Into the Dark (Until Dawn, Book 3)

by J. N. Baker

  Before Josh could latch the door shut behind me, I heard something I thought I’d never hear again. “It can’t be,” I breathed.

  Without thinking, I whipped around and threw the cage door open, shoving Josh aside as I leapt free. I stared up in disbelief at the night sky as the massive plane passed overhead, running lights flashing like stars in the darkness. The roar of the engines, the thunder I’d prayed for but had come to give up on, rumbled across the land. Maybe God was listening after all.

  “Release the Sythen,” Baldric ordered, snapping me from my blissful trance. “Take it down.”

  “No!” I shouted. All eyes fell on me, including Baldric’s. Josh quickly snatched up my arm, tugging me back toward the cage. “Let go of me,” I snarled, spinning around and planting a fist in his jaw. I ripped my arm free and, surprisingly, he didn’t make a move to grab for me again.

  “We have a deal,” I said to Baldric, walking freely toward him. “That plane is filled with my people. I exchanged my life for theirs. If you kill them then you break our deal. You get me and they live, remember?”

  Baldric stared at me for an intense minute. His people looked from him to me and back to him, eagerly awaiting orders. Amusement flashed across Baldric’s face and he smirked.

  “My bride is right,” he announced. “We have a deal. As long as she is mine, her people are not to be harmed. The aircraft can go free. Now,” he said to Josh, his eyes never leaving mine, “take my precious bride back to her cell and make sure she stays there this time.”

  Josh grabbed my wrist again, leading me back to the cage. I crawled in without a fight, distracted by the plane disappearing into the night.

  Hope swelled within me. My people had a chance and maybe, just maybe, so did I.

  I was completely awestruck by Baldric’s kingdom. The massive stone castle sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. There was an air of darkness that clung to its rock walls, a sense of doom and gloom. And yet, in a strange way, it soothed me.

  There was something about being so close to the ocean again. The stale salty air tickled my nose in a way that was so familiar, I nearly smiled. The sound of waves crashing violently against the shore, the strong scent of seaweed, the endless squawking of seagulls in the night sky—it made me feel oddly at home.

  I pressed my face against the bars of the carriage as it rolled over the narrowest part of the pathway, coming within feet of the edge of the high cliff. I breathed in deeply, trying to get as much of the salty air as I could. I wanted to remember what it smelled like, sounded like; I wanted to remember all of it because I didn’t think I’d be seeing much of the outside world for a very, very, long time. Or at least until I managed to kill Baldric.

  “You like my home,” a deep voice said. “I can tell.”

  Baldric appeared beside the carriage, his gloved hand gripping the bar nearest my face. I pushed away from him, pressing my back as far into the bars on the opposite side of the cage as I could until I thought that I might go right through them. I stared at Baldric, his dark eyes moving over my face, studying me.

  “I, too, love the ocean,” he continued, breaking eye contact and turning to look at the rough waters below. “It is like a living creature. It moves and breathes, fights and conquers. It is capable of great beauty and yet it can take your life in an instant. Much like me, it demands respect,” he paused, eyes returning to me once more, “and it will get it.”

  I glowered at him from the far side of the cage, clutching my knees to my chest. “Fuck you.”

  Before I knew it, Baldric was standing behind me, his one hand wrapped around my jaw, pulling the side of my face into the bars. His lips grazed my ear. “Is that an invitation?”

  I yanked my face free and he chuckled. “No, I thought not,” he said. “Just as feisty as she was. I always loved her fire.”

  “And yet you extinguished it by killing her.”

  Baldric’s eyes narrowed on me. “So it would seem.” With that, he was gone, teleporting away from me.

  The castle gates were lined with large torches illuminating the ancient lion statues that guarded the front of the castle. The door of my small cage swung open and Josh stood waiting for me on the other side, Roland behind him staring at me with his one eye, daring me to try something. I stiffened, inching my way toward Josh and taking his outstretched hand.

  He pulled me free, his fingers finding the small of my back as he directed me into the castle. I leaned into his touch, savoring the heat it sent shooting throughout my body. Did others feel like they were on fire when he touched them? The thought made me want to gouge eyes and rip out hair, whether his or someone else’s.

  As we stepped over the threshold, I held my breath, fully expecting some sort of enormous crypt. Torn black fabric on the walls, cobwebs stretching across every surface, creepy crawlers of all shapes and sizes scurrying across the cold and damp floors, slithering over the bones of those who had disobeyed the “king.”

  How wrong I was.

  My breath hitched in my chest at the sight. It was absolutely stunning. The main room was lined with candles hanging from the walls and resting on tabletops. There were old paintings on the walls, depicting great kings and queens of the past, epic battles, and visions of love. Even the windows were beautiful. Hand-carved stained glass, almost giving the illusion that the sun was shining through them as they caught the light from the outside torches. Warmth spread throughout my middle, chipping away at some of the chill from the long ride.

  “Not what you were expecting?” Baldric asked, stopping in front of me. He nodded, looking around the massive room, watching his servants move about quickly, completing their nightly tasks. When I didn’t respond, Baldric continued. “Everyone desires the comfort and feel of home. This is now your home too. I hope it brings you peace as it does those who reside here.”

  I looked at him, a little startled by his words. Was that what I was feeling…peace? No. I’d never be at peace as long as I dwelled within these walls. A prison was still a prison, no matter how pretty. And I was still no more than a prisoner.

  “Take her to her chamber to clean up and change,” he told Josh, who gave a small bow. Baldric and William were more alike than either probably cared to admit. Damn formalities. He could go right back to Hell if he thought I’d start bowing down to him too.

  Baldric turned away from us, greeting a man at the far end of the room, patting him on the shoulder in a way that was unbelievably human.

  Before I could see more, Josh tightened his grip on me, guiding me out of the main room and down a narrow corridor. As he led me through the castle, I kept stopping to take in the intricate paintings and elaborate stonework. Josh practically dragged me behind him until I eventually fell into step with him, sick of my arm being pulled out of its socket.

  Josh stopped in front of a large wooden door at the end of a hallway. He pushed it open, stepping aside to let me pass. What a gentlemanly bad guy he was turning out to be.

  As I entered the room, I was hit with the strong scent of lavender and vanilla. Instead of the cell I was expecting, I was greeted with a room two times the size of mine. The bed was similar, a large canopy bed, covered in plush fur blankets and down pillows. Across from the bed was a dresser, drawers pulled open and filled to the brim with clothes. Beside that was a bookcase stocked full of books old and new.

  Two fireplaces straddled the room, one blazing on either side of me, radiating delicious heat that eased the growing tension in my shoulders. And in the center of the room was a large clawfoot tub, a small fire crackling beneath it. Purple petals danced along the surface of the water, beckoning me toward it.

  This had to be some sort of sick and twisted joke. I turned back to ask Josh if this was really my room only to find a woman standing in his place. A woman who was so familiar, my jaw nearly smacked the floor.

  “Lindsay?”

  The woman I knew from a past life, a woman I never thought I’d see again, stared at me like a deer
in the headlights, her big brown doe eyes taking up half her face. For a full minute, she didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure she even blinked. She looked exactly as I remembered her from high school. Tall, slender, sandy-blond hair that fell flat to her shoulders. She hadn’t changed at all. There was no doubt in my mind it was her.

  Lindsay cleared her throat. “The king has requested you bathe and change, my lady,” she said, her voice shaky. Unlike Josh, she remembered me. I could see the recognition in her panicked eyes. She held out unsteady hands, a stack of clothing clutched in them. When I didn’t move to take it from her she sighed, walking over to the bed and setting it down.

  I lunged toward her, grabbing her by the forearm and spinning her around to face me. I was anything but gentle. “I know you know who I am, Lindsay,” I said, not releasing her when she squirmed under my grip. Fear radiated from her skin. She’d never been afraid of me before. Then again, back then she wasn’t my enemy.

  “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she whimpered, dropping her gaze. “I am here to tend to the future queen’s needs.”

  Lindsay continued to struggle against me, desperately trying to pull her arm free. I rolled my eyes and released her, taking pride in the bruises already forming on her skin. I didn’t feel too bad. Cody told me she was a shift. She’d heal…eventually.

  “Why are you here?” I asked, narrowing my eyes on her. When she didn’t immediately answer, I took a threatening step in her direction. She quickly retreated, shrinking down a full five inches. She wasn’t new to this ballgame. If she’d been working for Baldric all this time, then she had to be well aware of what I could do to her. “Answer me.”

  “The bath water is ready for you. Please bathe and dress. The king will be here shortly and you should be ready for him when he arrives. He is not always such a patient man.”

  Story of my life. I seemed to be a magnet for impatient, domineering assholes who wanted to control me.

  Before I could say another word, she ducked into a half-assed bow and sprinted out of the bedroom chamber, the door slamming shut behind her. I wasn’t surprised to hear it lock from the outside. I figured Baldric would keep me locked away. After all, I was his captive now.

  I paced the room, still reeling from my run-in with Lindsay. I couldn’t believe she was alive, let alone working for Baldric. It shouldn’t have shocked me nearly as much as it did. Cody had warned me I wouldn’t want to know what had happened to her and I never pushed the issue. I’d always just assumed he’d meant she’d been killed. It had never occurred to me that she could have been working against us.

  What went wrong with her to make her choose to work for the goddamned enemy? What the hell had happened to her that was so horrible, she felt the need to run to Baldric instead of William? If I was ever lucky enough to see Cody again, I’d ask him. I didn’t think she was about to tell me herself.

  I glanced around the room, biting the corner of my lip as my eyes landed on the clawfoot tub. Part of me—who was I kidding? All of me—wanted nothing more than to sink into that scorching hot water and let it burn away my many burdens. But the little voice in the back of my head begged me to be defiant. To lay my dirty ass on the bed just to piss off Baldric by not doing what he wanted.

  My need for comfort and cleanliness won over. I could be defiant later. I quickly stripped out of my tattered, blood-stained clothes and tossed them into a pile at the foot of the bed. The steam hugged my curves as I sank into the water and I sighed.

  For all of a few minutes, I allowed myself to forget about everything. The life that had been forced upon me. Josh being the enemy. Being Baldric’s prisoner. Having everyone and everything I ever loved ripped away from me. In that one brief moment, it was just me and the water and nothing else.

  But no amount of water could scrub away all of my memories—all of my pain.

  I wasn’t sure how long I’d been soaking when I heard the key jiggle in the lock. I dipped farther into the water, doing my best to hide beneath the sparse layer of purple petals. I held my breath as the door swung open, not sure I was ready for what—or who—was coming.

  Baldric slipped gracefully into the room, Josh lingering behind him like a shadow. The door creaked shut without either of them touching it and I reminded myself that Baldric being a mimicker and Josh being Ryuu’s successor meant both men had telekinetic abilities.

  Baldric stopped upon seeing me, pinning me in the tub with his dark stare. I couldn’t read the expression on his face; he was a lot like William in that. Josh’s face, however, was easy to read. He was hungry and not for blood.

  “You are still not dressed,” Baldric stated the obvious, not moving from where he stood, for which I was grateful. My hands came up to cover my mostly exposed breasts. “I instructed Lindsay to be sure you were bathed and dressed by the time I got here.”

  When I didn’t respond, he took a few steps toward the bath. In all honesty, I was shocked he wasn’t hovering over my naked body, ripping me out of the water by my hair. He wanted to make me his, after all. I could have stood, as bold and brave as I was that night in the lake with Josh. But I wasn’t about to take any chances with Baldric. I didn’t know how he’d react. I preferred to keep rape out of the picture for as long as I possibly could. I had no desire to relive that nightmare anytime soon.

  “Why are you not dressed?” he asked.

  “The water felt good,” I said. Now that I thought about it, it had started to go cold with the fire beneath it not being tended to. “I lost track of time.”

  “I see,” he said. “Stand.”

  I didn’t, of course. In fact, I sank deeper into the water. It looked like I wouldn’t be putting off physical contact as long as I’d hoped. I just couldn’t believe he would do it in front of Josh. His people were probably used to his barbaric behavior by now.

  “I said, stand. Stand or I will make you,” he growled.

  I took a deep breath and rose to my feet, fists clenched at my sides. The cold air on my wet skin sent an army of goose bumps racing across my naked flesh. I felt exposed, hell, I was exposed. I glanced at Josh. His jaw was clenched as he watched on silently. I wanted desperately to call out to him to come to my rescue as he’d always done before. But those days were long gone.

  Baldric never took his eyes off me. He stepped closer until he was beside the tub. He made a full circle around it, looking me up and down like a judge would a prized lamb at a fair. I kept my gaze on the wall in front of me, willing myself not to tremble. I remembered Josh’s words. I wouldn’t show him my fear.

  I didn’t flinch as Baldric reached his one hand up, pushing my long wet hair over my shoulder, his gloved index finger never making contact with my skin.

  “You are exquisite,” he purred.

  “Just get it over with,” I snapped. I didn’t want to play his little games. If he was going to have me, then I just wanted it to be done.

  Baldric withdrew his hand and eyed me carefully. He shook his head. “I will not touch you,” he said. It almost sounded like a promise. “I will never force myself on you. As much a monster as you might think me to be, I am not a rapist.”

  I tore my eyes from the wall and gawked at him. It wasn’t the response I was expecting, not by a long shot.

  “That being said,” Baldric continued, “you will be mine, of that I am certain. Until then, you have my word that I will not lie with you.”

  “Your word means jack shit to me,” I said through clenched teeth.

  Baldric calmly reached down and grabbed a towel from the stool beside the bathtub, holding it out for me. I snatched it from his hand and quickly wrapped it around my naked body, thankful for the scratchy fabric against my bare skin.

  “My word might mean ‘jack shit,’” he said, testing my words like they were a foreign language to him, “but you will learn to accept it. This is your life now. With time, I am confident you will come to enjoy it.”

  “Never.”

  Baldric laughed. �
��You may be a feisty thing, but not even you are strong enough to resist me. You will be mine soon enough.”

  “Will you turn me?” I blurted out, though I was fairly certain I knew the answer. It wasn’t a matter of “if” or even “when.” It was a matter of power. With my ascent, I was already more powerful than the other Chosen. If he turned me, I’d probably be more powerful than even him. I didn’t think Baldric was stupid enough to take that risk. He had to keep me just weak enough that he could control me.

  “No,” he answered, confirming my suspicions. While I didn’t particularly want to be turned into one of the bloodsuckers—in fact, it downright disgusted me—it would have made killing him a lot easier. Baldric took a step back. “At least, not yet,” he continued. “I will, however, teach you to use those new powers of yours. I am certain my old friend William failed to do so.”

  He moved away from me, heading for the door. Josh turned obediently to face him, waiting for instruction like a good little dog. If it wasn’t for his Chosen markings, I would have thought he was just another vampire lackey.

  “Keep an eye on my beautiful bride,” Baldric commanded. He turned his attention to me one last time. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way, the choice is yours. Otherwise, Roland might have to step in. I truly do not want to have to do that. I do not particularly care for his starvation tactics, but they do tend to work. Now, get dressed.”

  With that, he left the room, leaving me standing in a tub of lukewarm water with a small towel wrapped around me and Josh’s gaze searing my skin.

  “You have to help me,” I whispered to Josh as I stepped out of the tub. “Please.”

  Josh looked at me with eyes that were both familiar and foreign. He walked gracefully to the bed and picked up the clothes Lindsay had laid out for me. He turned and handed them to me.