In the Dark (48 page)

“This has
become an obsession with you. I have never seen you deal with
traitors quite so avidly – or personally. You generally have
them brought to you and proclaim a hunt on their offspring. I do not
understand your need to attend to this yourself.”

Specter’s
eye flashed. “You don’t need to understand for me to
carry it out,” he hissed –

And Sebastian
saw it.

A weakness.

Exploiting it,
though . . . Sebastian didn’t have enough information. This had
become an obsession for Specter. Sebastian had no notion why. Kent
must have done something to Specter, personally.

“What was
Kent to you, Specter?” he asked, letting his sword point lower.
Specter’s lip raised faintly. Sebastian pressed on. “He
must have meant something in order to anger you so. A student?”

Specter’s
face didn’t change.

“A . . .
child?” Sebastian was certain he would find no purchase, unsure
where else to jab.

But Specter’s
mouth curled a hair more, his shoulders tightened minutely. Before
that unexpected information could sink in, Sebastian noticed
Specter’s silence.

“No,”
he guessed aloud. “No, more than a child – a friend?”

No change.

Sebastian raised
an eyebrow. “A lover?”

Specter swung
Josephine down from his shoulder, his grip on her white-knuckled, his
fangs fully bared. “Careful, Cain.”

Sebastian
refused to tense.

So Ian is of
his own line, and Kent a weakness in his emotions. But Kent is gone.
Why work so hard to destroy Ian if she is his own . . . ?

He dared not ask
out loud. He had found the weakness he had hoped for, but it was too
intense to use. It would only infuriate and set Josephine more at
risk.

“I’ve
been thinking while I’ve been away,” he said instead,
leaning back in a pose meant to look relaxed.

The flash faded
slightly from Specter’s eyes. Nothing else about him moved or
changed. “Oh, really?”

Sebastian nodded
once, forcing his mouth to lift in a faint smile. “I called
challenge for a reason.”

Specter puckered
his brow in sarcastic sympathy. “To save your girlfriend?”

“You’re
the traitor,” Sebastian tossed it out, waiting for the reaction
–
you can’t deny this, teacher –

Specter laughed.

“I?”
He laughed again. “Really. How did you come to such an
interesting conclusion?”

Sebastian forced
himself to shrug off his disappointment. He should have expected
laughter. The more his actions surprised or wounded others, the more
amusing Specter found them. Why Sebastian had expected anything else
. . .

I do not know
him any longer.

“The pack
– you formed it to protect yourself,” Sebastian
continued, simply hoping to keep Specter talking now. “The
oaths we swear, the missions we perform, what we learn from you, from
each other – in the end, everything always benefits you. It’s
something I’ve been thinking about.”

Specter laughed
again. “Did I ever say differently?”

Sebastian kept
himself from starting. Raised an eyebrow instead.

Specter grinned
and gave an ironic shrug. “Oh, I put slants on it to help keep
things in line, but when did I ever lie? Outright?” He
resettled Josephine across his chest. “Why do you think I kill
so many trainees? Tough training? Hardly. You’re not the first
to figure it out, old man. Only the latest. Lucky for me, you’ve
already called challenge. No one will question it when I take you
down.”

The words
hammered into Sebastian like a blow.

Because it was
true. Specter
had
never hidden it. Never.

I missed the
truth. After nearly four hundred years with them, with him, I missed
it, so entirely. There had to have been signs, things that should
have told me . . .

One trainee had
come to him, centuries ago, confiding that he suspected Specter of
dishonorable actions. Sebastian had reported the incident to Specter,
and watched the young one fall when Specter cut him down. When the
others of the pack asked why, Sebastian had told them – had
told them –

“
He
should not have questioned.”

He had missed
nothing. And yet he had not had any traitorous thoughts until only
recently.

Why did Kent
leave? He must have seen. As others saw. I
chose
to miss it.

He felt his jaw
tighten. His own anger, his own misery – his own desire to take
his pain out on others. That was the why of the thing.

He had blinded
himself because he enjoyed what he did, what Specter told him to do.
He wanted to do it. Specter had only been the tool Sebastian had used
to accomplish what he would have done in any case. An excuse.
Rationale.

It was an
ugliness Sebastian had not seen in himself before.

“Goodness,”
Specter said. “You look like you just swallowed a bug.”

The comment
startled a laugh out of Sebastian. He wanted to agree that yes, he
felt exactly like that. Wanted to explain how he had lied to himself
for this long, how utterly the realization shocked him. How stupid he
felt that Kent had the strength to free himself of Specter’s
lies, to avoid becoming Specter’s creature. And Sebastian had
not. How angry that made him.

The phone rang.

Sebastian looked
at it, then back, frowning. Specter went to pick it up.

Turned his back
to Sebastian.

Now.

Listened to the
other end while Sebastian raised his sword.

Now.

“Shroud?”
he asked. Sebastian closed the distance between them. “With
Ian? Oh, wonderful. Send them right up.”

Sebastian
struck.

I
shifted my weight while my stomach twisted. Trying not to see, not to
let the person standing next to me bother me. I gulped and clenched
my fists.

Kent looked at
me, worried.

“We can
still turn back.” His familiar liquid singer’s voice
melted over my ears.

“No.”
My voice shook. “Amanda’s in there, and Sebastian and
Josephine. If we don’t do something about Specter now, he won’t
leave any of us alone. Not ever. You know that.”

Kent sighed. “He
doesn’t give up. That is true. Maybe you’re right, little
sister.”

My sight went
red. I clenched my eyes shut.

“All
right?” His concern was so genuine, for a moment, I wasn’t.

I shook my head.
“It’s just . . . you look just like him. Exactly.”
I let myself look, and like I’d worried I would, found myself
drinking in the sight of him. Afraid of looking because it wasn’t
him at all.

He shrugged.
“That’s because I’m in your head. It’s a
simple trick, really. I just tell you what to see. Since you knew
Kent, I can tell you to see Kent. That way everything’s
perfect. I can’t accidentally leave anything out.”

My thoughts
flashed to Not-Emily – he’d had me fooled. Completely.
And that was how he’d blacked out the lights in the penthouse.
He could control what we saw. If I hadn’t gotten close enough
to touch, close enough to drink his cold blood, I would never have
known. Even at that, I wondered if he could have fooled me into
feeling warmth and tasting mortal blood. If he’d wanted me to
know right before he killed me.

I nodded and
dragged my eyes away from Alec. That hurt worse. I wanted to look.

“I miss
him,” I murmured. My eyes welled with tears.

“Yes,”
Alec said, but his tone sounded distracted and far away.

Oh, Kent. I
miss you.
The tears dripped off my nose, slid down my cheeks.
Reminded me how hungry I was.

Kent had given
me that. And then he left, without telling me everything it meant. I
knew he didn’t mean to, I knew that. I just wished he’d
been more careful, kept himself safe.

Anger at Alec
swelled again. I wanted to punch the person next to me – except
I couldn’t punch Kent.

I clenched my
fists and waited for the elevator to stop.

S
pecter
whirled before Sebastian’s blade could find its mark. Too fast.
Too late to pull the blow. Sebastian grit his teeth, trying to stop
it, feeling the impossibility. His sword fell on Josephine, as he had
feared, as he had hoped it would not. The blade stabbed into her
middle, aimed for Specter’s heart. She screamed. The sound
ripped Sebastian apart, piece by piece.

Sebastian pulled
the sword. Fresh, wet crimson stained the blade.

Specter looked
down at Josephine. “Really, she’s not going to last long
like that. You should be more careful.” Confident that
Sebastian would not attempt to strike again, he sauntered to the
elevator door and hit the call button. He turned so both Sebastian
and the elevator remained in his sight. “Only a moment now.”

Sarah, on the
floor, her eyes glassed over as Josephine’s were now, the taste
of her lingering in his mouth while she gazed at him one last time .
. .

“Answer my
challenge, Specter,
goddamn
you!” Sebastian’s
voice came out ragged, as it had not since he woke and found Sarah
lying so quiet and still beside him. Emotions he couldn’t even
begin to name boiled in him.

“Your time
away has done nothing for your temper,” Specter chided.

Tears misted
Sebastian’s eyes. Tears of anger, of frustration, tears for the
slice across Josephine’s middle, where her shirt slowly wicked
away what little blood she had left.

“
Damn
you!”

Specter watched
him, lazily, as if he were about to yawn. Josephine’s eyes
registered fear, though unfocused. As though she saw something
horrible that Sebastian could only guess at.

“Aha!”
Specter’s smile widened. Sebastian heard the elevator come to a
quiet stop.

Perhaps,
perhaps when he decides to drink Ian, I can take action then, keep
him from killing her, get to Josephine in time . . .

But Josephine
was rapidly running out of time. Her eyes fogged over while the last
of her blood seeped away. Sebastian felt his hand trembling on the
hilt of his sword, though the tip remained steady.

The doors of the
elevator slid open. Sebastian didn’t turn to look. The hunt,
the fight, it had all come to this end, and he could not force
himself to watch Ian face her death.

But as the doors
opened, Specter’s eyes went from smiling and expectant to wide.

Shocked.

Pained.

An expression
Sebastian had never imagined could cross his mentor’s face.

Josephine
slipped from his arms. She landed roughly on the floor, opened her
mouth to cry out. Her voice had no more strength than a gasp.

As Specter’s
face twisted into agony, Sebastian felt his surprise melt. Felt
emotion turn to thought, thought turn to movement. He pulled back his
sword and rushed forward.

Specter’s
eyes flicked from the elevator to Sebastian – widened as he
realized he’d let go of the one thing keeping Sebastian back.
He threw up an arm to block, reaching for his own sword –

Sebastian’s
blow fell, cutting through muscle and sinew and bone through to air,
and into muscle again. From mid-forearm down, Specter’s arm hit
the floor, tumbling away from them before it began rot. Specter
roared, a sound of frustration rather than pain. When he pulled back,
sword drawn, Sebastian saw the slice he’d laid across his
teacher’s neck – not enough.

The distraction
was at an end. Specter’s anger focused fully on Sebastian.
Snarling, his former teacher attacked.

M
y
knees tried to give out from under me. I hung onto Kent’s arm,
unable to scream when I watched Specter’s arm fly through the
air and hit the floor. It landed with a heavy thunk.

The look on
his face when he saw . . .

His eyes had
locked on Kent-Alec. Images, rapid-fire, had slammed into me, too
clear to be imagination, too filled with emotion to be mine –
He and Kent together, how alive Kent made him feel; watching Kent
progress, sword in hand, blood-thirsty sneer on his face; the agony
of watching him walk away . . . in his mind, screaming after Kent’s
unresponsive back over and over,
“How dare you?”

The instructions
to tear out Kent’s heart had been very specific.

But here he was,
in the flesh, beside his new child. The second brat to steal the
place beside him. Alive.

And all Specter
could think was,
I’m so glad . . .

I tried to shut
my eyes when I caught Sebastian’s movement, but they wouldn’t
obey me. The sound made me cringe more than the sight – a wet
thunk as the sword cut through, a damp crack as the arm hit the floor
–

And then the
swords crashed together, a heavy, dull sound. I watched, unable to
stop watching. The first few strokes seemed even, almost
choreographed. I wanted to look away, so I wouldn’t have to see
Sebastian take him down.

But with each
clash of swords, the movements got faster and faster, until they
nearly blurred. I could still see them and follow the moves –
but I didn’t think a mortal could ever fight like this. And
even missing one hand, Specter was obviously still a match for
Sebastian.

My grandfather.
Trying to kill my best friend.

I didn’t
dare blink. It wasn’t just a sword fight; they blocked with
arms or legs, spun, kicked, punched. I couldn’t even follow
everything, except that every blow seemed about to land square on one
or the other, and they always blocked or dodged it. When Sebastian
ducked a blow aimed for his neck and took it in the shoulder, I
gasped.

“Do
something!” I hissed at Alec. He stood like he’d been
welded into place next me, watching the fight with a dark kind of
interest. That look on Kent’s face was so odd it startled me. I
shook his arm. He blinked. I thought I would have to repeat myself,
but he didn’t even look at me.