In the Dark (29 page)

The strange car
disappeared down the street, leaving Sebastian with a bloody lump for
a hand. He shook it out, watching the car scream away. Blood drops
sprayed the cement at his feet. Sebastian hissed through his teeth,
then sheathed his sword and walked back up the driveway. He tore a
scrap of fabric from his shirt as he walked, thinking belatedly that
Ian’s neighbors might be drawn to their windows by the noise
and that he should at least hide the damage he’d done himself.
He wrapped the strip from his shirt around his ruined hand and
rejoined the women in the house.

“Who was
that?” Josephine asked, ignoring his hand. Pointedly, he
thought.

“Alec,”
Ian said in a tired voice. She had sunk back to the floor, one hand
rubbing her face. “Kent’s other . . . child.”

“Ah,”
Sebastian said. Josephine’s eyebrows lifted.

Ian took her
hand from her face, watching her sister as though she were addressing
her and not Josephine and himself. “He showed up yesterday.
Talked Amanda into letting him in and when I came home, he told me he
was my brother.” She looked imploringly at Sebastian. “I
thought – Kent has pictures of him. He seemed like he was
telling the truth.”

Sebastian nodded
once, setting himself on the edge of the couch. Josephine sat beside
him. With careful movements, she took his bandaged hand and started
re-wrapping it. An unexpected gesture from Josephine. Something in
him rose up at her touch . . . his first instinct was to take his
hand away, though when he tensed to do so he found himself compelled
to leave it. Curious, he watched her.

Ian gasped as
the bandage came off, though she knew better than to ask him about
it. It would heal. Young, but a quick enough learner.

He also heard
her swallow nervously. Her hunger was unmistakable. She should have
fed before creating a child. Of course, she would not have known that
until now.

With a soft
sigh, he touched Josephine’s hands, stopping her. She took them
away, head tilted. A yearning came to him, something he could almost
name . . . and then it vanished.

Consider it
later,
he promised himself, and offered his injured hand to Ian.
He felt her tension level jump as he did. Her eyes fixed on the red
mass of his hand. He did not think she realized it when she licked
her lips.

He flexed his
hand once, experimentally. It felt as if he had broken most of the
fingers, in more than one place. A few bones in his hand as well.
Several scratches and tears in the skin, many as deep as the bone. He
wasn’t bleeding. The red came from the violent manner in which
he’d acquired the wound. Corpses didn’t bleed, but if one
bashed them hard enough, blood did come out. All in all, it should
have been more than appetizing.

Ian looked at
him instead of his hand, uncertain. He raised it an inch.

“There
really isn’t time for you to be squeamish. Either you eat now,
or go hungry for the night.” He tapped the arm of her couch for
emphasis and left a red fingerprint on the upholstery.

Despite her wide
eyes, she licked her lips again. He offered his hand once more. It
was quite lacerated – she wouldn’t even have to bite.

She closed her
eyes, disgusted, though her fangs showed white against red lips. He
waited for her to refuse, her eyes clenched against the desire.

She took his
hand.

He hadn’t
expected it – she still had her eyes closed. He almost pulled
away. She pulled his hand to her mouth, quickly, touching her lips to
it here, there, until she found an open cut. Her mouth left clean
spots where it touched his skin.

It startled a
smile out of Sebastian. Quick learner indeed. Food was food, and if
it came willingly all the better.

Josephine got up
with a small sigh. Found her way to the kitchen sink and began
rinsing the scrap she’d taken off his hand. She looked hollowed
out as well, though not to the extreme that Ian did. By sunset next
day, Josephine would still be able to hunt on her own terms. Ian
would not.

He let Ian keep
his hand until some of the hollowness had left her cheeks, until her
pull on his blood lost some of its desperation. Then he tugged his
hand gently. She sucked once more, a deep swallow that made his arm
tingle, before she let go. She looked away. Josephine finished
rinsing the rag and came back in to wrap it on again. Her touch
regained his attention with a ferocity that came out of nowhere. His
stomach tilted. Although the sensation was uncomfortable, he did not
wish to reclaim his hand.

“Thanks,”
Ian murmured, as if she didn’t know if she meant it. He
shrugged. At least the bright glow had gone out of her eyes. He had
not intended to leave her with her sister with that sheen to them.

He let Josephine
finish wrapping the bandage. When she had, he found himself reluctant
to take his hand back. Unsure why this should be so, he took it and
stood, nodding a thanks to her.

Later,
he
promised himself again.

“I have
something I must attend to,” he said, as levelly as he could.
“I trust, Josephine, that you will stay and look after Ian and
her child?”

“Of
course,” Josephine said simply, though her eyes added more.
Fear,
they said, but it didn’t seem to be for herself.

Ian said it out
loud. “Where are you going?” in a plaintive tone he took
to mean she did not want him to leave.

“To find
the one who did this.” He did not include what he thought might
happen then.

The two women
exchanged unhappy looks.

“Alone?”
Josephine asked.

He raised an
eyebrow at her. “Do you think that either you or Ian will be
able to assist me in any way?” He waited a moment for an
answer. None came. “I suspect I know who is here and why he has
left me this message. Either of you would only provide him a way to
make his point.”

Ian turned away.
Josephine kept his gaze.

“I
suppose,” she said, reluctantly.

Sebastian
nodded. “I will return as soon as I can.” It might be
longer than he cared to say.

Before either
woman could object further, Sebastian took himself out of the house.

Challenge had
been called. It was time to answer.

A
nd
with that, he left.

I didn’t
like him going. Something seemed off. His eyes had an intensity that
set my stomach upside down. I stared at the door for a long time once
he’d gone. Listened to his car take off.

Amanda stayed
completely still.

I knew that was
normal. She wouldn’t move all night. Seeing it still freaked me
out. I wondered if changing me had frightened Kent this much –
my heart hadn’t quite made it all the way back out of my throat
from Amanda’s scream. Then I remembered that he’d done it
before. He would have known what to expect.

“She’ll
be hungry when she wakes up,” Josephine said from her spot on
the couch. I nodded. I remembered that. Hunger was the first thing I
had woken up to as a new vampire. I figured I would feed Amanda the
same way Kent had fed me until I’d learned to hunt on my own.

My mind showed
me the unwanted picture of Amanda bent over my extended arm, her
short purple hair falling over her face as she drank. Coming up from
me bloody-lipped. And what that would
feel
like, for me and
for her. My throat closed around a cold lump.

What have I
done?

My sister, my
baby sister, the tiny, crying bundle my parents had brought home from
the hospital when I was in kindergarten, was dead. Lying cold and
unmoving on my living room floor, smeared in her own blood.

Dead. Like me.

I felt a small
hope that maybe now she and I could get some of our old closeness
back – and then felt guilty. Mom and Dad couldn’t be part
of that. It was selfish of me to want my sister all for me.

Selfish or not,
I had her all the same. All to myself.

How hard would
it be to tell her?

Hell, I had just
started learning things I should have known years ago.
What
was I going to tell her?

“Ian –
?” Josephine said, looking out the window.

Another car had
pulled up outside. It stopped and cut the engine.

“Anyone
you know?” I asked.

“Alec
again.” She half-smiled after a moment. “I believe
Sebastian may have frightened the poor man.”

I got up to see
for myself. Sure enough, it was Alec. Slinking up the driveway with
his shoulders hunched, looking back and forth. Waiting for someone to
jump him.

He came to the
door and I met him there, so he wouldn’t knock-and-enter like
he had before. He nearly jumped off the steps when I opened the door,
eyes narrowed. I held back a mean laugh – I’d probably be
scared too, if I’d been in his shoes. Alec didn’t know
Sebastian was just keeping us safe from a stranger.

“Alec,”
I said.

“Thank
heaven you’re here.” He shoved his way into the house. He
didn’t make it past the first step.

“Dear
God!” he exclaimed. “What happened –” he took
in Sebastian’s name on the wall, Amanda lying on the floor, the
blood everywhere. “We are leaving right now,” he said.
“Get your things, I’ll carry her – I assume you
changed her?”

I shut the door.
He cocked his head at me. “Yeah, I changed her.”

“Damn.
Dammit.” He looked over at the word on the wall – CAIN –
and shook his head. “Monster.” Then he turned back to me.
“Well, hurry up before he comes back.”

“Before
who comes back?”

He made a wide
gesture at the wall. “Cain,” he said, like I was an
idiot. “Unless you’d like to meet him and I assure you,
you wouldn’t. What he did here –” he swept my
blood-spattered living room with a hand – “amateurish.
Childish. Fooling around. We need to get out of here. I came by
earlier and I was lucky I made it out of here alive.” He looked
down at Amanda again and clucked his tongue. “Dammit.”

“Sebastian
Cain?” I asked. “Long blond hair, moves like a panther,
carries a big sword?”

Alec raised an
eyebrow – not the artful gesture Sebastian made it, but better
than I could do. “So you’ve met him,” he said.
“Thank God you’re still alive. Come on.”

I crossed my
arms. “I’m not going anywhere. Sebastian’s supposed
to come back –”

“All the
more reason to be gone when he does,” Alec interrupted, and
bent to scoop Amanda up.

I squawked, for
all the good it did. I did
not
want him touching her, but I
didn’t know how to make him put her down. Alec started toward
the door, which I was blocking, and stopped in front of me.

“Put her
down!” I pointed a finger at the floor. He stared at me as if
he didn’t quite understand what I meant.

“I said,”
I repeated between clenched teeth, “
put my sister down.”

His eyebrows
puckered. “Are you feeling all right?”

I found myself
seriously considering decking him. As soon as the thought occurred,
something white-hot blossomed in me. I wasn’t just going to
deck him, but pound his face flat, hammer my fists into him again and
again, lap up the blood that would drip from his nose . . . I snarled
and took a step forward –

“That is
Ian’s child you are holding.” Josephine’s clear
smooth voice cut over my growl. Alec whirled to face her. I didn’t
think he’d even seen her when he walked in. “And by any
laws any of us follows, Ian’s property. She has told you to set
her child down. I suggest you do so.”

Wow.
I
stopped in my tracks and felt my fists open, half-scared of Josephine
myself for an instant. She stood on the other side of Alec, her eyes
shining, her posture a subtle fighting stance I’d seen
Sebastian use. I was glad she was on my side right then.

“But Cain
–” Alec insisted.

“Is coming
back as soon as he can and we intend to be here waiting for him,”
Josephine said.

With an unhappy
sigh, Alec bent and laid Amanda back on the floor. She behaved
exactly like a corpse. I swallowed as every ounce of anger in my body
drained out of me.

“Why are
you so scared of Sebastian?” I asked. I wanted to run and check
on Amanda, but she was a vampire now. If she were hurt, nothing I did
would make any difference.

Alec turned to
face me, puzzled.

“Cain,”
I clarified. “And how the hell do you know him?”

His eyes
narrowed again. “I don’t know him, I know what he does.
And you’re both fools if you wait around here for him.”

He was skimming
around the truth. A muscle in his cheek jumped and he looked away
from me too soon. He wasn’t lying . . . not exactly.

“What do
you mean?”

“So,”
he said instead of answering. “Kent never told you about that
either?”

“About
what?”

He breathed in,
as if what he had to say was immensely heavy and he needed air to get
it out. “Cain –
Sebastian
Cain – belongs to
a pack of vampires Kent and I hunted for a while. He was one of the
reasons we never could finish the bastards off.”

He might as well
have started speaking a foreign language.
Hunted – finish
off – he doesn’t mean what I think –

He looked me up
and down once, frowning. “Because of things like this.”
He gestured at my house again. I didn’t follow his hand. I’d
seen the mess already.

“Then
you’ve got the wrong Cain,” I said. “Sebastian
didn’t do this. He thinks someone he knows did.”

Alec snorted.
“Part of his pack. They want him to report. He’s letting
them know he killed Kent right now.”

“Sebastian
killed the one who – murdered Kent,” I said, barely
choking over it. “And they didn’t know each other. And he
kept me alive while he was at it. He’s a friend of mine, and I
won’t tolerate you badmouthing him. Not in my house.” The
last sentence came out as a direct order, my feet planted.