by Eden Briar
“We had hoped to make your arrival as tranquil as possible.”
“Who’s we? Who are you?” I can’t quite make it a demand. It’s like there’s something stopping me from reaching my emotions, leaving me oddly listless.
He fakes surprise, his eyes widening. “I’m Matthias, of course.”
When I don’t react, he continues, his lips curling in amusement. “The Matthias. Master vampire of Newoak City. The most powerful vampire in the northern hemisphere. Nay, the world.”
When I continue to stare blankly at him, his smile deepens. “You really are a babe in the woods, aren’t you? The report from my men at the casino was certainly intriguing. I’d like to know more.”
That sense of danger prickling across my skin only doubles as whispered words of warning come back to me.
“Never let them know what you see through your eyes.”
There are people who would take that knowledge and use it to hurt me. I know now that Matthias is one of those people.
I’m running before the thought fully forms in my head. I don’t even see him move, but I slam to a halt as Matthias appears in front of me, blocking my way.
As I hurriedly backpedal, he closes in on me, reaching out to grasp my chin and jerk my head up. His eyes are piercing as he captures my gaze. A flush of heat washes over me, followed by a chill so cold I can almost hear my teeth chatter. And Matthias is there, nudging at my mind, trying to get inside.
Distantly, I hear the door open, but I can’t tear my eyes away from Matthias’s gaze to look. I’m caught like a moth in a spider’s web, getting more entangled with each flutter of my wings.
“Stop,” I beg as I feel him probe harder at my mind. He ignores my plea.
I fight back, fire with fire, trying to see through his eyes, to find some way to counter him.
It works, the growing pressure around my mind grinding to a halt. He lets go of my chin and takes a step back, uttering a single word.
“Seeker.”
He reaches for me again with both hands, lightning-quick, and even my sight can’t save me. His hands tighten around my neck, stronger than any human’s. I know what he’s about to do, terror crawling its way up my chest as I anticipate the snap that will end it all.
I see a blur of movement behind Matthias, and then the vampire lets out a strangled sound, glancing down at his chest. I follow his gaze, trying to make sense of what I see. There’s a stake shoved through his heart.
10
The most powerful vampire in the world falls to the floor right in front of me. Behind him stands Isaac, looking as shocked as I feel. He’s quicker to recover than I am.
“Come on, Blue. There isn’t much time. We need to get out of here.”
“You… He…”
I stare down at Matthias. He’s lying on the ground, the wooden stake sticking out of his chest. His eyes are open but unseeing. He hasn’t turned to ashes like on TV.
“You killed him.”
“He was going to kill you,” Isaac says. “Besides, he’s not dead. Not unless I pull that stake out, and I have no plans to do that to dear old Pops.”
He strides away, through another door, returning seconds later with a bundle of clothing in his arms.
“Here, put these on. I couldn’t find any shoes.”
I pull on a sweater, then a pair of pants and some socks. The clothes swamp me, but it’s better than wandering around half-naked. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a wooden table tipped on its side, one leg broken off, the wood splintered. In the distance, a door bangs, and footsteps race our way.
“That’s the cavalry. Shit’s about to go down,” Isaac warns. “Keep behind me, stick close. I’m getting you out of here.”
He reaches down and picks Matthias up off the floor like he weighs nothing, propping him up in front of him. Unlike an unconscious human, Matthias seems to have gone stiff as a board.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“He’s leverage. Our way out of here.”
Before Isaac can explain more, the door flies open, and people spill into the room. I move behind him, wanting to keep as much distance as I can between me and Matthias, even if he does have a stake through his heart.
“Stay back,” Isaac shouts.
The woman leading the charge slams to a halt and puts her arms out, holding the others back. Her dark, poker-straight hair has me a little envious, and she has warm olive skin that makes me wonder if she really is a vampire. Is the deathly pale, cross-hating, turn-to-ashes vampire just a stereotype?
“Zac, what’s going on?” Her eyes dart from Matthias to me as she speaks. “Did she do this?”
Zac suits him. Better than Isaac, anyway.
“No, Katya. I did.”
Her eyes widen.
“Why?”
“It’s long overdue.” His hand inches toward the stake in Matthias’s chest, and it’s like the whole room holds its breath.
“Don’t,” Katya breathes.
“I won’t, so long as my new friend and I walk out of here.”
It takes me longer than I’d like to admit to realize that I’m his new friend. I debate arguing the fact, but all I want is to get out of here. Zac looks like my best chance.
Katya takes a step closer, and Zac’s fingers touch the edge of the stake. She freezes, her eyes fixed on his hand. Slowly, she nods.
“Then leave. We won’t stop you. But you’re not taking him with you.”
Remembering Zac’s advice to stay close, I take another step toward him.
“We get out, you get Matthias,” Zac promises, moving toward the door. I match him step for step, like his shadow.
The corridor outside is empty. I walk through first. As Zac carries Matthias across the threshold, he pivots to keep Katya and the others in sight, calling to me.
“Head straight down the corridor. Right to the end. Then take a left.”
We move quickly, no one blocking our path once they see who Zac has a hold of. I worry someone might try to grab me, so I fist my hand in the back of Zac’s shirt.
We turn left, then right, down a second corridor, and through another doorway. This place is a maze. A large, tastefully decorated maze. And they’ve been keeping me somewhere near the center of it, as far as I can tell. Even if I had run, I wouldn’t have gotten far.
It’s a relief when we finally reach stairs heading upwards. Up means the surface, means escape. Means sunlight. Assuming it isn’t still night. Fuck.
We start up the stairs, Zac keeping Matthias’s body between us and the vampires trailing us. Katya starts to talk again.
“Zac, think about it,” she implores, keeping pace with us but not closing the distance between us. “If you pull that stake out, it’s not just Matthias who dies.”
“I know. Do you think I want to kill you? Do you think I want to kill them?” He nods to the vampires flanking her. “But come on, Katya. You know none of this is right, what Matthias has been doing. You’re his second. By rights, you should be one of the strongest vampires in the world right alongside him. Hell, you’re female. You have the potential to be more powerful than Matthias will ever be. But all he’s done for decades is ruthlessly siphon your energy, make it so you can’t develop your power or create a family of your own. If he dies, you die, and so does every vampire you’ve sired.”
“He is my sire. I’m loyal.” The words are wooden, devoid of emotion.
“That’s the point, isn’t it? You can’t survive without him, so you’ll never turn against him. In fact, you’ll do everything in your power to keep him safe, to keep him alive. Because that’s your life you’re saving.”
Now I understand why they haven’t just rushed us. Matthias has them under his thumb, their lives tied to his—they can’t risk it.
“We’re your family, Zac. Matthias is your father.”
The top of the stairs is within reach, escape tantalizingly close.
“Get ready to open the door,” Zac tells me over his sho
ulder. “And run.”
I drag open three deadbolts, one at each end of the door and one in the center, as Zac turns back to Katya.
“You’ve been good to me, Katya. You’ve made the hell of living here bearable. Consider this my gift to you. While Matthias is out of action, you have a chance to build your power, to protect yourself and all those under you. Take it. Please.”
Part of me wants to hear the rest of this story. Why is life here hell for Zac? And does father mean father, or did Matthias sire Zac? Clearly, whatever’s going on right now stretches far beyond me and why I’m here.
I grab hold of the door handle, relieved when it turns.
“Zac?” I call over my shoulder.
“Open it,” he yells.
I push the door open and light spills inside.
As I turn back to Zac, he shoves Matthias down the stairs toward Katya and the others, shouting, “Go!”
I don’t need any more encouragement to dive out into the morning light. Zac barrels through the door right behind me, slamming it shut.
A shout escapes me as the sunlight bathes him. I half-expect him to burst into flames. But nothing happens.
He holds out a hand to me.
“We need to make a run for it. Matthias has a lot of human proxies. They’ll be mobbing us any minute now.”
I take his hand, and he breaks into a run. I race with him down the street and around a corner. He stops in front of a motorcycle, fishing keys out of his pocket as he climbs on.
“Get on.”
He doesn’t need to tell me twice. I slide onto the bike behind him. I’ve never ridden a motorcycle before, but I know they’re fast. Right now, fast is good. Far away is better.
It doesn’t even occur to me to wonder where he’s taking me. As the road flashes past beneath our feet, I’m distracted thinking back over the moment Matthias went from being intrigued by me to deciding to kill me. He said something, called me a name. Something I’ve heard before, a long time ago.
“What’s a Seeker?” I shout into Zac’s ear.
He glances at me over his shoulder, and then pulls over, bringing the bike to a sudden stop before he jumps off. Suddenly, we’re face to face, and truly alone for the first time since we set eyes on each other.
“What’s a See—” He presses a finger to my lips, silencing me.
“You can’t say that word. Not out loud, not where anyone can hear. It’ll get you killed.”
“But what is it? Why was Matthias going to kill me for it? And why did you kill him? He’s your sire, right?”
I have a dozen more questions, but those are the most pressing.
“Matthias is the most powerful vampire in this city, maybe even the world. If he called you… that, it’s because he thinks that’s what you are. And if you are, he’s not the only one who’ll want you dead.”
“That doesn’t explain why you saved me.”
He looks away, avoiding my eyes. “Matthias is my father, not my sire. And I couldn’t watch him kill you.”
“Vampires can have kids?” Two dead things producing a living thing just seems…wrong.
“I’m only half-vampire. I’m also half-druid.”
Another half-blood. I’m starting to see a theme.
“We need to get moving,” he says, and before I can get another question out, we’re back on the road.
As we weave through the streets, things start to look familiar. Soon enough, we turn a corner and the guild house comes into view. He stops across the street, climbs off, then helps me off the motorcycle.
I have so many questions that I don’t even know where to start.
“You’ll come inside? Help me explain?” I haven’t got the first clue how I’m going to recount this crazy tale.
“I can’t. I wouldn’t be welcome.”
“You’re a half-blood.”
“And it’s a long story.”
He leans in, catching my chin between finger and thumb. His touch is gentle but sends a tingle of pleasure through me. I lift my head and gaze into his green eyes. As heat flushes through my body, I wonder if he has the same mesmerizing power as his father.
“Remember,” he whispers. “Not a word to anyone about what Matthias called you. Silence is your friend.”
“But if he’s not dead…”
“He’s going nowhere. Not until his body heals and pushes the stake out. He can’t feed like this. Without fresh blood, that’ll take years, maybe a decade. A lot can change in a decade.”
I nod as if I understand. It makes sense, in as much as anything in this crazy world does.
His hand cups my cheek.
“Be safe, Blue,” he says. “Watch your back. No more befriending human proxies.”
And then he leans in and kisses me. I melt into the embrace, heat singing through my body. This is what I’ve wanted, what I’ve needed, since the moment I set eyes on him.
His lips leave my mouth, his forehead pressed against mine.
“See you around, Blue.”
He steps back to his bike and motions toward the house. Reluctantly, I cross the street and start up the steps. As I reach the top, I look back, and he gives me a salute. It isn’t until I’m through the door that I hear his bike take off. Knowing that he waited until he was sure I was safe sparks a warm feeling of happiness inside me. But that turns to confusion when I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Wide gray eyes peer back at me before the mirror strips my glamours once more. But if my glamours were still in place, why the hell was Zac calling me Blue?
11
I don’t have a key, so I resort to pressing the buzzer by the door. As I wait, rocking back and forth on my stockinged feet, I’m very aware that I have a ton of explaining to do.
Evan two-point-oh opens the door, looking me up and down before pulling his phone out.
“Archer, Indigo is back. She looks… unharmed.” He hesitates as he glances from me to the mirror.
“No,” he concludes with a small smile. “Definitely not a vampire.”
He ends the call and steps back, waving me inside. “Are you injured? We don’t have a healer on staff right now, but we can call one.”
“I’m okay. Where is everyone?”
“Out looking for you, for the most part. I’m holding down the fort in case you returned.”
Knowing I owe them an explanation, I start talking.
“There was this couple. I just went to get coffee—”
He holds up a hand, halting me mid-sentence. “Archer and the others will want to hear this. You’ll be sick of telling this story by the end of the day.”
Which is when I remember that it’s tomorrow already. I’ve lost most of a day to being abducted by vampires. Speaking of vampires, it’s probably not a good thing that I was involved with what happened to their leader.
“Matthias…” The rest of the words stick in my throat as I recall his hands around my neck and how they’d tightened, ready to snap me like a twig. I’m distantly aware that I’m shaking.
“What about Matthias?” Archer calls, striding down the corridor toward us.
“He… I…” I’m torn. How much do I say? What do I hold back? Zac had made me promise not to mention the S-word, but was that the only danger?
Archer stops, gives me a hard stare, and curses under his breath.
“You’re in shock. Come on, come with me.”
He holds out a hand and I take it, letting him guide me along the corridor.
“Peter, when the others arrive back, tell them to join us.”
We wind up in the kitchen, where Archer nudges me toward the table and puts some water on to boil.
“Are you injured? We can contact a healer.”
“I’m fine,” I mumble as I sit, even though I feel far from it.
“Are you sure?” His voice is gentle as he presses for an answer. “Some injuries are not easily seen. Vampires are masters of pain when they want to be.”
I shrug one shoulder, avoiding his gaze.
It’s too kind, and right now I don’t feel deserving of kindness. My own stupidity got me into this mess.
“They knocked me unconscious but they didn’t hurt me. He never got the chance.”
“He meaning Matthias?”
“Yeah.” My voice catches in my throat.
Archer pours two cups, adding a liberal amount of sugar into one of them and a dash of milk into both before carrying them back to the table.
“My wife used to say there was nothing that a cup of tea couldn’t make better.”
The words sound so familiar that I flash back to another time, another voice. But it’s there and gone in an instant, leaving me stranded in the present.
I stare down at my cup as Archer sits next to me. When I reach for it, I’m surprised to find my hand shaking. Everything that’s happened has me rattled, physically and mentally. But there’s something Archer needs to know.
“Zac put a stake through Matthias’s heart.”
There’s silence at my declaration, and I glance up to see Archer’s reaction. He stares back at me, a slight frown on his face.
“Zac?”
“Isaac. Do you know him?”
“I haven’t heard that name in a long time. Is Matthias dead?”
“No. Zac left the stake in. There was this woman, um… Katya.”
“Matthias’s second.”
“They were talking. It sounded like if Matthias died, a lot of the other vampires would too. Zac said he’d been… siphoning their power.”
Archer’s frown deepens.
“I suspected as much. So, Matthias is out of the picture, for now. And Zac?”
“He, um, he said he wouldn’t be welcome here. But it didn’t sound like he was going back to Katya. They weren’t too happy about him stabbing Matthias, and he called his life there hell.”
“Why did Matthias take you? What did he want?”
I have to step carefully. Say too much, and I’ll give it away. Too little, and he’ll suspect I’m lying.
“He was curious. His vampires back at the casino told him about me. I guess he wanted to see for himself.”
“How did you go from that to Zac staking him?”
