With Victor, the few times I was there with him … I never saw this place. I saw other parts of the manor, but never this room. Never.

  “We went into a small room with comfortable chairs. A fire was burning in the fireplace. On the wall were paintings of the sun over the horizon.”

  If vampires could go pale, I think she might have. “Okay, you couldn’t have seen that room before. Victor had that room redone after Father died. He refers to it as his dawn room, because each painting is the sun rising. I think it’s an homage to you.”

  “How could I dream about it, then?”

  “Have you ever dreamed about Victor before? Like this, in the manor?” Faith asks.

  How do I answer that? Dreams that include Victor began the night I met him, before I ever realized he was a vampire. They made me feel guilty because Michael and I were together then. But I knew they were dreams. What happened last night has happened only once before. “I’ve had one more.”

  “After you let Victor take your blood?”

  “Yeah,” I say. “I mean, I’ve always, you know, had dreams about him. But now they’re powerful. More intense. It’s like I’m actually there.”

  Faith looks at Richard, who quickly finishes his wine and refills his glass.

  “Why?” I ask. “What’s going on?”

  “It’s just very unusual,” Faith says. “Vampires never dream. Except … well, sometimes, if they have a very strong connection with someone, they do dream, but only about that person.”

  “That’s what Victor told me,” I say. “He said that he never dreamed until he met me.”

  “And I believe him,” she says. “The thing is, sometimes both people can share these dreams, and it forms a link between them. They can still communicate, be it in a strange sort of way.”

  “Victor wasn’t asleep, at least not at first. I saw his meeting with Roland Hursch.”

  “Very strange,” Faith says. “That sort of thing doesn’t happen unless you’re a vampire.”

  “I knew it!” Michael yells. “He’s turning you into a vampire!”

  I glare at him. “Don’t be ridiculous. You were on the observation deck with me, sun streaming in. I didn’t go up in flames.”

  “Maybe you’re a Day Walker,” Tegan suggests faintly.

  I give her a pointed look. “That’s even more ludicrous. Michael, I’d like you to take Tegan into the hallway so I can have a little more privacy, and a little less hysteria, to finish this conversation.”

  “You can’t possibly think I’m leaving you alone with two vampires.”

  “They watched over me in the hospital. If they wanted me dead, they would have done it then.”

  “Come on, Michael,” Tegan says, hopping off the bed. “As much as I’m fascinated by the vamp psyche, this conversation is starting to make me feel icky.”

  She gives me a little wink he can’t see, and I know she’s encouraging him to leave because she realizes that I may need to say things I’d rather he not hear.

  “I’m leaving the door partly open,” he says as he follows Tegan. “You scream if you need me.”

  Once he’s outside, Richard says, “He does realize that if he hears your scream, it’s already too late.”

  “You’re not going to give me any reason to scream. So tell me, have you ever heard of what Faith is talking about?”

  “It happens,” he says. “But she hasn’t told you the key detail: It only happens with Old Family vampires. And both have to be Old Family vampires.”

  “It’s a rare phenomenon,” Faith says. “Very, very rare. My mother supposedly had it with my father. It’s like a defense mechanism, a way for the Old Family to watch out for one another. No one’s eve
r been able to explain it.”

  “We don’t like studying these things,” Richard says. “Vampires aren’t concerned with understanding how the world works and nature’s strange nuances. We just take things as they are. I mean, if you understood every mystery of life, what fun would it be? And we vampires become bored very quickly. So the more mystery, the better.”

  “And without Victor here it’s impossible to know,” Faith offers. “Which has always been part of the problem. The only time you ever hear about this connection is when the vampires are far away, a great distance between them.”

  “And when strong emotions are involved,” Richard says, which immediately gets a scoff from Faith.

  “Don’t go on about that,” she says.

  “It’s true. A blood connection only exists when there’s love between vampires.”

  “We can’t love.”

  “We can!” Richard stares at her and I realize I’m no longer part of the conversation, and this is more about them. I watch as Richard contemplates going further, but Faith breaks away from his powerful gaze. After a moment, Richard turns back toward me, as if just remembering I was sitting across from him.

  “True vampire love comes along only once in a few thousand years,” he says. “Some think it doesn’t exist, but I disagree.”

  He chances another look at Faith, but she simply rolls her eyes at his effort.

  “Now isn’t the time to be wooing me,” she says. “But he’s right; if vampiric love exists, it’s extremely unusual. We vampires just don’t have those powerful emotions. It’s the reason we’ve always been better than you humans. Sorry, but it’s true. We aren’t tied up with feelings and passions.”

  “What if Victor feels that way about me, though?”

  “Even if he did, Dawn, just as you reminded your overprotective friends, you aren’t a vampire.”

  “But you just said yourself: This ‘blood connection’ is mysterious. Isn’t it possible that it could exist between a human and an Old Family vampire?”

  “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in three hundred years,” Richard says, “it’s that anything is possible. Especially when humans are involved. Unlike Faith, I give them more credit. Yes, your emotions are ridiculous. Yes, they often cause more harm than good. But there’s a beauty to them, one that I see, even if Faith doesn’t. Could you and Victor be experiencing a blood connection? I doubt it. But who’s to say? Even after all this time, the world is still a mystery to me.”

  “Yeah … I seem to know less and less every day.”

  Richard seems to believe, even if Faith is skeptical.

  But I did describe a room I couldn’t have possibly known about—the dawn room. Somehow, I can connect with Victor even though I’m on a train hurtling away from him.

  Chapter 21

  After the revelations about my dreams, I feel as though the walls of my room are closing in on me. I suggest we all go to the lounge car as a distraction from the thoughts thundering through my head. I doubt a party will be going on tonight, but it had a large bar and tables where we can take in the atmosphere.

  When we step out into the passageway, panic slams into me. Tegan and Michael are gone!

  A thousand atrocious possibilities dash through my mind before Faith says calmly, “They’re in the observation deck.”

  I jerk my head around to study her. She shrugs. “Vampire hearing.”

  “Do you know what they’re saying?”

  “No, they’re mumbling, and at this distance it’s like listening with water in my ears, but I recognize their voices.”

  I consider waiting for them to return, but I’m anxious to move around, so I take the lead and head to the stairs. A few people are in the seating cars, but I can tell that they’re jumpy. After all, it’s night again. When we reach the spiral staircase, I say, “Wait here. I’ll get them.”

  I’m not sure why I issued that order. Maybe because I suspect they won’t be happy that I’m asking Faith and Richard to join us for the evening, and I’m anticipating having to do some preemptive convincing that they need to accept these guys as part of our group now. I’m nearly to the top when I hear Michael’s voice.

  “—stupid. I practically poured my heart out to her this morning, told her I missed her. Such a fool.”

  My own heart feels like he’s punched his fist into it. I didn’t want to hurt him. I ease down onto the step and bury my face in my hands. I don’t know how to make things easier for him.

  “You have to let her go,” Tegan says kindly, and I can imagine her taking his hand or rubbing his shoulder. While she’s studied vampire psychology, she’s good at applying her knowledge to humans, to figuring us out, to knowing what we need.

  “I know, but it’s hard. I love her,” Michael says.

  I’m crushed. I still love Michael, but it’s not the same as the way that I love Victor.

  “I can’t believe Dawn—of all people—would fall for a vampire,” he continues.

  “She didn’t know he was a vampire when we met him. He saved our lives.”

  “I’ve saved your lives.”

  Tegan releases a very tiny laugh. “That’s not the only reason. And for what it’s worth, I know she was conflicted about it. It wasn’t easy for her to admit she loved him. She barely talked to me about him, and I thought she shared everything with me.”

  But not Victor. She’s right about that. For so many reasons. That it would place her in jeopardy. That it would place him in danger.

  “But then I haven’t shared everything with her, either,” Tegan says quietly. “Sometimes I feel so broken. I want to move on, but it’s like there’s this wall in front of me and I can’t get through it. Like that Jake guy. I was talking with him, but I kept expecting him to sprout fangs and tear into my neck. I look at people—even kids I know at school—and I think, You could be a vampire and I won’t know until it’s too late.”

  “Ah, Tegan.” I hear the bench seat moan, like someone is shifting around on it, and I picture Michael wrapping his arms around Tegan, holding her close. I should be doing that. I should be there for her more. I wonder if that’s part of the reason that she snuck on the train—not so much to be here for me but because she needs me to be there for her.

  “I can’t sleep,” she says. “I keep seeing him, every time I close my eyes. I see his triumph—”

  “And he’ll see yours when we find him and stake him.”

  “Oh, Michael, do you really think we will?”

  “Absolutely. He’s too conceited to live his life in the shadows. I don’t know what he has planned, but he’ll show his face again and when he does, we’ll be ready.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “Trust me. Dawn isn’t going to stop searching until she finds him. Neither will I. She might be saying this trip is about the Thirst, but it’s about Sin. We’re going to get him.”

  Only as I lift my head at his words do I realize I’ve been staring at my shoes, trying to come up with my own answers and consoling words for Tegan—and for Michael. They’re on this crazy journey with me because of loyalty and love. Michael might not have known what he was volunteering for, but as soon as he and Clive arrived at my apartment building, Michael could have announced that he wasn’t the best choice for this assignment. If Clive had known who he was, he would have understood. I feel the burden of their friendship in ways that I never have before. Maybe this is why Ian is such a loner. It’s easier when you don’t have to think about anyone except yourself.

  I don’t have that luxury. I love Michael and Tegan, but if anything happens to them—

  “It can’t make things any easier for you now that Dawn has these two vamps hanging around,” Michael says, his voice oozing disgust, and a fissure of irritation slices through me. Have they not learned anything? Not all vampires are like Sin.

  “I don’t know,” Tegan says, and the slowness of her words alerts me that she’s considering her answer. “Victor … Faith … Richard—they d
on’t seem that different from us.”

  “They’d take our blood in a heartbeat if they needed it.”

  “Would they?”

  I shove myself to my feet and lunge into the observation deck. I don’t want to hear where Michael’s going, or maybe I just don’t want him to say it.

  “Oh, there you are,” I say, acting like I’ve just walked in, rather than eavesdropped this whole time. “I was looking for you two.”

  I was right. Michael did take Tegan into his arms. What strikes me is how right they look together. Tiny Tegan curled up against powerfully built Michael. It doesn’t last long. She jumps up guiltily.

  “We were just, uh, you know, enjoying the view,” Tegan stammers.

  I look over at Michael, who is quickly straightening his jacket, but leaving it unbuttoned, as always.

  “We were also talking about your new friends,” he says, a hint of revulsion in his voice, which Tegan quickly overcompensates for.

  “Yeah, and how great they are. I mean, if we’re going up against Sin we could really use all the help we can get.”

  “He’s an enemy to all of us,” I say. “And when Victor finally confronts him …”

  “Victor,” Michael snorts.

  “Stop judging him because of what he means to me, Michael.” I turn back to Tegan. “When Victor finally confronts him, he’ll be the last thing Sin ever sees. He’s no match for all of us. And like it or not, Richard and Faith are stuck with us, so we better start trusting them more.”

  Tegan’s mouth twitches, then settles into a straight line. “I like Richard, but I’m not so sure about Faith.”

  “She’s a—” Is she even a friend? “Look, I haven’t known her all that long, but I trust her. And Richard. I’m not saying that you have to like them, but consider this as an opportunity to study Old Family vampires up close. You were always begging me to take you to Valentine Manor. Believe me, they are much nicer than Valentine.”

  She rubs her neck, then shrugs. “Well, they did save me from the Uglies.”

  “I think they call them the Infected.”

  “But they’re not really infected, are they?”