The Den of Shadows Quartet

by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

  And she recognized the figures. Kaleo and Kendra, and other high-society vampiric killers, each in aloof portraits, graced the walls. Worse, she recognized her friends — Christopher and Nissa.

  Still dazed, she spun when she sensed someone behind her.

  Christopher?

  He was dressed entirely in black — black boots, black jeans, and a black T-shirt. His hair was much longer than it had been when she saw him last, and the ebony waves were tied back.

  He looked exactly the same except for the hair, but something was very wrong.

  His expression was dark and angry, as opposed to the open, smiling one she had grown so fond of. But the wrongness didn’t reach her brain until he pushed her back into the wall, forcing the breath from her lungs. The vampire’s aura washed over her like ice water — too strong, too dark. Christopher did not feed on humans, but this vampire did, and probably had for more than a hundred years.

  So this is the brother, she found herself thinking. She remembered how Nissa and Christopher had clammed up when she had tried to inquire about Christopher’s twin. Would have been nice to know before stumbling in here.

  Too late — she had hesitated for that vital instant and now Nikolas had the advantage. He grabbed both her wrists with one of his hands and held them against the wall, careful to avoid the spring-loaded knife she was wearing on her left arm. He stood to her side, carefully out of kicking range.

  Sarah was concentrating, preparing to strike him with her mind, when his free hand came from nowhere and hit her.

  “Don’t try it, Sarah.” His voice was similar to Christopher’s — a slight southern accent, so like the one she had come to trust.

  She pulled her mind away from Nikolas’s family — he was a threat, and that was all that mattered.

  Yet he wasn’t doing anything threatening at the moment. Instead, he was regarding her with curiosity “Sarah Vida, I presume?” he inquired, voice civil.

  “Making sure introductions are out of the way before we fight?” she asked flippantly.

  “I’ll admit I’m flattered to have such a prestigious hunter track me down,” he answered calmly, “but I haven’t the faintest idea how to deal with you.”

  That threw her off guard. So far as she knew, there was only one way vampires “dealt with” hunters who entered their lairs.

  “Want to hear my suggestions?” she asked, voice light, the words a cover as she started to raise power again.

  He raised one eyebrow. “I don’t think we’re —” He broke off and hit her again, the blow making her head spin. “I said not to try it.”

  So he could feel her building power; that much was obvious. She would simply have to wait for a chance when he was distracted, which meant she might need to wait for him to bite her.

  “If you’re going to kill me, go ahead. If you’re waiting for me to scream or beg, your expectations are way off.”

  “Your control is really that good?” She heard in his voice that he had taken her words as a challenge.

  It was a challenge she knew she could win. He could break her neck easily if he wanted to, but if he wanted to hear her scream, he would have to hurt her. Badly. That would take time, and time would give her a chance to escape. “Yes, it is.”

  Nikolas pulled a knife from his pocket: an ivory-handled jackknife with a rose inlay made of black stone. Opening it, he pressed it against her left wrist, just hard enough for her to feel the sharpness of the blade against her skin.

  “If that’s supposed to be a threat, it won’t work,” she informed him as he glanced to her face as if to gauge her expression. “A cut there would bleed out quickly. If you mean to feed on me, you won’t waste so much blood.”

  “And if I just mean to kill you?” he inquired.

  You would have done so already,” she answered, her voice calm despite her uncertainty.

  You sure you won’t beg?” he asked, offering her one last chance to avoid pain.

  “Quite sure.”

  Still holding her wrists with his right hand, he held the knife in his left hand, and pressed the blade into her shoulder — one sharp cut, about an inch in length.

  Her muscle twitched as the knife cut through it, but Sarah refused to let pain show on her face. She used her training in order to not react, since he was looking for a response. She could take a lot of damage and heal from it. Sooner or later, he would slip up, and then he would be dead.

  He pulled the knife upward, this cut at a slight angle to the last one, and then down again, as if making a Z.

  Or an N.

  The next cut was just beside the last line of the first letter, a half-inch line, and the next was a line parallel to the second letter. She knew what he was writing, and sighed, realizing this could be a long night. Two more short lines followed the most recent, making a K, and then a rough, squared-off circle.

  Nikolas.

  If it scarred, she was going to be really annoyed.

  “Is your control really this good, or are you a secret masochist?” Nikolas asked as he cut the tail of the S, a jagged underline.

  “Is this a ritual thing, or are you just a sadist?” she returned, impatient. Though he was enjoying his busy-work, he wasn’t focused enough for Sarah to act.

  “Both,” he answered, laughing, as he turned to the other arm. “You can ask me to stop any time now.” She understood what he really meant — You can break down and beg. “Or must I continue?”

  “Hurry up, would you?” She yawned. “I have to get to the drugstore before it closes. We’re out of Band-Aids at my house.”

  Nikolas laughed. “Don’t worry about that — you won’t need them.”

  The rose petals were more difficult, and Nikolas did not say anything as he worked on them. When he moved to the ivy she took a deep breath, preparing herself. The ivy’s stem twined around the wrist; in order to cut the full design, Nikolas would need to shift his grip.

  Her arms had gone numb from the abuse and from being held above her head so long, which was actually a good thing. The pain was dulling.

  “I hope that blade is clean. I would hate for this to get infected.” She spoke to break the silence and keep hold of her bravado.

  As she had predicted, Nikolas loosened his grip for a split second, and Sarah seized her moment, wrenching her arms down and drawing her knife at the same time. Nikolas only barely managed to avoid the silver blade as she swung it in his direction.

  “You’re not as quick as some of your kin, Sarah,” he informed her, from just outside striking distance.

  She laughed slightly “Quick enough.”

  “Quicker than Elisabeth?” he inquired, and her eyes narrowed as she remembered the long hours of history. Nikolas was one of very few vampires who had killed a Vida and survived to speak of it.

  “How much of a fight did she put up?” Sarah snapped. “Did she at least get a knife in you before she died?”

  “Not in me.” The words were almost a growl. “Get out of my house, Sarah. I will see you shortly.”

  He disappeared before she could react.

  As she relaxed, the knife fell from her numb fingertips. She picked it up with her left hand, which wasn’t much better.

  She leaned back against the wall and stretched out her awareness. While she had been occupied with Nikolas, the humans in the house had fled — even the ones she had knocked out were gone.

  Her stomach churned with the unpleasant nausea that comes with blood loss. After bandaging her arms as well as she could with the scant supplies she kept in the car, she picked up her cell phone and dialed Adianna.

  CHAPTER 14

  ADIANNA TOOK SARAH to Caryn Smoke’s house, to be patched up for the second time in less than a month. Sarah had managed to fend off her sister’s questions only with stoic silence so far.

  “We’re going to have to wash the blood off before I can see the cuts,” Caryn explained as she unwrapped the crude bandages Sarah had made with the rough first-aid supplies she kept i
n her car.

  She had cleaned most of the blood from the ivy before she could see enough to tell what the full design was.

  “Oh, Goddess …” The healer looked up, her pale blue eyes wide with shock and full of question.

  “What?” Adianna stepped forward to see what the healer had seen.

  “Give me some room,” Caryn ordered, her voice steady.

  Adianna nodded, and leaned back against the opposite wall.

  Caryn turned to the rose. When she got to the other shoulder she cleaned around the wound, revealing more of the damage.

  Nikolas. Caryn whispered the name, and Sarah saw Adianna’s gaze whip toward them as she heard it.

  The hunter was on her feet instantly. “That’s who you were after today?” Sarah nodded once, and saw Adianna’s eyes racing over the careful designs. Finally she asked Caryn the question Sarah had been avoiding. “Will those scar?”

  Caryn’s face was grim as she said, “I’m afraid so. I can heal the deeper damage so there won’t be any permanent injury to the muscles, but the wounds are bad enough that I can’t do much more.”

  “My little sister went after Nikolas,” Adianna stated with some surprise in her voice. “He got away, didn’t he?” Again Sarah had to nod.

  “He’s had hunters on his tail for more than a hundred years, Adia — he’s clever, and he could feel when I tried to build power to fight him. I didn’t have a chance.”

  Yes, you did, another part of her mind argued as she remembered her moment of hesitation when she had first seen him. But he looked like Christopher, so you didn’t take it.

  Adianna just shook her head, making her feelings clear: If Sarah had not had a chance to fight, it meant she had screwed up somewhere. Again.

  CHAPTER 15

  CARYN BANDAGED SARAH’S ARMS for school the next day. Sarah didn’t want to explain the marks. Her story, when anyone asked, was that she had been in a minor car accident.

  She was glad that Christopher was not in school again. She had no desire to confront her friend about her enemy. So at her locker that afternoon, she was surprised to see the newest gift. A single white rose and a small white florist’s card.

  129 Ash Road, November 4

  She read the words twice, not believing them.

  She, youngest Daughter of Vida, had been invited to a bash … intentionally.

  Looking up, she caught sight of Nissa, who was talking with some of her human friends. Closing her locker, Sarah stalked over to Nissa and grabbed the vampire’s arm.

  “What is this?” she demanded, flashing the card. Nissa’s friends all backed up, not sure what to do.

  “It’s a —”

  “I know what it is. I want to know why it was in my locker.”

  “I have no idea,” Nissa answered, her brows drawing together in a puzzled frown. “Christopher told me what you said, and I would never … can I see it?”

  Sarah handed over the card and Nissa went paler, if possible, than her already unnaturally pale color.

  “You can’t go. Tell me you won’t go.”

  “Why not?”

  Nissa looked at the card again. “Where did you get this?”

  “It was in my locker. If it’s not from you or Christopher, then who would have put it there? And why does it scare you so much?”

  Nissa looked back at her human friends, then dragged Sarah away, lowering her voice so the humans would not hear them. “I’ve been to a bash in that circuit before, but would never go back. Sarah, they’ll kill you. If they know who you are —”

  “Who are they?” Sarah pressed.

  “It’s … it’s one of the harshest of the party circuits,” Nissa explained. “Tizoc Theron goes to these,” she added, naming one of the best-known vampiric assassins in the world. “Kaleo, Jessica Shade, Chalkha, Kamerine, Jega … even Kendra herself might be there.” Sarah took in the names, trying to match them with the faces she had seen at the last bash she had attended. Nissa continued, “Even I’m afraid to go to one of their bashes, and I haven’t been human in a long time. These vampires are not nice, Sarah. I’ve known them to brazenly invite vampire hunters just for the fun of it. If they invited you, then they know who you are, and they plan to kill you.”

  “Is Nikolas part of this group?”

  “What?” Nissa asked, very softly.

  “Will Nikolas be there?” Sarah demanded again.

  “He —” Nissa’s eyes flickered to the bandages on Sarah’s arms. “My god, Sarah … do I want to know what’s under there?”

  “I think you already do.”

  “You’re going to go, aren’t you? To murder my brother.” Nissa leaned back heavily, hitting the lockers with a metallic clang. “That group will kill you, Sarah.”

  “They didn’t manage to last time.” This was not a conversation she wanted to have. No matter how peaceful, Nissa would surely not appreciate hearing Sarah’s plans for her brother. “Don’t worry I’ll bring friends.”

  “No.”

  “I’m not going to let him get away with this.”

  “Sarah, I … don’t bring anyone else in. You’ll —” Nissa took a breath to brace herself. “If Nikolas marked you then he’s watching you. Anyone you would bring with you, he already knows about — they would be fair game. If you insist on going, go alone.”

  “Even I’m not fool enough to go into the crowd you’re describing alone.”

  “They won’t hurt you,” Nissa said quietly.

  Sarah laughed.

  “Most of the people in that circuit are either afraid of Nikolas, or loyal to him,” Nissa argued. “If he marked you it means he’s claimed you. No one else will touch you so long as Nikolas is alive.”

  “Fine — I’ll kill him and then leave quickly. How’s that?”

  “Nikolas alone is dangerous no matter how much training you’ve had.” Nissa continued as her voice took on a pleading tone. “Even the humans there will turn on you as soon as you try to fight him.”

  “Nissa, I know he’s your brother, but do you have any idea how many people he has killed?” Sarah demanded. “If I let him go because I’m scared of him, he’s going to keep killing.”

  “You think I don’t know?” Nissa responded, her voice strained. “I’m the one who gave him the vampire blood, Sarah. Every kill he makes I feel the guilt for.”

  CHAPTER 16

  “WHAT?” Of course she had known, but hearing Nissa state it so bluntly was a shock.

  “I changed him to save his life. He was in jail, waiting to be hanged for murder.” In response to Sarah’s horrified expression, Nissa continued, “He was my brother, Sarah.”

  Nissa’s words started to come quickly, as if she had waited so long to tell the story to someone, and now she simply needed to get it out.

  “Nicholas and Christopher were twins, as you know … Christopher was actually born first, but Nicholas always acted older. After my father was killed, Nicholas … he became more protective. Christopher had barely understood what happened, but Nicholas …” She trailed off. The reality of Nikolas did not need to be detailed.

  “When they were eighteen their employer’s daughter returned from school in Europe. She was rich, and beautiful, and both my brothers adored her, though Nicholas would never have challenged Christopher for anything.

  “She, of course, wasn’t interested. We were too poor and too uncultured for her high-society airs. The only reason she even acknowledged my brothers’ existences was because it amused her to tease them. She was always trying to pit the twins against one another.”

  Nissa’s gaze was lost on the past, but Sarah caught a glimpse of anger as she described the girl. “Her name was Christine.”

  Nissa paused a moment and then went on, “It was at a May Day picnic that things changed. Kaleo was well respected in the town and he had found an invitation for us. Nicholas and Christopher looked so handsome, all dressed up. They had taken extra care to look nice for Christine.

  “Christopher ask
ed her to dance.” Nissa’s voice gave away the next part of the story even before she said the words. She took a heavy breath and then continued, “Christine turned him down. Worse, she laughed at him. The things she said to my brother … I would have killed her myself, if I had had a chance.

  “Nicholas lost it — he was so protective, and he attacked Christine, furious that she had hurt Christopher. He killed her, in plain sight of the entire town, and was sentenced to be hanged.”

  “He was my brother.” Nissa’s eyes begged for understanding. “I had already lost my father, and I could not stand to lose Nicholas, too. Not when I could save him.

  “I changed Nicholas, but after that … The only thing I’ve ever been grateful to Kaleo for is that the first time he took me hunting, he didn’t let me kill. The police were looking for Nikolas, and while I was trying to deal with them, Nikolas woke. It was the middle of the day, far earlier than he should have woken. He ran, and would have died if one of my kind had not taken him in.” Nissa shook her head. “Kendra took him hunting, and she taught him to kill.

  “He changed Christopher the next night. They both disappeared from my life for months. Kaleo had everyone he knew looking for them, but no one could find them.

  “During that time, they made the decision to give up everything that reminded them of their human lives, and that included me. They even changed how they signed their names.” She took a breath, her eyes pained. “They never contacted me. I didn’t even know they were still alive until I learned a year later that they had killed a witch, Elisabeth Vida. After that … well, they seemed to be everywhere at once.”

  Nissa met Sarah’s gaze, her voice hard. “If you kill once, the bloodlust returns twice as strong. It hurts, and after you’ve been living off death for more than a hundred years … it hurts a lot. You have no idea how hard it was for Christopher to give it up, no idea how tempting every human being in this entire school is.

  “I have given everything for my brothers, and they have both saved my life more than once when I wasn’t strong enough to defend myself from others of my kind. I would probably never forgive myself for harming a friend — and I do consider you a friend, Sarah — but if you hurt my brother, I will kill you, or die trying.”