A Dark-Adapted Eye

by Crews, Heather

  The car was an El Camino, exquisitely cared for, the black paint and dark windows shining like a mirror. For a moment I was confused, thinking Rade couldn’t possibly live in such a crappy apartment and drive such a lovely car, but then he rolled down the window and looked wordlessly at me, waiting for me to get in. His pale violet eyes were calm but held the weight of his sorrows. He wouldn’t force me to go with him, I understood. If I wanted to run back home right now, I could.

  But I didn’t.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, settling into the passenger seat.

  “To a club.” Rade’s voice was flat and unemotional.

  “I think I’ve had just about enough of clubs.”

  “This one is different. It’s a dinner club.”

  “A dinner club?” I repeated dubiously. Rade nodded. “For vampires?”

  He nodded again. I sat back and swallowed, not wanting to imagine what a dinner club for vampires was like. But I wouldn’t have to, apparently, because I was going to see it for myself. Hopefully I wouldn’t be on the menu.

  “What’s it called?” My voice was hollow and weak.

  “It doesn’t have a name. We don’t talk about it.”

  “Ashamed of yourselves?” I murmured.

  “No. Just discreet.”

  “Right.”

  I looked out my window at the city lights and shadows. It seemed I’d never left the suburbs so often in all my life as I had since turning nineteen. It was too bad I’d never traveled, not even out of the state, because now I’d never go further than the city limits. Not unless Les and Ivory managed to eradicate every last vampire by themselves, thereby rendering the quarantine unneeded.

  “Why did vampires come here?” I asked.

  “There’s a reason,” said Rade.

  I stared. “I figured as much. That’s why I asked.”

  “I’ll tell you soon.”

  Suspecting I wouldn’t get many answers from him, I didn’t ask any more questions. I was almost glad when we reached our destination, an empty-looking hotel stuck beneath the freeway in a downtrodden area of town.

  Getting out of the car, I glanced around warily. Nothing lurked in the shadows of the nearby mechanic shops or abandoned lumberyards, but I stuck close to Rade’s side nonetheless. Tonight he was the only thing standing between me and other vampires.

  “I don’t like this,” I said quietly as we approached the hotel’s dark, shabby entrance.

  “You don’t have to like it.”

  He held out his bony white hand for me to take. I stared at it and felt a twinge of revulsion. I didn’t want to touch him. I didn’t want to feel his skin.

  “It’s expected,” he explained softly. “You want them to think you came willingly.”

  “Well, I definitely wouldn’t call myself willing,” I muttered.

  “Yet you’re still here.”

  I glared at the hotel entrance, my jaw taut. “I’m here, and I’m not running away. Isn’t that willing enough for you?”

  “Have it your way,” he said blandly.

  In stark contrast to the night’s warm air, it was unexpectedly cold inside the hotel. Rade and I walked through an echoing lobby. My eyes took in decaying beams, doors hanging off hinges, and broken tile flooring. I wondered what sort of fantastic lies vampires told to get humans to come to such a rundown place willingly. I glanced sideways at Rade. If he wasn’t telling me the truth he was the best liar of all, because I had come with him knowing there was danger.

  When he pushed aside a worn, faded velvet curtain, my mouth went dry. I hadn’t had any clue of the danger at all.

  The open, high-ceilinged room before me was sunken, the wine-colored carpet dirty and threadbare. The walls were papered with pale damask, dull and stained. A tarnished gold chandelier with several missing bulbs hung low, lending the room a soft, ineffective glow. The smell of dust hung in the air.

  At one time, humans must have used the room for elegant dining, maybe to have brunch on weekends, and my stomach dropped to see vampires appropriating it for a similar but much more sinister purpose. They crouched at the small, square tables scattered throughout the room, dressed in formal suits or gowns. It was easy to spot the humans among them: dressed casually, they looked confused and afraid. I was sure my expression mirrored theirs.

  Vampires bent over various body parts—necks or wrists or thighs—and drank their blood. Those who weren’t drinking chatted with other vampires, as if something horrifying weren’t occurring at the next table.

  “Oh, shit,” I whispered. Hot fear tingled my skin.

  “Come on,” Rade said. “Let’s get a table.”

  “I hope you don’t think you’re going to do that to me.”

  “Just be quiet.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do.”

  A young woman dressed in a white shirt and black pants met us at the stairs. Her hair was swept back, revealing a calm, haughty face with downcast eyes. She wasn’t a vampire, I knew, and I couldn’t fathom why she would work in a place that catered to them. Then again, I realized, with the unemployment rate so high she probably didn’t have a choice. That a human could work for vampires, willing or unwilling, was a new and disturbing concept to me.

  “Two?” she asked smoothly. “Right this way.”

  As she led us through the tables, I tried not to look on either side of me. When we reached an empty table at the back, I sat down with only a minor sense of relief. I’d heard no curious whispers and felt no searching gazes on my back. That Rade and I didn’t appear suspicious was of some consolation, but I was still a human in a room full of vampires.

  “What now?” I asked once the hostess had left us.

  Rade didn’t answer. I looked at him, taking in his deathly pallor, his straight black hair. He studied the room in a disinterested manner, his strange purple eyes hooded and impassive. He was beautiful, as I’d thought that first night I’d seen him at Shiver, but it was an objective observation. I felt nothing but distaste for him, and some for myself as well, just for being there with him.

  At the next table, two vampires, one male and one female, perched like slim gargoyles. A full-figured girl with a fifties-style hairdo sat trapped between them. The girl had a sore-looking bite mark on either side of her neck, twin wounds circled in red, and I could hardly bear to look at them. Rade turned to the group with a nod and the hint of a smile.

  “Radu,” the male vampire said. I could see neat blond hair beneath the rim of his bowler hat. “It’s been ages since we’ve seen you out.”

  “I like your girl,” the female said, stroking the length of her platinum hair. She smiled at me with thin red lips.

  “Thank you, Jordana.” said Rade. “Kai. Yours is very nice also.”

  I wanted to throw up. Was this what qualified as small talk among vampires? It was sickening. I turned away so the two vampires wouldn’t read my revulsion.

  The male vampire, Kai, stroked “his” girl’s bare shoulder, but she didn’t react. “She acted tough,” he said, “but she was surprisingly easy to lure. Too needy, I think.”

  “I found mine years ago,” Rade said, “when she was a child. It was a lucky coincidence when I found her again, mere days ago. She walked right into Shiver.”

  “Ah,” the vampires said with interest, smiling knowingly at my stupidity. Still facing away, I curled my lips with disgust and shook my head faintly, wishing this night were over already. How, exactly, was Rade planning to get information on Ivory?

  They continued talking about inconsequential, offensive things, but I wasn’t listening. I couldn’t. I tried to keep my expression bland, just like the human girl, and cast my eyes covertly around the room. Though I had known horrible things occurred around the city these days, I hadn’t imagined anything like this. When the vampires weren’t sucking blood, they talked quietly to each other, as if they were out to dinner at a real restaurant. This place was disgusting, a mockery of civility and elegance. I ached for my fellow humans
, unwitting victims.

  The longer I looked, however, the more disturbing details I began to notice. Some of the humans were talking pleasantly amongst themselves. Some didn’t look scared or despondent at all, but content. Some of them wanted to be here, I realized with a cold feeling. Nobody had lied to them about what they’d be doing tonight. Was this who Criseyde had meant when she said some people found vampires sexy?

  I shook the repellent thought away.

  At the front of the room, a blonde vampire and a human guy with glasses caught my eye. It only took a brief, confused moment for me to realize the vampire was Aleskie. What was she doing here? Who was the guy with her?

  She looked much different than I’d last seen her. Her long, straight hair had been coaxed into pretty, loose curls and she was wearing bright red lipstick. Her countenance was hard and calculating. She no longer looked as thin and wan as she had when I’d first seen her, and I understood it was because she’d been drinking blood. But then, that was to be expected of a vampire. I had to feel grateful Les had kicked her out before she’d done us any harm.

  I dropped my eyes and turned my head, hoping Aleskie wouldn’t recognize me. How much longer did Rade plan to stay? I wondered if I could get him to understand some sort of surreptitious signal that I wanted to leave immediately.

  Suddenly his words captured my attention. “—human kidnapped by vampires,” he said. “A boy.”

  “That’s news,” Jordana said, though she sounded bored. “You don’t have to kidnap anyone if you know what you’re doing.”

  “This human was a vampire hunter.”

  Kai just laughed and freed a lock of the girl’s chestnut hair from its elaborate curl. He inhaled deeply. “I think I’ve kept you waiting long enough,” he said, removing his hat. Then he bent his head over her neck. Jordana just looked at the two of them, a vague but pleased smile on her face.

  Helplessly, I averted my eyes in disgust. It was clear they were finished talking about Ivory and his kidnapping, though they’d barely covered it at all. I bit back my frustration at the lack of details they’d given and the absolute pointlessness of having come here.

  Rade turned to me and stared for a long moment. My frustration turned to dread when it seemed as if he meant to take advantage of my human status after all. But then he blinked and stood. I did the same.

  “Aren’t you going to eat?” Kai asked. He was absorbed in the girl’s neck, however, and didn’t appear to care about an answer.

  “I find I’d rather dine in private this evening,” Rade said. He nodded politely to the vampire pair and then we were leaving, at last.

  We made it out of the dining room without anyone seeming to notice or care. But instead of going outside, Rade led me to another room of the hotel. It was smallish and dark, like a cave. A mix of humans and vampires hunched over pool tables or lounged in the shadowy, smoky corners. Some played cards or dice. It was a haphazard setup, hardly professional, but no one seemed to mind.

  The vampires were clearly in charge. They presided over the games and had control of the money. What the humans gambled for I had no clue, but the stakes must have been good for them to think going up against vampires was a good idea. The losers looked haggard and the eyes of winners held manic glee, but these were short-lived expressions, subject to change depending on how much money they held at any given moment.

  “This . . . is not what I expected,” I said, leaning toward Rade to whisper. I felt less conspicuous here than I had in the other room, and therefore marginally safer. “What are they gambling for?”

  “Their lives, probably.”

  I shuddered and let my gaze travel across the room. It was a testament to how far I’d come these last few days that a secret vampire casino was the least shocking thing I’d seen. Compared to Shiver and the dinner party, this was nothing. This was just another sick facet in a city that had fallen so quickly.

  The shock came when I recognized my father cuing up for pool. He stared intently at the arrangement of balls on the table. A vampire sat in the shadows behind him, watching. My cheeks heated in embarrassment. That was my dad. That was my dad, placing his life on the line for . . . what? Money? What could he want so badly?

  “Why are we here?” I asked softly, looking away from my dad. “These people are . . . they’re so desperate.”

  “Yes. I wanted you to see that,” Rade said.

  “But why?”

  “This is what we’ve done to you. This is what you’re working to stop. I thought you should know.”

  I looked at my dad once more, feeling a defeated sort of weariness, but I knew I wasn’t going to risk angering some vampires to try to drag him out of here. Maybe Ivory would have, but I wasn’t my brother.

  “Can we go now?” I asked. “I think I’ve seen enough.”

  Out on the street, I pressed a hand to my forehead. Too many thoughts. Too many unanswered questions about Ivory. Too much time wasted, and too big a risk with my life taken. I had done this for nothing.

  “Why would humans work there?” I finally asked. “Why would they go there willingly?”

  “Some like it. Some are probably doing it under threat, to protect their families.”

  “That’s cruel,” I muttered.

  “It’s our way.”

  I could hardly wrap my mind around the concept of a vampire forcing me to do something. It was easy to tell myself I would never bend to a vampire’s will. To do so would be a betrayal of my family. Being with Rade, however, was its own kind of betrayal. I felt so dismal and conflicted. I was a hypocrite.

  “Shall we meet again?” my vampire asked, pulling up to the same corner where he’d picked me up earlier in the night.

  “I guess so.”

  “I’ll wait for you here after dark. Tomorrow night I will have information for you.”

  Suddenly I felt a surge of helpless anger. I hated Rade, hated myself. I hated the things I was making myself do for my brother. I hated that I couldn’t have a normal family with a normal life in a time of no vampires.

  My hand poised to open the door, I fixed Rade with a baleful glare. “My brother’s been looking for you for years,” I said.

  “I’m not easy to find.”

  “When he gets home I’m going to send him after you. He’ll kill you.”

  “I don’t fear death.”

  “Well, that’s good for you,” I said bitterly, annoyed at his perpetual lack of emotion. “Plenty of people do fear it. They’ve always feared it, but it’s worse now, because of you. Now they fear living, too.”

  “I won’t pretend to feel sympathy for humans, but I don’t deny my role in their fear.”

  I was too angry and too tired to formulate a response. I shot out the car and slammed the door behind me, the sound echoing in the quiet neighborhood. It was a warm night, but I wrapped my arms tightly around myself as I walked quickly home, gasping unevenly in my effort not to cry.

  ten

  aphelion : the point in the orbit of a planet or other celestial body where it is farthest from the sun

  The front door squeaked when I opened it. I winced at the sound and slipped into the dark living room. I had to talk to Les, but I didn’t want him to see me sneaking in like a criminal after midnight. With any luck I could make it to my room before running into him. We could talk in the morning after I’d had a shower and washed away my grimy feeling.

  “Asha. Where have you been?”

  Les’s voice was both stern and worried. So much for my stealth. He was sitting at the dining table, just as he had been when I left. Waiting for me. Now he rose from his chair, flicking on the light above him, and faced me with an earnest glare. I stopped next to the recliner, ashamed and speechless.

  You wouldn’t like the truth, I thought. Surreptitiously I wiped at the corners of my eyes, not wanting him to know I’d been near to tears.

  He sighed. “It’s really none of my business where you were, but in light of the situation, I think you shouldn�
��t have stayed out so late.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Shaking his head, he put his hands on his hips and looked away from me. He was trying not to show it, but I could tell he was upset, more so than I’d ever seen him. And I was responsible for making him feel that way. I began to feel the heat of tears in my eyes once more. He deserved the truth. He did, more than anyone.

  I sucked in a deep, shaky breath. “Les. I wasn’t out with Criseyde.”

  His jaw worked. “I know. I saw you walk down the block.”

  So he hadn’t seen me get in Rade’s car, but he knew I hadn’t gone with Cris. She would have parked right out front.

  “Where did you go?” I asked abruptly. “Last night, after dinner.”

  For a moment he just looked at me, debating whether to answer my question or continue talking about the issue at hand. He decided on the former. “To see Sarai.”

  Stung, I frowned. “Why?”

  Les shook his head again, agitated. “She wanted to talk. About the break up. Just normal stuff.”

  “Why did you break up?” I asked curiously.

  “It’s not important.”

  He dropped his eyes and shifted his weight. I could tell he wasn’t going to say any more on the matter. I wasn’t even sure what had made me ask the question, other than to deflect his attention and buy a bit of time. As if knowing why he’d broken up with his latest girlfriend would benefit me somehow.

  “You want to tell me where you went?” he asked.

  I put on a brave but wavering smile. “I was . . .”

  I swallowed nervously. This was hard. Why was this so hard? He watched me from beneath lowered brows and I felt helpless and deceitful, overcome with a hot feeling of dread. But I would have to tell him sooner or later.

  “He’s helping me find Ivory,” I blurted.

  “Who is?”

  “He’s . . .” My breath hitched. “Oh my god, Les, I’m so sorry.”

  “Asha,” he said, his voice lowering with concern. He took a slow step toward me. “What’s going on?”