Midnight Reign

by Chris Marie Green

  She must’ve slept for hours—at least her grogginess made her think so after a jarring sound woke her up.

  Muffled laughter.

  At first, Dawn just stared at the back of the couch since she was facing it anyway. Something was telling her not to turn over and see what was going on.

  Shifting, she heard a slight clink, then felt metal bracelets on her wrists. Through the stretched void of after-sleep, she remembered how Julia had come back in to remove Dawn’s leather bracelets and slap restraints on instead, then put more medicinal goop on her while she was resting. Dawn had barely even known what was happening she was so out of it.

  Giggle.

  There it was again—intimate and gentle. This time, she couldn’t help looking.

  Frank and Eva stood near the fireplace. The vampire woman was cuddled up to him, pulling dopey faces in an effort to make him laugh. It was all very Jac, and it made Dawn wonder just how much of the starlet was really a part of Eva.

  For Frank’s part, he had his chained arms crossed over his wide chest, immovable, jaw clenched, but Dawn could tell it was because he was playing some sort of twee game with the vamp and not because he was discouraging the interaction.

  When Eva tickled his stomach, he jerked away, chains clanking as he burst into a laugh, too. He teasingly put a hand over her mouth and shushed her.

  Nausea made Dawn grimace as she sat up, leaning her arms on her thighs while fixing a glare on them.

  Amidst their gaiety, Frank noticed the attention, his face going serious as he saw his daughter. He must’ve caught on to the betrayal Dawn was exhibiting for both her and Breisi’s sakes, because he let go of Eva, gaze crushed and disconcerted.

  Dawn knew the emotions were genuine, but that didn’t mean anything when he was over there canoodling with the enemy.

  Still, as he backed away from Eva, something ate at the edges of Dawn. Part of her wanted them to be together, for them to be tickling each other and cracking up at inside jokes.

  “Morning,” Eva said. “Or evening, actually. Your dad and I were just—”

  “I saw what you were doing.” Dawn looked up at one of the cameras, knowing Julia was spying on them. Suck up.

  No one said anything for a minute. One big happy family.

  With an anxious glance at Frank, Eva took a seat near the door, hands folded in her lap. Dawn noticed she was even paler than she’d been earlier, and that she was trembling again.

  “Out of pure curiosity,” Dawn said, “are you seriously this great of an actress? Because I always thought vamps had little or no emotion.”

  Eva’s mouth opened then closed at the sucker punch.

  “Dawn…” It was a papa warning from the peanut gallery.

  “It’s only fair for her to ask a lot of questions, Frank.” Eva’s smile wobbled as she aimed it at her daughter. “Believe me when I say that I feel emotions now more than ever. That’s not how it is with all our community though. I know one individual who’s prone to depression and manic episodes, but I also know another who’s levelheaded and calculating. Maybe it depends on the person you were before the change and what you bring with you into the new heightened life.”

  “You mean new death. Because, again, you’re dead.”

  “Debatable.” Now Eva’s smile evened out. “I actually feel more alive than ever. Maybe it’s because I’m in control now.”

  Dawn paused, then got up, minding her chains as she went to the mini fridge and rooted through it to find a bottled water. Taking it out, she mockingly saluted Eva. “You were expecting me.”

  “I told you, it’s what I’ve always planned.”

  “You’re going to make me one of your kind—that’s your big mustache-twirling scheme.”

  “I…” Eva tilted her head. “Well, yes.”

  This could work to Dawn’s advantage. When she escaped—and she would, especially when the team realized she was gone and they sent backup—she could use Eva’s arrogance against her. The vamp was parceling out crumbs about life in the Underground, and Dawn could work with that, stringing out as much info as possible then reporting back to Jonah.

  Right? Isn’t that what she should do?

  Her mother was giving her a weird look, one that Dawn couldn’t stand for too long. It could’ve been affection, if a creature like Eva was capable of it.

  “I’m sorry,” the vamp said. “I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable. It’s only that…” Eva bit her lip, eyes going teary again. Acting!

  Or was it?

  “It’s only what?” Dawn used her shirt to help undo the cap, then took a sip, casting a sidelong look at Frank, who was staring at the carpet. She tried to find the redness on his neck again, but couldn’t.

  Had he ever exchanged blood with Eva?

  Jesus, Dawn didn’t want to even consider the scenario. But she had to. What if Frank was already one of them, just as Eva had planned?

  The actress sniffed, tucking a strand of blond hair behind an ear, hand quaking now. “Over the years, I saw your movies, read about you in published articles, heard about you from…well, connections Above. You make me so proud. You grew up to be such a beautiful, capable woman.”

  Dawn tried not to let on how much she’d fantasized about hearing this kind of thing from Eva; the years had been filled with a lot of imagined conversations, pep talks, mother-daughter chats about boyfriends and growing pains.

  “You can stop putting on such a show,” Dawn said, forcefully twisting the cap back on her water. “You don’t have to compliment me.”

  To tell me I’m beautiful or wonderful. Because I’m not.

  Frank cleared his throat, shuffled his boots. “Why don’t you hear her out?”

  That earned another glare. “Why don’t you get your head out of the past and think of what’s waiting for you in the present?”

  The name “Breisi” spiked between them.

  Frank shut up again, but Dawn wished he would show more fight. She wanted her dad to put his daughter in her place, to tell her he had this all under control. But he didn’t.

  “Tell me,” she said, swiveling her gaze to Eva, “how do you stop Frank from screaming during the night? One of your attempted mind screws? Can you soothe him like that?”

  The vamp seemed unfazed, even with her sickly cast. “I think of it as a sharing of sorts. An intimacy between husband and wife.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Dawn caught Frank’s hand going to his neck. That bitch.

  She threw the water bottle to the ground, taking a step forward, but Frank stopped her by grabbing her shoulders. Their chains rattled chaotically.

  “Calm down and I’ll tell you as much as I can,” Eva said. “That’s what you want, right? I want you to be excited about your new home. You’ll learn more about it eventually, but I’ll answer almost anything you ask now.”

  “It’s not like you can get me pumped up about moving to a different school district or something, Eva.”

  Dawn shrugged out of Frank’s grip, but he hovered behind her anyway. Didn’t he get that this…thing…wasn’t really his wife?

  “The sad truth is this.” The actress’s brown gaze went soft, worried. “There might be a war, and if my suspicions are right, you’ll be stuck in the middle. Frank would’ve been, too, but I’ve made sure he’s out of the way now. I’m going to have to answer for taking him, but it was worth it.” She lifted her chin. “Now I know enough to choose family over anything else, even the Underground.”

  She smiled at Frank, and Dawn shrunk away, left out in the cold.

  “See,” Eva continued, “no one knows I have Frank, and I’ve had to do some tap dancing to convince them that he’s really missing. I said to them, ‘Maybe he’s on one of his benders or on a road trip that’s lasted a little too long.’ They didn’t want me to reclaim him yet because his disappearance might trigger this war I’m talking about. But…” She glowed like a bride. “After I was released from the Underground, I couldn’t wait to see him. I
had to break rules and then lie by telling my master I’d search for Frank later, and he believed me. I…he favors me, and he truly thinks I’d never put my family above the interests of our home….”

  So she’d been Acting! with this master. One more reason not to trust Eva, because if she could do it to him, she could do it to anyone.

  “My master’s always protected me from anyone who doubts my loyalty,” Eva added. “But, when I left, I needed to promise him I’d contact Frank only after I had you in hand, Dawn, because that’s all that matters to him. You.”

  Dawn furrowed her brow. “Why?”

  “Because you work for a monster.”

  At first, Dawn didn’t process that. But as she backed up, then hit the couch with the back of her legs and slumped onto it, the possibility slipped into her. Jonah, the question mark who never gave her any answers. Jonah, with his lies and betrayals, his baiting and secrecy.

  “What do you mean?” she said.

  “The Master calls him a usurper. He believes Jonah Limpet wants to take over our Underground, and he’s using you to accomplish that.”

  In her bafflement, Dawn looked to Frank. He was watching her closely, probably already having heard this from Eva night after night. He’d lied to her about not knowing anything of substance, maybe because Eva had told him to. Maybe he thought it best that her mother be the one to explain everything.

  Did he believe his vamp wife? Or was he biding his time, pulling Eva into his good graces so an escape would be that much easier? He was still on Limpet’s side, right?

  “Poor Dawn.” Eva stood, her thin dress surrounding her like a nimbus. “I promised I’d leave the heavy explanations to the Master. He’s looking forward to welcoming you.”

  “Hey, I think you’re not getting it—I’m not going to be a vamp.” The words sounded so sure, but they were only cardboard, fake background scenery misdirecting the audience.

  “Yes, you will be.” Eva said it matter-of-factly. “He wants you with him, just as much as I do.”

  Dawn’s mind spun, a carnival ride that was only starting. Or maybe it’d just picked up speed, making fragments out of what used to be real and blurring it all into a mass of colored disorder.

  Eva moved closer. “He loves every one of his progeny, and when we take you into our family, you’re going to feel that adoration.”

  For an indulgent moment, Dawn amused herself by pretending she was open to these ridiculous promises. “And what kind of vamp would I be? Aren’t there a few…subspecies?”

  “Sure—we’re evolved to the point where different members fulfill different niches Underground. With the Master’s bite, you’d be like me, Dawn. He thinks that much of you. You’d be just like me.”

  Dawn shivered, not in fear but in need.

  Just like her mother.

  Eva seemed to understand, walking even closer. “You’re too good to be a Groupie, one of the lower-level vampires.”

  Without even realizing it, Dawn had unshuttered her mind, and Eva flowed inside, filtering into every brain cell. Within a few bent seconds, Dawn knew how the beautiful ones—the Elite—had always come to be: the arranged deaths that made a regular superstar into a legend, the transformation as performed by Dr. Eternity, the final stage of becoming an ethereal being who lingered Underground until the comeback Above.

  No ugliness, Eva thought to Dawn. Just paradise. I’m what you’ve always wanted to be. I’m your mother, come with me….

  Absorbing more, Dawn also saw how an Elite could walk in the sun and feel it on their face as long as they didn’t expose themselves too intensely. She saw many other answers, like how blessed objects were just that—objects—and that garlic was just a nuisance because the Master had been born with this immunity, too, and the Elites had inherited a good measure of what his blood carried.

  She told Dawn so much…but not everything. It would all come, Dawn knew, if she only allowed Eva to continue.

  In her dream state, Dawn felt her mother touching her hair, weeping at the privilege of finally being allowed in. A roar grew in the back of her mind, a gathering wave of something Dawn should be remembering—

  The good guys, Eva interrupted, we’re the good guys. Come to our side.

  But the wave collected more liquid thought, gathering in strength. RememberJonahrememberBreisirememberKiko….

  When it crashed, it sopped Dawn in cold reality, pushing Eva out with a thunderous heave.

  Her mother stumbled back, teary eyes wide. Frank was at her side in a heartbeat, holding her, his chains clattering.

  “What’re you doing?” he said.

  Dawn stared back at him, asking him the same thing.

  When he didn’t answer, she deprived him of her attention, but that only meant she was back to square one. Just because she was having a crisis of conscience, that didn’t mean she trusted The Voice now. She needed to think about everything, needed to glue it all together until it made sense.

  As Frank held Eva, she touched his chest. “It’s okay. This isn’t an easy choice for her.”

  His face didn’t show any emotion as he nodded, then stepped away from his captor. Damn it, why wouldn’t he clue Dawn in on what he was thinking? Or didn’t he want her to know because he realized she’d hate his decision?

  “Anyway,” Eva said, running her shaking hands down the front of her dress, “I have to go.” She wet her lips with her tongue. “Julia will have a late dinner down soon.”

  With the way she said it, Dawn wondered if Eva was going out to feed from her master—from what Eva had shown her, Dawn knew this was how she survived.

  “You realize,” Dawn said, “that my absence is going to tip off my coworkers and the authorities? Don’t you think they’re going to come looking for me here? Kiko’s smart enough to tell them that your house is a possible location for me.”

  “That’s been taken care of.” Eva smiled like Jac used to—light and pretty. She pointed to herself. “Actress?” Then pointed to the door, altering her voice. “Your phone?”

  She sounded like Dawn. Holy crap. She’d pretended to be Dawn to Breisi, or Kiko, or…God, she hoped The Voice had answered. Maybe he’d be able to read what was going on or do whatever he did.

  Looking oddly discomfited with her own sly games, Eva turned to go, hesitated, then said one last thing. “When it comes to who the good guys are, think of who just offered the information you wanted and who’s been withholding from you.”

  The rest of it was implicit: would you trust a boss who used your dad as bait or the mom who was taking such a chance to get her family back?

  “We’re not the villains, Dawnie,” she said.

  Dawn flinched at the nickname. Then, automatically her inner smart-ass kicked in, and she held up her hands, showcasing the chains to remind Eva of who was playing jailhouse warden here.

  With a touché glance, Eva nodded sadly, as if admitting that the ends justified the means. Then she turned to Frank, lavishing a look of such profound affection on him that Dawn blushed. It got even worse when he turned away, a man caught between two impossible forces.

  “Breisi,” Dawn whispered to him, encouraging her dad to take a side.

  Abruptly, Eva flew at Dawn, catching her T-shirt in her fists. “Don’t—”

  But when she realized what she was doing, she cocked her head, gently let Dawn go, and backed away. “Don’t say that name in my house again.”

  Then she let out a long breath, as if destroyed that Frank had found someone else. As if deflated that her daughter actually liked the woman who’d replaced her.

  Then she turned around and went through the door, closing it behind her.

  No doubt taking great care to slip quietly back to her real family Underground, as all Elites did.

  TWENTY-ONE

  SUPERSTARRING

  SOMEONE had made the deal of all deals last night.

  This time, while waiting in a rental car that Someone always took great care to clean, the Vampire Killer
wouldn’t even have to go through the trouble of choosing a victim from the ValuShoppe parking lot. No, everything would be different with this next murder because…

  Well, last night, “Servants,” as they’d called themselves once they were belowground, had caught Someone leaving Annie Foxworth’s apartment. Thank heavens it’d all turned out for the best though, because after they’d brought Someone to “the Master,” he’d made an astounding offer.

  Someone still couldn’t believe it. A vampire. A real vampire!

  “Fame,” the compelling man had said, his eyes a swirling, visual promise of that one elusive word. “We’ve heard about your killing talents, and we want to put them to good use. Would you believe that we have the power to make you a fixture on every TV set in America? Yes, it’s true. Everyone is going to forget about Lee if you pull off what we have planned.” He’d smiled then—so godlike, so loving. “You’ll last in everyone’s minds forever. Lee was just a flash in the night, but you’ll be a star.”

  Someone had given in to the seduction: the glory, the spotlight, the lure of being just as special as a creature like the Master. He’d offered all of it, and Someone knew it would kill the Lee.

  The only catch was that the Master had selected tonight’s quarry, calling this murder a “favor” that would benefit all of them, including Someone. Right now, the hunt wasn’t as gut-level satisfying as the real thing, but after it was over, the Master would welcome Someone into the Underground, and the satisfaction would go way beyond a thrill kill.

  This was the ultimate way to best the Lee.

  While Someone watched the next victim walk out of a now-closed hardware store and to a parked vehicle, juices ran hot again. The grip of a weapon was clammy against a palm sliding with sweat. Tonight, the vampires had given Someone a Taser, because they wanted their victim alive.

  At least for now.

  This performance would take place in front of a crowd. A ratings monster, Someone thought. A swan song before retiring Underground to drink blood with real fangs.

  Blood had started to taste so good.