Pendulum (Kingdom of Night Book 1)

by L. C. Davis

  “No. That part of me is gone,” I told him.

  He frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “I locked it away. I had to, it was trying to stop me.”

  I finally faced him and his expression was one of inexplicable fear. I could tell he wanted to ask me something, but I didn't want to answer anymore questions so I stood up. He followed me as I walked over to the troupe.

  They looked surprised to see that I had approached them willingly.

  “Hello again, little one. I hope you can forgive your old uncle Tobar for the little trick, hm?” asked the rose peddler.

  “You're not my uncle,” I said, giving him a sideways glance.

  Saban and the other woman laughed. “How do you know that, hm?”

  “Because his blood stinks.”

  Sarah, Saban and the woman seemed to find that hilarious. Tobar slunk off, grumbling.

  “What do you need, child?” asked Saban. His voice was kind, even if he wasn't.

  “I want him to be allowed to leave,” I said, pointing to Victor. He glared but stayed quiet, for now. “The ritual is over. I killed them, so let him go and you can do whatever you want with me.”

  Sarah laughed. “Oh sweetie, the ritual isn't over. It hasn't even begun.”

  I frowned. “You said if I killed them-”

  “Staking those old geezers was just a test for you to prove you had a backbone. The ritual requires that the hybrid must consume the still beating hearts of two supernatural creatures.” She grinned, gesturing to the crowd. “As you can see, we have a veritable buffet?”

  My stomach lurched, but there was no emotion behind the reaction, only physical disgust. “Consume? As in eat?”

  “So they are teaching you something at that college,” she said dryly. “Yes, eat. I assumed you would want a moment to celebrate your victory, but if you want to get it out of the way, by all means.” She set her wine glass aside and gave two short claps. The orchestra stopped playing again.

  Victor was by my side again, his shoulders heaving with barely contained fury. “Don't you think you've put him through enough?” he demanded, pressing his hand against the small of my back.

  Sarah rolled her eyes. “I'll give credit where credit is due, you really take the whole alpha wolf thing seriously. Tell me, do you really think a dog is a suitable mate for a creature of legend?”

  “I'm not his mate,” he said with a hint of bitterness. “I just want to protect him.”

  “Well, if that's your aim you've been doing a shitty job so far,” she said with a small snort. “How do you think your pack is going to feel once they realize he's a hybrid? Ulric can't keep it a secret forever.” She gave me a sympathetic smile. “How much you wanna bet that's why your real mate isn't here right now?”

  Her words were meant to hit a target that didn't exist anymore. I still loved Sebastian in the sense that I would do anything I could to keep him away from this mess, but the emotion was suppressed along with the other part of me I'd had no choice but to block out in order to save Victor's life.

  If she noticed my lack of reaction, she said nothing.

  “Then I'll leave the pack,” said Victor. From the look on her face, his words surprised Sarah as much as they surprised me. “Just let me stay by his side.”

  “A loyal dog,” she said once she'd recovered, “but a dog all the same.” She watched him with crossed arms and an appraising gaze I didn't like.

  “I guess it would be a hoot to have one of Ulric's beloved pack as a guard dog,” she mused.

  “He doesn't know what he's saying,” I interrupted, ignoring the stern look he was giving me.

  “The hell I don't,” Victor snapped.

  She sighed. “Alright, children, we'll fight it out later. For now, be a good boy and try to make yourself less of an imposition, hm, Victor?”

  He remained silent, but I could feel the anger rising off him in waves. “Can we get this over with?”

  “This is not a punishment, child,” said Saban. His deep, rich voice at once chided and soothed. “It is a proud moment in our history. One your mother and I have been waiting for a very long time.”

  “Sorry, but I'd rather go back to observing the family tradition where you all pretend like I don't exist,” I said, feeling a twinge of guilt when I saw the hurt pass over his dark eyes. Fortunately it was just a leftover from the weaker half I'd trapped behind the wall and it passed as quickly as it came.

  “Let it commence, then,” he said sadly.

  Sarah walked up the stage – I wasn't even sure when she had left – dragging a twenty-something man by the sleeve of his silky gray suit. His light hair hung in his eyes, but I recognized him instantly. The scar on his cheek was nearly invisible in certain lighting, but it was large and unmistakable.

  He wouldn't meet my eyes even as Sarah brought him to stand in front of me. I knew why. “This was one of the ones you pointed out in the crowd, wasn't it?” asked Sarah.

  “Yes,” I replied. My own voice sounded cold, distant.

  “I don't know you,” he cried suddenly, looking up. The fear in his eyes made him look weak. “I've never seen him before in my life, just let me go.”

  “Is that true?” Sarah asked in a mocking tone as he dropped to his knees. Whether the chance in position was from her control or his own collapse, it was hard to say. She took the vampire's chin in her hands and squeezed his face like a child's. “Is this poor boy just in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

  “No,” I muttered, watching him squirm. “He was at the last party, before I ran away. He spent a long enough time watching me,” I said, resting my hands on my knees as I bent to look him in the eye. “Or maybe you just don't recognize me with my clothes on. Is that it, Rhyce?”

  He trembled but he didn't move, answering my question as to whether Sarah was controlling him or not.

  “Am I right in assuming that he'll make a fitting sacrifice?” she asked, smiling. “He's a vile little thing but I dare say his heart would taste better than most of these old fools and I'm sure your dog would be eager to clean up the mess.”

  I stood fully, straightening my spine. “Do what you want, I'm just tired of looking at him.”

  Sarah gestured to someone behind her and the tall woman whose name I couldn't remember if it had been given at all dragged him somewhere offstage, ignoring his screams. I had a feeling he ended up wherever they had taken the Alderdices' bodies.

  “So that's one. Where's the other?” I asked, scanning the horrified faces of the crowd. They were obviously paralyzed, but their expressions were their own. I think Sarah got a kick out of them.

  “Good question,” she purred. “One that warrants an answer you're probably not going to like, but good.”

  I turned to her, wariness rising up in my gut. At least my intuition hadn't been repressed along with fear and guilt. In fact, it was more recognizable than it had ever been. “You said we needed two supernaturals. There's a room full of vampires right here, so what's the problem?”

  “Two supernaturals,” she clarified. “I never said what kind. See, now we have the vampire.” Her gaze flickered over to Victor, confirming for me the fact that I could very much still feel anger without my werewolf side. “And we already have the werewolf.”

  “No,” I snarled. Blinding pain shot through my jaws as my canines fell to the ground with a couple of plinking sounds and a spurt of blood. No sooner had they fallen out than the cracking of bone drowned out all other sounds. I clutched my head and struggled to remain standing as I rode through pain like an earthquake. By the time it was over, my lips were tight around my mouth. Through the blood, I could feel a pair of much longer, sharper teeth protruding where the old ones had been.

  “Aww, look at that. Your baby teeth fell out,” Sarah said wistfully. “I'm going to have to start keeping one of those scrapbooks. Wonder if they make pages for baby's first murder-”

  “Shut up,” I snarled, lunging at her. I knew it was a mistake from the
moment my feet left the ground, but the look on her face told me I at least had the element of surprise on my side, if only for a moment.

  “Remus, no!” Victor's voice rang out midair.

  I took her down and we both rolled onto the stage. With a cry that was more roar than vocalization, I started ripping into her flesh with newly sharpened nails. It must have happened in the chaos of my fangs growing in, but they had no effect. As soon as a gash was made, her flesh healed almost instantly.

  Something stabbed me in the gut and I only realized it was her stiletto when her kick sent me flying across the stage. She stood, looking unperturbed. “Unless you're planning on getting a set of wooden nails, I wouldn't waste your time,” she said, brushing off her dress. She looked down at the bloody tatters by her collar and frowned, showing her first hint of emotion since I had attacked her.

  “This is Vera, you,” she said, her voice trembling slightly. “I hope you know it's coming out of your allowance.”

  “You are not going to touch him,” I hissed, pointing in Victor's direction. The fact that he hadn't moved had escaped my notice.

  “I don't need to. You know, after seeing you at that conference, I've been bragging about how what a clever kid I have. Now I feel a bit silly.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “You were at the conference?”

  “Of course.” She shrugged. “I've been keeping tabs on you for a long time, and frankly, I'm not impressed with the direction you've taken lately. All but dropping out of school, living with a pack of wild dogs, fraternizing with hunters. Sacrificing Victor is just killing two birds – or maybe I should say dogs? – with one stone.”

  “Hunters?” I glared at her. “The only hunter I've seen is the one you sent after me.

  She smirked. “Details, darling, details. The point is, it's time for you to put your dog down. Don't you think you've let him suffer long enough? All those years, pining away over his brother's soulmate. That has to take a toll on the male ego, doesn't it, Victor?”

  He was on his knees, shaking with that I could only assume was rage. He didn't answer. When his body contorted violently, he gave a guttural scream that was more beast than man.

  “Guess he's busy,” she mused.

  “Stop,” I cried, running to his side. “Y-you can't force him to shift!”

  “Can, am, totally having a blast. You should try it sometime, controlling a wolf is a real kick.” She tapped her lips in pretend contemplation. “Oh, right, you prefer being controlled by wolves. I forgot. Probably suppressed it due to the grave disappointment and all.”

  “Victor,” I whispered, ignoring her as I held him. I might not be able to feel fear on my behalf, but his was another story entirely. “Fight it. I know you can.”

  “Get. Away. From me,” he growled. I had never heard him sound menacing, even though I knew it was a warning.

  “I'm not going to let anything happen to you,” I told him, stroking his hair in an attempt to calm him down.

  “Remus...” He clutched his chest, twitching every now and then. “You don't understand. I'm not like the others. There's a reason I don't transform unless I have to. Ever.”

  I frowned in confusion. “What are you talking about?” My eyes widened as I answered my own question. “You're like him,” I whispered. “You're a berserker, too.”

  He could only groan in response, but I already had my answer.

  “If I turn, you won't be able to stop me.”

  I turned to Sarah who was watching us with a cool smile. “Not until one of us is dead,” I murmured, her words echoing through my mind.

  “I think she wants... to force – huff – you to shift.” He collapsed in my lap with an anguished scream barely muffled by his gritted teeth. They were sharper then. At first, I thought it was my imagination, but two rows of his canines were decidedly longer and sharper than the rest of his teeth. “It's the only way you can- Aaggh! K-kill me.”

  Sweat beaded on his forehead. As soon as I wiped it away, it was drenched again. As he panted and thrashed in barely contained agony his eyes were black with gray slivers that resembled a lunar eclipse. His features were beginning to distort and I couldn't tell if it was a strange trick of the light, or if there was a thin oscillating shadow hovering just above the surface of his skin. The shadow grew more and more noticeable and I realized it wasn't a shadow at all. It looked like millions upon millions of tiny particles of ink all hovering and floating together in the same nebulous form.

  “That is not going to happen,” I hissed, clinging to him. As wary as I was of the strange shadow, I was even more afraid that it would claim him if I pulled away.

  His hand grasped mine with such strength it felt like he was going to break every bone in my hand. “I will never forgive you if you let me do this,” he snarled. His gaze was fierce, but it was still his own. “Not in this life or the next. Remember.” He took my hand and beat it against his chest. “Silver. Right here.”

  I shook my head. I should have cried, but I couldn't. The tears had gone away with so many other weaknesses I hadn't realized I would miss so much. It was like someone had hollowed me out but I was somehow still functioning.

  “I'll find another way,” I told him, clinging to his hand as it began to slip.

  His moaning turned to screams of rage. His rolled out of my arms and onto the floor and his back arched sharply with one final scream. That and the crunch of bones were the last I heard from him before the shadow swallowed him, enveloping his entire form in black ink. It retained his general outline for a moment, but it was so relentlessly black it was hard to imagine anything remained in there at all.

  I moved back in horror, unable to stand or to look away as the shadow rose. What started on the floor as the vague shape of a man was the hulking form of a beast by the time it stood up on its haunches. It was vaguely like Sebastian's werewolf in terms of general anatomy only, but the similarities ended there. Its fur was the same silvery gray shade as his eyes, the same as the wolf's fur in my dream. Only this wasn't a quadrupedal wolf. It wasn't even a frightening but standard looking werewolf like Sebastian. Its back was bent at a strange angle as it lurched forward and its build was wiry and lean. This beast looked as if someone had taken gray ink and put every single menacing quality of a wolf to paper in a horrible amalgamation that came to life.

  What the creature lacked in bulk compared to Sebastian, it made up for in huge claws, glistening white teeth bared in a menacing snarl and a disturbingly intelligent gleam in its silver eyes. The most disturbing about those eyes was that although they held all the shrewdness and vitality of a human's, there was no trace of sentience in them. Not even a shred of my Victor seemed to linger within.

  I scrambled to my feet and moved back slowly so as not to trigger its instincts. That unsettling gaze was locked on me in a very different way than I was used to. It would only take the slightest movement to unleash him from whatever momentary trance he was in.

  “Not so cure anymore, is he?” Sarah asked snidely. “Still think you can hide him under your bed?”

  “You made him like this,” I said, fists clenching at my sides.

  “Oh no. This is organic Victor in all his glory,” she purred in my ear, pressing a silver dagger into my palm. Its hilt was covered in filigree patterns and the blade was etched in some word I didn't have the presence of mind to make out. I didn't need to ask to know what it was made of.

  “I'm never going to kill him,” I hissed.

  “You're the one who flipped the switch when you attacked me, sweetie. Time to face the consequences. You could have had a nice syrupy goodbye with his memory intact. Now you get to slay the beast.”

  My heart, or what was left of it, clenched in my chest. Sarah stepped away from me and the beast sprang towards me with a horrible otherworldly snarl. I barely dove out of the way in time to avoid his gnarled fist as it slammed into the marble stage.

  The rest of the troupe scattered and the vampire crowd inched away from the stage
as much as Sarah would let them. Only Saban lingered near the curtains, watching with an expression I must have mistakenly read as regret. He looked down and I followed his gaze to the wooden stake left on the ground, its tip still wet with the Aldercies' blood.

  He disappeared through the curtain, leaving only Sarah. Even she watched from a safe distance. Her kill switch was obviously still in place from before, but that was now the limit of the control she could exert over him and she was being careful.

  I knew that redirecting the wolf's attention to her would be pointless. His attention was locked wholly on me, and while he would undoubtedly move on to the next target once I was gone, I knew Sarah would never let him kill me. Victor was strong and she couldn't reach into his mind any more than she had, but that was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to her psychic gifts. Making him a threat to her would only backfire.

  There was only one thing I could do. I had known what it was ever since she placed the kill switch in Victor's mind. Saban's unexpected gesture had only confirmed that it was the right path.

  Clutching the silver blade, I partially dodged another swipe of his huge claws. He slashed my side, leaving my gray shirt in tatters.

  “You can't dodge him forever, sweetie,” Sarah sang. “You're bad at it anyway. Just aim for the heart and put him out of his misery.”

  I stared down the wolf, circling as far away from him as the stage would allow. I could see the stake out of the corner of my eye, but I knew I had to time it perfectly. His eyes widened a little whenever he was about to spring, so I waited. Once it happened, I had just enough time to fling the blade across the room and drop to the floor.

  Victor's beast form soared over me as I grabbed the stake with both hands and aimed it at my own heart.

  “No!” Sarah screamed.

  It was too late. I drove the stake into my chest with full force before the wolf had time to turn on me again. He let out a fearsome snarl from the other side of the stage. Its pupils began to narrow and its irises gradually took on a familiar shade of gray. The beast lurched forward, but his posture was no longer one of aggression but dismay.