Welcome to the Darkness (Darkness Trilogy) (5 page)

Shoulders slumped, she returned to her apartment fee
ling baffled. She closed the door behind her and locked it. The duffle bag was still on the floor, so she crossed the room and knelt down beside it to inspect the contents. A map, with her building marked on it, a set of keys, a photo of her building, and a floor plan of her apartment. Plus the screwdriver on the floor and the discarded bug sitting on the side table next to the couch. No identifying information whatsoever.

How the hell
had he gotten all these things? She probably should have called 9-1-1. She definitely should have dug into his mind for some clues. Too late now, she thought. She’d bring this stuff in as evidence, but she had a feeling she might never find out what Reed had been up to, if that was even his real name. Boy, she’d been a sucker for those innocent-looking baby blues. Damn!

W
hat a colossal screw-up, I thought, as I plopped down on a worn wooden bench across the road from a gas station. There were quite a few people milling about downtown San Jose, stopping in at the local café, window shopping, or entering one of the shiny glass high-rise buildings. Just business as usual for the rest of the world.

I had high-tailed it out of that woman’s apartment as fast as
my vampire legs could carry me, which was pretty damn fast. No doubt she was wondering what the hell had happened. I didn’t know what to do now. I was so dead. Worse than dead probably.

I watched a dark green Chevy sedan turn into the gas station and park off to the side of the pumps. A middle-aged guy got out and sprinted into the convenience shop. He left the car running, probably planning to buy a pack of cig
arettes or something. I had one of those crazy thoughts like when you imagine yourself climbing over a balcony railing and jumping, or swerving into oncoming traffic on purpose. The kind of thought you never actually follow through on, but you scare yourself for having thought it at all.

Something inside me snapped. I was desperate, and for the first time ever, I acted on the impulse. I dashed across the street to the idling car. Almost as if someone else was in control of my body, I opened the car door and jumped in. I put the car in reverse, backed up, and drove away. I was a
lready in so much trouble; it couldn’t get any worse, could it?

I wasn’t
very familiar with San Jose, although I had visited both San Jose and San Fran a couple of times. I also didn’t drive very much, because I took a bus to school or hitched a ride. Hopefully, I could figure out how to get on Highway 101. Then I’d be set. 

I headed south and
found signs for the 101 right away. Before I knew it, I was on my way home, or to what was left of my home.

Less than two hours later, I
turned up the gravel driveway in my stolen car to the charred remains of my house. I brought the car to a stop and stepped out. As I walked toward the front door, the only sound that broke the silence was my footsteps crunching on the driveway.

The fields of our avocado farm remained untouched by the fire. The cattle smell from our neighbor’s property
combined with the stench of ashes and soot. The house wasn’t burnt down to the foundation; enough of the blackened skeleton remained that the overall structure was still there, although the roof was gone. The place was deserted and yellow police tape marked the perimeter.

Who knew
if and when people would return to investigate further? No amount of investigating would reveal the truth though, unless I told my story. I wondered what would happen if I did. Or what if I waltzed into my school and sat down in calculus class to announce my new status as the local vampire?

I stepped gingerly through the former front door and scoped out what was left of our possessions. Pretty much everything
was burnt beyond recognition. I moved further into the entryway and took a tentative step on the first stair leading to the second floor. The staircase didn’t seem like it would fall apart, so I continued up. I found one of my sister’s hairbrushes melted into a plastic bottle of hairspray like an abstract piece of modern art. After several more minutes of searching, I discovered the ultimate treasure in my parents’ room: a photograph frame that lay face down on the dresser. The frame itself was worse for wear, but by some miracle, the picture inside was still in relatively good condition. A family photo, taken this past summer at the zoo during our trip to LA. I removed the photo from the frame, and stuffed it carefully into the back pocket of my jeans.

I returned downstairs and paused in the living room where this whole nightmare had started.
A surge of anger built up inside me while I stood in the middle of the blackened, crumbling room. I turned and punched the wall and shouted as loud as I could. In a flurry of motion, I struck out, flinging bits of burnt wood and broken furniture in random directions all around me. My fangs popped out through my gums with a sting, and my voice changed again and I continued to yell and destroy everything I could get my hands on.

After several minutes of working out my frustration in a whirlwind of fury, I sank to my knees. My hands shook and my breath came in gasps.

Gradually, my breathing steadied and I started thinking of what I was going to do about my failed assignment and those stupid, psycho vampires. Could I run? I’d have a good head start because they couldn’t start tracking me down until sunset. I shivered thinking of what they’d do to me if they managed to find me though. And then there was good old Nathaniel, rotting away in his cell back at the lair.

It was their own fault the assignment failed
anyway. I mean, why the heck didn’t they figure out what time that cop was at work? Then I could’ve gone in when she wasn’t there. That would have been infinitely easier. Maybe they had set me up to fail from the beginning as some sort of test, to see what I would do when everything went to hell.

I realized what I had to do. Like it or not, I had to r
eturn to the lair. I still had a few more hours before nightfall, so I’d have plenty of time to return the stolen car to the gas station I’d taken it from, and find my way back.

On the return trip to San Jose, I rolled down the wi
ndows. I let the wind whip into the car, ridding myself of the smell of burnt house. I tried not to picture the vampires cutting off all my fingers and toes one by one.

The sun drifted down from the sky for the night, as ribbons of red and gold stretched across the late autumn sky. After leaving the stolen car at the gas station, I’d taken a city bus the rest of the way. I stepped off the bus a block and a half from the nondescript house that was the entrance to the San Jose vampire lair. Halloween was a week away, and many houses in the neighborhood were decked out with pumpkins, spider webs and skeletons. I had the perfect costume too; all I needed was a black cape and a widow’s peak.

I turned up the front walk of the house and let myself in using the key they’d given me. The place seemed deser
ted, but of course, the vampires were hiding from the day’s remaining sunlight. I had no idea what they did to keep busy during the daytime, but I knew they weren’t sleeping. That was one thing I’d figured out: vampires didn’t sleep, except for that short period of death after feeding.

The door leading downstairs was unlocked, so I conti
nued through and headed down. As soon as my foot hit the bottom step, one of the doors of the long hallway opened, and Dominic stepped out.

“Reed,” he said.

“Dominic.”

He tilted his head to the side. “Was your mission a su
ccess?”

I dropped my ga
ze to the floor and gathered my thoughts, even though I’d rehearsed what I was going to say a hundred times on the way here. “No . . . no it wasn’t. In fact, I’m not sure how it could have gone much worse. You have no idea how hard it was for me to come back here.”  I still couldn’t look him in the face.

“I smell your
fear, youngling, but know this; while you were punished earlier for your rudeness and lack of respect, two things the Queen despises, she values loyalty immensely. You’ll see in time she’s not unreasonable, and in fact you may be honored to serve her in the future.” He opened the door to the room where I’d been debriefed for my mission earlier. “Please, wait in here for a moment,” he said, ushering me inside. I did as he asked, and he shut the door behind me.

It was less than five minutes before Dominic returned, although it felt like l
onger. “This way,” he beckoned and made his way toward the door that led to the Queen’s chamber with the throne. I followed him into the dimly lit, cavernous room. The Queen was perched on her throne, with the other woman behind her. Candace? No, Constance.

The Queen addressed me. “Tell me what happened, young one, and do not leave anything out, no matter how insignificant it may seem.”

Under her penetrating gaze, I spat out the entire story of my failed assignment at the cop’s apartment in every humiliating detail. I even told her I’d driven back to King City to see my house. I hoped she could sense my honesty and eagerness to please her. I desperately wanted to make her happy so she wouldn’t hurt me again.

She was silent a moment before speaking again. “Come here, Reed,” she said, using my name for the first time. “Kneel before me.”

I shuffled closer to her, and knelt down. As I looked into her ice-blue crystal eyes, I tried not to tremble or show fear. She leaned forward and placed her cold hands on either side of my face. With extreme effort, I managed not to pull away or flinch when she brought her lips to my own.

She held
me for a second or two and then released me. No images flashed before my eyes like the last time. The Queen sat back with a satisfied smile and crossed her hands in her lap.

“Your mission was not a failure,” she told me, and ind
icated I could stand up again. “I have seen what you experienced, and indeed my suspicions about this young woman have been confirmed. She did ask you who ‘Nathaniel’ was, did she not? Yet you never uttered his name out loud.”

Did the
cop ask me that? If she did, it must have been because I’d said something. Or . . . wait a minute–

Before I had a chance to think about it, the Queen co
ntinued. “I want you to bring this woman here, alive. Before that however, Dominic will escort you out for your nightly feeding. He can ‘teach you the ropes’ as they say, because you are no doubt lacking in knowledge about some of our important rules.”

“Uh, hold on, I mean . . . no offense madam, or your majesty, but . . .
are you saying you want me to kidnap that woman?” I asked in disbelief.

“I meant you should invite her to our lovely abode, Reed my dear. If she refuses, then you may have to bring her here by force, and so be it. You may go,” she said, with a dismissive flick of her hand.

Dominic grabbed me by the arm and half-dragged me out of the room. I followed him in a daze as we went back upstairs. We continued outside into the darkness, now that the sun had set. When we reached the sidewalk in front of the house, he stopped and turned to me. He was tall enough I had to look up to meet his eyes when he talked to me.

“I’ll take you to one of my favorite hunting grounds in the city,” he began, in his rich
, soothing voice.  “Show you some tricks of the trade,” he added, with a playful wink. I had to admit Dominic seemed half-decent, for a vampire that is, although he was obviously pumped about going out to ‘feed.’

“Um . . . ‘hunting grounds?’
You mean hunting for people, right?” I asked.

Dominic stared at me for a good five seconds, blinking very slowly before reply
ing. “Of course I mean people–humans–what else would we hunt?”

A
couple across the street were walking their tiny dog. They were deep in their own conversation however, and didn’t seem to notice us. Even the dog didn’t spare us a look while his little legs worked furiously to keep up to his owners.

“Cows, maybe?” I suggested, wondering if Dominic was going to burst out laughing at me.

Instead, his face crumpled in disgust and he shivered. “Bovine blood . . . yuck. Reed, have you ever tasted a cow’s blood? There’s simply no comparison to human blood. None whatsoever!”

I shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I’ve only had cow’s blood so far. Well, except for whatever it was they gave me in that cell.”

“That was human blood, but it wasn’t fresh, so that hardly compares either. Come with me, and I’ll show you what real blood tastes like,” he said and turned away from me.

“Wait! Look, man . . . I really, really don’t feel comfor
table attacking some poor, unsuspecting person. Sucking out an animal’s blood like a giant mosquito is bad enough. Besides, I thought you guys were trying to fly under the radar. How come no one’s noticed all kinds of people being bitten every night? The old ‘wild animal attack’ story can only go so far.”

Dominic tilted his head
while he regarded me. It was that weird mannerism the Queen had used on me too, like a bird spotting a worm in the grass or something. “How odd. You lack instincts that come naturally to all vampires, even newly turned vampires such as yourself. It will be okay, Reed, trust me. If you capture the gaze of your prey, you simply tell them to forget, to relax and not feel the pain. When you finish feeding, your saliva heals the wound, and the human is none the wiser for having served as your dinner. You only need to drink about a pint of blood per evening, which a human can easily spare.”