Dark Horizons (The Red Sector Chronicles)

by Krystle Jones

  No alarms sounded as we busted one of the windows and let ourselves inside.

  There were no lights on, and the air stank of stale and rotting food. Being a vampire, it was almost ten times worse.

  Leo, whose arm was draped around my shoulder for support, covered his nose with a groan. “God, what is that?”

  “Smells like an appetizing mixture of rat droppings, maggots, and mold,” I replied.

  “Ew,” Dezyre said, glancing back at me. “Could you be any grosser?”

  Rook just chuckled. Arika was draped over his arms; he had carried her the whole way. It was probably better she was still knocked out because I was pretty sure she’d rather be left for dead than be carted around by a vampire.

  “Ugh, this reeks,” Dezyre said. “Should we try to find someplace a little less, I don’t know, stomach-churning?”

  “No,” Rook said promptly. “This place is perfect. It will mask our scents to the Guard.”

  Reluctantly she agreed.

  We found some relatively clear floor space in the very back of the store. Gingerly, I lowered Leo to the ground, helping him sit before taking a seat beside him. The blood had dried into the fabric of my clothes, making them a little stiff. What I wouldn’t give for a shower. I looked around, wondering if maybe there was still some bottled water I could use to rinse off in. But there was more to it than being uncomfortable. The blood served as a reminder of what I had done, of what I’d become.

  I shivered, pushing the thought to the back of my mind.

  It was becoming easier to see. It was times like this I was semi-grateful for being a vampire because my eyes could easily adjust to the dark. It didn’t matter so much that we didn’t have any flashlights or weren’t able to turn on any lights for fear of attracting attention.

  Rook laid Arika down a few feet away. Dezyre checked her over one more time to make sure she was stable and then turned her attention to Leo. She’d fed him some of her blood back at the clearing, and because of it, the gash on his chest wasn’t so “gashy” anymore. Now it was just an ugly, long lump of marred skin. It still must have hurt because Leo winced and grunted a lot on our way over, but it sure looked a lot better than it did.

  “This is incredible,” he said, blinking and looking around. “It’s super-dark, but I can read the label on that can of soup over there.”

  My shoulders somewhat relaxed. I was so afraid he was going to berate me for doing this to him, but he seemed to be taking his rebirth well.

  I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing.

  After Dezyre looked over Leo’s scar, Rook awkwardly cleared his throat. “Er, you, uh, had something you wanted to tell me?” he said, blushing slightly.

  It dawned on me he probably thought Dezyre was going to confess her undying feelings. Boy, is he in for a loop.

  Dezyre paled and swallowed hard. “Um, yeah. Let’s, uh, go over, er, there.”

  She glanced back at me as they walked away, and I gave her a small, reassuring smile. It was weird. Before yesterday at the Laundromat, I always thought of Dezyre as a rival, as a pain in the ass prima donna. But now, it was almost as if we had this secret bond going, some mutual, unspoken truce. “Frenemies” would be the closest word for our bizarre relationship, I supposed.

  It was really quiet, and I suddenly became acutely aware of Leo staring at me.

  I bit my lip and looked away, not sure what to say. “Sorry I turned you into a bloodsucking demon” didn’t quite seem to cut it.

  “Can you feel it?”

  My attention snapped back around. “Feel what?”

  “This… bond,” he said, pointing between the two of us. “It’s like I’m part of you now.” He smiled softly. “And you’re a part of me.”

  I blushed, tucking a strand of loose hair behind my ear. I had noticed it. It was similar to the bond I shared with Aden, only deeper. It was like I was always aware of where Leo was and what he was doing, if he was hurt, sad, etc. Flakes of his emotions ran through me, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of our new relationship, or if it was because one of us was unknowingly projecting their glamour onto the other.

  When the elephant in the room got too big, I finally sighed. “I didn’t know what else to do,” I whispered. “All I know is that I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you.”

  Leo reached out and grasped my hand, the look in his eyes earnest and true. “I’m glad you did.”

  We stared at each other for a few seconds, something special and only known to us passing between us. Adoration, deep affection, trust –

  Love?

  Something groaned behind me.

  I blinked, startled by Arika’s voice. She was sitting up and rubbing her head, which had a nice purple knot on it. She squinted, staring at Leo. “What happened?”

  “You took a pretty nasty fall and hit your head on a rock,” I said. I decided to leave out the part about Rook carrying her here.

  She looked around, surveying her surroundings. Her eyes must have focused because they landed on Leo and stayed there. “Leo,” she breathed, her eyes widening. Her gaze dropped to his chest. “Oh, my God, what happened?”

  She immediately stumbled to her feet and staggered over to him, falling to her knees on the tiled flooring. Her jaw dropped as she eyed the long scar.

  “It’s all right,” Leo said quickly, grabbing her by the shoulders. “I’m fine. I was attacked and Sloane saved me.”

  “Leo,” Arika said, hesitating. “It looks like your chest was cut wide open. How can anyone come back from this? And how did you heal so fast?”

  Leo glanced at me, a question in his eyes.

  That wasn’t all I saw there. A ray of the security light from outside caught the reflectors in his irises, making them flash red for a second.

  I held my breath, waiting to see if Arika noticed.

  The color drained from my face. Arika had gone perfectly still. She was staring at his eyes, fear building in her widening pupils. Tentatively, she reached up and pulled his gaze back to hers. I cringed as his eyes flashed red again.

  With a sharp gasp, she scrambled to her feet and backed away, her back slamming into a display with a loud rattle. “Oh, my God,” she breathed. “You’re one of them.”

  Leo slowly rose to his feet, holding out his hands. “Arika, it’s okay.”

  “It’s not okay!” she screamed. “How could you do this? How could you become a parasite?”

  He winced and she shook her head. “I know you,” she said. “Like a part of my soul. You would never do something like this, not willingly…” Her voice trailed off as her eyes locked onto me, at first thoughtfully and then with boiling rage. “You!”

  Luckily I was a vampire, or else I probably would have been toast. Whipping out her sai, Arika lunged for me, trying to pin me to the floor, but I was faster. I sprang to my feet as the tips of her sai dug into the floor where I had just been sitting.

  “Arika, stop!” Leo shouted, but she continued to stalk toward me. The look on her face was murderous. Despite her petite features, she was actually kind of scary.

  “How could you do this to him?” she seethed. “You’re his oldest friend, and you betrayed him!”

  “I didn’t have any other choice!” I yelled, backing away. “He was dying, Arika! What did you expect me to do? Let him go?”

  She pressed her lips together but not before I noticed how her bottom lip had trembled at me saying, “He was dying.” “If it would mean he didn’t have to become a monster, then yes, I’d say you should have let him.”

  “You don’t mean that.”

  “I mean every word!” she screamed, her words echoing throughout the store. “I hate them, hate all vampires! You don’t know what it’s like to watch them rip apart your family while you hide in the closet like a coward!”

  I drew up short, stunned.

  So that’s why she hates vampires so much.

  I shouldn’t have paused for so long. Arika brought up her sai, preparing
to run me through, but Leo stepped in the way and grabbed hold of it, halting its progress. Steam wafted up from his hand, and he grunted but held her at bay.

  Arika blinked in surprise, her eyes locked onto his steaming hand. “What are you doing?”

  “It’s fine, Arika,” he said, his voice tight with trying to hold in his pain. “She did what she could to save me. Let it go.”

  Arika deliberated, her eyes flashing from him to me. At last, she let go of her sai with a huff, and Leo dropped it.

  “Shit!” he spat, clutching at his bright red hand. “That hurt like a mother!”

  Arika didn’t bother to retrieve it or apologize. She stalked off toward one of the aisles, disappearing around a corner.

  I looked up, noticing two dark shapes nearby. Rook and Deyzre must have heard everything.

  “If it would mean he didn’t have to become a monster…”

  A rock-hard wave of guilt slammed into me, and I turned away. “I’m sorry, Leo,” I blurted before darting past him.

  “Sloane, wait!” he said, starting to reach for me.

  “Let her go,” Dezyre said, walking up to him. “Give her some space. I’ll take a look at your hand.”

  I tuned them out after that. I didn’t want to hear what he had to say, didn’t need another reminder of what I’d done. Had it been some huge mistake? Would Leo had been better off if he had died?

  You turned him into a monster.

  I blinked the thought away, suppressing it far in the deepest, darkest corner of my fears. Finding the deli counter, I ducked down behind it and pulled up my knees, stacking my arms on them before resting my forehead there.

  My body shook as I cried, letting all my frustrations and pent-up worries drain out of me. No one came looking for me, for which I was grateful. I had no desire whatsoever to speak with anyone.

  Thanks, Dezyre.

  After a few minutes, I felt completely drained of any emotion, leaving me feeling numb inside. It wasn’t so bad; I didn’t want to think, didn’t want to feel.

  Exhausted, I let myself drift off to sleep.

  And wished I hadn’t.

  ***

  The first thing I thought when I woke up in the dream world was that it was awfully dark. The weird thing was that only the sky was slate gray; everything else was still colorful, and the sky only made the surrounding color that much more vivid.

  This time I had on a bright red dress. Judging from the way the fabric eagerly whipped in the wind, it was made out of some sort of gauze.

  Scanning the area, I relaxed a little when I didn’t see any Rogues. Though the sky looked unhappy, it didn’t look like it was on the verge of a colossal downpour, either.

  A speck of blond hair flashed from somewhere in front of me, and my heart skipped a beat as I furtively searched for him.

  There.

  I ran toward the tree, the tip of its foliage just visible above the crest of the hill. Nearly twisting my ankle on the other side, I forced myself to be careful as I hastily descended, coming to a stop in front of Aden.

  He was lying next to the tree, his back propped up against the trunk. Both hands lay at his sides, and it looked like he was sleeping. In the distance the ocean whispered, the scent of the salt in its waves carrying on the wind. I thought I had smelled the ocean when I first came here, but I hadn’t seen it because we’d always been on the other side of the hill.

  A trickle of fear ran through me as I looked my maker over. “Aden?”

  His eyes cracked open as he sucked in a weak, raspy breath. “Sloane?”

  I dropped to my knees beside him, not caring if I ruined the dress in the mud. It wasn’t real anyway. Carefully, I examined him with growing worry. “You look paler.”

  The corner of his mouth turned up as if he found this funny. “I feel paler.”

  I popped my lips. “O-kay. What, does Paris have you on too many pain meds?” I realized how much that statement was in poor taste and quickly bit my lip. “Er, sorry.”

  He reached over and grabbed my hand, then squeezed it with the strength of an old man on the verge of death. “You’re different,” he wheezed. “Something’s changed about you.”

  I warred with myself over whether or not to tell him about the newest addition to our effed up vampire family.

  The coughs came without warning. One second he was fine; the next, he doubled over, his body shaking as he heaved cough after powerful cough.

  “Aden?” I bent over him, placing a hand on his shoulder as I grew more afraid for him. “What can I do?”

  “Nothing.” He sat up, his eyes filled with pain. Smatterings of blood – the most I’d seen since he caught the virus – soiled his arm where he had coughed on it.

  My face went white with fear. It was happening. He was actually dying, and I wasn’t there to do a damn thing about it.

  Around me, the grass was curling up and turning a dead brown color. Leaves from the tree decayed and fell to the ground, first one by one and then in waves. In the distance something crackled, like boulders tumbling down a mountain.

  Wildly, I looked back at Aden. He was so still.

  “No,” I said, placing a hand on his cheek so I could tilt his face toward mine. “No, please.”

  Aden’s eyes opened, finding my gaze; he seemed to be peering into my soul. “Stay strong,” he whispered, lightly touching my cheek with his fingertips. “And never give up.”

  When he leaned forward to kiss me I didn’t move. I didn’t even blink, for fear he wouldn’t be there after I did.

  The kiss never came.

  He literally faded away into nothing before my eyes. I sat there, stunned. He was gone.

  “Aden?”

  I looked around as the rumbling grew louder. I was alone.

  The earth rumbled beneath me as the last of the color was sucked out of the grass, and hell itself opened up to swallow me whole.

  CHAPTER 23

  “ADEN!”

  His name echoed throughout the grocery store as I clawed myself awake. I was shaking so badly, my teeth were rattling. In my mind, the black, fire-swept abyss hurtled toward me, reaching up, fighting to claim me for its own.

  Footsteps pounded toward me. Leo rounded the corner of the deli counter and crashed onto the floor beside me, tentatively laying a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, are you all right? We heard you screaming.”

  Dezyre and Rook came up behind him, gazing at me with a mixture of wariness and concern.

  “I – he was – I lost him –” I could hardly speak because I couldn’t stop trembling.

  Leo promptly swept me up in a tight hug. I’d always teased him about them being too snug – “man hugs,” I called them – but right now, I couldn’t get close enough to him. I needed to hear his heart pounding, to know I wasn’t alone.

  Aden.

  I pushed back from Leo, looking at Rook and Dezyre. “Aden’s dead.”

  They looked at each other, skeptical. “How do you know?” Dezyre asked.

  “I had this dream.”

  She nearly snorted, but I saw the flash of surprise in her eyes that said she believed me. She had been the one, after all, to bring up the subject of dream-sharing back at the Laundromat. “It was probably just a nightmare. You’re overreacting.”

  “I saw him!” I shouted, rising to my feet. Leo caught me when I swayed, keeping a hand on my arm for safe measure. “I know it was him!”

  “Whoa, whoa,” Rook said, holding up his hands. “Just back up. What do you mean exactly?”

  I hastily recounted my rendezvous with Aden in the field. Rook’s eyes widened as I spoke.

  Dezyre playfully elbowed him. “Oh, don’t look so shocked. I’ve dreamt of you too.”

  He blushed, looking away. “I, er, didn’t know what it meant. That’s all.”

  Dezyre rolled her eyes. “Well, you don’t have to worry about me professing my endless love. Though we do have some catching up to do on the ‘family quality time’ department.”

 
More than anything, their banter irritated me. I just wanted to know if Aden truly was dead, if we should just call it quits and head home.

  If I’d be welcome there anymore. Knowing Frost, she’d have me shot at the entrance for my little insult. Escaping from a general’s grasp had to come like a slap to the face.

  “What do you think it means?” I snapped, interrupting them. “My dream, that is.”

  “As I said, I think you’re overreacting.” Dezyre crossed her arms. “You said so yourself that the world fell apart when he vanished. Have you been having trouble sleeping? Any nightmares?”

  I gulped. I couldn’t tell them about the casket dream, or the one where Aden and I were assaulted by Rogues. “You could say that,” I mumbled.

  “Then how do you know it was real?” Dezyre said. “It could have just been a bad dream. I wouldn’t sweat it.”

  Though my trembling had subsided, the bad feeling in my gut hadn’t. I couldn’t shake the image from my mind of Aden disappearing.

  Gone. Forever.

  The thought of that came with a soul-crushing weight that I thought would cripple me.

  “Besides,” Rook said, breaking my thoughts, “we have something we should prepare for.”

  I blinked. What could possibly be more important than saving Aden’s life? “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “We –” he pointed to all of us – “have a ball to attend tomorrow night. Or I guess, technically, it’s tonight, considering it’s nearly 7 a.m.”

  Jeez, it’s that late already? I’d been out for nearly two hours, but the dream had only lasted a few minutes. No wonder I felt like crap.

  “Why’s this so important?” I asked.

  “They’re honoring an esteemed scientist who’s done some research on vampire and human genetics,” Dezyre said, sounding genuinely interested. I guess the medical side of it interested her inner nerd. “They’re calling it the ‘Creator’s Ball’.”

  “Creator?” I said. “As in, the ‘Mark of the Creator’?”

  “Maybe,” Rook said. “There’s only one way to find out.”

  “There’s another thing,” Dezyre said, her eyes sparkling. “The honoree’s name is Dr. Ivan Johansen.”