Darkest Whispers (Eternal Shadows Book 2)

by Kate Martin

“It’s important to know when you’re with someone who’s managed to kill a vampire much older than himself, so yes.”

  “You have nothing to worry about, Kass. I don’t plan on killing you.”

  “Why did you do it?”

  “She had it coming.”

  “That simple?”

  “That simple.”

  Yeah, and pigs flew in an icy hell. “What did she do?” I pressed.

  Solo took his hands from his pockets, running his fingers through his hair. I didn’t care if the subject made him uncomfortable. I was sick of secrets, of cyptic words and gestures. I wanted answers. “My sire, Thera, was a sadistic and crazy bitch. She was always hunting, making games out it. Sometimes, she would take me along. I watched her torture both humans and vampires alike, never able to do anything about it. Then, one day, she came back from a hunt, covered in blood and grinning from ear to ear. She had been gone for days. When I found out what she had done something in me snapped, and I killed her. The world is better off. Trust me.”

  It suddenly occurred to me that I had been lucky in my vampire fate. Yes, I was a vampire, but at least I hadn’t been turned by someone who gave a new meaning to the word monster. I could have ended up like Solo, forced to follow along as people were tortured and killed. “I believe you. Thank you for telling me.”

  “Always willing to dredge up my painful past for a beautiful woman.”

  “You can’t really blame me for asking. You want me to trust you, but you killed a vampire far older than yourself when you were only like, what? Thirty?”

  “Thirty-three, actually. Well, thirty-three years as a vampire.”

  “How old was your sire?”

  Solo shrugged. “She claimed to be around three hundred, but she felt more like two hundred.”

  “Felt like?” What the hell? Was there yet another sense I didn’t know about?

  “Uh, yeah. Just a feeling. I’d met a lot of vampires in my time with her; you start to get a sense of how old they all are.”

  “Oh.” Two or three hundred years old. That was older than Millie and Madge in any case, and they could over power me easily. Thirty-three years and Solo had been that strong. Rhys was right, I should probably watch out around him. “Well, I should get back. Thanks again.” I started navigating my way back through the woods.

  “Until we meet again, fair lady,” he called after me. “Try not to pine for me too severely.”

  I ignored him, following the whole ‘if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all’ rule. I was hoping we wouldn’t meet again.

  At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.

  I ran home as fast as I could, avoiding all the main streets and hoping no one could see me at such speed anyway. The front door opened before I could even close my hand around the handle.

  “Where have you been?” Cade didn’t look worried, or even particularly angry, just—concerned. “You are not to go anywhere alone. Remember?”

  I slipped past him and into the house, not really feeling up to a lecture. “A memory startled me. I ran out to clear my head. I didn’t mean to go off alone.”

  He shut the door. “You’re covered in blood.”

  “Yeah, don’t worry, it didn’t come from anyone.”

  “Then where did it come from?”

  “A bag. You know,” I said, spinning around and deciding to take the offensive, “I did almost kill someone though. We should really do something about this whole hunting impulse thing.”

  “You almost killed someone?”

  I really wished Cade did facial expressions. This blank, unreadable facade was wearing on my already frayed nerves. “Yes. But I didn’t. And he won’t even remember he saw me.”

  “What?”

  Damn. I was doing a really doing a bang up job of retelling this tale. And, oh, look at that! A facial expression I could read! Suspicion and displeasure. “Can you listen to me before you make judgments? Also, I don’t suppose there’s any chance you’d let me change first? I want to rinse these out and see if I can save them.” I plucked at the blood-soaked clothes.

  Cade shook his head once. “No. You talk first.”

  I started from the beginning, plunking myself down on the first step, resigned to my fate. He listened quietly, all through my trip to the alley, and didn’t ask what I had remembered. I didn’t offer the information. It wasn’t until a little further into my story that he stopped me.

  “Solo?”

  “Yeah, I figured you would react that way. Don’t worry, I wasn’t all that happy to see him either. But he helped me so . . . I guess we need to cut him some slack. At least this time.”

  “He could be dangerous.”

  “Obnoxious, yes, but he kept me from killing that kid today, so . . . does that still make him public enemy number one?”

  “It makes me wonder why he has such a sudden interest in you. I should bring him in for questioning.”

  “For helping me?”

  “Yes.”

  “All he did was feed me a bag of blood.”

  “Also dangerous. You should never drink blood you do not know the origin of.”

  “Ugh. You’re such a downer.”

  “I am serious, Kassandra.”

  “So am I.” I stood up, intending to head upstairs and finally change out of my bloody clothes. “He took me into the woods and kind of played a game of hide and seek. More or less. He let me hunt him. He had a bag of blood to keep me from eating him or any bunnies. I don’t see what the problem is.”

  Cade followed me. “The problem is, we are at war and you cannot trust stray vampires.”

  “Fine. Then you come up with a better way to deal with this hunting instinct. Also, I’d like to know why I was never told about ‘charming.’ Seems like something I should know about.”

  I ran to my room then, not caring if Cade had been finished with me or not. Slamming my door behind me, I locked it for good measure. My clothes went in the tub to soak in the cold water, but I couldn’t really concentrate on trying to get the blood out. I just knelt there, hands in the water, jeans and shirt held in my mostly limp fingers.

  I wanted Rhys back. I wanted to help. But all I seemed good for was screwing up. Cade was right. I shouldn’t have trusted Solo, shouldn’t have taken blood from him, but I had just been too damned desperate to even think that far. That was Cade’s fault, I decided. He was the one in charge of training me, of teaching me. I never should have gotten that out of control.

  I never would again.

  Chapter Thirteen: Hunt

  The next days dragged on like some elaborate form of torture. I would spend the morning choking on incense, Aurelia more determined than ever to draw my memories from me. I tried to remember more about Jacqueline and the Hunters, but nothing would come. Instead I got snippets of Eva’s childhood, and Bryn’s everyday life with her mother and sister. My afternoons consisted of punching pillows and staring blankly into space, seeing as how no one would let me do anything else to help. I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Cade, and at the moment, he was the only one I trusted to ask about that fateful garden party. Millie seemed tasked with occupying me. She dragged me out of the house, taking me shopping and through the park for what she called “fresh air.” I wasn’t much good company. It was hard to browse the sale racks while thinking of nothing but Rhys and his incarceration. Instead, I begged Millie to tell me what the others had been doing.

  Only after hours of wearing her down, she told me that the General spent almost all his time either on the phone with other high ranking vampires, or out of the house. Aurelia dealt with the current political climate, which was shitty, to say the least. The humans had given in to all their old superstitions. Crosses hung everywhere, along with numerous other holy items, and garlic prices had sky-rocketed. Everyone wore silver as proof of humanity. There was talk of midnight vampire hunts in the graveyards. And rumors that Hunters had made appearances in other cities.

  I took
note of the cities she mentioned, just in case the worst happened and Rhys didn’t come home. I would need someone to put me out of my misery. I sure as hell wasn’t living with all these vampires by myself.

  Millie never had news of Rhys. Never. She assured me that they were doing everything they could to get him back, but left out any details. I told her I wanted to help, and she would just smile sadly at me, and try to distract me with lame gossip. Like how Madge seemed to be permanently attached to Isaac, and the two of them were constantly behind closed doors. However, whatever they did continued to be a mystery. I didn’t really care.

  At night, I buried my face into my pillow, clutching the sixpence that hung around my neck.

  The tenth night after Rhys had been taken, I got tired of staring at my own ceiling—I had discovered a new ripple in the paint that looked a lot like a bunny holding a magician’s hat—and so got up and went in search of Warren. We hadn’t had a lot of time to hang out lately, and I missed him. Only seeing him so I could suck his blood Dracula-style made me feel like a user.

  I knocked twice on his door, then just walked right on in. “Hey, Warren, do you think we could—”

  He stared at me, and sitting next to him on his bed, Olivia stared as well. Their bodies were entwined, and Warren’s hair looked like it had been through a hurricane. Olivia’s lipstick was smeared.

  “Oh my god!” I crashed into the door, my hand over my eyes as I tried to both retreat and unsee what I had seen.

  “My god, does she always do this to you, Warren? Just walk on in without being invited? Hasn’t she ever heard of knocking?”

  Oh, but that bitchy tone just undid me. “I did knock,” I said, ceasing my fumbled retreat. I risked moving my hand away from my eyes.

  “Kassandra is always invited, Olivia. She doesn’t have to wait for me to say anything.” He said that, but Warren was looking to the side, and mumbling.

  I wanted to be sick. I had definitely interrupted something.

  Olivia snorted—not an attractive sound—grabbed a pile of books and pamphlets from the bed and stood. “Well, if she’s going to be here, then I’m not.”

  “Oh god, I think I might die if not in your presence.” I couldn’t help but be mean and juvenile. She brought it out in me.

  Books pressed against her chest, I could see the front of one of the booklets clearly. It was for a local college. “I’ll see you later, Warren, when you’re finished here.” She spoke to him, but glared at me.

  I shut the door in her face.

  Warren was blushing such deep red, he also refused to make eye-contact with me.

  “Seriously? Olivia?”

  “It’s not a big deal.”

  “Olivia?”

  “It’s just . . . We only . . . I mean . . .”

  “Olivia!”

  His glasses were hanging crookedly over his nose. He hadn’t noticed. “Did you need something, Kass?”

  “I can’t even remember any more.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’m just gonna go. Maybe scrub my eyeballs or something.”

  “That’s a little harsh, but okay.”

  “Okay.” The door swung open faster than I had anticipated when I gave it a pull. That startled me enough that a small portion of my brain realized I was being a bit rude, maybe even overreacting. “Uh, happy for you, Warren.” I topped it off with an awkward thumbs up.

  Then I walked out and ran for my room as fast as I could without looking crazy. The window had the best chance of providing me with something else to think about. The sky was cloud-covered and dark, not a star visible to count. Inconvenient. I was contemplating the possibility of erasing clouds when my door slammed open with such force that my teeth rattled when I jumped in surprise.

  “Kassandra.”

  Cade stood in my doorway, fully dressed with a pair of knives hanging at his hips. “Get your dagger. Come with me.”

  He turned and left, not waiting for my response. I entertained the idea of not following, just to make it clear that I couldn’t be ordered around. But my curiosity was stronger than my stubbornness, and I desperately needed a distraction. No one had asked for me in days. Everyone was always too busy. And Cade, despite his recent absence, was the only one who ever told me anything.

  My dagger was already strapped to my leg. I didn’t let it out of my sight. I clung to it and the sixpence as if they were Rhys himself. I slipped my feet into my sneakers and dashed after him.

  He waited just outside the front door, arms folded over his chest, his eyes slowly moving from side to side, surveying everything. It made me nervous.

  I pulled at my tee-shirt, untwisting it. “What are we doing?”

  “We’re going hunting.”

  “What?”

  He looked at me, very little expression showing on his face. Of course, that was Cade. “Rhys is not here to deal with your hunting instinct. So I will show you how to hunt.”

  “It’s not an issue at the moment. I don’t feel the need to go all stalky and dark and predatory.”

  “Let’s get the instinct under control before it becomes an issue again.” For the second time, he left without waiting for my agreement.

  I scrambled to keep up with him in the dark. Cade moved through the streets like a specter; traveling at a speed no human would detect. We reached the edge of town and he finally stopped. I looked over the brightly lit streets and the tightly shut windows, the inside of homes protected by thick curtains. I remembered nights when Sara and I had snuck outside for late night chats and snacks consisting of cake stolen from my refrigerator. No more. My whole world had been turned inside out and dyed another color. I barely recognized it.

  I sighed and looked at Cade. “What are we doing out here? What is there to hunt?” All the humans stayed safely inside. Not that he could convince me to hunt human blood anyway.

  “Cariosus.”

  “What?” I turned in frantic circles, smelling the air and searching the corners and shadows for decaying zombies ready to strike. My skin prickled with the memory of their blood and gore all over me; my ankle stung where one had bitten me.

  Cade grabbed me by the shoulder and held me still. “Calm down. It is not like that first night. We destroyed the vast majority of them, but a few escaped, managed to hide, and will venture out at night. We also have reason to believe that the VFO is depositing one or two here and there randomly without notice.”

  I forced myself to stand still on my own. Suddenly embarrassed at my initial reaction. “So that’s what we’re hunting? Failed vampires?”

  “That is what I am going to teach you to hunt, yes.”

  Again, I remembered the night of slaughter and battle I had taken part in. The vampire part of me—the monster part—had loved every minute. The part of me that remained sane and human hadn’t been so thrilled. Rhys hadn’t been too thrilled when he found me in the middle of everything either. “I don’t think this is quite what Rhys had in mind when he asked you to take care of my hunting instinct.”

  “Rhys is not here, and Rhys is overprotective. You need to be able to take care of yourself, and you need to be able to help.”

  Help. Isn’t that exactly what I had been begging for the ability to do these last days? Yet now, I hesitated. “Aren’t I a little young for this kind of lesson? I haven’t even been a vampire for a full half year. I’m practically a baby.”

  Cade pulled my dagger from its sheath and pressed it into my hand. “You have been born into a position of importance and power. You do not have the luxury of a childhood.”

  “Great.” I fiddled with my grip on the dagger. “Fine. What do I do?”

  “You have to learn how to sense them. How to find where they have hidden themselves.”

  “Well, they smell really bad, so that can’t be very hard.” But I hadn’t smelled anything. No rot, no decay. Maybe Cade was testing me and there weren’t any cariosus left in town after all.

  He grabbed my free hand and pulled me down so
we both knelt on the hard pavement, my palm pressed to the ground. “We are not unearthly creatures,” he said. “We are of nature just as much as anything else, contrary to the beliefs of some. The pavement is less natural than us. It does not carry the pulse of life, but you can use it as a conduit, a pathway to another pulse.”

  He had gone crazy. That was the only explanation. A millennium and a half had finally driven him mad. What was he talking about? Pulses in the road?

  Cade seemed to pick up on my thoughts and pressed my hand against the harsh ground harder. “It used to be easy to sense living things, before the world became so built up, before concrete was laid down everywhere. When I was first turned I could count the number of humans nearby by the vibrations under my feet.”

  I swallowed nervously and nodded stupidly. Something about the look in his eyes, the way they almost seemed to glow with conviction, made me believe him. “Okay, but how does that help me hunt the undead? No pulses.”

  “No. Even we have a pulse. It is faint, rare and virtually undetectable, but we have one. The cariosus have failed to die, their pulse is strong. It is what causes their rapid decay.”

  I focused on my hand for a moment, picking out different bumps and smooth sections in the road, but I didn’t feel any vibrations, or anything remotely recognizable as a pulse. “I don’t feel anything, Cade.” It wouldn’t exactly surprise me if this was just one more thing I couldn’t do. Apparently I couldn’t figure out half the things that were supposed to come naturally to a vampire.

  “I know you can’t. The pavement is quiet, and you’re too young to feel the earth beneath it.”

  “Then why did you make me try!”

  “Because I needed you to believe it first.” He smirked, the corner of his mouth curling and taunting me. I wanted to slap him. But I resisted the urge. Hurrah for me.

  Cade stood, taking me with him and leading the way to the park a block away. The swing set looked terribly lonely in the dark, and the jungle gym had the appearance of a giant silver spider web glittering in the starlight. I still didn’t smell anything foul nearby, but I had gotten the impression that I wouldn’t. Tonight was not about following my nose.