Welcome to the Darkness (Darkness Trilogy) (32 page)

“Dearest Nathaniel,” he read. “I knew you could not r
esist rescuing a damsel in distress. I do hope you remain unscathed from my little trap, but I could not resist adding a slight challenge to your task. Of course if any injury was incurred, you have this tasty morsel in front of you from which to take your nourishment and heal. Until we meet again, your Queen.”

Nathaniel shook
his head. The tendency for over-dramatization certainly ran in the family. He berated himself once again for missing the fact that the King and Queen were siblings. Now that he knew, he wondered how he could ever have thought otherwise. There was little physical resemblance however, and the same seemed to be true of Sarah and her sister, Sophie.

Her bindings undone, Sophie stood up and Nathaniel got a better look at her. She was tall, an inch or two taller than his five foot eight. She had blond hair to Sarah’s honey
brown and gray-green eyes to Sarah’s more hazel green.

She wrapped her arms around her chest as if she were cold. “You’re one of
them
, aren’t you?”

He was uncertain how much the Queen had revealed to Sophie. “Well, I am a . . .”

“Vampire,” he said at the same time she said, “Monster.”

He blinked, unsure what to say next. She opened her mouth to speak, and her lips part
ed as if in slow motion. The vein in her neck pulsed a staccato beat.

“Are you going to bite me?” Her voice quivered and she backed away from him.

“No. I will not bite you.”

“Will I turn into a . . . a vampire . . . if you bite me?”

“No. And I am not going to bite you. Please, you must come with me so I can take you to your sister.” He held out his hand, but she didn’t take it. He sighed. “Follow me.”

He walked to the door, relieved to hear her footsteps behind him. They continued to the elevator, which opened as soon as Nathaniel pressed the button. It appeared as though no one else had summoned the elevator since he’d used it last. He stepped inside and Sophie edged through the door, slinking along the wall to place herself as far away from him as possible.

When they reached the lobby, Nathaniel spotted one of the security guard’s jackets slung over a chair behind the desk. He grabbed the jacket as well as an unopened can of Dr. Pepper resting next to the guard’s computer.

“Put this on,” he said, passing Sophie the jacket.

She held it away from her body with a grimace.

Nathaniel frowned. “It is cold outside and you are wearing a sleeveless blouse and skirt. This is for practical purposes, not fashion.”

Sophie rolled her eyes and slipped the jacket on as if it was coated in spikes.

Nathaniel held out the Dr. Pepper. “And drink this. You must be terribly thirsty.”

She didn’t argue, and gulped the warm soda. Sophie drank her fill and Nathaniel pulled out his phone to call Sarah.

“Nathaniel! Where are you? Did y
ou find her?” Sarah shouted. He yanked the phone away from his ear.

“Yes, I have Sophie here with me. She is fine. May I r
emind you not to shout in my ear?”

“You found her? And she’s okay? Can I talk to her?”

“As I said, she is well. I trust you were successful in your own endeavor?”

“One of the hunters was killed, but the virus has been destroyed and the mansion was demolished,” she answered.

Nathaniel felt a pang of regret at losing the entire New York vampire contingent, but knew it was probably for the best. “Where do you want to meet? I will bring Sophie and you may talk in person.”

Sarah rhymed off an
address that did not sound familiar to him. “What is this place?” he asked.

“It’s a ho
use. It belongs to one of the hunters,” Sarah replied.

“One of the vampire hunters?” he said, incredulity co
loring his voice.

“Yes.”

Nathaniel gritted his teeth. “Does he know about me?”

“She, actually,
not he. Her name’s Trudy. And yes, Reed and I both told her all about you. She’s okay with you being a vampire, I promise.”

“
Tell her to stash the weapons–the UV balls–well out of sight. If I see even a hint of one I shall react with deadly force.”

“Nathaniel, we’re all on the same side here. They’re not going to do anything, and I told them you wouldn’t hurt them either, so . . . please be careful.”

“We will be there shortly,” he said and hung up in his usual fashion without saying goodbye. He looked up the address for the rendezvous point on his phone and committed the route to memory. “Shall we go?” he asked, turning to Sophie.

She nodded, and they pushed through the revolving doors into the cool night. The air smelled damp as though the clouds were heavy with an impending rainfall. N
athaniel crooked his arm for Sophie to grab hold, but she gave him a wary look and tucked her hands into the security guard’s jacket.

Nathaniel shook his head. “As I said earlier, I will not hurt you. I apologize if I keep looking at you like food, but I am anxious to satisfy my nutritional needs. The sooner we get you to the rendezvous location, the sooner I may find an appropriate source of nourishment.”

“I’ll just follow behind you, if that’s okay?” she asked with wide eyes.

“As you wish.”
He turned and walked away and she hurried to keep up.

After a few moments, Sophie said, “So . . . you’re really a vampire?
For real?”

Nathaniel continued walking. “I thought we covered that already.”

“I know, but my eyes are telling me one thing and my brain is screaming ‘You’re crazy!’ How the hell did Sarah get messed up in all this?”

“I will let Sarah answer that herself,” he answered. He knew Sophie must be brimming with questions, but he could not help feeling a tad impatient.

“Have you always been a vampire? I mean, were you born that way, or did you get turned into one?”

“All vampires were once human. Vampires cannot pr
ocreate.” Nathaniel picked up speed, hoping to wear her out and put a halt to the interrogation.

She was breathing heavily, but continued firing one question after another. “How do you become a vampire then?”

“Most of your blood is drained and then you ingest fresh vampire blood. The transformation is extremely painful and many do not survive, especially females and children.” When he said the words, his thoughts turned to the Queen who had been both female and a child at the time of her turning, a rare case indeed.

“Are you like, two thousand years old or something?”

Nathaniel was having trouble keeping up with her peculiar train of thought. “No. I was born in 1781.”

“Oh,” she said, sounding almost disappointed.

Nathaniel stopped suddenly and Sophie bumped into him. “It would be much faster if I could carry you. I realize you are uncomfortable around me, but I can get us there in a matter of minutes if I run, whereas it may be another hour at our current speed.” And he wasn’t sure he could put up with the constant questions for another minute.

Her warm breath clouded the air
while she panted. “You want to run while you’re carrying me?”

“Yes.”

She leaned her head back and looked at the sky. “Oh God. Okay. Whatever. These have been the craziest two days of my entire life.”

Sophie bit her bottom lip and tensed. It was the first time her mannerisms reminded Nathaniel of Sarah. He scooped her long, lean body into his arms and sped down the deserted streets to their destination. Now it was his turn to enter the lion’s den
: a group of humans dedicated to killing his kind. How had he gotten himself into this mess?

S
arah and I sat on the flo
wer-patterned couch in Trudy’s living room, waiting for her to return with drinks. Our rendezvous point was Trudy’s house: a small, sparsely furnished bungalow. There were a couple of framed photos on her fireplace mantle, both of Trudy with a man who looked like her husband or boyfriend.  The pictures didn’t look that old, but she’d never mentioned having a significant other. Maybe vampires had killed him and that was why Trudy became a hunter. I knew something tragic had happened, but I didn’t know exactly what.

Trudy walked into the room carrying a drink in each hand, one for Sarah and one for herself. Sparkling water mixed with cranberry juice and a squeeze of lemon, her f
avorite drink apparently. She passed a glass to Sarah and then swished her own drink before taking a sip. “Beats tap water by a mile,” Trudy said. “I’m kind of picky that way. Tap water in New York tastes like it came straight out of the sewer.”

I thought
it was damn lucky she didn’t drink the city water because it was tainted with the virus. Now I had to figure out how to tell them my latest bit of bad news. A knock at the door saved me from saying anything for the moment.

“May we come in?” Nathaniel’s voice carried into the living room.

Sarah slammed her drink down on the coffee table and stood up. “Sophie!” she screamed.

A tall, blond-haired woman raced past me into Sarah’s open arms. “Sarah!”

I glanced at Nathaniel and waved, and he nodded back. His eye color had paled from its usual almost-black brown to a light brownish-gray. He must have been thirsty, but it looked like he was planning to hang around for a while. He leaned against the living room doorframe and watched Sarah and her sister’s enthusiastic reunion.

The two women pulled apart, looking at each other teary eyed. Sarah’s sister turned to me and looked me up and down. “Who are you?” she asked
like it was an accusation.

I frowned and crossed my arms. “I’m Reed. You must be Sophie.”

She looked between Sarah and me, and then looked between us one more time. “Sarah? Are you two . . . ?”

My face grew hot.
How the hell could she tell there was anything going on between me and Sarah just from looking at us? We weren’t even standing next to each other.

“Yes, Soph. Reed and I are together,”
Sarah answered. She gave me a reassuring smile.

“But, how old is he?” Sophie said under her breath.

I glared down at her, even though she was only two or three inches shorter than me. “Uh, ‘he’ can hear you,” I said.

She turned to me and crossed her own arms.
“Oh yeah? So how old are you then?”

“Seventeen.
Eighteen in another month and a half.”

“Ha!” she shouted, turning back to look at Sarah as if she’d made her point.

“Are you two even related?” I muttered. They didn’t look like sisters and I was starting to hate Sophie already.

“Excuse me,” Nathaniel said and we all turned to look at him. “This juvenile argument seems rather pointless. Do we not have more serious matters to discuss?”

“Good point,” Trudy said. She still stood in the doorway on the opposite side of the room from Nathaniel, but she was clearly making an effort to show him her support. It must have been weird to have two vampires in her house after spending so much time trying to hunt them down and kill them.

“Well, I have something important to say,” I said, and all eyes were on me. “When I was in the
mansion, I spoke with the King–”

“King?
What King?” Sophie interrupted.

“Would you let me finish?” I snapped.

“Guys, please,” Sarah pleaded. Sophie glowered, but stayed quiet.

“The King told me,” I continued, “that he introduced the virus into the city’s water supply three days ago.”

Trudy and Sarah both gasped. Sarah’s expression crumbled and she looked lost. “But, that means . . . everything I went through to destroy the virus was for nothing.”

“Oh my God,”
Trudy said. “Liz and Sahib and Pickle . . . they’re all sick. It’s not a flu. It’s the damn virus!”

“I am curious as to why none of
you
are ill then,” Nathaniel said.

Trudy said, “I just finished saying how much I hate the taste of tap water. That must be my
saving grace because I never drink it. And Joe, I’ve never seen him drink anything except Coke or beer.”

“I’ve only been in New York for a day and a half,” S
ophie said. “And no one’s given me anything to eat or drink since I got here, except for that Dr. Pepper.”

“I drink tap water all the time,” Sarah said. “Although, come to think of it, there was an ‘out of order’ sign on the tap in our room at the manor, and bottled water next to the sink.”
“The King said he made sure you wouldn’t drink the water and get infected,” I added. “I don’t know why he bothered, but . . .”

“That would explain why the city appears to be deser
ted,” Nathaniel added. “Almost everyone must be incapacitated by the virus.”

Something slammed against the living room window and we all jumped. A woman had walked right into the front of the house. Her body pressed against the glass and she was still trying to move forward.
Her eyes were extremely pale, like a vampire’s when they were thirsty. And . . . she had fangs.