Tires screeched. I glanced down to see a new flock of reporters parking a van near the HQ building. Every hour, another fleet of media came to report on the big scandal. Louise’s broadcast had rocked the world. Pundits shouted about an international relations crisis upon learning about the existence of vampires. I wasn’t sure how things would shake out, but I was hopeful our options for the vampires would improve now. The Bureau investigation, the congressional hearings, and the media requested my presence in any and every meeting. I’d attended a few, but I swore off most of the media to dedicate my time to the congressional meetings. My military training failed wildly at media coaching. The official meetings were the most important ones.
Although the new board agreed during their review that I had rebelled against Bureau command, they were supportive of the way I exposed the truth along with my teammates. They presented me with an offer to rejoin at my previous rank, but for the moment, I had declined. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to go back to the Bureau, considering how stained my perception of it had become. Instead, I accepted Congress’s offer to act as a witness and a consultant on vampires, thanks to my unique experience. It was bizarre to see a few vampires, to whom the government granted protection in exchange for testifying, ushered into a courtroom. Fenton had even found a dry-cleaning service to clean their cloaks.
“I’ll tell you the truth if you answer my question first. Why do they design human benches to be so uncomfortable?” Bravi had asked dryly when she sat before a government official who had asked her if she understood the oath. I tried hard to stifle my snicker on that one. If they’d thought we human soldiers were sometimes frustrating during our time on the run, the vampires were even less pleased to repeat the same stories over and over to government officials. They could look forward to months of that for an investigation of this size.
Although the talks boiled with tension because of the natural skepticism and distrust of vampires, it was an improvement over genocide by the Bureau. Most of the vampires had sought refuge in Scotland, where they would negotiate for asylum. Some had returned to the abandoned ski resort, since the Bureau was in no state to track them down right now. It was by far the most livable hideout, as the tear in the Canyonlands was continuing to manifest more strongly and was still causing odd events. More redbills came through every day, and I highly suspected immortal creatures were slipping in alongside them.
Eventually, after another week or so of testifying, the main vampire leaders and I would go to Scotland. I wanted to support the vampires there and try to help them negotiate with the Scottish government, since they seemed more open-minded than their American counterparts. But first, there were still a few things I needed to do in Chicago.
A rallying cry of incoherent voices rose from the street, and I figured out the reason why the new reporters had shown up. A large crowd of protestors knotted around the base of the Chicago Bureau HQ. I raised an amused eyebrow at the scene. The Bureau had set up a perimeter of security guards and metal fencing twenty feet around every entrance of the building to keep the media at bay. Guards crossed their arms and stood in front of the flimsy structures. On the protestor side, it was easy to tell their opinions from the posters they carried.
One group of protestors had emerged early on to express outrage with the Occult Bureau for lying to the public by covering up the existence of the supernatural. I could understand their frustration, as the Bureau had to admit the Canyonlands situation was more dangerous than initially reported. A bald-headed man raised his sign high in the air. The letters were thick enough for me to make out the phrase, “THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE.”
I snorted and moved on to scanning the second group of protestors for entertaining signs. This group was interesting. Zach called them fans.
A redheaded woman carried a banner with a friend: “We like these vampires even if we’re disappointed that they don’t sparkle!” I made a note to tell Zach about that one. They were getting more creative with their slogans.
Don’t stake our new friends!
We welcome our new vampire overlords!
Suck my blood!
Is the garlic thing a myth? Just curious, asking for a friend.
I shook my head with a low chuckle. Suddenly, pain radiated through my chest. I straightened and glanced over to see Dorian entering the balcony from my room. From their vantage point, none of the protestors would be able to see us, thankfully. After donations from various vampires, Dorian was back to full strength once again. I felt the powerful heartburn whenever he was around, but I had almost learned to live with it. Somehow, seeing him safe eased the brunt of the pain.
Unfortunately, we still couldn’t get too up close and personal. Any deep emotion would send me into debilitating pain that hovered on the verge of making me black out. Not sexy. Should I break the disappointing news to the protestors who hoped to find a mate among the vampires?
Dorian leaned against the balcony railing beside me. His black hair fell over his eyes for a moment, giving him a windswept, dramatic look. I caught his bewildered stare at the protestors and watched him read the signs. It must be bizarre for him to see a sea of humans responding to the vampire presence like this, although it was better than I’d initially hoped for.
“I’m not sure we thought through all the implications of telling the public about vampires,” I admitted. He nodded with a wry smirk, reading their signs. I gestured toward the makeshift door. He moved into my bedroom, and I followed. “We don’t want any of your fans to spot you and get excited.”
“Humans as a whole terrify me,” he said seriously. Only the glint of humor in his eye gave him away. “Though I much prefer the ones with silly signs over stern-faced government officials. Our vampire group has assured every interested international government that we will try to help the Americans figure out how to handle the tear in the barrier and get rid of the supernatural creatures flooding into the human world. I understand their concern, but I’m tired of talking. At least it gives the United States a good reason to keep us around. Besides, there’s no official international policy on vampires.” His mouth lifted into a smirk. “Yet. I sometimes think they’re writing it in the hearings while I speak.”
I wanted to return his happiness, but I was worried about the vampire relations with humans. I hadn’t thought about the exact possibilities for working together during our time in hiding, since we’d been somewhat preoccupied. In reality, it was much harder than I could ever have planned. The human public needed to accept the existence of vampires, while the government needed to believe the vampires could help.
Dorian caught my worried stare. “I’m only joking about the humans,” he assured me. “Well, some of them. I know a few humans who are… quite wonderful.”
I smiled instinctively, unable to help it. I wanted to be close to him. His eyes said the same thing. If I could ignore—
The pain bloomed through my chest and radiated out in a spiking motion. At the same time, warmth filled me. I knew what this pain meant, but the warmth reminded me that we were in this journey together. I leaned against the wall and hung my head with a breathy laugh.
“You’re not so bad yourself when you’re not giving me heartburn,” I teased.
He smirked wryly. The pain lessened slightly, but the warmth stayed the same. I relished the pleasurable feeling overtaking the pain for a moment.
One of the things I needed to do in Chicago involved talking to Dorian. Halla’s warning came back to me with a vengeance. I needed to approach him about it. I sucked in a deep breath.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to discuss with you, but there hasn’t really been a good time these last few days.” I shifted against the wall, using it to give me some needed balance around Dorian. “Halla warned me about our relationship. She told me a story about a vampire woman and a human man and how some kind of interaction between them caused him to feel pain. She said vampires unconsciously feed off a small amount of dark energy if they ta
ke a human lover. She implied that your love would kill me.” Saying it out loud, I felt relieved.
Dorian stared at me, thrown. Had Halla been talking nonsense? He didn’t seem at all familiar with her claim.
“Halla said I have dark energy inside me. Is that true?” I asked. My mouth dried as I thought of Alan’s face. Could I be more like him than I thought? The idea scared me. I always imagined darkness as more of an absolute identity rather than a spectrum.
He took a step backward, shaking his head. My chest tightened. Would he react badly to this possibility? I hoped I hadn’t just sent us back to square one, but he pressed his hand to his temple and quickly regained his composure.
“Every human has a balance of dark and light energy within them. It’s natural and healthy for humans to have a few dark swirls.”
Light energy? It was the first time I’d heard the term. Did that mean every single human was walking around with a bit of darkness? Could the vampires sense it?
“Absolutely every human has light and dark?” I clarified.
“Yes. Only in small amounts. Any more than that would be dangerous for everyone, as dark energy creates more dark energy. Vampires are only attracted to feed on those who have been overtaken by darkness, who have more dark energy than light. What Halla told you doesn’t make any sense,” he explained. “There’s no concrete lore about vampire and human connections. And feeding on dark energy doesn’t just happen by being in close proximity or having feelings for someone. Not to mention, if that were the case your pain would be at its worst when I’m hungry, but we both know it actually gets worse the stronger I am. No,” Dorian said firmly, “it’s nonsense. There are a ton of different folktales. Halla, noxious as she is, might be trying to help with what she believes is the truth. Or she could be lying. I’ve never heard that story before.”
Halla hated our relationship so much that I could see her lying to destroy it. I nodded slowly, considering Dorian’s words. We’d made all our decisions in the past few weeks during times of intense pressure. It would be unwise to worry about something if we didn’t have to. My nerves were frayed enough after all this chaos.
“We could talk to Halla again,” Dorian suggested. He sounded about as enthused by the prospect as I felt, but we had no choice. If she knew something, we might be able to use it to stop the pain. “Even if it’s only so I can hear it for myself to try to make some sense of why she might be saying it.”
“I’d be open to that. Maybe you can ask more pointed questions, since you understand dark energy better,” I suggested.
“Whatever it is, I won’t give up on us.” Dorian’s resolute words gave me hope.
“Neither will I,” I promised.
I smiled at him, but my brain refused to cut me a break. Dorian was strong now, but what would happen if he continued to starve himself? But I knew if I brought up that habit, it might provoke another unproductive argument, like our fight on the island. I wanted the feeding issue solved after our terrible fight on the rooftop. He should realize now the dangers of starving himself. I wanted to discuss how the fight went, but it might be too heavy to bring up if he was still processing it. Yet he couldn’t just not feed. Was there a better strategy that we could figure out together? More time between, less time between, feeding on people who were less evil? We could deal with that later, though.
Busy with my thoughts, I hadn’t initially noticed when Dorian turned away. His face, looking at the wall, was bleak. He seemed out of place in my bedroom, towering in the boxy space, his dark hair and shadowed skin contrasting with my light walls. I wanted to rest my head against his broad chest, but the pain might overwhelm me.
“Is everything okay?” I asked tentatively.
“I was thinking about dark energy,” he admitted. That makes two of us. “When the dark energy overtook me and I was out of my mind, I could see… everything.”
“You could see me?” I probed, genuinely surprised. Last time he’d been hit, he had come awake with only a few vague memories of the event. When I’d fought him, it seemed like he couldn’t understand what was happening around him. Had he understood what he saw through those terrible black eyes?
Dorian shook his head gravely. “No, I saw visions. When vampires feed, we get flashes of the evil deeds done to create the dark energy. When the blasts from the guns overwhelmed me, I saw those kinds of visions, but it was tenfold. I experienced pain, agony, and hatred. Repeatedly. I could barely see the real world through all of it. Those evil feelings overwhelmed my mind. It made me lash out. I wanted to do anything to make it stop.”
I desperately wanted to hug him, but I knew that hurting me would only make him feel worse. I studied the healing gouges and scratches on his face and head. Him trying to throw himself off the roof made more sense now. I settled on a soft gaze full of compassion.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” I said. “It sounds awful.”
Dorian shook himself, and certainty came back to his face. “Experiencing darkness is just a part of vampire life, unfortunately.”
He was right, but I wished it didn’t have to be that way for vampires. I still didn’t like that their feeding required murder. I also hated that he had to see the evil things people had done when he’d already experienced so much sorrow.
Dorian quieted. I wouldn’t press the dark energy issue. I wanted to discuss matters beyond our personal issues. Way back at the beginning of all this, when Dorian had originally approached me via kidnapping, he’d had a rough plan for creating a new life for vampires. Now we were on the brink of maybe seeing it through.
“How do you feel about building a safe base on Earth for the vampires?” I asked. “The welcome from Scotland makes me hopeful.”
He nodded. “Our safety seems like it’ll be contingent on helping humans fix the Immortal Plane tear. That’ll be our highest priority.”
“How does one go about fixing an interdimensional tear?” I wondered aloud.
He exhaled. “I don’t know yet. We’ll have to figure it out somehow. If the Immortals really do know about the tear—and I don’t see why Alan would lie about that—then the Mortal Plane is in grave danger. It changes everything.” Dorian’s mouth tightened. “I’m worried all the negotiations on Earth will distract our focus from the real issues and the true danger.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Maybe our aims can align. We can go to the Immortal Plane to study the tear. While we’re there, we can research your pain and what about me might be causing it, along with everything else. The source of the dark energy weapons, the Bureau’s contact with the Immortal Plane, and how they managed to tear through the dimension.”
I blinked, buffeted by the immensity of the tasks ahead of us. At first, I didn’t fully process what he’d said. We can go. I froze and stared at him. “We?”
Was he implying he wanted to take me to the Immortal Plane? If it was a life-and-death struggle for the vampires, I wouldn’t stand a chance. Yet something about him wanting to include me made me feel confident in my skills. Dorian had seen me in battle several times—if he thought I could handle the Immortal Plane, then I believed him.
He nodded. “I want to take you with me if I end up returning to the Immortal Plane, which seems inevitable at some point. I can’t imagine doing this without you having my back… and being at my side.”
I felt warmth spreading through my chest as the pain returned. My pulse quickened. We shared a look of understanding. Screw it. I reached for his hands. He grabbed mine eagerly. Still not enough. I needed more. I wanted to touch him. I threw my arms around him, and he held me close, fingers buried in my hair. The pain burned wildly in my chest, but I didn’t care. The pleasure of his touch rivaled the agonizing sensation. I kissed him fiercely, and the pain doubled along with the warmth I felt.
It was surreal. Here I was, in the apartment I grew up in, kissing a vampire. He was a vampire, and we were both tied up in the darkest conspiracy I’d ever witnessed. My love life had changed because of a
depraved plot by a government agency.
Suddenly, footsteps approached. I quickly pulled myself away from Dorian. Zach knocked on the doorframe and waited a few moments before popping his head in.
“Our parents are back,” he said cheerfully. “They want you decent and ready. Nothing inappropriate happening in here, right?” He waggled his eyebrows, implying Dorian and I had been up to something other than conversation. He’s not wrong.
Dorian shrugged. “I wish,” he said bluntly.
Zach’s face fell into revulsion for a perfect moment.
My cheeks burned, and I buried my face in my hands. “Too far, Dorian!” I whispered, half mortified, half giggling.
“I’ll say,” Zach muttered.
Voices sounded in the hallway as the front door opened and closed.
Dorian and I exchanged a worried look before we followed Zach to greet my parents. As soon as I saw their faces, the anxious anticipation was replaced with joy. I rushed forward to hug them, desperate to know they were safe and really, finally home.
They looked older, even though we had only been separated a short time. My mother wrapped her arms around me and squeezed tightly. I’d forgotten how comforting her hugs could be. I closed my eyes, trying to appreciate her presence. When I opened them, I saw my dad bear-hugging Zach. My brother grinned, happier than I’d seen him in a long time.
The rising scent of casserole hit my nostrils as Gina emerged from the kitchen, a towel slung over her shoulder. Zach and Gina had been on cooking duty for our welcome home dinner, though it seemed Zach had abandoned her at some point. A strong sense of nostalgia struck me. I could remember my mother making casserole like that, yet right now I was holding her in my arms as she cried softly.
“We were so worried,” she whispered, her soft pixie cut of brown hair tickling my face. “It’s nice to feel that you’re safe, Lyra.”
My father hugged me right after. I could tell from his overwhelmed expression that he could scarcely believe everyone was home again. My father wasn’t much of a crier, but his hazel eyes, the same as mine, were lined with red. I smiled as I caught his gaze.
Darklight 2: Darkthirst Page 52