Dark Horizons (The Red Sector Chronicles) (10 page)

Now I knew what Aden had meant by the City of the Dead being a “cluster-thing.”

“This is incredible,” I said, pressing my face against the glass
. I’d always wanted to visit Paris, Rome, and a long list of other places, and now
,
in a way
,
I sort of was
.

I glanced at Dezyre in the mirror; even she seemed somewhat a
wed by the arrangement of multi
colored buildings around us. I guess she hadn’t been outside the base much, if at all.
Then again, I don’t suppose she woul
d have a reason to. The base had
convenience
stores, diners, and just about everything else
I
picture
d
small town America
having.

Gobs of civilians, al
l bearing some sort of sign or T
-shirt, ran past us as we zipped down the road. There didn’t, ho
wever, seem to be many cars or C
himeras or whatever they called them present. For the most part, ours was the only vehicle I saw. “Are there always this many people out?”

“No,” Rook said, keeping his sharp eyes focused on the road. “The city has strict curfews, which I bet the military will be here to enforce any minute now. Even for holidays like New Year’s, they are required to be in their apartments by 1 a.m.”

I thought
back to the White Sector, the safe house
for human survivors.
They were
enclosed pieces of cities run by military government offi
cials and guarded by mercenaries
. The closest White Sector, no. 34 “Pittsburgh,” wasn’t quite that strict, but there had been some chang
es made
regarding where
people could go
and
at what time of day. Apparently freedom was the price for survival, or at least according to the government
.

We blew by a guy with a white T
-shirt that said “Long live the emperor.”
Tears were running down his face, the long streaks lit up like golden rivers against the backdrop of dingy bubble lights strung over the street.

“I didn’t know the people cared so much about my brother,” I said, not without irritation.

“Before Orion and I came down here, there was nothing but a bunch of
scared, half-
starving vampires living in squander.” A strange sense of pride came through
Rook’s
voice, a faraway look glossing over his gaze. “Orion was brilliant. He saw what had to be done
,
and the people liste
ned to him. They were desperate.
Orion was the savior they had been waiting for.”

I thought back to my brother,
to
the psychotic glee in his eyes as he murdered all those guards without hesitation. The part of me that remembered him as my brother could see him being a leader
and
showing compassion to those less fortunate than him.
The other part
of me –
the older
, wiser Sloane
who knew better –
couldn’t help thinking of him in any other light than
that of
a killer.

And he had a whole city of people who practically worshipped him.

I gritted my teeth against the high-pitched squeal of tires as we spun around a curb and barreled toward a blank space of wall that was clearly a dead end. Thinking maybe Rook would turn at the next intersection, I didn’t start panicking until he blew past it and kept going toward the wall.

I glanced at him. “Rook?”

“Hold on.”

I sucked in a tight breath, eyes going wide as they snapped around to stare at the approaching wall.

We never
hit. A pressure sensor must have triggered it
because a few feet away
a piece of the wall rose up, revealing a dark tunnel that wove straight through the earth.
The road steepened, climbing upward at a deep incline. Ro
ok flicked a switch
and the car’s headlights came on, though they seemed dimmer than I remembered most cars having.

I could smell Dezyre’s nervous fear coming off her like some twisted perfume, and I wondered if they could detect the same from me.
Then again, my glam
our was stronger than most vamp
s
’
, so maybe I was the only one who noticed their labyrinth of twisted emotions.
Adrenalin electrified my veins, staving off the heavy wave of exhaustion that fought to break through.

The tunnel wove up and up, and I didn’t dare spea
k lest I
disturbed
Rook’s attention. H
e seemed to need all he could get to keep us from
crashing
into the walls. His jaw flexed as he carefully maneuvered us through
the slim tunnel. At last,
the
red
hazy cloud cover I thought I would never feel excited to see came
again
into view through an opening in the earth above, and we shot out of the tunnel onto a cracked, paved road.

Dilapidated houses with rotting shutters and gas stations
guarding
their
rusting pumps rushed by us in red-ti
nged
,
monochromatic blurs. Big
scarlet clouds billowed from the Scarlet Steel factories in the distance, staining the atmosphere – and thus the moonlight – red.

Not a soul was in sight, giving the neighborhood a lonely, desperate look.

“We’re in a Red Sector, aren’t we?” I asked.

Red Sectors had become no-man’s-
land
.
After the Eclipse, they were blocked off by the government, which considered them dangerous because of the vampiric monsters known as Rogues that lurked there. Though the media said the military had the Red Sectors secured, that they were “safe” now, I knew better.

Ro
ok nodded, his expression grave and
the look in his eyes on edge. Dezyre cleared her throat, suddenly looking uncomfortable.
The tension in the car thickened to the point of choking on it.

I pried my eyes off Rook, scanning the area.
Buildings
with peeling paint and crumbling foundations lined the empty streets. Broken stop signs with big black spray-painted crosses flashed by, the Black Cros
s Guild’s way of marking their
territor
y.
Nothing moved, but I would be stupid to believe we were totally alone.
“Where are we going?”
I asked, pryi
ng my eyes off the broken-down
cars and
missing person
posters.

“Toward the Pittsburgh White Sector,” Rook said, casting a quick glance at me. “Orion will need food
,
and that’s the first place he’ll look.”

My stomach twisted, kno
wing by “food” he meant “humans
”
.
Though I knew I needed
blood
to survive now, I still wasn’t comfortable with the thought of drinking from humans like they
were
Gatorade for Vamps
.

“I found Aden’s files on Orion, dubbed ‘Project Red Death,’ so I know all about the virus,” Rook said.

My brows lifted. “Really?”

From the backseat, Dezyre listened intently.

Rook
shrugged. “Well, enough to kn
ow he’s dangerous. W
e need to bring him to justice before he has a chance to cause any more harm, to us or to the humans.”

“Paris thinks she
can manufacture a cure,” I said. “I
f we can get a sample of his blood.”

Rook’s frown deepened. “We need to find him first. In addition to food, he’ll have plenty of places to hide in Pittsburgh. If he’s going to be anywhere, it’ll be –”

Something la
rge jumped in front of the car.
Rook swore, swerving to miss it. My gaze snapped forward, trying to lock onto
whatever we were trying to miss, but right then the car flipped. T
he world spun in an awful vortex of grating metal and Dezyre’s screams as the car rolled o
ff the road and slammed, upside
down, in
to
an embankment.

For a few frantic moments, all I could do was siphon air
in and out, in and out. With my heart in my throat, I
fought
the tremble trying to take control of my body as blood rushed to my head.
Forcing myself to think rationally despite my panic, I looked around. Where the hell
was
my seat belt
latch
?

There it was, the little silver buckle that had kept my head from becoming a pancake against the windows. It took me three times to release the belt because my hands were shaking so badly, but it gave with a snap and I fell forward as the belt retracted back into the side of the car.

Beside me, Rook groaned, going for his own seat belt. “Everyone okay?” he asked.

“Y-yes,” came Dezyre’s shaky reply. She was already free and trying to climb out the
now busted window to her left.

Searching for my own exit, I tried first rolling down the window. When it wouldn’t budge, I took to opening the door, which proved difficult because it was wedged against the incline of the embankment. Shoving my shoulder into the door, I heaved until I felt
it give and then forced it open. The space was
barely enough for me to crawl out through.

Easing myself up through the crack, I tumbled over the side of the d
oor and onto the brown
grass. It snapped and rustled beneath my touch, the long, brittle stalks protesting my weight as I hauled myself up and dusted off my jeans. My breath was still coming in heavy
gasps
, barely able to keep up with my now racing heart. A hot stream dribbled down the side of my face, and I r
eached up to wipe it away. S
yrupy blood
smeared between my fingertips. G
inger
l
y, I
touched
the rising lump on my
temple
. I couldn’t remember hitting
my head
.

Dezyre also wore a few scrapes and extra bruises, but she looked alert and ready. Her dark doe eyes scanned the area, the gun already in her hands. “What was that?”

“I don’t know,” Rook said, staggering up to us. His face was covered in blood, thanks to the deep gash across his
forehead
. “I couldn’t get a good look at it.”

A chorus of stuttering, tongue-clucking noises filled the air, turning my insides
to
ice. The three of us
whirled
around, our backs to one another, as a dark shape l
eapt on top of the upturned car and watched
us with glowing red eyes.

“A Rogue,” Dezyre whispered, her voice sounding tiny in the sudden stillness.

Something moved to the left. Not wanting to take my eyes off the Rogue for long, I quickly spared a glance at the shadow.

I thought my heart would stop.

Things
were moving behind the debris scattered around us; a clawed hand gripped a spent light pole, peering around it with a set of red eyes. Another shadow crouched behind us, a low, guttural sound rising from its throat.

In horror, I watched as the night lit up with at least ten sets of red eyes, accompanied by those odd, animalistic tongue clucks. The sound rose, making it hard to hear anything else.

“Rook,” I said warily.

“I know,” he said, voice sounding tight. Slowly, he reached to his side, where a handgun was holstered.

With a roar, a human-like creature consisting of little more than flesh and bone sprang from the car, its fangs bared as a snarl ripped from its throat.

It
was heading straight for Rook.
I knew he wouldn’t be able to turn around in time to do much about it. Screaming his name, I started forward when a gunshot rang out behind me, snatching the Rogue out of the air. It rolled on the ground a few times, clutching and clawing at the hole in its chest, which was beginning to glow. It screamed and writhed as the acid on the Scarlet Steel bullet ate it from the inside out.

The other Rogues hissed, their clucking more frantic and frenzied at the smell of blood riding the air.

Rook’s gaze snapped up
and I whirled. Dezyre still had the gun raised, smoke rising out of the barrel. Her hands were shaking so badly it was causing the gun to rattle.

Beside us, the downed Rogue continued to scream as its flesh rotted off. Almost faster than I could follow, more Rogues descended upon it, tearing into it and ripping it apart as it screamed louder.