Nightside

by Holly Hook

  I jump and Riley and I fly apart in shock.

  Standing in the double doors is Dominic Beaumont, the leader of the Beaumont coven.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  And worse, standing behind Dominic Beaumont are several other Truebloods. Addie. A dark-haired guy. Another with dreadlocks. We're outnumbered.

  "Father," Riley gasps, but it's clear from his tone there's no reasoning.

  "Ah. I knew we would tease out the Nightside," Dominic says.

  "Olivia's not--" Riley begins.

  "Silence!" Dominic shouts. "I had great hopes for you, Riley. You were supposed to lead this coven if something were to happen to me. But you don't have what it takes."

  Behind him, Addie smiles. She's brought her horrible girlfriends, too. It's us against a half dozen.

  "Then how did she get down here?" Dominic asks. "There is no other explanation."

  Beside me, Ned tenses and Lily raises her crossbow, but she won't fire. I reach out to feel Dominic's blood, his life, but the mental shield he has up is amazing. As if it's a thick concrete wall. He's old. Powerful.

  "Olivia didn't kill those townspeople," Riley says. He steps in front of me, willing to die.

  "Ah, no. I did," Dominic says.

  I flinch. Riley does the same.

  "What?" Riley asks.

  "There was no other way to tease her out than to make her search for the killer," Dominic says. "You must think I'm a fool. There's a lot to learn, I'm afraid. My theories turned out to be right."

  "You even killed the gardener?" Riley asks.

  "Leave him alone." I remember the poor souls who died. So the Beaumonts' human employees aren't even safe. Dominic just smiles as if relishing his power.

  We have to get away from him. I can't bear this sight.

  But I can't get past his wall.

  "Fight," Ned whispers.

  There are four of us against six or seven. I might not get to Dominic, but maybe I can get to Addie. She's young. I turn my attention on her and seize her body, just as her mouth falls open in horror and her hands curl into claws. I lift her arms, making her claw at Dominic's face.

  The two lurch out of the doorway and all hell breaks loose.

  Dominic shoves Addie away, and I almost lose my focus as he turns his aggression on me, charging. Lily fires her crossbow. Misses. Dominic closes in like lightning, but I urge Addie to grab the back of his suit, and that slows him enough for me to dodge.

  "Out!" Lily shouts.

  Riley grips my hand and leads me to the door, eyes darkening and fangs bared. He swipes at the dreadlocked guy, drawing blood from his cheeks, and pulls me through the doorway as Addie and Dominic continue to fight. Someone hits the wall. Another bolt fires. Lily cries out but pushes through behind us. One of Addie's friends lunches at me, but Ned shoulders her and shoves her against the wall. My senses snap into high gear. We've got to get out. More doors are opening near the front of the mansion and soon we'll be surrounded. It's an ambush.

  The four of us plow up the stairwell as the other Truebloods back up the steps, forming a wall at the top. We'll have to get through at a disadvantage.

  The dreadlocked guy appears at our side.

  He's stolen a knife.

  One of Lily's knives.

  I reach out to him, merging with his mind, but before I can take control, he stabs Riley in the gut.

  Riley bends over, worsening the injury, and pales as dark blood leaks out around the blade. The rest of the world fades away as someone screams. It's me. Then a red hot rage overtakes me, making my pulse race in my ears, and I shove the guy back as hard as I can into the wall, which cracks as he makes contact.

  "Olivia!" Ned shouts.

  He's far away, too.

  Beside me, Riley fingers the blade. "Don't pull it out," I say on autopilot. He's going to die. Bleed out right here in the stairwell.

  "Go!" Lily shouts.

  Ned's controlling one of Addie's friends, who now attacks the other, leaving an opening. Lily comes up behind us, and more doors open inside the mansion. A new alarm blares. I grab Riley's arm and pull him back, still with the knife in his stomach.

  "Riley!" Dominic shouts from the cell room. Addie has stopped attacking him and runs after us.

  Lily blocks the way, swinging another knife at her chest. "Get out of here!"

  Addie responds by swatting at the side of her head, throwing Lily against the wall. Stunned, Lily falls to the ground.

  "Lily!" I shout.

  "Move!" Ned pulls on my arm. All around me, alarms blare and more Truebloods run through the house.

  We have to go. There's no going back for her. I hear five other vampires approaching from the living room. The back door's still open. I pull Riley out the double doors, and Ned throws them shut after us. The air smells like stale blood. Riley's blood.

  Ned pauses at the doors to the house we've left Lily in, and grasps the door, focusing, as more fighting breaks out inside. Two male Truebloods begin to battle, drawing confused shouts for the others. Ned eyes me through his ski mask and nods.

  "I can run," Riley gasps.

  So we do, with Ned right behind us. My throat goes dry and my chest aches at the thought of leaving Lily to her probable death.

  * * * * *

  I don't know how long we run from the mansion, or from the trap that I should have never gotten into in the first place. I've rescued Riley just to possibly lose him again. He keeps the knife in his stomach as he runs, and forces a smile at me once we put distance between us and the coven. Riley's tough. I have to give him that.

  "You can't leave that in," I rasp, letting my heightened senses come back down. Darkness closes in. I feel as if we'll be in it forever.

  "Keep going," Ned orders from ahead.

  "But Lily," I protest. She and Riley are ripping me apart.

  "Lily allowed us to escape," Ned says. "She wanted you out of there. And I wasn't going to see you get killed."

  Odd that he'd care so much. I was just another member of his would-be coven. I hadn't even killed anyone back in the mansion while everyone else did the dirty work. "We need to go back for her."

  Then my senses, as if knowing something was wrong, heightened on their own.

  Far back, twigs gently snapped and with a punch to the gut, I knew what it meant.

  The Truebloods were giving chase. They weren't satisfied with having Lily, who might be dead by now. I estimated they were a quarter mile behind us.

  "Shit," I said. "Riley. You have to get that knife out and we have to go. I'll help you."

  He grimaces at me, grabs the handle, and pulls it out of his stomach with a disgusting squelching sound that turns mine. “There.” Blood dribbles out, but slows as he grasps his injury. “Should have done that sooner.”

  I grab his arm. The Beaumonts behind us are picking up pace, and I can't see them from here. That means I can't control them. And I hear a click of a weapon. They must have taken Lily's crossbow and the bolts she had stashed in her coat.

  “Split up,” Ned says, walking backwards now. “I'll lead them away. Get back to the safe house and stay there. Go.”

  He runs away, crashing through underbrush, and shouts ring out in the distance. He's spotted.

  “Come on,” Riley says, leaning on my shoulder.

  I've got no choice but to leave Ned, too, my only connection to the Nightside kind. Letting Riley rest on my shoulder, I run, faster than I've ever attempted, and there's no avoiding the noise I make. More shouts follow. A bolt zings through the air, striking a tree, before we dodge behind it and continue.

  Some of them are coming for us. Ned can't divert them all.

  And weakness fills into my limbs, making them shake. The itch returns. I've used too much energy back in the mansion.

  Another bolt flies. Yes. They've taken hunter weapons to deal with me.

  “Keep going,” Riley says, trying to run on his own.

  We're a big target, and Riley pulls me down as the bolt flies o
ver our heads, ruffling my hair.

  “I see you!” Addie shouts.

  “Down,” Riley says, veering downhill. We run down a narrow game path, one that smells faintly of deer blood, and into a creek. The freezing water soaks into my shoes. I don't care. The shouts intensify as we bolt into deeper and deeper water, which goes from a gurgle to rushing rapids in seemingly no time. I struggle to stay upright. Riley groans.

  And then we both go down, sucked under, arm in arm.

  Water rushes into my nose, battering me from all sides, and smooth stones bang against us as the water pushes. The night is all foam, cold, and mossy boulders. They swirl around us as we rush faster...faster...water fills my ears, muffling Riley's groans of pain. People shout in the distance, growing fainter. We breach the surface.

  “Weak,” Riley mutters.

  “It's okay,” I say. Is he allergic to running water or is it the wound?

  The rapids go on forever. I keep my head above water and my legs below me as I maintain my grip on Riley, who blinks it out of his eyes as the river carries us further into the wilderness. Where are we? The stars keep twisting overhead. Trees surround us, close in, and retreat again. At last, we reach an eddy where the water swirls, and I'm able to grasp a rock with my free hand and pull us both to shore.

  The shouts have stopped.

  We've escaped the Beaumonts. For now. But they'll come. We can't linger. I let go of Riley as he leans against a tree. At least he's stopped bleeding, leaving just a faded red stain and a cut on the front of his tight shirt. The flesh underneath is pink and closed.

  “The water,” Riley says, holding out his shaking arms.

  “So you are traditional,” I say. “We've got to leave. Run. This is our chance to get back to the safe house.” A faint glow from town, to the west, tells me what general direction to go.

  I take Riley's hand as we run from the river, deeper into the trees. My thoughts turn to Ned and Lily. What if I've traded them both for Riley? It's not fair.

  “Olivia, you didn't have to come for me.”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Why?”

  I don't dare stop. “Because I love you.”

  Riley freezes in his tracks. We face each other in the quiet. Everything else ceases to matter. Riley's hair sticks to his face and the copper rings in his eyes are deep and hungry. Though my senses have dulled again, I don't miss the needful way he's looking at me.

  He takes my wrist, rubbing his thumb along my soft flesh.

  “I love you, too. But you still didn't have to do that.” And as if he's never going to see me again, he tightens his grasp.

  And reality strikes with the turning of my stomach. Riley's eyes are full of regret. “Lily. That other guy you brought.”

  “Ned. He's a Nightside and trained me to use magic.”

  “He's not going to like me, then. And I'm afraid Lily's dead.” Riley walks again, leading the way this time, and I have no choice but to follow.

  My knees buckle. “Is there any chance they didn't kill her?”

  “Maybe. Maybe not,” Riley says. “I wish I could tell you it would be all right, but I can't. The Beaumonts could want her for anything. Luring us back, for one. If they catch us, they'll have no more use for her.”

  That gives me hope that Lily is still alive, but also dread that we'll have to go and fight again. I'm not sure if I can do it again, especially without Ned. Riley and I link hands as we continue into the trees, and I once again take the lead once we near the safe house.

  “How did you get caught?” I ask.

  “I was working on an escape plan for you two, but Father caught me in my room,” Riley says. “He knew we were together the whole time. Maybe I did underestimate him.”

  The woods darken, and the outline of the cabin comes into view. It turns out Mom hasn't turned on any of the lights. Smart.

  “So, this is home now,” I say. “I'll call it the Extra Derpy House.”

  Riley forces a grin. “Good name.”

  Ned is standing at the door, hands in his pockets and pacing like he's nervous. Still drenched, I wave to him. Though still a hundred feet away, I hear his massive sigh of relief. He waves the two of us inside as soon as we reach him. Ned's gait is tense. Nervous.

  “You lost them,” I say once I close the door behind me.

  Mom sits at the wooden table now, and the only light is from the old iron stove that has a few embers in it. I nod to her. She's got bags under her eyes. Ned walks to the other side of the room and removes his hands from his pockets.

  “I thought I'd lost you,” he says, removing his ski mask. “It was a mistake, taking you there. We're never going to escape the Beaumonts now.”

  "Yes," Mom says to him. "It was a mistake. If I'd known--"

  “That's encouraging,” I say, eyeing Ned. He has the same face he did last night...only he doesn't. Something's different. The strange, foggy feeling I get by looking at him directly is still there, but this time it's thinner, and as Ned breathes out, the feeling fades and the world clears. I blink as the reality surrounding him shifts, and now standing before me is a different man.

  A familiar man, with my high cheekbones and dark hair. And most of all, very sad eyes even more filled with guilt than Riley's.

  And then I understand.

  The stranger isn't a stranger after all, but Dad.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  All the breath escapes from my lungs.

  Dad waits.

  Did he...did he use mind magic on me the whole time, making me believe he was some rando named Ned?

  And he's a Nightside. My mind spins with what it must mean. He's where I got the mutation. There's no other explanation. How long has he been one?

  I take a step back, right into Riley, and he stumbles, still weak from his injury. "What...what are you doing?"

  Mom rises from her bunk bed to stand beside Dad. She places her hand on his shoulder. "Olivia, calm down. Please."

  "You left us six months ago."

  Dad nods. Yes, it's him in that green coat, all right. "I just told your mother the truth. We talked before you and Riley got here. I had to do what I had to do." Regret fills his words. He must have an inkling that we didn't have fun getting back here.

  "You're Olivia's father?" Riley asks. He straightens beside me, balling his fists.

  "Why didn't you tell me in the first place? Why did you take so long to come back?" I ask. The corners of my vision blur and I'm just plain Olivia again. Angry. Vulnerable. Confused.

  "Let him explain. Please," Mom says, voice shaking. It's clear she just found this out, too.

  "Well, explain," I say.

  "Olivia. I understand why you're angry," Dad says. "Anyone would be after what I did. But I had to make a clean getaway back in Chicago to protect the two of you. Then your mother had to chase me back here. I feared she would."

  "Huh?" He didn't want us to reunite? A scream of rage rises in my chest.

  "Olivia, sit down."

  "No."

  Riley looks at me, open-mouthed, and then glances at the door. I nod at him to stay, hoping he gets it, and he does. I'm about to learn something terrible that's going to turn my world upside down and I want the only person who understands to be with me.

  Dad sighs. "I've been a Nightside for years and I should have never hidden it from you. This isn't what I wanted for you. Your mother and I grew up here in Moon's Peak, and we met after I turned."

  "What?" I ask, even though I've already found that out. "You've been a Nightside my whole life? You could still have children?"

  Dad forces a smile, but he doesn't sit. "Yes. Didn't think I could, either. I turned after I punched a Beaumont in the face back in high school. The contact awakened our lucky mutation, the same one I passed to you. I'm the reason the Beaumonts avoid humans now, I suppose. But hey, you have to live, right?"

  He sounds so much like the Dad I know that he softens the anger within. Now I know why I was comfortable around Ned. And why
Dad didn't want to reveal his identity right away. He knows I'm angry.

  Mom looks to Dad. "Tell her the rest."

  "The Beaumonts, back then, used to try to control Nightsides. Back then, there was no truce between the vampire hunters and them." He screwed up his face in mental pain. "They tried to make me fight the hunters for them. But after the truce, they decided I was dangerous and didn't need me anymore. That's when your mother and I escaped Moon's Peak and fled to Chicago."

  "But I thought the Truebloods had assassins everywhere?" I asked.

  "They do," Mom says, voice shaking. "It was tense. We had to change our last name. Start over. Everything."

  "We hid for a long time," Dad says. "My magic helped us dodge the Truebloods for years. I could throw off their trails. Distract them. But assassins started closing in on us the week before I left. I came back here and led them away from you. And it killed me inside."

  His tone sinks to the bottom of the world.

  And Mom shifts, taking her hand off Dad's shoulder.

  I slip my shaking hand into Riley's. He squeezes and rubs his thumb along my soft flesh. The rest can stay unspoken. Mom moved back here, to the place she never said she grew up, to pursue Dad. She knew he came back here, and now she's placed us both in danger. Mom stares at the floor as if ashamed to face me. She and Dad aren't looking at each other.

  I don't know who to be angrier at.

  But if it weren't for Mom, I never would have met Riley.

  And if it weren't for Dad, I never would have gotten him back.

  "Olivia, this is a lot to take in," Dad says. "There's one thing I did not lie about. I've been gathering other Nightsides for the past six months, determined to end the Beaumonts once and for all. Only then can we be back together."

  I whirl, staring at the wall. He just ditched us. Dad could have left us a note, saying not to follow him, and he went and put Mom under a bunch of stress, too.

  "Olivia." Riley wraps his arm around me.

  I sigh. Dad says nothing. Mom whispers in his ear.

  I don't know if I can ever forgive Dad for this.

  "Once the Beaumonts are gone," he continues, "we won't have to be away from each other anymore."