In the Dark (35 page)

“I know
your past isn’t pretty,” I said. “But I also know
you changed your mind about it and started doing things differently.
I think that by itself absolves you. But if you ever need to confess
. . .” I paused, wondering if I would regret this. Then plowed
on. “I’ll listen.”

His eyes
glittered briefly.

“I may
test you on that one day, Ian.”

I just nodded.

We passed a club
I knew. He pointed to it.

“Will that
do?”

“Yeah,”
I said, without really looking.

He went on until
we came to a parking ramp, pulled into it, and parked. He flipped his
coat over his sword, settling it, as we walked away from the car.

I reached out a
hand and stopped him. While he stood looking at me, puzzled, I put
both my arms around his shoulders. For a moment, he didn’t
react at all. After a second, slowly, like he couldn’t remember
how this worked, he put his arms around me and accepted my hug. When
I let him go he stood there, still and uncomfortable.

I smiled. “What
are friends for?”

His mouth
flicked up, just at the corners, just for a second. A warm, real
smile, however quick.

I smiled back
and walked with him to the club.

S
ebastian
nodded to Ian and separated from her at the door, keeping a subtle
eye on her. He found a seat on the edge of the dance floor that would
afford him a broad enough view to continue watching.

He watched her
dance, lithe and liquid among the mortals. This was the natural grace
he’d seen while training her. She moved like a cat now, rather
than a cub, every muscle under conscious control – that flick
of the hip she just did, that took practice, an amount of discipline
to move as if it were nothing.

Hm. Perhaps he
would try to relate her fighting exercises to dance. That might make
them easier for her to understand.

He frowned to
himself.
If I have the time.

He turned away
from Ian to inspect the club. Searching for entrances, exits, hiding
places. On guard for members of the pack, playing at being human
themselves, spying. The dim lighting in the club would make the
telltale signs somewhat difficult to see. He would need to be near
enough to smell, to touch, to be sure of the other signs. Cold skin,
the faint smell of blood that always seemed to cling to vampires. He
contented himself with looking for pale faces. He swept the club
once, taking in dancers, bystanders, staff and Ian, smiling at a
dark-haired young man who had joined her on the floor.

And another
vampire, just stepping in through the main doors.

Sebastian took
in the new one, too pale for human, too still. The eyes, though, they
truly tipped this one’s hand. His eyes glowed dangerously, and
they found and fixed on Ian far too quickly.

Sebastian did
not recognize him from the cemetery. So he had not seen the true
number that were present in Seattle. Nor did he recall this one from
his time with the pack. A new one, then, young, put on spy duty
because no one else wanted it. The hunt, the thrill, that was what
they craved. Why stalk someone if there would be no kill?

Hence those
dangerous eyes. This one knew that if he disobeyed he would be
killed, yet he knew Ian was sentenced to death and longed to carry
out her punishment.

Guesses, all.
For all Sebastian knew, this strange vampire had no connections to
the pack. He could be watching Ian only because the sweetest nectar
was another vampire’s blood. But Sebastian would be a fool not
to assume all possibilities.

The new one
turned to look at him, finding him without fail, as if he were
searching for Sebastian. Quite possibly connected with the pack.

Sebastian nodded
once.

The young one
stiffened and took himself out of the club. Sebastian stood to follow
him. Across the club, out the door – but when he reached the
street, the new one had vanished.

Sebastian
scanned the street and found no sign. He considered trying to track
the strange vampire – but the night was no longer so young, the
streets were crowded and Ian was still inside the club, alone. He
returned to his post, standing where he could see Ian but remained
out of the way himself.

His first
instinct – to track the new vampire back to Specter, to
observe, discern Specter’s weaknesses, then kill him while his
guard was down – Sebastian had never considered such action
before. There were rules, codes of conduct, and none of them allowed
for such a thing.

But whether
Specter acknowledges it or not, I am no longer a member of his pack.
Nor do I wish to be.

That was a new
realization. He had left them in part to decide if he wished to
remain among them. He had not noticed that he had already come to his
conclusion. Dwelling on that surprise served no real purpose,
however.

Assassinate
Specter.

The punishments
that came from even thinking such a thing were severe. To attempt it
and fail would bring a torturous death upon himself and those nearest
him.

Which has
already been threatened.

It would not be
easy. Specter had taught Sebastian most of what he knew. And the
leader did not let his guard down often, if at all. This would take
every ounce of Sebastian’s skill. But it might offer some hope
of survival. Perhaps their only hope.

And he had one
week to accomplish it.

Not now. This
moment his duty was to guard Ian as she fed and return her safely to
his home. After that, the stalking would begin.

He performed
another visual sweep of the club, then settled back to wait. Watching
Ian. Thinking of their conversation in the car. And wondering what
Sarah would have thought of the child he had somehow managed to
adopt.

I
t
had been a damn long week and I wanted to get buzzed. So when
Sebastian left me at the door to make my own way around, I took my
time, getting into the groove of the music and keeping one eye on the
people around me. The drunk ones tended to dance with a little more
abandon; the more drunk, the more abandon. I didn’t want to get
shitfaced, just lifted. I actually wanted a stoner or an Xer –
something designed to make you feel good. Depending on what they were
on, the high ones tended to dance slower, fascinated by every move
they made. I kept an eye out for those. Of course, the best way to
know who was on what was to taste them. The blood gave it away every
time.

I spotted a guy
with a glowing green mouth guard flashing between his lips. Slender,
maybe a little too much so, with long dark hair well past his
shoulders, dressed in the bright colors of a raver. He danced with
his head down, eyes closed, feeling everything around him instead of
looking at anything. Perfect candidate. I moved in.

The nice thing
about Xers was that they liked being touched. I moved up to my target
so he could see me coming, moving to the beat in a gentle swaying
motion that I knew would hypnotize him. Sure enough, his eyes locked
on me. After a few moments he started to move with me, probably not
even aware he was doing it.

Xer for sure. It
was almost too easy. In minutes I had him held in my arms, moving to
the beat, face buried against his neck. His body stiffened as my
fangs went in just behind his ear. He wasn’t in pain or even
afraid, just a little sensory-overloaded. Being bitten felt like an
orgasm all by itself. With the drug running through him, the feeling
must have been multiplied until his brain almost couldn’t
process it.

I swallowed
once, twice, then one last time, savoring, letting a little whimper
come out of my throat. When I let go, reluctantly, he staggered a
little against me. He stared at me for a long, awestruck moment, like
he wanted to say something but didn’t know what. I could almost
taste the words on the tip of his tongue.
Who are you, what did
you do to me, do it again . . .

He reached up to
touch my face. I kissed his fingers and slipped away from him before
he could speak.

I started out
walking towards the spot Sebastian had taken, but of course I didn’t
make it that far. After only a few steps the strobe light caught my
eye, flashing over undulating, pulsing bodies. Mesmerizing. I stood
and stared at that for several minutes, then found my gaze slowly
drifting more to the people than the light. How they moved. How much
emotion they each put into what they did; anger, joy, grief, delight
. . . Even the shy girl in the corner, rocking in time to the beat
but too scared to dance, too embarrassed to let loose in front of
others no matter how much she wanted to. I found myself drifting
towards her, thinking of asking her to dance. She wanted that –
I could see the longing in how she watched the people around her, how
she tightened up whenever anyone came close, so nervous, but so
hopeful, too. Thinking,
look at me, see past the outside, see who
I really am . . .

I could do that.
Was doing it right now, actually. Already on my way over to her, I
paused. Watching. Her eyes followed the people walking past her, and
I just
knew
how bad she wanted one of them to stop and notice
her.

How could I know
what she was thinking?

Well, just
look at her,
came the instant
response.
What else could she be thinking?

I stood where I
was, taking in the scene, her and the people around her. The way
their eyes flicked away from hers when she tried to meet them, how
people seemed to lean an inch or two away from her as they went by.
None of them wanted to pay attention to some poor little mouse who
probably had a lack of personality and some serious attachment
issues.

I knew it. I
just knew.

That
was
what the whole psychic business was about. Body language. Being able
to read people this accurately. Something I’d already been
doing for a long time. It was almost a let down to realize this was
it.

Except . . . I
glanced back at Sebastian, standing off to the side. He looked at
ease, but not completely so. Nothing else. But I knew better than
that. I couldn’t see his eyes from here, but they always showed
me his emotions.

Maybe there was
more to this psychic thing than just body language. Maybe I was still
too much of a baby vamp to have more than just the very beginning.

Maybe. And maybe
I was high as a kite and the drug was playing tricks with my head.
Maybe I should take my buzzed self back over to Sebastian and let him
take me home.

I licked my lips
– because my tongue felt sooo soft and smooth and wet –
and headed back over to Sebastian.

A
fter
mentally tagging Ian’s location, Sebastian swept the club once
more. Searching now not for just pale faces but for a particular
face. He did not find his target. Wherever the strange vampire had
gone after Sebastian spotted him the first time, he did not return.
Satisfactory. Sebastian kept his guard up just the same. Once he had
swept the club for vampires, he checked back on Ian. She was making
her way toward him.

Sebastian waited
for Ian to reach him, watching. “Finished?”

She nodded,
pleased with herself. Her eyes looked faintly glassed over, her
motions a little too careful. Drugged, if Sebastian knew anything
about it.

“Ready to
go?” she asked.

“Indeed.”

He supposed he
could not blame her for wishing an escape from the stresses suddenly
introduced into her life. The pack had used drunken or drugged
mortals frequently themselves, and not always as a means of relieving
stress. Without comment, Sebastian started for the door. Ian kept
pace and made no objections. As they left the protective surrounding
of the club, Sebastian kept his eyes sharp for the strange vampire –
did not see him –

Ian snorted once
at the same moment Sebastian’s eyes caught a familiar profile.

“What’s
he
doing here?” she growled.

Sebastian raised
an eyebrow in response to Alec’s glare. Ian’s brother
lifted a lip, then vanished around a corner. “Ascertaining that
I have not killed you,” Sebastian said to Ian.

She made a rude
noise in her throat. “Jerk.”

“Mm.”

The new vampire
seemed to have fled.

Straight back
to Specter, no doubt.

Where he would
report that Sebastian still saw to Ian’s safety. That would
irritate his former teacher.

Let him be
irritated.

“–
why he has to be such a prick,” Ian was saying.

Sebastian tilted
his head in acknowledgment.

“It’s
like he thinks he can just pop into my life and take everything
over.” She snorted again.

“He
can’t,” Sebastian said, since Ian seemed sincerely upset
by the possibility. She sighed and nodded in response, as if she had
known but had needed the reminder.

They walked on,
away from the noise and the smell of the club. It was once they came
closer to his car that Sebastian noticed yet another vampire.

This one he
knew. Shroud stood in plain view, across the street from the parking
ramp where Sebastian had left his car. He perked up when he saw them,
as if he had been waiting. Sebastian set his hand on the hilt of his
sword. To his surprise, Shroud approached them.

“Peace,
brother,” the pack vampire said as he grew near. He held both
hands up in plain view.

The words were a
request for a truce, to talk to a pack sibling when there might be
animosity between them. Sebastian left his hand on his blade but did
not draw it. Ian moved around to the side of him opposite that of
Shroud. He did not dissuade her.