“I’m fine.” It’s a total lie. I want to be fine and I’m trying so hard to be fine, but how can I be when everything about me hovers in the gray? Sebastian tells me he sees nothing but light when he looks at me, and so far the gates to the center find me worthy, but still, I can’t shrug off the way Liv looked at me at the diner. In her eyes, and in that moment, she saw darkness. What if I can’t control my magic? What if in trying to do the right thing I always only ever end up doing the wrong thing? What if I become the villain who thinks she’s the hero?
Maybe it would be better if I didn’t use my magic at all. Maybe Aunt Claudia and Uncle Caleb had the right idea all along in keeping my magic suppressed, and I’ve been too naïve and headstrong to see it.
“Don’t do that. Don’t question yourself every time you use your magic now.”
“What? I’m not.” How does he know exactly what I’m thinking? It’s not like he can read my face. We’re in the dark.
“Yes, you are.”
“And how would you know? Thought you said you can’t read minds with your sixth sense thing.”
“I can’t.”
“Then how do you know I’m not thinking about all the assignments I’m missing in school today, huh? Or about the hundreds of questions Taylor and Paige will no doubt ask me at the end of the day?”
A hesitant sigh slips past his lips, almost as if he’s afraid to tell me. “I know because I can feel you.”
“What do you mean you can feel me?”
“Sometimes when I’m around you, I feel things.”
“You feel things?”
“I feel you… when your emotions are strong… in here.” His fingers run down my arm until they find their way to my wrist. Taking my hand, he places it against the center of his chest, his heartbeat a fast flutter beneath my palm. “I can’t explain it, and it doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, I feel it here. It’s how I found you the other day.
“The seers couldn’t locate you, and Liv couldn’t scry for you, but I wasn’t ready to give up. So I went to search for you the old-fashioned way, by canvassing the streets, hoping I’d be able to feel you if I got close enough. And I did. The moment Chester turned down Third, I felt your confusion, your fear, and your determination. Your emotions were so strong. I felt you. Just like I feel you doubting the goodness in you now. But you shouldn’t. Believe me, Indi. Really believe me when I say you have more light than anyone I’ve ever met. Don’t be afraid to be who you are, magic and all.”
He can feel me? Like feel what I feel feel me? How is that even possible? If it’s not part of his sixth sense thing, then that just leaves the weird connection we have toward each other from when I brought him back from the brink of death. My heart picks up the pace at the thought of it being our connection. It may have been what initially drew us toward one another, and I may have questioned it and the validity of what we were feeling for one another before finally accepting my feelings, but gah! I have felt a lot of things since getting to know him and if he can now feel what I feel…
“What all have you felt? And how long exactly has this been happening?” I bite my lip, already anticipating the embarrassment. It’s one thing for him to pick up on my fears, but if he’s picked up on my more hormone-based feelings, I think I might literally die.
“Not long. Maybe the past week or so. I didn’t really know what it was at first. As for what I’ve felt…” He takes a step closer so there’s hardly any space between us. His breath tickles over my face, his lips so close I can almost feel them touch mine. My heartbeats thump at a million miles an hour. It can’t be helped. “I think I’ll keep it a secret.”
A rush of cool air smacks against my body the moment he steps away, though it does nothing to cool the pool of heat spreading out from my belly. The tease.
Seconds later, a bright light illuminates from the corner of the room. I throw my arm up to shield my eyes against the brightness, but end up seeing spots, anyway.
He flashes me a grin. “I’ll take the desk. You take the files.” He nods his head toward a large tan cabinet against the wall behind me. I give him a sarcastic smile in return and flip him off before turning to do what he says. His laughter fills the small office, and I can’t help but smile, despite myself.
“What am I supposed to be looking for?” I give the handle a hard tug, expecting it to be locked. The drawer shoots out so fast I have to jump back to keep from knocking myself down.
“I don’t know, anything that would point to where he’s keeping Seth. Gavin likes to keep files on everything. If we’re lucky, he’ll have one on him in there too.”
“Okay.” I flip through the folders, reading over every name, but they’re either personnel files on chasers in this area or the various cases they’ve been on. “There’s nothing here.”
“There’s nothing over here either.” He flops down into the chair and puts his feet up on the desk.
“Giving up already?”
“No. I just need a few minutes to think.” He rests his head against the back of the chair with his eyes closed.
“Is there someone else you can ask?”
“Not without raising suspicion. When the boss does something you don’t question it.”
“Then I guess we keep looking.” I don’t like the idea of Gavin having Seth in a separate, secure location. I mean, why did he move him, anyway? Sebastian said he didn’t tell anyone the real reason why Seth was being taken in, so why would he be of any interest to Gavin at all? “There’s got to be something we’re missing.”
Moving behind Sebastian, I check out the bookcase behind him. Nothing really stands out. Every book here is on supernatural lore or the occult. All things I would expect to find… except for maybe this. I run my finger over the spine of Frankenstein, the only fictional book here. It sends a slight tingle up the side of my hand.
Magic.
“What is it?” Sebastian swivels around in the chair, leaning to the side to see what I’m looking at.
“Something that doesn’t belong.” I pull at the book with the tip of my finger, intending to flip through the pages to see if there’s something hidden within it, when all of a sudden the whole case starts to swing away.
“I don’t believe it. Gavin’s got a secret passageway in his office. How did I not know about this?” Sebastian takes my hand and pulls me behind him into the narrow hall.
The bookcase swings closed behind us, snuffing out all the light. My heart shudders, enticing chills to run down my back. Who knows what Gavin has hidden down here? We don’t even have flashlights to see where we’re going, and I, for one, don’t want to walk face first into a giant spider’s web… or worse. Gavin could be keeping some kind of monster locked down here for all I know. It was a copy of Frankenstein that opened the door, after all.
Still holding my hand, Sebastian bumps into my side a couple times before the hall illuminates with the light of his phone.
“Right. Built in flashlight.” I pull out my phone, adding to the light he’s already shining.
“Let’s see what Gavin’s hiding down here, shall we?” Before I can answer, he’s already dragging me into the depths. We walk for a few minutes before coming to a split.
“Which way?”
He looks up and down the hall as though he’s carefully weighing each option.
“No,” I say when I see the crazy look in his eye. “There’s no way we’re splitting up.”
“It’s our fastest option. I’ll go this way.” He points a thumb over his shoulder. “And you go that way,” he says with a nod of his chin. “We’ll meet back here in ten minutes.”
“Splitting up is a bad idea. Haven’t you ever seen a horror movie? You never split up. There aren’t even any lights down here.” The thought of being alone in the darkness sends a shiver down my spine.
“I’m sure there are. The switch is probably back at the bookcase, and we just missed it.” He takes my phone, his thumbs flying over the screen. A timer
counts down from ten minutes. “Meet me back here when the alarm goes off.”
“But—”
“You’ll be fine. I promise. We’re at the center, not in a horror movie. Nothing bad will happen to you here. You’re safe.” Without another word, he turns and heads down the hall.
You’re safe.
Yeah, right. If Gavin has Seth down here and he talked, I’m not so sure how safe I’ll be. More like locked up, experimented on, and used as a weapon against the fanged ones.
God, I hope Gavin doesn’t come back early.
The cold touch of fear settles in over the back of my neck at the thought of Gavin catching us in his secret... whatever this is. I’ve never met the man before to base any assumption on, but the way Sebastian says his name leads me to believe there’s some kind of bad history between them, and I do not want to find out what it is by being busted where I don’t belong. I’ve got enough problems as it is… like searching this black-hole tunnel before me. I shine the light of my phone down the hall, seeing no end to the darkness ahead of me.
It’s just a deep, dark tunnel with no end in sight. Not scary at all.
Swallowing down non-existent spit, I force my feet forward into the darkness. Every door I come across is locked in what appears to be a never-ending hallway. At this rate, finding Seth is going to be impossible.
“Who’s there?”
The voice comes out of nowhere, the soft lilt bouncing off the walls around me so it sounds like it’s coming from everywhere. My phone hits the ground with a hard thud, snuffing out the light, as I clutch my chest. My heart beats so loud it wouldn’t surprise me if whoever called out could use its out-of-control thumps to locate me in the dark, if they haven’t already figured out where I am, that is.
I strain my ears, listening for any sounds outside my own rapid breathing, but there’s nothing. No shoes scraping over the hard concrete. No swish of pant legs rubbing together. No disembodied voice yelling for me to stay where I am or suffer the consequences. There aren’t even any bouncing lights from a flashlight to slice through the dark over the walls.
Could I have imagined the voice?
I crouch down, running my fingers over the floor until they hit the edge of my phone. Part of me is a little afraid to raise it and shine my light, just in case I’m really not alone.
A slight static buzz permeates the silence, and I stiffen where I am.
“I know you’re out there, and I know you’re not Gavin.” Her words come out soft and soothing with a sweet lilt. Except for Gavin’s name, which holds a heavy dose of loathing. “Who are you?”
My tongue glues to the roof of my mouth, all my words tangled up in fear.
What do I do? Do I run? Do I scream for Sebastian? Do I give my name, and turn myself in and hope Sebastian won’t get caught too?
From somewhere down the hall someone beats against a door, the bangs echoing up and down the corridor. My heart shoots up into my esophagus, where it gets lodged beside my silent words and screams.
The static buzz fills the air once more. “Come closer. I promise I won’t bite.”
I promise I won’t bite?
Every single hair on my body stands on end. My feet itch to run like the wind and not look back, but there’s something about the voice that makes me want to go to it.
I grab my phone, dimming the light so it’s not so bright.
“That’s it. Come this way.”
A small voice in the back of my head screams for me to go the other way and wait for Sebastian, but my feet move forward anyway until I come to a stop outside a door.
A small intercom beside the frame crackles with static. “Hello. Push the button, and say hi back.”
As if my arm has a mind of its own, I reach out and press the button at the base of the intercom. “Hi.”
What am I doing?
“Open the door, and we can be friends.”
I reach for the door handle and hesitate. “I… I don’t have the code.”
What is going on? And for the love of cheese, why am I complying?
A face, mostly hidden in shadow, appears in the window. From what little I can see, her features are soft and young. She can’t be much older than fourteen or fifteen at most.
Why on earth does Gavin have a girl locked up in some hidden room?
She tilts her head, studying me as I study her. Her hair is dark as midnight, her eyes just as black but with a small hint of a bluish glow within the irises. Her mouth curls into a smile the moment I realize what she is.
Vampire.
17
Why does Gavin have a vampire locked up in a secret holding facility hidden behind a bookshelf in his office? Who is this girl?
I take a step closer. Something about her is familiar.
A crackling static buzzes near my ear, followed by a melodic voice. “Four, eight, two, six, five, nine, three.”
“What?”
“The combination is four, eight, two, six, five, nine, three.” Her eyes don’t leave mine for a second, the soft glowing blue pulsating with her command. “Don’t you want to be friends? Once I’m out, we can celebrate our newfound friendship over dinner.” Her tongue glides across her bottom lip, revealing the tiniest bit of fangs hidden beneath her upper lip.
I key in the first two numbers before I come to my senses. What am I doing? I can’t let her out. She’s a vampire, and a dangerous one at that. She had me enthralled before I even set eyes on her.
Once I’m out we can celebrate our newfound friendship over dinner? Yeah, like I can’t decipher the double meaning in that one.
“Why did you stop?” Her head cocks to the side, first one way and then the other. It makes me think of Coco when Jack baby-speaks to her. “I promise I’ll play nice.”
Her compulsion tingles under my skin, nudging me to do what she asks. I grip my phone tighter and stuff my other hand deep into my pocket.
“There’s something different about you. You’re special. I’m special too. Let me out, and I’ll show you.” She rests her forehead against the glass, looking up at me through her lashes. “You know you want to.”
The alarm goes off on my phone, sending my heart into temporary cardiac arrest before it kick-starts into hyper speed. She sniffs the air, closing her eyes as her fangs fully descend.
“You smell so good.” Her eyes pop open, the glowing blue of her irises brighter than before. “Let me out.”
I take several steps backward, the shrill melody of the alarm in combination with the vibrations pulsing through my hand acting as a buffer between her demands and my free will.
She bangs her head against the glass and a fist against the door. “Let me out!”
My back hits the wall, the phone slipping from my sweaty fingers as I watch the door rattle beneath her fists. If she keeps this up, she may actually break it down.
Oh God, what if she breaks it down?
“Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!”
Grabbing my phone, and shutting off the alarm in the process, I haul butt down the corridor. Please, please, please let the door hold. Her screams and banging fists follow me for several feet before everything—aside from my pounding heart and wheezing breaths—suddenly goes silent. It’s enough to freeze my feet in place.
Uncontrollable tremors take over my hand as I slowly raise the light of my phone down the hall. A hundred million nightmares play out in my mind within the span of a second at what I might see… at whom I might see. But there’s no one there.
She didn’t get out.
Leaning against the wall, I rest the back of my head against it, letting the coolness seep in. Breath I didn’t realize I was holding slips out in a deep sigh as the rest of me slides down to the floor, the gritty texture of the cinder blocks catching the back of my jacket along the way.
What was that back there?
Who was that girl, and why does she look so familiar? How was she able to influence me without making direct eye contact first? Or better yet, how c
ould she smell me through the door? She’s not like the other vampires. There’s something different about her, something powerful… something still pulling me toward her. I can’t help but stare into the darkness, every cell in my body screaming to go to her, to do as she asks. To let her out.
I shake my head to get her out of it as I focus on the other end of the hallway. Where is Sebastian? He should have been here by now. I glance down at my phone. At least five minutes have passed since my alarm went off. The silence around me intensifies until it becomes deafening. Another dose of fear slithers in. Its cold, bony fingers latch around my spine, sending out chills to ripple over my skin at all the dark thoughts filling my mind.
What if Sebastian found another vampire like the girl I came across? What if he couldn’t break the compulsion like I did? What if he’s letting his vampire out right now? What if he already did, and he’s now lying on the cold, dark floor, completely drained of blood?
I haul myself up and shine the light down the hall at full brightness. “Sebastian?” I call out just under my breath. It’s nowhere near loud enough for a person to hear, yet it has me glancing around in paranoia, anyway.
Get it together, Indi. You’re a nephilim-witch hybrid. Time to put your big girl pants on, stop what-ifing everything, and be the badass you’re training to be. You are not a damsel in distress, so don’t act like one.
One foot in front of the other, I slowly make my way down the hall. The light of my phone bounces all over the place with the trembling of my hand. I grip it tighter as though it’ll make a difference, and I’ll suddenly be confident in blindly walking down a dark corridor into who knows what. Just because I tell myself to be a badass doesn’t mean I am one.
The sound of a door opening has me flattening my back against the wall as if no one will see me standing there.
It’s probably just Sebastian, I tell myself.
Or it’s a powerful bloodsucking fiend here to rip your throat out my heart beats out.
Of Darkness & Light: Blood Descent Book 2 Page 17
