[Dark Destinies 01.0] Dark Heart of the Sun

by SK Ryder

  Jackson gave her a long, hard look. “You do realize he’s not human, right?”

  “Garrett’s the one who isn’t human. But Dominic was not long ago, and he wants to be again.”

  “Right,” he scoffed. “Next you’ll tell me he’s got you believing in Santa Clause.”

  “He hasn’t sugar-coated anything for me. I’ve seen the worst of what he is and the best. You’ve seen it, too. He wanted to leave and asked you to take care of me, for God’s sake. As if I’d let you.”

  “Games, Cass. They play games with people and manipulate them into whatever situation suits them. They can’t be reasoned with, bargained with, or trusted. Ever. And there is no help for them but to put them down like the rabid wolves they are.”

  Cassidy narrowed her eyes. “You do realize that’s not what Garrett is doing, right?”

  Jackson’s jaw clenched. “We’ve been dealing with them for centuries, ever since the first of us fell for one of their mind games. My ancestor thought they were ‘friends’ and ended up dead when his ‘friend’ got tired of him. His sons read their father’s journals, realized what had happened, and went after it. Once they knew what to look for, they found hordes of vampires—thieving, lying, murdering demons, every one of them—and we’ve been ridding humanity of them ever since. That’s our purpose, Cassidy, our only purpose. How it’s accomplished—” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter.”

  “Wow,” she whispered. How had she almost married this man? How could she not have seen this ruthless, self-righteous alien living inside him?

  Jackson’s phone chirped and he answered it. “Yes, she’s conscious.” He studied her. “Go ahead.” Pause. Then, “No, nothing. Okay.”

  He slipped the phone back in his pocket and turned away. “Good news. You’re far enough away here to not be affected.”

  “Affected,” Cassidy repeated. Realizing what he must mean, she wanted to vomit all over the expensive sheets. Dominic would burn, but his suffering would not reach her. Her throat closed. As if there were smoke choking the air. The room threatened to collapse in on her. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing. This was not the time to lose it.

  “We’ve never seen that before. His serum is something else if he can telegraph his own reactions to you like that. Can’t wait to see what his sire is like.”

  “No, you don’t,” she murmured on a long, slow exhale.

  “And what do you know about it?” Jackson continued to rummage in a small bag on the table.

  She opened her eyes and stared at the back of his head. No answer here would deter these human monsters from dragging out their brutal torture of a young vampire who never asked for any of this and only wanted it all to end. “Nothing you clearly haven’t figured out already.”

  Where the hell were her clothes? Why had he stripped her down to her panties? She had to get out of here.

  “I doubt it, but it’s not like I can trust anything coming out of your mouth right now anyway.” He came to sit on the edge of the bed. “Just like I can’t trust you to stay put in here for a while?”

  “Not even if I have to leap naked through a second floor window, no,” she promised, every last ounce of the fury she felt dripping from her tongue.

  “Yeah. That’s what I thought.” Suddenly he gripped her forearm and yanked her close.

  Cassidy yelped when she felt the piercing stab and burn in her shoulder. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Just making sure you don’t do anything stupid, babe. It’s for your own good.”

  The room wobbled and spun around her, and her whole body slumped into uncooperative jelly.

  Jackson pulled the dropped sheet up under her chin. “Don’t worry. You’re safe here.”

  Burn in hell, she tried to scream or say or even whisper, but her eyes closed and she thought no more.

  “What if you’re wrong?”

  “I’m never wrong.”

  From the SUV’s backseat, Cassidy watched Garrett give Jackson a withering look. Even dazed as she was, she recognized the warning. A muscle jumped in Jackson’s jaw but he said nothing else. At least not to his uncle.

  “How’re you doing back there, Cass? More coffee?”

  “Go to hell.”

  Kept unconscious all night, Cassidy had awakened to find herself tied hand and foot. The rage she flew into caused Jackson to dose her again for, he claimed, her own safety. By the time she woke the second time, she was too light-headed with hunger and thirst to put up a struggle. She wolfed down the sandwich, fries, and soda Jackson had waiting for her and now nursed the last of something sickeningly sweet and overly caffeinated. The handcuffs on her wrists forced her to hold the cup in two hands like a child. She toyed with the idea of using her shackles to strangle Garrett, the driver, but thought better of it. She wouldn’t be doing anyone any good injured or dead in a wreck. Keeping on her toes was imperative.

  If only her toes weren’t still half-asleep. She wiggled them in her sandals, getting feeling back into them. The rest of her was doing a little better, though a shower would have been nice, and wearing one of Samantha’s long sun dresses—pilfered from the house laundry judging from the delicately sweaty smell of it—only added to her sense of disorientation.

  Arriving back at the SCI hangar near sundown felt like déjà vu. Twenty-four hours and a truckload of horrors had passed since her first visit. Jackson took the cuffs off before they let her step out of the car and ushered her inside. In the office, Garrett pulled two light guns off their charging bases and headed for the torture chamber door. Apparently he had big plans for the evening. She almost regretted not having strangled him while she had the chance.

  Scanning the room for anything that might gain her an advantage, something familiar caught her eye. Dominic’s dragon scabbards leaned in a far corner, looking a little like lost time travelers among the humming racks of technology.

  Cassidy shot Jackson an ugly look. “Like you couldn’t buy your own? You had to steal his?”

  He glanced at the swords, his mouth compressing into a white line. Without comment, he took her elbow and propelled her after Garrett through the next door. The first whiff of smoke made her go lightheaded. A swarm of fuzzy black dots threatened to blot out her vision. Don’t you dare faint, she admonished herself.

  Garrett pulled up a plastic chair in front of the cage. “Sit, Miss Chandler. You might as well be comfortable.”

  Cassidy plopped onto the chair with more relief than she cared to admit.

  In the shadowed rafters above, switches tripped, and the sun lamps buzzed and hummed like a swarm of hornets as they warmed up. Adrenalin seeped into her system, kicking at her heart.

  “Here we go,” Garrett said as he checked the light guns.

  The vampire’s reaction was much less violent tonight. No sound, no movement. Despair engulfed her. He no longer thought in words, only raw emotion, and she realized that it was more the beast in that cage now than Dominic. Moaning, she reached out to whatever was left of him. I’m here. Don’t leave me now.

  Slowly he turned to face the front of the cage. Nothing human looked out of that skull face. But in her mind she could still feel his heart.

  “Good evening,” Garrett said. “Tonight we have a special treat for you.” He gestured at Cassidy. “Someone to share your . . . experiences with.”

  Dominic propped himself up. Apprehension shuddered in the connection between them.

  “If you’re going to be the martyr and let me kill you before you summon your sire, she is going to die with you.”

  Beside her, Jackson cursed under his breath.

  “She is nothing to me,” rasped the beast on a faltering growl that barely rose above the hiss of the white noise generators.

  “Let’s put that to the test, shall we?”
Garrett raised the light gun and lit up the cage.

  It lasted only a few seconds, but they were the longest seconds of Cassidy’s life. Fire licked at her bones. Her throat turned inside-out with the scream.

  When it was over, her arms glowed bright pink under the glaring light and her face felt too small for her skull. She gasped and panted and might well have tumbled out of the chair if not for Jackson holding her there.

  Dominic’s unblinking stare fixed on Garrett with palpable hate. Cassidy felt it vibrate through her. And with it an inhuman desire to feel Garrett’s blood sliding down her throat.

  Garrett dropped into a crouch at a safe distance in front of the cage. “Now I know you can sit there all night with me. And if I find it in my heart to throw you a rabbit or two every now and then, a hell of a lot longer. Weeks at the least. Months maybe. Or even years?” He pointed the light gun at Cassidy and activated it. She flinched and turned her face away from the brightness. “How long do you think she’ll last? I’m guessing if she makes it longer than an hour, it’ll be a miracle.”

  Cassidy bolted out of the chair with every intention of charging at Garrett Striker and kicking that glorified flashlight out of his hand, and if she broke his wrist in the process, so much the better. She didn’t even make it one step before Jackson had her by the shoulders and pushed her back into the seat.

  “You will not let her die,” Dominic said. There may have been an edge of compulsion in the words, but it was weak and flattened by the hissing white noise.

  Unfettered malice lit Garrett’s face. “You’ve got that backwards, my blood-drinking friend. As contaminated as you’ve left her, what I will not do is let her live.”

  Cassidy tried not to react. Not that she hadn’t suspected this, but hearing it out loud made the prospect real and immediate. Or was this some game Garrett played to coerce the vampire to do his bidding? She glanced at Jackson who stared straight ahead with his hands on his hips. She looked back to Garrett and the gun he kept holstered in easy reach. No, what Jackson believed didn’t matter. He wasn’t the one armed to the teeth. If Garrett wanted to, he could kill all three of them.

  Dominic reached a similar conclusion. His fury dissipated in a cold blast of shock.

  Garrett rose to his feet and moved a dial on the light gun. Its subtle whine pitched higher. “So, you see, I’m giving you a choice. I can arrange for something quick and painless for her later or . . . she can die here with you. Like this.”

  Cassidy saw him raise the gun and pull the trigger as if in a slow motion nightmare. Once it burst to life and found Dominic, a blast furnace formed around her, an entire universe carved of agony.

  “Arrêtez!”

  The assault stopped, but even the marrow of her bones now radiated blistering heat. Blood trickled down her arms, dripped from her chin. She could taste it in the back of her throat.

  Cassidy!

  She looked up to meet Dominic’s eyes at the back of the cage where he had collapsed into a smoke-shrouded heap. The beast had released him. Cold, hard terror ruled him now.

  I’m here.

  “I’m all ears,” Garrett drawled.

  Dominic’s voice was soft with defeat. “I will summon him. I will summon my sire.”

  “Now, was that so hard?” Garrett said, spreading his arms wide.

  “He is not near. It will take a while for him to find me.”

  “That’s alright. He can have all night to get his ass here. And if he doesn’t make it, well, we’ll just have to do this again tomorrow, won’t we?”

  Dominic, what are you doing? Cassidy thought at him, bewildered.

  There was no response.

  Chapter 36

  Samantha

  “What do you think you’re doing now?”

  “What does it look like?” Jackson reached into the mini-fridge tucked beneath the desk in the facility office and retrieved a black vile. “Fixing the damage you caused.”

  Garrett lounged in the swivel chair beside the cot they had set up for Cassidy and crossed his arms across his barrel chest. “Don’t even think about it.”

  “For fuck’s sake. Look at her.”

  “I am. She’s exactly how I need her.”

  Cassidy didn’t react. Sitting on the cot, she fingered the damp, red-stained towel Garrett had tossed at her almost an hour ago ‘to keep the blood off the floor.’ It was the only kindness he would grant her, and Jackson’s temper and nerves had finally reached a point where he couldn’t sit still any longer.

  Garrett, on the other hand, had acquired the ice-cold calm of a hunter lying in wait. “Our friend in there knows everything she’s feeling. The more uncomfortable she is, the more motivated he’ll remain.”

  “So you’re going to leave her like that all night?”

  “And tomorrow and the next night, too, if that’s what it takes.”

  “You piece of shit.”

  “Speaking of, now is not the time to lose yours, kid.”

  Jackson put the vile back in the fridge. Her injuries weren’t all that serious. A sunburn, really, with a couple of burst blisters thrown in. Not painful enough anyway to dim the hateful glower she fixed him with.

  “Coward,” she mouthed.

  “How about water? Do you think that might be okay?” he mocked.

  “Fine. You can fetch me one too, while you’re at it.”

  Water bottles lived in the hangar’s utility fridge. Jackson wished he could have slammed the office door behind him, but being on a resistor, it refused to cooperate with his mood. He often wondered what his uncle was capable of doing in the name of the Foundation’s mission, but he hadn’t put killing humans high on the list of possibilities. Now he wasn’t so sure. He couldn’t come right out and ask Garrett in front of Cassidy. The vampire in the cage had to believe that Garrett would kill her, which meant Cassidy had to believe it.

  “Fuck,” he said, slamming the fridge door with a satisfying whomp. They’d have one hell of a ‘discussion’ once Cassidy was safely out of earshot.

  Jackson’s phone rang. Samantha, he saw when he pulled it off its belt holster. His thumb hovered, ready to send the call to voice mail. She’d call back. And text. Call the police to report a missing person. His sister never called for trivial reasons. “Shit.” He answered the call.

  “Jack. Oh, my God, I’m so glad I reached you.”

  “Sam? What’s wrong?”

  “I’m in the hospital.” Her voice sounded even younger and more helpless than it usually did.

  “What? What happened?”

  “I was a . . . at . . . attacked.”

  “Attacked? What do you mean attacked? How? What happened?” He struggled to keep his voice calm for her benefit.

  “When I left . . . left the studio, they . . . they . . . oh, Jack, it was ho-horrible. So fast. I don’t know . . . I don’t . . .” She dissolved into sobs.

  He dropped the waters onto a workbench and headed for the hangar door. “Easy, Sam, easy. You can tell me later. I’m on my way. Do you hear me? I’m on my way. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  She gulped air now, hiccupping. “Y-es. Thank y-ou.”

  Cursing, he broke into a run. What horrendous timing. He called Garrett while burning rubber across the parking lot.

  “Are you insane? You can’t be out there tonight.”

  “Watch me.” Jackson disconnected the call. As he squealed through the gate, he shot the surveillance camera the finger. Garrett could go fuck himself in there. Cassidy was stable and would be okay for a while. Maybe Jackson could at least help one person he cared about tonight.

  He parked behind the hospital and jogged toward the ER entrance when he heard her call.

  “Jackson. Over here, baby bro.”

  “What?” He p
eered into the gloom beyond the bright walkway lights, unsure he had heard her voice. There she was, two rows over, waving, her golden hair in disarray but unmistakable.

  “Sam?” he said, changing direction. “What the fuck?”

  Samantha had her keys in one hand and stood by her Prius, giving him a tear-stained smile. She wore her favorite white yoga cover up as though having just finished teaching one of her classes. “Oh, Jack, I’m so sorry about all that drama earlier. Please forgive me.”

  “You said you were attacked,” he exclaimed.

  “Oh, I was,” she confirmed brightly. “But I realized that I didn’t mind.”

  Jackson stared at her, reeling. His body tensed, already acting on what his mind refused to comprehend. His hand went for his pocket and the flashlight. It never got there. Something like iron had a hold on it. And of him. He never felt the bite, but knew it was happening when his thoughts began to swim in erratic patterns like a school of fish moving as one to make space for a predator moving among them. Oh, hell no!

  Drawing on years of training, he focused, concentrating on a singular thing—outrage. It cleared his head long enough for him to try writhing free, impossible though he knew that would be.

  “Don’t hurt him,” Samantha pleaded, leaning over him, one hand fluttering by her mouth. How had he ended up lying on the ground between the cars? Fuck.

  “Get your filthy mouth off me,” he croaked.

  A deep, thrumming growl vibrated into his neck. The invisible horror in his head grew. His vision disappeared. Jackson gasped.

  When he came to, he lay sprawled across the backseat of Samantha’s car. The door by his feet was open, and his sister peered in with wide, worried eyes.