Eternal Reign

by Melody Johnson

  “I’m an insignificant human,” I reminded him.

  “On the contrary, you’re not human. You’re a night blood, a future vampire, possibly a future Day Reaper, and I think worlds of you.”

  “Potential vampire,” I grumbled. “What of when I had no memory of your name, when you thought I’d lost my night blood? Why did you remain loyal to me and protective of me when I was as insignificant as a human?”

  Dominic shrugged. “You were injured during battle—in the line of duty, you might say. I couldn’t fault you for that, no matter how insignificant you’d become.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’re impossible.”

  Dominic grinned. “You’re no longer insignificant.”

  “Thanks?”

  “Rafe was overwhelmed by the taste of your blood, and Sevris didn’t notice anything amiss when he healed you. Unfortunately, in my current state, I lack the strength and skill to test the theory, but your blood may very well have finally regenerated enough to give back your night blood abilities.”

  I pondered the possibility. “I haven’t sneezed in front of Meredith in at least a full day,” I admitted. “Too little, too late, though,” I said sadly.

  Dominic touched my cheek. “What are you thinking? I can no longer sense the nuances of your thoughts in the pitch of your voice or the quickening of your heartbeat. You must confide in me with words.”

  I sighed. “I’m thinking it would have been nice to have my night blood abilities when the Damned attacked Harroway and me.”

  Dominic tightened his hold on my jaw and shook his head. “Even if you’d had your night blood abilities, they wouldn’t have saved Harroway. You can’t entrance the Damned. They are so consumed by their need to feed, they don’t understand anything else. You tried with Nathan and failed because his thoughts didn’t comprehend your commands, remember?”

  “At least I could have tried,” I said softly.

  “Harroway finally returned the favor you did him all those years ago. He saved your life like he believed he should have the first time. He died a hero,” Dominic said. “I dare say he’s happy with himself.”

  “I didn’t give him my life. He didn’t owe me anything,” I ground out. I had to clear my throat to continue talking. “You can’t justify his death. Not to me.”

  Dominic raised his hands. “I apologize. I’m trying to comfort you, not upset you.”

  “I know. I just—” My phone vibrated on the nightstand, interrupting me. I glanced at the caller ID and then at the time. “Shit.”

  Dominic raised his eyebrows.

  “It’s Greta. And it’s well past when I should have called her.”

  He gave me a little grin. “It’s becoming a habit with you, ignoring her phone calls.”

  I grinned back, despite myself. “Only when I’m in your bed.”

  “We’re in your bed this time,” he pointed out.

  I swiped the phone from the nightstand and got out of said bed.

  “Where are you—”

  “You know I have to take this. Stay put and out of sunlight,” I said, shrugging on an oversized T-shirt and jeans. “I need fresh air to clear my head, and you in my bed isn’t helping.”

  My words wiped the grin clean off his face. “You can’t go outside. The Day Reapers—”

  “Can’t get into my apartment,” I finished for him. “And the rooftop is part of my apartment. I’ll get my fresh air and remain in the relative safety of my fallout shelter. I’ll be fine.” I cracked the door open, careful to allow only a sliver of light to breach the bedroom.

  “No, Cassidy. It’s an unnecessary risk,” Dominic said, his voice sharp, near panic.

  He jumped off the bed, fast for a human, but I was used to dodging vampires. I slipped out of the room and slammed the door behind me.

  “Cassidy!” Dominic bellowed and nearly ripped the door off its hinges.

  “Dominic, don’t, you’ll burst into flames!” I tugged the door shut again.

  “I might not—not instantaneously, anyway,” he argued. “I’m near human in every other way.”

  I made a rude noise in the back of my throat. “Now that’s an unnecessary risk.”

  Dominic sighed deeply and stopped tugging on his side of the door. I leaned my forehead against the wood, and judging by the proximity of his sigh, he was likely doing the same.

  “I’ll be careful,” I reassured him. “And I’ll be right back after my conversation with Greta.”

  “An hour,” Dominic said, his voice ringing with grave finality. “Not a minute longer. You know what happens when you don’t keep to schedule.”

  I pulled back from the door. “You can’t come for me in daylight. You’ll die.”

  “When have you known something so pesky as the threat of death to stop me from coming for you?” he asked, his voice low and more deadly than the rays of the sun.

  Chapter 31

  “It doesn’t make any sense. The tracker must have been expelled like the others,” Greta said, her voice grim.

  I was on speakerphone with Greta, Rowens, Meredith, Nathan, and Dr. Chunn, but even with all our minds and combined expertise on this case, we were at a loss.

  I blew out a long breath. “What doesn’t make sense? Where’s the tracker?”

  “It’s lighting up 432 Park Avenue.”

  I looked across the skyline, imagining 432 Park Avenue in the distance beyond my sight. “The tallest residential building in New York City,” I murmured. The city was just rising with the sun, and somewhere, within or below or surrounding the building where people were just waking for the day, slept the greatest danger this city had ever faced.

  “But recon reported that all is well at the tower,” Greta continued, interrupting my rumination. “No disturbance, no deaths, and no Damned. Nothing.”

  I tapped my lips with my forefinger and squinted through the blinding morning rays and fog. “We’ve got to think about this from their perspective. They’re nocturnal, and with the exception of Meredith’s attack, they only hunt at night. They must hide somewhere during the day, not hunt, so wherever they are, there wouldn’t be a disturbance.” I double-tapped my lips, thinking. “What’s beneath 432 Park Avenue?”

  “Sewer, steam tunnels, and the 6 Train.”

  “There were no sewer particles found on our samples,” Dr. Chunn reminded us.

  “Right.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to expand my mind to consider the unthinkable and discover the truth. The fresh air was helping, but obviously not helping enough. Even without the distraction of Dominic gloriously naked in my bed, my mind was giving me nothing but facts, and the facts we had weren’t offering me any answers.

  “We’re just so out of our element,” Dr. Chunn said. “We’ve never seen anything like these creatures before. We have nothing as a basis for comparison.”

  I blinked in realization. We certainly did have a basis for comparison. My brother. “Feel free to pipe in anytime now, Nathan,” I said, calling him out. “Where did you hide during the day when you were Damned?”

  He didn’t speak for a long moment, but when he did, his voice was deadpan. “High in the trees where no one could see me.”

  I frowned. “How did you avoid the sun?”

  “The foliage blocked some of the sun’s rays. My scales burn easily, but even in direct sunlight, I don’t burst into flames.”

  “Burnt scales,” I whispered, realizing something I hadn’t considered before.

  “We found burnt scales at several scenes,” Dr. Chunn reminded us, having the same realization I was having. “And Meredith found evidence of scales at past scenes using her resolution-enhancing software on our crime-scene photos.”

  “They’re not taking shelter out of the sun,” I said, nodding in agreement even though she couldn’t see me. “Wherever they’re hiding, they’re getting burned.”

  Greta’s sigh across the phone was sharp and hard. “Where on earth could they be hiding that is open to the sun that my
recon team can’t find them?”

  I shook my head. “I have no idea. Nathan, where did you hide in the city when you were Damned?”

  He was quiet for such a long moment that I thought maybe I’d pushed him too far this time. His memories from his time as a Damned vampire were worse than nightmares. People often wonder how they would react in a crisis, if they would be the hero or the coward, but luckily, not everyone endures the experience to prove their worth.

  Nathan’s experience as a Damned vampire made him discover a side of himself that most people could go their entire lives not knowing. He discovered in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t the hero or the coward. He was an exceptional murderer and the very monster that made others cower.

  And the memories of his kills were killing him.

  Finally, he answered. “I don’t remember.”

  I frowned. “I thought you remembered everything.”

  “I do,” he snapped. “I’m haunted by the memories every day, and I relive the nightmare of being Damned every time I close my eyes.”

  “You remember where you hid upstate,” I pointed out. “But you don’t remember where you hid in the city?”

  “All my memories are of the time after I found you.” Nathan made a pained noise in the back of his throat. “And they are quite enough memories for me.”

  I tried not to let the disappointment show in my voice. “Well, let me know if any come back to you.”

  “Will do.”

  We hung up a few minutes later, out of ideas. Dr. Chunn wanted to comb through the evidence again, but she didn’t sound particularly confident. We’d gone over all the evidence multiple times, and she knew it. If we were all this city had against the Damned, New York City was out of luck.

  I turned my face to the sun and closed my eyes, letting its rays heat my face. I sighed from the pleasure of it. Despite the overwhelming pressure of solving the puzzle of this case—and my ineptitude at solving it—the rooftop was still my oasis from the world. I could hide up here in seclusion and sunshine for as long as it took to fit the pieces together.

  My eyes snapped open. I could see many of the other rooftops from my own rooftop terrace, but 432 Park Avenue was the highest rooftop terrace in the city: the perfect place to hide from the world but not the sun.

  The Damned weren’t in the building, and they weren’t underground below it.

  They were above it, on the rooftop.

  Chapter 32

  I listened to Greta talk about plans for evacuation, a SWAT raid, and tear gas—my allotted hour away from Dominic nearly up—and my numb, trembling fingers almost dropped my phone. My worst nightmare was spilling from her lips, and she didn’t have a clue.

  I’d wanted the public to know about vampires for weeks now. No matter the repercussions to Dominic and his coven and me as his night blood, I’d thought that revealing vampires to the public was necessary; I was in the business of exposing the truth, and the public deserved to know about the existence of creatures who hunted them night after night. Knowledge was power, and the public deserved the power to protect themselves.

  Or at least, that’s what I’d thought.

  The public was woefully unprepared for the reality that vampires existed. I’d only survived this long thanks to Walker, who had introduced me to basic survival skills and given me access to weapons. Dominic did his part to help me survive, too, but in the beginning, before I’d fallen down the rabbit hole and in love, when Dominic was still a creature to guard against, I’d survived on Walker’s weapons and knowledge and willingness to share both.

  Greta had neither, and she was going to get herself, her police force, me, and possibly all of New York City killed with her plan to raid 432 Park Avenue. She didn’t have weapons designed to specifically take down the Damned, and even if she reached out to Walker for his weapons, we were overwhelmingly outnumbered.

  Fighting the Damned by force was suicide; we needed to focus our efforts on Jillian. If we could stop Jillian, their maker and hopefully their leader, maybe she would rein in the Damned, assuming they could be reined. Or transform them back, assuming they could be transformed.

  If reining them in or transformation failed, despite Nathan’s adamant reservations, we’d have to find a way to force Jillian to kill them. Nothing was immortal, only long lived and difficult to kill. The Damned just happened to be the most difficult creatures to kill of all.

  “That won’t work,” I interrupted Greta, somewhere between her discussion of evacuation and a mention of tear gas. “Our weapons won’t work against them. You could blow up all of Brooklyn and the Damned would smile at the destruction, the last living thing standing. But their leader has more weaknesses than the Damned. She’s highly allergic to sunlight and silver, and we can use that against her. But we need weapons made specifically to target Jillian’s weaknesses.”

  “We don’t have time to build custom weapons,” Greta said, her tone sharp.

  I was loath to drag Walker into our investigation—he had a bead on me as surely as any vampire—but I couldn’t deny the usefulness of his extensive arsenal. He had the best toys, and against the Damned, we couldn’t afford anything less.

  “Ian Walker can help,” I said grudgingly.

  Greta was silent for a long moment. “He knows about all this?” she asked, her voice carefully reserved.

  “He doesn’t know about this case, specifically, but he knows that these creatures exist. And he makes custom weapons to kill them.” I sighed and finally admitted, “He made the tracking devices.”

  “And you’re just telling me this now, DiRocco? Get in touch with Ian Walker and get him here pronto!”

  “Walker made the trackers, but a mutual friend gave them to me. I haven’t talked to him since returning from upstate. Walker and I, well, we had a falling out,” I said.

  “So I gathered,” she said dryly. “Why do you think I hired Nicholas, or Dominic, or whatever the hell his name is?”

  I blinked. “I don’t know,” I evaded. I’d thought Dominic had had a hand in that as surely as Bex had had a hand in Greta originally hiring Walker.

  “I reached out to Ian Walker after hiring Nicholas. I didn’t want Walker on this case, which was odd of me because I usually prefer working with people I know no matter my personal preference, but I called him anyway,” Greta said.

  I bit my lip. Another perfect example of Greta once again thwarting Dominic’s mind-control abilities.

  Her voice turned bitter as she continued. “Ian knew what we were facing, and because of a spat with you, he hung us out to dry.”

  “It was more than just a spat,” I said. Although the bruise where he’d jabbed me in the rib with his sawed-off shotgun had only just healed, my broken trust in him hadn’t even begun to mend; I had no doubt the feeling was mutual. He’d felt just as betrayed by me as I had by him.

  “I don’t care about his crimes against you,” Greta said, on a roll now. “This investigation trumps personal conflict. Hundreds of people have died, and hundreds more are at risk. He should have come when I called. Or offered some advice, if he’s as knowledgeable about these creatures and the weapons needed to kill them as you say he is. He could have done something. Anything’s better than nothing, and with all that insight, he gave me a big ball of nada.”

  “He couldn’t have known exactly what we were facing,” I said, defending him despite my better judgment. He was, after all, a fellow night blood, and at one time not that long ago, a very good friend. “But in general, he knows more than I do about their weaknesses and how to build weapons against them,” I admitted.

  Greta was silent for a long moment. “We just don’t have the time or resources to wait. We need this solved now, not a week from now.”

  “If we raid 432 Park Avenue today while we’re unprepared, we’ll lose, G. We can’t—”

  “It’s Detective Wahl.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  “We’re close, DiRocco, but sometimes you forget tha
t I’m lead on this case. If I say we go in today, we go in today.”

  “But you don’t understand what we’re up against. You don’t have the means to—”

  “I understand perfectly what we’re up against,” Greta interrupted, her voice sharp. “I watched as that creature jumped fifty stories and crashed through the window on your floor. I watched as you were thrown out the window and Dr. Nicholas Leander turned into Dominic Lysander before our very eyes and soared from his tower, caught you in midair, and saved you. And even though both of you fell fifty floors, you both survived.”

  “He slowed our fall. We didn’t hit at full speed and—”

  “Seven years of friendship, and suddenly, I don’t even know who you are anymore. I’m not sure I know what you are.”

  My throat tightened. When I tried to speak, unshed tears and fear roughened my voice. “I know it seems crazy—I felt like I was going insane when I first met Dominic—but for the past month, ever since I discovered the truth about myself and the creatures that exist beneath this city, I’ve been trying to find a way to tell you without putting you or myself in jeopardy. That’s why I brought Dominic’s blood to the lab for testing. You never would have believed me if I’d only told you the truth; I had to prove it to you.”

  “You’re right, DiRocco, I never would have believed you. No one would have. And you did a damn good job proving it to me. Unlike Ian, you stayed to help me solve this investigation. Knowing what I know about the danger we’re up against, you did more than your part. Which is why you should evacuate with everyone else and leave the rest to me and my team.”

  I groaned. “G, please, hear me out. Your plan won’t work. You can’t—”

  “Get Meredith, Rowens, and Dr. Susanna Chunn as far away from ground zero as you can. If we fail, there will be a bloodbath, and you’re the only civilians who know the truth.”

  “Greta, please, I—”

  “Get out of the city, and that’s an order. I’ll take it from here.”

  “You can’t just—”

  I heard the click on the line and realized I was talking to nothing but air.