Falling Dark

by Christine Pope

  Asking Silas was probably the best thing to do to satisfy my curiosity, although the mere thought of bringing up the topic of sex with him was enough to make the blood rush to my cheeks. My feelings toward my protector were complicated enough without introducing the painfully awkward subject of vampire sex.

  I’d just finished putting my breakfast plate in the dishwasher and closing it up when the doorbell rang. A quick glance around told me that I’d left everything in reasonably tidy shape, so I hurried to the door to let Silas in…after I looked through the peephole and determined it truly was him waiting outside.

  This morning he was back in his usual dark T-shirt — this one in a deep wine color — and jeans and boots. I had to wonder what he did in the summer when it got really hot. Somehow I couldn’t imagine him wandering around in shorts and flip-flops. But that thought only led me to ponder how long all this would actually go on. Would he be forced to babysit me forever? After all, vampires lived a lot longer than we mere mortals….

  Okay, I really didn’t want to think about that, either.

  As soon as I shut the door, Silas said, “Show me this article you found.”

  Lovely. No “good morning,” or “how are you?” Maybe he was regretting that moment of weakness the night before when he’d told me I looked beautiful. But if that was the way he wanted to play it, fine.

  “Here,” I said crisply, leading him over to the dining room table where I’d left my laptop. I opened the lid and typed in my password, then maximized the window that contained the article I’d found.

  Silas leaned down so he could see the screen more clearly. As he read, his brow furrowed with concentration. Or maybe that was worry, or even anger. When he was done, he glanced over at me. “Have you talked to your sister about this?”

  “Of course I haven’t,” I snapped. “She doesn’t discuss her business with me, and I don’t ask her about it.”

  “But she had you model in her show last night.”

  “Yes, because she was desperate and knew I could do the bare minimum for her. That’s all. But she sure as hell wouldn’t call me and tell me all about her new investor. That’s not how she operates.”

  “I see.” He’d straightened up as soon as he was finished looking at the article, and right then he looked very tall and somehow foreboding as he stood there, a frown still pulling at his dark brows. No wonder he had that crease in between them. “So it would be out of place for you to call.”

  “Very.” I reached past him and shut the laptop. “Do you want some water or something?”

  “If you think it will help.”

  I wanted to laugh. “Right now I’m not sure anything is going to help. But I’m thirsty.”

  “Then I would like some water, too.”

  That reply made me want to shake my head, but instead I went into the kitchen and fetched a couple of glasses, then dispensed some water from the refrigerator door. As I handed one of the glasses to Silas, I said, “So…what’s the point of all this? Blackmail?”

  “‘Blackmail’ is a crude word for it. Rather, I think Lucius wants to have influence on a member of your family, just in case.”

  “In case of what? I’m not sure why he even thinks my visions are so important. Half the time, I don’t even know what’s going on in them, and when I do, it’s rarely helpful. Sure, I’ve had a couple of instances where they did do some good, like locating that kidnapped girl from Altadena or getting the police to that house over in Rosemead before that woman’s boyfriend could beat her to death, but….” I stopped myself there and took a drink of my water. It flowed down my throat, cool, somehow reassuring. “The thing is, I haven’t had a single vision that would help Lucius with his plans for world domination. Or whatever else it is he wants.”

  For a moment, Silas didn’t reply. He drank some of his water as well, then said, “Let’s go sit down in the living room so we can talk more comfortably.”

  Since I was currently leaning up against the kitchen counter and could feel the edge of the granite surface cutting into my back, I wasn’t inclined to argue. “Sure.”

  We went into the living room. This time, I sat down on the couch, just to see what he would do, whether he would take a seat next to me. I should have known better. After a very short hesitation, he headed to the armchair and sat there, his expression inscrutable.

  Great. I’d say that was a pretty clear signal. I was beginning to regret the time I’d spent fussing my hair back into place, applying my makeup. Oh, well.

  After an awkward pause, Silas said, “It may not be the visions you’ve already had. It could very well be the ones that Lucius believes you will have.”

  “That’s kind of crazy, don’t you think?”

  “Not necessarily. Vampires are masters of the long game. They can afford to be.”

  I hadn’t looked at it that way, but Silas had a point. “So…what should I do?”

  He set his glass of water down on a coaster on the coffee table, then folded his hands over one knee. His skin was tanned from the sun, except for that pale scar on his right hand; no sign that he’d ever worn any rings, no paler band around one finger. It was stupid of me to feel relieved by that minor detail, but there it was. “Since you don’t feel comfortable talking to your sister….”

  “No, I really don’t.” Such feelings might be cowardice, but I wasn’t going to lie to him. Besides, what could I possibly say? Gee, Vanessa, I think you might want to reconsider your new investment partner, since he’s a vampire and all.

  I could just see my sister’s face. She’d think I’d finally lost it. And then she’d be on the phone to my parents, and off I’d go to some “facility” that had a fancy name and even fancier doctors, and I’d be pumped full of Thorazine and no good to anyone at all.

  Except Lucius Montfort. I could see how such a scenario would be enormously helpful to him. It wouldn’t be difficult for him to wrangle an invitation inside, and then I’d be at his mercy.

  A shudder wracked me, and I quickly lifted my glass to my lips in an attempt to cover up my trembling.

  “What is it?” Silas asked.

  “Nothing,” I replied quickly. “Just imagining worst-case scenarios.”

  “Good.”

  “‘Good’?” I repeated, shooting him an incredulous look.

  “Yes, it’s good for you to do such things. That means you’re paying attention to contingencies, to everything that might go wrong. Practice in these matters makes you less likely to be a target when the time does come.”

  He appeared completely serious. Incongruously, I noted how the light coming through the living room window caught glints of dark russet and deep umber in his hair, which normally looked almost black to me. Then I realized I was staring. There didn’t seem to be a way to look away without being obvious, so I made myself utter a half-hearted laugh instead. “I guess that’s one way of looking at it.”

  “Have you had any more?”

  “What, visions?”

  “Yes.”

  I hesitated. The vision I’d experienced that morning had been so brief, so inconclusive, that it hardly bore mentioning. On the other hand, I certainly didn’t want to withhold information. So I shrugged and said, “Maybe. That is, it felt like a vision, but — ”

  “But?”

  “It didn’t have a lot of detail. I saw my brother on a stage, with a podium in front of him. People were cheering. But that doesn’t mean much. He’s been on the campaign trail for the past ten years practically, if you count the mayor’s race here in Southern California before he ran for Senator.”

  Silas seemed to think that it meant something. The frown returned, and he tapped his fingers on his jeans-clad knee. “But you said it felt like a vision. Not a memory.”

  “I don’t think it was a memory. But it was so short, I can’t say for sure.”

  “Is he campaigning now?”

  “No. He still has almost two years left in his Senate term, but….” I set down my glass of wat
er, then crossed my arms. “If you know so much about me, about my family, then you probably also know that he’s planning to run for President.”

  Not a single shift in his expression. Silas sat there, mouth still grim, but he didn’t blink or react in any other way that I was able to notice. After a brief hesitation, he said, “I had heard the rumors, but nothing concrete. He hasn’t announced it formally, has he?”

  “No,” I replied. “I think it’s coming soon, but I don’t know exactly when. Sometime this spring, I would guess. That would give Jackson nine months to ramp up to the New Hampshire primary, right?”

  “Something like that.”

  From the taut look on my protector’s face, I could tell he wasn’t too thrilled by that piece of information. What, had he been hoping that Jackson would decide against a presidential run at the last minute? If that was the case, he didn’t know my brother, or his record, very well.

  “But as a senator, he has Secret Service protection.”

  “Well, Jackson does…because of being on the Intelligence Committee or something. He wouldn’t really give the family many details as to why he had a Secret Service detail while others didn’t.” I was about to ask Silas why he was concerned about such a thing, but then it sank in. With government agents watching Jackson all the time, it would be a great deal harder for Lucius or any of his minions to get close enough to do any kind of damage. Congress was in session, and so Jackson and his family were at their house in Alexandria, Virginia. They wouldn’t be back in California until the summer, except for — possibly — a quick trip here for spring break. That hadn’t been decided yet, or rather, I guessed that he’d prefer to stay in D.C. and strategize rather than spend the Easter holiday hanging out by the pool at his Claremont home.

  And since Silas had also told me vampires couldn’t travel distances like that except via the same methods we mere mortals could, by plane or train or car, I thought it rather likely that Lucius wouldn’t attempt anything with Jackson in the near future. If only I could come up with a convincing argument for why my brother and his family should stay in Alexandria for Easter, preferably an argument that didn’t involve bringing vampires into the equation.

  “Do you really think Lucius Montfort is going to use Jackson to get at me? Or,” I continued, horror beginning to dawn, “use me to get at Jackson?”

  “I don’t know.” Silas shifted in his chair so he could look past me and out the window. What he expected to see there, I wasn’t sure. The day was sunny and bright, not a cloud in the sky, exactly the kind of day where you shouldn’t have to be worrying about vampires. “Frankly — and I’m not saying this to frighten you, only to prepare you — it could go either way. There’s so much we don’t know about your visions, about what they choose to show you and why.”

  “Well, that makes two of us,” I said with some bitterness. Restless, I got up from my seat and went to the window. Palm trees waved in the breeze, and I watched as two of the neighbors from my building, an older couple I knew by sight but not by name, walked along the path that wound through the condo complex’s grounds. In that moment, I was suddenly, violently, jealous of them, jealous that they’d found someone to spend their lives with, jealous that they could walk outdoors and enjoy the day without having to worry about visions or vampires…or brothers who wanted to be President.

  I didn’t even realize that Silas had stood as well until he was there next to me, looking down just as the couple I’d so envied disappeared around a curve, presumably going into the complex’s recreation room. “It’s difficult, I know,” he said quietly. “To hold all this knowledge within you, to see aspects of the world that most people will never know even exist.”

  From the way he spoke, I got the feeling he wasn’t just talking about me. He’d also been carrying the burden of secret knowledge…and for much longer than I ever had. “I suppose I’ll get used to it.”

  “Don’t.”

  I looked up at him in surprise. “What?”

  “Don’t get used to it. Don’t get blasé. That’s when people inevitably make mistakes. You must always stay on your guard.”

  That sounded like a hell of a way to live. I crossed my arms and said, “For how long? Forever?”

  His gaze moved away from mine. “I can’t answer that.”

  “Well, you must have some kind of an idea. You say the people you work for have been watching the vampires for years. Is there an end game?”

  “‘End game’?”

  From the way he still wouldn’t quite look at me, I could tell that he was being deliberately disingenuous. “Yes, end game. You said you don’t hunt the vampires deliberately, so it doesn’t sound as if your plan is to wipe them off the face of the earth.”

  “No, that’s not our plan.” This time he did focus on my face, his dark eyes earnest. It was harder than I’d thought, to stand there so close to him, to look into his eyes and not try to break the contact. Something about the connection felt almost as intimate as a kiss, although of course we hadn’t done anything remotely like that, hadn’t even held hands. But in that moment, I remembered how strong his arm had felt beneath mine when he steadied me as I stumbled up the stairs the night before. My pulse speeded up slightly, even as he continued, “Annihilation destroys the natural balance that exists in this world. We still don’t know for sure why the vampires came to be, but they are a part of existence now. What we do is attempt to make sure they never gain an unfair advantage, never do anything that would shift the balance of power. Do you understand?”

  On the surface, it sounded like a noble enough sentiment. Predators had their place in the world. But these predators preyed on human beings.

  And? I asked myself then. Human beings prey on human beings, too.

  That seemed like an overly cynical thought, although I couldn’t really come up with an internal argument to counter it. “I suppose I’ll try to understand,” I told Silas. “Whether I’ll actually manage it is an entirely different thing. It’s hard for me to be neutral and impartial because we’re talking about my family here.”

  “I know,” he replied, his tone gentler than I’d yet heard it. “And I know this must seem grossly unfair to you — that you have to carry this burden in addition to the ones that have already been placed on you.”

  It did feel unfair. But then, as one of my physical therapists had told me following the accident, “fair” was for little kids. The world was what it was, and we needed to suck it up and face it head on, no matter what happened.

  I shrugged. “It is what it is, I guess. Still, I could use some sage advice right about now.”

  “I think you’re handling the whole situation as well as anyone could be expected to. And you’re doing the right things — you’re letting me protect you, and you’re keeping yourself hidden away as best you can.”

  “I should have said no to my sister,” I protested, thinking again of the way Lucius Montfort had approached me so casually, as if there was nothing so terribly strange about him waltzing into Vanessa’s reception.

  “And if you had, that would have caused trouble in your family. You had no way of knowing Lucius would exploit that small weakness. If anyone should be blaming themselves, it should be me. I also didn’t think he would be so bold. I thought you would be safe at an event with so many people attending. Now we both know better.” His jaw tightened as he added, “It won’t happen again.”

  No, I supposed it wouldn’t. Good thing I was already such a recluse; hiding from vampires would fit neatly into my lifestyle. If only my sister hadn’t given Lucius such an opening. Even though it would be awkward in the extreme, I felt as if I had to ask. “Silas, this is going to sound like a very strange question, but….”

  “Ask it. I’ll do my best to answer.”

  A flush heated my cheeks, but I managed to keep my tone even as I said, “Do vampires have sex?”

  His eyebrows lifted, but at least he wasn’t blushing furiously the way I knew I was. “It is not thei
r primal drive, but yes, they can engage in physical intimacy, if it suits their purpose.” A narrowing of the eyes, so much that his lashes nearly obscured his gaze, as he went on, “You think your sister and Lucius…?” The words trailed off there, as though at last he was too embarrassed to say more.

  “It would make sense,” I said. “My sister loves her man-candy.”

  “Man-candy?”

  “Good-looking guys. She never gets too serious about any of them, but I know she’s also not averse to mixing business with pleasure. Some of her former….” I stopped, floundering for the right word to use for the men who went in and out of my sister’s life. If I’d been talking to Candace or even Brian, I probably would have just said “lays” and gotten on with it, but I couldn’t see myself being quite that crass with Silas. “Some of her former lovers have also been investors, or models, or…well, I guess any interesting man who crosses her path. So I could see that happening with Lucius…if such a thing was even a possibility. That’s why I asked.”

  “As I said, it’s not a primary drive, because of course vampires don’t reproduce the way humans do.” He paused, then seemed to correct himself, saying, “The way we do, that is. But when confronted with a situation where it might give him more bargaining power, I can see Lucius doing such a thing.”

  Great. I’d asked because I needed to know, but the thought of my sister being in bed with Lucius Montfort in more than purely a business sense made my stomach churn. I swallowed, willing the nausea away. Feeling sick wasn’t going to help the situation at all. “Do you think talking to her will help? I mean, has he cast some kind of a spell over her or something?”

  Silas gave a grim chuckle. “He’s a vampire, not a warlock. His kind do not cast spells. They possess certain powers, true, but it’s not as if he’s turned your sister into a semivive.”