“That shouldn’t be unlocked, should it,” she said. I shook my head.
Sebastian came back in while we stared, frozen and unsure what to do. As soon as I saw him over her shoulder, I pointed sharply to the door. I didn’t know what he might do, but it had to be better than anything I could think of.
He unsheathed his sword. With a twist of his hand, he turned it behind him and stalked to the door. He stood for a long second. Listening, probably. In one snake-quick move, his hand shot out and threw the door open. I cringed. The sounds of traffic from below drifted in. Wind tossed Sebastian’s long hair and coat.
He stepped out onto the balcony, one carefully placed step at a time, impossibly silent. My shoulders tightened. With him out there alone it wouldn’t be hard for Not-Emily to jump out and get between us. To wrestle him over the edge of the balcony. Or even just snag me from behind.
First Sebastian stepped, then he looked left, right, and up. Nothing happened. No one leaped out at him. His hair fluttered in the wind. Slowly, he made his way out to the railing. If anyone wanted to get him, now would be the time. He looked down. The set-up was perfect. I tensed, waiting for Not-Emily to leap out from some out-of-sight corner and shove him over.
It didn’t happen. Sebastian stared down over the edge of the balcony for a few seconds, then turned back to face us.
“She jumped.” His voice was muted in the open air.
I frowned.
Suicide . . . ? Did Sebastian scare her that much?
No. Duh. An escape route. That drop wouldn’t kill her.
“She jumped?” Josephine murmured. She moved closer, one hand on mine, bringing me with her. She wanted to see. After a few steps, so did I.
The wind slammed into me. I pushed my hair out of my face, tailing Josephine to the edge. I grabbed the stone railing with my free hand and held onto it while I stared down – down, down, down. My stomach flipped.
“There.” Sebastian pointed. I saw landscaping and blacktop and tiny little people moving around, but it strained my one good eye to focus any harder than that. I didn’t see anything odd at all.
“She did,” Josephine said.
I slapped the railing with one hand. They both looked at me. I wanted to yell, “What? What do you see?” Instead I shrugged hard, the same gesture I would have used with the words.
“You might not be able to see detail that far yet,” Josephine said. “It takes some time to develop. You’re still young.”
“Lessons later,” Sebastian said. “She jumped. There is a smear of blood the size of a body, and no body. She must have jumped and crawled away.”
I looked back over the railing at darkness vaguely broken up by street lights. How could they tell?
“She won’t get far until she heals. I will go look for her. Stay here,” Sebastian told us. He turned on his heel and left. We watched him go, still holding hands, squeezed tight enough that it should have hurt. It didn’t.
“Let’s go back inside,” Josephine said, her voice flat. I couldn’t speak, so I just followed her in when she started walking. She shut and locked the door behind us, as if that made us any safer, and stood still, watching the door handle. She was a little shocky. So was I, but I got the idea she’d stand and stare until the sun came up. I wanted to collapse.
I pulled Josephine further in, back to the couch, where we could both sit. She didn’t resist. I dropped onto the red velvet, off my shaking legs. Josephine fell onto the couch beside me, eyes wide and glazed, the whites pink. After a few moments of stunned silence, her shoulders began to shake and she whimpered in a soft little voice. I held her, and she held me, and we cried.
BELOW
Sebastian left the women to mourn their lost. He had no place with them. His dead had been gone from him for too long, the sharpness of his grief dulled over time.
He felt safe enough leaving them inside. Whatever trick the lookalike had planned, she was still injured. He doubted any trick would get her back inside. Sebastian took the elevator down, left the building, and circled it until he came to the side his balcony looked out on. He found the splatter of blood quickly.
It was large, within the fenced area that made up a garden for the building. Sebastian approached it carefully, eyes and ears open. She could still be close, waiting for him.
Several feet away, he sniffed. The blood was upwind of him, easily found. Too heavy to be human. Vampire. Hers, then. One slow, easy step at a time, setting his weight on the balls of his feet, he moved up to it.
Something was wrong.
He saw blood, certainly a great deal of it. But no impact mark. The grass should have been flattened, the earth pushed in. He saw no such indications. It looked as though someone had simply poured a quantity of blood over the ground.
He had thought broken legs would keep her still. Not many received the vigorous training he had – he knew of few others who would push themselves to such limits. She had to be one such, for she was not here. Indeed, she had not jumped.
Sebastian turned and ran back to the apartment building. Inside, he boarded the penthouse elevator, shoved his key into the lock and waited. The elevator didn’t move. Dead. He removed the key, inserted it again. When still nothing happened, he knew.
She was in the elevator shaft.
IAN
I held Josephine, letting her hold me, wishing I could say something. Even just comforting noises. But my voice stuck on the hole in my throat.
She didn’t say anything to me. Just cried. I laid my face against her perfumed hair and let myself hurt. Too easy. I shut my eyes.
Darkness all around, legs stiff and sore. They were alone. Time to move.
I jerked awake, still crying, arms around Josephine. I must have passed out for just a second. Or gone into some sort of hallucination. It made sense, with the kind of night I’d been having –
Something in the elevator shaft rattled. A metallic noise, very quiet. I hadn’t heard it make that sound before. I sat up straighter, listening.
Another rattle. Louder.
I shook Josephine. She looked at me with blood-shot eyes, cheeks smeared red. I pushed her, gently. Get up. Puzzled, she stood without pausing to ask why. I stood with her and pointed to the elevator, tugging her arm. It was paranoid and idiotic; who would be in there? I’d felt the same way right before my house got broken into. “Just a cat” my ass. I had a new philosophy: run like hell and find out it was a cat later. I prodded Josephine toward the hallway. She nodded. We ran.
Behind us I heard another rattle, then a scratchy, grating sound. It stopped, then happened again, a little louder this time. The elevator doors being forced open.
I ducked into the first room down the hallway, wishing we had enough time to run to the practice room. But maybe, just maybe, Sebastian had some kind of weapon in here – a sword, a knife, anything. Not that I knew what to do with one. I’d probably slice my own arm off. My hope was Josephine would turn out to be an amazing swordswoman.
I took a desperate look around. Saw a large room, floor to ceiling bookshelves, a cushy chair in the middle of it all. Nothing sharp.
Josephine closed the double doors behind us, achingly gentle, to keep the click they made quiet. If nothing else, we were now behind one door of several. Not that anything would stop her from looking behind all the doors.
The sound of footsteps echoed through the door. Out in the living room.
Step. Step. Step.
My gut froze. Josephine stood to one side of the door, to hide behind it when it opened. I took her lead on the other side. Back pressed against the wall as if I could hide inside it, I shut my eyes and begged for Sebastian to come back and save us, for an earthquake, a bolt of lightning, anything.
Step. Step. Getting closer.
I opened my eyes to glance back at Josephine and pointed to my legs, eyebrows raised. How could she walk? Josephine shook her head with a shrug.
“I know you’re here, ladies,” a man’s voice called.
&nbs
p; A man? Was that even possible?
“Surprise! Just little old me.”
It was a man. Just one man.
Thinking that scared me even more. He could have been anyone. Kissing Emily came back to me. Kissing him. My stomach rose up in my throat.
“Cain’s outside,” the strange man called. “He can’t get back in. I’m going to find you.”
The more I tried to keep from breathing, the more my body wanted to. All at once, my lungs seized control, gasping for air. My broken throat wheezed, a roar in the silence. My knees turned rubbery – he would hear that for sure –
Ka-thunk!
A door on the other side of the hall crashed open, covering the sound of my throat. I shoved the side of my hand inside my mouth and bit. The wheezing sound stopped.
Josephine waved at me. I looked, biting my hand.
“We have to jump him,” she hissed. “When he comes in here, just jump on him. Tangle him up. Bite him if you can. I’ll do the same.”
My eyebrows shot up.
I could hear him searching around in the room he’d broken into – barely. A rustling sound, footsteps. Heard him come back out into the hall. My teeth clamped down harder on my hand.
We didn’t have much choice. I nodded.
Step. Step.
Josephine waved at me to go low, mimed pulling her hand from her teeth. I let go of my hand. Red droplets spattered the floor. I went into a crouch on one shaking leg and one leg I couldn’t feel.
He was right outside. I could hear him.
Step. Step. Pause.
LOBBY
Sebastian got off the elevator and glared at it, thinking. How to get it moving, fast? He couldn’t from here. The motor was in a maintenance room above his own penthouse. He could only get to it from the service access, a lengthy climb from here, and then he wouldn’t know what to –
“Is there a problem Mr. Cain?” the lobby attendant asked from behind him.
“The elevator is out of order.” He stalked to the fire escape door.
“I’ll get the repairman down here right away,” the attendant promised. “I’ll tell him it’s an emergency.”
“Good.”
Sebastian cocked his head at the fire door. It opened towards him. He couldn’t force the hinges with a well-placed kick. The entire door would have to come out.
“The fire door’s locked from this side,” the boy warned him.
“I know.”
He reached up and dug his fingers into the space between the door and the jamb, forcing them in until the skin tore. After a soft tug to be sure of his grip, he pulled. The door held solid. Sebastian relaxed for one second, then pulled with as much force as he could muster in one, shoulder-wrenching yank. The door held, then creaked, loosening. He relaxed, then pulled again. Something in his left shoulder popped and ripped at the same time the hinges gave with a metallic shriek.
The fire alarm went off. Sebastian dropped the metal door to one side, rolling his shoulder to assess the damage. Dislocated, muscle torn. Not bad. He forced the joint back into place between his body and the wall.
The boy behind him gasped. “Mr. Cain –”
Sebastian turned to meet his eyes.
“Forget.”
He dashed up the stairs, adding time in his head. If Ian and Josephine had hidden themselves, he might have enough.
“How the hell did this happen?” the boy muttered behind him.
Sebastian ran.
IAN
He paused, his weight making the floor creak. Before I’d really decided to move, I found myself backing away from the door. Josephine glanced up at me, waved a hand at me, frowning. I shook my head – I couldn’t do it. Less than an hour ago he had almost killed me. I couldn’t. I shrank away from the door until my back hit the wall.
Ka-Thunk!
The door flew open, missing my face by an inch. I jerked back, banged my head into the wall. He was in the room, standing between the double-doors. I watched him from between the door and the doorjamb, frozen still, wishing he wouldn’t see me. I’d almost expected someone petite, like Emily, small enough that he could have fooled me into thinking he was a delicate woman. But this man had no resemblance to Emily at all. Even his clothes were different. He seemed huge, muscular and tall. Dangerous.
“Behind the doors, huh?” He didn’t move from the doorway. “One on each side. You weren’t hoping to jump me, were you?”
A sensation like swallowing an ice cube went down my body.
He jumped, split kicking with both legs. Ka-Crack!
The doors flew open again, this time cracking off their hinges, one flying into my face. My world turned yellow-red. Fire shot from my nose through my face. Something hit my butt – no, my butt hit the floor. Josephine screamed.
Heavy footsteps pelted across the floor. Josephine yelped again, this time a sound that choked off sharply. Why would she choke? The only reason I made that sound was because he’d ripped . . . out . . .
I trembled.
My tailbone burned. My face burned. But I stayed still. Didn’t move an inch. Not to touch my nose. Not to sit up. Nothing. I was a stone. A still, hidden, safe stone.
“Why don’t you go yell for help while I finish Josephine off, huh, Ian?” he growled. “Or is your throat bothering you?”
He laughed. I heard him bite, a wet snap sound followed by another muffled cry from Josephine.
He couldn’t see me. His face had moved back and forth while he spoke, but it hadn’t stopped. He couldn’t see me around the door. But I could see him. He had Josephine in a tight grip from behind, forcing her arms up behind her back. He’d buried his fangs in the side of her neck. A small trickle of blood escaped where his lips touched her skin. Her face was frozen, her eyes wide.
I tried to think of something, anything. My brain wouldn’t stop screaming.
Let her go, let her go.
But he wouldn’t. Not unless I stopped him.
And I couldn’t move.
Tears welled up and spilled over my cheeks. I shook so hard I thought for sure he’d hear me.
Josephine’s tight, tense body went slowly limp, relaxing little by little. Her eyes didn’t see me anymore.
She was going to die. I had to do something. But I didn’t know what.
“Ian! Josephine!”
Sebastian!
I opened my mouth to scream, but my voice caught in my throat. Didn’t even wheeze. The monster smiled around Josephine’s neck.
I kicked a foot, aiming for the door. Missed. I kicked again harder, a jerk of a motion. My foot whumped against the door, harder than I’d thought. With the hinges already crooked and broken, the door came right off and crashed to the floor. The stranger’s eyes landed on me over the broken door. He grinned around Josephine’s white skin. I slunk back, my middle an ice ball. Sebastian’s footsteps pounded through the apartment.
The strange man let go of Josephine. She tumbled to the floor like a doll.
“So you do know that trick,” he said, licking his bloody lips. I just stared at him.
He lunged. Fast as a cat, fast as a snake, he had me. One hand around my throat, shoving me to the wall while the other pressed between my breasts, pushing into my ribcage. I grabbed at his hand, clawing at it, trying to stop his reach, and did absolutely nothing. My sternum cracked. I heard the sound in my head, felt the sharp stab of pain in my chest. He pressed in, reaching for my heart, I knew because he’d pulled out Kent’s heart and now mine too, and it hurt and I screamed but nothing came out. My lungs had folded entirely.
My skin started tearing. I felt it stretching away from my bones – like a wrecking ball slammed into me. His fingers moved inside my chest, wet, sliding deeper, the pain so bad I almost couldn’t see . . .
He stopped.
Mouth open, I looked up, staring like an idiot because I didn’t know what else to do. His face – it was wide with surprise. Sebastian stood behind him, his own face a gargoyle’s mask of hate. A killer.
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br /> For one second that hand stayed pressed against my chest, inside me, unmoving. And then he toppled, pulling his fingers out and away with him.
The second time Sebastian cut into him, I heard it. Metal on bone.
Shing.
I squeezed my eyes shut, pressed my back to the wall, and shook.
I heard the wet sound of liquid in a throat. I opened my eyes. Saw Sebastian hunkered down over a shape I couldn’t see. Josephine still lay tossed to one side. I shut my eyes again. The sound of Sebastian drinking filled my ears, drowning me. The horrible sound of him swallowing from that dead man, until I heard him sucking hard, not getting any more, finally stopping.
I didn’t open my eyes. If he’d stopped, he’d stood up. If he’d stood up, the dead man would be right there. Turning into dust maybe, or maybe not yet, but still right where I could see.
“Josephine,” Sebastian said, his voice soft for once. Young. “Josephine. Drink. Here.”
I listened to Josephine feed from him, greedy gulps.
I hadn’t done anything.
I whimpered, a gurgling noise in my throat.
“Ian,” Sebastian said in my direction. Asking if I was all right, what had happened, if there were more, all in just my name.
I couldn’t say “what.” I couldn’t tell him I hadn’t done a damn thing. That I was supposed to help and I’d frozen up. I wanted to confess, but my throat didn’t work.
“He’s dead, Ian. It’s over.”
My stomach jerked.
“Ian?” Sebastian didn’t move, only spoke.
I dropped onto my belly and dry-heaved.
I hadn’t done a damn thing.
“Ian?” That was Josephine’s voice, raspy, weak, but there.
A trickle of blood worked up from my throat and gagged me. My body jerked with my stomach, trying to force more up. Hard, so it ached after each jerk, so that every cut and bruise and broken bone in my body grated and burned and throbbed.
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