In the Dark

by Melody Taylor

  He’d paced back and forth below the awning, hissing my name, trying to get me to come out. When I stayed put, he’d stopped. Started combing the area, silent, looking inside and under dumpsters, between buildings, above him into window sills.

  He’ll find me. He’s fucking psychic.

  I shivered. Not cold. Scared. Because I didn’t have any more options. The others were probably dead by now anyway.

  My eyes misted, but I didn’t let myself make a sound. It was over, hopeless, a matter of time. Alec would find me, and take me away, and while I sat in his Cadillac watching Seattle shrink behind me, Amanda and Sebastian and Josephine would die, one by one. But I couldn’t just give in.

  Not that turning myself over would do any damn good. Specter hated us. Nothing Alec or Shroud could say would change that. If I left with him, we wouldn’t be able to run far enough.

  Then why had Alec – or rather, Shroud – told them where we were? Why did he tell them Sebastian wouldn’t turn me in? He’d just ensured that one or the other would come after us once he got me away.

  I almost snorted out loud. Even I could see the answer to that one. Sebastian and Specter both scared the piss out of Alec, so he’d set them up to start fighting to give him a chance to grab me and run. Whichever one lost, he’d only have to deal with one of them, not both. Maybe if he was really lucky, neither one would survive.

  Think, Ian. You have to do something.

  I couldn’t fight Alec. I couldn’t outrun him. I couldn’t do anything about the pack on my own – and time kept ticking by.

  That was all I could focus on, the need to think fast, the image of a clock running out in my head. I needed more time, a chance to figure this all out, like Alec must have had. Except he had all the ins and outs of the pack to work with, he knew all about them, he knew things they would fall for, hell, he’d even fought them before . . .

  Maybe he’d know what to do!

  Hands trembling so they almost wouldn’t work, I pulled myself to the edge of the awning. With my stomach rising into my throat, I focused on Alec. Thinking that maybe I could make him listen, if I just knew what to say. My head began to throb as I did. I stared at him, trying to think . . . except he just wasn’t very interesting right now. I couldn’t tell what he was feeling by his posture, it was so dull, and before I really knew what I was doing, I had started to turn away from him to find something better to look at.

  My eyes popped open as I did. I whipped my head back towards him.

  He had his back to me, examining a windowsill across the street. I could see him, but I had a nearly irresistible urge to ignore him. Just like the other night at the rave. I hadn’t been too stoned to focus. He’d forced me not to focus on him.

  It explained so much. Why I kept getting distracted, why I hadn’t seen Specter at all, what Alec had really wanted that night. Specter hadn’t planned an attack that night – just Alec. All by himself, wearing Specter’s face.

  I pulled back, keeping hidden.

  Goddammit. God damn it!

  The pack vampire trying to convince Sebastian to turn me in – Alec. Trying to kill Sebastian when that didn’t work. Alec. Finally bringing the pack down on us as a last resort. Alec. And now if I couldn’t make him help, they wouldn’t leave me or him alone ever again –

  And I knew what to do.

  I started shaking harder. It was stupid. I didn’t have any assurance it would work. And I couldn’t trust Alec. He’d tried to kill Sebastian.

  For a second I laid still, totally frozen and unable to move. Then my hands came to life. Before I could freeze up again, I grabbed the edge of the awning and flipped off. A little part of me was impressed that I remembered how to do penny-drops, the rest of me screamed how stupid I was. The force of the fall pushed me into a crouch on the sidewalk when I landed. I nearly went straight onto my face I was shaking so hard.

  Alec didn’t even flinch. Just turned to face me. “Thank God you’ve come to your senses,” he said, as if I hadn’t just about dropped on his head.

  I stayed in the crouch I’d landed in, glaring at him. “I don’t want to go with you, Alec. I’m going back.”

  “Do you really think you can do a damn thing?” he snapped. “Against all of them?”

  I shook my head. “You’re going to help. You said you and Kent fought them. You said you killed them.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Kent and I did that together. And we both had sword training. I led them off and he killed them, one at a time. We can’t do that now – I’m not sure how we would separate them, and even if we could, which of us would kill them? I’m no match for most of them, and tell me if I’m wrong, but you wouldn’t kill one of them if you could.” He paused, waiting for my response, shook his head when I stayed quiet. “It’s over, Ian. I know you don’t want your new child to die. I didn’t want Kent to die! But sometimes you have to cut your losses –”

  “No!” My voice echoed through the empty street. Alec winced.

  “No,” I said again. “I’m not going to give up on them, I’m not. I’m sick of people dying!” I glared. “If you won’t help me, Alec, I’ll tell them what a traitor you are.”

  He frowned, not the least bit threatened. He started to make a laughing face, but I interrupted him.

  “They don’t like traitors much, do they? Once I learn how to look like someone else, I’ll go tell them that you hated Kent so much –”

  “I never hated Kent!” he screamed, eyes flaring. He leaned forward like he wanted to run at me. My mouth snapped shut. Not what I expected.

  His fists clenched. “Do you know what I’ve had to watch, what I’ve had to do, in order to be counted part of this vile group? Do you? I’ve been using them Ian, using them to find and save you and Kent!”

  I frowned. “To find Kent? But I thought . . . I mean, how did you get my house key –”

  “I stole it! I had to steal it because Kent left me!” His voice broke over what sounded like a sob. I stayed tense, watching him and wondering if I would have to run again. He kept yelling at me. “I joined the pack to spy on them, to find Kent and warn him. But when I told him what was happening, he shook his head at me. Like he was ashamed!”

  That last part did come out a sob. Alec turned away, shoulders bunched. The sight didn’t kill my anger, but I could feel it shrinking.

  That look. The look on Kent’s face the night he’d died. It came back to me like a brick to the head, from a whole new point of view.

  “When you get to be two hundred and twenty-five, see if you don’t just stand around and think about stuff sometimes!”

  See if you don’t stand around and think about Alec, who just appeared out of your two hundred and twenty-five year past to warn you that your maker had hunted you down and was ready to kill you.

  “When?” I asked. “What night?” To be sure.

  “The night before he died.” Alec closed his eyes. He kept crying a little, his face wrinkled in pain. He didn’t even try to fight the tears.

  The night before he died.

  “He knew . . .” My own vision went red.

  “No,” Alec said softly. “He didn’t know. Not really. I told him . . .” he sighed while I waited for it, staring at him. “I told him they sent me. To kill him. But that I didn’t want to. I didn’t know the one they had sent was so close, I thought I had some time, that I could convince him . . .”

  One red tear dripped off my nose and hit my boot. “You lied to him . . . ?”

  “I wanted him to see how much I still loved him. I wanted him to know . . . I thought, if I told him I wouldn’t obey an order to kill him, he might see . . . but he just frowned. He frowned and told me to leave!”

  I shook my head, hardly able to think. If things had gone very differently . . . if Alec had told the truth, what might have changed? So very much.

  I growled, fangs bared at him. “God damn you.”

  “Shut up!” he screamed. I flinched. “Shut up, Miss Perfect! All I ever want
ed was for him to love me, and here you are, keeping him all to yourself! I should have saved Kent and let that bastard kill you! Maybe then he could have remembered why he loved me. Maybe . . .”

  I stared as he clenched his jaw and tried to compose himself.

  Shit.

  The others were still trapped in the penthouse.

  I needed to think about that first.

  “I’m going back to the penthouse,” I said. “I’m going to stop Specter. And you’re going to help me.”

  Alec waved me off. “Go if you want. Just leave me alone.”

  My mouth slowly dropped open. And then I spat, just to get the sudden taste out of my mouth. “Dammit, Alec, you ever think the reason Kent left was because you’re so fucking self-centered?”

  His eyes snapped on my face, glowing like two flames. “Don’t ever bring that up in my presence again.”

  I bared my fangs, certain my own eyes burned as brightly. “I’ll bring up whatever the hell I want. You let Kent die – you tried to kill everyone I care about. And I’m not going to let you. You understand me?”

  He glared.

  I stood up from my crouch, still trembling, and aimed a finger at him. I wanted to leap on him and rip him apart, but held myself back. I still needed him. “If you don’t do this, you little shit, I’ll spend my life hunting you until I’ve caught you and killed you with my bare hands.” They hooked into claws in front of me while I spoke, so tempted not to wait that long. “If you survive this, I will never forgive you, and I will make sure I spend every second of my life paying you back.”

  He turned away from me. I waited, breathing hard, considering rushing him from behind. If he so much as gave me a look I didn’t like, I would try to slaughter him here and now, and I knew there was no way I could ever make myself feel bad for it. I opened my mouth to scream at him, but he had already turned to look at me over his shoulder.

  “Tell me what you want to do, and I’ll tell you if I’ll help or not.”

  I snapped my mouth shut. I still wanted to scream at him. Instead I crossed my arms and glared at him. He refused to meet my stare, rubbing reddened eyes. I wiped at my own, faintly surprised at the tears. I felt too furious for tears now.

  “Well?” Alec said at last.

  PENTHOUSE

  Syren’s knees folded under her, dropping her with an ungainly thud. She began to decay almost instantly, a pile of ash and clothing. Sebastian flicked his sword up, eyes on Specter.

  Josephine hung limp in his arms, her eyes open but unaware. In pain. Specter stood, waiting, his eyes glinting.

  “I assume,” he said, holding her out, “you’d like to have the last? She was yours, after all.”

  Sebastian threw himself at Specter, sword raised –

  Drew himself up sharp when Specter brought Josephine up to counter. She moaned at the sudden motion, made a weak attempt to resist.

  “I told you, Cain. Challenge after I drink that little brat.”

  “Traitor’s spawn,” Sebastian said for him, his voice a growl.

  Specter’s eyebrows flicked up with a small, nasty smile. “Indeed. Did you know, Cain, that her father belonged to the pack? For a short time, mind you. But he still betrayed us – just like you.”

  Sebastian frowned. He couldn’t get his sword in to find Specter’s heart or head. He knew Specter’s strength, his speed, knew how his leader used them both. Holding Josephine would cause him no discomfort, nor would it slow him down. If Sebastian struck, Specter would easily make Josephine take the blow.

  “Why did you never mention Kent?” Sebastian asked, to keep Specter talking – a tactic Specter had taught him. He doubted it would work, but he needed to do something – needed time to think.

  “Why have you allowed yourself to remain uninformed?” Specter responded.

  Sebastian watched him, watched his eyes, looking for his next move. But Specter’s eyes stayed dark, his face a blank. Another trick he’d taught Sebastian, practiced until it had become a deeply ingrained habit.

  Specter hefted Josephine as if her weight had started to bother him, which Sebastian knew it hadn’t. “We’ll just wait around until one of my trusted followers returns. With the brat. If nobody does, Josephine and I will just have to go looking for her.”

  Sebastian adjusted his grip on his blade. “Ian.”

  Specter raised his eyebrows in query.

  “The girl you keep referring to. Her name is Ian.”

  Specter snorted. “I don’t care if her name is Mary, Queen of Scots. She’s traitor’s spawn.”

  Sebastian shifted his weight. “If Kent betrayed the pack, what does it have to do with Ian?”

  Specter laughed. Both Josephine and Amanda whimpered at the sound. “What an interesting case of morals you’ve developed!” Specter hefted Josephine over his shoulder. “Tell me, how else have I ever disposed of traitors?”

  “This has become an obsession with you. I have never seen you deal with traitors quite so avidly – or personally. You generally have them brought to you and proclaim a hunt on their offspring. I do not understand your need to attend to this yourself.”

  Specter’s eye flashed. “You don’t need to understand for me to carry it out,” he hissed –

  And Sebastian saw it.

  A weakness.

  Exploiting it, though . . . Sebastian didn’t have enough information. This had become an obsession for Specter. Sebastian had no notion why. Kent must have done something to Specter, personally.

  “What was Kent to you, Specter?” he asked, letting his sword point lower. Specter’s lip raised faintly. Sebastian pressed on. “He must have meant something in order to anger you so. A student?”

  Specter’s face didn’t change.

  “A . . . child?” Sebastian was certain he would find no purchase, unsure where else to jab.

  But Specter’s mouth curled a hair more, his shoulders tightened minutely. Before that unexpected information could sink in, Sebastian noticed Specter’s silence.

  “No,” he guessed aloud. “No, more than a child – a friend?”

  No change.

  Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “A lover?”

  Specter swung Josephine down from his shoulder, his grip on her white-knuckled, his fangs fully bared. “Careful, Cain.”

  Sebastian refused to tense.

  So Ian is of his own line, and Kent a weakness in his emotions. But Kent is gone. Why work so hard to destroy Ian if she is his own . . . ?

  He dared not ask out loud. He had found the weakness he had hoped for, but it was too intense to use. It would only infuriate and set Josephine more at risk.

  “I’ve been thinking while I’ve been away,” he said instead, leaning back in a pose meant to look relaxed.

  The flash faded slightly from Specter’s eyes. Nothing else about him moved or changed. “Oh, really?”

  Sebastian nodded once, forcing his mouth to lift in a faint smile. “I called challenge for a reason.”

  Specter puckered his brow in sarcastic sympathy. “To save your girlfriend?”

  “You’re the traitor,” Sebastian tossed it out, waiting for the reaction – you can’t deny this, teacher –

  Specter laughed.

  “I?” He laughed again. “Really. How did you come to such an interesting conclusion?”

  Sebastian forced himself to shrug off his disappointment. He should have expected laughter. The more his actions surprised or wounded others, the more amusing Specter found them. Why Sebastian had expected anything else . . .

  I do not know him any longer.

  “The pack – you formed it to protect yourself,” Sebastian continued, simply hoping to keep Specter talking now. “The oaths we swear, the missions we perform, what we learn from you, from each other – in the end, everything always benefits you. It’s something I’ve been thinking about.”

  Specter laughed again. “Did I ever say differently?”

  Sebastian kept himself from starting. Raised an eyebrow inst
ead.

  Specter grinned and gave an ironic shrug. “Oh, I put slants on it to help keep things in line, but when did I ever lie? Outright?” He resettled Josephine across his chest. “Why do you think I kill so many trainees? Tough training? Hardly. You’re not the first to figure it out, old man. Only the latest. Lucky for me, you’ve already called challenge. No one will question it when I take you down.”

  The words hammered into Sebastian like a blow.

  Because it was true. Specter had never hidden it. Never.

  I missed the truth. After nearly four hundred years with them, with him, I missed it, so entirely. There had to have been signs, things that should have told me . . .

  One trainee had come to him, centuries ago, confiding that he suspected Specter of dishonorable actions. Sebastian had reported the incident to Specter, and watched the young one fall when Specter cut him down. When the others of the pack asked why, Sebastian had told them – had told them –

  “He should not have questioned.”

  He had missed nothing. And yet he had not had any traitorous thoughts until only recently.

  Why did Kent leave? He must have seen. As others saw. I chose to miss it.

  He felt his jaw tighten. His own anger, his own misery – his own desire to take his pain out on others. That was the why of the thing.

  He had blinded himself because he enjoyed what he did, what Specter told him to do. He wanted to do it. Specter had only been the tool Sebastian had used to accomplish what he would have done in any case. An excuse. Rationale.

  It was an ugliness Sebastian had not seen in himself before.

  “Goodness,” Specter said. “You look like you just swallowed a bug.”

  The comment startled a laugh out of Sebastian. He wanted to agree that yes, he felt exactly like that. Wanted to explain how he had lied to himself for this long, how utterly the realization shocked him. How stupid he felt that Kent had the strength to free himself of Specter’s lies, to avoid becoming Specter’s creature. And Sebastian had not. How angry that made him.

  The phone rang.

  Sebastian looked at it, then back, frowning. Specter went to pick it up.

  Turned his back to Sebastian.