Born to Darkness Box Set

by Evangeline Anderson

  “But not fast enough.” He arched an eyebrow at me, making me laugh despite myself. “Seriously though, darling, do you realize that between Taylor’s bride price and the lovely but now-ruined tribute I bought for Roderick, you have cost me over two million dollars tonight?”

  “Are you serious?” I looked down at the jagged remains of the vase again. “I figured it might run as high as a million but I never thought—”

  “Don’t be sensitive, Addison—I am only teasing you.” Corbin smiled, a bit too brightly, I thought. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get this mess cleaned up.”

  “I can stay and help,” I offered, although what I could do about the bullets embedded in the walls and floors I had no idea. It was a good thing they hadn’t passed right through—maybe they had been stopped by the soundproofing in the panels.

  “No.” Corbin shook his head. “This is a job for professionals. And I must dispose of Roderick’s remains myself.”

  “What will you do with him?” I looked down at the dried up mummy-husk again and shivered.

  Corbin sobered. “He must be sent back to the Empress. She will not be pleased.”

  “Will you get into trouble?” I asked anxiously.

  “I’m not worried about it,” he replied, looking away. “As powerful as she is, she cannot hurt me now.”

  “Why not?” I asked suspiciously. “Because of some kind of vampire law? Something about you beating Roderick in a fair fight?”

  Although I wasn’t certain how fair his use of a witchcraft spelled stake was. What did the vampire laws say about that? I looked at it, still lying there on the floor and couldn’t help feeling like I was staring at a bloated snake. Just the sight of it made me shiver.

  “Yes, something like that.” Corbin sounded distracted. “Now, I really must get to work so maybe you should just…”

  “I should just what—run along? Is that it?” I frowned at him. “What’s going on, Corbin? I know when I’m being dismissed.”

  He frowned. “Nothing is going on except what you said you wanted. Roderick is dead and Taylor is free of Celeste—our business is concluded, our relationship over.”

  I stared at him for a moment as the words sank in. Of course I had told him I wanted out as soon as this was over but now that it was…I felt strangely empty at the thought of going back to our former, official relationship of vampire and Auditor. I remembered the feelings I’d had when I saw him plunge that stake in his heart and pushed them away. I had just been panicking, I told myself. Those emotions that had flooded over me—they didn’t really mean anything except that I was freaking out—right?

  I cleared my throat. “So…so I should just go?”

  “Maybe you should go spend some time with Taylor,” Corbin suggested in a condescending tone. “Have a little ‘girl talk’. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

  “Oh yes. Really nice.” I swallowed and heard a little click in my throat. “Look, Corbin—”

  “Addison, please—I really am busy,” he said impatiently. “I need to get a cleaning crew in here and I have some very specific rituals to go through in getting Roderick’s remains ready for shipment.”

  “Fine.” I shrugged, trying to look like I didn’t care, like his dismissal didn’t hurt. “I guess I’ll see you the next time I come around to inspect the Fang.”

  “About that…” Corbin looked up at me for a moment. “I really do think it would a good idea for you to find someone else to do that from now on. I mean, given the, ah, relationship we were so briefly in, perhaps it might be more professional if you distanced yourself from my business.”

  “Distanced…myself?” There was a lump growing in my throat now, one I couldn’t swallow no matter how hard I tried. But I didn’t want to let Corbin know. “Sure,” I made myself say. “I can, uh, switch with a coworker, I guess.”

  “Good. I think that would be for the best. Goodbye.” He nodded at the door. When I didn’t go to it, he took me by the arm and marched me to it. “I said goodbye, Addison,” he said, releasing my arm and taking a step back.

  Feeling like I had no choice, I opened the door. Then I just stood there, staring out into the hallway, unable to cross the threshold.

  It occurred to me that this was the same door I had refused to take when I thought Corbin’s life might be in danger. The door I had avoided to stay and help him fight. And yet now that the danger was past, I was letting him force me out of it with banalities and irritation.

  No, this isn’t right. Something about this is wrong! whispered a little voice in my head.

  I turned to face him, looking up into his eyes, searching for something though I didn't know what.

  “Corbin—” I started to say.

  “Goodbye, Addison,” he said firmly and shut the door in my face.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Addison, I think you’d better get over here.”

  Taylor’s voice on the phone sounded worried—it put me on high alert at once.

  “Why, what’s going on? Is that jerk of a werewolf giving you trouble?”

  “Who, Victor? No, he still hasn’t shown up.”

  “He hasn’t?” I was immediately indignant. “Does he want you to starve to death? Doesn’t he know he’s the only one you can feed from? I’m going to call him and give him a piece of my min—”

  “I’m not worried about Victor right now,” Taylor interrupted. “I mean, I’m getting pretty thirsty but I’ll be okay…for a little while longer, anyway.”

  “Well then, why should I come over there? Especially when I’ve been asked to stay away?” It had been a week since our last encounter and Corbin’s request that a different Auditor be assigned to inspect his business still stung.

  “It’s Corbin—you need to come see him,” Taylor said.

  My heart leapt up into my throat. “What? Why? Why didn’t he call me himself?”

  She sighed. “He doesn’t know I’m making this call. But Addison, you need to see for yourself—something isn’t right.”

  This time my heart plunged into my stomach. Wow, I was really getting some great cardiac calisthenics here.

  “What do you mean—what’s wrong?” I asked.

  She sighed again and I could almost see her running a hand through her hair. “It’s Master Corbin.”

  “Master? Really?”

  “Well, he did rescue me from Celeste, which makes him my master now,” she said, sounding uncharacteristically snappish. “Cut me some slack, Addison—I’m trying to tell you I think Corbin’s in trouble.”

  “What kind of trouble?” I thought of him saying that the Empress would not be pleased to receive Roderick’s remains. “Are other vampires involved?” I asked. “Are they coming after him?”

  “No, nothing like that. It’s the way he’s acting…the way he looks.”

  “Why—what is he doing?”

  “All week he’s been talking to legal people about the club, calling staff in and thanking them for all their hard service. He even told me he hoped I would have a very happy life and gave me some tips on how to be a more effective vampire.”

  I was drawing a blank. “So?”

  “So? Addison, it’s like…like he’s saying goodbye.”

  “So maybe he’s selling the club,” I said, though I couldn’t imagine Corbin giving it up—Under the Fang was his baby.

  “It doesn’t feel like that,” Taylor said quietly. “It feels like he’s setting his affairs in order.”

  “What? But he’s perfectly fine.” I thought of Corbin the last time I had seen him—he had been the picture of vampire health.

  “No, he’s not,” Taylor said. “In fact, especially in the past day or two, well, he doesn’t look so good.”

  “You’re saying he’s sick? Vampire’s don’t get sick.”

  “Corbin is. He’s different, Addison. Paler than usual. Quieter. I haven’t seen him feed once in the past week.”

  “So maybe he’s just hungry.”

  The thought
that Corbin might be starving himself for love of me occurred but I pushed it away. As gratifying as it might be, there was no way it could happen. Corbin, like all vampires, was a purely practical creature. There was no way he would go on a hunger strike just for me, especially when he had pushed me so neatly out of his life himself.

  “No, that’s the thing,” Addison protested, breaking my train of thought. “I honestly think he’s not hungry. I saw one of the glam-girls offer him her wrist last night. She was all, ‘Drink, my Master.’ But he pushed her away and said, ‘Forgive me. I have no appetite.’ Now does that sound like Corbin to you?”

  I had to admit it didn’t. Corbin had never been one to turn down a free snack. So what was going on?

  “Maybe I should come down and just have a look around,” I said.

  “Yes, please do. Maybe I’m just imagining things but…I don’t think so.” Taylor sounded upset. “I’m really worried about him, Addison.”

  “All right.” I looked at my watch. “My shift starts in a few minutes. I’ll make Under the Fang my first stop.”

  “I thought he asked you to get another Auditor to inspect him?”

  “He did.” I cleared my throat. “I just…haven’t gotten around it yet.”

  “Okay, see you in a few,” she said and hung up.

  * * * * *

  The trip to Under the Fang didn’t take long and before I knew it I was striding over the familiar red, black, and silver dance floor. The glam-booths were full, as usual, and there were lines of humans eagerly waiting to be glammed by the bored looking vampires but they didn’t hold my attention.

  I ignored the pounding beat of the music and the laughing patrons—it was like I didn’t even see them. Instead I looked at the raised dais where Corbin usually sat and remembered how he had taken me over his knee and spanked me there. I had been furious at him but then afterward when he had healed me so gently…and then the next night in his office… No, stop thinking about it, I told myself sternly. You’re just here to check on him and then you’ll be on your way.

  Lifting my chin, I left the dance floor and followed the long hallway down to the business end of the club where Corbin kept his office and daylight hiding place. It was unnaturally quiet with none of the hustle and bustle I remembered from a regular club night. Where was his staff? Then, suddenly when I was a few feet from his office door, I heard familiar voices.

  “But Master, please—I do not wish to leave you,” said the first voice, which sounded like the little curly-haired androgynous vamp that was Corbin’s assistant.

  “I know you don’t, Antoine, but I’m afraid you have no choice.” That was definitely Corbin and he sounded tired. No, not just tired—unbearably weary, as though he could barely make himself speak. What in the world could have happened to make him sound that way?

  “I will stay by your side, no matter what! I will go with you, wherever it is you are going.”

  “Antoine…” Corbin sighed heavily. “I’m sorry my little friend but where I am going, you cannot follow.”

  I frowned. Was Corbin planning a trip?

  “It’s that witch, isn’t it? That LaRoux woman—she did something to you.” The assistant’s voice sounded high and unhappy. “I could tell by looking at her that something about her wasn’t right. Please, Master—what did she do? You haven’t been right since that night. Did she put you under a spell or—”

  “She did nothing I didn’t ask her to do,” Corbin said sharply. “Antoine, you forget yourself. You are overstepping your boundaries.”

  “Forgive me, Master.” The little assistant seemed to be almost sobbing now. “It’s just that I am trying to understand what is happening. Why you are sending us all away—”

  “You don’t need to understand, Antoine. You only need to obey. Now go and check on the figures I asked you to get. Everything must be in good working order before I pass the Fang on to its new owner.”

  Hearing that knocked me back a step. Could it be true? Was Corbin actually selling out and moving on? But why? What the hell was going on?

  Just then the little curly-haired assistant came stumbling out of the office in a very un-vampiric display of clumsiness. There were smudges of red on his cheeks and I realized he’d been crying. He looked up at me briefly.

  “Hello, Mistress,” he muttered before going on down the hall toward the bar and dance floor.

  Mystified, I walked up to Corbin’s office and rapped lightly on the open door.

  “It’s me—can I come in?”

  Corbin was sitting at his desk, pouring over some paperwork. When he looked up, I saw with a shock that Taylor had been right. He really did look terrible.

  His eyes were red-rimmed and their lovely silver-blue color seemed dulled somehow. His face was paler than usual too and there were lines around his mouth and under his eyes I had never noticed before. In short, he looked less than perfect and that wasn’t like Corbin. If he was human, I would have said he looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks. But vampires don’t really need sleep so what was going on?

  “Addison,” he said, frowning when he saw it was me. “What are you doing here?”

  I leaned against the doorframe and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “I’m here because Taylor called and asked me to come over.”

  “Then why are you not speaking to her instead of bothering me?” he demanded. “I am very busy just now, as you can see.”

  “Uh-huh.” I nodded, refusing to let his rudeness drive me off. “What’s this I hear about you packing up and moving on?”

  “It is none of your business, that is what it is. Now if you have nothing constructive to say, I must ask you to leave and stop wasting my oh-so-valuable time.”

  “Corbin, what’s wrong with you?” I stepped into his office and went to stand in front of his desk. It was stacked with paperwork and he had a laptop open on one corner. On the other corner, I noticed the black stake. Just looking at it made me shiver—the silver runes were still red but I couldn’t help noticing that the red was darker now, less blood red and more maroon. An idea began to form in my head…an idea about that damn stake. But I sensed that I couldn’t ask Corbin about it directly.

  “Seriously,” I said, trying to keep my tone light. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing.” He looked irritated. “It’s only that I have much to do and a very short time to get it done.”

  “Before you leave, you mean,” I said and a lump formed in my throat. “Corbin…will I ever see you again?”

  He shook his head briefly. “No one will.”

  “What is that supposed to mean? Where are you going?”

  “Someplace very unpleasant, I assure you,” he snapped. “Addison, please—”

  “Are you thirsty? Is that it?” I came around the desk to stand in front of him and held out my wrist. “Drink,” I said. “If…if you want to.”

  For a moment he just looked at me and then he took my hand in his. I was surprised at how cold his skin was. Despite being a vampire, Corbin had always seemed to run hot but now, touching him was like touching a block of ice.

  “Addison,” he said softly. “I’m touched—truly I am. But what I need, you cannot give me. No one can.”

  “But…what is it that you need?” I asked, mystified and seriously worried.

  Corbin only shook his head and dropped my hand. “Right now I need you to leave me alone to work. I will ask you for the last time, why did Taylor ask you to come here?”

  “Because she’s thirsty,” I said, improvising on the spot. “Really thirsty—where the hell is Victor? Does he intend to let her starve?”

  Corbin sighed and ran long fingers through his hair. “My understanding is that he is putting the finishing touches on the house he was building for himself. When he gets it done, he will bring Taylor to live with him for the remainder of their three month period of ownership.”

  “Well, he’s taking too damn long,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “Yo
u need to call him and tell him so.”

  “All right—I will do it.” He sighed in obvious irritation. “I will add it to the extremely long list of other things I must get done before I—”

  “Before you what?” I prompted. “Go on.”

  “Never mind.” Corbin looked around in irritation. “Where is Antoine? I asked for those figures ages ago.”

  “Maybe he’s crying somewhere,” I said quietly. “He looked pretty upset when I saw him.”

  “You are probably right.” Corbin sighed and stood up abruptly. “I will have to go find him—I do not have time for histrionics.” He looked at me. “Addison, you need to go. I promise I will call Victor on your friend’s behalf but for now, I would prefer if you left my establishment.”

  “Why?” I demanded. “You afraid I’ll give you a citation for being rude?”

  “No,” he said shortly. “It’s simply too painful for me to see you.”

  “Too painful?” I said softly. “What…what do you mean by that? I thought—”

  He gave me a long, level look. “You know what I mean, Addison. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

  He was starting to leave the office and he clearly expected me to come with him. I had to think fast.

  “Do you mind if I use your restroom before I go?” I asked, trying to keep my voice cool and professional. “The regular bathrooms here are always full of people making out and trading gossip about which vamp is the best at glam-sex. It’s disgusting.”

  “Fine.” He sighed. “But close the office door when you leave.”

  “All right, I wi—” I started to say but he was already gone, moving faster than my eyes could follow out of the office and down the hall.

  The minute he was gone, I walked over and opened and closed the bathroom door loudly, just in case he was still within earshot. Then I walked quietly back to the desk and looked at the stake again. I had a feeling it held half the answer to what was going on with Corbin. And I had a pretty good idea where to get the other half.

  I didn’t want to touch the weird thing with my bare hand so I pulled the sleeve of my suit jacket down and wrapped it around my hand before picking it up. Sure enough, it seemed to writhe in my grip like a lazy snake. The sensation made me want to gag and I nearly dropped it. But this was important—something was going on and I was determined to get to the bottom of it, damn it!