In the Dark (46 page)

I stopped
struggling. “What?”

He went on like
I hadn’t said anything. “I tried to tell you, I tried to
get you out before it came to this, but you’re just like Kent.
Stubborn. He wouldn’t listen to me either, you know that? I
tried to tell him the pack had found him, that they were on their
way. He wouldn’t even talk to me. And he ended up dead behind
some club. I’m not letting our entire line get wiped out
because they’re too stupid to run while they can! Now move!”

“What?”
I said again, but he turned and started walking, pulling me along. I
was positive I was in the grip of a madman.

Or someone
who knows more than he’s telling.

“What’s
going on, what do you want?” My fear bubbled up in my voice. It
made me sound pathetic.

He stopped, gave
me a confused look, then frowned. “I’m Alec,” he
said.

I jerked.

But he’s
not . . . that’s not . . . what?

He used the time
I stood staring to drag me off again. I stumbled after him, my mind
doing loops. “But –” I said brilliantly “–
you’re not Alec.”

He swore and
went rigid. I thought I did something to piss him off, but then he
dragged me off in a different direction.

“Can you
cover?” he hissed.

“What?”

“Shit,”
he said, and pulled me into an alleyway.

And then I saw
what had made him go rigid. A few seconds after we ducked into the
alley, another pack member slunk into the orange-y light at the
mouth. She paused there, a dark silhouette standing statue-still,
peering into the alley after us. Her eyes flashed in the streetlight,
that dangerous, angry-vampire flash. My chest clenched.

But her eyes
didn’t pause. While I struggled not to breathe, she crept away.
Like she didn’t see anything worth her time.

I tried to say
something, found my teeth sunk into my lip. I pulled them out and
licked away the drops of blood. “What’s going on?”
I hissed. “Who are you?”

He frowned and
ignored me. Annoyed at my question.

“We’re
not safe yet,” he muttered.

I wasn’t
certain if he wanted me safe, or a safe place to get rid of me. I
bared my fangs at him. “Who
are
you?”

He hauled me out
of the alley, that hand clenched over my wrist like it was bolted
into place. “I told you, I’m Alec,” he growled
back. “I suppose Kent never told you about this, either.”

He’d said
that twice now. What if it was true?

My stomach
leaped like I had fallen from a very high place.

No. Oh, no,
no, no.

“You’re
not Alec,” I said again, child-like.

“How do
you think we got out?” he asked. “Why do you think they
missed us? How do you think Kent and I kept them from seeing us all
those years ago? Why do you think Cain didn’t recognize Kent –
or me?”

I swallowed at
the fist in my throat.

“Kent
would have told me,” I said. Thinking –

Bullshit he
would have.

The strange
vampire shook his head. “He never liked doing it. He didn’t
want to teach me. I’m not surprised he didn’t say
anything.”

“No.”
I struggled again, starting to breathe. “No – Kent wasn’t
a shape-changer! A shape-changer killed Kent! He wasn’t one of
them!”

Shroud pulled
back, eyes gone wide. “Another one?” But he was only half
asking me. I kept struggling. I felt like I’d been chained to
an iron post.

He got both of
my wrists in both hands, gave me a shake. Not hard, but it startled
me enough that I stopped struggling. “You’re lying! Our
line is the only one that carries that ability, and we’re the
last of our line. There aren’t any more.”

My brow pinched.

“What
about the man who made Kent?”

His eyebrows
flew up. “The man who made Kent couldn’t do it, he
couldn’t change himself –”

The pieces
tumbled into place, making a terrible click in my mind.

“Oh, shit.
Oh, shit.”

Josephine
telling me that Kent’s father had killed his father, furious
that he didn’t have the ability that he
did
pass on to
his own children. Finding out the shape-shifter had been sent by the
pack. My knees almost went out from under me. If our line was the
only one that had this ability –

“Whoever
made Kent must have made the shape-changer who killed him.” I
swallowed. “Kent’s maker is with the pack.”

Shroud stared at
me. He didn’t contradict me. I wanted him to. I really, really
wanted him to point out why my wild conclusions were way off.
Instead, his startled expression slowly became horrified.

“No.
Kent’s maker isn’t with the pack. Who sets down the laws
the laws? Who condemns traitors? Who calls the hunts?”

I had a horrible
feeling I knew where he was going with this. I didn’t want to
be right, though, so I didn’t guess out loud.

Shroud gave me a
little shake, like I wasn’t paying attention. “Specter,”
he said. “Kent’s maker is
Specter.”

Hearing it out
loud felt like someone had slapped me. “Oh, no,” I said.
“No, no.” But it all fit.

Shroud looked
every bit as stunned as I felt. I wanted to keep thinking of him as
The Enemy, a fake, a liar; but his shock was too real. Someone
impersonating Alec wouldn’t have been as horrified as I was.

The pack vampire
– Alec, I supposed – shook his head, his eyes not so
focused on me anymore. “Why . . . ?” he said, mostly to
himself. “Why didn’t Kent say anything?”

I’d
repeated that question to myself for days. I doubted I’d ever
find an answer – so it didn’t distract me from my real
opportunity. While he frowned into the distance, his hands had
loosened. I jerked toward his thumbs and they gave. Too late, he
grabbed at me.

I turned and
bolted as fast as I could make myself. I pushed myself,
pushed . .
.
felt myself getting faster, faster than I should have been able
to run. Not much, maybe not enough, but maybe.

“Ian!”
His shoes scraped the pavement to come after me.

Go, go, go .
. .
I ran, watching the buildings go by, watching Sebastian’s
place come into view –
please, please, please . . .

A solid weight
thudded into me. I went down, my momentum throwing me farther than I
would have gone from a standstill. The world kaleidoscoped around me
as I tumbled over once, twice, three times; I lost count. The
pavement crashed into me, elbows, knees, hips, chin. When I stopped
rolling, the world didn’t. Buildings danced around me while an
ugly headache began to throb. I probably had a concussion.

Hands lifted me.
I landed across a shoulder so hard that I coughed.

“Shut up,”
a voice said. It sounded like Alec this time. I kicked and struggled,
but my hits didn’t do any good. Struggling just hurt my head.

So I bit.

My fangs stabbed
right through the wool suit pants and into skin. He yelped and
jumped, but he took me with him. I sank my fangs deeper. Hunger made
me try to drink the cold, syrupy blood I could taste. Through the
slacks it was useless, so I pulled my fangs out and sank them in
again.

He jumped again,
swore, and tried to pull me off his shoulder. I hung on, literally
tooth and nail. Bit him again. He swore and tried to shift me around.
I bit him again. And again. Finally, he pulled me down, threw me off.

I let him, using
the force he’d thrown me with to roll away. Then I popped up
and bolted. I felt his hand reach my ankle, felt him try to clamp on
with that hard grip – felt his hand slip off.

“Ian,”
he hissed after me. “You’re going to get yourself
killed!”

I dodged around
a building, down an alley, around the corner it let out onto, and
kept running. Zigzagging like a rabbit. I could hear his feet on the
ground behind me. I remembered this game from when Emily’s
killer had chased me. It made me tremble.

I picked up my
pace, thinking,
he caught me once.
I couldn’t outrun
him. I needed to hide. Took another corner to keep out of sight,
watching for a hiding spot, left, right –

Anything,
anything, come on . . .

An awning. On
the shop ahead of me, unrolled. Drooping in the center, like it had
hung that way for a while. I never would have considered it before
last week, it was too high. Maybe, if I’d really jumped, my
hand could have just touched the edge. But now . . . I didn’t
know for sure if I could jump that high, but those footsteps kept
pelting behind me, faster than me, and what other choice did I have?

I ran over,
scrunched my legs so tight that my butt touched the ground, and
jumped.
Pushed,
the same way I did to run, and hoped.

One hand hit the
pole along the edge, solid, firm. Not an amazing leap, just a few
inches higher than I’d expected. Crucial inches. I hauled
myself up fast, remembering tricks I hadn’t used since grade
school, playing on the monkey bars. The feet behind me reached the
corner and kept coming.

Now’s
when it rips . . .

The awning
fabric groaned under me . . . and held. I’d landed in a puddle
of cold murky rain water, but I was up. I could hear the feet behind
me getting closer, until they reached the awning. I clenched my teeth
and froze.

The sound of
footsteps pelted past. I let out a breath.

The footsteps
stopped. Up the block, past me, but still. I froze again and
listened.

Nothing. The
sound of traffic another street over, the wind and the creak of the
awning fabric that wanted to rip out from under me. He was holding
still too, looking and listening for me.

“Hiding?”
Alec’s voice asked. “Where the hell are you?”

He didn’t
see me!

“I don’t
believe this. I don’t believe you want to die this much. I
really don’t.” He kept his voice low, just loud enough
for me to hear. He started walking back, slowly. “Ian, we have
to get out of here!”

He paused right
under the awning. I bit my lip, trying not to breathe, begging the
fabric to hold.

He moved away,
back the way we’d come, whispering my name desperately. I snuck
a tiny peek once he’d gone past, needing to know for certain –

There was Alec’s
long, straight brown hair tied in a neat tail over the back of his
own suit coat. Alec’s height, Alec’s build. He turned so
I could catch his profile – Alec. For now, anyway.

He vanished
around the corner, but I stayed in the mucky water. I listened to him
calling me, like I was a naughty kid and if he got it across to me
how important this was, I’d come out. He didn’t intend to
give up and walk away. I couldn’t hop down. And if I could
somehow sneak past him and managed to find my way back to the
penthouse, really, Alec had a point – what could I do against
the pack?

Sebastian
couldn’t save me this time. He was trapped with them, in his
own home. With Josephine. And Amanda.

My sister.

And I couldn’t
move.

I closed my
eyes, refused to breathe, and wondered what in the world I was going
to do now.

T
hey
hadn’t taken Sebastian’s sword. He screamed as he drew
it, watching Specter’s teeth reach for Josephine’s
throat. He leaped over the glass coffee table, arms raised, watching
Specter look up –

Dragon met his
blow, rushing up to him as he landed and throwing him back before he
could get his balance. Sebastian flew back and hit the table with his
shoulder, crashed through the glass top and rolled back to his feet.
Amanda skittered away from them both, her face a mask of fear.

Sebastian
brought his sword back up in time to catch Dragon’s next blow.
The younger vampire scowled as his sword stopped short of taking
Sebastian’s head. Sebastian held Dragon’s blade.

“You’ve
drawn your blade against another of your pack,” Sebastian
growled. “The penalty is death.”

“Then try
and kill me, traitor!” Dragon freed his blade and pulled back
to strike.

Behind the
younger vampire, Sebastian could see Josephine losing her fight
against Specter. He was older, stronger. The struggle would end in a
matter of seconds.

Dragon struck.
Sebastian blocked the first blow easily, and the second, but Dragon
kept coming, forcing Sebastian on the defensive. There was no
opening, no chance to retaliate with a strike of his own. Josephine
cried out as Specter’s fangs found her flesh. The sound pulled
Sebastian’s lips back from his teeth.

Dragon got in
under Sebastian’s guard and left a slash along his thigh. A
growl rattled out of Sebastian. He knocked Dragon’s sword away
from himself, too late to save his leg, too angry to stop.

Josephine cried
out again, a frantic sound. Dragon got in another blow, this one
along Sebastian’s upper arm.

“
Dammit!”

Sebastian
snarled and shut out Josephine’s distress. A solid kick to
Dragon’s knee distracted him long enough to allow Sebastian to
launch his own assault. Dragon blocked, again, again, his face
growing more strained with each blow. Sebastian took a step towards
him, forcing his blade into the younger vampire’s face. A
single blow shot past Dragon’s guard, jabbed into his shoulder.
While the younger member paused, eyes wide, Sebastian hauled his
sword back and brought it against Dragon’s, using all his
strength, all his anger, all his hatred.

They connected
with a clang that vibrated through Sebastian. Dragon’s sword
sailed away from them, his fingers stretching after it, his eyes
following it desperately. They flicked back to Sebastian –

Too late.

Sebastian spun
with the blow, bringing it around full circle. Slamming into Dragon’s
neck with the same force he’d used against the sword. Dragon’s
body crumpled as Sebastian’s sword severed his spinal cord. His
skull cracked against the hardwood floor. Amanda screamed.