Crimson Debt: Book 1 in the Born to Darkness series (28 page)

Turning to Corbin, he began to laugh. At
first it was a breathless sound but then, presumably as his lungs
healed themselves, it was more full throated.

“A silver-worked stake,” he cried. “Is that
all you could think of? You thought you could kill me with this?”
And he threw it point first at Corbin, like an athlete tossing a
javelin.

Corbin caught it in mid-flight and flipped
it, turning the point toward himself. It made me nervous to see
that wicked silver tip hovering so near his heart.

“I know I can,” he said coldly.

And then he drove the stake into his
chest.

“Corbin! Oh my God, Corbin, what did you do?”
I gasped as he sank to his knees. There was red blood on the stake
now—Corbin’s blood and, as before, the silver rune snakes were
writhing and curling along the black shaft that protruded from his
chest.

“Addison,” he whispered, his voice
strained.

“No!” I rushed to him, heedless of Roderick
or any danger he might still represent. “No! Oh, no, no,
no.”

Horrified tears filled my eyes. Emotions were
flooding me—regret for all the harsh words that had passed between
us, overwhelming sorrow at the idea of losing Corbin, anger at
myself for my own stupidity in pushing him away…

“No,” I cried again. “No, I won’t lose you
like this—I
can’t!”

I reached for the stake, prepared to pull it
out but Corbin knocked my hands away.

“Stop,” he muttered. “Must give…enough time
to feed. A life for…a life.”

“What are you talking about?” I demanded,
blinking away tears. “What has to feed? These things?” I touched
one of the writhing silver runes and pulled my hand back
immediately. “Ow! The damn thing
bit
me! Corbin, what the
hell is going on?”

“Did…what was…necessary.” He shook his head.
“Don’t worry…I’ll…be fine.”

“You’re kidding—you just drove a stake
through your own chest! How the hell are you going to be fine after
that?” I demanded.

“Fine,” he insisted and even had the nerve to
smile at me.

“What—?” I began but then a strangled moan
from Roderick tore my eyes away. I nearly choked when I saw what
was happening to the vampire Inquisitor.

Roderick had sunk to his knees again and this
time he didn’t look like he was going to get back up. His face,
formerly white, had turned a dirty gray and veins were standing out
all over his body like worms crawling just under the surface of his
skin. As I watched, his eyes turned from red to black and then they
simply dried up and caved in, leaving empty sockets staring back at
me. His skin dried up too—wrinkling and sagging before pulling
tight to his skull until he looked like something out of a horror
movie about mummies.

As I watched, his whole body seemed to
crumble in on itself, putrefying and shriveling up almost instantly
like a fast motion film about the process of decay. When he finally
fell all the way over, there was nothing but a desiccated husk
lying on the floor with a shock of gray-brown hair sticking out of
its dried up scalp.

I stared at the weird thing in awe and horror
until a low sound from Corbin pulled me back to the present.

“Corbin?” I looked down to see that he was
pulling the stake out of his chest, just as Roderick had done. What
was going on? Didn’t this thing kill anyone? Or did it have a way
of killing I didn’t understand? I stared at him, disbelieving, as I
saw the black and silver stake come out smoothly. Corbin laid it to
one side. The silver runes were completely red now but they had
stopped writhing, reminding me ominously of snakes who have become
sluggish after having their fill.

As I watched, the hole in Corbin’s chest
filled in, just as the one in Roderick’s had. And then he was up
off the floor and smiling at me as though nothing had happened. As
though he hadn’t appeared to commit suicide right in front of me
not a minute ago.

“There, you see, darling?” he asked.
“Fine—I’m completely fine.”

I sniffed and shook my head. “But…how? I
don’t understand.”

Corbin winked at me. “And you don’t need to.
Roderick is finished—that is all that matters.”

“No, that is
not
all that matters.” I
climbed to my feet, ignoring the hand he held out to help me
up.

“Addison,” he began in a placating tone but I
held up a hand to cut him off. Earlier when I thought he had killed
himself I had been horrified and grief stricken. Now I was just
mad.

“Corbin, what the
hell
did you do?” I
demanded. “How does that stake work? How did you kill Roderick? I
want to know and I want to know
right now.”

He frowned. “I got a little help from a
business acquaintance, that’s all. Don’t worry about it.”

“I
do
worry about it,” I said. “What
acquaintance? Are you talking about that weird Goth girl with the
purple hair who was leaving when I came in tonight? Who is she,
anyway?”

He sighed. “Just a witch I know. Her name is
Gwendolyn LaRoux and she has a small business here in town. Don’t
worry…” He put up his hands. “She hates vampires almost as much as
you do, darling. But I made her an offer she could not refuse—in
return, she gave me the means to kill Roderick.”

I looked at Corbin for a long moment but he
showed no signs of drying up and turning into a mummy like Roderick
had, so maybe everything really
was
all right.

“So…he’s really dead?” I nudged the mummified
thing on his carpet carefully with one toe. I half expected
Roderick to come back to life and grab me. Thankfully, he
didn’t.

“He is.” Corbin sounded serious. “One of his
age is extremely hard to kill.”

“Yeah, that’s the understatement of the
year.” I sighed and looked around. “Your office is a mess. And the
vase…” I looked at the blue and white shards of the priceless Ming
vase lying scattered across the carpet.

“The vase doesn’t worry me—are
you
all
right?” Corbin took me by the shoulders and ducked his head,
peering anxiously into my face. “Do you feel well, Addison?”

“I’m fine.” For some reason I couldn’t meet
his eyes.

“Are you certain?” He cupped my cheek and
wiped something away with his thumb—a tear. “Then why are you
crying?”

“I’m not.” I swiped at my eyes and tried to
smile. “I was just…shocked when I thought you were…were gone.”

“Shocked, hmm?” He looked at me more closely.
“Perhaps you were upset? Could it be that you realized that you
could return my love after all?”

“Nothing like that,” I said, pulling away
from him. “More like…I didn’t like the idea of the world without
you in it.” I looked at him at last. “Satisfied?”

Corbin sighed and for one quick instant a
look of infinite sadness crossed his face. Then he smiled. “Not
nearly satisfied, darling. But it’s nice at least to know that you
will miss me when—” He stopped abruptly and cleared his throat. “I
mean, that you
would
miss me if I were gone.”

“Corbin?” I frowned at him. “Is there
something you’re not telling me?”

“Of course not.” He looked around at his
ruined office. “Nothing but that you owe me a new office. You’re a
real menace with that gun of yours.”

“I’m usually a really good shot,” I said,
stung by his teasing. “It was just…Roderick was so
fast.”

“But not fast enough.” He arched an eyebrow
at me, making me laugh despite myself. “Seriously though, darling,
do you realize that between Taylor’s bride price and the lovely but
now-ruined tribute I bought for Roderick, you have cost me over two
million dollars tonight?”

“Are you serious?” I looked down at the
jagged remains of the vase again. “I figured it might run as high
as a million but I never thought—”

“Don’t be sensitive, Addison—I am only
teasing you.” Corbin smiled, a bit too brightly, I thought. “Now if
you’ll excuse me, I need to get this mess cleaned up.”

“I can stay and help,” I offered, although
what I could do about the bullets embedded in the walls and floors
I had no idea. It was a good thing they hadn’t passed right
through—maybe they had been stopped by the soundproofing in the
panels.

“No.” Corbin shook his head. “This is a job
for professionals. And I must dispose of Roderick’s remains
myself.”

“What will you do with him?” I looked down at
the dried up mummy-husk again and shivered.

Corbin sobered. “He must be sent back to the
Empress. She will
not
be pleased.”

“Will you get into trouble?” I asked
anxiously.

“I’m not worried about it,” he replied,
looking away. “As powerful as she is, she cannot hurt me now.”

“Why not?” I asked suspiciously. “Because of
some kind of vampire law? Something about you beating Roderick in a
fair fight?”

Although I wasn’t certain how
fair
his
use of a witchcraft spelled stake was. What did the vampire laws
say about that? I looked at it, still lying there on the floor and
couldn’t help feeling like I was staring at a bloated snake. Just
the sight of it made me shiver.

“Yes, something like that.” Corbin sounded
distracted. “Now, I really must get to work so maybe you should
just…”

“I should just what—run along? Is that it?” I
frowned at him. “What’s going on, Corbin? I know when I’m being
dismissed.”

He frowned. “Nothing is going on except what
you said you wanted. Roderick is dead and Taylor is free of
Celeste—our business is concluded, our relationship over.”

I stared at him for a moment as the words
sank in. Of course I had told him I wanted out as soon as this was
over but now that it was…I felt strangely empty at the thought of
going back to our former, official relationship of vampire and
Auditor. I remembered the feelings I’d had when I saw him plunge
that stake in his heart and pushed them away. I had just been
panicking, I told myself. Those emotions that had flooded over
me—they didn’t really mean anything except that I was freaking
out—right?

I cleared my throat. “So…so I should just
go?”

“Maybe you should go spend some time with
Taylor,” Corbin suggested in a condescending tone. “Have a little
‘girl talk’. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“Oh yes. Really nice.” I swallowed and heard
a little click in my throat. “Look, Corbin—”

“Addison, please—I really am busy,” he said
impatiently. “I need to get a cleaning crew in here and I have some
very specific rituals to go through in getting Roderick’s remains
ready for shipment.”

“Fine.” I shrugged, trying to look like I
didn’t care, like his dismissal didn’t hurt. “I guess I’ll see you
the next time I come around to inspect
the Fang.”

“About that…” Corbin looked up at me for a
moment. “I really do think it would a good idea for you to find
someone else to do that from now on. I mean, given the, ah,
relationship we were so briefly in, perhaps it might be more
professional if you distanced yourself from my business.”

“Distanced…myself?” There was a lump growing
in my throat now, one I couldn’t swallow no matter how hard I
tried. But I didn’t want to let Corbin know. “Sure,” I made myself
say. “I can, uh, switch with a coworker, I guess.”

“Good. I think that would be for the best.
Goodbye.” He nodded at the door. When I didn’t go to it, he took me
by the arm and marched me to it. “I said
goodbye,
Addison,”
he said, releasing my arm and taking a step back.

Feeling like I had no choice, I opened the
door. Then I just stood there, staring out into the hallway, unable
to cross the threshold.

It occurred to me that this was the same door
I had refused to take when I thought Corbin’s life might be in
danger. The door I had avoided to stay and help him fight. And yet
now that the danger was past, I was letting him force me out of it
with banalities and irritation.

No, this isn’t right. Something about this
is wrong!
whispered a little voice in my head.

I turned to face him, looking up into his
eyes, searching for something though I didn't know what.

“Corbin—” I started to say.

“Goodbye, Addison,” he said firmly and shut
the door in my face.

“Addison, I think you’d better get over
here.”

Taylor’s voice on the phone sounded
worried—it put me on high alert at once.

“Why, what’s going on? Is that jerk of a
werewolf giving you trouble?”

“Who, Victor? No, he still hasn’t shown
up.”

“He hasn’t?” I was immediately indignant.
“Does he want you to starve to death? Doesn’t he know he’s the only
one you can feed from? I’m going to call him and give him a piece
of my min—”

“I’m not worried about Victor right now,”
Taylor interrupted. “I mean, I’m getting pretty thirsty but I’ll be
okay…for a little while longer, anyway.”

“Well then, why should I come over there?
Especially when I’ve been asked to stay away?” It had been a week
since our last encounter and Corbin’s request that a different
Auditor be assigned to inspect his business still stung.

“It’s Corbin—you need to come see him,”
Taylor said.

My heart leapt up into my throat. “What? Why?
Why didn’t he call me himself?”

She sighed. “He doesn’t know I’m making this
call. But Addison, you need to see for yourself—something isn’t
right.”

This time my heart plunged into my stomach.
Wow, I was really getting some great cardiac calisthenics here.

“What do you mean—what’s wrong?” I asked.

She sighed again and I could almost see her
running a hand through her hair. “It’s Master Corbin.”

“Master?
Really?”

“Well, he
did
rescue me from Celeste,
which makes him my master now,” she said, sounding
uncharacteristically snappish. “Cut me some slack, Addison—I’m
trying to tell you I think Corbin’s in trouble.”