Huntress, Black Dawn, Witchlight

by L. J. Smith

  Goddess, I’m going to kill him, Jez thought, clenching her teeth. “Anything else?” she said evenly.

  “And with why you’re scared of me reading your thoughts.” He smirked. “Told you I was observant.”

  Jez lost it. “Yeah, Morgead, you’re brilliant. So are you smart enough to figure out what it all means? Or just to get suspicious?”

  “It means—” He looked uncertain suddenly, as if he hadn’t exactly figured out where all this was leading. He frowned. “It means…that you’re…” He looked at her. “With Circle Daybreak.”

  It came out as a statement, but a weak one. Almost a question. And he was staring at her with an I-don’t-believe-it look.

  “Very good,” Jez said nastily. “Two points. No, one; it took you long enough.”

  Morgead stared at her. Then he suddenly erupted out of his side of the van. Jez jumped forward, too, in a crouch that would let her move fluidly and protect Hugh and Claire.

  But Morgead didn’t attack. He just tried to grab her shoulders and shake her.

  “You little idiot!” he yelled.

  Jez was startled. “What?”

  “You’re a Daybreaker?”

  “I thought you had it all figured out.” What was wrong with him? Instead of looking betrayed and bloodthirsty he looked scared and angry. Like a mother whose kid has just run in front of a bus.

  “I did—I guess—but I still can’t believe it. Jez, why? Don’t you know how stupid that is? Don’t you realize what’s going to happen to them?”

  “Look, Morgead—”

  “They’re going to lose, Jez. It’s not just going to be the Council against them now. Everybody in the Night World is going to be gunning for them. They’re going to get wiped out, and anybody who sides with them will be wiped out, too.”

  His face was two inches from hers. Jez glared at him, refusing to give ground. “I’m not just siding with them,” she hissed. “I am one of them. I’m a damned Daybreaker.”

  “You’re a dead Daybreaker. I can’t believe this. How am I supposed to protect you from the whole Night World?”

  She stared at him. “What?”

  He settled back, glaring, but not at her. He was looking around the van, avoiding her eyes. “You heard me. I don’t care who your friends are, Jez. I don’t even care that you came back to use me. I’m just glad you came back. We’re soulmates, and nothing can change that.” Then he shook his head furiously. “Even if you won’t admit it.”

  “Morgead…” Suddenly the ache in Jez’s chest was too much to stay inside. It was closing off her throat, making her eyes sting, trying to make her cry.

  She had misjudged Morgead, too. She’d been so sure that he would hate her, that he could never forgive.

  But of course, he didn’t know the whole truth yet.

  He probably thought that her being a Daybreaker was something she would grow out of. That it was just a matter of getting her to see the light and change sides again, and she would become the old Jez Redfern. He didn’t realize that the old Jez Redfern had been an illusion.

  “I’m sorry,” she said abruptly, helplessly. “For all of this, Morgead—I’m sorry. It really wasn’t fair to you for me to come back.”

  He looked irritated. “I told you; I’m glad you did. We can work things out—if you’ll just stop being so stubborn. We’ll get out of this—”

  “Even if we do get out of it, nothing’s going to change.” She looked up at him. She wasn’t frightened of what he might do anymore. The only thing she was frightened of was seeing disgust in his eyes—but she still had to tell him. “I can’t be your soulmate, Morgead.”

  He hardly seemed to be listening to her. “Yes, you can. I told you, I don’t care who your friends are. We’ll keep you alive somehow. The only thing I don’t understand is why you’d want to ally yourself with stupid humans, when you know they’re going to lose.”

  Jez looked at him. Morgead, the vampire’s vampire, whose only interest was in seeing the Night World conquer humanity completely. Who was what she had been a year ago, and what she could never be again. Who thought of her as an ally, a descendent of one of the first families of the lamia.

  Who thought he loved who he thought she was.

  Jez kept looking at him steadily, and when she spoke, it was very quietly. And it was the truth.

  “Because I’m a human,” she said.

  CHAPTER 17

  Morgead’s entire body jerked once and then went absolutely still. As if he’d been turned to stone. The only thing alive about him was his eyes, which were staring at Jez with shock and burning disbelief.

  Well, Jez told herself, with a grim humor that was almost like sobbing grief, I startled him, that’s for sure. I finally managed to stun Morgead speechless.

  It was only then that she realized some part of her had hoped that he already knew this, too. That he would be able to brush it off with exasperation, the way he had the fact that she was a Daybreaker.

  But that hope was shattered now. It had been a stupid hope anyway. Being a Daybreaker was something that could change, a matter of confused attitude.

  Being vermin was permanent.

  “But that’s—that’s not—” Morgead seemed to be having trouble getting the words out. His eyes were large with horror and denial. “That’s not possible. You’re a vampire.”

  “Only half,” Jez said. She felt as if she were killing something—and she was. She was murdering any hope for what was between them.

  Might as well stomp it good, she thought bitterly. She couldn’t understand the wetness that was threatening to spill out of her eyes.

  “The other half is human,” she said shortly, almost viciously. “My mother was human. Claire is my cousin, and she’s human. I’ve been living with my uncle Jim, my mother’s brother, and his family. They’re all human.”

  Morgead shut his eyes. A moment of astonishing weakness for him, Jez thought coldly.

  His voice was still a whisper. “Vampires and humans can’t have kids. You can’t be half and half.”

  “Oh, yeah, I can. My father broke the laws of the Night World. He fell in love with a human, and they got married, and here I am. And then, when I was three or so, some other vampires came and tried to kill us all.” In her mind Jez was seeing it again, the woman with red hair who looked like a medieval princess, begging for her child’s life. The tall man trying to protect her. “They knew I was half human. They kept yelling ‘Kill the freak.’ So that’s what I am, you see.” She turned eyes she knew were feverishly bright on him. “A freak.”

  He was shaking his head, gulping as if he were about to be sick. It made Jez hate him, and feel sorry for him at the same time. She scarcely noticed that hot tears were spilling down her cheeks.

  “I’m vermin, Morgead. One of them. Prey. That’s what I realized a year ago, when I left the gang. Up until then I had no idea, but that last night we hunted, I remembered the truth. And I knew that I had to go away and try to make up for all the things I’d done to humans.”

  He put a hand up to press against his eyes.

  “I didn’t just become a Daybreaker. I became a vampire hunter. I track down vampires who like to kill, who enjoy making humans suffer, and I stake them. You know why? Because they deserve to die.”

  He was looking at her again, but as if he could hardly stand to. “Jez—”

  “It’s weird. I don’t know about our connection”—she smiled bitterly at him, to let him know she knew all that was over now—“but I felt bad lying to you. I’m almost glad to finally tell you the truth. I kind of wanted to tell you a year ago when it happened, but I knew you’d kill me, and that made me a little hesitant.”

  She was laughing now. She realized she was more than a little hysterical. But it didn’t seem to matter. Nothing mattered while Morgead was looking at her with that sick disbelief in his eyes.

  “So, anyway…” She stretched her muscles, still smiling at him, but ready to defend herself. “Are you going t
o try and kill me now? Or is the engagement just off?”

  He simply looked at her. It was as if his entire spirit had gone out of him. He didn’t speak, and all at once Jez couldn’t think of anything to say, either. The silence stretched and stretched, like a yawning chasm between them.

  They were so far away from each other.

  You knew all along it would come to this, Jez’s mind told her mockingly. How can you presume to be upset? He’s actually taking it better than you expected. He hasn’t tried to tear your throat out yet.

  At last Morgead said, in a flat and empty voice, “That’s why you wouldn’t drink my blood.”

  “I haven’t had a blood meal for a year,” Jez said, feeling equally empty. “I don’t need to, if I don’t use my Powers.”

  He stared past her at the metal wall. “Well, maybe you’d better drink some of your human friends’,” he said tiredly. “Because whoever has us—”

  He broke off, suddenly alert. Jez knew what it was. The van was slowing down, and the tires were crunching on gravel.

  They were pulling into a driveway.

  A long driveway, and a steep one. We’re somewhere out in the country, Jez thought.

  She didn’t have time for any more banter with Morgead. Although she felt drained and numb, she was focused on outside issues now.

  “Look,” she said tensely as the van braked. “I know you hate me now, but whoever has us hates us both. I’m not asking you to help me. I just want to get my cousin away—and I’m asking you not to stop me from doing that. Later, you can fight me or whatever. We can take care of that between the two of us. Just don’t stop me from saving Claire.”

  He just looked at her with dark and hollow eyes. He didn’t agree or disagree. He didn’t move when she positioned herself to erupt out of the van as soon as the back door was opened.

  But, as it turned out, she could have saved her breath. Because when the door did open, letting in sunlight that blinded Jez, it was to reveal five vicious-looking thugs, completely blocking the entrance. Three of them had spears with deadly points leveled right at Jez. The other two had guns.

  “If anybody tries to fight,” a voice from around the side of the van said, “shoot the unconscious ones in the kneecaps.”

  Jez sagged back. She didn’t try to fight as they forced her out of the van.

  Neither, strangely, did Morgead. There were more thugs standing around behind the van, enough to surround both Jez and Morgead with a forest of spears as they were led to the house.

  It was a nice house, a small sturdy Queen Anne painted barn red. There were trees all around and no other buildings in sight.

  We’re out in the boondocks, Jez thought. Maybe Point Reyes Park. Somewhere remote, anyway, where nobody can hear us scream.

  They were shepherded into the living room of the house, and Hugh and Claire were dumped unceremoniously on the floor.

  And then they were all tied up.

  Jez kept watching for an opportunity to attack. But one never came. All the time she and Morgead were being tied, two of the thugs pointed guns at Claire and Hugh. There was no way Jez could disarm them both before they got off a shot.

  Worse, she was being rendered helpless by an expert. The cords were made of bast, the inner bark of trees. Equally effective against vampires and humans. When the guy tying her up was through, she had no use of her arms or legs.

  Hugh woke up, gasping with pain, when they tied his injured arm. Claire woke up when the werewolf thug who’d finished winding cords around her slapped her.

  Jez looked at that particular ’wolf carefully. She was too angry to glare at him. But she wanted to remember his face.

  Then she looked back at Claire, who was staring around her in bewilderment.

  “I—where are we? What’s going on, Jez?”

  Hugh was also looking around, but with much less confusion. His gray eyes were simply sad and full of pain.

  “It’s all right, Claire,” Jez said. “Just keep quiet, okay? We’re in a little trouble, but don’t tell them anything.” She stared at her cousin, trying to will her to understand.

  “A little trouble? I don’t think so,” came a voice from the living room doorway.

  It was the same voice that had given the order about shooting kneecaps. A light, cold voice, like an Arctic wind.

  The speaker was a girl.

  A very pretty girl, Jez thought irrelevantly. She had black hair that fell straight down her back like silk, and eyes that gleamed like topaz. Porcelain skin. A cruel smile. Lots of Power that surrounded her like a dark aura.

  A vampire.

  She looked perhaps a year older than Jez, but that didn’t mean anything. She could be any age.

  And those eyes, Jez thought. They’re vaguely familiar. Like something I’ve seen in a picture….

  “I should probably introduce myself,” the girl said, looking at her with cold mockery. “I’m Lily Redfern.”

  Jez felt her stomach plummet.

  Hunter Redfern’s daughter.

  Well, that explained a lot.

  She was working for her father, of course. And she was a powerful enemy herself, over four hundred years old. There were rumors that last year she’d been working the human slave trade, and making a lot of money at it.

  I should laugh, Jez thought. There I was telling Morgead that Hunter wanted to steal a march on the Council—and here he really did. Just not through me, of course. He’s sent his only surviving child out to take care of us, to get Morgead to turn over the Wild Power.

  And that’s why so many thugs—he can afford to buy as many as he needs. And the smooth operation—Lily’s a born strategist. Not to mention absolutely merciless and cold as ice.

  She was right. We’re not in a little trouble. We’re in a whole lot.

  Somebody, Jez thought with a strange, quiet certainty, is going to die here.

  Lily was still talking. “And now let me introduce my associates, who’ve done so much to make this all possible.” She gestured at someone hidden in the hall to come forward. “This is Azarius. I think you’ve met.”

  It was the vampire Jez had fought on the platform. He was tall, with dark skin and a look of authority.

  “And this,” Lily said, smiling, “is someone you’ve also met.” She gestured again, and a second figure appeared in the doorway.

  It was Pierce Holt.

  He was smiling faintly, his aristocratic face drawn in lines of genteel triumph. He waved one slender hand at them, his eyes as cold as Lily’s.

  Morgead gave an inarticulate roar and tried to lunge at him.

  He only succeeded in falling on the floor, a struggling body in a cocoon of bast. Lily and Azarius both laughed. Pierce just looked scornful.

  “You really didn’t guess?” he said. “You’re so stupid, Morgead. Coming out this morning to meet me, so trusting, so naive—I thought you were smarter. I’m disappointed.”

  “No, you’re dead,” Morgead raged from the floor. He was staring at Pierce, black hair falling over his forehead and into green eyes that were blazing with rage. “You are dead when this is over! You betrayed the gang. You’re complete scum. You’re—”

  “Shut him up,” Lily said, and one of the thugs kicked Morgead in the head.

  He must really be out of power, Jez thought, wincing. Or he’d have blasted Pierce then.

  “I’m smart,” Pierce was saying. “And I’m going to survive. I knew something was fishy when she”—he nodded toward Jez without looking at her—“said she had a deal with Hunter Redfern. It didn’t sound right—and then the way she was so worried about that vermin kid. So I made a few calls, and I found out the truth.”

  “You realize that your friend there is working with Circle Daybreak,” Lily interrupted. She was also looking at Morgead and ignoring Jez. “She lied to you and tricked you. She was trying to get the Wild Power for them.”

  Morgead snarled something inarticulate.

  “And she’s not just a Daybreaker,�
� Pierce said. Finally he looked at Jez, and it was with venomous spite. “She’s a mutant abomination. She’s half vermin. She should have been drowned at birth.”

  “You should have been drowned at birth,” Morgead said through locked teeth.

  Lily had been watching in amusement, but now she waved one hand. “Okay, enough fun and games. Down to business.” Two of the thugs sat Morgead back up, and Lily walked to the middle of the room. She looked at each of them in turn, Jez last. “I’ve only got one question for you,” she said in her cool, quiet voice. “Which human is the Wild Power?”

  Jez stared at her.

  She doesn’t know. She knows almost everything else, but not that. And if she can’t find out…

  Jez gave Hugh and Claire one long, intense look, telling them to keep silent. Then she looked back at Lily.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Lily hit her.

  It was a pretty good blow, but nothing to compare with what Jez got when she was in a fight. Jez laughed, a natural laugh of surprise and scorn.

  Lily’s hawklike golden eyes went icy.

  “You think this is funny?” she said, still quietly. “My father sent me to get the Wild Power, and that’s just what I’m going to do. Even if it means tearing you and your vampire boyfriend to pieces, mutant.”

  “Yeah, well, suppose I don’t know? Did you ever think of that? Then I can’t tell, no matter what you and your little…” Jez glanced at Pierce and Azarius. “Your little hobgoblins do.”

  Lily’s porcelain skin was flushing with fury. It brought out faint scars on one side of her face that Jez hadn’t noticed before, like mostly-healed burn marks. “Look, you little freak—” Then she turned to the thugs. “Teach her a lesson.”

  Things were exciting for a while. Jez could hear Claire and Hugh yelling and Morgead snarling while the hobgoblins beat her up. She hardly felt the blows herself. She was in a place where they didn’t matter.

  When they finally got tired and stopped, Lily walked up to her again.

  “Now,” she said sweetly, “has your memory gotten any better.”