Hunting the Dark

by Karen Mahoney

  Jace grabbed my shoulders and shook me. ‘What are you doing? It’s like you went catatonic or something. I’ve never seen that happen to anyone before.’

  The intercom sounded again.

  I moved, taking Jace with me. He was too shocked to speak, which made a change. We were in Holly’s room now, standing outside her oversized closet. Jace started to say something, but I opened the door and pushed him inside. ‘Shut up,’ I hissed. ‘And don’t come out, no matter what you hear.’ I slammed the double doors on him.

  ‘Um . . . Moth?’

  Ignoring him, I ran back to the intercom, but I was too late. My front door exploded inward and Theo stood on the threshold looking just about as livid as I had ever seen him.

  Gulping, I backed up a step. ‘Hey, Theo.’

  ‘Moth.’ His eyes glittered.

  ‘Shouldn’t you be resting? You just got shot. Where are Holly and Castel? Weren’t they with you? They were supposed to take you home. I thought—’

  ‘Stop it,’ he said. ‘Stop talking. If you lie to me, I will make you regret it.’

  He reeked of blood, so at least I wouldn’t have to deal with bloodlust. But his expression had turned wild, frantic rather than furious. Which was . . . unsettling.

  OK, it was terrifying.

  ‘The Murdoch boy. Where is he?’

  ‘Jace?’ I backed up another step. ‘I don’t know what—’

  ‘I said, don’t lie to me!’ he roared.

  I cringed and buried the desperate urge to bow down before him. Or to run. Either would work for me right now.

  ‘I’m not lying!’ I shouted back, lying through my teeth and hating myself for it. ‘I haven’t seen Jace in months.’

  ‘Lies!’ Theo moved, and the next second I was pinned to the wall with his face in mine. I couldn’t move, transfixed by the murderous rage in his eyes. ‘I was concerned for you, after the attack at the hospital, so I sent Echo to check on your wellbeing.’

  My stomach squeezed tight and I wanted to vomit. My lips felt numb. Had Echo seen Jace? Oh God, how to explain this . . . How, how? How to keep Theo from ripping Jace’s head off?

  I gulped. ‘You couldn’t have just called me?’

  ‘I do whatever I like. Have you forgotten who I am?’

  ‘No,’ I squeaked.

  He dropped me and sniffed the air. ‘I can smell him all over you. All over this apartment.’

  Fee fi fo fum. I so badly wanted to say it, but I figured that might be one joke too far. I kept my mouth firmly shut.

  Theo stalked into the kitchen and grabbed Jace’s army jacket from the back of a chair. ‘How do you explain this?’

  I gnawed at my lower lip, mind racing.

  Theo tore the jacket in half as though it were a piece of wet tissue paper. He tossed the two pieces at me and I ducked. ‘Don’t you have anything to say, my little Moth?’

  ‘Not really,’ I said. ‘No, I think it’s better that I don’t say anything.’

  ‘Perhaps you will feel the urge to speak when I rip the hunter’s throat out.’ He turned on his heel and marched toward my bedroom.

  ‘Theo, I know who might be targeting vampires. It’s not Jace. You have to listen to me.’

  I chased after him, not knowing what else to do. Theo was a man on a mission as he reached beneath my bed and pulled.

  ‘Theo, he’s not under—’

  But my Maker wasn’t listening. Listening seemed to be the last thing on his mind. He flipped the entire bed on its side, then moved toward my tiny closet.

  ‘He’s not in there either. Stop this! Didn’t you hear what I just said? About how I know what’s going on? Let me tell—’

  Crunch. There went the door hinges. I cringed and tried to figure out a way to stop him. Would he go through the entire apartment? Surely he wouldn’t trash everything . . .

  He looked over his shoulder at me. ‘I’m going to tear this place apart until I find him.’

  OK, so that answered that question.

  I pulled my cell phone from my pocket. ‘I’m calling Holly. I can’t believe everyone let you leave when you’d just been shot up with silver.’

  Theo snatched my phone away and crushed it. He dropped the shattered remains at my feet and hissed, fangs fully extended.

  Anger flared in my gut and I kicked the pathetic remains of my phone away. I even forgot about my fear – for a few seconds. ‘That was my link to Caitlín. How dare you! How dare you come in here and wreck my home.’

  His face froze. ‘How dare I? This apartment belongs to me. You live here under my protection.’ He wrenched my blacked-out mirror from its moorings and smashed it into the wall.

  I stifled a scream. ‘You’re not doing a very good job of protecting me, are you? You’re scaring the shit out of me. Stop it!’

  He blinked at me once, then moved in the direction of Holly’s room.

  I threw myself in front of him, blocking the door. ‘Don’t do this. You’re supposed to be grooming Holly as a future Enforcer. If you screw with her room you’ll lose her support.’

  He sneered. ‘They are just things which can easily be replaced. Step aside or I will remove you.’

  I crossed my arms over my chest, glad that my heart wasn’t beating. If it was, I would currently be passed out on the floor. ‘Try it. I think you’ll find I’m not so easily replaced.’

  ‘I could break you in two, little one. Do not test me.’

  ‘Theo, you’re not acting like yourself. You asked me to help you stay in control, to let you know if you started to lose it. Well, newsflash! You’re losing it. If you trash Holly’s room, there’s no way it’ll stay a secret from the others. If the damage stays limited to my room, I can say I did it myself. She’ll believe that.’

  It was true; Holly would love to believe I’d wrecked my stuff while having some kind of tantrum.

  I’d at least gotten Theo to hesitate. I kept talking: ‘We can’t let them know how badly you’ve been affected by Nicole’s death. How many of them even know she’s your Maker?’

  His gaze slid away from mine.

  ‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘Nobody. At least, nobody ranked below you – and probably nobody else in our Family. Let’s keep it that way.’

  I placed a trembling hand on his cheek, waiting for him to say something, to do something. Maybe waiting for him to toss me aside and barge into Holly’s precious space. To rip the closet doors off and to find Jace.

  To kill him.

  Theo placed his own hand over mine. ‘Marie,’ he said.

  I’d done it. I had won. I closed my eyes for a second.

  ‘It’s OK, Theo. Everything will be all right. You have to trust me. I have some leads now.’

  ‘The Murdoch boy’s scent is strong.’ He closed his eyes. ‘I know you’re lying.’

  ‘He was here, OK? That’s why I have his jacket. I’m sorry I lied about that, but we were trying to figure out who would want to frame him. He was only here for a few minutes, I swear it.’

  His whole body tensed.

  I kept talking. ‘Trust me, Theo. Jace left the jacket so I could . . . I don’t know . . . look for evidence or something. Because of the piece that’s missing? I was just trying to help.’

  It sounded lame, even to me, but at least he was no longer in ‘Hulk smash!’ mode and I could handle him now. I hoped that Jace would stay where he was. The last thing we needed was for him to decide he was tired of sitting in Holly’s closet.

  Slowly, I led my Maker into the living room and sat beside him on the couch.

  ‘There’s something I have to tell you,’ I said. ‘You’re not going to like it, because I should have told you before, but maybe you’ll start trusting me again if I tell you the truth.’

  So I told Theo about Subject Ten, and how I suspected that she was involved in Nicole’s death. At least he listened without biting my head off. Metaphorically or literally. I kept back the part about the Nemesis Project for now, but I knew that I’d have to fill him in
sooner or later. I wanted to wait until he was feeling better. Maybe knowing about Ten would give him something more ‘positive’ to focus on. I know that’s weird, but Theo was desperate to avenge his own Maker’s death, right? Bonus points to me for (hopefully) getting Jace off the hook. At least for now.

  I said, ‘What do you know about dhampires?’

  He had the grace not to laugh in my face, but I could tell he was skeptical. ‘The dhampir? Ah, what comic books have you been reading now, my Moth?’

  ‘I’m being serious. What if that girl was a dhampire? Dhampir. Whatever the right way of saying it is.’

  ‘It is just a legend. She couldn’t possibly be a true dhampir – they no longer exist.’

  I fidgeted excitedly. ‘So they did used to exist?’

  ‘Centuries ago, perhaps. Most legends begin with a grain of truth.’

  ‘And you’re saying that she couldn’t be one because . . . why? Because she would have to be born of both human and vampire?’

  He nodded. ‘Yes. Vampires cannot procreate, whether male or female. It is impossible for two vampires, and it is impossible for one vampire and one human. Does that answer all your questions? I wish to leave.’

  ‘You do?’ His sudden purposefulness was something of a relief, although I couldn’t help a small jolt of anxiety. ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘To inform the others about this girl. This “Subject Ten”.’ He shook his head. ‘A very strange name.’

  I shrugged. ‘Young people these days.’

  Theo stopped at the broken front door, shoulders stiffening. ‘This is not a joke.’

  Neither is the damage to my door, I wanted to say. Of course, I absolutely didn’t say that. Yay for self-restraint!

  Holly and Echo blurred up the stairs and stopped at the sight of us.

  ‘What kept you?’ I asked.

  My roommate looked relieved to see Theo, then she caught sight of the damage. She glared at me. ‘What have you done?’

  I bristled, forgetting that I was supposed to be covering for Theo. ‘I didn’t do that!’

  Theo fixed Holly with a calm expression. ‘Everything is under control,’ he said, as though absolutely nothing had happened.

  He left with Echo trailing behind him, but Holly jogged back toward me. ‘Wait a minute,’ she called back to them as she reached me and pushed me inside the apartment. ‘What the hell has been going on?’

  ‘Nothing I can’t handle,’ I snapped, going on the offensive. ‘I’ve been helping him. What have you been doing all this time? How could you let him go off like that when he was still injured?’

  Her pale cheeks flushed. ‘I’m not his jailer. He is our Master – he can go where he wishes to go.’

  ‘You should have stopped him.’ You really, really should have stopped him. Maybe then my room wouldn’t look like a rock star just had a party in there.

  ‘We don’t all have the luxury of arguing with him, Moth,’ Holly said. ‘Some of us have to do as we’re told.’

  I ignored the pang of guilt and shrugged. ‘If you want to be his Enforcer, you’re going to have to start doing some actual enforcing. You know?’

  ‘Whatever,’ Holly snapped. ‘I’m going to grab a change of clothes, then we’ll take him back home.’

  ‘OK,’ I said.

  A change of clothes?

  ‘Wait!’ I threw myself in front of her. ‘Why do you need to do that?’

  She looked at me like I’d grown a second head. ‘What do you care? Get out of the way, squirt.’

  How was I going to stop her? How was I going to get Jace out of this?

  I opened my mouth, preparing to make up the worst excuse of my life – and cringing even before I did it – when Theo strode back into the hallway. He was all business.

  ‘Holly, we don’t have time for this. I have new information about Nicole’s death. There is work to be done before the dawn.’

  She rolled her eyes – her back was to him – but then turned around. ‘Sure, boss. Just coming.’

  As she finally left, she looked over her shoulder at me. She was totally suspicious, and it’s not like she didn’t have good reason.

  I stuck my tongue out at her. It was the most mature thing I could think of.

  Still shaking from head to foot, I made it into Holly’s room – without throwing up – and opened the closet door.

  Jace looked up at me. ‘Aren’t you a little short for a vampire?’

  I felt too stressed to even acknowledge his Star Wars joke; that’s how bad I felt. My knees gave way, and I suddenly found myself sitting on the purple carpet. I buried my face in my hands. ‘This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me.’

  ‘I seriously doubt that,’ Jace said.

  I rocked myself back and forth. It was strangely comforting.

  ‘Moth, stop acting like such a weirdo. Everything’s fine. You threw him off the scent – literally.’

  ‘He knows, Jace,’ I said. ‘He knows.’

  ‘Then why would he just leave with the others?’

  ‘I . . . I’m not sure. But he definitely knew you were here. He had to have known.’

  Why would Theo let Jace live? Did he finally believe me? If I could hyperventilate, I would totally be doing that right now. I realized that I was actually crying a little bit. From stress. How embarrassing.

  I sniffed and wiped my nose on the back of my hand. ‘What did you do in here while I was witnessing the destruction of my apartment?’

  ‘Just checking Twitter.’ He held up his phone and showed me the screen. ‘See?’

  ‘Why does everyone have Twitter except me?’ I wailed. ‘Man, I suck!’

  That annoying eyebrow quirked again.

  ‘Oh, shut up. We have to get you out of here.’

  ‘But the crazy fanged man has gone now,’ Jace said. ‘Chill.’

  I shot to my feet and shoved him in the chest. ‘Don’t tell me to “chill”. Don’t you dare! I just lied to my Maker. I looked him in the eyes and lied my face off. For you.’ I moaned and contemplated throwing myself out the window, after all.

  Jace grabbed my hands with his own. ‘Calm down.’

  ‘I can’t be calm,’ I wailed. ‘You can’t possibly understand what this means!’

  ‘I do. It means you’ve got a hell of a lot of cleaning up to do. Your Maker loves smashing things up, doesn’t he?’

  I glared at him. ‘This is serious.’

  ‘I know, I know.’ He shrugged. ‘I realize there’s no going back from this for you.’

  I stopped fretting and gazed at him. No going back.

  ‘Admit it, though,’ he continued, still holding my hands. ‘You enjoyed defying him. Maybe just a little.’

  I wasn’t going to argue with him about that. We’d done enough fighting for one night, and I was tired. Exhausted, actually. My shoulders slumped. ‘I suppose you’d better stay here again. It’s not like Theo will be coming back anytime soon.’

  Jace shot me his best wicked grin.

  I cut him off before he could even think of saying something. ‘Don’t. If you make even one innuendo, you’re on your own. I’m serious. You can go stay with that so-called friend of yours in Southie.’

  Wisely, he kept his mouth shut and started helping me clean up. Maybe the boy was learning.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Dead Girl Talking

  The next day was, thankfully, uneventful. Buffy the freaking vampire slayer was either laying low or she had other business to attend to. Either way, it was a relief.

  Dad was off the ventilator – and Theo also seemed more stable. At least it gave me one less thing to worry about. If my Maker was quiet, then it must mean he was busy looking into the partial truths I’d shared with him after his recent meltdown. I caught up on some much-needed sleep, and followed that up with lots of phone calls with Caitlín before playing detective on Friday night. It wasn’t that I was avoiding my sisters. Well, certainly not Cait. I was just too emotionally exhaust
ed by everything to trust myself when it came to holding it together in public. At least, not until I’d rested some more.

  And then Friday came around, and I had no choice but to face the world again. I ordered a cab and set out for the Cabot Science Library at Harvard. To attend the mysterious Dr Stark’s book signing.

  Jace had offered to pick me up, but I didn’t want it to seem like a date – especially not after all his teasing. This was business. A risky business too, especially for Jace if any of the Family caught sight of him with me. Theo might not be looking quite as hard at Jace in terms of Nicole’s death, but that didn’t mean he was entirely off the hook.

  So no, not a date then. Which is why you just spent almost an hour getting ready for it, teased my treacherous inner voice.

  I told that particularly smug-sounding voice to shut up as my driver pulled into the small area designated for parking. Considering I’d spent so long fiddling with my appearance, I didn’t look all that different from normal. Black leggings, a long black satin tunic, and – in a shocking departure – a silvery lace cardigan that looked like I’d been draped in cobwebs. I was also wearing a pair of black-rimmed geek-chic glasses, with heavily tinted lenses to hide my eyes.

  Oh, and silver DMs. Despite the color, they made me feel more like me.

  As far as Holly was concerned, I was having dinner with my sisters to celebrate Dad being moved out of the ICU. He was still in a bad way, but he was no longer considered at immediate risk.

  I was five minutes early to meet Jace, so I stood outside trying not to check the time on my shiny new cell phone – Theo’s little rampage had given me an excuse to upgrade. People milled around on the steps, talking and commenting on the evening’s activities. A group of post-grad students smoked cigarettes and tried to look like they weren’t trying to look cool. Was this all a big fat waste of time? What did I honestly hope to achieve, coming here and dragging Jace along with me? It wasn’t as though this scientist – this Dr Stark – was going to tell me everything I wanted to know. Real people didn’t act like Bond villains, no matter what I might hope for.