Hunting the Dark

by Karen Mahoney

  His blood tasted like the finest wine that I’d ever had. I’d somehow known that it would. Jace was like the sun and electricity mixed with earth and shadows. My mouth clamped onto his arm and my fingers dug into his skin. I’m not sure he could have dislodged me without smacking me over the head with a rock, but right at that moment he didn’t seem all that unhappy with the situation.

  He was propped up against the wall and I was straddling his thighs, half sitting on him as I gripped his arm and drank. His free hand gripped a chunk of my hair, but he made no effort to pull me away.

  I heard him groan and found enough awareness in me to raise my eyes and watch his face. I had this flash of imagination, that his head would be thrown back and his eyes would be shut – whether in pain or pleasure I wouldn’t even begin to guess – but he wasn’t doing any of that. He was watching me as I fed, and his face was flushed and his teeth were nibbling his lower lip in a way that suggested he was in anything but pain.

  My eyes locked with his and something happened that I’m sure neither of us had expected; he fell into my shimmering gaze, but at the same time it felt as though I fell into his. We each held a part of the other inside of us. There was no more Jace, no more Marie or Moth; just a need for blood and the willingness to give it . . .

  Jace is a gangly thirteen or fourteen in the vision I have of him. He’s tall for his age, but not yet filled out the way he is now. His father stands beside him and is teaching him how to use a crossbow. Jace can’t reload as quickly as Thomas Murdoch, much to the hunter’s irritation.

  ‘You’d be dead by now, in a combat situation,’ Murdoch Senior says.

  ‘We’re not in a combat situation,’ Young Jace replies, sounding more matter-of-fact than smartass.

  His father clearly can’t tell the difference and whacks him on the back of the head with a meaty palm. ‘Stop answering back. Your attitude is going to get you killed, one of these days.’

  The boy’s whole demeanor is sullen, oozing resentment like blood from a wound. ‘You never let me come with you on a real hunt, anyway.’

  Murdoch glares. ‘You want to hunt with me? You really think that you’re ready for the monsters?’

  ‘I’ll never know, will I? Not if you don’t trust me to face them.’

  ‘The monsters are out there, son,’ his father says. ‘They’re real. As real as the crossbow you hold in your hands – and they won’t stop until you’re dead. The monsters never, ever stop.’

  ‘Because we’re their food source, I know all this.’ Young Jace looks impatient. ‘You’ve drilled this into me a thousand times. I’m ready.’

  ‘Your mother was ready,’ Murdoch says. ‘But she still died.’

  Jace blinks, shocked at his father’s words. They rarely talk about what happened.

  ‘Mom was unlucky . . .’

  ‘Luck had nothing to do with it. Never, ever rely on luck. Do you understand?’

  Jace nods, but he doesn’t say anything.

  ‘They’re driven by one thing, plain and simple,’ his father tells him.

  ‘Survival?’

  Murdoch Senior shakes his head. ‘Blood.’

  I tore myself away from Jace, forcing myself to stop, knowing that he’d hate me for being in his head again. It was all over and we couldn’t even be friends – let alone anything more. I accepted that, though, if it meant I could get us both out of here and help him get free and safe. Then do something about the people here at the Facility and maybe even find out, once and for all, who Ten really was. Maybe help her too.

  And then I realized that I was feeling better. A lot better. Jace’s blood had done its job, but at what price?

  I rolled onto my knees and crawled toward him, still propped up against the wall, only now with his injured arm cradled against his stomach.

  I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, feeling shame and hating that I felt that. I had to accept who I was – what I was. There was no other way to any kind of happiness for me. But it was so hard to do. Talk is cheap. Doesn’t matter how many self-help books you read, you still have to actually believe the affirmations.

  Jace had his eyes shut, but he opened them as soon as he heard me move closer. I expected him to flinch, but he didn’t, and I allowed a treacherous thread of hope to tug at my heart.

  He said, ‘Are you OK?’

  And my heart almost broke, there and then. I laughed, but it came out as more of a sob. ‘Me? I didn’t just lose a pint of blood.’

  I couldn’t believe that he was asking if I was OK. Jace had a way of keeping me off balance, and I loved it.

  ‘Come here,’ he said.

  ‘Why?’ I stayed where I was.

  ‘Because I’m too tired to move right now.’

  I stared at him, mutinous.

  ‘Please,’ he said.

  For some reason it was the ‘please’ that made the difference, and my resistance floated away like ash. I scooted closer, relishing the feeling of strength that filled my limbs, reveling in the sense of control, and the clear thoughts that ran through my unclouded mind. Thanks to Jason Murdoch’s blood.

  His right hand – the uninjured one – reached out, and he used the cuff of his shirt sleeve to wipe the corner of my mouth. ‘You missed a spot,’ he said, with an expression on his face I wasn’t even going to attempt to read.

  Despite our situation, I couldn’t stop myself from asking him something. I had to know for sure. ‘Are we . . . OK?’

  His eyebrows raised. ‘Why wouldn’t we be?’

  I glared at him. ‘Why do you think?’

  Jace sighed. ‘Moth, if you’re worried that I’m pissed because you did precisely what I asked you to do, then you don’t know me at all.’

  I didn’t trust myself to reply. Especially not while I was beginning to feel that otherworldly post-feeding high start to kick in. I was just content that he was still talking to me. That things seemed totally normal between us.

  Normal? I’d just drunk his blood and taken another peek at his memories. I was lucky that he hadn’t slipped into my mind in return – who knows what he would have found. (I’d experienced that with Theo, on the rare occasions I’d taken blood from him). It was such an intimate thing, but in this particular instance Jace might have seen something of my conversation with Subject Ten, and that was no way to discover that the sibling you always believed to be dead was, in fact, alive. And a dhampir. I stifled a hysterical burst of laughter.

  I had to find the right time to tell him. It seemed like I was always waiting for the right time, when it came to Jace.

  ‘It’s OK,’ he said. ‘You don’t have to hide it.’

  I frowned. ‘I didn’t say anything.’ Had he picked up on my growing feelings for him. Ugh. I hoped not. That would be a major embarrassment.

  ‘No, I mean . . .’ He hesitated. ‘I know.’

  ‘What?’ I tried not to look guilty, but we all know how good I am at that.

  ‘About her. My sister.’ He placed a finger on my forehead, then moved it to his own. He nodded. ‘Mind-meld.’

  Oh God . . . he knew. He knew about Ten and about his family.

  ‘Jace . . .’ I touched his arm. ‘Are you . . . OK?’ I cringed. How could he possibly be OK after this revelation? We were in the middle of the worst experience of our lives as it was, and now this? I was surprised he hadn’t curled up in the fetal position and started rocking. He still hadn’t said anything. I shook him. ‘Talk to me!’

  ‘Am I OK?’ Jace smiled, but it was the saddest smile I’d ever seen. ‘OK isn’t exactly the word I’d use.’

  I tried to think of something comforting to say. Something wise. Nothing was forthcoming; instead, it was Jace who broke the growing silence.

  ‘Forget it, Moth. At least for now. Let’s just focus on getting out.’

  He was right. I had to make sure we got out of here in one piece. Jace’s blood was warming me from the inside out, and I didn’t want his ‘donation’ to go to waste. We’d break out,
figure out what to do about Ten, then worry about the rest of it later. That was as good a plan as any.

  I ripped the door off its hinges – yes, with my vamp senses back and working fine, I could now see in the dark again, see the hidden door easily – and placed it gently to one side. Hey, no need to clutter the place up.

  There was no siren or anything, which struck me as beyond strange. Maybe we were doing exactly what Stark and her cronies wanted. I searched the walls and ceiling of the corridor, looking for any sign that this was yet another twisted experiment, but couldn’t see any more cameras.

  That didn’t mean they weren’t there. I shivered. We had to act on the assumption that they’d been monitoring our little show inside. Knowing that made me cringe, but at the time neither of us had been all that bothered about having an audience.

  As Jace and I walked along the corridor, I could feel a new sense of closeness vibrating between us. It was so weird. It wasn’t like with a kiss. And I hadn’t actually sunk my fangs into his flesh – not once. I hadn’t even nicked him. I’d simply taken his blood from an already open wound. And yet it felt like the most intimate thing in the world.

  Now that I had time to think about it, I hated that Dr Stark would have seen that. Shared that experience in some way. It filled me with a visceral desire to make them all suffer, take away their power to hurt others. How many other vampires had they stolen and tortured? Ended.

  We still didn’t even know where this building was located – Stark had been particularly evasive about that. I figured we must at least be in Massachusetts because our friendly-neighborhood doctor had traveled from the Facility to her book launch. She couldn’t have had all that far to go, right? But that still meant we could be pretty far away from Boston, if we were really unlucky.

  How could we find Jace’s car? Ten had driven us both here in it – that seemed likely – but they would have dumped it later, possibly torched it. I had to assume that we wouldn’t be able to find the car. Theo’s abilities included a small amount of telepathy, and maybe since I’d powered up off Jace’s blood my Maker would be able to reach me. Even in his own less-than-ideal state. Could his power cut through all the tranquilizers they’d shot me full of? If we could find out our geographical location, would it be better to somehow let my Maker know, then just hide out somewhere and wait for the cavalry? Hell, maybe we could find a phone. No, better not to hope for something as easy as that. Or for rescue. Better to believe we were on our own.

  I tried to shut off the glut of questions, but it was like once I’d fed from Jace and been refreshed, my brain just wouldn’t quiet down. I was trying to figure out a million things at once, and everybody knows that there’s no such thing as true multitasking. Not even for a vampire.

  We have our limits, you know.

  ‘So what’s the plan?’ Jace asked, crowding behind me as we walked along the corridor.

  I had several ideas for what I wanted to do next, but as most of them involved violence or kissing I decided to keep them to myself.

  Jace was looking pale, but there was no way he’d let himself slow me down. I’d have to trust that he could keep up and hope for the best. Not only was he suffering the effects of blood loss (on top of his other injuries), he was trying to come to terms with something personal that had just blown his life wide open. I wanted to comfort him, but there was no time. We just had to keep moving. One foot in front of the other until we could find a way out.

  We reached the metal door at the end, and I shushed him while I listened. There was a time, not so long ago, when Jace would have pushed me out the way so that he could be the one to listen – to take charge. But this time he leaned against the wall and watched my back, letting me check things out in our path.

  ‘Anything?’ he asked, keeping a nervous eye on the dead-end corridor behind us as though he expected guards to materialize out of the walls.

  ‘It’s hard to tell,’ I whispered. ‘I can make out a very faint electrical hum, but that’s it. No other movement, that’s for sure.’

  He nodded.

  ‘Also,’ I said, ‘I can’t hear any, you know . . .’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Heartbeats,’ I muttered.

  He put his full attention on me. ‘Right. You can hear them, I knew that.’

  Gripping the handle tight, I twisted until it wouldn’t go any farther – and then twisted it past the point of no return. There was a satisfying crack as the door opened.

  I entered the heart of the Facility, Jace on my heels.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  All or Nothing

  For a while we simply walked along corridor after corridor, trying to get our bearings. The Facility might as well have been built to replicate a labyrinth – one that seemed endless – and I had visions of us getting lost and wandering for the rest of our lives. I’d stay forever young while Jace slowly aged, and I’d have to carry him when he got too old to keep walking. OK, that was stupid, but my imagination was currently in overdrive.

  We’d both agreed that we were underground, so had been trying to figure out a way to go up. That didn’t seem to be working out so well, as we’d been moving for what felt like ages with no sign of a gradient at all – either up or down. No stairwells or elevators that we could see.

  I stopped Jace with a hand on his arm. ‘Why is there nobody here? I don’t like it.’

  ‘You think I do? There should be a ton of people around. Scientists, guards . . .’ He frowned, still looking thoroughly exhausted. ‘This place has got to have multiple levels, but we’re stuck in the basement walking in circles.’

  ‘Maybe they’re just watching us to see what we’ll do. Like rats in a freaking maze.’

  ‘They know exactly where we are, that’s totally obvious. But I think they’re herding us in the direction they want us to go.’

  My shoulders slumped. ‘So we’re walking into a trap?’

  ‘Probably.’ He grimaced. ‘But what choice do we have? I wasn’t going to stay in that cell and just wait to die.’

  He was right. This was it: all or nothing.

  I kept having to remind myself to slow down so that Jace could keep up. If I moved the way I really could – especially having just fed – I’d be leaving him for dead. No way I was doing that. It was my fault he was even in this messed-up situation in the first place. It was thanks to him – to his blood – that we were getting out.

  I would not leave Jace behind.

  Those guards that had brought me down earlier, when I’d first spoken to Stark and then tried to escape, must have come from somewhere. Surely there was some kind of guard station. Yeah, I know I was once again relying on TV shows for my knowledge of how the dastardly bad guys would operate, but it was all I had to go on right now. If the cells were down here, then the guards had to be based somewhere. Wasn’t that at least a bit logical?

  If we could find this hopefully not-mythical guard station, it might lead to a way out. A way up.

  We stopped at the next turn and I flattened myself against the wall, taking a deep breath of recycled air in the hopes of smelling something to warn me of what might be around the next corner. Jace’s ‘trap’ theory had been bugging me. I hated the thought that we were just following a route already mapped out for us – that somewhere Stark was waiting for us to reach a pre-determined location, where we would probably get our asses kicked and then get dumped back into cells.

  Honestly, just thinking about it was enough to give me a panic attack.

  I leaned against the wall and listened for signs of life.

  Jace bobbed his head around the corner and I dragged him back. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Standing around isn’t going to get us anywhere.’

  I glared at him, then checked out the next corridor. It seemed exactly the same as the current one, all white walls and shiny floors, but there was something different at the very end. Bull’s-eye! Double doors with large, Plexiglas windows and a ton of security cameras
marked the end of the hallway.

  I swung back around to Jace and punched him triumphantly in the arm. ‘I told you there’d be a guard room of some kind!’

  ‘Ow.’ He made a big show of rubbing his arm. ‘I think a mosquito just bit me. Or a Moth.’ His mouth lifted at one corner. ‘Oh wait, you already did that.’

  ‘This isn’t funny.’

  But Jace had already moved onto the next problem. ‘Why is there a guard station with no guards?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Let’s not think about it. What’s the point? We have to go in that direction anyway. We’ve tried all the other turnings.’

  He nodded, but still didn’t look happy. Who could blame him? Nothing about this situation felt right. All we could do was keep moving forward and face whatever they threw at us. Together.

  ‘We should make a run for it,’ I said to him. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘Go on. I can keep up.’

  I made for the station, making sure to run at (mostly) regular human speed. We dashed through the door and I closed it behind us, but the moment I did that huge metal shutters slammed down on the outside of the booth – ceiling to floor – blocking the windows and effectively cutting us off.

  ‘Whoa,’ Jace said. ‘It’s like a bomb shelter.’

  ‘Or a panic room.’ It was also incredibly creepy, with glowing red lighting and a feeling of being underwater in a military submarine.

  Looking around, I wasn’t so sure that this was just a guard center. It seemed too tech-heavy for that. Four monitors took up one wall and two desks were filled with computers and other electronic equipment that I couldn’t even begin to fathom. Maybe it was more of an information post. I had no idea, but it was the most hopeful thing we’d found and it meant we’d made some kind of progress. At the other end of the small space – a room that would hold no more than half a dozen people comfortably – were a set of elevator doors.

  ‘Bingo!’ I punched the air.

  Jace wiped sweat from his forehead. ‘Try to get them open. I’ll look for anything that might give us a layout to the Facility. Even if all of this is just a test, this station must have been used for some purpose.’