In the Dark

by Melody Taylor

  Ian was gone.

  Specter’s surprise lasted only an instant. Then his face distorted in pure fury.

  “Find her!” he screamed. “Search the place inside and out, bring her back, find her!” The pack jumped to respond, all but Dragon and Syren who held fast to their victims.

  Sebastian watched, blinking. He hadn’t notice Ian slip away, despite her standing within five feet of him. He caught Josephine’s stunned face. She hadn’t seen Ian’s escape either.

  But only four pack members jumped to do Specter’s bidding. Dragon and Syren held their captives – while Shroud had vanished along with Ian.

  Specter was stalking back to Josephine, his eyes dark and angry, his posture offensive. He struck out to catch her arm in his own grip. Her body stiffened.

  “Go help them,” Specter snapped at Syren, and jerked Josephine to him.

  And Sebastian forgot Ian and Shroud in the rush to cross the room.

  IAN

  When the elevator touched the ground floor, I was still waiting for them to come after us. So I stood there like an idiot as the doors opened, frozen and not sure what to do. The man who’d brought me down – Shroud? – tugged my arm impatiently. I stumbled off behind him.

  We’d just walked out. Quietly, carefully, an inch at a time – but still in plain sight. The rest of them didn’t look at us. They were too busy watching Specter pick on Josephine. I still thought someone should have noticed us, after all the trouble they’d gone through to catch me. But they hadn’t. Not even Sebastian.

  Sebastian. Josephine. Amanda.

  “Everyone else – ?” I managed as we passed the front desk.

  My savior glanced at the lobby attendant and pushed out the front doors. I followed, my thoughts thick and scared.

  Outside he said, “We have to get out of here. They’ll notice we’re missing soon enough. Do you need anything from your house?”

  I blinked, still following. I suddenly noticed how hard his hand was clamped over my wrist. I tugged at it. His grip stayed tight. My other questions got swept away and I got no answer to a new one entirely:

  Am I being saved?

  “But Sebastian, and Amanda and Josephine – what’s gonna happen to them? Specter’s not just gonna let them go?”

  He shook his head. His dark eyes flicked everywhere, up the street and down, side to side, behind us; anywhere but me. I frowned.

  “Then what’s gonna happen to them?” I insisted.

  “Don’t think about it. There’s nothing we can do for them now. Keep walking.”

  Nothing we can . . .

  Ice ran through me, clearing the muck in my head. A sudden, white-hot anger bubbled up from my gut.

  I yanked my arm harder, trying to use that anger on him. I managed to wrench my wrist pretty good, but he didn’t let go.

  “Let me go!” I dug my heels in.

  He stopped and whirled, pushing his face close to mine. I wanted to be brave, to hold my ground and snarl right back at him – I pulled away, ashamed at doing so. His pretty face was twisted up in anger, eyes flashing.

  “Do you want to end up like Kent?” he hissed. “They killed him without even thinking about it, like they’re going to kill everyone in that apartment, like they’ll kill you if you go back there!”

  “Let me go!” My voice came out smaller this time.

  He sneered. “Sure. Right. Let you go. And you’ll go running back there, and then what? You can’t get back up to that apartment without a key. Even if you could, what do you think you’re going to do against Specter and his pack?”

  “I’m not going to run off and leave them up there!” I said back, because I had no idea what I might do. I just knew I couldn’t leave. I kept twisting my arm, looking for his thumb, where I should find a weak spot and be able to yank away. Only when I found it his thumb didn’t give.

  He aimed a finger in my face. “If you would have come with me when I told you to in the first place, you wouldn’t have to worry about this now!”

  I stopped struggling. “What?”

  He went on like I hadn’t said anything. “I tried to tell you, I tried to get you out before it came to this, but you’re just like Kent. Stubborn. He wouldn’t listen to me either, you know that? I tried to tell him the pack had found him, that they were on their way. He wouldn’t even talk to me. And he ended up dead behind some club. I’m not letting our entire line get wiped out because they’re too stupid to run while they can! Now move!”

  “What?” I said again, but he turned and started walking, pulling me along. I was positive I was in the grip of a madman.

  Or someone who knows more than he’s telling.

  “What’s going on, what do you want?” My fear bubbled up in my voice. It made me sound pathetic.

  He stopped, gave me a confused look, then frowned. “I’m Alec,” he said.

  I jerked.

  But he’s not . . . that’s not . . . what?

  He used the time I stood staring to drag me off again. I stumbled after him, my mind doing loops. “But –” I said brilliantly “– you’re not Alec.”

  He swore and went rigid. I thought I did something to piss him off, but then he dragged me off in a different direction.

  “Can you cover?” he hissed.

  “What?”

  “Shit,” he said, and pulled me into an alleyway.

  And then I saw what had made him go rigid. A few seconds after we ducked into the alley, another pack member slunk into the orange-y light at the mouth. She paused there, a dark silhouette standing statue-still, peering into the alley after us. Her eyes flashed in the streetlight, that dangerous, angry-vampire flash. My chest clenched.

  But her eyes didn’t pause. While I struggled not to breathe, she crept away. Like she didn’t see anything worth her time.

  I tried to say something, found my teeth sunk into my lip. I pulled them out and licked away the drops of blood. “What’s going on?” I hissed. “Who are you?”

  He frowned and ignored me. Annoyed at my question.

  “We’re not safe yet,” he muttered.

  I wasn’t certain if he wanted me safe, or a safe place to get rid of me. I bared my fangs at him. “Who are you?”

  He hauled me out of the alley, that hand clenched over my wrist like it was bolted into place. “I told you, I’m Alec,” he growled back. “I suppose Kent never told you about this, either.”

  He’d said that twice now. What if it was true?

  My stomach leaped like I had fallen from a very high place.

  No. Oh, no, no, no.

  “You’re not Alec,” I said again, child-like.

  “How do you think we got out?” he asked. “Why do you think they missed us? How do you think Kent and I kept them from seeing us all those years ago? Why do you think Cain didn’t recognize Kent – or me?”

  I swallowed at the fist in my throat.

  “Kent would have told me,” I said. Thinking –

  Bullshit he would have.

  The strange vampire shook his head. “He never liked doing it. He didn’t want to teach me. I’m not surprised he didn’t say anything.”

  “No.” I struggled again, starting to breathe. “No – Kent wasn’t a shape-changer! A shape-changer killed Kent! He wasn’t one of them!”

  Shroud pulled back, eyes gone wide. “Another one?” But he was only half asking me. I kept struggling. I felt like I’d been chained to an iron post.

  He got both of my wrists in both hands, gave me a shake. Not hard, but it startled me enough that I stopped struggling. “You’re lying! Our line is the only one that carries that ability, and we’re the last of our line. There aren’t any more.”

  My brow pinched.

  “What about the man who made Kent?”

  His eyebrows flew up. “The man who made Kent couldn’t do it, he couldn’t change himself –”

  The pieces tumbled into place, making a terrible click in my mind.

  “Oh, shit. Oh, shit.”

/>   Josephine telling me that Kent’s father had killed his father, furious that he didn’t have the ability that he did pass on to his own children. Finding out the shape-shifter had been sent by the pack. My knees almost went out from under me. If our line was the only one that had this ability –

  “Whoever made Kent must have made the shape-changer who killed him.” I swallowed. “Kent’s maker is with the pack.”

  Shroud stared at me. He didn’t contradict me. I wanted him to. I really, really wanted him to point out why my wild conclusions were way off. Instead, his startled expression slowly became horrified.

  “No. Kent’s maker isn’t with the pack. Who sets down the laws the laws? Who condemns traitors? Who calls the hunts?”

  I had a horrible feeling I knew where he was going with this. I didn’t want to be right, though, so I didn’t guess out loud.

  Shroud gave me a little shake, like I wasn’t paying attention. “Specter,” he said. “Kent’s maker is Specter.”

  Hearing it out loud felt like someone had slapped me. “Oh, no,” I said. “No, no.” But it all fit.

  Shroud looked every bit as stunned as I felt. I wanted to keep thinking of him as The Enemy, a fake, a liar; but his shock was too real. Someone impersonating Alec wouldn’t have been as horrified as I was.

  The pack vampire – Alec, I supposed – shook his head, his eyes not so focused on me anymore. “Why . . . ?” he said, mostly to himself. “Why didn’t Kent say anything?”

  I’d repeated that question to myself for days. I doubted I’d ever find an answer – so it didn’t distract me from my real opportunity. While he frowned into the distance, his hands had loosened. I jerked toward his thumbs and they gave. Too late, he grabbed at me.

  I turned and bolted as fast as I could make myself. I pushed myself, pushed . . . felt myself getting faster, faster than I should have been able to run. Not much, maybe not enough, but maybe.

  “Ian!” His shoes scraped the pavement to come after me.

  Go, go, go . . . I ran, watching the buildings go by, watching Sebastian’s place come into view – please, please, please . . .

  A solid weight thudded into me. I went down, my momentum throwing me farther than I would have gone from a standstill. The world kaleidoscoped around me as I tumbled over once, twice, three times; I lost count. The pavement crashed into me, elbows, knees, hips, chin. When I stopped rolling, the world didn’t. Buildings danced around me while an ugly headache began to throb. I probably had a concussion.

  Hands lifted me. I landed across a shoulder so hard that I coughed.

  “Shut up,” a voice said. It sounded like Alec this time. I kicked and struggled, but my hits didn’t do any good. Struggling just hurt my head.

  So I bit.

  My fangs stabbed right through the wool suit pants and into skin. He yelped and jumped, but he took me with him. I sank my fangs deeper. Hunger made me try to drink the cold, syrupy blood I could taste. Through the slacks it was useless, so I pulled my fangs out and sank them in again.

  He jumped again, swore, and tried to pull me off his shoulder. I hung on, literally tooth and nail. Bit him again. He swore and tried to shift me around. I bit him again. And again. Finally, he pulled me down, threw me off.

  I let him, using the force he’d thrown me with to roll away. Then I popped up and bolted. I felt his hand reach my ankle, felt him try to clamp on with that hard grip – felt his hand slip off.

  “Ian,” he hissed after me. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”

  I dodged around a building, down an alley, around the corner it let out onto, and kept running. Zigzagging like a rabbit. I could hear his feet on the ground behind me. I remembered this game from when Emily’s killer had chased me. It made me tremble.

  I picked up my pace, thinking, he caught me once. I couldn’t outrun him. I needed to hide. Took another corner to keep out of sight, watching for a hiding spot, left, right –

  Anything, anything, come on . . .

  An awning. On the shop ahead of me, unrolled. Drooping in the center, like it had hung that way for a while. I never would have considered it before last week, it was too high. Maybe, if I’d really jumped, my hand could have just touched the edge. But now . . . I didn’t know for sure if I could jump that high, but those footsteps kept pelting behind me, faster than me, and what other choice did I have?

  I ran over, scrunched my legs so tight that my butt touched the ground, and jumped. Pushed, the same way I did to run, and hoped.

  One hand hit the pole along the edge, solid, firm. Not an amazing leap, just a few inches higher than I’d expected. Crucial inches. I hauled myself up fast, remembering tricks I hadn’t used since grade school, playing on the monkey bars. The feet behind me reached the corner and kept coming.

  Now’s when it rips . . .

  The awning fabric groaned under me . . . and held. I’d landed in a puddle of cold murky rain water, but I was up. I could hear the feet behind me getting closer, until they reached the awning. I clenched my teeth and froze.

  The sound of footsteps pelted past. I let out a breath.

  The footsteps stopped. Up the block, past me, but still. I froze again and listened.

  Nothing. The sound of traffic another street over, the wind and the creak of the awning fabric that wanted to rip out from under me. He was holding still too, looking and listening for me.

  “Hiding?” Alec’s voice asked. “Where the hell are you?”

  He didn’t see me!

  “I don’t believe this. I don’t believe you want to die this much. I really don’t.” He kept his voice low, just loud enough for me to hear. He started walking back, slowly. “Ian, we have to get out of here!”

  He paused right under the awning. I bit my lip, trying not to breathe, begging the fabric to hold.

  He moved away, back the way we’d come, whispering my name desperately. I snuck a tiny peek once he’d gone past, needing to know for certain –

  There was Alec’s long, straight brown hair tied in a neat tail over the back of his own suit coat. Alec’s height, Alec’s build. He turned so I could catch his profile – Alec. For now, anyway.

  He vanished around the corner, but I stayed in the mucky water. I listened to him calling me, like I was a naughty kid and if he got it across to me how important this was, I’d come out. He didn’t intend to give up and walk away. I couldn’t hop down. And if I could somehow sneak past him and managed to find my way back to the penthouse, really, Alec had a point – what could I do against the pack?

  Sebastian couldn’t save me this time. He was trapped with them, in his own home. With Josephine. And Amanda.

  My sister.

  And I couldn’t move.

  I closed my eyes, refused to breathe, and wondered what in the world I was going to do now.

  PENTHOUSE

  They hadn’t taken Sebastian’s sword. He screamed as he drew it, watching Specter’s teeth reach for Josephine’s throat. He leaped over the glass coffee table, arms raised, watching Specter look up –

  Dragon met his blow, rushing up to him as he landed and throwing him back before he could get his balance. Sebastian flew back and hit the table with his shoulder, crashed through the glass top and rolled back to his feet. Amanda skittered away from them both, her face a mask of fear.

  Sebastian brought his sword back up in time to catch Dragon’s next blow. The younger vampire scowled as his sword stopped short of taking Sebastian’s head. Sebastian held Dragon’s blade.

  “You’ve drawn your blade against another of your pack,” Sebastian growled. “The penalty is death.”

  “Then try and kill me, traitor!” Dragon freed his blade and pulled back to strike.

  Behind the younger vampire, Sebastian could see Josephine losing her fight against Specter. He was older, stronger. The struggle would end in a matter of seconds.

  Dragon struck. Sebastian blocked the first blow easily, and the second, but Dragon kept coming, forcing Sebastian on the defen
sive. There was no opening, no chance to retaliate with a strike of his own. Josephine cried out as Specter’s fangs found her flesh. The sound pulled Sebastian’s lips back from his teeth.

  Dragon got in under Sebastian’s guard and left a slash along his thigh. A growl rattled out of Sebastian. He knocked Dragon’s sword away from himself, too late to save his leg, too angry to stop.

  Josephine cried out again, a frantic sound. Dragon got in another blow, this one along Sebastian’s upper arm.

  “Dammit!”

  Sebastian snarled and shut out Josephine’s distress. A solid kick to Dragon’s knee distracted him long enough to allow Sebastian to launch his own assault. Dragon blocked, again, again, his face growing more strained with each blow. Sebastian took a step towards him, forcing his blade into the younger vampire’s face. A single blow shot past Dragon’s guard, jabbed into his shoulder. While the younger member paused, eyes wide, Sebastian hauled his sword back and brought it against Dragon’s, using all his strength, all his anger, all his hatred.

  They connected with a clang that vibrated through Sebastian. Dragon’s sword sailed away from them, his fingers stretching after it, his eyes following it desperately. They flicked back to Sebastian –

  Too late.

  Sebastian spun with the blow, bringing it around full circle. Slamming into Dragon’s neck with the same force he’d used against the sword. Dragon’s body crumpled as Sebastian’s sword severed his spinal cord. His skull cracked against the hardwood floor. Amanda screamed.

  Sebastian turned back to Specter before Dragon’s body began to decay, sword raised, snarling – to face Syren. She stood between Sebastian and his target, watching impassively, her own slim blade held in a pose Sebastian had taught her, long ago.

  “At least you haven’t gotten rusty,” she said. Josephine’s wide, panicked eyes met his over Syren’s shoulder.

  “Challenge, Cain.” Syren lifted her blade.

  Josephine whimpered.

  “Accepted,” Sebastian snapped, and lunged.

  IAN

  Alec had started looking harder.