by Rye Brewer
“There he is,” Gage whispered, nudging me.
Two hours had passed, more or less, two hours of chic, beautiful people walking back and forth, going about their fabulous evening in fabulous Rome.
I hated them.
We watched my father leave the restaurant. He looked perturbed—I recognized the way his forehead wrinkled when he frowned, the way his thick eyebrows drew together.
“No sign of the person he was dining with,” Naomi observed. “Damn it.”
“What would it matter if we saw them?” Raze asked, and it was a sensible question.
I wouldn’t know how to identify anyone my father might be involved with, and whatever he was involved with was probably none of my concern.
I only wanted to know he was all right—which, of course, meant I wondered what was so special about this person he’d dined with that he didn’t want anybody else to know about them. So, maybe it was slightly my concern.
We followed him back to the villa, reaching the little side gate long before he arrived. Just like before, we waited in the shadows, this time under the branches of an umbrella pine which overhung the wall.
Dad was at the gate.
“Watch this.” Before any of us could ask what we were supposed to watch, Raze coursed away to where Dad entered the code into the panel in the wall next to the gate. He was so fast about it, I couldn’t see him—except the way the breeze he created ruffled my father’s hair.
Dad slipped through the gate, and Raze was back with us in a moment.
“How did you do that?” Gage asked with his mouth hanging open. “You were so fast, I couldn’t even make you out!”
Our vampire vision made it possible for us to see each other when we coursed, but even Gage’s vision had failed.
Raze shrugged, grinning. “Just something I’ve been working on. No big deal. And it got us the code if we want to use it.”
I could’ve kissed him. “Yes. I want to go in. I’ll die of curiosity otherwise.” I wanted to know who he lived with, whether he was happy. Whether the people with him were happy. Who were the guards and why did he need them? If we coursed around and hid in the shadows, we could avoid notice.
“You’re not going in there alone, you know,” Gage informed me, though he didn’t sound like he thought going in at all was a good idea. I wasn’t surprised by that; he might even have been right.
“I’ll go, too,” Naomi whispered. Raze nodded his eager agreement.
“All right, lead the way.” I stepped aside for Raze since he knew the code.
He entered five digits into the keypad and the gate swung open. Easy as that.
I couldn’t get over the villa. Who lived that way? Why did they? Were the kids living with him? I didn’t see any sign of them as we approached the house, keeping an eye on the guards all the way. They couldn’t see us when we coursed from place to place, darting in and out of the trees. Coming closer to the house every time we moved.
It was so beautiful. So majestic. Bigger than anything I had imagined. I wondered what it would be like to swim in that pool, to stand on one of the balconies and let the breeze run through my hair. To have a bedroom there.
It was probably because I was so wrapped up in bitter envy that I never noticed I was leading us into danger.
There was a popping noise which I realized in the blink of an eye was the releasing of a hook or a pulley. A net fell over the four of us.
“What is this?” Naomi shrieked, clawing at the thing. Raze did, too. We all did. None of us could break the fibers of the netting which hung heavy over us, dragging along the ground.
“Silver,” Gage grunted, “though it doesn’t burn! But it’s too strong.” He pulled as hard as he could—tendons stood out on the side of his neck and the insides of his forearms as he strained—but it was no use. He couldn’t tear it.
Men poured from the house, running to us, surrounding us. I didn’t know which way to look. There were at least two dozen, if not more. We were painfully outnumbered and weakened by the silver in the net.
Gage grabbed for my hand, but one of the men around us pulled me away and stuck me in the neck with something sharp.
Everything went black.
It might have been a minute later or a day, or anything in between when I woke up—and when I did, I was shackled to a wall.
We all were.
I blinked rapidly, trying to bring the room into focus. It was all stone, like a cellar dug out of the bedrock, and windowless. The four of us were spread across the wall with space between us—likely as a way to keep us apart so we couldn’t help each other. Damp, dark, stale. What a miserable place.
“What did your friend tell you about this guy?” That was Raze, obviously asking Naomi in a harsh whisper.
“Nothing!” she hissed. “Only that he lives here. Nothing about him personally.”
“So nothing about why he would have the means and the reason to capture vampires?” he demanded. “He was prepared for this, or his men were. A net we couldn’t break through, shackles we can’t break, injections to knock us out cold. Who is he?”
“Enough,” I moaned as I twisted my wrists and ankles in the shackles, even though Raze had already complained about them being unbreakable. “I can’t hear any more of this right now.”
“Are you all right?” Gage whispered, straining as much as he could to get as close to me as possible. It wasn’t nearly close enough.
“As all right as I could be in this situation, I guess.” I leaned against the wall with a sigh of utter misery.
“What haven’t you told us about your father?” Raze demanded.
“Nothing.” I turned my head, staring at him. “I know nothing about this. I told you everything I know—and I bet he didn’t even have anything to do with this.”
“Oh, come on,” he snarled.
“He couldn’t have! Why would he do something like this? What could he possibly have against us?” I looked to Gage, hoping he would back me up, but he didn’t say a word. My heart sank.
The door opened—a heavy door, slow to swing open—and my father marched into the room. There went my assurances. I sat up straighter, eyes bulging, and my heart raced faster than ever when I saw the men who followed him in.
Men holding syringes.
“Carissa?” Dad stopped dead in his tracks as he glared at me—he turned his head slightly to address the man closest to him. “You didn’t tell me she was one of them!”
“Who is she?” the man asked. Whoever he was, the sound of my father’s anger struck fear in him, judging by the way his voice trembled.
Dad didn’t reply—instead, he said, “Take care of the other three.”
I hardly had time to open my mouth in protest before my companions were once again unconscious thanks to an injection in their necks.
“What are you giving them?” I cried out, horrified to see Gage slumped over. Like somebody flipped a switch and shut him down. So easy.
My father waved off his men, silent until the door closed and left us alone. “They’re fine. They’ll wake up again, the same as you did.” He crouched before me, his eyes—so much like mine, it hurt—searching me all over. “How is it possible that you’re one of them? Who did this to you? When did it happen?”
“What about you?” I whispered. “What are you doing? What’s this all about? Why?”
He stood, frowning. “That’s not for you to know.”
“You have me shackled to a damn wall, Dad.” I couldn’t help but let my anger shine through—there was plenty of it, too, all of it directed at him. I couldn’t pretend he had nothing to do with this. He was the mastermind. He knew what he was doing.
“And if you weren’t one of them, you wouldn’t be shackled. You would safe somewhere else, far away. At home, living like a normal young woman.”
“You know nothing about the way my life used to be.”
“Do you think I wouldn’t keep tabs on you?” He actually laughed, throwing his head
back. “Oh, Carissa. You have no imagination. I’ve always thought that about you. Look around you, daughter, and see where you are. What’s been done to you. Can you imagine I don’t have the resources to watch over your life?”
The thought left me shaken. He’d been watching me all along, but he hadn’t felt compelled to reach out. I was a possession of his, his daughter, his offspring. A piece of property to keep a watchful eye on, nothing more.
“But you didn’t know about me, did you? You didn’t know I was one of them,” I pointed out.
“Oh. I knew.” His eyes were hard. Stony. “I knew you were. I just didn’t know you would show up at my home unannounced. You made it very easy.”
My blood ran cold. “What are you saying?”
“We kill your kind.” His words fell on my ears like boulders, crushing my brain. Your kind. He sounded as though he was talking about rodents or worse.
I swallowed over my distaste—and dismay. “Who is we?”
“The Starkers.”
I blinked, waiting for more. When it didn’t come, I demanded, “What is that supposed to mean, then? The Starkers? I’ve never heard of them.”
“I suppose that makes sense, as you’re relatively new to this,” he muttered. “But it doesn’t matter who we are, exactly.”
“I think it does, seeing as how you have us shackled and three of us are unconscious. Tell me.”
He grimaced. “Suffice it to say, I was recruited back in college. I wasn’t certain of exactly what I was agreeing to at first, mind you, but I soon came to understand. It was exciting. I was part of a world I’d never known existed up to that point. I was hunting vampires.”
I shuddered. “All this time? All these years since then? You’ve been a vampire hunter?” He nodded. “But… but you always told me you were a diplomat.”
“A cover,” he sneered, waving a hand. “Again, no imagination, Carissa. Willing to accept things at face value.”
“When they’re delivered by someone I once trusted? Yes, I guess I’m a little gullible.”
He winced. “You make a point. That was cruel of me. You were intended to believe it, or else what’s the point of a cover story? At any rate, now you know.”
“But who are they? How big is this group? Where are they located?” My mind spun with the possibilities, the implications of this.
“You’ve already heard more than enough,” he decided, standing in front of me with his feet planted at shoulder width.
“So,” I whispered, forcing myself to hold his gaze. I wouldn’t flinch. I wouldn’t cry. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “Here we are, after all this time. Are you going to kill me? Is this how we’re ending things between us?”
To his credit, he winced. “No. I’ve thought about it quite a bit.”
“I’m glad to hear you had to think about it…” I muttered.
He ignored this. “I don’t want to kill you, Cari. I want to help you. I want to create a cure for this terrible curse.”
This got my attention. “A cure. You? You’re a scientist now?”
He snarled but held back his temper. Barely. “I have scientists at my disposal. Who do you think concocted a sedative strong enough to knock out a vampire? Who created the silver alloy which served as filament for the netting we used to capture you? They work for me, and I intend to turn their attention to creating a cure.”
He knelt at my side, and his eyes were full of love. I could almost believe he was the same man I once knew. My father. Someone who loved me. Someone who wanted the best for me. He wanted to save me. When he touched my face, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear, I didn’t flinch away.
If anything, it was a comfort.
“I will save you from this,” he whispered. “I know this wasn’t your choice—who would choose it? We can reverse this. I’m certain of it.”
“What about my friends? What about Gage?” I glanced to where Gage sat slumped over, propped against the wall.
“What about them?”
“Will you kill them?” There was a quaver in my voice I couldn’t disguise. He was a vampire killer—using the word “hunter” was just a way to smooth things over for me. My father accused me of having no imagination, but he was wrong. I could put things together when I had to.
“No.”
I almost fell over in relief. He wouldn’t kill Gage. He would spare him. Thank God.
My father continued, “I need them too much. And so do you, if we’re ever going to find a cure.”
I had never understood, truly understood, the concept of having a rug pulled out from under me. Until this moment.
“You’re going to use them?” I gasped.
“My scientists will use them for testing, and assess their blood after each test is run.” As if it was the easiest, most natural thing in the world. The most obvious.
“You can’t do that!” I shook my head, whimpering, tears now spilling over onto my cheeks. “No, no, you can’t do this to them! They’re not lab rats, Dad. They’re—”
“Don’t say people,” he warned, standing. “They are not.”
“I’m one of them!” I wept. “I’m no different than they are! How can you say that to me?” I couldn’t see him anymore for the tears that flowed freely down my face, dripping onto my clothes and the floor around me. “Please, please, don’t do this! I love Gage, Dad. I love him. Doesn’t that matter to you at all? How can you say I’m your daughter and you want to cure me but not care how I feel about Gage? I would have died if it hadn’t been for him! You don’t know!”
He flinched as if I had hit him, and I realized something then—he didn’t see the way I was, a vampire, as being any better than death.
His face turned to a stony mask. There was no more affection left for me. I had talked it out of him. He spun on his heel and marched to the door, pulling it open with a little effort.
“I’ll talk to you again when you’re feeling more rational and amenable,” he said just before the door closed behind him.
25
Felicity
“I didn’t think I’d come back here so soon,” I admitted, sliding my hand into Allonic’s as we entered the caves which served as the home of the shades. The last thing I had wanted after we escaped was to walk right back in of my own accord, under my own power. Garan wanted me dead.
He probably still did—more than ever, in fact, since I had escaped and made a fool of him. I didn’t need to know him well to know his mind. He was the type to hold a grudge.
In Allonic’s other hand was the dagger, concealed under the sleeve of his robe. Ready to be used at a moment’s notice.
“What happens if someone else takes hold of us?” I whispered. “What if they take it from you?”
“I will kill anyone who dares put a hand on me or on you.” That was his simple, brutally honest reply. He was that determined to see this through. We both knew there would be no second chances. It was a matter of getting it done or never stopping Garan’s reign.
We hadn’t been accosted yet, moving quickly and quietly through the torch-lit caves. So many of them, so many offshoots running in all directions. It was a wonder to me that he knew where to go—everything looked the same to my unpracticed eye. But he made rights and lefts with confidence, as though he had the entire system mapped out in his mind.
Perhaps he did. The shades were expert at protecting memories and information, weren’t they?
“I love you,” I whispered at one point. Some instinct told me it was better to say it while I had the chance.
“I love you.” He smiled, wide and genuine. Reminding me of the smile he’d beamed when Gregor had declared us husband and wife.
My husband. He was my husband. It was too large a mental hurdle to overcome all at once. I hoped I’d have plenty of time to become accustomed to the idea. I hoped we both would, together.
“There has to be a reason why they’re not coming for us,” he murmured, and his smile disappeared.
&nbs
p; “Do you think Garan knows we’re coming?”
“I do not doubt it,” he glowered. “I suppose he wants to give us a warm welcome—his version of one, at any rate.” He looked down at me, concerned. “Perhaps I ought not to have brought you here now. Perhaps I should have waited until this was over.”
It was more than a bit late to consider that. If they knew he was here, they had to know I was with him. So soon after my escape, too. Only a fool would return.
I guessed I was a fool, then. I loved him. Love required a measure of foolishness, I’d found.
I shook my head, gripping his hand tighter than ever. “If you think you could get away with keeping this from me, letting me worry and wonder, you have another think coming.”
He snorted but didn’t reply.
We reached the room in which Garan had questioned me—I recognized it right away. I had seen it many times in my dreams.
“The throne room,” Allonic whispered, peering in through the open door. It was empty. There weren’t even guards standing by the door.
Hair stood up on the back of my neck. This was entirely too strange. Orchestrated, no doubt, by Garan.
We hadn’t gotten more than another several steps down the tunnel before he stepped out from inside another room.
“What took you two so long?” Garan asked, waving us on. “Come. We have things to discuss. I must admit, I hadn’t considered you foolish enough to bring her with you, cousin.”
Allonic stiffened but didn’t say a word. I noticed from the corner of my eye the way he slid the dagger into an inside pocket of his robes the moment his cousin’s back was turned.
A wise idea, no doubt. Garan might be on his guard, or might have friends waiting for us.
We followed Garan into what must have been his living quarters. A lavish set of rooms, entirely unlike everything I’d seen up to this point. The shades lived a rather monastic lifestyle, very simple and plain—at least, Allonic had always described it that way.
This was like something out of a palace, complete with silk upholstery in deep, rich colors, cushions stacked deep in front of a roaring fire, iron chandeliers inlaid with jewels which sparkled in the candlelight.