In the Dark (33 page)

“What?”
Amanda asked. I shook my head, still scrubbing at the walls.

“Vampire
humor,” I said, and giggled that sick,
I-have-to-laugh-at-this-or-I-will-go-crazy laughter. It stopped after
a second. I kept scrubbing. Trying not to think of how hungry I felt
– and how cleaning up blood only made it worse. Trying not to
think of
why
I was so hungry, or whose blood spattered the
walls.

Amanda went so
quiet, I thought she’d gone away. Then, “That’s all
mine?”

I didn’t
answer. I didn’t want to think about it.

After another
minute, Amanda cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Want a hand
with that?”

I wanted to
shake my head, tell her “no, you just rest, I know the change
is a big deal.” But then I stood back a step and got a decent
look around for the first time since I’d started.

“Yeah,
sponges are under the kitchen sink,” I said, and wrung mine out
over the bucket of pink water again. I heard her dig around for one
and shut the cupboard. She walked up beside me, hands on hips,
surveying the mess. They hadn’t so much splashed the room with
red as they had hosed it down. I had one wall mostly cleaned up, if
you didn’t count the pink tinge to the paint. Everything I’d
had hanging on that wall – a hand-woven tapestry, several
locally made masks, one of my paintings – they were all ruined.

“You’ll
probably want to repaint,” Amanda commented.

“I don’t
have the money to repaint.” I sighed. “Or buy a new couch
or even really shampoo the rug. Kent had all the money.” I
glanced over my shoulder at the envelope on the floor. My
inheritance, Josephine had said. I wondered how much it amounted to.
I left the envelope on the floor and started scrubbing the wall
again. Red came loose, wetted, dribbled down to the floor trim.

“I thought
you told Mom . . .”

I cringed a
little. But she trailed off. I bit my tongue on what I wanted to say
and kept washing. She scrubbed, too, but slower. More thoughtful.

“You made
that stuff up about your art,” she said. “To have a
reason to stay without telling Mom the truth.”

I shrugged
without looking at her. “Only a little. My art’s taking
off pretty good for an unknown beginner like me. I’ve sold some
pieces, had several shows, got more coming up. That doesn’t
amount to much. I think I have a few hundred in my account. That’s
it.”

“Well, you
don’t have to pay rent or buy groceries.”

I blew air into
my bangs. “Yeah, but there’s cat food, car insurance,
gas, electric bill, phone bill, house insurance, house repairs . . .”
I sighed again. Listing everything out loud made it seem like so much
more than I’d thought. I really hoped that envelope had a lot
of stuff in it.

“I guess,”
Amanda agreed.

We kept wiping.
When the bucket of water turned our sponges red, Amanda took it and
dumped it in the sink, filled it up and brought it back.

“Do
vampires usually spend a lot of their nights cleaning up blood?”
She meant it as a joke. I gave it a weak chuckle.

“Only if
they’re messy eaters,” I said, and got the same kind of
chuckle back.

We got a second
wall cleaned up and started on the third when Amanda cleared her
throat, followed by an uneasy laugh. “Funny thing,” she
said. “It’s not so bad. I thought it’d be worse.”

I wondered what
she’d expected, and had to remind myself she didn’t even
believe in vampires. She didn’t know what to expect. I kept
wiping.

“Almost
smells good, doesn’t it?” I asked softly. Her sponge
paused, then kept going. I let it slide, wrung out my sponge, wiped
some more.

“Hungry?”
I asked after a few more minutes.

Her sponge
faltered again. This time it didn’t go back up to the wall.
“God, Jen.”

“Ian,”
I corrected, probably more forcefully than I should have. Cleared my
throat and tried again. “Please call me Ian. When you say Jen,
I think there’s someone else here.” I smiled.

“Ian,”
she said, like a little kid told to say they’re sorry.

“Thank
you,” I said as nicely as I could. I wiped the wall a few more
strokes, acting casual. After a minute, she joined me again.

“So are
you?” I asked.

“What?”

“Hungry.”

Her swipes at
the wall stuttered.

“Starving.”

I nodded without
looking at her. I didn’t say, me too. “We’ll take
care of that. I won’t let you starve.”

I wondered if
she’d heard me. Decided she must have. How did I expect her to
respond, after all?

The sound of a
car pulling up and stopping in front of the house interrupted what I
wanted to say. I dropped my sponge in the bucket and went to check
out the window. I saw Alec getting out of his Cadillac, carefully, to
keep from wrinkling his suit. He brushed off the legs of his pants
before he shut the door.

“What does
he want?” I muttered out loud.

“Who?”

“My older
brother.” I used his title instead of his name. It came out as
an insult easier that way.

“That’s
Alec, right?” Amanda asked.

“Yeah.”

“And that
means Kent changed him into a vampire too, right? So Kent’s
like . . . your dad.”

Something in her
tone made the back of my neck prickle. The way she said “your
dad.” Like we weren’t sisters.

“Kind of,”
I said, not sure how else to put it. Dad would always be Dad. Kent
was . . . Kent.

Suit
straightened, Alec strolled up to the door. I watched him, frowning.
I could just tell he didn’t plan on knocking.

Whose house
does he think this is?

I didn’t
like the answer.

His father’s.

I opened my door
before he got to it. Taking up the whole doorway so he couldn’t
push past, I raised my eyebrows at him. “Yes, Alec?”

He stopped
short, like he’d run into a wall that hadn’t been there
the day before. I stood my ground.

“Good
evening,” he said, mock pleasantly. I waited. He shifted his
weight from foot to foot, watching me, trying to see behind me. I
crossed my arms. He sighed. “I’m here to see if you’ve
come to your senses. Now that you’ve had a chance to calm down.
Maybe think a little.” He said it like he expected to be right.

“I felt
pretty sensible last night, Alec.”

“You have
no idea what you’re dealing with.”

I opened my
mouth to answer, but just then Josephine and Sebastian’s cars
both pulled up, saving me from having to say anything. I smiled. Alec
swore and looked like he wanted to run.

Sebastian got
out. I caught myself checking him for injuries, even though I knew
better. Anything he’d gotten last night would have healed by
now. He looked fine. Well, dark and brooding, but otherwise okay.
Josephine matched my smile with one of her own. They walked up
calmly, but I could see Sebastian watching Alec.

I jumped off the
steps past Alec, ran down the lawn and threw my arms around Sebastian
in a bear hug. It seemed to throw him off at first, but after a
second, he returned my hug. I kept it short to keep from completely
murdering his dignity. Alec waited on the steps, oozing tension.

“Hello.”
Josephine put one arm around my shoulders and kissed my cheek again.
I sort of loved that.

Sebastian’s
eyes flicked to Alec once, then back to me. I nodded, feeling what he
meant – “
is this guy okay?”
The moment I
nodded Sebastian relaxed. Alec did not follow suit.

“Why don’t
we all party inside?” I suggested. “I have neighbors,
after all.”

Sebastian and
Josephine shrugged and went in, past a tense Alec as if he didn’t
exist. I waved him inside once. If he wanted to stand out on the
doorstep, I wouldn’t try to talk him out of it. He shot me a
look but slid inside, back against a wall. Amanda wrung out her
sponge, watching us with interest. Josephine found a clean seat.
Sebastian stood.

“This is
my older brother Alec.” I gestured at Alec, who had gone stiff
enough to be pounded into wood.

“We’ve
met,” Sebastian said politely, referring to last night. I
couldn’t help but smile at that. His eyes burned laughter with
me.

“This’s
my sister Amanda.” I waved at Amanda, since she’d been
comatose when they came over last night. She held up a hand.
Josephine and Sebastian nodded. “I’m guessing you didn’t
come all the way over to meet my siblings,” I said. “What’s
up?”

Alec and Amanda
seemed tense, so I sat, hoping it would help. Amanda relaxed. Alec
just gave me a funny look, like he knew what I was trying to do.
Sebastian crouched to the floor, balanced on the balls of his feet.

“I came to
check on you,” Sebastian began. He and Josephine exchanged
brief looks. “My pack is in Seattle. I consider them to be a
threat to you and Amanda.”

“Oh, for
Christ’s sake,” Alec muttered.

I shot him a
glare and turned back to Sebastian. “Your pack?” I tried
to keep the surprise out of my voice. I did not want to hear “I
told you so” out of Alec.

Sebastian
nodded. “Specter has made it known to me that he is interested
in you. And that he expects my cooperation in finding you. I don’t
intend to give it.”

A sick feeling
washed out my hunger. Someone I’d never met expected Sebastian
to help kill me.

“Bullshit!”
Alec’s voice startled me. “I can’t believe you’re
buying into this,” he sputtered. “He’s still part
of that pack he’s talking about; he’s putting on this
noble I’m-here-to-protect-you act to lead them to you. If he
didn’t kill Kent, one of his pack did –”

I interrupted
him. “You haven’t been here the last few days, Alec, you
don’t know what’s been going on –”

“I don’t
need to watch you being taken in to know it’s happening.”

“I’m
not an idiot! Could you give me a little credit?”

“When I
see evidence of your intelligence, then I’ll believe it.”

“Shut up,
Alec!” I shouted, bringing my fist down on the arm of the
couch. “
Just shut up!”

To my amazement,
he did. I glared at him, slowly realizing my fangs were bared in a
snarl, my face pinched in anger. I didn’t try to relax. He’d
pissed me off too much to think about relaxing.

“You don’t
have any right to get indignant about murderers,” I snapped,
spitting each word around my fangs. “Neither did Kent, for that
matter! You cold-hearted, pompous, stuck-up bastard!”

I shut my eyes
and swallowed, because if I didn’t stop looking at Alec, I
would jump up and bite him. After I forced my fingers to uncurl from
fists, one by one, I opened my eyes and turned to Josephine and
Sebastian. “Do you two know anything about this?”

Josephine shook
her head. Sebastian looked curious.

I took a shaky
breath. “Sebastian, Alec knows you from a while ago.” I
could feel Alec tense from across the room. “Did you have a
problem with members of your pack being lured away and killed, by
someone you couldn’t see?”

Sebastian
nodded. Alec froze to a perfect standstill.

“And you
never figured out who it was?”

Sebastian’s
eyes stayed mellow.

He already knew.

I didn’t
know how that had happened, but I could tell it had. I went on
anyway. “Well, it was Kent and Alec.”

Alec stayed
stiff against the wall while Sebastian looked him up and down once.
Cold blue eyes found mine, hard. Serious. But not angry.

“That does
explain Specter’s hatred of Kent,” Sebastian said. “But
I feel I must be honest, Ian. Specter did reveal my pack’s
involvement with Kent’s murder last night. I was unaware until
last night, and I do not feel that their involvement must interfere
with mine.”

I blinked.

“I would
like you and your sister and Josephine to stay with me in my home for
a while. Alec, you would be welcome as well, if you would like. I do
not feel you will be safe on your own until this is taken care of.”

He waited calmly
for my response. I shook my head once, then again, harder.
Sebastian’s pack had killed Kent. Alec was right. I looked from
him back to Sebastian and felt my jaw tighten.

It doesn’t
change anything.

I opened my
mouth, but didn’t have a chance to speak. Alec snorted and
walked out, slamming the door behind him. I thought about giving him
the finger, but tucked my hands under my legs instead.

Sebastian
watched after him a moment. Then he half-shrugged and turned back to
me. “Specter knows where you live. We should go.”

I rubbed at my
face. “Yeah. Just let me grab some stuff.” I turned to
Amanda. “Grab your bag. We’re moving for a while.”

G
ypsy
hunkered low on my lap, trying to disappear into me. I rubbed the top
of her head and wished I could tell her we weren’t going to the
vet.

This whole thing
had turned into a soap-opera. Every day – hell, every hour –
revealed another convoluted plot twist. I half-expected to find out
that Kent had an evil twin. I glanced at Sebastian, wondering how
this new piece of the puzzle affected him. His face was calm, as
usual. Eyes focused, but not dark or crackling.

I stared out the
window and sank my teeth into my lip. Whatever had happened years
ago, between Kent and the pack, between the shape-changer and
Sebastian, it had led up to this. Sebastian had taken my side. And
however Alec felt, I couldn’t feel scared. I trusted Sebastian.
I knew he’d help me.

My stomach chose
that time to interrupt with a growl. Without wanting to, I thought of
what had made me so hungry. My gut twisted up and I started
breathing. Having a little panic attack as quietly as I could.

One thing at
a time,
I told myself.
You’re hungry, Amanda’s
hungry. Eat, then worry about this pack thing.