“Get her!” someone shouted.
I raced for the kitchen, careening into the cabinets as I flung open the knife drawer. Footsteps thundered toward me. Whirling around, I hurled one knife after the other as the men came through the doorway. Blades embedded themselves in their chests and foreheads, spraying blood along the wall. When I ran out of knives, I grabbed the biggest fork I could find and launched myself at the final man blocking my way. When he first saw the fork, he laughed –
Right before I shoved it into his open mouth, so hard the prongs dug into the back of his skull. I slammed my palm upward, catching him in the chin and busting several teeth as he flew backward, landing on the dining room table. The legs broke under his weight, and he toppled to the floor in a bloody heap.
I panted as I looked around. Though the apartment was empty, I would be foolish to believe the fight was over.
The Scarlet Dagger.
I rushed upstairs, taking them two at a time, and burst through the door of my room. There it was, right on the night stand where I had left it. Just as my fingers closed around the hilt, the door slammed shut behind me and I turned, unsheathing the dagger. A handsome man who looked vaguely familiar stood there.
Shock ran through me. “You’re one of Aden’s men.” I glared at him. “Does Aden know you double-crossed him?”
He cocked his head to the side, a smug smile on his face. “We all have our parts to play in this war, princess. Mine is done, now that Nero has you.”
“He doesn’t have me yet!” I growled, charging.
I grossly underestimated my opponent. He dropped before I could ever lay a finger on him and plunged something sharp into my shoulder. I cried out, stumbling backward.
The man rose, grinning. “I win.”
The world fell away and I collapsed to my knees, patting along my shoulder for the needle buried in my skin. I ripped the dart out, hurling it into the wall. As I sank to my side, I glared at the man. My head slammed against the floor as he walked up to me, blurring in and out of my vision.
The last thing I saw was him lowering a blindfold to my eyes.
***
I hissed as the strip of duct tape was ripped from my mouth, leaving my skin feeling raw. The blindfold followed shortly after and I groggily looked around.
I was seated in an elegant wooden chair, with my hands tied off with rope behind my back. My feet had also been bound, and a long length of rope had been wrapped around my chest several times, forcing me to sit up straight.
Rope I can stand. At least it’s not Scarlet Steel.
The room around me was massive. Two of the four walls were completely made of glass, which overlooked a dark “skyline” of glittering lights and small fires, while the other two walls were made from a dark wood. A gigantic fireplace blazed in front of me, so large ten of me could stand in it, side by side. A simple desk with a pitcher of water and a few glasses stood off to one corner, and the floors were checkerboard burnt orange and brown tiles. A stately grandfather clock with gold Roman numerals stood sentinel in the corner, its pendulum ticking away what was sure to be the last few minutes of my life. A rug made out of some animal’s hide stretched out before me, while Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana played on an old record player in the background. Spices burned my nostrils, so strong and heady I could taste the cinnamon and cloves on the air.
Nero. I must be in his office.
And I was completely alone.
I kicked and struggled against my binds, but it was no use. All I succeeded in doing was getting rope burn.
A door creaked open behind me, echoing around the room, followed by the click of heels. A few seconds later, someone jerked my head down. “His exalted Excellency, Emperor Nero,” the man announced. “You will bow in his presence.”
I saw the polished tips of men’s dress shoes step in front of me, and I spat on them. The man behind me yanked my head back and smacked me hard across the face. I blinked, stunned, then laughed.
“He may be your emperor,” I hissed. “But he is not mine.”
“Actually,” said the garbled voice, “you’d be surprised how closely you and I are related. Sister.”
That last word sent a chill through me, and my eyes rolled down to see a young face severely marred by scars. I recognized his voice from the lab, when I overheard him speaking to Paris. The spice scent – almost palpable, it was so strong – finally jarred a lost memory from the recesses of my mind:
It was the night of our first formal high school dance. We were sort of using it as a celebration, since Orion’s acceptance letter for Winchester Thurston had come earlier that day. My brother turned to me in his collared shirt and slacks, smiling. “Well, sis, how do I look?”
“Pretty good, bro,” I beamed. “You’ll have to beat the girls away with a stick.”
“Well,” he said, looking me up and down. “That makes two of us. Only, you’ll be beating away the boys, or rather, I will.”
I laughed as our father called from downstairs. Excited, we bounced down to the first floor and paused on the porch long enough for him to take our picture. I sidled up to my brother, smelling his cologne.
Cinnamon and cloves.
I smiled up at him, full of pride and love.
All the air left my lungs in one giant whoosh as my gaze found a pair of hauntingly familiar brown eyes.
“Orion,” I whispered.
Chapter 32
The rest of the world faded away, leaving only my brother and me. “You’re alive,” I whispered again, still not believing it. “I thought… how?” The records, Aden’s testimony; they all had led me to believe that Orion had been viciously murdered. And yet, somehow, I knew without a doubt that it was truly my brother standing in front of me, smiling sardonically and not looking a day over fourteen.
His intelligent eyes sharpened, drinking me in. “Leave us,” he said, nodding at the guard. He released his grasp on my hair and I fell forward. I heard him walk away, and a door closed. As far as I could tell, my twin and I were alone.
Orion paced in front of me. “I was saved by a guardian angel,” he explained calmly. His voice sounded like broken glass, so distorted I almost couldn’t make out what he was saying. Judging from the twisted scars around his jaw and neck, the Rogue had almost ripped his throat out. “By a shot of luck – or perhaps by some cruel twist of fate – the Rogue left me alone to die, once it had gorged itself on my blood. As you can see –” he gestured up and down his sleek black business suit – “I am lucky to be alive, a walking, talking miracle.”
“So someone found and changed you? Who?”
“I did.”
The floor dropped out from under me for the second time tonight as Angel, all made up for the party, walked into the room. Like a dog that’s afraid of being struck by its owner, she meekly walked up to my brother. Tears shone in her eyes as I gawked at her. “I’m so sorry, Sloane,” she said. “But he made me promise not to tell you.”
Orion stroked her hair, looking upon her with all the affection of a favorite pet. “My faithful companion. My guardian… Angel.” He whispered her name, and she blushed under his gaze right before she covered her mouth as another cough shook her body.
My mind was completely blown. Angel had changed my brother into a vampire. She had known the entire time he was alive, and yet, she hadn’t told me. I would have been angry at her if I wasn’t so shocked at seeing my brother alive to begin with.
“But you can’t be… all the records said you were dead,” I stuttered, looking at my brother.
His lips twitched into a smirk. “Records can be tampered with. As can the truth. You’d be surprised what you can accomplish with a little added power and persuasion.”
He practically purred on the last word, and what color I had left drained from my face. “You sent the poisoned drink. You’re the one who glamoured Dezyre.”
He shrugged. “Once I learned for certain you were down here, I knew it was only a matter of time before you found
out about me and… my little experiments. Those needed to remain a secret, as did my identity. I trusted Angel, but you? No, you would give everything away. I needed you gone. But killing you, unfortunately, hasn’t proven to be as easy as I thought.”
Hurt ran through me. “But I’m your sister,” I whispered. “I went into the Red Sector to look for you.”
“Three years too late!” he shouted, making Angel jump. “You abandoned me!”
“I wanted to look for you, but I couldn’t!” My voice broke with a sob. “Dad got really sick right after the Eclipse, and I had to look after him.”
Orion’s eyes flashed. “Yes, I heard the old bastard finally croaked.”
I stared at him, unable to believe this creature in front of me was my twin. “What have they done to you, Orion?”
He laughed. “Nothing, really. On the contrary, this place has given me everything. To them, I am their god.”
“You’re a killer,” I spat.
He pursed his lips. “Vicious words coming from someone who has now killed at least ten people – no, excuse me – vampires.” Venom dripped from that last word, and I thought I saw his eyes flash red. “We really are twins, you and I, to our violent, bloody cores.”
I remained silent, glaring at him with growing fury. “It was easy, rising to power,” he said. “So many of the vampires had been lost, abandoned by the world to a disease they didn’t fully understand. Like a savior, I shepherded and cared for them, helping to build all that you see here.” He swung his hand out at the city below. “Naturally, they made me their king without question.” His eyes darkened. “A perfect position for what I intended to do.”
Angel had turned away from us, walking to the desk and pouring herself a glass of water as her coughs grew rougher.
I glanced at her for only a second, mildly curious, before returning my attention to my brother. “Which is?” I snapped.
He walked toward me, slowly and deliberately. I cringed as he bent over, his mouth hovering beside my ear.
“Revenge.”
My eyes narrowed. “I know about your virus. Killing all the humans isn’t the way to win this war.”
Orion looked at me, briefly confused. “Who said anything about killing the humans?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m not upset with the humans at all. On the contrary, I applaud their efforts to take us out. Scarlet Steel is a most amusing weapon. No, dear sister,” he said, straightening. “I intend to eradicate the vampires, to rid this earth of their plague forever.”
My brows furrowed. “The virus is meant for the vampires? How is that even possible?”
His smile sent shivers through me. “With my blood.
“You see, when Angel first brought me to Paris, she noticed something strange about my blood. She keeps a record of blood types, for the purpose of blood transfusions between vampires. Oddly enough, she said mine reacted differently to other blood types. According to her, I didn’t have a blood type anymore; instead, my blood cells attacked and killed any other cells they came into contact with. At first, she tested it on humans. Oh, don’t give me that look. They were all bums pulled from the street, or patients suffering from a fatal disease, destined to die anyway.” He waved his hand in a dismissing manner, as if this excused his atrocious actions. “The result was always the same, a quick, albeit painful, death. I wondered how it would work on vampires, so I studied her methods and conducted research of my own before coming up with a serum that would literally destroy a vampire within days. Paris, of course, had already done most of the work for me. All I had to do was tweak her mixture to make it deadly to vampires. I think I’ll call it The Red Death.”
He paused as Angel hunkered over, coughing so hard her eyes had started to water. “First, there’s a cough,” he said softly, circling her like a hawk eyeing its prey. “Then, as the internal organs begin to literally melt, the victim starts vomiting blood.”
Angel fell to her knees, gripping the edge of the desk. Her throat and chest made a gurgling sound when she coughed now, and I winced as she opened her mouth and spit up. Blood and drool dribbled from her lips, dripping to the floor. She wiped at her mouth, her eyes widening as she stared at her hand.
“What’s… happening… to me?” she said, sounding broken and anguished.
Orion bent down, combing back her hair. “You’re sick, my love. That’s all. Soon, it will all be over with.”
She stared back at him, pleading with her eyes. “Please, help me.”
He smiled, cold and inhuman. “I already have.”
I watched, growing sick at my stomach. “You did this to her.”
He looked at me like I was mad. “I couldn’t very well test this out in the open, could I? I needed to conduct a private experiment. So I set up my lab and convinced Paris I was in it ‘for science.’” He smiled down at Angel. “And my precious Red Death is as beautiful as I hoped it would be.”
I tasted vomit. “How does it spread?”
“It’s airborne,” he said simply, “and very contagious. One drop of saliva floating on the air is all it takes.”
“If it’s so deadly, how come you and I aren’t sick?”
“Ah, now there’s the gold in this whole operation. You see, as the original carriers, we are immune, so to speak. But you, sister, are so much more special than that.”
I stared at him. “What do you mean?”
There was a knock at the door, and Orion walked over to his desk, pushing down on what appeared to be an answering machine. He talked into it, and someone responded.
“Let him in,” I heard Orion say.
The door opened behind me and someone walked up to us. “Ah, there’s my greatest creation yet. Sloane, I trust you’ve met each other?”
Confused, I turned my head –
And my heart nearly stopped.
Chapter 33
No… no, anyone but him.
Aden watched me, his expression hard, before turning and kneeling before my brother. “My Lord,” he murmured, placing a fist over his heart.
“Rise, Captain Knight,” Orion said. “You’ve done well. Although…” He glanced at me. “I’m curious as to why you would go to such lengths to protect her. I thought my orders were perfectly clear: Once you find her, gain her trust and then bring her to me. When you didn’t comply, I had to resort to my own measures to ensure her silence.” His tone took on a dangerous quality. “Why did you defy me?”
Aden appeared indifferent. “It would seem a waste to go to all this trouble acquiring such a gem only to kill her before her true potential had been discovered.”
By the desk, Angel had fallen completely on her side, sputtering pleas for help into a pool of blood. Aden nor Orion paid her any attention, but seeing her – despite the secret she had kept from me – made what was left of my shattered heart swell with pity.
An odd look crossed Orion’s face. “Yes, perhaps,” he murmured, stroking his chin. His dark eyes flickerd back toward me. “The fly still fell into the spider’s web in the end.”
I felt an excruciating pain in my chest, like my heart was being ripped in two. I glowered at Aden. “So you were working with him all along?”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation, staring me in the eyes. They were empty and emotionless.
“Aden was eager to serve when I met him, as full of rage over the vampires as I was,” Orion said, smiling. “He was my equal, a kindred spirit.”
My eyes widened. Orion turned Aden.
“When I discovered my blood’s capabilities,” Orion said, “I wondered if my twin would possess such a gift, if turned. So I sent Aden back to the surface to find you.”
“That’s why you were in my house, the night we met,” I said to Aden.
He never flinched, cold as a statue with his hands clasped behind his back. “It seemed as good a place as any to start looking,” he replied somberly. “I couldn’t believe my luck when I saw your birthmark.”
&
nbsp; “The Mark of the Creator,” Orion drawled. “Ah, the exquisite legend of the vampire king. Our dear parents have been keeping a great secret from us, sister.” His voice hardened. “Especially our pathetic excuse for a father.”
Rage boiled within me. “He adored you. How could you say that? He worked his ass off for us!” I shook my head, exasperated. “I never could understand why you always sided with mother.”
“Because we were two sides of the same coin. You had Dad, I had Mom. Guess I should be thankful to him, really. Without his monstrous heritage, I never would have been able to get as far as I have today.”
“Dad was not a monster,” I said, voice low.
“Really? Think about it, sis. All the night shifts, how he rarely spent any time out in the daylight –”
“He was exhausted,” I argued, cutting him off. “He worked fourteen hour shifts. Of course he was going to sleep during the day.”
“What about his temper?”
I tensed. As good a man as my father had been, I had tried my best to block out the times when he completely lost it, hurling things around the house as if possessed by an unseen force. “He was human. Everyone’s been guilty of losing it every now and then,” I stuttered, trying to sound strong despite my doubt.
You believed the best in both Angel and Aden, and look at where that got you.
I stared at the floor. “You think our father was the one who passed the strain down to us.”
Orion shrugged. “It’s possible. Too bad he’s dead. I’d really love to test his blood.”
“What did you mean earlier?” I asked. “When you said my blood was special?”
Orion’s eyes sparkled. “I had my theories, but I couldn’t know for sure what your blood was capable of until I tested it. Though my subordinates failed at capturing you, they did manage to get a large enough sample of your blood from the gunshot wound.”
I ran through my memories of the arcade, when I had been shot. I remembered fire ripping through my shoulder, right before I slammed into the wall. They must have taken the sample from the bloody smears I had left behind.
The Scarlet Dagger (The Red Sector Chronicles, #1) Page 25
