Death of Darkness

by Dianne Duvall

  “So?”

  The deep laugh he released carried a maniacal lilt. “Did Gershom keep you so clueless about the virus that infects you that you don’t even know it causes brain damage in humans?”

  She frowned. “Bullshit. I’m human. And all it’s done is make me stronger.”

  “Really?” he countered. “Did he tell you that? Did Gershom tell you you’re human? No big fucking surprise there. Well, news flash. You aren’t human. You’re a gifted one.”

  He thought she wasn’t human? What did he think she was—an alien or something? “You’re insane.”

  “No shit. I’ve been fighting the madness this fucking virus spawns for six years. Even Seth hasn’t been able to stop it. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re a gifted one… as in someone who is born with gifts others don’t possess. Haven’t you ever wondered why you can do the things you do? How you can do things no one else you know can do?”

  She stilled. How did he know she was different?

  “It’s because you were born with advanced DNA. All gifted ones are. It’s why Gershom chose you. It’s why he kidnapped you. He knew he could transform you without you going insane. You aren’t a vampire. You’re an immortal.” He loosed another growl and something crashed to the floor somewhere. “I wish to hell I were, too.” He sounded tormented.

  “Is that why you’re a prisoner here? Because you’re a vampire?”

  “I’m not a fucking prisoner!” he bellowed.

  Even though Tessa couldn’t see him, her heart began to beat faster with fear as more crashes sounded. She patted the pocket that held the butter knife, terrified the man might burst through the wall and try to kill her with his bare hands.

  Quiet descended.

  “Shit,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. That was… That was the virus. I’m sorry. I… Fuck! I can’t think straight tonight!”

  “Cliff?” another male said softly. “You hanging in there?”

  A choked laugh full of despair carried to her. “I’m hanging on by a thread, Stewart,” the insane man—Cliff—replied. “Clinging to the edge by my fucking fingertips.”

  “You want me to call Bastien? Or Aidan?”

  “No. They’ve done enough babysitting for the day.”

  Tessa cleared her throat. “Who are you?” she asked the second speaker.

  “Stewart,” he replied. “I’m a vampire, too. You should listen to Cliff. He’s known the Immortal Guardians longer than I have.”

  “You don’t sound insane.”

  “No,” he acknowledged somberly, “but I’ve been struggling a lot lately. I’m having psychotic breaks now. Like one a month. But the immortals who are usually on hand—Melanie and Bastien—make sure I don’t hurt anyone. That’s why we’re here—me, Cliff, and the other vampires. We don’t want to hurt anyone. The immortals are doing everything they can to help us and to keep us from completely losing it and killing innocents.”

  Tessa sank down on the comfy love seat. “Help you how?”

  Cliff answered. “I surrendered to the immortals not long after my transformation when I realized they were the good guys. Their doctors have been trying to find a way to help us. To help all humans who turn vampire. They’re trying to find a cure for the virus, or at least find a way to keep us from going insane.”

  It didn’t sound as if they were succeeding. “If what you’re saying is true—”

  “Of course it’s fucking true!” he raged. “You think I’m lying?” Another crash sounded. “You think I want to be insane?” Crash. “You think I want to turn into someone whose thoughts would’ve fucking made me vomit eight years ago?” Crash. “This isn’t who I am!” Crash. “This isn’t who I am!” Crash. Crash.

  Silence.

  He swore. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry…” He kept repeating it over and over, his voice getting softer and more controlled with each apology. “I’m sorry. It’s…” He sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s not your fault you doubt us. Gershom has been fucking with your head as much as this virus is fucking with mine.”

  “Cliff,” Stewart said, “let me call Aidan.”

  “No. It’s okay. I’m… I’m okay.”

  He wasn’t. He really wasn’t. Tessa thought Cliff would’ve killed her if he had been in the same room with her.

  “Tessa,” Cliff said, no anger lingering his voice, “from what I’ve heard, you were hunting with vampires for at least a few weeks before you attacked Leah.”

  The fact that he sounded completely calm now unnerved her as much as his violent outbursts had. “So?”

  “So, haven’t you ever encountered vampires who weren’t newly turned? Vampires who weren’t quite right or who seemed unnaturally eager to kill just for the sake of killing? Vampires who maybe weren’t as clean-cut as the ones Gershom had you hunt with? Vampires who didn’t bathe or wash the blood from their clothing after a kill? Vampires who were so clueless in regard to right and wrong that you worried they might attack you—the only female in the group?”

  Yes, she had. And they had totally creeped her out. But she had just chalked it up to their having been sick bastards before they’d been turned. If not all humans were good people, she had reasoned, then not all vampires would be either.

  “I’ll take your silence as a yes,” Cliff said. “Those vampires—the ones who get off on terrifying and torturing—are the vampires Immortal Guardians hunt. Newly turned vampires like I was when I met them and like Stewart and the others here were when they met them, are given the option of joining the immortals and seeking medical help.”

  “Yeah,” Stewart said. “Like he said, Immortal Guardians are the good guys. They don’t get off on hurting people the way Gershom does. I really lost it one time when I was badly injured and accidentally hurt Dr. Lipton. I thought the immortals would kill me for it, but they didn’t. They continued to help me. And Melanie has never held it against me.”

  “I know it sucks,” Cliff added, “to discover that everything you thought was truth is actually a lie, but that whole ignorance is bliss thing is bullshit. Ignorance isn’t bliss. Ignorance just makes it easier for other people to manipulate you. And Gershom has been manipulating the hell out of you to get you to do bad shit to good people. Seth and the others just want to help you.”

  As if summoned by his name, Seth abruptly appeared inside the apartment.

  Tessa lunged to her feet.

  Standing near the door, he offered her a slight bow. “Good evening, Tessa.” His stance remained relaxed, unthreatening, as she eased around the coffee table and braced herself for a fight.

  Cliff and Stewart grew quiet.

  “You won’t be needing those,” Seth said and waved a hand.

  The butter knife, vegetable peeler, pointy bottle opener, pencils, pens, and other weapons she had amassed leapt out of her pockets and deposited themselves in the sink. “I’ve come to take you to dinner.”

  Tessa fought the fear that inundated her. How had he known about the weapons? He had filched every single one of them!

  “I knew about them because I’m reading your thoughts,” he replied as though she had spoken the question aloud. “Gershom can do the same. It is how he has managed to control and mislead you for so long, quashing every doubt as soon as you think it.”

  Damn it. She didn’t want to doubt Gershom. He had helped her. He had saved her. And he had tried to save her brother and been so crushed when he couldn’t.

  Seth’s lips tightened. “I know you won’t believe me or think me sincere when I say this, but I’m sorry I couldn’t find you sooner. I’ve been searching ever since I learned you and the other gifted ones had been taken. But even I have my limits. And I am so sorry for your loss. The police report indicated that William was killed in a traffic accident while the two of you were visiting your parents in New York. I had no idea Gershom was involved.”

  As usual, grief swamped her at the mention of her brother’s name. But so did anger. She couldn’t trust this m
an after seeing what he had done.

  Seth approached her slowly, raising his hands in a take-it-easy gesture that showed no weapons. But he hadn’t needed a weapon to plunge her into unconsciousness.

  “I apologize for that,” he said, “but Leah was injured and bleeding profusely. I couldn’t heal her as long as you persisted in attacking me.”

  Tessa’s thoughts shifted to the woman she had meant to use as bait to entrap Seth. The woman who had taken a bullet for her and tackled her to the floor to remove her from the shooters’ line of sight. “How is she?” she asked, angered by the guilt the inquiry sparked. Gershom wouldn’t want her to feel sorry for Leah.

  Uncertainty rose as she questioned that for the first time.

  “You’re questioning it because Gershom isn’t present to feed your fury and need for vengeance.”

  Could Gershom really do that? Because without it… “Did Leah survive?” she asked.

  He smiled. “Yes, and she’s worried about you. She will be dining with us.”

  She would?

  When Seth reached out and touched her shoulder, Tessa flinched and brought her hands up. The room went dark and that weird weightlessness struck as he teleported her away. A moment later, bright light erupted around her. Multiple beeps sounded.

  Breaking Seth’s hold, she backed away and took in her new surroundings.

  Not a holding cell. Not a torture chamber. But a huge living room with high ceilings and multiple sofas, love seats, wingback chairs, and coffee tables. She frowned. Coffee tables with small foam cushions attached to every corner. The kind she had seen a friend use while baby proofing her home. Which was weird, because atop some of those coffee tables lay sheathed swords and daggers.

  “The children know not to touch the weapons,” Seth told her as he pulled a cell phone out of his pocket.

  Children? What children?

  He dialed a number, then pressed the phone to his ear.

  “Reordon,” a man answered.

  Her preternaturally enhanced hearing enabled her to hear both sides of the conversation. And this man’s voice was one Tessa had heard often since awakening in that studio apartment. She had quickly concluded that he was one of the higher-ups at whatever facility had held her.

  “Just letting you know we’ve left,” Seth said. “You can turn the network’s alarm back on.”

  “Will do.”

  The network. That’s what everyone seemed to call that place. But the name didn’t tell her diddly-squat about it.

  Seth nodded as he tucked his phone away. “That’s why we call it the network. If an employee slips and mentions it in public, no one will have any idea what we do there.”

  Lunging forward, Tessa grabbed a sword off the closest coffee table, discarded the sheath, and held the blade up between her and Seth. It pissed her off when he didn’t even tense. She knew he could yank this weapon out of her hands as swiftly as he had the others but still felt better holding it.

  “Which is why I’m letting you,” he remarked softly.

  Movement behind him drew her gaze to what appeared to be a dining room table. Well over a dozen men and women—all wearing black clothing—stood around it, staring back at her.

  Immortal Guardians. Her heart began to race as ice filled her veins and her fear multiplied. There were so many of them!

  “Easy,” Seth said. “We are not your enemy, Tessa.”

  Despite the things Cliff and Stewart had told her, she couldn’t bring herself to believe it.

  A man stepped up to Seth’s side. Seth was at least six foot eight inches tall. This man was six foot four or thereabouts and offered her a nod of greeting. “I apologize for not having brought you a meal earlier. I wanted to speak with Seth first,” he said with a Scottish accent. “I’m Aidan.”

  This was Aidan? This was the man who had kidnapped Veronica and so many of the other women?

  “You son of a bitch!” Tessa sped forward, raising the sword.

  A blurred form passed between them and grabbed her arms before she could finish swinging the blade.

  Straining to free herself, she stared up at the warrior who held her wrists above her head.

  He wasn’t quite as tall as Aidan but bore piercing brown eyes and an air of menace that unnerved her. “It’s all right,” he crooned in a British accent. With slow, careful movements, he extracted the sword from her fingers and released his hold.

  Tessa stumbled backward.

  “Aidan didn’t harm Veronica,” he said.

  “Bullshit. After Gershom rescued her, she told me Aidan was the one who kidnapped her.”

  He shook his head. “I thought Aidan guilty, too, at first. I’m Roland Warbrook. Veronica Becker was my descendant.”

  Tessa shook her head. “She would’ve mentioned it if she had an immortal relative.”

  “She didn’t know about me. I’m nearly a thousand years old, Tessa.”

  What?

  “I watch over my descendants, but don’t introduce myself.” He shrugged, his ruggedly handsome features tinged with sadness. “I don’t age, so I can’t be part of their lives without raising questions that are best left unanswered.” Bending, he picked up the discarded sheath, slid the sword home, then returned it to the coffee table. “And I admit getting close to them, then losing them, generation after generation, was taking too great a toll on me.”

  She stared, not knowing what to think.

  “When Gershom made it appear as though Aidan had abducted Veronica,” he continued, “I wanted Aidan dead.”

  She shook her head. “Veronica was certain it was Aidan.”

  Roland looked to the Immortal Guardians’ leader. “Seth, show her how he did it.”

  She returned her attention to Seth.

  Seth sighed. “Gershom can shape-shift.”

  She laughed. Did they think her a simpleton? No one could—

  Shock stole her breath when Seth’s form began to change. His long hair shortened. His height did, too, by a few inches. Then his features and build transmogrified in swift, small increments until she found herself staring at Aidan’s twin.

  She backed away a step. Then another.

  “Gershom can shape-shift,” Seth said again, only this time he sounded exactly like Aidan. “It’s how he convinced Veronica and so many of the others that Aidan took them.” His form changed again, growing taller, his hair changing length again, his features altering until Gershom stood before her. “It’s also how he convinced you I killed your brother.” He looked and sounded just like Gershom, except he now wore no shirt and bore huge dark wings with translucent feathers.

  “Gershom doesn’t have wings,” she choked out.

  Seth-Gershom tilted his head to one side. “He’s never showed them to you?”

  She shook her head.

  The wings vanished as a dark shirt enveloped Seth’s arms and covered his chest. “Is this more like it?”

  She nodded numbly as her world began to crumble.

  Seth once more spoke in his own voice. “Gershom killed your brother, Tessa, after assuming my appearance. He injured you, then sped away before you could bleed out. As soon as he left your sight, he shape-shifted back into himself and returned, valiantly playing the hero to win your trust.” Seth shifted back into his own form.

  She shook her head.

  “I protect gifted ones.” He took a step closer. “I watch over you all, as best I can, from the moment of your birth.” His form changed again.

  Tears welled in her eyes as Tessa stared up at her brother, who—despite being her twin—had been half a foot taller than her own five foot six.

  “I would never have harmed William,” he said in her brother’s voice. Moisture glimmered in his brown eyes, which were lighter now. “I would never harm any gifted one.” His Adam’s apple rose and fell with a swallow. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to save him.”

  A sob caught in her throat as she slowly moved forward and raised a hand to touch his face. “Will,” she
whispered. He looked exactly like him. He even sounded like him.

  How many times had she wished her brother were standing before her once more? How many times had she wished she could tell him she loved him and say goodbye?

  Wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug, she burst into tears. She knew it wasn’t really Will. She knew it wasn’t her brother. But the chance to hold him again… to feel one of his big bear hugs…

  She just couldn’t resist it.

  Deep wracking sobs erupted as her heart broke. She missed him so much.

  He rested his cheek on her hair and wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug, which only made her cry harder. He even felt like Will.

  Someone pressed some tissues into one of her hands. Tessa just balled them up, unwilling to release the brother whose loss had left such a gaping hole inside her. She didn’t know how long she clung to him, soaking his shirt with her tears. But she reluctantly loosened her hold when her nose began to run.

  Stepping back, she scrubbed at her tears and blew her nose.

  Leah now stood beside them. Her smile was gentle as she held up a small stainless steel wastebasket with one hand and offered Leah more tissue with the other.

  “Thank you,” Tessa said, her voice hoarse.

  Leah nodded, then looked at Will. “Maybe you should go back to being you now.”

  Tessa fought back a protest when William shifted back into Seth’s form. More tears welled. Frustrated, she scrubbed them away with more tissues.

  No one spoke.

  Well, almost no one. Over in the dining area, someone with a British accent said softly, as though speaking to a child, “No, no, sweetie. Stay here with Daddy. She’s okay. She’s just sad.”

  Everyone watched Tessa with concern and sympathy that just did not seem feigned.

  “I don’t know what to think,” she admitted. In that moment, she felt as shattered mentally as Cliff had sounded when he had spoken to her earlier. If all this was true… and it felt horribly, horribly true… then she had been fighting for the man who had slain her brother. The man who had tortured Will and reveled in his agony. She had been doing his bidding and helping him hurt more people and…