Dark Horizons (The Red Sector Chronicles)

by Krystle Jones

  “But…” I struggled to find words. “That can’t be right.”

  She barked a dry laugh, her arms relaxing at her sides. “Is it so hard to believe that Leo could possibly be interested in anyone other than you?”

  “I didn’t say that,” I growled, glaring at her.

  “But you meant it.” Arika’s voice was full of loathing. She made Paris sound like a doting mom. “You can’t stand the fact he’s finally found someone worthy of him.”

  “He’s never mentioned you,” I pointed out.

  She tried to hide her wince, but not before I saw it. She shrugged. “That’s because we haven’t made it official yet.”

  “So he’s not your boyfriend.”

  She grew very still. Her eyes blazed with hatred. “Leo means more to me than you’ll ever know,” she said, eyes shining. “But he’s too hung up on you to realize that.”

  I stared back at her, unsure if I should say anything, or even move for that matter. The way she was staring at me… I had never seen anyone contain that much hate.

  Could she really hate me that much just for being close to Leo?

  “Arika,” I started but was interrupted when Leo burst into the room.

  “Sloane,” he said and then paused. His eyes trained on Arika for a few seconds before roving over to me.

  “Wow.” He looked away and ran a hair through his disheveled black curls. “I’m, uh, sorry to interrupt whatever it was you two were talking about.” His eyes landed on mine, serious. “But I need to talk to Sloane.”

  I thought Arika would hurl a sai into a wall. “Of course,” she clipped, brushing past him as she stalked out the door.

  Leo watched her go with a look of confusion before turning back to me. “What was that all about?”

  “You don’t want to know,” I said, rising from the bed. “What’s up?”

  He turned all business again. “The others are up.” He jerked a thumb back toward the empty hallway. “I thought you might want to start going over plans for finding Orion.”

  My heart skipped a beat, because my brother’s name now immediately conjured an image of Aden. I remembered his lips, so close to mine, and the smell of cinnamon and cloves and sunshine…

  I forgot all about our awkward near-kiss earlier and nodded. “Awesome. Let’s get to it.”

  I followed him out into the hall and into the den, where Rook and Dezyre were sitting on the couch watching something on the flat-screen TV mounted to the wall. Dezyre was leaned forward, her elbows resting on her knees as she chewed on a manicured fingernail. That immediately raised a red flag. No way would Dezyre ever mar one of her nails unless she was incredibly nervous.

  Rook looked like he smelled something bad. His nose was all wrinkled up, and he was staring down the TV like if it made one wrong move, he’d rip it off the wall and dance on the remains of its glossy body.

  I was about to ask, “What’s wrong?” when the news anchor’s voice caught my ear.

  “Earlier tonight, a fight broke out between the Scarlet Guard and what appears to be a group of human-like vampires.”

  I froze, paling. Leo paused beside me, his expression grim.

  “Please be warned, the images you are about to see are graphic,” the anchor said. Her eyes turned sorrowful right before the screen flipped to a close-up of the bodies lying on the blood-soaked pavement in front of the jail. I had a sick feeling in my stomach even before I heard what she said next.

  “At least fifty civilians lie dead, massacred by the vampires the Scarlet Guard fought so valiantly to protect them from.”

  “What?” I roared, taking a step closer to the TV. I clenched a fist, ready to hurl it into her blasphemous mouth.

  The camera angle changed, showing us getting into the car and driving off. “Our cameramen caught this footage of the suspects fleeing the scene. After working together with the Guard, they have been identified as…”

  No one spoke as our faces and names flashed across the screen, mostly senior pictures, or some photo taken from a family album. The tension in the room grew so thick you could slice it with a knife.

  Each picture came with the basic info: eye and hair color, general weight and height, and our names. Mine was the last to be showed. The hair along the back of my neck pricked, and I could just imagine my mother sitting at her long, fancy table eating dinner and dropping her glass of wine when she saw my face.

  Her daughter, the vampire and disgrace to the family name.

  “Be warned, these criminals are likely armed and extremely dangerous. If you have any information leading to their whereabouts, you can contact the S.I.A. at the number below. All five suspects are at the top of their Most Wanted list, and a one million dollar reward has been issued for the tip leading to their arrest.”

  “The S.I.A.,” I said flatly. “The freaking Scarlet Intelligence Agency? Are you kidding me?” The agency was THE top-of-the-line government information office, charged with apprehending the most violent criminals. Unfortunately, rumors had it they operated more like a mafia than fancy police officers interested in upholding the peace.

  Rook let out a deep breath and glanced at me. “Now, Sloane, don’t panic.”

  “Don’t panic?” I shot back. “Really, Rook? We’re wanted by the most lethal band of hit men and thug wannabes this side of the globe. We have every reason to panic.” I growled, wanting to punch something. “I am so sick of trying to help people and being painted as the villain. This is such bullshit.”

  First the vampires under my brother’s rule, now the humans under my mother’s.

  What was next? The whole freaking world?

  “We can’t stay here,” Leo said, interrupting me. “We need to come up with a plan and move as soon as we can. It can’t be long ‘til they think to look here.”

  “He’s right,” Rook said, standing. “We need to think fast.”

  “We need some sort of map,” Dezyre said. She wasn’t chewing on her nail anymore, though she did look significantly paler. “Some of us aren’t as familiar with this city as others.”

  I briefly wondered where she came from, but right then Leo said, “Already ahead of you,” and slapped down a scroll on the coffee table.

  We all gathered around it and knelt down as he and Dezyre spread it out, weighing down the corners with cupholders.

  It was a complete, detailed map of Pittsburgh. Red lines had been drawn across it in Sharpie, notating where the wall marked off the White from the Red Sectors.

  “We’re here,” Leo said, pointing to Indian Lake. “If I had to guess, I’d say Orion will be farther in the city, where there will be more humans to feed off of, and he can blend in more easily.”

  “I’d think the opposite.”

  We all turned as Arika strolled into the room. She gazed at Rook, Dezyre, and me coolly. “Vampires favor obscurity, right? That’s how you human wannabes have managed to slip under the radar for so long. If anything, I think he’ll hide out in the least populated areas. That way if someone disappears, there’s less of a chance people will notice.”

  “She has a point,” Rook said.

  Dezyre pressed her lips together, and her eyes darted to mine. “There is another way to find him…”

  Rook stared at her for a few seconds before recognition dawned on his face. He grinned and shook his head. “Dezyre, don’t tell me you’re thinking about the legend.”

  “What legend?” I asked, sitting up straighter.

  Even Leo and Arika looked intrigued.

  Dezyre paused and looked around the room before continuing. “There are stories of vampire siblings who can ‘sense’ one another’s whereabouts.”

  “Oh, please,” Arika muttered, crossing her arms.

  No one paid her any attention. I kept my gaze on Dezyre. Admittedly, I was a little skeptical, but hey, she had piqued my interest. “How does it work, exactly?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Dezyre said, looking away quickly. “It has something to do with rea
ching out with your mind, kind of like an out-of-body experience. At least…” Her eyes darted down to my birthmark, a petal of which was barely visible above my sweater neckline. “That’s what the scriptures say about the first vampire king and his sister.”

  “He had a sister?” I asked. Aden had neglected that part.

  And if that was true, then why wasn’t Orion able to sense me when I was at the base?

  “This is lame and it doesn’t help,” Arika said. “We don’t know that this ‘method’ works, and besides, we need to get going before someone –”

  She stopped, her sentence interrupted by the sound of someone busting out a window near the back of the house.

  We were on our feet immediately.

  “We have to go,” Leo said. He snatched up the map and rolled it up as we made for the front door.

  “Wait!” Leo called, making us stop. “They’re more likely to come in that way. Let’s go out the back.”

  “Right,” I said. My sneakers skidded on the wooden floor as I abruptly wheeled about, sprinting after him through the kitchen and toward the backdoor.

  Soon as he reached for the doorknob, a guy in black body armor kicked the door open. We froze for a pregnant second, and my eyes immediately zoomed in on the barrel of his gun.

  “Duck!” I shouted, right before he opened fire.

  Bullets ripped through the air above our heads as we hit the floor. Splinters of wood fell all around us as the bullets ate up the walls, destroying the wood paneling. The sharp tang of Scarlet Steel filled the air, and red bullets rolled along the floor after they had done their damage to the walls.

  The moment the man stopped to reload, Leo leapt to his feet and charged him. He slammed the man into the wall, headbutting him before snatching the gun away and nailing him in the temple with the butt. The man slumped against the wall as his comrades poured through the door, all armed with Scarlet Steel weapons. I saw knives, bullets, shells, and even swords.

  Grunts and cries broke out behind me as my friends fought for their lives. Their voices fueled my courage, and I shot to my feet and bolted for the first guy I saw.

  My speed seemed to have increased; he never saw me coming. By the time his head turned, I was already elbowing him upside the head. He flew into the opposite wall, dropping his gun. I snatched it up and wheeled about, preparing to return fire, when Leo clamped down on my arm. A stream of blood was running down the side of his face.

  “Oh my God, Leo,” I said. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” he said, brushing my concern off. “We have to get out of here. Come on.”

  He pulled me along, away from the kitchen. Bullets buzzed past my ears, and I turned just enough to get a clear shot at the S.I.A. personnel before firing back.

  It had been a long time since I’d fired a gun, and I used to be pretty good at it. Apparently my aim had suffered a little over the years.

  The bullets were hit or miss. Some struck home while others haphazardly embedded themselves into the walls, cabinets, and countertops.

  We raced through the living room and out the front door, which was already open. Thankfully, it was already dark out and apparently overcast; the moon cast a dim red haze around the dense cloud cover.

  The others were in the yard. I looked up just in time to catch Arika delivering a spinning back kick to a guy’s face.

  I didn’t bother with the steps. I jumped off the porch and examined my friends’ bodies for injuries. Though they were panting hard and looked scared out of their minds, they appeared relatively unharmed.

  A black SUV sat in the yard, its doors still open. Headlights bounced in the space between the trees as more S.I.A. agents drove toward the cabin.

  “Let’s go! Let’s go!” Rook shouted, switching into combat instructor mode as we ran for the SUV.

  A man stepped out of the car, lifting a crossbow notched with a Scarlet Steel arrow.

  “Rook!” I screamed.

  The arrow fired, and Rook turned his body to the side as it whizzed past. I’d never realized how fast he was before I saw him clothesline the guy with an arm to the throat. The guy cried out with a strangled sound, twitching as he fell to the ground and struggled to regain his breath.

  “Nice one,” Leo said, hopping into the driver’s side as Rook went for the back. Arika and I darted for shotgun. Since I was faster, I beat her to it.

  “Better luck next time, cupcake,” I said, then slammed the door shut in her scowling face.

  I watched her lips move, calling me something very ugly, and I grinned back at her. Casting me an incinerating look, she climbed into the back beside Rook and Dezyre.

  We all buckled up while Leo twisted the key, which had blessedly been left in the ignition, and the engine growled to life.

  “Hang on,” he said and then floored it.

  The tires spun in place for a few seconds, making the back end fishtail, before the SUV shot off down the driveway. He swerved to the side, driving through the tall grass past the approaching caravan. I noted he kept the headlights off so we wouldn’t be noticed.

  The shocks groaned in protest as the car ran through hole after hole. Soon as we cleared the last car of the caravan, Leo wheeled the SUV back onto the gravel driveway, sending us fishtailing again.

  It reminded me sort of like being on a roller coaster. While I loved them as much as the next adrenaline junkie, I couldn’t help but to grab onto my seat as we swerved and sped down the road. Finally, Leo flipped the headlights on.

  I glanced at the speedometer. The red needle was pushing one hundred miles per hour.

  “How did they find us so fast?” Rook shouted over the roar of the engine.

  “I don’t know,” Leo shouted back, keeping his eyes glued to the road. “For all I know, they could have had the place bugged since Sloane went missing.”

  Voices were shouting frantically over the radio, and I reached over to turn it up.

  “Do not use this frequency. I repeat, communication has been compromised,” said a stern male voice. It was cold, with a cruel twist to the words.

  The Scarlet Guard was strangely silent most of the time, but when I had heard them speak, they had always reminded me of heartless robots. I guess the similarities were very striking between them and their higher-up counterparts within the S.I.A.

  The line instantly went dead. “The S.I.A. probably has this vehicle tapped,” I said, eyeing the interior. What I’d do for X-ray vision right about now. “They’ll be able to track us as long as we’re in it. We need to ditch the car.”

  “But where?” Rook said. “We don’t even know where to start looking for Orion.”

  “Where’s the map?” I asked, looking at Leo.

  He awkwardly handed it to me. The steering wheel jerked as he tried to hold onto it with one hand, and I hastily snatched the map from him before he could crash the car.

  After flipping on the reading light, I unfurled the map across my lap.

  I scanned each part with a critical eye. Where are you, Orion?

  At first, I tried to dismiss the inkling to my imagination. But no matter how many times my eyes roved the map, they kept coming back to the massive building near the southeastern part of the White Sector. I squinted at it, trying to make out the smudged label.

  “What’s this?” I asked, pointing. “It’s someplace downtown, but the picture’s too faded out to clearly see the name.”

  Dezyre flipped on the backseat light. “Give it to me,” she said, holding out her hand.

  For once, her bossy attitude didn’t bother me, and I handed the map over.

  She studied it. Rook tried leaning in, but she brushed him away. “You’re in my light, tank,” she said.

  A look of annoyance crossed his face as he leaned back. Arika just looked annoyed in general.

  I resisted the urge to laugh. Good luck to the world if we’re its last hope.

  Dezyre shook her head, pursing her lips. “I can’t read it. ‘Elk – Labs’ is all I ca
n make out.”

  Leo’s gaze snapped onto the rearview mirror, sharpening as he stared at Dezyre. “Elkhorn Labs?”

  “Do you know the place?” I asked hopefully.

  “Yeah,” he said, sighing heavily. “It’s the place my dad was transferred to, one month before it blew up.”

  I nodded, not knowing what else to say. “Sorry” seemed callous or inadequate for losing your dad that way.

  We drove for a few tense minutes in silence. I kept glancing behind us or in the sideview mirror, sure I’d see approaching headlights but seeing only pitch black. The moon hadn’t poked out at all, and it seemed spookier not being able to see much of anything.

  The thick tree growth eventually dropped off, replaced by buildings and signaling we were nearing the heart of the White Sector.

  We slowed as we got off the interstate and drove onto one of the inner city streets. Several shadows were moving around up ahead, and our headlights flashed over a team of Scarlet Guard. A roadblock was set up behind them.

  Leo swore, nearly slowing to a halt. “I bet they have roadblocks set up all over town. If we back up, it’ll look suspicious. I could ram through it, I suppose…”

  My eyes narrowed in thought, remembering something Aden had said. “I’ve been told my glamour’s stronger than… normal. I could try to glamour the guards into letting us pass?”

  “She’s right about her glamour being crazy powerful,” Rook said, gripping Leo’s seat as he leaned forward. “If we get within range, she can get inside their heads.”

  Arika looked extremely uncomfortable with that, and Leo looked skeptical. “You sure that’s going to work?” he asked.

  “It has to,” I said firmly, gazing ahead. “I don’t see many other options.”

  Leo studied the guards. “Don’t you have to, I don’t know, look them in the eyes or something? They’re all wearing helmets.”

  I shook my head. “Not necessarily. I’ve been able to do it before without catching anyone’s gaze.”

  Rook grinned. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

  Leo gripped the wheel, hesitating, then let out a sigh. “All right. I’ll drive up slowly. Soon as I roll down the window, you work your voodoo or whatever it is you do.”