Dark Horizons (The Red Sector Chronicles) (42 page)

“You didn’t seem like much of a threat,” he said. “If I recall, I bested you every time.”

I decided to cut the pl
easantries and get to the nitty-
gritty. “Why are you here?”

He casually walked around the side of the desk and plopped down into Mom’s leather chair, propping his feet up on her desk. Mud flaked off from the bottom of his boots, settling in a pile on the desk’s polished cherry surface. Mom would have a fit.

“I came to see Ivan,” he said simply.

I blinked. “You mean
the scientist?”

“You know another Ivan?”

I blushed. “Why?”

His eyes sparkled, like he was in on a secret no one else knew. “Would
n’t
you like to know?”

“I would, actually,” I said, stalking forward and stopping in front of the desk. “Tell me, or I’ll –”

“Or you’ll what
?” he said, cutting me off and over-enunciating each word. “Nag me to death?”

Oh, believe me, I’ll do a lot more than nag.

“Answer the question, Orion,” I said tiredly.

His gaze never wavered. He pointed to my chest, where the Mark was partially covered by a ton of powder. “Wouldn’t you like to know our history? Where we come from, how we got this way?”

My spine straightened. He must have seen the hungry look in my eyes, because he smiled and said, “
Ivan could tell us all that.” He leaned forward, his dark eyes sparkling. “He knows, Sloane. He knows where to find our ancestor, the great vampire king.”

I held his gaze.
“How could he possibly still be alive
? He’d have to be over two thousand years old.”

Orion shrugged. “He was the first. Maybe longevity is in his blood.”

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t relax around my brother. He wasn’t really my twin anymore; he was something else, some dark, twisted creature I could no longer relate to.

And he was the reason Leo was
a vampire
.

Anger licked my insides. “What do you plan on doing once you find him?” I said sharply.

“Unlock the key to immortality,” he said grandly, spreading his hands apart.

The room spun. So that’s what Orion was after. He didn’t care
for
learning about our heritage. All that mattered to him was figuring out how to sustain his own life.

“Imagine all I could do with a few extra centuries,” he said, his eyes growing far-off.

I tensed. “No one should live forever.”
Especially not you.

“Why not?” Orion said, a challenge in his tone. “It’s our birthright.”

“It’s our curse!” I screamed. “It’s not natural!”

Orion’s eyes flashed red, his lip rolling up in a snarl as he lunged for me. I managed to bring my hand up in time to block his grip, but the force of his attack still knocked me to the floor.
I tried bucking him off, but he was too heavy.

“You’re too pure to realize the gift that’s right in front of you,” Orion spat, burying his elbow deep in my throat. I choked for air, making to clock him in the jaw with my free hand, but he saw and blocked it, holding my wrist to the floor beside my head. “You’re smarter than this, Sloane.”

I tried to rasp out a response, but I couldn’t breathe. I blinked; stars were beginning to shoot across my vision.

“
Orion, leave her alone.”

Orion’s arm let up
and I gasped and coughed. My gaze snapped to the door.

My mother spared me an apathetic glance before crossing the room
. “Barbarism doesn’t suit you, S
on. You must have manners if you are to stand by my side.”

“Yes, Mother.” Orion hastily scrambled to his feet. He clasped his hands in front of him, bowing his head in shame.

I blinked. What the hell just happened?

When she saw the dirt on her desk, my mother’s nose wrinkled. “Apparently, we’ll also have to discuss proper behavior when indoors. Those savages have made you improper.”

My gaze swiveled to hers. “You
knew
he was here?” I thought over her last phrase, paling. “You know what he is,” I whispered.

“Of course,” she replied simply, sitting in the chair and gracefully crossing her legs. “We share the same blood, after all.”

Maybe it was from lack of oxygen. Or maybe it was from my mounting shock at
fully
realizing what my mother’s statement meant. But for whatever reason, the room spun on its axis. “It was never Dad who carried the strain.” I looked up, catching her gaze, my mouth open in disbelief. “It was you.”

Suddenly, the room’s décor made sense: all the medals, her accomplishments on the
battle
field.
My mother’s military history with the Marines had been impressive.
She was always the fastest, the strongest. I should have suspected something sooner, but I’d always chalked it up to her ruthlessness and refusal to be second best.

A cold smile graced her ruby lips. Next to her pale blonde hair and white skin, the red in her gown looked even more vivid. “It took a while before I realized why I was special. Doctors couldn’t figure out my genetic anomaly until the Rogues came. When I heard word of a man roaming the outer edges who looked like my late son, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was like me.” She gazed at Orion adoringly. “But he had become so much more than I could have hoped for.”

I ignored the sting of her favor. “So you’re not a full vampire.”

“Can’t you tell?” she said, arching a
brow. “I’m told your kind can sense
one another.”

“As a matter of fact, we can,” I said, hardening my gaze. “I made a rather interesting discovery about your coveted Scarlet Guard.”

Her smile turned cunning. “They are the perfect soldiers. Obedient. Loyal. Ruthless.”

“They’re mercenaries,” I hissed. “How long hav
e you known there were humanoid
vampires?”

She shrugged, as if this
were
inconsequential. “Ever since I learned of the first king and the powers he imparted in our bloodline. That’s when I saw the possibilities: a v
ampire army. The ultimate super-
weapon. Tracking them down, however, was another matter.” She examined a cuticle, seeming bored with the topic. “You can imagine my immense relief when my scientists uncovered how vampires are made.
It was then just a matter of
creating them ourselves.”

My stomach turned, and I staggered back from the weight of my shock. “You turned innocent people against their will?”

“I’d hardly call them innocent,” she said coldly. “They were thieves, rapists, the scum of the justice system. The world wouldn’t miss them. I simply repurposed them.”

“Repurposed,” I sa
i
d, deadpanned. “Like a used piece of machinery that won’t work anymore.”

I couldn’t believe this. I had thought my mother was unstoppable, but this
bordered
insanity.

There was something else nagging at my mind. “How long have you known I was a vampire?”

My mother eyed me shrewdly. “I suspected something was off at your last visit,” she said carefully. “But I did not know for certain what it was until recently.” Her eyes flicked upward for a split second, darting to something behind me.

I glanced at Orion. “You told her.”

“She deserved to know,” he said, folding his arms as if daring me to question his decision. “She would have figured it out soon enough once she captured you.”

“And now that we’re all here,”
Sovereign McAllister
said pleasantly, standing, “I think it’s time we got down to some family business.”

I stared at her. I wanted to tell her that we hadn’t been a family in a long time, but I decided it was probably best to keep my mouth shut for once. Frowning
, I watched her pace the room.
I need
ed
to get back downstairs. Leo
would
know something was
up if I
didn’t
return soon.

My gaze flicked to Orion
and I silently growled. I couldn’t leave before obtaining a sample of his blood.

“
By the way, d
arling,”
Mother
said, turning her back to me and putting her full attention on Orion, “you’ll be delight
ed
to know the experiment was a grand success.”

“Wait,” I said. “What experiment?”

She turned back around, clearly annoyed. No one interrupted Sovereign McAllister. “If you mu
st know right this second…” she said. “I was merely informing him
that
our
retest on the genetic weapon has at last succeeded.”

“A weapon? What do you…?
” I thought back to Dr. Rinaldi, how he’d told us he’d been unknowingly working on a biological weapon
that could make humans vampires without going through the traditional method of draining the victim and feeding them vampire blood
. My eyes widened. “You can’t be serious. All those people…” That explained why there were only humans downstairs.

They were guinea pigs.

“How did you do it?” I demanded.

Her smile turned cunning, like she was proud of herself. “It’s simple – everyone liked the punch.”

“You
spiked
the punch with a disease?”

“It was the quickest way to test our second batch of the strain,” she said. “And I’d say from the excitement downstairs, it was a whirlwind success.”

I listened harder, like really listened. I’d been so caught up in my dysfunctional family get-together that I hadn’t pai
d attention to my surroundings.

I blushed, feeling stupid.
Tuning out everything else, I picked up on agonized moaning, faint at first but growing stronger as I listened.

My eyes flared. “How
dare
you! What gives you the right to play God?”

“I earned that right!” she shouted, stepping closer. I didn’t back down. I glared at her, wishing I could incinerate her with my stare. “I earned it the day I learned I was more than just a poor, weak female
with no hope of a bright future because I couldn’t afford to make my dreams happen
!”

“So this is about power,” I said. “Of course it would be. It’s you.”

“Not just about power,” she said, shaking her head. “No, it was never fully about power. Don’t you see, Sloane? We could create a world where we wouldn’t be shunned. A world where humans are the outcasts, and vampires reign supreme.”

My jaw dropped. “And you and Orion would be their rulers.”

She tried to hide the guilt in her eyes. Too late. “Well, something like that.” Her eyes darkened; I swore they flashed red for a split second. “I was thinking more along the lines of a queen.”

Before either of us knew what was happening, she whipped out a gun
from the top of her dress
and shot Orion in the chest, straight in the heart.

I shrieked as he gasped, staring at the hole in his chest with disbelief. His shocked gaze lifted to
our
mother’s
pitiless face
. “Why?”

There was no warmth to her voice. “Because you’re in the way.”

The hole started to smoke; she had used a Scarlet Steel bullet. He fell to his knees, then his side, gasping and coughing as the acid ate him from the inside out.

I stared at him, speechless a
nd numb. This was what I wanted
right? The whole reason I
came
. Orion was a cruel monster who needed to atone for his actions. But as I watched the life drain out of him, all I could think was “that’s my twin.”

I pushed past her and dropped to the floor beside him. “Orion,” I said, unable to bring myself to touch him. I didn’t know what else to say. So much had passed between us that I wasn’t sure if I was sad for his death or relieved to be rid of the monster he had become.
And yet I could feel my heart breaking right down the middle.

He looked at me, trembling. Unintelligible words sputtered from his lips. I leaned closer. He gripped my arm.

“Find… Genesis.”

Heaving his last breath, the life in his eyes faded and his head lolled to the side.

A tear raced down my cheek as I stared at him. First Father, now Orion, and maybe Aden.
Was
I destined to end up alone in this world?

A gun cocked behind me. I slowly turned to find the barrel aimed a few inches from my forehead.

“Don’t worry, Sloane,” my mother said,
her voice devoid of emotion
. “This will only hurt for a second.”

Her finger moved for the trigger.

CHAPTER 25