A Drop of Red

by Chris Marie Green

  They had stopped at the stairs. Kiko rubbed his back, and Dawn knew he would need to rest it, knew he might even ask a Friend to lull him so he wouldn’t have to take a pill.

  Natalia watched him, too, and Dawn decided she would privately ask the new girl to keep an eye on the situation.

  But Kiko read them perfectly, the perceptive fool, and he folded his arms over his chest.

  “So?” he asked, a fighter all the way. “What do you think we should be doing beyond contacting Jonah to get him back here?”

  He was asking her?

  Dawn almost laughed, but then she saw Natalia watching her with the same question in her gaze.

  That’s when she realized it: as Costin’s right-hand gal, she was basically in charge now. Her. Dawn.

  They were FUBAR, all right.

  But now wasn’t the time for thinking about how she’d never committed to a damned thing in her life, how she wasn’t capable of more than temporary gigs or relationships.

  Act! like you know what you’re doing, she told herself. Costin would want that.

  “Kik,” she said, “maybe you can acquaint Natalia with more of our arsenal later and take her down to the entry now so you can catch the Friends as they exit and enter the trapdoor. At the same time, the two of you can brainstorm ideas for getting into that housematron’s room.”

  After things returned to normal, of course.

  Both of them seemed relieved to have direction, and they went downstairs, leaving Dawn to go up to her room so she could wait at the window, where she’d tried to reach Jonah on the earpiece before.

  Once there, she parted the heavy curtains, revealing the cemented, gated, ribbon-strewn Cross Bones Graveyard across the street and the buildings loitering behind it like disinterested guardians.

  “Jonah?” she said, schooling her voice so that it didn’t reflect how pins and needles she felt. “Jonah, if you’re not answering because you think I’m angry with you, come on. Talk to me. I’m not mad.”

  Silence.

  All right, more acting! “I know you want to be a hero as much as anyone. You were during the Hollywood attack.” She paused because it was the truth. “You were real brave.”

  That night, Jonah had fought Benedikte just as courageously as Costin himself had. That night when the world had turned even more upside down than before . . .

  Dawn’s throat heated, making the words tough to get out. “Please, Jonah. We need your help as much now as we did then.”

  More silence.

  Hopelessness weighed her forward, and she barred her arms over the window, resting the crown of her head against the cold glass.

  What were they going to do now?

  What was she going to do?

  When her skin prickled, just like it had back at Queenshill when Della had come to the dorm window—no, wait, just like on Billiter when she’d first seen the red-eye boy watching them—Dawn raised her head. She scanned the graveyard, the low rooftops beyond it.

  A movement in her peripheral vision sent ice ricocheting through her, but when she focused on it, there was nothing.

  Spooked, she shut the curtains, inching away from the window, her heart stretched in a trembling line from her chest to her throat.

  Someone—some thing—had been out there.

  Vampires?

  Or . . . ?

  She tore out of the room, down the stairs, through the entry where Kiko and Natalia were arguing over a pen and a pad of paper.

  “Any word from the Friends?” Dawn asked as she dashed by. “Anything outside we should know about?”

  “No,” they both said.

  Leaving them behind, Dawn busted through the heavy wooden door that served as the entrance to the lab, then descended to unlock the main door itself.

  Once in the sterile room, which was filled with everything from weapons in progress to crates containing equipment they still hadn’t unpacked, she went for the freezer, opened it up.

  A huff of iced air obscured her vision, making her stomach drop until the image of the frozen boy—the one who’d sported that night vision—cut through the haze.

  He hadn’t gone anywhere.

  No, his skin was still rosy compared to its layer of frost, and the incisions in his head and chest, plus the tears in his neck from Frank, were still stitched shut. His underwear was iced, his limbs spread as he reclined against the board he was strapped to. And his face was still so young—almost pretty with full lips and a cleft in his chin.

  A strange laugh burbled out of her throat.

  God, what had she expected? For him to be resurrected and leaping around on rooftops again?

  She shut the door, feeling better until she wondered what was outside if it wasn’t him.

  Or . . . Damn it, maybe she was being paranoid. That was a distinct possibility, too.

  She rubbed her arms, remembering what Natalia had said about Costin retiring his former teams before they went insane. . . .

  Her earpiece crackled, then went dead.

  “Jonah?” she asked.

  Waiting. Waiting. Wait—

  “Dawn.”

  Relief—a wave of it—slammed her. Then came affection, until she realized this wasn’t Costin, only his host. His enemy, for all intents and purposes tonight.

  “How is he?” she asked levelly, trying to avoid any references to gutting Jonah or pulling the hairs out of his head one by one.

  He sounded resigned. “Our beloved pal is safe. Nothing to worry about.”

  Anger rolled inside her, but she told herself to cool it, to get him back here no matter what.

  “Jonah, I think something’s outside headquarters either waiting for you to get back or waiting for us to come out. Where are you?”

  “Ah, you saw movement outside. Was it from the rooftops near Cross Bones? That’s just me, Dawn.”

  Once again, relief hit her. Then frustration. Then she looped back to anger.

  “I was just going from surface to surface,” he added, “taking in each view. It’s a lot different than looking through any kind of window in that house . . . or in this body.”

  “Is that where you’ve been the whole time? Dorking around nearby?”

  “No, I arrived maybe five minutes ago. Breisi and some Friends just caught up and they’re here nattering at me to get inside. I’m afraid I led them on a merry chase tonight, going from one place to the next. They’d catch up with me and, before any of us knew it, I’d be gone to the next thing. Couldn’t stop myself, but you know how it is. Don’t tell me you don’t remember.”

  She did know, even from that one black spark of a moment after Benedikte’s exchange. Damn Jonah, she did know.

  Cool. She had to stay cool. “Jonah, do you know how worried sick we’ve been?”

  “I had everything under control. You might not believe this, but part of Costin is grateful that I took us for a test-drive out here. Then again, part of him wants to maim me, but that’d be a little masochistic.”

  Dawn’s patience was winding down. “Jonah . . .”

  “How about disarming the outside defense system, and I’ll get in there so you can read me the riot act in person? I’m all set if you are.”

  He sounded so . . . cooperative?

  But she’d take it.

  She sprinted, banging out the lab door. A thump of pain burst through her arm but she didn’t care—adrenaline numbed it as she tripped up the stairs, into the entry where Natalia and Kiko backed away from her when she emerged and slammed the door behind her. They had their earpieces on so they knew the deal.

  She ran to the control panel on the far end of the fireplace, avoiding Kalin’s empty portrait.

  “Just give me the word,” Jonah said, “and we’ll zoom right in as soon as you open the door.”

  “No games? You’re not messing with me?”

  That’s when his voice got that sincere tone that always confused the hell out of her.

  “You think I might’ve gone turncoat becaus
e my tender feelings were hurt by you and your enthusiasm for using your mind powers?”

  “No,” she said too quickly, because she truly hadn’t thought he might do that. It stunned her that she trusted Jonah at all. “You disagree with Costin sometimes. You told me already, but I never thought you’d—”

  “That’s good enough for me,” he said. He sounded as if she’d uttered the magic words. “Let me in?”

  Jonah had the most precious thing to the team . . . and to her.

  So, wasting no more time, she addressed Natalia, who’d come to stand with Kiko near the door. “When I count down to zero, open up. Kik, cover Jonah’s entrance.”

  Dawn opened the weapons storage panel near the door, taking out a stake and a dart gun like the one Kiko had used earlier. He got the gun from her, then targeted the entrance.

  She went to the other side of the fireplace, to the control panel. “Five,” she said, punching a button with every number. “Four. Three. Two. One—”

  On zero, Natalia flung open the door, diving out of the way while a rip of blackness flashed in and heaved itself against the wood to shut it as his body solidified. Jasmine from the Friends joined him, swirling around the room in agitation. More jasmine whooshed down the stairs behind Dawn, then banged into Jonah in welcome.

  Kalin.

  Breisi’s voice swished around Dawn. “Before we debrief, give him what for.”

  “Oh, I will.” Dawn armed the defense system again while he brushed off his coat and offered a wary smile while Kiko pulled back his weapon.

  Then, as Breisi and the other Friends forced Kalin away from him and out of the room, Dawn saw a hint of blood around Jonah’s mouth.

  Her stomach dropped. Had he fed?

  My God. Costin would be screaming, wanting to get out, far away from the wildness, the hunger of an appetite so out of control. Even though she couldn’t sense what he was feeling from his buried place inside Jonah, she knew that feeding on anyone but her—indulging the monster in him—was the last thing he’d ever want to do, and Jonah had made him watch, helpless in the cell of that body.

  Seeing the direction of her livid gaze, Jonah touched the smudge by his lower lip, his eyes darkening.

  “It’s what I am,” he said. “What we are—Costin and I. I’m not afraid of what I want, and I can’t withstand the torture of being so close to what satiates my appetites while knowing I can’t have any of it.” He wiped the blood away. “Do you know who Tantalus was?”

  It sounded familiar—like the word “tantalize.”

  He continued. “He angered the gods, and as punishment, he was forced to stand in a pool of water below a tree that bore fruit. Whenever he reached out to satisfy his appetite, the branches inched back. Whenever he bent to drink the water, it ebbed away from him. That’s what it’s like for me, Dawn. Do you understand?”

  She didn’t want to, so she shut out the fingers of sympathy that pulled and tugged at her conscience.

  He obviously saw an opening. “If Costin and I are going to share this body, I won’t stand for that torture anymore. I can’t.”

  He was chipping away at her, damn it. “Thing is, Jonah, we’ve got some special circumstances going on, and if you want to be any kind of hero, you’ll take that torture. You’ll help Costin clean out the Undergrounds, and when you’re both done, you’ll be free of him. This body will be all yours.”

  “And what will you do then, Dawn? When Costin’s gone and if you’re still alive, what’s going to take the place of him—of your purpose?”

  That dark, empty spot in her furled, and she went to the weapons stash, putting the stake away. Then she headed for the stairs, with Kiko and Natalia watching her go.

  Jonah was the only one who followed. “You didn’t answer me.”

  “You’ve got a lot to account for first.” Yeah, like she was going to have a real heart-to-heart with him. Ever. “Who did you feed on tonight, Jonah? Do we have to worry about any fallout from your rampage?”

  “I wouldn’t call it that. There was a woman in Bloomsbury—very willing, disease free—and she won’t remember a thing. I was careful, even though I wonder if this body is strong enough to ward off any diseases. Notice we’ve never even been sick before.”

  “Don’t you dare experiment anymore with Costin.”

  God, Costin . . .

  She got to her bedroom, wanting to shut Jonah out until he allowed Costin back, but as she closed the door, he reached out a hand to block it.

  He stood there, just over the threshold, his eyes a piercing blue, his hair ruffled from a wild night.

  Her stomach flipped, especially when she thought of how Jonah had tried to get out when she and Costin had screwed earlier. How he’d been . . . tantalized.

  Warped. This was bent and all she wanted was to wake up in the life she used to have before vampires.

  “Hey,” he said, bracing his hands against the door frames. “You’ve got your ultimate weapon back for the team, and you might be this close to an Underground.”

  “You put Costin in the middle of a bunch of possible Underground vampires and you didn’t give a fig about using your powers in the open. Am I tickled? No.”

  His gaze went dark again as he leaned into the room. “I can take Costin places that he’s never been able to go during a hunt. His hosts have never been as strong as you made me with that exchange of our blood, Dawn. He’s been wondering for a while whether or not I would be enough to shield him outside of headquarters’ walls. He’d never say it, because Costin doesn’t take risks with himself until the final attack, but he wondered, and I acted when he wouldn’t do it himself.”

  Then why the hell hadn’t Costin shared this with her? They could connect minds, but there’d always be secrets. He was too good at hiding them.

  They both were.

  “I hope you’re not questioning his courage,” Dawn said. “He’s got more than any of us.”

  “He’s got a lion’s share,” Jonah said, leaning back out of the room and dropping his hands from the door frame. “But with this vampire’s body, he’s not sure of much right now. And for Costin to admit that is to admit weakness.”

  Costin, the warrior. Of course he’d never admit to it.

  “Let me help, Dawn,” Jonah said softly. “I want to.”

  Anger, helplessness . . . She pushed it all down so it joined that dark spot within her, making it grow like a stain that wouldn’t stop spreading.

  But she cinched it shut, stopped the flow of it, knowing what she had to do. Hating that Jonah always forced her to bargain with him for Costin’s sake.

  “You want to help us more actively,” she said.

  “I do. And before you have to ask—yes, if you consider me as an option for the team, that would buy my cooperation. If you meant it.”

  There was nothing else to do, especially if Jonah could act as a shield for Costin. They couldn’t continue this way.

  It was a devil’s bargain, but what else could she do right now?

  Swearing to get Jonah back, she locked gazes with him until she opened herself up enough for him to flood her.

  I promise, Jonah. Now release him.

  He stayed inside her an instant more than she wanted him to, brushing against her mind, causing red, tingling friction to gasp through her before he eased out.

  “I’m holding you to it,” he said, his eyes changing color, the ebb of an ocean pulling away to reveal the sun-washed sand.

  And just as the last slant of blue turned topaz, he whispered, “Remember.”

  When the change was complete, Costin trudged one step forward before she went to him, catching him before he fell from exhaustion, from what Jonah had put him through. She supported him as they slumped to the floor, his arms around her as he buried his face against her neck.

  She smelled the night on his coat, in his hair, smelled a hint of blood from Jonah’s last meal. When his fingers tightened on her, she wondered if he’d fully tasted the exquisite trace of it
in his mouth just now. She wanted to see into his mind to get an answer, but she stayed out, content to be with him, happy just to have him back.

  Because there was time for a few minutes of peace, wasn’t there? Time before they went to Queenshill to find out what was behind the housematron’s door.

  Time before Jonah demanded that Dawn honor her end of the bargain she’d been forced to make.

  “Costin,” she whispered, as if saying his name over and over would keep him here for at least the rest of the night.

  “I won’t allow him back,” he said, his voice thick. And she knew it was because of the feeding, the blood. The self-disgust of having to give in when he’d always been a knight who’d never compromised, never surrendered.

  “Everything’s going to work,” she said. “We’re going to find out if those girl vamps will lead us to that Underground, and then we’re going to take on whatever comes our way. Together. Got it? Together.”

  But he’d already passed out into an undead rest, even though sunrise was a couple hours off.

  Dawn pulled him closer, grasping his coat as if her fingers were stitches holding them together, binding them, doubling their strength for what would be coming with just one of the Undergrounds that could free Costin.

  And maybe even the rest of them, too.

  Dear Reader,

  I hope you enjoyed A Drop of Red, the book that starts off the London Underground portion of the series. You know that this series, as with the Hollywood Underground trilogy (Books One through Three), is structured a little differently than most, and by the time you get to Book Six, the mystery, character, and mythology arcs introduced in this installment will be resolved.

  This means that, in August 2009, Dawn and the team’s hunt for the London Underground is going to continue in The Path of Razors , and I hope that you’ll enjoy what’s to come as Limpet and Associates soldiers on in its endeavors. . . .

  Until that time, happy hunting, and thank you for all your support. You’re the ones who keep the Undergrounds going.