Midnight Reign

by Chris Marie Green

And that’s when she saw a revelation on her mother’s face: Eva yearned for Frank to close the book on his old life, and Breisi’s death would do that, hopefully bringing him to her once and for all. That’s why she was showing them this broadcast, to let him know Breisi was truly out of the contest.

  “You want her dead,” Dawn said.

  “No, I don’t. I don’t want this to happen at all.” Eva stopped, shocked, as if realizing how much she did want it. But then she vehemently shook her head. “I hate what’s happening!”

  “Do you know that standing by and just watching—whether you want it to happen or not—makes you dead to me? As dead as you’ve been my whole life? Or…it’s even worse, because now I know what kind of…person…you really are. You’re nothing like the mom I always wanted.” Dawn bent closer to Eva. “I wish I didn’t have any part of you inside of me.”

  “Don’t say that….” Eva came forward to touch her daughter, just as she’d done when she was masquerading as Jac. Comfort from a false friend. It wasn’t going to work this time.

  Dawn dodged the vampire actress, near tears again.

  “You and your Underground,” she added. “Dead.”

  Eva raised her arms and wrapped them around her head, covering her ears. “Do you realize how much it hurts to hear you talk like that?” She was sobbing now.

  Frank was still watching the TV, as if he could protect Breisi with just a look. Prayers were probably running through his head, blocking out his daughter and wife.

  But as Dawn watched her mother cry, the little girl inside of her was weeping, too. Mommy, I love you. I’ve idolized you so much that it hurts to know I’ll never be as good as I thought you were. It hurts to know my perception of you was never real.

  Furiously, Eva sprang to the remote and pressed the TV off. The image of Breisi disappeared, retracting into the center of a blackened screen.

  11:44.

  Frank went stiff, sweat dampening his T-shirt against his skin. “Where is she, Eva?”

  Taken aback, Dawn looked at both her parents. They were watching each other as if they were in one another’s heads. It went beyond a “parent look.” It was something much different….

  “Eva.” Frank’s body was visibly wobbling. “Tell me. If it’s the last thing I ever ask, please tell me where Breisi is.”

  “You know I can’t.” There was a fear in her gaze. “The Master wants this. I can’t risk disobeying him a—” She cut herself off.

  Had she just about said “again”? What did that mean?

  “And if you don’t obey,” Dawn said, “your punishment would be mortality—you’d get old, just like the rest of us, God forbid.”

  A greater level of terror filled Eva’s eyes, but Dawn wasn’t sure if it was because of her mom’s ego or because Dawn was firing a round of hate bullets into her chest.

  Frank fell to his knees in front of his wife, wrapping his arms around her legs and burying his face in her dress.

  Now, Dawn felt the tears pushing at her. They weakened her more than all the physical crap she’d already suffered. “Mom…” She deliberately used the endearment. “If you can stop this from happening, please, tell us now. If you really, truly don’t want this to happen, convince us by putting an end to it. Please.”

  But when Dawn reached out for her mother’s hand, it was out of pure love. For Breisi.

  Eva clung to the touch her daughter had finally allowed, resting a hand on Frank’s head at the same time. Then she raised Dawn’s fingers to her cheek, leaning against them and wetting Dawn’s skin with tears.

  “I know you have enough power to help,” Dawn whispered.

  Eva jerked, not looking at her daughter.

  “And if you did it,” Dawn said, encouraged, “you’d at least give us a chance to have some kind of relationship from now on.”

  “If I helped,” Eva said, “you wouldn’t fight me anymore?”

  “I’d do anything.” Even march into hell.

  As Eva peered up, a decision balanced in her agonized gaze.

  Stunned that it might possibly happen, Dawn watched her mom carefully, trying hard to summon what she had once thought was so good about Jac. She caught a flash of kindheartedness. Maybe it was just an illusion but it was something.

  “I know how much you’d be risking,” Dawn said, “but it’d be worth it. I’d know you were truly the mom I thought you’d be.”

  With a small yet air-shattering demolition, the scales of Eva’s decision tipped.

  Robbed of her defenses, Dawn kissed Eva’s hand, holding her face there and breathing in the scent she’d always hoped a mother might have.

  Eva was going to do it. Or was this just another way to draw them in and then crush them at their weakest?

  11:46.

  Eva clung to her, but even in their reunion, Dawn could feel a tautness, a torn guilt for betraying her vows.

  “They don’t know I have Frank,” Eva said, referring to the Underground. “So if I told them your missing father suddenly barged in here to rescue you, it would sound real. I could say I wasn’t here when it happened, and he overwhelmed Julia—”

  “And he got back my weapons.” Was she pushing her luck here? “Isn’t that how it could’ve happened, Mom? Frank supposedly got back my weapons and he wheedled Breisi’s location out of your Servant. But what about Julia—?”

  “She’s beholden to me. She’s kept secrets before and she’ll do it again.” Eva looked like she was being dragged toward a stake to be burned. “There’re ways of making her…forget…too. But remember, this doesn’t mean I’m letting you go. Not you or Frank. The Master will believe anything I say, and nothing about our future has changed. In fact…”

  As Eva’s speech faded, Dawn could imagine her words.

  In fact, what I’m doing for you now binds you to me.

  She’d remember. “Where’s Breisi?”

  “An abandoned field in the woods over at—”

  “You’re taking us there,” Frank said from his spot on the floor. “We’re almost out of time.”

  The vampire seemed even more torn now.

  “Please,” Dawn said.

  That was all it seemed to take. “I won’t be there to help you. I could never get away with that.”

  11:47.

  “Mom?”

  Eva closed her eyes. “You have to know—the killer’s broadcast to the public wasn’t real. It was fed live into my TV, but it’s also being taped so it can be sent later to Limpet, after the deed is done. Breisi’s murder was never meant to be aired publicly, it was just a lure to get Jonah Limpet out of hiding.”

  More goddamned luring, but so what? Eva had just confirmed that Breisi was still alive.

  “We need to move,” Dawn said.

  “Wait. You have to be prepared for Guards, even though they…Let’s just say you’re going to come out alive, okay? They’re positioned around the area to make sure the killer has the opportunity to take out Breisi, and then to clean up after her before going back Underground.”

  “Just Guards? Why didn’t you guys bring out your higher-level vamps?”

  “This isn’t the big stand, Dawn. Limpet isn’t meant to see the broadcast until the murder’s over. The Master wouldn’t dare send the better vampires for this little errand, not unless he knew your protective spirits would be around. But he knows that won’t happen—Breisi’s Friend was already taken care of and Limpet wouldn’t know where to send any others.”

  Dawn wished Jonah would’ve had the chance to save Breisi: he’d always told them that he would take over if they found a vampire lair. That made Dawn think he could deal with a bunch of pissed off Guards in a blink.

  But she knew there was no way Eva would allow Dawn to call him. She was taking enough of a risk already.

  Eva continued. “This is all designed to provoke Jonah into showing himself and attacking the Underground—which he will when he finds Breisi’s body.”

  Dawn held out her hands so Eva could take of
f her chains. Superhuman yanks on the steel links did the trick.

  “Why was your broadcast live? Why not just tape Breisi’s death for us, too?”

  Eva looked at a loss, as if she realized how selfish she was going to sound. “I knew I’d have to obey the Master’s whims. He wanted Dawn to see what could happen to a vampire hunter—it’s part of making the Underground a more attractive option than staying with Jonah. But showing Dawn the broadcast wouldn’t give away anything to Jonah, either: the Master doesn’t want Limpet to know that he’s the one behind Breisi’s death—that’s where the Vampire Killer takes the fall—but he knew Dawn wouldn’t be able to tell Jonah anything because I have her. I couldn’t get out of going along with this plan of his, so I ended up asking a favor from him instead…. I just wanted get my part over with.” Eva went to Frank, deftly liberating him from his chains, too. “I couldn’t sit here waiting for the murderer to finish. I wanted to move on and forget what was happening with the rest of them. And the Master liked that I want to forge ahead with life, so he agreed.”

  Incredible, but could Dawn blame her? All Eva wanted was to get Breisi out of the way, leaving the Madisons free to reunite. The sooner that happened for Eva, the better. Screw the big war, right?

  “You’re lucky you’re his favorite,” Dawn said, already at the door. Because if the Master found out what Eva was doing to win back her family’s love, he’d probably go ballistic.

  Eva undid the locks.

  Frank was right behind them as they started up the stone stairs. “So why not give Jonah a live feed, too, and just get this big confrontation over with?”

  “For the Underground to continue prospering in secrecy, the fight has to take place Below, where humans won’t know about it. Besides, the Master’s confident on his home turf. He just hasn’t been sure that Jonah is a foe. All he wants is to bring him into hostile territory away from Above, where he doesn’t have to worry about being caught by mortals.”

  As much as Dawn wanted more details…“Where’s our stash?”

  With one last indecisive look, Eva complied. The next minute was a blur as she headed for Julia while giving directions about where to find their weapons, including personal effects. They gathered them rapidly.

  “Remember, I’m getting those back,” Eva said before they rushed into the night.

  While Dawn sprayed herself and Frank with garlic, it didn’t escape her notice that he flinched, and that he seemed stronger out of his silver chains.

  He’d tucked a revolver into a hip holster and slung a big leather man-purse over his burly chest. Just as Dawn was tempted to ask what was in it, she saw Eva pause, close her eyes as if in desperate prayer, then whoosh into Danger Form: heart-stoppingly celestial, a silver cloud of insidious beauty.

  The vampire wrapped around her family, veiling and lifting them. It felt like a storm cloud had iced around Dawn, suspending her in numbness and differentiating what Eva was from a Friend or anything else in Dawn’s studies. There was a muted humming, unsettling and primal, robbing her of most senses—touch, scent, awareness of time. And, before she could connect one thought to another, Eva had deposited them on the ground.

  Her glow revealed that they were at the lip of a forest, in a deserted campsite. A burnt-out fire ring and the skeleton of a lounge chair were the only signs of life.

  Eva hovered away from them, sublime and misty, her tendrils weaving in and out of her form as she gave them directions to the hidden camper.

  “I’m coming back for you,” she vowed, raising a tendril in the direction of the camper as if to complete one last mysterious task.

  Dawn couldn’t stop herself. “Or you could stay and help.”

  “I’ve done enough. The killer’s transmission and recording have been interrupted. Go.”

  Then Eva cracked like lightning, rising, rushing off again, disappearing into the midnight sky.

  Of course she wouldn’t stay. She didn’t want to take a risk that the Underground might hear about her participation. Hell, she’d already been foolhardy in using Danger Form here Above.

  “Let’s go.” Frank had pulled out his revolver. It had a tiny light near the muzzle that he didn’t even flick on.

  Was it because his sight was already good in the dark?

  Dawn took out her own nightlight, a headset that could fit into a jacket pocket. She geared up, readying her own revolver.

  Then they darted into the woods, leaves crackling under their boots as her pulse thundered.

  The camper was right where Eva said it’d be, its windows burning like night eyes amidst the trees.

  Outside the door, Frank held up his revolver, waiting for Dawn to assume position on the other side.

  The trees shook, and a screech rocked the air. Red-eyes.

  Dawn raised her revolver.

  With a heave, Frank opened the door and jumped up into the vehicle, Dawn following and aiming around for the killer.

  “Breisi!” she heard him say, and she whipped around, targeting, targeting…

  Frank had rushed toward his bound girlfriend, past the waiting camera, making a desperate dive for her.

  But Dawn was far enough away to get perspective: Breisi’s tied, stomping feet, her widened eyes trained on something in back of Dawn—

  When she whirled around, something pierced her jacketed arm, and the world electrified, plunging her to the floor in spasms and making her drop the revolver.

  Above her, she could barely make out Cassie Tomlinson, head bare, sharp fangs decorating a razored smile as she held a Taser in one hand and brandished a knife at Dawn with the other.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  THE LAST VICTIM

  AS Dawn writhed, Cassie turned off the Taser and yelled at Frank. “Drop your gun, sit down, keep your hands up!”

  Dawn heaved for breath, nerve endings fried. No energy. It felt like her body had been used as a baseball bat against a metal pole, but twenty times worse. And even looking at Cassie through half-lidded eyes reminded Dawn of a film-school trick shot Hitchcock might’ve used—a solitary figure with the world spinning around her. Vertigo.

  “If any of you move,” Cassie said around her fangs, “I’ll filet this girl.”

  She bent, positioning the knife blade near Dawn’s throat.

  Fighting to focus, Dawn saw enough to know that Cassie, Lee’s sister and the woman they’d interviewed back at the Adventure Motel, was gone. What was left was a horror show.

  No more hippie scarf or cornrowed hair. Wig, Dawn thought, seeing the camper lights gleam off the woman’s bald head. Generic jumpsuit, like a maintenance worker’s, covering her body. Latex gloves. Fangs.

  At Dawn’s perusal, Cassie’s mouth stretched into a smile, fangs sparkling just like her threatening knife.

  A thud on the roof shook the trailer. Then another. Another, another, another.

  Guards.

  From Dawn’s angle, she could barely see Frank because a table blocked his upper face but, next to him, the bound and duct-taped Breisi was in full view as she stared at Cassie, eyes wider now with something like growing dread. Frank had his hands in the air, his revolver on the floor.

  “There’s my protection,” Cassie said. “All I have to do is tell them to come into my family’s RV if there’s trouble. And you guys are.”

  “Inviting the Guards in would stop your broadcast,” Frank said, making Dawn wonder if Eva had prepared him for what the hell a Guard even was.

  Breisi glanced at Frank. Her heart was in her eyes.

  “Don’t invite them in,” Frank repeated.

  Dawn could tell he was leveling Cassie with a steady gaze, but, from here, she couldn’t see his eyes directly.

  For some reason, she had a bad feeling about this.

  “You don’t have to prove anything to Lee,” Frank added.

  At those words, Cassie startled, her knife a little less poised now. But that was nothing next to the shock Dawn felt. It was like she’d been Tasered again.

 
How would Frank know anything about Lee and Cassie?

  Training, she thought. Jonah gave him training for months.

  Or was he mind screwing, like a…?

  The notion was too terrifying, too impossible.

  Cassie stared back at Frank, as if enthralled. “My brother thinks I’m a nothing. He’s wrong, the—”

  “The Lee is wrong,” Frank finished. When he continued, he wasn’t addressing Cassie; he was talking to Dawn and Breisi and, weirdly, he was using Cassie’s more educated speech cadence.

  “That’s what all the kids called Lee. The Lee, because he thought he was special. And when he went off to Hollywood to prove it, Cassie was afraid he would succeed. She hated him more than ever because he would become a star and she would never have what it takes to make it.”

  God, Frank was inside of Cassie’s head.

  Shivers traveled under Dawn’s skin, bringing her to, reminding her to detach the Taser probes from her jacket. Carefully. One false move and Cassie might come out of it.

  “Almost all of the family was starstruck,” Frank continued. “Cassie had dreams of acting, just like Marg and Lee. But Lane, their older brother, was too levelheaded. He took care of everything after Dad died, so he didn’t have time for movies and idle goals. But if there was one thing they all knew, it was that Lee was going to be famous one day. And that meant he’d lord it over them even more than usual.”

  Footsteps pounded the roof. Red-eyes. Emphatic thumps made Dawn imagine their barbed tails, beating time in the night.

  Screeeech!

  Dawn braced herself for Cassie to snap to attention, but the Vampire Killer didn’t remove her gaze from Frank’s.

  He paused. “I don’t know why Lee killed Klara Monaghan. The Tomlinsons just knew that he was heavily involved with something secret, but he wouldn’t tell them what it was. It could’ve been Sasha he was hiding.”

  Shit, another dead end. The Underground did a hell of a job covering their tracks.

  Dawn saw her revolver near Cassie’s feet, about a yard away. It seemed like a mile. Should she use that or a different weapon to take the killer out? Dawn had gotten her sharp silver necklace back from Eva—could she slip that off and plunge it into Cassie’s neck before the girl had a chance to call the Guards?