Blood-Kissed Sky (Darkness Before Dawn) (9 page)

“Michael, listen, about Victor. I was going to tell you about him. That night. Hell Night. After the party.”

“And what were you going to say? That you were serving as his blood diva?”

“No,” I snap, then reel in my anger. I hurt him. I can’t expect him to be happy about all this. “He never saw me as a source of blood.” Until death was coming for him, but I’m not going to tell Michael that. “We … I care about him. But I care about you, too. I want us to be—”

“Don’t you dare say friends.” He stops walking and faces me. “He’s a vampire, Dawn.”

I realize Michael is struggling with that fact. Maybe it would have been easier for him if I’d fallen for another guy from school.

“Yeah, I know. Who would have ever thought—me and a vampire, right?”

“It’s not funny.”

“I’m not laughing. And I understand that you’re angry and need time. Just don’t shut me out. And don’t tell Tegan, but you’ve always been my best friend.”

He tightens his jaw, shakes his head. “I hate the F-word.”

“Hey, come on, guys!” Tegan yells, interrupting us. “It’s getting ready to start.”

We hurry over and follow the next group of riders as they’re being loaded on. When I step onto the wobbly platform, I quickly claim a horse. Tegan takes the one beside it. Grabbing a pole, Michael stands between us.

The ride starts and we begin slowly revolving, the entire fairground moving past us in a soft blur, like so much of my life lately. I can’t remember the last time that everything seemed sharp and uncomplicated.

I glance over at Tegan. Clutching her stuffed cat, she’s wearing a small smile and her eyes are closed. Michael grins at her, then his gaze clashes with mine. It’s hard being with him like this. The music spilling from the speakers is loud, trapped beneath the canopy. It doesn’t provide the best backdrop for conversation, but watching Michael saddens me. He meant so much to me for so long.

“Other than dealing with how messed up things are between us, how are you doing? Really?” I ask.

“Everything changed Hell Night, Dawn. I’m more focused on my training. A lot of my weaknesses were exposed.”

Michael’s always hard on himself, especially when it comes to this. He’d been taking extra after-school bodyguard and vampire-hunter classes. His goal was to one day become a Night Watchman. Not that he’d be able to tell me if he ever achieved it. Night Watchmen are notoriously secretive so they or their families don’t become vampire targets. Lord Valentine didn’t trust the Night Watchmen. I suddenly realize that I don’t know how Victor feels about them, but surely he understands they are needed as long as vampires infiltrate the city.

“How is that going?” I ask.

“Good. It’s just taking up more of my time.”

“Michael, I want you to know—”

That I’d never meant to hurt you
gets cut off by a shrill scream.

Tegan’s eyes pop open wide and she’s glancing back. “What was that?”

It wasn’t someone winning a prize or someone too high up on the Ferris wheel. No, it was chilling.

Michael’s gone into warrior mode, his body tensed and alert.

We see the ride operator running away. As the carousel continues on, we’re treated to a view of the crowd fleeing in all directions.

“Something’s wrong,” Michael says, helping Tegan get off her horse.

I don’t wait for assistance. I just slide off, hitting the platform, feeling it shake beneath me. Another scream echoes around us. It’s much closer, on the carousel itself. People are scrambling off their wooden animals, grabbing kids, jumping off the spinning platform onto the ground. It isn’t high up, and it isn’t moving fast, but the fear causes most people to stumble before getting up and running.

Then I see what they’re running from.

A Day Walker.

He appears around the curve, blood running down his chin. He’s laughing, his hands covered with the same dark crimson, wiping it against the painted horses and dragons, smearing it against the brass poles.

Tegan, Michael, and I draw our stakes. The vampire advances toward us, taking his sweet time, dancing between the poles, even doing a twirl, laughing the whole way like some psychotic ballerina. He’s older, not a teenager at all. Then I think about the Night Watchmen who were turned by Sin. Am I looking at one?

“Be careful,” I say.

“Be careful!”
the vampire mocks.

Another scream has us jerking our heads around. A patrol guard is struggling with another Day Walker. This one is a girl, my age, the one I bought cotton candy from just a moment ago. Now I realize where I’ve seen her before. I didn’t recognize her from school; I recognized her from the Missing Persons posters after Hell Night.

Sin got to her, and now she’s gotten to us.

“Let’s go!” Michael yells.

Jumping off the carousel, we land awkwardly, but quickly regain our footing. Michael dashes over to help the guard fighting off the girl.

“Run!” I order Tegan, taking up a defensive position, facing the carousel.

“No way,” she says.

I feel her back against mine; she’s watching for another surprise while I want to get this vamp on solid ground. We could run, but that would leave this guy searching for a new victim.

“Do you know who I am?” I shout.

Grinning broadly, he leaps off the carousel. “Dawn Montgomery. Sin sends his regards.”

“Walk away now or you won’t be returning with a message.”

A high-pitched shriek cuts across my words. I dare a quick glance over. The guard is prone, a stake is protruding from the girl, and another vampire is squaring off against Michael.

Turning my attention back to the waiting vampire, I wonder why he hasn’t attacked yet. Maybe killing me isn’t on his agenda. I don’t want to consider what is. “Look at your friend!” I shout. “Do you want to end up like that? A stake can kill a Day Walker just as easily as any other vamp.”

“You can’t take me down,” he taunts, opening his mouth wide, his fangs glistening in the sunlight.

He charges—

I dart around him and leap back onto the carousel. Tegan runs to where two more Day Walkers are engaging Michael. They disappear from view as the ride rotates, and I see the Day Walker who charged me jump onto the moving platform.

“You can’t escape, Dawn.”

“I don’t want to.” I have a stake. All he has are fangs. When humans are turned, they gain a vampire’s arrogance, and it becomes their greatest weakness.

He catches up to me, facing me, with the horse moving up and down between us.

“I need you to come with me,” he says. “Don’t make me kill you.”

He reaches across to grab me. The horse goes up. I duck beneath it and force the stake through the soft flesh below his ribs, angling it up and pushing twelve inches of finely honed metal into his heart. He stumbles back, falls into the sun, and is now at its mercy. He is dead before he hits the ground.

I rush over to help Michael and Tegan, but ash begins swirling around them as the slain vampires become glowing embers in the sun. Michael reaches out and grabs my wrist with one hand and Tegan’s with the other.

“Let’s get the hell out of here.”

I
t would be better for half the city to be on fire than to have gone through what happened earlier this afternoon. Rumors are running rampant that hundreds of Day Walkers are out there, wandering the streets at will.

Michael escorted me straight to the Agency, then took Tegan home. I can’t stop thinking about the people we saw along the way who were in shock. One woman stood in the street screaming as though she thought a vampire would sink his fangs into her at any moment. Others were angry, throwing things against store windows, looting, pillaging. Most people, though, were rushing home, striving to find security behind locked doors and barricaded windows.

All the police and Night Watchmen had to be called out to restore order. Clive made a brief appearance on television to state that only a handful of Day Walkers exist, and that they will be hunted down by the Night Watchmen. The same Night Watchmen that no one trusts anymore.

“What’s this bastard trying to accomplish?” Clive asks.

Rachel and I are in his office, at the top of the Agency building in the heart of the city. We can look out and see the walls. I’m surprised I don’t see a mass exodus, a line of people stretching from here to the horizon, everyone leaving at once, taking their chances in the wild, desolate countryside. Maybe that’ll come tomorrow once calm is restored and they’ve finished packing.

Clive looks at me. “Guess Sin is still around.”

“Probably.” I scowl. “One of the Day Walkers told me he sends his regards.”

Clive summoned Roland Hursch, since he’s the new delegate, but he has yet to show. I wonder if he’s cowering somewhere.

“This is my fault,” I continue. “I had to go to that stupid fair.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Clive shouts, standing up quickly. “This isn’t anyone’s fault. We have to figure out how to identify these Day Walkers and destroy them. And this Sin fellow. We need to find him, too. I’m putting a bounty on his head. If he’s still in the city, we will track him down and—”

Before he can finish, his phone rings. He lets out an angry sigh and picks it up. “What? Wait. Who? Impossible. No, let them in. Let them in immediately. I don’t care! Just do it!”

He slams down the phone. “We’ve had an interesting development. Seems Sin wants to speak to us as well. He’s sent us a messenger.”

We go to the window and watch a white carriage, pulled by six powerful white horses, come down the main street. Even from this distance I can tell the citizens are turning their heads, concerned by what they see, even if they don’t understand it. Vampires embrace past eras; the Victorian period was their golden age and most are more comfortable with the trappings from that time. The carriage stops outside the building, and when the door opens, it seems like the sun itself steps out. From my place on the top floor all I see is flowing white. Then it’s gone, heading through the entrance.

“Okay,” Clive says, taking us back to his desk. “I’ll do the talking, but you ladies give me a signal if you’re catching something I’m missing.”

When the door opens, a woman—with tan skin, hair so blond it nearly outshines the sun, and a low-cut dress in a shade of white that seems impossible in this dirt-filled world—enters. She’s beautiful, complete perfection. Her soft smile reveals her pointed fangs.

“Director Anderson, a pleasure to meet you,” she says, her voice angelic.

“The pleasure is mine, I’m sure,” he says. “And who graces us this fine afternoon?”

“My name is Eris. I’ve been sent as an emissary from Sin to discuss certain matters.”

“We welcome you. Please be seated.”

“That won’t be necessary. I won’t be staying very long.”

“I see that you’re a Day Walker,” Clive says.

“Indeed. Sin has blessed me. He chooses so few, and those he does are eternally grateful for the gift.”

“And what of those he doesn’t choose? Is he kind to them as well? Do they gain his pity?”

“No. Those unworthy quickly find themselves … unnecessary.”

“Even Day Walkers need human blood,” Clive retorts.

“For now …”

Clive’s brow furrows and I can tell that he isn’t sure how to respond. He’s not catching what she might be alluding to. I’m not sure I am, either, but something about what she said tickles the back of my mind.

“What about you, Eris?” I ask. “Can you give the same blessing? Can you create a Day Walker?”

She looks right at me. Her eyes are a piercing green, nearly transparent.

“Dawn Montgomery,” she says. “How wonderful to finally meet you. I’ve heard so many fascinating things.”

“Odd. Sin never mentioned you.”

“And you didn’t answer her question, Eris,” Clive points out.

She gives me a patient smile, as though the prodding came from me. “Only Sin can create a Day Walker.”

I wonder if Sin meant for her to reveal a weakness in the system.

“But obviously he’s not strong enough to control them,” Rachel says. “Several just attacked the citizens.”

“He is more powerful than you can comprehend,” Eris answers, a biting edge slipping into her calm.

“If he’s so powerful, why isn’t he facing us now?” I ask.

“You do not disappoint, Dawn,” Eris says, her eyes glittering with leashed anger. “Sin warned me about you. He said that I had to tread lightly, that you were too smart for your age, too clever. Too willing to sacrifice.”

“I’m not flattered by anything he says.”

“Not yet, you aren’t. But you will be. When you serve him, you will accept his generous compliments.”

“Yeah, like that’s ever going to happen. I’d stake myself first.”

Eris’s stare turns cold. She seems to be speaking from another world entirely, and I realize that she isn’t young. She has to be one of the first Sin ever turned. Behind her voice is infinite knowledge and experience. I imagine many have defied her, but few have ever won.