Darkness Bred (Chimney Rock)

by Stella Cameron

  “Never,” she said, sounding cross. “I wouldn’t let you leave.”

  “Then go to sleep. I don’t believe we’ll have long to wait, and I don’t believe we’ll have many moments to rest before then.”

  Suddenly, she nipped his bottom lip. “You’d better make sure it’s not long or I may have to take drastic steps. And you never know when or where I’ll take them. And you know I can do that.”

  chapter EIGHTEEN

  Niles ran both hands through his black hair. “I expected Sean to get here three hours ago. What do I get? Not another word. I can’t make a move as long as I think he’ll show up, or if I think I could mess something up for him by barging in. Why not at least update me on his movements?”

  Leigh figured he didn’t expect any answers. She held Pokey in her arms, facing away from Niles so she couldn’t see his glares. The little tooth marks on his nose had faded but his annoyance hadn’t.

  He had told her about transferring the primary decision making for the Team to Sean. Leigh knew him too well not to imagine how he chafed against sharing command in any way but she was touched by his love for her. The coming months, while they waited for the baby, wouldn’t be easy but she had no doubt Niles would suffer the most.

  *

  They had returned to Gabriel’s after lunch because Leigh had to catch up in the office and Niles said he needed to make progress on the addition to the building—after he mended the bathroom door.

  Innes had been working there when they arrived, together with two of the other hounds, Ethan and Campion, but one look at Niles and all three had found pressing duties elsewhere.

  So far she’d gotten very little done between Niles’s interruptions, and she doubted he had done anything at all.

  “Can I hand you nails or something to help out?” she asked tentatively.

  His expression suggested he didn’t understand what she’d said.

  “Maybe I can do something useful?” Leigh smiled and rubbed his arm.

  Niles gave her all his attention. “How are you feeling?” he asked darkly.

  “Great.”

  “Who is the doctor you’ve chosen? I want to interview him. I should make these decisions with you. We’ll go into Seattle to see him.”

  “I’ve decided on a midwife.” Why did he have to bring this up now? “There’s a clinic in Coleville and it’s really nice. That’s where I’ll go for regular checks, but the baby will be born at home.”

  “Are you mad?” He held both of her hands. “This could be a difficult pregnancy and birth. The next thing you’ll tell me is you’ll have Saul standing by in case there’s trouble.”

  “Well, I did—”

  “No.” He sank to his haunches and put his face in his hands, all the time shaking his head. “You’re going to make this so hard, Leigh. We can’t take any more risks than we already are. And Saul? You can’t be serious.”

  He was overreacting because he had too much on his mind. “First things first,” she told him quietly. “Where was Sean when he contacted you? You didn’t say.”

  After a slightly too long silence, Niles said, “Two Chimneys.”

  She smiled a little. “Inside or outside?”

  “Inside, I think.”

  “Good, he needs to be where he can watch Elin closely.”

  Niles bounced to his feet. “Yeah, he’d better not let her use the bathroom alone.”

  Leigh knew better than to smile this time. Niles was still seething over Elin’s neat little escape trick.

  The distinctive sound of Sally’s uneven footsteps came from the corridor. Leigh had never asked if the stiffness the woman suffered was because of something like arthritis, or the result of an injury.

  “Can I have a few words?” Sally said from the doorway. She looked as if she hadn’t had much sleep either. “I’ve got to. I should have come earlier.”

  “What is it?” Niles said. “Come in and shut the door.”

  Sally’s plain, gray wool skirt and sweater were a complete departure from her usual flamboyant clothing. “Have you talked to Saul about Molly’s body?” she asked very quietly. “Do you know there’s the same mark on her neck as on Rose’s?”

  “We heard the mark was forming.”

  “It’s bright red now. I saw it today for the first time. The one on Rose, too.”

  “Their bodies should be dealt with properly,” Leigh said. “This is awful.”

  “Awful but we don’t have a choice but to wait and those bodies are all we’ve got as evidence—and for Saul to keep on working for an answer to what’s happening,” Sally said, her voice even huskier than usual. “But that’s not why I’ve got to talk about it. I’ve been putting it off because I didn’t want to believe what I was afraid of. I can’t put it off any longer.”

  Leigh’s heart thudded too hard.

  “You do know what a living vampire sorcerer is?”

  “Saul explained,” Niles said. He looked worried and thunderous at the same time.

  “Do you know what happens if they don’t get what they need to feed on?”

  Leigh had the feeling Niles might be trying to get her out of here if he weren’t concentrating so hard on Sally. “They don’t feed very often,” he said.

  “Unless they’ve interfered with their natural chemistry and they’re sick, that’s true.” Sally crossed her arms. “We’ve got ourselves one messed-up living sorcerer vampire in our neck of the woods.”

  “You can’t be sure of that.”

  “I can and I am. This one’s taking risks. He’s leaving his safe place and hunting. His kind is so powerful you don’t even want to think about it. They don’t normally hunt, they send a minion for what they want—kind of like take-out food.”

  Niles leaned against a Sheetrocked wall. “And you think this means, what?”

  Sally hesitated. She went to Leigh and surprised her with a hug. “You okay, hon? The baby feeling good?”

  “Yes, thank—”

  “Say what you’re trying to say, dammit,” Niles demanded.

  Sally let out a slow breath. “It isn’t a good idea for Sean to go to The Island. He hasn’t been invited. The risks are unspeakable. This sorcerer vampire is seriously twisted up, maybe mad or sick in some other way. And there’s something else none of us counted on.”

  “Aren’t they all twisted?” Leigh said hurriedly, hoping Niles might not pick up on the comment about Sean. “People like this vampire, I mean. They obviously control with fear.”

  “What do you mean by something else?” Niles said. “Sean isn’t going to The Island. We already had that discussion.”

  “Did he say he wouldn’t go?” Sally said. “You said you would. He said he would. You told each other not to go. It’s over the edge dangerous for either of you but he’s gone. He’s on his way right now.”

  Niles started for the door, only to stop again. “Where is he going? Where is this place?” He held up a hand, raised his eyes, and stared at the window. Seconds later he swung around, frustration twisting his face. “He’s closing me out.”

  “All of you mean so much to him,” Sally said. “He thinks it’s up to him to make everyone safe, the whole lot of us.”

  “And while I need to be here for Leigh, he is my surrogate,” Niles said. “But he should not have left without my blessing.”

  “You asked him to share leadership with you at present,” Leigh said quietly.

  Niles put a fist to his brow. “Whatever has to be done should be planned. We should plan together. Where is Elin?”

  The expression on Sally’s face made Leigh’s stomach plummet.

  “I don’t know where she is,” the woman said. “I can’t find her. She doesn’t understand how vulnerable she is. She wouldn’t try to follow Sean, would she? Niles, Aldo, the man who tried to implicate Sean in murder, could be involved. He could be on The Island.”

  Niles didn’t respond.

  “I don’t know where The Island is—I’ve never been there,” Sall
y said. “I’ve never been invited. I’m not useful enough to be invited.”

  “Sean wouldn’t let Elin go somewhere so dangerous,” Leigh said and met Sally’s eyes. Understanding passed between them. They both knew Elin would do anything for Sean, with or without his blessing.

  “How do you know he’s gone there?” Niles asked through his teeth. “And how do you know about Aldo?”

  Sally cleared her throat. “I was at Saul’s when Sean came and said he wanted to be guided to The Island.”

  “And Saul told him how to find it? That means you must have heard what was said if you were there.”

  “Saul didn’t give Sean directions,” Sally said. “He told Sean he understood that he wanted to put Aldo to rest, as he put it. That’s exactly what he said. Then Saul said he’d take him.”

  chapter NINETEEN

  The surreal, free flight from Whidbey to a fog-shrouded cove on an island Sean had never seen before took him over water, but he caught only glimpses of it through dense, dark clouds.

  Seaweed, thick and slimy, spread over huge pebbles underfoot, and ahead jagged crags of lava rock rose, sheer and denuded, to disappear overhead in a crown of blue-black vapor.

  Sean had traveled there with one hand on Saul’s shoulder, entrusting his life to one who should be an untouchable enemy. To trust a vampire should be unthinkable for a werehound. With no other way to find his target, Sean’s human necessities overtook instinct.

  “This is The Island,” Saul murmured. “It’s a minefield. You can’t know what you will see or experience next—and without warning.”

  “I should shift,” Sean said and began to do just that. He and Saul had already decided it was too dangerous for him to remain in human and possibly recognizable form. Before he was fully transformed, he said, “Will we stay together? Or am I on my own now? It’s your choice but I can probably fit in better on my own. Do you think it’s probable there are others of my kind here? You weren’t sure.”

  “Not any that you would know. These will be different creatures. But enough of that for now. We will stay together. You’ll be able to hear me talk so I’ll make sure you know what we must do. You’ll have to find your own way to communicate with me. Stop moving, touch me, whatever. First we have to negotiate our way past any coastal outlaws. They are the ones who have been banished from his court by The One. They live in gangs just waiting for fresh, unsuspecting victims to capture.”

  Sean completed his shift. He stretched his long, heavy limbs and shook his blue-black coat, settling into his hound.

  “I have an advantage,” Saul said. “I am a maverick vampire with a long history that strikes fear into anyone who knows about me. My roots stretch into an ancient and evil society. What they don’t and won’t know is that I am evolved enough to use my reputation without sinking back to what I once was.”

  Saul spoke in a low, soft voice but it was clear to Sean’s enhanced hearing. It surprised him that Saul would share such personal details.

  “We have to lose ourselves,” Saul said. “Out here we’re too obvious. We want to observe, not be observed. And we must find our way without attracting enough attention to cause a fight—or for The One to be alerted we’re here.”

  Sean surveyed his surroundings and loped over the beach toward a sawtooth outcropping. And Saul moved with him as if they had silent understanding.

  From the cover of that first ridge, they could see the entire cove, including an opening from the sea into a channel that led who knew where.

  “Those who need conventional means of transportation enter through that channel, but only at the invitation of The One,” Saul said. “It winds to the heart of this mountain. I was brought here with an escort apparently considered appropriate for me. But in truth, The One is extremely careful. He assesses each visitor individually. We could not risk going in by that route.

  “The Island is a volcanic mountain rising from the water. I believe it’s part of the same geological formation as Chimney Rock under the water of the cove near Leigh’s cottage—in front of Niles’s place. There is definitely another source of what so many call The Veil, erupting here.” He raised his face to the dark, shifting vapor. “Up there alone, at the very top. From what I understand, The One lives alone there, in quarters near a crater that opens into the earth. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t been able to use The Veil for any of the purposes he may have had in mind. You will have to be very watchful to see if there is some clue to his agenda.”

  Sean stared at Saul, who gave a thin smile. “We must find him and hope we can either shock him into revealing something of what he wants and what he intends to accomplish with all of his mischief, or discover what we need without being discovered. And then we must try to stay alive long enough to get out. Groups of beings without consciences have made their quarters in mostly hidden pockets in the cooled lava inside.”

  Sean met Saul’s eyes in a moment of complete understanding.

  Nearby a clump of seaweed abruptly tore loose from the stones and swung a few inches into the air.

  Sean stiffened, staring at the spot. He took a step toward what was now a gluey, green glob of strings rising and falling, the movements wilder by the second.

  “That’s what makes us most vulnerable,” Saul said, standing beside Sean. “What we can’t see. At least, I can’t see what’s moving that, can you?”

  As abruptly as it had started hopping, the weed fell inert again.

  “I think we can assume we have company,” Saul said. “Let’s move. Our best hope is to be in and out fast. We can be grateful Niles has no way to follow—as far as we know. He could cause a short and unhappy war—for us.”

  Sean realized there were things he should have asked before allowing himself to go verbally dark. He sat down and stared at Saul. He had a sensation that there were elements here that would bother him much more than they would Saul.

  The vampire pushed back his long, black coat and planted his hands on his hips. “You don’t think I’m right?” he said.

  Sean didn’t move or even blink.

  “You want to know exactly what I expect from this trip?”

  Sean closed his eyes briefly.

  “Very well,” Saul said. “I expect, or hope, for some indication about what’s happening to The One to make him behave as he is. I think that’s what you want, too. If we learn what he plans to do and why, and what kind of danger we’re in on Whidbey, fantastic. If we only learn what his next move is—or why he’s taken the steps he already has—also fine. I can’t get past the conviction that he’s ill somehow, and deteriorating. After all, he is alive. You agree?”

  Sean closed his eyes in brief agreement.

  Perhaps they would find The One was indeed failing, perhaps close to his own death. That would make him more desperate and more dangerous. It would also increase his vulnerability.

  Sean stood and waited until Saul started forward again, leaning into the incline that snaked from one craggy ridge to another. At least the outcroppings offered cover in places.

  The silence, the stillness began to grate on Sean. He heard only the subtle grind of their feet on shale and searched in all directions for whatever might be traveling with them.

  A plop caused Sean to halt and look back. They had wound around a turn and could no longer see where they had started their trek.

  Saul also glanced over his shoulder and they both stood still. A trickle of tiny rocks showered from the air a few inches above the ground to land and scatter among dozens of others.

  “Rocks in midair,” Saul remarked. He came close to Sean and whispered, “Our company behaves as if it wants us to know it’s here. That, or it’s very inept. Emptying the rocks from a shoe, perhaps.” He raised his voice deliberately. “We’ll fight if we have to. Whenever we have to.”

  On they climbed until Saul stopped suddenly and sat at the side of the trail. “There’s something unnatural about all this,” he said. “When I was here before, the place teemed with lif
e—or it teemed with something. What I couldn’t see, I could hear. Babbling conversation, shrieking, laughing. Arguments, fights, struggles…and an orgy here and there.” His expression didn’t change. “Where are they all? I believe something momentous is happening. That, or it’s already happened.”

  Or they were being set up. A faint thrill, like that he always got before a fight, ruffled Sean’s fur. He looked out through the rocky wall on his right, over the beach below and the sea that disappeared into the shroud of fog that protected The Island from prying eyes. Nothing moved.

  “Stop!” As if to make a lie of Saul’s theory that the place could be deserted, a misshapen and shriveled creature, little more than bone and transparent skin, landed on the path in front of them. He wore only a loincloth. “Who are you?” he said, his voice unexpectedly deep. “What do you want? What makes you think you can pass by my home without paying a toll?” Large, pointed ears twitched and doleful gray eyes filled with tears.

  “Are you mad?” Saul said, sweeping a hand behind the fellow’s knees. “Get lost while you still can.”

  With the force of that single light swipe from Saul, the creature rose in the air, turned over once, and landed on his large feet again. Shrieking, he scrambled away and disappeared into a hole so small he had to squeeze himself into an elongated, putty-colored sausage to pass inside.

  Sean stood by the hole and stared from it, to Saul and back again. He started looking around, pawing rocks aside to look underneath.

  “Your instincts are good,” Saul said. “This pile of rubble is filled with tunnels and caves. Many of them are considered the private domains of certain groups. From inside the mountain I saw tunnels from out here, but I don’t know where there’s an opening big enough for us. I hope we find one higher up.”

  Without warning, lightning cleaved the clouds and hit the mountain, sent a shower of sparks accompanied by loud crackling. Thunder bellowed almost at once, deafening, shaking the earth.

  Wind blew sheets of rain sideways and Sean was glad of his dense fur. Saul was quickly soaked. “Massive storms are frequent here,” he said.