Welcome to the Darkness (Darkness Trilogy) (15 page)

She glanced at Reed, and his angry thoughts flew at her while he sat and stewed. She walked over to him and knelt on the ground. “It’s over,” she said. “I’m okay, really.”

He raised his head to look at her. “That bothered me. A lot.” He shook his head. “I want to strangle Nathaniel.”

Sarah bit her lip. Should she say anything? It seemed weird that she knew what the problem was and he didn’t. “I think . . . maybe . . . you’re a bit jealous.”

His head snapped up. “Jealous?” he scoffed. “No way, that’s not it. I swear it; I never want to bite you again. That was a mistake. I mean it!”

She swallowed and took a deep breath.
“No, not jealous like that. I meant . . . jealous at the intimacy of him touching me. Putting his mouth on my wrist. You know, that kind of thing.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but his retort died on his lips.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” she continued. “I’m not attracted to him at all that way. There’s no chemistry, if you know what I mean.” She paused, but he was still staring at her, speechless. “I realize we didn’t make a good first impression on each other because you were trying to bug my apartment and then I shot you.”

Reed blinked, and she watched trance-like as his ey
elashes moved down and back up again, revealing his deep blue eyes. Her lack of sleep was getting to her. Maybe she should stop babbling. Her gaze focused on his slightly parted lips, and before she could stop herself, she leaned forward and kissed him.

He stayed perfectly still
when she pressed her lips softly against his. She pulled back slowly and searched his eyes for a reaction. He looked dumbstruck, but then a grin started to grow at the corner of his mouth. She could hear the fireworks of surprised pleasure going off in his head, and she smiled.

“Sorry, I guess I just made everything more complica
ted,” she said. “My brain is fried. I can barely remember the last time I got any real sleep. In fact, I think I’m going to lie down over there and crash, if you don’t mind.”

She shuffled over to a clear area a few feet away, and curled up on the ground. She turned so her back was facing him and
tried to ignore his thoughts while her own mind raced. It would be a miracle if she managed to fall asleep, even though she was dead tired. This had been the longest day of her life, but at least it had ended on a good note.

W
ow. Sarah had kissed me.
Sarah
had kissed
me
! True, she was probably messed up from exhaustion and the after-effects of her adrenaline-fueled afternoon . . . but still. I couldn’t believe she’d made the first move. I’d had it bad for her from the first millisecond we’d met, but I’d thought she looked at me as just some kid. Maybe she’d regret kissing me when she woke up.

Nathaniel lay dead to the world along the wall opposite me.
I felt tired and overwhelmed, and I would have given almost anything to be able to curl up and go to sleep myself. When I glanced outside the cave opening, a tumbleweed blew by. Was any of this real? I felt like I was in one of those movies where the main character realizes they’re in a virtual reality world, and they have to figure out how to escape.

Nathaniel sat up, startling me. He filled his lungs with two deep breaths before turning to me.

“That was quick,” I said.

His shirt and pants had giant holes in them
, but the skin underneath was smooth, without a trace from the burns.

“
The length of death after feeding is relative to the amount of blood taken. Thus, the small bit taken during an emergency feed requires a much shorter death sleep,” he replied.

“Oh.” I thought back to when Sara
h had shot me in her apartment and I’d bitten her. I guess it was possible I hadn’t been out for my usual hour.

“
I guess we’re stuck here until the sun goes down,” I said.

“Indeed.”

“Listen, you tried to hypnotize Sarah so it wouldn’t hurt when you bit her, but it obviously did hurt her. I thought I was the only vampire who couldn’t hypnotize people. Is my problem contagious or something?”

Nathaniel frowned. “I have never encountered this problem before. I suspect the anomaly i
n this case lies with Sarah.”

Now it was my turn to frown. “What do you mean?”

“I suspect she is immune to vampire mind control. Her brain clearly functions in an atypical fashion because she can read thoughts.”

I had so many questions and I
was pumped about finally getting some answers. “Nathaniel?”

He looked me straight in the eye.
“Yes, Reed?”

“What’s wrong with me? Why am I different? I mean, why can’t I mesmerize people? And more importantly, why
am I able to go out in the sun? Am I only half a vampire or something?”

“No, that is impossible,” he said, shaking his head. “B
ecoming a vampire is akin to contracting a virus or disease. You cannot catch half a disease; you either have it, or you do not.”

“But . . . I do
n’t understand,” I said.

“There are certain humans who exhibit unusual abil
ities,” he began. “Sarah, for example, who can read people’s minds. These humans manifest special powers when they become vampires. This means if Sarah were to survive the transformation into becoming a vampire, she would have at least one extraordinary power.” He paused.

“Another example,” he continued, “is the Queen. As a human, she was reputed to have the ability to sense people’s feelings, even when they were not in close, physical proxi
mity to her. As a vampire, she can absorb one’s memories as though she had experienced them first-hand.”

Ugh
. . . it made my skin crawl when I thought about the time she’d kissed me with her cold lips and sucked out my memories. Her looking twelve years old had made it even more disturbing.

“So, what does all that have to do with me?” I asked.

“My guess is you also had a special ability when you were human, and that ability has manifested itself into your capability to walk in sunlight and touch silver.”

“
That doesn’t explain why I can’t hypnotize people.”

“Yes, well . . .
this is conjecture, mind you. The King in New York might help you find more answers, as he has done extensive research on this subject. I believe he is attempting to find a way for all vampires to walk in the sun. This makes him exceptionally interested in you, of course.”

“Okay, the thing
I still don’t get is that I didn’t have any special ability when I was human,” I said.

“Perhaps it was not as obvious as Sarah’s special skill, but if you take some time to think
about it, you may realize there was something, however insignificant.”

I’d think about
that later. I still had lots of other questions. “All right then, how did I become a vampire in the first place? At the beginning I thought it was because Pythagoras–”

“Panagos,” Nathaniel corrected.

“Right, whatever. Anyway, I thought it was because he bit me, but
you
bite people every night, and they don’t all become vampires.”
“Very good,” he said, as if he was proud of me, his eager student. “To make a vampire, you must drain the human almost completely of blood, which is a significantly larger intake of blood than a normal feeding. Almost ten times as much, in fact. Then the human needs to consume some of the vampire’s blood. Even a small amount will infect a human,” he said.

“Hold up a second
. I never drank any of that guy’s blood.”

“You did. It is the only way. Think back to the attack if you wish to find the answer.”

I so did not want to replay any part of the attack ever again, but I did want answers. I closed my eyes and pictured the scene of the attack from the moment I’d been tossed through the air and landed in the front room of my house. I’d grabbed a piece of wood to defend myself, and when the vampire came at me, I’d slashed him across the face. His blood had spurted all over me, including into my mouth.

God
damn it! I
had
consumed some of his blood, but not on purpose. That meant I’d been turned into a vampire by accident.

“You have realized something?” Nathaniel
raised his eyebrows.

I heaved a big sigh.
“Yeah. You were right. Of course.” I wasn’t sure why I felt so disappointed about turning into a vampire by mistake. Maybe if there was a reason why I’d been turned, I’d feel like my being a vampire had purpose. Maybe everything that had happened would somehow be justifiable. But now? I had to accept it was a stupid case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and nothing more.

I slumped back against the cave wall.
“He didn’t choose me or my family for any particular reason. It was just bad luck.”

“I agree,” Nathaniel replied. “Panagos was not in his right mind when he attacked your family. He was quite aged, even for a vampire. All vampires eventually lose their sanity if they survive into their fourth century. Every va
mpire was once human, and the human brain was not meant to hold centuries worth of memories, experiences, and emotional trauma. Therefore, the older vampires usually end their long existence when they first notice the onset of dementia. There is a ritual we follow to ease them from this life. I do not know why Panagos hid his mental decline and avoided meeting the sun as he should have.”

“You mean vampires kill themselves as soon as they n
otice they’re starting to go crazy?”

“Yes. It is far preferable to succumbing to raving lunacy and risking exposure to the human world. Clearly, humans are aware of the tra
gedy that befell your family. Panagos risked exposing us all.”

“So the bottom line is . . . Panagos killed my family and accidentally turned me into a vampire because he was i
nsane. And that’s it?”

Nathaniel
gave me a kind look. “It is only natural for you to seek a reason for your misfortune. An explanation for your losses might help you deal with the grief. The unfortunate reality is there often is no logical explanation. Tragic things happen to good people with no better reason than bad luck.”

I supposed that was true, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. I stewed
while we sat in silence. Sarah hadn’t stirred once during our conversation.

I thought back through my life, trying to figure out if I’d had some sort of special ability
like Nathaniel suggested. How could I have been able to do something extraordinary and not even noticed? No matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with anything. Maybe this king in New York really could help me find some answers.

“What time is our flight to New York?” I asked, brea
king the silence.

“I am afraid we
can no longer fly out of Las Vegas,” Nathaniel replied.

“What?
Why not?”

“The vampire contingent the Queen has sent after us
will expect us at the Las Vegas airport. If we continue with our old plan, they will apprehend us there. When darkness falls, we shall depart on foot and procure another vehicle. Then we will make our way north into Utah. We can catch a flight out of Salt Lake City.”

I huffed out a sigh
. “How could the vampires attack us in the middle of the airport? You said they try not to attract humans’ attention, and I’m sure people would notice that kind of thing. And–” I continued, cutting Nathaniel off before he got a chance to answer, “I thought you said Vegas was neutral territory, whatever that means. I assumed that meant we were safe from vamps attacking us.”

“I did not say the vampires would attack us, I said they would apprehend us. There is a difference. If we have Sarah with us,
they will threaten her well-being to force us to obey their instructions.”
“Fine. So what does neutral territory mean?” I said. Nathaniel had a real knack for explaining away every one of my perfectly logical points.

“There is no ruling monarch in Las Vegas or the su
rrounding area. It is an unwritten rule that any vampire can visit the city with impunity, meaning they can do as they will without fear of punishment. As long as they do not expose our kind to humans, of course, but that is always in our best interests.”

“So, if there
was
a king or queen in Vegas, what difference would that make?”

“Any vampire wishing to enter a territory ruled by a king or queen must obtain permission from the ruling mo
narch. Most likely, that permission would not be granted.”

“Do we need permission to go to Salt Lake City then?” I asked. All the vampire politics made my head swim.

“Absolutely,” Nathaniel agreed. “Although the King in Denver rules the area that encompasses Salt Lake City.”