After Daybreak dbdt-3 Page 3

Lowering his head, he kisses me tenderly.

  The world falls away, and it’s just us and the stars above in this desolate place. We stand like a pair of wildflowers that somehow grew in this dry sand, and we breathe together, and move together, and entangle ourselves around each other.

  Pulling back, he skims his knuckles over my cheek. “This is so much better than what we shared in the dreams.” He shakes his head. “But there I could stay. In the real world, I have to walk away.”

  Victor said before I left Denver that we couldn’t be together. That I’m the weakness his enemies will exploit. But it’s too late.

  “Walking away won’t protect either of us now. Sin wants me to kill you.”

  His jaw tightens.

  I continue, “It’s the price I have to pay to keep everyone else I care about safe.”

  Victor stares at me, perhaps wondering if I would actually take Sin up on the offer. Not because I’m afraid, but because of how much I care for all my friends.

  “I told him to shove it,” I say quickly, and Victor laughs. “Maybe not in those exact words, but I think the message was clear.”

  I put my hand on Victor’s heart, as though protecting it from any stake that would dare strike him.

  “But what about Faith?” Victor asks. “And Richard. Does Sin have them?”

  “No, no,” I rush to assure him. Faith is Victor’s sister. He sent her and his best friend, Richard Carrollton, to watch over me when I journeyed to Los Angeles to find out what I could about the Thirst and Sin. “They escaped using the engine of the Night Train. Along with Tegan”—my best friend—“and Ian Hightower.”

  “Hightower?”

  I sense his alarm. Ian Hightower is the most famous and deadly vampire hunter to ever live. More recently, he’s been the guardian of the Night Train.

  “Don’t worry. We formed an alliance with Ian,” I tell him.

  “That must have taken some convincing.”

  “Richard was quite persuasive, and his killing some of the Infected who got on board the train didn’t hurt. They’re probably back in the city by now, don’t you think?”

  “Probably.” I can sense him taking comfort in the knowledge that everyone should be safe. “If they made it out, what happened to you? How did Sin manage to capture you?”

  I tell him about Los Angeles, how the outer ring of the city is nothing but weak and hopeless humans and the inner ring is overrun with Sin’s Day Walkers. He was waiting for us. I explain that we tried to kill him, but he was too powerful and his followers too many. While the others escaped, I wasn’t so lucky. I couldn’t get to the train in time. Michael came back for me, but Sin’s legions surrounded us.

  “Why didn’t Faith and Richard stay back with you?” Victor asks, accusation in his voice. He told them that I was more important than anything else, even their own lives.

  “They couldn’t,” I say. “What we learned was too important. If they hadn’t made it, no one would know about Sin’s army.”

  Victor nods, swallowing his anger, washing it away with reason and sense. “Then tell me about the mountain. The throne. The ash. When I got there with Jeff, I had no idea what I was even looking at or why Sin would take you to a place like that. What did it all mean?”

  I’m not ready to go there yet. “It was nothing,” I lie. “Just a—”

  A thunderous sound echoes around me. The ground beneath my feet begins to tremble.

  Victor and I spin toward the commotion. I didn’t realize how far we’d wandered. We’re standing at the edge of town. People are starting to gather at its center. The door to the doctor’s house bursts open and George rushes out with Dr. Jameson and Jeff on his heels. Michael is striving to catch up, but he’s still weak from his wounds.

  “Come on,” Victor says, grabbing my hand.

  We run over to where George, Dr. Jameson, Michael, and Jeff are gazing at the growing dust storm in the distance. But what’s causing it?

  My mind races to Sin and his horde of Day Walkers. The thought of what they would do to the people in this town sends terror through me. Then I realize the car is what must have led them here. It’s loud, its lights serving as a beacon in the darkness—

  But it isn’t Sin. As the four horsemen gallop into town, they stop and let the air settle into stillness around them. The beasts beneath them neigh and paw at the ground.

  “Well, boys, it looks like the rumors were true,” the obvious leader says. He looks to be in his late twenties. Like him, each of his friends is cloaked in a long coat, chaps, and gloves. “A whole town, somewhere in this godforsaken desert, just waiting to be drained.”

  Licking his lips, he proudly displays his fangs.

  Beside me, Victor tenses and I know he’s preparing to attack, to protect these people who gave us shelter.

  George drops his large hand on Victor’s shoulder. “Don’t worry yourself. We can take care of these pests on our own.”

  He ambles forward with confidence. “Brave man,” Victor murmurs, but I know he’ll only honor George’s request up to a point. He won’t stand by while humans die.

  “You boys should just head on out,” George says. “Ain’t no need for any trouble.”

  “There won’t be any trouble,” the vampire says, sliding off his horse, his spurs clinking as he lands. Judging by his attire, he was once a cowboy who herded the cattle that now roam free. When a human is turned, he tends to cling to what he was before, even when he lusts for blood. “In fact, we’ll be able to take this town real easy.”

  The others dismount, their rumble of laughter and expectations at easy pickings echoing around them. But something incredible is already beginning to happen.

  Rather than running off in fear, the townsfolk are surrounding them. The Lessers look around, unable to hide the strange nervousness they’re feeling, obviously unaccustomed to any sign of bravery from humans. They wanted a town with inhabitants afraid of even one pair of fangs, let alone four.

  “All right,” the leader says, raising his voice in an attempt to calm his troops and intimidate the growing crowd. “The first person to step forward I will personally turn. No more running from vampires. You’ll become one.”

  No takers. Not a single one. Instead, stakes are pulled from belts and boots. I’m impressed by the resolve of the townspeople to protect themselves.

  “Last warning, friend,” George says, placing his gun on the ground and pulling out a pair of his own metal stakes. “The dust in this town ain’t sand. It’s vampires. You hear me?”

  “Maybe. But it’ll all be blood by morning.”

  “Something’s off here,” Victor whispers. “I was distracted, didn’t notice it before.”

  “What?” I ask.

  Without a word, he pulls a stake from within his duster and steps slowly in front of me. With an Old Family vampire here, I feel better about our odds. Much better.

  Michael and Jeff also have stakes in hand. Michael hands me one. I welcome its weight against my palm.

  But I can’t do anything as the outlaw leader, using his vampire speed, rushes toward an elderly woman. She tries to raise her stake, but the vampire is far too quick. The vamp stands behind her, arm wrapped around her neck, a knife at her throat.

  “Don’t,” Dr. Jameson orders us quietly, but with determination, and I realize each of us had taken a step forward. “This is our fight.”

  To my surprise the hostage woman’s face is calm, serene, as though the vamp is simply holding her so they can dance. Why isn’t she terrified?

  “All right then, friend,” the leader sneers. “We’ll take one. Just one. Look at her: she’ll be dead in a few weeks anyhow. We’ll take her off your hands.”

  “You might’ve bitten off more than you can chew, son,” George says, a glint of humor in his voice.

  “Ha! I haven’t done that in a hundred years,” he says, the knife beginning to press into the old woman’s wrinkled throat.

  “That may be, but I can guarantee that you
aren’t gonna like the taste.”

  The old woman smiles, her fangs glinting. She opens wide and clamps down viciously on the vampire’s arm. Releasing a high-pitched yelp, he backs away, dropping the knife and grabbing his gaping wound. The old woman immediately begins spitting out his blood.

  Several townspeople move with such swiftness that the dust whirlpools around them. Only vampires move that fast.

  George strikes with identical speed, and three others from the group converge onto the leader. I see the stakes, then they disappear, and I know the vampire is no more. A moment later, a dozen other townsfolk charge toward the other three, a beautifully timed choreography. Surrounded, the intruders scream. Then silence fills the air. When the townspeople step back, they look like petals opening to the sun, and the four vampires who rode into the devil’s cavern thinking it was a treasure cove are left in a pile in the middle. Dead. Stakes through their hearts.

  Victor didn’t move at all but kept his hand on my arm, protecting me from this sudden outburst of violence.

  “Don’t worry,” Dr. Jameson quickly says, approaching us with her hands up in surrender. “We’re friends. Please, believe me.”

  “But . . . but they’re vampires,” I say. I look over at Jeff and Michael, who are just as still, just as shocked as I am.

  “Half the town is, yes.”

  George asks for water for the elderly woman, and when it arrives, she quickly begins washing the vampire blood from her mouth. They must know of the Thirst and its dangers. Her actions are a preemptive step. A very good one.

  “Are you—” I begin.

  “I’m human,” Dr. Jameson admits. “I’m the representative for all the humans here at Crimson Sands, while George leads the vampires.”

  “Every house here has two families in it,” George says as he wanders over. “Humans, warm in their beds at night, and vampires, asleep underneath those very same beds during the day.”

  “But George, this morning, we saw you . . .”

  “In the sun? Well, I’m a Day Walker. I know you haven’t heard of us, but—”

  “Believe me, we have,” I interrupt. “We’ve even met your Maker.”

  “And you’re still alive? I’m impressed. Seems like we have some catching up to do, then. Let’s get these raiders taken care of first.”

  Several men make their way over to the bodies of the dead. They carry them off behind a small barn. Not a word is exchanged, just understanding. When the sun rises, more ash will blow through Crimson Sands.

  Someone else gathers the horses and leads them toward a corral. People begin to wander back to their homes as though tonight’s events were familiar and boring. But Victor stays by my side. If Old Family don’t like change, this sudden shift has certainly made him tense.

  When finished with his task, George returns to us.

  “Come,” Dr. Jameson says. “You’ll probably want to hear more about our little town.”

  “That’s an understatement,” Michael says.

  Chapter 3

  Once inside the house, fresh coffee is poured for everyone. The four of us just stare at ours, while George and the doctor take alternating sips.

  “There isn’t much to tell, really,” George says. “Vampires, Lessers to be specific, living together with humans. Peacefully.”

  “How many Day Walkers?” I ask.

  “I’m the only one.”

  “That’s why he’s such a good leader,” Dr. Jameson says. “He can walk between both worlds, as it were. A lot like you, Dawn.”

  My heart stops. Does she know? Does she know about Sin and the Montgomerys? Does she know that I’m a vampire?

  “As a former delegate,” she says, after a moment’s pause. “You know both worlds. Right?”

  “Yeah,” I say a little too quickly, swallowing hard. “Yeah. I know the rules of each.”

  “The difference is that in those walled cities,” George says, “the blood is taken under threat. I know it’s always called a donation, but it’s pulled out of the veins by fear, nothing else.”

  “And here?”

  “It’s also a donation,” Dr. Jameson says. “But here, the people willingly give it.”

  “Why?” Michael asks. To him, with his hatred of all things fanged, this must sound very strange.

  “Because we recognize the value of our vampire friends,” she says. “They protect us at night from the Lessers who would do us harm. In return, we protect them during the day from hunters and scavengers trying to make a quick profit off some vampire fangs.”

  It’s a simple, beautiful system. But . . .

  “Blood quota?” I ask, as though a delegate check sheet were right in front of me.

  “Never needed it.”

  “Current blood supply?”

  “Overflowing,” Dr. Jameson says. “We have more than we need. I have to turn people away.”

  I think about Denver and its massive infrastructure, the blood banks, the initiatives, the propaganda posters, the thousands of citizens. All of that and we can’t come up with enough blood. Yet here, they have plenty.

  “We’ve never had a shortage,” George says. “And we’ve never had an incident of a vamp taking what doesn’t belong to him.”

  “You mean taking blood straight from the neck,” I say.

  “That’s right. Learning to control our urges took a little time, but now, we couldn’t even imagine doing it.”

  “That’s incredible,” I say.

  He just shrugs. “Out here we’re kinda dependent on each other and grateful for one another.”

  Grateful for one another. I smile at that. I’d love to see that as a poster in Denver. Grateful for each other.

  “Have you ever heard of anything like this, Victor?” Jeff asks.

  “No,” Victor says. “Not since the war anyway. Before that we tried living openly with humans, and you know how well that worked out. A system like this isn’t sustainable. Once there are too many humans, or too many vampires, the power will shift.”

  “I wish you had more confidence in us,” Dr. Jameson says. “But does your system of blood quotas and delegates work better?”

  Victor turns to George. “So, you know my half brother, Sin.”

  The change in topic is abrupt, but I know Victor doesn’t want to get into a discussion on the difficulties he has in getting donations from the citizens in Denver.

  “I’m afraid so,” George says. “He turned me back when he was still a young’un. But he’s a different man now. I’ve watched him change before my very eyes.”

  “Tell us everything,” I say.

  “I was his second in command,” George says. “I was one of the first Day Walkers he ever created, and I was loyal to him for a century, always by his side. I was a fool. I thought what he gave me was a gift. Eternal life. Terrifying strength and speed. But it came at the cost of taking blood from my fellow man.”

  He sips his brew, and we all stay silent, waiting for him to continue.

  “I watched the madness slowly grow inside of Sin. He always felt like an outcast, and in many ways I suppose he was. He tried to reconcile with other Old Family, but they were all just like your father, Victor. They saw him as a freak of nature. The anger in his heart fueled him. He fed off human blood just as much as he fed off his hatred for the Old Families, for the vampires that turned him away.”

  “I should have looked for him decades ago,” Victor says. “If I had, maybe I could have found him, reasoned with him. Stopped him from becoming a monster.”

  But George just shakes his head.

  “There was no reasoning with him. He was born to hate. It’s in his blood. And it only intensified once he controlled Los Angeles. I helped him. I stood by as he slowly turned the city of angels into a city of Day Walkers. I thought that would be enough for him. But I was wrong.

  “He sent me out on a scouting expedition, searching for humans he could ‘bless’ as he called it, but I’d had enough. The farther I traveled, the less
I wanted to go back. Then I discovered these folks and they welcomed me like I was one of their own. Before I was turned, I was a soldier protecting people. Returned to my calling here.”

  “But where does it end for Sin?” Jeff asks.

  George doesn’t look us in the eyes but instead takes another sip of his coffee, adjusts his hat that needs no adjusting.

  “Complete domination of humans and vampires alike, with what he calls the Chosen leading the way,” he says. “Handpicked Day Walkers, the best and most loyal, and he infects them with the Thirst.”

  I instantly think of Brady. That’s what he became; it’s what Sin turned him into. All traces of the brother I had once loved were lost within those blackened eyes.

  “His goal is to have five hundred of them,” George continues. “From there, he’ll take them, along with every Day Walker, and march. Nothing will be able to stop him at that point.”

  “How can he possibly control these ‘Chosen’?” Victor asks. “I’ve fought one before. It nearly killed me, and that was only one. Sin talks of hundreds? They’ll overwhelm him.”

  “That’s what I told him.” George sighs heavily. “But he didn’t seem bothered. His last words to me before I left were: ‘Of course it’s impossible, in my current form. But I have only begun.’”

  I cringe as I remember Sin’s teeth sinking into the neck of my ancestor, Octavian Montgomery. Sin knew what he was doing. Sin wants to be taken over by—

  “The Thirst,” I say. “Sin wants to become one of the Infected.”

  “Why would you think that?” Victor asks.

  “We saw him drain an Old Family vamp,” Michael says. “He seemed to think Old Family blood held the key to making him invincible.”

  Victor jerks his head around to stare at me, a clear question in his eyes: Is that what happened in the cave?

  I give him a small nod. I can admit to that much, but the rest of it—

  Not yet.

  “Is it even possible for Old Family to become Infected?” I ask Victor.

  “I don’t know,” he confesses. “I simply don’t know.”

  “The real question,” Jeff says, “is how long do we have? You said Sin wants five hundred of these Chosen before he moves out, right? Well, how many does he have? And how long will it take until he’s ready? Months? Years?”