by Kayleigh Sky
“I’ll do that. Will you call Dinallah Manor and bring me news of Jessa.”
“Of course. I’m sure he’s fine. You would sense it otherwise.”
That was the problem. She sensed nothing from Jessa. But Rune… Why was he close?
She forced her teeth apart and flashed her fangs. “I’m over protective.”
“We have been telling you that for years.”
Mouth hanging open, she watched the old bastard march past her. Jesus.
A few minutes later, she crossed the receiving room to a door hidden behind one of the tapestries and headed downstairs. It was quiet in the hall, but the door to Isaac’s suite was open. So was Rune’s.
“Isaac?”
“In here.”
She followed the sound of his voice into Rune’s study. He crouched on the floor, gathering papers. His moppy hair flopped over his eyes, and he swiped his arm across his forehead, brushing his bangs away.
“I heard a crash.” He motioned with a twist of his head behind him.
“Oh fuck,” Mal muttered.
The red and gold figure had shattered on the floor. She made a quick perusal of the room. Other than stray paper and rolled plans, it looked to be the only casualty.
Rune.
Nothing. He had cut her off. They were too close and had been since childhood for her not to sense him. The hot prickle cooled into a chill, but of course. It was cold in here. Even Isaac shivered.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
He glanced up. “Yeah.”
She gathered a couple of Rune’s maps and set them on the table. Isaac joined her a moment later, the quizzical look on his face registering distantly. She didn’t move, and his gaze followed hers to a knife stuck through the map in the middle of the table.
“I’m assuming you didn’t do that,” she said quietly.
“No. It’s a map of Comity.”
The surrounding city was, but the knife stuck out of a spot on the far side of the mountain.
She leaned closer. “Black Diamond mines,” she murmured.
“What’s there?” Isaac asked.
“Nothing. The mines have been dead for a hundred years.” What are you doing, brother? “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go upstairs. It’s time for lunch.”
She strode out, the door closing behind her a moment later. Isaac trailed behind her. Bettina set a plate of sandwiches, marinated mushrooms, and a fruit bowl for Isaac on the table. As they sat, Fritt came in from the veranda and set the phone on the counter.
“Another earthquake struck down the coast this morning. Jessa and his detective left for home on the train an hour before. Another train was on route in the opposite direction. They were close to each other. One of those trains derailed, but there’s no news yet on which one.”
Isaac gasped. “Jessa.”
Mal met Fritt’s stare. The cold that had been gripping her slowly unfroze. Fritt swiveled to glance behind him. There on the veranda stood Uriah.
Mal got up. Uriah entered and dipped his chin.
“Where is Rune?” she asked.
Uriah shook his head. “We were returning home. When I awoke this morning, he was gone.”
Mal struggled with a wave of dizziness that swept over her. A chair clattered, scraping the floor, and Isaac clutched her arm. “Jessa?” he whispered, his voice thick, clogging his throat.
She shook her head and glanced at Fritt again.
“I will go to the accident site,” he said. “The King has also sent a contingent, but there are other casualties they will need to attend to.”
“I don’t think you’ll find Jessa,” Mal said. “Look for the detective.” Fritt cocked his head with a frown but nodded. “And you, Uriah. Stay here in case I’m wrong and Jessa and Otto return.” She straightened and brushed Isaac’s hair off his forehead. “Don’t worry,” she murmured. “I’m fine. Eat your lunch and I’ll be back soon.”
“Where are you going?”
Isaac followed her.
“To check on things at the college.”
“That’s a lie.”
She spun, and he stopped, keeping a distance.
“Smart boy. I want you to stay here. Jessa hasn’t fed in several days.”
She watched Isaac consider that. “He’s gone longer,” he said. “A lot longer.”
“Not under stress. I won’t be long. I just need to check on something.”
“I can help.”
“You can help by staying here.”
She left him in the hall and hurried to her room, changing out of her dress into a pair of jeans and walking shoes.
When she returned downstairs, the entryway was empty, but when she pulled one of the cars onto the driveway, a glance in her rearview mirror revealed Isaac standing in the open doorway.
“Goddamn little bastard,” she muttered. “Better stay where he is.”
The trees and shadows and hills blurred as she flew on the road into Comity. Slate-colored clouds released a few raindrops.
She cut around the mountain on the city streets, maneuvering around the base to the other side.
You better not hurt him, Rune.
It sickened her thinking that. Would he? Rune had given up everything for Jessa. Destroyed their father. Ruined their family. It had meant nothing to Mal. War was the common denominator of their existence since the fall of both angels and humans. It was the unbreakable, banal thread through all of their history, and she was happy to see it finally snap. She’d wanted to teach a new history, relish life and freedom, fall in love one day. But Rune… Rune was a vampire in the darkest and truest sense. Passionate and haunted, driven and vengeful.
Would he hurt Jessa? Half human. Half of the creatures who’d destroyed Celestine City and murdered Abadi and Dawn?
Rune!
Go back.
No!
She wailed it. Because he was here, and it had been him all along. Had he murdered the drainer, Wen, and the whore?
Rune, please. It’s not too late.
He laughed, and a shutter crashed shut in her mind, darkening her thoughts.
The raindrops quickened, falling faster.
She pulled in front of the car beside her and drove off the highway, turning toward the mountain. By the time she reached the mines, the rain fell steadily. There was no sign of Rune. She shut off the engine and clenched the steering wheel in her fists, then removed a flashlight from the glove box and got out.
Hills surrounded her. Lush green with tall grasses and the white and yellow of summer flowers. She hurried away from the parking lot, her breath loud in her ears, and climbed a hill to one of the old portals. The iron gates drew her on. They stood wide open. She wouldn’t put it past Rune to open up the entrance here and enter through another one. But it didn’t matter because the whole complex was connected, and all but the oldest shafts had been renovated before Rune’s job had taken him away, and he had no more time to spend here.
She had no fear of the dark, but light shone inside. She slowed up, stopped, and took a breath. Light. The electricity had been restored.
“Rune,” she whispered. “What have you done?”
There was no following him in secret. Clenching her hands into fists, she ran into a cavernous space still filled with equipment and memorabilia from the old mining days. Pipes and cables snaked on the floor and overhead. The weight of the rock pressing down woke her memories of Celestine. Woke her vampire instincts. Her fangs dropped, and her skin tingled. Rune? Was he close?
She ran until she reached a flight of stairs and went deeper into the tunnels. Wood beams lined the sand-colored walls as though holding them up. She stopped at the top of another flight of stairs.
“Rune!”
Nothing.
Except…
She whirled.
Vampire!
Looming without a sound, not human at all. And not Rune. She glimpsed an older face, handsome, cruel, and fearless.
“Who are you?” she gasped.<
br />
“The light bearer,” he answered.
She spun and staggered. The vampire grabbed her, his hand in her hair, yanking her head back. He swept her off her feet. The rock ceiling spiraled over her head and she flew, pinwheeling her arms. She landed on the railing at the bottom of the stairs and rolled off onto the floor. Pain exploded. She gasped, eyes wide open on a gaping hole above her. It sank deep into the rock, blue black, peaceful dark.
Run!
Rune.
The vampire thundered down the stairs.
She staggered up, stumbling, bent double. Warmth filled her. The walls swayed, leaning in and out. Something sharp hit her in the back, and the floor flew up at her. She hit it and flipped over, the swell of pain washing away in a strange heat. Wasn’t death cold?
Blurry-eyed, she looked at the vampire crouched above her. A whooshing sound grew in her ears. It was her blood, she thought. But it was slowing. She was dying, but confused. Maybe something had broken inside her.
“Too bad,” said the vampire, stroking his finger against her cheek, but his words sounded like laughter.
As her vision drew in, sorrow and fear filled the darkness. She’d never fall in love now. She’d failed Jessa. She wanted to cry, but not now. Not here. Seneras didn’t weep. They laid waste. Nothing changed in this world, not even in her. She was vampire, and Rune’s roar thundering behind rock filled her with a dark glee.
51
In the Dark
The howl rocked through Jessa like a bomb. Like Celestine City raining down, drawing him out of the deep dark. The light, dull as it was, pierced his eyes like knives. A flashlight beam ricocheted off a wall as his legs crumbled and he dipped out of Rune’s arms and dropped onto his side, slowly focusing on Mal’s eyes and outstretched hand. His heart pounded agonizingly fast, but his body was frozen around it. Pain burned through him.
Solomon.
The vamp stood behind her, slightly crouched as though braced against the force of a thunderous roar. It bounced off the walls in booming waves. Rune.
Jessa stared, shocked, the burn inside him freezing in a chill.
Rune glowed, a sullen reddish smolder, brightening, expanding, sizzling from the tips of his fingers. Solomon backed away, raising his own hands. The red bolts shot from Rune’s fingertips, but arced upwards as the ground rose and shifted and dropped beneath them. The force of the aftershock rolled Jessa against the far wall. A roar filled his ears, shuddering like thunder. There was nothing to grab onto. He rolled again, this time against Rune, who fell over him then scrambled back up.
“Rune,” he whispered.
Fingers brushed against his face, and his strength seeped away.
When his eyes opened again, he was alone, lying on his side. The lights didn’t work here, and a cone-shaped glow from a lantern spread up the wall in front of him. Strange shapes oozed out of the black rock—all golden orange like the lantern light, all dripping like fossilized syrup. He rolled his eyes, casting a look above him. Mist spread across the rock wall, thinning, thickening, laying flat, receding.
Then, inexplicably Rune was back, kneeling down and lifting him up. He grunted and staggered under Jessa’s weight, his breath heavy.
“The cave-in cut Mal off. I couldn’t get through, but we’ll find another tunnel and come in from the other side. I can feel her. It’s okay.”
It took a long time. Or maybe it was only moments before Jessa got his voice to work again. “Why?”
Rune shifted Jessa’s weight. “I put you to sleep because I couldn’t leave you. I didn’t trust that woman on the train. I thought you were in danger, so I brought you with me. I don’t want you to fight me either, and I know you will. A long time ago, I found a tunnel in Celestine that I didn’t have time to explore, but I never forgot it. I was young enough and romantic enough to think it led to the treasure.”
“Crazy…”
Jessa’s tongue was thick, words trapped in his head. But it didn’t matter. Rune went on talking.
“Qudim was a… a strong ruler. But in love. Deeply. Passionately. A royal. I defied him. I would do it again. Who is wrong? The one who preys on another for thousands of years? Or the one who stumbles onto a victory? And the Upheaval… That was no victory. Still… We were tossed to the bottom of the heap. Our family, once above the Dinallahs, forever disgraced. Qudim was insane with grief. That is our legacy. Passion. Obsession. The others… They act only out of greed. Vile hate. I won’t let them get the treasure. It is for us. For our redemption.”
Jessa recoiled. Or he wanted to. Maybe he managed to withdraw a little because Rune’s arm tightened around him.
“Mu-murder.”
Rune flashed him a look, the whites of his eyes gleaming in the near dark. He shook his head, hurt crossing his face. “No, brother. Not murder.”
52
It’s What Friends Do
Mal’s car was in the long strip of parking lot and the only one there, but Isaac had lived long enough on the streets he’d learned to trust nothing, so he swung the car away and drove back to one of the thicker clumps of trees. It wasn’t great cover, but it was better than nothing.
He got out of the car and staggered like a drunk. The horizon tipped like a teeter-totter, back and forth. Wrapping his arms around a tree, he clung to it until it stopped.
Leaves showered to the ground.
After a few minutes he pushed off but only made it halfway to the mine entrance before he ducked down into the grass as a figure in a cap and heavy jacket emerged from the mine and came down the road at a run. The guy threw a glance over his shoulder, then fled through the weeds. It took only a minute before he disappeared into the trees.
Isaac hurried on now. At the entrance to the mine, he tucked the flashlight he’d brought with him from the castle into the back of his jeans and—
A hand clamped down on his shoulder.
“Wait a—”
“Fuck!” Isaac lurched forward and swung around in a panic, flashlight raised before he brought it down with a swipe. “Jesus Christ.”
“What the hell are you doing here?” asked Otto.
“I followed Mal.”
“Mal? What is this, a family reunion?”
“Vampire-style.”
Otto snorted. “Funny. Wait here.”
“Like hell. You’re hurt anyway.”
Tiny bandages held together a cut near Otto’s hairline and a purple bruise bloomed around them.
“It’s nothing. Rune is here.”
Isaac tried to hold back his shiver at the tingle of electricity that ran through him.
“Why?”
“He has Jessa with him. He’s after something. A treasure of some kind. I think he thinks he can get to it through the mines. People have died for it, so I don’t want you here. Go on home.” Otto slid by him. “Do you have a car?”
“One of the Senera’s. I hid it. Somebody ran out of here a few minutes ago.”
Otto pinned him with a stare. “What did they look like?”
“Vampire. Bigger than most. Scared though from the look of him. What if it caved in in there?”
“It probably has. More reason for you to stay out here.”
“I’m not a kid. I’ve been through worse, an’ I ain’t goin’.”
Otto’s jaw bunched, but then he only said, “Stay out of my way,” before he advanced through the portal door.
Glowering at his back, Isaac followed him. His heartbeat slowed at the sight of a brightly lit cavern off the corridor. Otto detoured inside where a dome-shaped ceiling towered above them.
“What are you doing?” Isaac asked.
Otto tapped a display case attached to the wall. “It’s a map.”
Isaac rubbed his arms in the cold. He wanted to turn tail and run, but something was pulling him on. A whispery tug that had him trailing Otto back into the main corridor. A caress like the one that wrapped around him at night and clung to his skin during the day. A presence. It permeated every stone in the c
astle and lingered in his memory from the day Mateo was killed. It was the same presence that had been in the fog, and Isaac wasn’t afraid of it. He longed for it with every remembered feeling of comfort and safety he’d once known before the Upheaval had stolen everything from him.
It was good. And he was sure it was Rune.
They turned into a tunnel that was panel-lined like somebody’s living room. The cold deepened here, and Isaac shivered. And then Otto was running. Movement drew Isaac’s eye to a figure on the ground. “Mal!”
He raced after Otto, who dropped to a knee when he came near her and bent over her. Isaac landed against Otto’s back and fell beside him. Blood came from Mal’s mouth, staining her fangs. Her beautiful face was colorless, slack, but her eyes burned.
“Let go,” she murmured. “Can’t… stay.”
Otto stroked her hair back. “Let go?”
“Rune,” she whispered. “Let me… go.”
Blood seeped underneath her. Tears flooded Isaac’s eyes, and he took her hand. “Don’t die.”
A smile pulled at her lips. “Sound like… Rune. I hear him.”
“What happened?” Otto asked.
“Vampire. Hit me. I fell… on something. I can… can feel it. Rune… is with Jessa. The ceiling… fell.”
“Is Jessa okay?”
She squinted and shook her head, fingers tightening on Isaac’s hand. “Rune… charmed him.”
“I thought that was a myth,” Otto said.
Like teleportation, thought Isaac. Like turning into a fog and—
Feed her.
Isaac’s back snapped straighter. Otto stared at him.
“Go on. Get Jessa,” Isaac said. “I can take care of Mal.”
Otto gaped. “How?”
“I’ll feed her.”
“You can’t. Not with an injury like this.”
“I won’t… stop,” Mal whispered.
The voice came again. Good boy. Don’t be afraid.
“Go,” Isaac said, pushing at Otto. “That other vamp that ran off. We have to hurry before he comes back with help.”
As though he hadn’t thought of that Otto’s face blanched in the dim light. He looked down. “Mal.”
