Welcome to the Darkness (Darkness Trilogy)

by L. M. Justus

  She let out a sigh and shook her head. “Yeah . . . sure, I guess.” She walked over to one of the couches next to Reed and plopped down.

  “I need to contact the King in New York. Perhaps you should get some sleep while you are able,” he suggested. He turned and walked down the hallway to the first of the two bedroom areas.

  Nathaniel entered the room, which was decorated in dark, earthy tones. The sleek furnishings matched the clean modern look throughout the hotel suite. He closed the door behind him and chose a chair between the window and the bedside table. It had been many years since he had last spoken with the King, yet he easily recalled the phone number of the New York lair. Assuming the phone number had not changed in the intervening years, he plucked the phone from its cradle and dialed. There was an answer after only two rings.

  “Hello?” The deep, male voice sounded like the King himself.

  “Your Majesty?” Nathaniel asked.

  “Ah, Nathaniel,” the King’s rumbling words carried over the phone line. “I have been expecting your call.”

  “Have you?”

  “Are you surprised? While it is true the Queen of San Jose and I are often at odds with each other, we do communicate every decade or so. Most particularly when there is something of great import to relate, such as the destruction of one’s entire lair, for example.” The last few words hung in the air between them while Nathaniel tried to formulate an appropriate response.

  “Yes, well . . .” he faltered. His growing thirst made it difficult to think clearly.

  “My dear friend,” the King continued. “Do not worry, please. I am not in the least bit upset. If our sweet little Queen was negligent enough to allow such a thing to occur, it seems only fitting she suffer the consequences. Is that not so?”

  “Perhaps,” Nathaniel replied carefully. Oftentimes, the King’s behavior made one feel as though he was your closest friend, but Nathaniel knew his life could be in peril if he caused offense.

  “Nathaniel, my friend and former loyal subject. If I did not know better, I might say you sound a trifle frightened,” the King admonished. “I had hoped you were calling upon me to welcome you back into my kingdom. It would be an honor to have you in my service once again. You have only to say the word.”

  Nathaniel stifled a sigh as memories of the King’s theatrical demeanor came flooding back. “That was my intention, your Majesty. I wish to formally request asylum with you for myself and my two companions.”

  “Ah, yes. The newling and the human female. I am uncertain about bringing the human into our midst, although I admit to a great curiosity about your young vampire. He may be the answer I seek to some of my medical research. A valuable asset, most probably. In any case, I grant you all asylum, should you manage to make your way here successfully that is. I am aware, unfortunately, that the Queen has unleashed some of her lesser minions to hunt down and dispose of you. I recommend you secure the earliest possible nighttime flight out of Las Vegas to New York City.”

  “I suspected as much from the Queen,” Nathaniel grumbled. “And where is she now?”

  “She has discovered a safe haven for herself,” the King replied vaguely. “Good luck, Nathaniel, and farewell.” He hung up without waiting for a reply.

  Nathaniel placed the phone back in its cradle and rose out of his chair to cross the room. He opened the door and walked down the hall to the main sitting area. Sarah was staring out the window, sitting right where he’d left her and Reed was still dead on the couch.

  “Did you not wish to get some sleep?” he asked Sarah.

  She turned, the dark circles under her eyes evidence of her exhaustion. “I’m exhausted, but my mind is going a hundred miles a minute. So much has happened today, I can’t seem to relax.”

  “Fair enough. I must leave you now to take care of my nutritional needs. Feel free to order room service should you need to satisfy your own. I am going to purchase a disposable cell phone for each of us whilst I am downstairs, and I will send one up for you and Reed. With our numbers programmed into each phone, we can contact each other if we become separated. I shall return in an hour. Do not leave this room for any reason.”

  He imagined Sarah staring after him when he slipped quietly out the door of the suite. His intellect told him to dispose of her now rather than drag her into the lion’s den of the New York vampire lair, but he knew he could never carry out such a heartless task at this point. Nathaniel shook his head, realizing how soft he had become in his old age.

  Reed

  I opened my eyes and sucked in a huge breath. Sarah yelped. She was sitting nearby, on a white couch identical to mine.

  “Sorry.” I sat up to look around.

  “No problem,” she said and relaxed back onto the couch cushions.

  The room we were in was super fancy. There were two open floors of space, walled in by a ton of windows. A sea of white leather couches surrounded me, and a dark wood dining set with matching bar and gold fixtures shone in the room’s bright lights. I couldn’t have imagined a more expensive looking place in my wildest dreams.

  “Where the hell are we?” I strode over to the giant windows, which looked out over a flashy city nightscape and an amazing rooftop pool, lit up with underwater lights.

  “We’re at the Palms Casino and Resort in Vegas,” Sarah replied. She sounded tired.

  I turned to her in surprise. “You mean this is some crazy-ass hotel room? Wait a sec . . . is that our own private pool? Man.”

  I spun around and spotted a spiral staircase that led to the suite’s second floor. “What’s up there?” I asked and zipped up the stairs without waiting for an answer. My feet barely made contact with each metal step and I practically flew to the top. Wow, I felt like a million bucks after that last feeding.

  At the top of the stairs, I discovered yet another bunch of couches, with a snazzy entertainment system, huge flat-screen TV, and two massive leopard-print beanbag chairs. I threw myself onto the closest beanbag chair and rolled around in delight. Was I dreaming? I crossed my arms behind my head and nestled back into the chair.

  “It’s not a dream, it’s robbery,” Sarah called from downstairs.

  Huh? Oh, she’d read my mind again. I hopped out of the beanbag chair and walked over to the railing. I leaned over to look down at her. “You sound kind of mad. Did something happen while I was down for the count?”

  “What happened was that Nathaniel waltzed into this place like he owned it and mind-zapped the staff into giving us this psychotically expensive room for free,” she said in a huff.

  “Oh,” I said, not getting why she was upset. I felt so high I was tempted to leap over the railing and land on the first level below, but instead I walked down the stairs to explore the rest of the place.

  The lights on the patio glinted off the surface of the pool invitingly, and I imagined going for a dip with Sarah. It could be sexy, considering we didn’t have any swimsuits, so it was either wet clothes . . . or no clothes. “I don’t suppose you’d be interested in going for a swim?” I asked her.

  The look she gave me was the opposite of the enthusiastic response I’d hoped for. “Reed, a couple of hours ago we were attacked by vampires and I thought we were going to die. Considering all the things that have happened, I don’t understand how you can be enjoying this.”

  I raked my fingers through my hair. She had a good point. Why was I enjoying this? I thought about it for another moment. “In the last few days, my family was murdered, I had one of my fingers cut off, I was thrown into a cell, I was shot, and I had my ribs broken. But you know what? That’s all the more reason for me to live in the moment and take what fun I can get. I mean, when else will I ever get to see a place like this? The last few days have been like my personal vision of hell. All I want to do is forget everything and enjoy myself for five minutes. Is that so bad?” The guilt I felt said maybe it was, but right now, I wanted to enjoy this paradise.

  Her eyes softened. “It’s funny,” she
mused aloud, “but Nathaniel said almost the same thing about taking enjoyment when he could.”

  She seemed teary-eyed, but maybe she was just worn out. “I’m going to try to get some sleep,” she said. She rose from the couch and headed towards one of the bedroom areas. “You go ahead and have a nice swim,” she called before shutting the bedroom door behind her.

  “Thanks, I will,” I muttered under my breath. I slid open the glass door and stepped out onto the patio. Walking down the steps toward the pool, I stripped off my shirt and dropped it on the ground. Next, I removed my shoes and socks and wriggled out of my jeans.

  I took a running leap and did a cannonball in the center of the pool. It was only about five feet deep, and I rose quickly to the surface. I stood in the middle and waited for the water to stop sloshing against the sides. The pool felt almost like a bath. I dove under and let the water suffocate the sounds of the Vegas night. I floated in my water cocoon until my lungs were bursting for air. I broke through the surface again and lay floating on my back, staring at the starry sky.

  It all seemed so surreal. I floated in the still water and thoughts of my family crept in. Every time I started to think about them, I forced those thoughts back down. If dwelled on it, then it would become more real.

  And I’m a vampire, said a small voice at the back of my mind. An honest to God, real life, freaking vampire. I felt overwhelmed and abruptly cut off that train of thought too.

  I climbed out of the water and snagged one of the plush, oversized towels waiting in a neat stack on a poolside table. The cool night air swirled around me and it was invigorating. I gathered my shirt, jeans, and shoes and went back inside the hotel suite. Dropping my clothes on the floor next to one of the couches, I sat down on its pristine whiteness, wet boxers and all.

  A bedroom door opened down the hall, and I turned to see Sarah walking towards me.

  “That was a quick nap,” I said.

  “I still can’t sleep,” she groaned. “I’m crazy tired, but I can’t fall asleep. It’s driving me nuts.” She sat down next to me on the couch, even though I was wet from the pool and only wearing my boxers. A self-conscious blush crept into my cheeks.

  “Uh, what time is it?” I asked.

  She glanced at her watch. “Almost one in the morning.”

  “I feel like I’ve lost all sense of time. I don’t even know what day it is.”

  “I guess it’s officially October the twenty-eighth because it’s past midnight,” she replied.

  Her words struck me like a punch in the stomach. Sarah searched my eyes, maybe trying read my mind and figure out what was wrong. Then she opened her mouth as if to say something, but stopped herself.

  My gaze dropped to the floor. “It’s my mom’s birthday.”

  I glanced up and Sarah was watching me, waiting. “It’s just a date,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter.”

  The most I’d ever done for my mom on her birthday was to buy something lame she probably wouldn’t even want. I’d never known what else to do to celebrate her birthday, and now I’d never have to worry about it again. I should’ve done more when I had the chance. I exhaled a shaky breath.

  Sarah scooted closer to me on the couch, and then leaned in and wrapped her arms around me in a solid hug. She rested her head on my shoulder and whispered, “I’m sorry, Reed. I know it’s hard.”

  I closed my eyes and focused on having her pressed against my bare chest with her arms across my back. She was so nice and warm, her hug made me feel better.

  The door to our hotel suite opened, and we both turned to see Nathaniel walk in. Sarah didn’t remove her arms from around me, so our faces were pretty close together. His expression didn’t show a hint of curiosity or surprise to find us this way.

  “Did you receive the phones I sent up to the room?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I have mine right here,” Sarah replied, pulling away from me. She removed a phone from the pocket of her sweater and held it up. Then she grabbed a second phone from a table beside the couch. “Here’s the phone Nathaniel got for you,” she said and passed it to me. I turned it over to check it out, and I thought about my iPhone, which had probably burned to a crisp along with everything else back home.

  “I have booked us a flight to New York tomorrow evening,” Nathaniel said.

  Sarah and I looked at each other, but didn’t say anything. I felt nervous about what would happen to us when we got to New York, so I wasn’t exactly desperate to get there. But I knew we needed to get away from all the vampires that were after us.

  Sarah reached up and patted her hand on my shoulder. “Hang in there,” she said and her arm dropped back down. Her gaze fell on my chest before moving upwards to look me in the eye. I realized this was the second time I’d ended up half-naked in front of her.

  I sniffed, noticing a yummy smell. “What is that?” I said, and continued scenting the air. I leaned toward Sarah. God, she smells good enough to eat. “It’s like . . . cookies or vanilla or . . .”

  Sarah shrunk away from me and gave me a wary look. I frowned at her in confusion until it dawned on me. “Wait, you don’t smell like that. I mean, I wouldn’t think of eating . . . biting . . . I’m not hungry, or thirsty–”

  Nathaniel pinched my left ear and pulled me to my feet like a naughty child. “Ow! What are you doing?”

  “Come with me,” he barked and dragged me down the hallway. I swatted his hand away and rubbed my ear. He shoved me into the bedroom and closed the door. “Before you further humiliate yourself,” he said.

  “What?” I turned on him.

  “That aroma you detected,” he began, watching to make sure I was giving him my full attention. “That was the odor produced by pheromones.”

  I stared at him, waiting for him to continue. “I don’t get it,” I said.

  He sighed. “Whether consciously or not, Sarah is attracted to you on some level.”

  She was? A silly grin plastered itself on my face. Then I realized Sarah was probably “listening” in on our whole conversation and my cheeks heated up.

  Nathaniel left the bedroom and I followed him back to the main room. I took a couple of deep breaths, but my cheeks were still on a slow burn. I had trouble meeting Sarah’s eyes, and I shrugged as if to dismiss the whole thing.

  “I’m going to get something to eat,” she said with an amused smile and stood up.

  “No, you should remain here,” Nathaniel said. “For your own safety,” he added.

  “No. I’m going out,” Sarah replied. “But you guys are welcome to come along if you want to keep an eye on me.”

  We found a local diner a block away from the hotel and sat at a booth next to the window while Sarah had her very early breakfast. We were the only customers in the diner at this time of the morning. Besides us, there was a young waitress and the cook in the kitchen at the back. The place was nothing special, but it seemed clean enough and it was open 24 hours. The neon light overhead flashed on and off right outside our window, lighting up the empty sidewalk.

  Nathaniel sat frowning in silence. His crossed his arms over his chest, leaning woodenly against the red vinyl seat. He was like a crabby old man trapped in the body of a twenty-something year-old.

  I sat next to Sarah, who was digging into a pile of pancakes. Nathaniel and I had ordered coffee, which cooled, untouched on the table. Everything smelled good, but I didn’t test Nathaniel’s theory about what would happen if I ate or drank anything.

  “You’ll be able to sense vampires if they come around here, right?” I asked Nathaniel. “Are we as safe here as we were at the hotel?”

  “I preferred the environs offered by the hotel,” he replied, looking about the diner with a grimace. “And I don’t ‘sense’ vampires, I smell them. As could you, I might add, if you paid closer attention.”

  “Well, Mr. High-And-Mighty, I haven’t gotten used to my suped-up senses yet, that’s all.” Gee, what a grouch.

  “If you two will
excuse me for a minute, I’m going to visit the ladies’ room,” Sarah said, not quite hiding her amusement at our bickering. She wiped her mouth on her napkin and plopped it on the table beside her empty plate before walking to the restrooms at the back of the restaurant.

  I turned back to Nathaniel and he stared at me.

  “You are attracted to her,” he stated.

  “I . . . what?” Was he accusing me of doing something wrong? “Sure. Yeah, I guess so. I mean, what’s not to like? She’s beautiful, and smart, and . . .” And she could probably “hear” this whole damn conversation from the restroom. Why did Nathaniel keep bugging me about this?

  “Is there any special someone in your life?” I asked to change the subject.

  His eyes darkened and I was convinced he wasn’t going to answer, when he finally spoke again. “No, there is not. Not since . . . my wife. It was a long time ago.”

  “Oh,” I said, unsure if I should press for more. “I take it she’s, um . . . not alive anymore?” I held my breath, waiting to see if Nathaniel would snap at me.

  He let out a slow breath and stared at the tabletop. “My turning was not dissimilar to your own, Reed. My human wife and son were killed in cold blood and my humanity was lost.”

  I swallowed, and the sound echoed loudly in my ears. Nathaniel was sharing something about his past with me! I was curious to learn more, but it was obviously a painful subject. In a way, his story made me feel less alone though, and I realized I needed someone who understood what I was going through.

  “Did you ever catch the bastard who killed them?” I asked. A surge of anger hit me at this unknown vampire that had destroyed his life the way mine had been ruined.

  His shoulders slumped. “The bastard who did it is sitting right in front of you,” he admitted in a soft whisper.

  I blinked as his words sunk in. “You mean you . . . ?”

  “Yes, Reed. I killed them. I was newly turned, and I lost control to my raging thirst. You know what that overwhelming desire for blood is like when you are first turned. If your family had not already been killed, you would have destroyed them yourself. Can you imagine the heartache of losing your family, and knowing their death was at your own hands? You were lucky the closest source of blood were your neighbor’s cattle.”