Pendulum (Kingdom of Night Book 1)

by L. C. Davis

  The sensation made me giggle. “You have fur.”

  He gave me a worried smile. “You alright?”

  “'S funny, cuz yer a dog...” I felt like he didn't get the joke. Otherwise, he'd be cracking up.

  “Yeah,” he said slowly. “I need to ask you some questions. Think you can answer me?”

  This time I managed to nod successfully. “Oh yeah. Ask me anything.”

  He was such a nice man. I was willing to do anything to make him happy, just like he made me whenever I was around him.

  “I'm sorry for doing it this way, but it's my only option.” He sighed deeply. “Did your ex boyfriend ever hit you, Remus?”

  A strangely annoying buzz went through my head, but it was chased away rather easily. I had to focus so I could answer Victor's question. He was such a nice man. Not like Jeff. “Mhm. Lots.”

  I felt his body tense but he held my gently. “What was his name?”

  “Jeff.”

  “His last name?”

  “Alderdice.”

  “And where does Jeff work?”

  “Back in Austin. He works for his father's real estate developer thingy.”

  “Remus, is Jeff a vampire?”

  I struggled to make sense of the words. My mind held no image or concept in association with them. It was like my mind's eye was a computer screen, struggling to pull up data that just wasn't there.

  “Okay, is Jeff's father a vampire?”

  The images rushed in. The light on the ceiling grew a thousand times brighter until the shadow of a man's head eclipsed it. I was on my floor, on my back, my arms pinned beside me. The man rose enough that I could see his features clearly. Mid-fifties, short black hair, regal if fading looks.

  It was Mr. Alderdice. His canines dripped wet with blood as he leaned over me, jaws stretched wide as he poised for another bite.

  “Get off me,” I said hoarsely. My voice echoed in reality, but I couldn't make the image go away. I couldn't breathe from his weight on me. “S-stop, it hurts...”

  A horrible snarl broke me out of the vision. Victor was holding me again and he was trembling.

  He saw that his outburst had startled me and gathered me closer. He rocked me gently, whispering his apologies. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, baby.”

  I thought he was still apologizing for his snarl and wrapped my arms around his neck to snuggle closer. “It's okay. I'm not afraid of you anymore.”

  Sebastian, on the other hand...

  He let out a deep, ragged breath and squeezed me even tighter. “That's enough questioning for tonight. I saw all I needed to see.”

  Saw?

  “Hm. Can you keep holding me? I'm tired.” I yawned. The sense of wonderment with everything around me was beginning to fade, but I still felt delightfully relaxed and sleepy.

  Victor was here now. Jeff couldn't hurt me anymore, and neither could his father.

  18

  “What the fuck, Victor?!”

  My head throbbed from the moment I sat up, but it wasn't like before. I recognized the feeling as a hangover from the few times I'd ever been drunk. I opened my eyes to see what was going on only to find the lights about a thousand watts brighter than I had expected.

  Victor's arms disappeared from around my waist and the bed jarred as he leaped out of it.

  “Sebastian, it's not what it looks like.”

  “The fuck it isn't,” he snarled.

  I scrambled out of bed and nearly tripped on the sash of Victor's robe that had come undone in the night. I hastily closed the robe and pulled the sash tight.

  “Sebastian, please, listen to him,” I pleaded. Lights were still giving everything a hazy rim, but at least I could see. I felt awful, but my mind was clearer than it had been before the strange dose.

  “Stay out of this, Remus,” he snapped. His voice trembled with rage but pain laced it. Pain I had caused. “Please, just get out.”

  The brothers were standing toe-to-toe and Sebastian's fists were clenched at his sides so tightly his knuckles were white. The way his shoulders heaved with rage was an unsettling reminder of the creature on the path.

  “Listen to him, Remus,” said Victor. Now he looked equally ready to fight. “I don't want you to have any part of this.”

  “No,” I cried. I was more than willing to defy them both if it would keep them from fighting. “Stop this, both of you! Sebastian, you were gone for a week. Victor took care of me, that's all.”

  “Oh, I'm sure he did,” he snarled. He never once took his fierce gaze off his twin. “Tell me brother, did you hypnotize him into letting you fuck him, too?”

  “If it makes you feel better to think I need to manipulate him to get him in my bed, so be it. It only makes you look petty and foolish.” He took a step forward in challenge to Sebastian's aggressive stance.

  Sebastian shoved him. Hard.

  Victor staggered back a few feet before righting himself. I could tell he was going to return the gesture and wasted no time in putting myself between them.

  “I said stop!” I cringed and covered my head, bracing for the impact.

  None came.

  I peeked over my raised arms in time to see Sebastian standing there, stopped short and utterly crushed, before Victor grabbed me and moved me out of his path.

  “I would never hurt you, Remus. No matter what.”

  I made a conscious effort to move away from Victor. The wedge I had already put between then didn't need to be driven in any further.

  “I know that,” I lied, hoping it wasn't obvious.

  All this time, as much as I missed him and as much as I needed to know he was okay, there had been part of me that was relieved he was gone. I felt terrible for even acknowledging it, but amid all the hidden truths Victor had pulled from my mind the night before, I was afraid that denying it would only set me back.

  “No,” he said, taking another step forward and shaking his head.

  I flinched.

  His shoulders fell and he was looking at me with sheer grief. “You're afraid of me.”

  I let silence speak for me, as painful as it was. Lying would only make things worse.

  “I saw it in your eyes that night,” he murmured. “When you saw me how I really am.” He turned to Victor and they stared each other down for what seemed like hours. No words passed between them, but their expressions changed just slightly enough that it was as if they were conversing somehow.

  “He had to know, Sebastian,” he said finally, breaking the silence

  “And you just jumped at the chance, didn't you?”

  Victor fell silent and looked at the floor.

  “The same fucking vision and you never told me?”

  I looked between them, confused. When had Victor told him?

  “When was there time, hm?” Victor snapped. “Between him walking into the club and you marking him there was – Oh, wait, there wasn't any time. You did it before he got through the fucking doors!

  “It was an accident! How the fuck was I supposed to know you saw the same person?”

  “Yeah, an accident. It always is with you, isn't it, Sebastian?” He narrowed his eyes. “As always, I'm the one who gets stuck cleaning up the pieces of the mess you leave behind. Just like old times, huh little brother?”

  Sebastian lunged forward and punched Victor square in the jaw. Victor went flying into the nightstand, knocking the books and lamp to the floor.

  “Victor!” I flew to his side, kneeling down beside him.

  “I'm fine,” he muttered, wiping the blood off his split bottom lip. “Just a child throwing a tantrum.”

  I turned to Sebastian, seething. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” I spat. My words staggered him for a moment. A moment I had to use to diffuse the situation if the house was going to still be standing by the time all was said and done.

  “You talk like you own me or something, when all you've done since that night is disappear. So you saved me in the woods, and I'm grateful, but I've
spent this past week knowing that if your friends found your body somewhere, I was going to have to live with the fact that it was my fault for the rest of my life.”

  Tears were streaming down my face, as much as I needed to stay strong. The salt was mingling with the metallic scent of Victor's blood.

  Sebastian looked like he was about to argue.

  “Let me finish. I know it wasn't your fault that you had to leave, but it was your fault that you never called me after you dropped me off at the dorm. You brought me into this bizarre world and just abandoned me. Victor and I did grow closer, but not the way you think.”

  I took a deep breath. “I need to tell you something you're not going to like.”

  He crossed his muscular arms and looked slightly less murderous than before. “If this is the part I'm supposed to enjoy, I can't wait.”

  I sighed. “Victor did go into my mind, and he did take me to the dungeon-”

  Sebastian's nostrils flared as he took a deep breath, indicating that his rage meter was rapidly heading towards the top again.

  “But he never touched me,” I added quickly. “Even though he could have. I would have slept with him, but he wouldn't because he didn't want to hurt you.”

  The corner of his lip twitched into a snarl. “Well, isn't that just charming. Let me tell you something about my brother, Remus. He's every bit as good at getting in your head without his powers as he is with them. Always has been. I blame him, not you,” he murmured, his tone softening. “You were weak. You're going through your first transformation, complete with all the mood swings and horniness of puberty times ten, and I wasn't here to protect you. From him.”

  I turned to Victor in shock. “You didn't say anything about that.”

  He wouldn't meet my eyes. Blood was trickling from the cut now, but he didn't seem to notice.

  I shook my head. “It doesn't matter.”

  “He took advantage of you!!” he snarled. “How am I not supposed to care about that?”

  I cringed from the force of his anger, even though I knew it wasn't really directed at me.

  “That's not what happened,” I said, standing to face him. Walked forward until I was right in front of him and reached up, taking his face in my hands. He had a week's worth of scruff. “Look me in the eye.”

  He complied, confusion mingling with barely tempered rage in his dark brown eyes. “If we're really soulmates, you'll know I'm telling the truth.”

  “I'm not psychic like him,” he muttered.

  “I know, but still know how to read me better than anyone else I've ever known,” I told him. “Just look into my eyes and tell me I'm lying.”

  His brown furrowed as he searched my eyes. Finally, he gave up on finding any trace of deceit and turned away from me with a frustrated growl and a series of muttered profanities.

  “He made you forget it, then. His scent is all over you, hell it's coming out of your fucking pores!”

  “We've been sleeping in the same bed, Sebastian. That's bound to-”

  “It's not that,” he snapped. “You'll understand when you complete the transformation. Our hearing, our sense of smell, it's not like yours. It's stronger and so much more specific. It's like knowing a language that has a hundred more words for every one in the English language.”

  I listened, barely comprehending.

  His eyes narrowed dangerously at Victor. “It means his scent is inside of you.”

  Heat rushed to my cheeks. I didn't have an explanation for that. I looked to Victor, hoping he did.

  He was standing now, but he still wouldn't look at me.

  “Victor, that's not-” I turned back to Sebastian, shaking my head. “He would never do that.”

  “Scent never lies,” he muttered gruffly. “You make me sick. If I didn't need you to save his life, I'd rip you limb from limb right now.”

  Victor made no move to defend himself.

  “No,” I murmured, running to him. I grabbed his arms and tried desperately to shake some sense into him. He barely moved, even though I could tell he wasn't trying to resist. “Victor, please. You would never hurt me. I know that. Make him see.”

  No response.

  “Get away from him, Remus,” said Sebastian.

  “No!” I cried, clinging desperately to him. He wrapped his arms around me halfheartedly only to slowly push me away.

  “Why are you doing this?” I demanded, furious. My anger vanished when I saw how badly his lip was bleeding.

  A dark crimson drop fell, wasting itself on his perfect white T-shirt. I reached for his face, drawn to touch him. He reached out to stop my hand, closing his lean white fingers around my wrist. Another drop fell onto my exposed chest, tracking its way down the left side.

  “You should go with him,” he said inaudibly. His mouth was perfectly still, set with a hint of a sad smile. “It's not our time.”

  “Our time?” I asked, dazed as Sebastian pulled me back.

  “Stay away from him,” said Sebastian.

  “Victor?” I looked back in one last, desperate plea as Victor dragged me from the room.

  He wasn't looking at me anymore. He was beside the balcony, gazing out on some unseen thing far more interesting than me.

  I said nothing as Sebastian led me down the hall, far away from Victor's room. He announced that we would be staying in one of the empty rooms that night, and led me inside without another word.

  Apparently, he wasn't in the mood for speaking either.

  I decided that was fine and sat on the edge of the bed, trying to ignore him as he shoved things from my duffel bag into the empty dresser. I wasn't sure when he had even managed to grab it in the chaos.

  There was a mirror across from the bed. The top of the robe had fallen open enough to reveal a red spot on my chest. I touched the spot and tried to wipe away whatever it was to no avail. My palm came away red and there remained a huge diagonal streak on my reflection that looked like a knife wound over my heart.

  I stood and walked towards my reflection. Time seemed to slow as a closer look revealed that the red streak was identical to the one in Victor's sketch.

  I looked down at my red-stained palm and felt a familiar burn. For an instant, the blood pooled itself into fresh droplets and formed a crude circle with the outline of a crescent within. As soon as the pattern had formed it vanished and the blood was violently absorbed into my palm.

  I covered my mouth with my other hand to stifle a scream, not wanting to alert Sebastian who was still busying himself with the room as either a distraction or an excuse not to talk to me.

  The flesh covering m palm screamed and when I looked up for fear that the slash on my chest would do the very same thing, I found that it had disappeared.

  For the first time, I realized that wasn't the only thing. Only the thin bandage Victor had used to cover the carefully crafted incisions fro out session remained.

  My hands trembled as I peeled off the tape. I didn't know if I wanted to know what was underneath the bandage after what had happened to my palm, but I was more terrified not to look. What I discovered was more unsettling than anything that had happened in that bizarre hallucination.

  The marks were gone. Every last one.

  19

  The days passed in a series of repeating patterns. When I woke, Sebastian was already gone to do whatever he did in the morning. When I felt like getting up, I headed downstairs and there were almost always a few others in the kitchen. If it was Foster, Brendan, Henry, or Clara, I had company. If it was Clarence, we sat in less than companionable but mutually understanding silence.

  After breakfast, sometimes I would hang out in the lounge area. Sometimes Charles would come in to sneak me homework to help me keep afloat in my courses just in case I survived my transformation. He would ask questions about my life at the Lodge, and I could tell he didn't understand my melancholic demeanor when I was clearly “living the dream.” It was hard to keep him in the dark, especially now that I knew he hadn't bet
rayed me at the concert. Mostly he just wanted to share school gossip that I had to pretend to be interested in to avoid even more questions.

  “Why are you so pale?”

  “You seem better. Why can't you come back?”

  “Do you know why Victor isn't seeing anyone in the dungeon?”

  Sometimes Maverick would stop by and we'd chat for a bit while his Master was networking with the doms. He was good company. We never talked about anything particularly deep, which was a welcome change. We had a mutual understanding, too. I wouldn't ask about the sad look his eyes whenever he spoke about his Master and he would pretend he didn't notice the way my eyes watered sometimes for no reason at all.

  In the afternoons, Sebastian and I would eat lunch together. He would usually try to make conversation, but as the days to the Harvest Moon grew fewer, he tried less and less. After the first few Victor-centered conversations went disastrously, I hadn't been trying at all.

  I was only eating at all because it was the only way Sebastian would allow me to visit him. They were keeping him a room underneath the dungeon and rumor had it he had gone willingly.

  It was for the best, Clara assured me in hushed tones. Until his innocence could be proven, it was better for him to be somewhere Sebastian couldn't reach.

  I didn't doubt that was true, but it didn't lessen the guilt.

  Of course, I wasn't really allowed to visit Victor. Sebastian was right beside me the entire time, and he was chained to a chair with his arms behind my back. A much smaller metal table like the one in his dungeon room separated us and Sebastian watched our every move.

  I was only allowed in his presence because his skills were still necessary to take down the walls that had been placed in my mind one by one. I could tell by the somber moods and unspoken pity of everyone around me that although the progress was swift, it wasn't fast enough to outpace the full moon.

  At least my mental clarity was improving day by day. Victor may have torn me down on our first and only session, but he had already put me back together stronger than I was before. There were things that now seemed so obvious to me, but I was assured from all sides that hindsight really was twenty-twenty – even when it came to mind control.