After Daybreak: A Darkness Before Dawn Novel Page 16

  The day. I knew Eris would want the meeting only when the sun was out. Only during the day can she neutralize any threat from Victor. Walking-in-the-sun bitch.

  The gates of the city open up and we head down the long road. I wonder in which direction she’ll ultimately take me. I assume west toward Sin, unless he is no longer there. Perhaps he’s just over that hill or that mountain, nearer than we thought, in which case I’ll be in a hell of a lot of trouble.

  Looking out the window, I see the city walls slowly descend out of view as we make greater distance. They seem so fragile now, more fragile than ever. The Day Walkers are inside, walls or no. I can’t keep my mind from returning to Crimson Sands and its unwalled foundation. Their strength comes from the citizens, vampires and humans, not from stone masonry on the outskirts trying desperately to hold the night at bay.

  “Don’t you love the sun,” Eris says, looking dreamily out the window as it cascades beautiful light into the carriage.

  “I enjoy the night more,” I say.

  “I would assume as much coming from you. After all, you are a vampire.”

  “A drop of Montgomery blood in my veins barely constitutes me as a vampire.”

  “But the potential of that single drop is infinite.”

  “You’ve been listening to Sin too much,” I say, trying to paint her master as some myth-spinning madman. Anything to get her doubting, anything to keep her off balance.

  “Once he turns you, you’ll have a shift in perspective,” she says. “So many Lessers are uncomfortable in their own skin. Do you know why? It’s because they long to feel the sun. Everyone thought that the difference between humans and vampires was that we need blood to survive. No—that isn’t the biggest difference. You humans ate animals, feasted on flesh and blood just as we do. In fact, you slaughtered them in a most uncivilized manner. So, no, it isn’t the blood that made vampire Lessers different. It’s the sun. Without it, the human soul shrivels and dies and all that’s left is the choking reminder of the beautiful daylight they once felt but are forever denied.”

  “Are you implying that you still have a human soul? Because I’m not so sure of that,” I say.

  “I’m saying that Day Walkers retain more humanity than Lessers. We are superior. You will see that. Your humanity won’t be lost, but only enhanced, coupled with the power and immortality of a vampire.”

  She’s trying to sell me on the idea, though I know what Tegan would think: Eris is trying to sell herself. Maybe she isn’t convinced, even after all these years, that she’s happy with what she is.

  “Of course, you’ll be lucky if he decides to turn you now,” she says. “He knows you went to the Council. Don’t you remember the offer he gave you?”

  “Kill Victor and he’ll spare my friends.”

  “And you spat on his generosity. You’ve already shown your disloyalty. I have no idea what fate you now face.” She smiles, hoping I’ll be afraid of this ominous warning. But I’m not. “Rest now. We have many miles to cover.”

  That’s the best thing I’ve heard from her so far, because that means the night will come before we arrive, and that is what we need the most. The night.

  Despite Eris’s suggestion I stay awake the entire time, watching the sun slowly dip down. It’s funny, I’ve always enjoyed sunsets, though I’ve known the dangers they bring. Now, however, the opposite is true: The setting sun brings my salvation.

  The night grows older and we continue riding. I figure it’s been nearly twelve hours of nonstop traveling when we finally come to a halt. I look out the window, expecting to see Sin’s devilish smile, the frightening metal claw attached to his arm, the one that scarred Michael’s face and chest. Instead all I see are ruins of what were once buildings.

  “We have to let the horses rest,” Eris says, the carriage door opening and the Day Walkers exiting. She takes my arm and not so gently escorts me outside.

  The air is cool and I quickly gauge our surroundings. We’re barely off the main road.

  “We’ll stay here for the evening,” Eris says. “Don’t worry. The Lessers out here won’t dare come near us.”

  “I wasn’t worried,” I say, knowing that if anyone should be worried, it’s her.

  The horses attached to the carriages are unhitched and led to a small stream running not far from the main building, or at least what was once a main building.

  “This place used to be a hydro plant,” Eris says, as though reading my mind. “That tiny stream was once a massive river. This building drew energy from it and powered the nearby cities. Vampires hid here during the war until it was bombed by you humans.”

  “Looks like we did a pretty good job,” I say.

  She glares at me, annoyed. “We’ve put a great distance between us and the city. Us and your friends. Don’t annoy me. My hand might accidentally slap your face.”

  “I notice we went north. I figured we would go west, back toward Los Angeles.”

  “Yes, so would everyone else. I couldn’t take the chance that Clive had set up an ambush down the western road, so we’ll be taking the scenic route.”

  Clever, but I’d expect nothing less from her.

  I start walking among the ruins. I’m Eris’s prisoner, but she doesn’t need to chain me. With her speed, and the Day Walker guards as well, I could never escape. Not by myself anyway.

  Concrete shells of buildings rise up like a strange forest, nothing but the gray slabs. The metal cables that once held them together now stick out as though they are exposed bone. Bits of rubble, both large and small, litter the ground and I have to watch my step. Inside the main building, or what’s left of it, I see the remnants of a fire where scavengers once made camp. Cinder blocks circle the ashes.

  “Terry, get up high and keep a lookout,” Eris shouts.

  One of the Day Walkers brushes past me and quickly scrambles up the building, using the wall and the remains of floors to bounce from one place to the next, until he’s scaled the three stories in a matter of seconds.

  Sitting at the top, he looks out over the land and I wonder what he sees. I sit on one of the cinder blocks and wrap my arms tightly around myself to ward off the chill. A Day Walker comes up to me and places a blanket around my shoulders and then lights the fire with a match.

  “Thank you,” I say.

  “We wouldn’t want you dying of frostbite,” he says.

  “You could just turn me and save my life before that happened.”

  But he shakes his head. “Only Sin will have that pleasure. Not only would you be robbed of the wonders of walking in the sun, but he would have our heads.”

  So I sit and wait, hoping that the horses will need a full night’s rest before continuing their journey.

  “Eris, something’s coming,” Terry says from atop his watch post.

  My heart jumps.

  “What is it?” she asks.

  “A car. Heading this way.”

  Eris clamps her jaw tight, her words a hiss between her teeth. “Your friends?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Let’s hope not. For their sake.”

  She moves away and gathers the other Day Walkers, each one checking to make sure their stakes are in their belts, in their boots, across them in bandoliers.

  “Eris . . .”

  “Talk to me, Terry.”

  “They’re definitely—”

  A vicious black shadow, fast and unforgiving, knocks him from his perch. One moment he’s there, the next, he’s falling to the earth, a trail of blood flowing from his body. When he lands with a thud, a stake is lodged in his heart. I look back to where he was, but the shadow has moved on.

  “Spread out!” Eris yells.

  The headlights of the car appear closer, barreling right down at us, its engine echoing through the vast space. When the car is near the camp, it stops and slides, the doors flying open, and figures tumbling out, stakes at the ready.

  Terry’s fall put the fear into their hearts, and the
arrival of Old Family vampires, Richard and Faith, sealed their fate. Michael and Ian do their part. They may not have the speed and strength of their fanged opponents, but they have experience, they have technique. Day Walkers fall quickly to the ground. Each one has a stake squarely in his chest, and their eyes are closed, never to see another sunrise.

  Eris looks around nervously. Jumping to my feet, I sprint toward her, intending to tackle her.

  Her beautiful figure becomes a blur, a white cascade in the wind, shadows and mirrors, on a direct collision course with me. She stops dead just within arm’s reach of my throat. I stagger to a halt. Victor is beside her, a stake in his hand, the tip lodged in her ribs, but not her heart. It continues to beat.

  Her knees begin to buckle as she shows her fangs and grits her teeth in pain. Her eyes are large, a combination of frustration, anger, and agony.

  Within minutes, Eris is on the ground, chains wrapped tightly around her. They constrict her, make it impossible for her to dislodge the iron links or the stake still planted in her ribs. But rather than scream with pain and frustration, she merely looks at me with an immense fury, like nothing I’ve ever seen on someone so beautiful.

  Richard and Faith are going about the bodies, turning them over and crossing their arms in the dignified manner of forever sleep.

  Michael and Ian are still looking among the ruins, perhaps for Day Walkers that decided to hide rather than fight. But they don’t find any. Facing my friends was a lesser evil than facing a disappointed Sin.

  “It looks like your plan worked,” Victor says to me, in full view of Eris as though she were nothing but a beautiful rock. No threat.

  “How?” she shouts.

  I take off my shoe and dump the tiny microchip into my palm. The chip that would allow Victor to track the citizens of Denver. The chip designed to locate those who have not met their quota. A chip that allowed him to follow me instead.

  As I explain it to Eris, she screams her outrage.

  “Now,” Victor says, approaching Eris and kneeling in front of her, showing no fear, no animosity. “We have a great deal to discuss.”

  “I’ll never tell you anything,” she says.

  “We’ll see. . . .”

  Chapter 17

  Victor, Faith, Richard, and I take the car. Michael and Ian each transport a carriage. Inside one of them, Eris is chained up tightly to the velvet seats she loved so much.

  After we reach Valentine Manor, everything is parked in the garage and stables. Ian and Michael exchange a few words with Victor before leaving for Denver. The rest of us head inside. Once in the main hall, Victor looks toward his prisoner. Eris’s chains are held by Faith and Richard as they pull her along. She takes slow and stubborn steps, her face defiant.

  “Take her to the dungeon,” Victor says.

  Faith and Richard nod and drag her away. When she resists, they give a harsh tug, the chains rattling. She picks up her pace. Victor and I go to his study. The drapes are drawn, the room filled with shadows. A few lamps burn. A fire dances in the fireplace. I stand before it, trying to get warm.

  Victor comes up behind me and puts his arms around me. “That was the longest day of my life. Did she say anything about Sin?”

  “Only that he’s to the west.”

  “Maybe she can tell us exactly where.”

  “Do you think she knows?”

  He hesitates, then says, “No. She may have an idea, but I suspect he set up a rendezvous point where a couple of his soldiers are waiting. He wouldn’t expose himself.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking, too. That’s why I didn’t suggest that we wait until she had taken us to him.” I turn around in his arms. “But how are we going to get her to talk? During the war, interrogation consisted of dragging vamps out into the sun, letting them burn, then dragging them back so they could heal, and doing it all over again. It was cruel, but effective.” For Old Family, had any ever been caught, it would have been more horrendous. Their healing properties are more advanced. They could survive for hours in the sun, burning and healing, losing ground slowly, until eventually the sun would win out. “As a Day Walker, she’s immune to that. What can we possibly do?”

  “I have some ideas.”

  The dungeon is dank and cold. The light comes from lamps secured to the brick walls. Metal doors line the corridor, maybe a dozen in all. Our footsteps echo over the stone floor.

  Faith, Victor, and I relieve one of the servants who was in charge of watching Eris. He leaves, shutting the door behind him with a resounding echo that I hope puts some fright into the beautiful Day Walker. The chains are still tightly wound around her body, only now the tail end is hooked into an eyelet on the wall, making it impossible for her to escape. She should seem helpless, but even though her body is chained, her mind isn’t, and as Sin’s emissary, she can be devilishly sharp.

  Victor kneels in front of her, with Faith and me standing behind him, half-hidden in the shadows.

  “What does Sin want?” Victor asks.

  “Your death. Obviously.”

  “No. That’s merely a step to get what he wants. What’s his ultimate aim?”

  Eris stares at Victor, and I’d give anything to know her thoughts. As long as they didn’t match the flirtatious grin she wears so convincingly. It may work on others, but surely not on Victor.

  “Sin will birth a New World Order, a Utopia that will stand for millions of years. A perfect system. A city, ten times the size of Los Angeles, made of three rings. In the center, the humans. Next, Lessers and Day Walkers. And finally, on the outside, the Chosen.”

  “The Infected,” Victor says.

  “Precisely. Three rings, each one more powerful than the one it surrounds. A perfect system. Lessers feed off humans, the Chosen off the Lessers. And Sin will rule them all.”

  “And what about the Old Families? Where do they go?”

  Eris puckers her lips as though she were trying to kiss him and blows seductively. “They go into the wind, as dust.”

  “And where does that leave you?” Victor asks. “Will you join Sin? Partake in the Thirst? Become a monster?”

  “No,” she says. “For my years of dutiful service, I will be in charge of the second ring, the Day Walkers. I will rule over all of my kind, because I see their place in proper perspective: as a food source for the Chosen. Just as you humans are nothing more than cattle to us, so we are nothing but cattle to the Infected.”

  I always imagined Sin would bless Eris with the Thirst, since he considers it the highest honor. Although with her vanity, she’s probably thrilled to remain a Day Walker. The Chosen may be powerful, but they lose the natural beauty of the vampires. Their teeth become maws filled with razor fangs that can’t retract. Their eyes blacken, the whites and pupils giving way to the darkness unfolding within their hearts. Their gaunt faces are frightening, all glamour destroyed as though it never existed to begin with. That’s the inevitable result of the Thirst, and I understand why she fears becoming that.

  I’m sure Victor recognizes the reasons behind her fears as well.

  “How are the Day Walkers getting into the city?” Victor asks.

  “Ah, I’m afraid that little secret must remain just that: a secret.”

  “They aren’t simply walking in. Clive has tripled the number of spotters searching the area. They would have found traces of them by now. So, tell me, how are they getting in?”

  “Maybe they’re invisible; did you ever consider that?” she asks with a smile.

  “Last chance,” Victor warns.

  “What are you going to do? Drag me into the sun?”

  Victor reaches out and Faith gives him a small black case. He places it on the ground. The latches click and echo ominously throughout the tiny chamber. Slowly he opens the lid. What’s inside makes my skin crawl. When Eris sees the syringes nestled inside, her smile disappears.

  Victor pulls one of them out, the vampire blood inside a dark crimson, darker than most can imagine, hol
ding ever darker possibilities.

  He holds up the syringe, the light finding the sharp needle point, making it glisten momentarily. “I wonder what will happen when I inject you with my blood.”

  Eris squirms uncomfortably, the first involuntary action I’ve ever seen from her. Her cold, calculating mind must be reeling, searching frantically for a way out of this. But it might as well be as bound as her arms.

  Victor holds her chin. “Imagine all your beauty destroyed. It’ll be wiped away, and you’ll become one of the Chosen.”

  “Is this your brilliant plan? Make me into an even stronger monster?”

  “How long have you been a Lesser? A hundred years? Imagine looking in the mirror and that porcelain skin, that perfect symmetry, those brilliant eyes are all fading away. You know what I think? I think it would drive you mad.”

  “I won’t talk.”

  Victor moves to her side and pinches the tissue around her shoulder, much like a doctor preparing to inject a vaccine.

  “I have no idea what will happen,” Victor says. “The Thirst affects everyone differently. All it may take is a single drop of blood to turn you, to make you crave more. Or it may take the entire syringe, or the entire case. It doesn’t matter; I have all the time in the world to find out.”

  “If you stick me with that, I’ll never tell you,” she says, sweat beginning to form at her brow.

  “You won’t tell me anyway.”

  Victor jabs in the syringe but doesn’t press down on the plunger. Eris is looking at the ground, defeat in her eyes, her curled lips baring the fangs that have brought her eternal beauty. Fangs that may change before long.

  “One last chance,” Victor says.

  “Fuck you.”

  He pushes the blood into her. I expect her to lash out immediately, to react as Sin did—laughing maniacally. Instead she looks more helpless than ever. Victor calmly puts the syringe back in the case, latches it shut, and stands.

  “We’ll be back. And if you still aren’t in the mood to talk, it’ll be two syringes.”

  Victor becomes somber, almost mournful as we walk back to the study. What he did to her may be worse than death. Only time will tell.