Welcome to the Darkness (Darkness Trilogy)

by L. M. Justus

  Reed joined in, grabbing the back bumper. He lifted the entire car with ease and pushed the Corolla across the pavement toward the side of the road. Everyone else fell away from the sudden movement.

  The victim was no longer pinned under the car, but remained writhing and screaming on the ground. His motorcycle helmet was cracked, but had probably done its job and saved the man from suffering a serious head injury. His legs were another matter, for they had been crushed and severely damaged. A puddle of blood expanded outwards on the pavement, and Nathaniel’s gums tingled, his fangs threatening to extend. Exercising extreme restraint, he barely managed to hold them back. Reed did not have the same control over his reactions, and his face transformed as fangs filled his mouth and his eye color paled.

  Nathaniel grabbed his arm. “Come with me. Now,” he commanded.

  “But–” Reed growled. His eyes widened and Nathaniel tugged him back to their car.

  He shoved Reed into the passenger seat. “Stay here,” he said and glared at him until he felt certain the boy would obey. Then he went to retrieve Sarah.

  “There is nothing more you can do,” he said, turning her away from the scene. “We are leaving.”

  She jerked away from him. “Are you crazy?” she said. “These people need our help! Not to mention, it’s illegal to leave the scene of an accident.”

  “May I remind you we are driving a stolen vehicle?” he replied, indicating the car where Reed waited. “Also, the smell of blood is too strong a temptation for Reed in his newly turned state, despite the fact he fed recently. There is a limit to my ability to alter the memories of the humans present and control the situation, especially if the emergency services arrive. You may call to ensure they are on their way, but we ourselves must depart immediately.”

  Sarah clenched her fists and glared at him. Then she spun around and marched back to their car. She climbed in the back and slammed the door. Nathaniel got into the driver’s seat, and pulled onto the highway. He had not bothered to exert his mind control over any of the humans even though they would probably realize something supernatural had occurred.

  “I do not want to appear unfeeling–” he began.

  “This was the first time being a vampire was a good thing,” Reed said. “Did you see how I lifted that car? I could totally help people now that I’m strong and fast. Maybe some good can come out of all this.”

  “I know it is difficult, but you must learn to separate yourself from the human world,” Nathaniel said.

  “Why are you being so negative?” Sarah said. “Don’t you understand what it’s like to want to help people?”

  Nathaniel sighed. “I know it is hard to understand, but it is not that simple. We must keep our interactions with humans to a minimum. Look at how vampire mythology has pervaded mainstream forms of entertainment: movies, television shows, and books. With the advent of modern technology, information spreads across the globe instantaneously and it has become more challenging than ever to keep our existence a secret. For the most part, humans still believe that vampires are a myth and nothing more, but that will soon change if we are not careful. We may be stronger and faster, but we also have great weaknesses and a war between humans and vampires would be catastrophic for both sides.”

  She shook her head. “I’m calling 9-1-1 to make sure an ambulance is on the way, in case they haven’t already been called,” she said, pulling her cell phone out of her jacket pocket.

  After she finished her call, they settled into an uncomfortable silence and continued their journey to Salt Lake City. Nathaniel was disappointed Sarah didn’t agree with his actions. He kept his eyes peeled for a motel where he could spend the day safely sheltered from the sun. It would be a far cry from the Palms Resort, but a step up from a dusty cave in the desert. He had learned to adapt during the last two centuries and he hoped Sarah and Reed would learn to adapt as well.

  Reed

  We stopped in a town called Nephi, about an hour-and-a-half outside Salt Lake City, and discovered the lovely Sunshine Motel: rooms for only thirty-two bucks a night. I stepped into our room and wrinkled my nose. I tried not to breathe too deeply, but I still couldn’t avoid the smell of old cigarette smoke, mildew and a funky odor like hair that hadn’t been washed in two weeks.

  “Welcome to America’s Shittiest Motel,” I muttered.

  Sarah snorted. “We could make a reality show about our adventures,” she said.

  “Too true,” I said. “There’s a reality show for just about everything these days. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was one documenting the growth of fungus between people’s toes.”

  Sarah laughed, and Nathaniel looked at me like I’d sprouted a second and third head.

  I plopped down on a fuzzy orange armchair and rested my feet on the oval coffee table. The furnishings looked like they hadn’t changed a bit since the early seventies and possibly hadn’t been cleaned since then either. It would be more shocking if this place didn’t have bedbugs than if it did. Sarah sat down gingerly in the matching chair next to mine, a grimace curling her lips.

  “I shall go and purchase new airline tickets for us,” Nathaniel said, as serious as ever. “There was a computer for hotel patrons near the front desk, albeit an old one. I believe it will suffice.”

  “This place doesn’t exactly look Wi-Fi enabled,” I said.

  “Yes, well . . . we shall make do,” he replied. “After I have obtained our plane tickets, I will contact the King of Denver to secure our safe passage to New York via Salt Lake City, and then I will feed. When I return, please keep the curtains closed. And you should both remain in this room at all times of course.”

  He turned and left without a backward glance. The door swung closed behind him with a squeak.

  “Screw that,” I said to Sarah. “What are you supposed to do? Stay in here all day and starve? Did he forget that people need to eat? Besides, who would hunt us down during the day?”

  Sarah chewed her lip as if she felt guilty for what she was about to say. “It’s true, I’m starving, but don’t forget . . . I was kidnapped during the day.”

  My face grew hot. How could I be so stupid? That had just happened, like barely more than twenty-four hours ago. “This will be different,” I insisted. “I’ll make sure I don’t leave your side for a second, even if I have to escort you to the bathroom.”

  “Sounds good,” she chuckled and reached over to pat my hand. “I’m sure we’ll be more careful from now on. I’ll pay more attention when my Spidey senses start tingling,” she added with a grin, tapping her forehead. I’d almost forgotten she was psychic, and I reviewed my thoughts from the last several minutes to see if I might have embarrassed myself again.

  She was so beautiful. Even without having a shower in two days and no make-up, she was gorgeous. I wanted to reach over and comb my fingers through her golden brown hair, smooth my hand over her cheek, and–

  “You can lean a little closer,” she breathed, her eyes searching mine.

  I swallowed loudly. “Uh . . . I wasn’t sure if maybe, you were regretting, you know . . .” My voice drifted off and my heartbeat sped up.

  “Silly,” she whispered and leaned in closer, “I won’t bite.”

  “Ha ha,” I replied sarcastically, trying to cover up my nervousness. Her breath brushed my face and I wondered if she could hear my heart drumming away as well as I could.

  She closed the last couple of inches between us, and pressed her lips against mine. This time, I closed my eyes and kissed her back. I felt sort of like we were being naughty while our parents were out of the room, although the only parental figure around these days was Nathaniel.

  Our kiss deepened and her warm lips opened beneath mine. My body tingled all over, including . . . my gums. Oh, God! My stupid fangs popped out and I jerked back. I reached up to touch one and confirmed they were there, in all their sharp glory.

  “Are you okay?” Sarah asked, her eyebrows crinkling.

  I stared at her,
afraid to say anything because I knew my voice would come out in that weird growl now that my fangs had decided to put in an unwelcome appearance.

  “It’s okay,” she reassured me. “You can aim your thoughts at me. If you don’t want to talk, I mean.”

  I frowned. This was so weird.

  “Listen, it’s probably a natural reaction when you’re, uh . . . aroused,” she said, a blush coloring her cheeks. “Like when you get angry or scared and your fangs come out. I don’t mind if you get all fangy on me. Really,” she added. Now it seemed like she was forcing herself to look serious, trying not to laugh.

  Well, I could either get annoyed, or try to see the humor in the situation too.

  Before I had a chance to think about it anymore, our motel room door crashed open.

  Nathaniel zipped into the room so quickly, my eyes barely registered his movement. He slammed the door shut behind him and threw himself onto the floor at the side of the bed farthest from the window. Sarah and I exchanged looks, eyebrows raised. I stood up and crept over to peek at Nathaniel; he lay face down on the floor. Apparently, he’d just fed, and had come back to the room for his death nap.

  My fangs had retracted; our romantic moment was over. I turned back to Sarah and shrugged. “Want to go find a place to get breakfast?”

  She gave me a warm smile. “Sure, that’d be great. Let’s go.”

  We walked along the road leading from our motel into the town, passing a run-down playground and an RV park. It was chilly out, probably around forty degrees, now that we were a good distance away from California. Sarah shivered. There couldn’t be a more obvious opportunity for me to get closer to her and warm her up. It was so cliché, I wondered if she’d shivered like that on purpose.

  I adjusted my steps and drew closer to her, and she reached out and grasped my hand. Her skin felt comforting and soft and I gave her hand a little squeeze. The sun was up, and with it came people getting newspapers from their front steps or taking their dog for a walk. Apparently there were places to go and people to see, even at this early hour. If I’d thought my hometown was small, though, Nephi made King City look huge.

  “Oh my God, we have to go there,” Sarah said, pointing to a restaurant another block down the road.

  I did a double take when I read the sign. “No way,” I said with a grin. “‘Reed’s Drive Inn Restaurant?’ Is it open?”

  “I think so,” she replied. “Look at the billboard: ‘All-Day Breakfast for $3.99. Open 6 AM to midnight.’” She glanced at her watch. “We’ll be their first customers of the morning, c’mon.” She dragged me toward the door of the squat rectangular building, even though the parking lot was deserted.

  “Why is it called an ‘Inn’ if it’s just a restaurant?” I wondered out loud.

  “I have no idea. Maybe there was a sale on the letter ‘N’ the day they made the sign,” she joked. She pulled the door open and peeked inside.

  “Or maybe they don’t know how to spell,” I mumbled as we entered the little diner. There weren’t any other customers yet, but a plump woman with curly red hair and a broad smile came out to greet us right away.

  “Well, hello there!” she said, clasping her hands together in delight. “What a gorgeous couple. Perfect for a gorgeous morning!” she said, her voice high-pitched like a little girl. I tried to smile back, but probably didn’t do a very convincing job. I wondered if the people living in this town were real people or robots programmed to be overly cheerful first thing in the morning.

  She guided us into a booth next to the window and passed us each a menu. Instead of leaving us to go over the menu in peace, she stood waiting next to the table, her grin plastered to her face. Her eyes moved back and forth between us.

  “I’ll have two eggs, over-easy, a slice of white bread, toasted with butter, two slices of bacon, hash browns and a cup of coffee,” Sarah said, passing the menu back to the waitress.

  “Uh . . . I’ll . . . have . . .” I stumbled over my words, not knowing what to say.

  “Weren’t you interested in the fruit salad?” Sarah asked me with a wink.

  “Right. Fruit salad. Please,” I replied in a monotone. The waitress nodded and scuttled off to the kitchen.

  “I’m guessing you want to eat a fruit salad?” I whispered.

  “Actually, I was thinking maybe you should try eating something, and fruit seems like an innocent thing to start with. I know, I know,” she said waving off my argument. “Nathaniel said you wouldn’t be able to eat real food. But he also said you wouldn’t be able to touch silver, and look how that turned out. Maybe this is something else you can do. Like going out in the sun. Obviously you’re different, so . . .”

  “So it’s worth a try?”

  “Exactly,” she said.

  I thought about her suggestion for a moment. “You know that saying about how not knowing something is better than finding out the truth?”

  “Ignorance is bliss?”

  “Yeah, that. I’m not sure I want to know if I can’t eat food. And I definitely don’t want to puke all over the diner.”

  “Hmm . . . good point,” she nodded. “Why don’t we take it back to the motel in a doggie bag? The fruit salad, I mean, not the puke.”

  “Yeah,” I laughed, “I know what you mean.”

  The food arrived and I felt a pang of jealousy when Sarah dug in. It smelled amazing, but I was unsure. The thought of never eating food again was depressing. I distracted myself from watching Sarah polish off her breakfast by keeping my senses attuned for any possible threat. There was no way I was going to let anyone else sneak up on us.

  After Sarah finished her breakfast, we decided to take a stroll further into town to kill some time. The cell phone Nathaniel had bought for me rang, but I ignored it. The only person who had my number besides Sarah was Nathaniel. Several seconds later, Sarah’s phone rang, and we ignored that call too. He was not going to be a happy camper when we got back to the motel.

  “Let’s go in here,” Sarah said, steering me into the local antiques shop.

  I couldn’t believe there was an antiques shop when the whole town had only about six stores in total.

  “You know how we Americans love our antiques,” she drawled.

  I glanced down at her in surprise, still unused to her reading my mind. I shook my head and we stepped inside, the bell over the door clanging to announce our entrance. I wasn’t very big on shopping, especially at an antiques store, but there wasn’t much else to do. Sarah marched straight over to the jewelry case, and I followed close behind.

  “I think we should get you something silver too,” she said, turning to me. “Now that we know what an effective weapon it makes.”

  “Sure, as long as it doesn’t look too girly,” I replied, glancing around to scope out the rest of the shop. My breath caught in my throat when I spotted a young woman talking to the cashier at the counter on the opposite side of the store. The girl’s back was to me, so all I could see was her hair and the way she was dressed. She had brown, shoulder-length hair, and she was wearing a bright silvery-blue long-sleeved shirt with black jeans. And she was the spitting image of my sister, Sam.

  I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. The whole world came to a screeching halt.

  “Reed?” Sarah asked quietly. She touched my arm, no doubt knowing what was wrong.

  I didn’t answer, just continued staring at the girl’s back. She finished making her purchase, and turned, laughing at something the cashier had said. She noticed me staring at her like I’d seen a ghost, and her smile instantly faded. I probably freaked her out. Of course she looked nothing like Sam from the front, but seeing her had been a real slap in the face. She left the store in a hurry with a wary backward glance.

  “Reed?” Sarah repeated herself, a little more loudly.

  “I think I need to get some fresh air,” I said and strode to the door of the shop. I went outside and took a few deep breaths. My sister’s lookalike was gone.

  I had
been ninety-nine percent sure it wasn’t Sam, but that one percent of me had been so hopeful. What were the chances that my sister had survived the attack and our house burning down, and ended up in the Nephi, Utah antiques shop? Zilch, zip, z-e-r-o. But still . . .

  I shook my head and tried to regain my bearings. The place next door was a consignment shop full of used stuff. I supposed it made sense they were neighbors to an antiques store. There was a rack of CDs near the door and I read some of the titles. One CD in particular caught my eye and I had to buy it. It was the perfect distraction so I could stop thinking about Sam’s doppelganger.

  It was a quick, thirty-second purchase, and I stepped back outside the shop with my fifty-cent used CD in a small plastic bag. Sarah met me outside, a bag from the antiques shop in one hand, the paper doggie bag with the packaged fruit salad in the other.

  “We might as well suck it up and go back to the motel to face Mr. Crabby Pants,” I said.

  Sarah looked at me. “I’m sorry, Reed. I know . . .” she began, then paused. “I know it’s hard.”

  “Yeah, well . . . it threw me a little. You know. Let’s just go.” I started walking in the direction of the motel, and she fell into step beside me. “I got Nathaniel a little something. A peace offering,” I added and pulled the CD out of the bag to show her.

  “ABBA Gold, Greatest Hits,” Sarah read. She gave me a skeptical look as if I’d lost my mind.

  “Don’t ask, but I know he’ll like it,” I said, shoving the CD back into the bag.

  “If you say so,” she said. She passed me the doggie bag and linked her arm through mine for the walk back.

  Sarah

  Her hand rested on the doorknob of their motel room, and she blew out a deep sigh. Sarah already felt annoyed about the lecture Nathaniel was sure to launch into the second she and Reed walked in the door. She had plenty of beefs of her own with him and his recent illegal activity. If he wanted to go head-to-head with her, he was in for a heated debate.