Running in the Dark

by Regan Summers

  I twisted, lost my footing and fell. Rolled, popped up and made it to the other side of the road before looking back. The woman squeezed against the wall and her hands rose defensively as a man stepped out of the alley she’d come from. He was big, solid, and she was terrified. My steps faltered, the sounds of traffic in the distance and my heavy breathing fading as he yelled at her. He jerked, one of those fake-out threats to hit, and she flinched, her arms covering her face. He laughed.

  I turned on my heel, but didn’t complete my first step before Soraya landed on me. She was just there, left arm wrapped snug around my throat, right hand catching my wrist as I tried to swing at her.

  “Uncle,” I croaked. It took all the control I’d cultivated to suppress my primal need to get loose. Fight or flight, it’s all about being free, and the vampire would let me go when she decided to let me go.

  She spun me to face her and I almost slumped in relief. Across the street, the predawn bully was shaking his lady by the shoulders.

  “Your initial route was good. Trying to lose your scent in those chemicals, among other breathing humans. But you need to get to where others can protect you. A crowd. Officials of some sort. Or lock yourself away.”

  I rolled my eyes. “That’s where I was going, but—”

  “No but. When you train, you must move as if this is real. You must know what you are capable of so that you can do what you must to survive.” She pulled both my fists up, pressed the bases of my palms until they opened. “You did not even pick up a weapon.”

  “I have a knife,” I said. “Now if you will excuse me.” I peered around her just as the man hauled off and hit the woman. Soraya’s head snapped around as the woman slid to the ground, curling up behind her knees. I stepped forward but the vampiress shoved me back with a hard hand to the center of my chest. Her eyes flashed with red-tinged orange light. It dimmed when she closed her eyes to mere slits.

  She marched across the street, silent but with predatory focus. The bully must have sensed something because he turned. Soraya didn’t register as a problem, probably because she was a woman and he couldn’t see past that to the muscle and the ferocity and the fangs. He smiled, the dumb bastard. And she calmly reached out, grabbed his arm and broke it over her knee.

  I jumped.

  He staggered back, howling. The woman scrambled up and away, making a high-pitched keening sound as she ran. Soraya looked both ways and crossed the street again.

  “Holy shit,” I whispered.

  “That is why you stopped?” She pointed at the man, now slumped where the woman had been. “You thought you would take on that bigger man?”

  “Not so big where it counts, if I had to guess.” I shrugged, trying to shake off my unease. “I couldn’t walk off and let him treat her like that, you know?” Men like him were typically cowards, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t have knocked me out cold if I’d tried to intervene. Someday I really needed to work on my impulse control. That, or always hang out with Soraya.

  “I see.” Her tone did not convey understanding.

  The sky was starting to lighten, moving from gray toward pale yellow, as we started back toward the warehouse. The only sound was my footsteps and the rattling of dog chains every now and again.

  “Malcolm told you to be careful,” she said in a way that sounded like a command rather than a question. I nodded. “Even with vampires you think you know, you must be on guard.”

  “Yeah, I get it. Because of the one that lost control.”

  “More than one,” she said. If they could have, my ears would have pricked up. “They’ve turned on feeders, hivemates in a couple of cases.”

  My head snapped toward her and her mouth twitched downward. I’d bet she hadn’t meant to spill that. “I don’t remember seeing this on the news.”

  “It is one of the concerns he will discuss with your human government. It’s not always our kind that chooses to conceal.” She raised her hand as if she was going to voice a strong opinion, then closed it into a loose fist. “In any case, the change is not immediate. The substance they are using corrupts the body before the mind. Veins crumble, cease to deliver blood throughout the body. The remaining veins burst. They bleed out through their skin. You will be able to see if something is wrong.”

  “Do they swell up?”

  “Perhaps. It’s possible the blood pools before finding its escape.”

  “That’s got to be uncomfortable.”

  Soraya stopped and her lips peeled back from her teeth. Then she shuddered, and started walking again. “I do not know. I would not want to know.”

  “Because of the puking?”

  She tilted her head to the side. “What is ‘the puking’?”

  “You know. Vomiting. Throwing up.” I mimicked the action, quietly, since we were walking through someone’s backyard. Soraya started to laugh, then abruptly schooled her expression.

  “If we overindulge, our bodies burn off the excess more quickly, turning it immediately into power. We do not…puke.” We walked on, Soraya facing forward, even though I could feel her attention on me. Livia was swollen as a pregnant cow, and I hadn’t imagined her throwing up. But she hadn’t been spewing extra energy. I’d barely felt any power from her, even when she tried to glamour me.

  “A vampire who glutted himself to the point of overflowing,” Soraya said slowly, “would be…ill. It would not be natural, but it would be something different than this. You will tell me if you have seen such a thing.” Her words slid, a jagged cage of ice squeezing my eyes, and I made a show of staggering under the slight influence.

  “I haven’t,” I said dreamily. “I was just wondering.” It was my turn to face forward and appear oblivious. So Malcolm hadn’t told her I couldn’t be influenced. Good to know he kept something from her.

  Maybe Livia wasn’t a newbie with an overeating problem, but what I’d seen had been in the course of the job. While I wasn’t ruled by a strict client-messenger confidentiality clause, registered couriers don’t talk about what they see on the job unless it breaks human law. Making an ass of oneself on one’s own property is a universal right, and Soraya didn’t think it was related to the cracked-out vampire problem. I didn’t want to turn Livia in for being a little different, even if Soraya thought it was unnatural, but if it was serious, I’d figure out a way to tell Malcolm.

  “Again tomorrow,” Soraya said. “Daybreak at your home. He will not be back until that night. We’ll spend the day working there on close-quarters techniques.”

  “A couple hours after dawn.” I yawned. “I have to have my car worked on. I take it you’ll be following me tomorrow night.” She nodded curtly. “Hey, try not to be so obvious. When you stayed behind to spy on me at Vega’s, they were totally on to you. If I become known for having a vampire shadow, my rep will be in the gutter before it has a chance to take off.”

  She craned her head around, eyes flaming. If I let Mal’s vassal intimidate me now, she would never respect me. I stared levelly back, my pulse pounding in my temples. The orange fire faded slowly from her eyes.

  “I will do my best, mistress.” Her voice sounded strained and her pace picked up. I grinned at her discomfiture, not because I was totally relieved she’d blinked first. Maybe she was like the family that Mal said didn’t walk human streets. A recluse with no idea of what to do with a human.

  “Cool. And, for the love of God, please stop calling me that. It makes me feel like we’re in some really awful BDSM movie.”

  “What is BDSM?”

  Uh… “You’ll have to ask Mal. It’s not my place.”

  Chapter Seven

  Sore as I was when I woke, Soraya hadn’t actually broken anything. That was the good news. The bad news was that Tilde had recovered from her attempt to eradicate all the vodka in Chile in a single go and was back on the job.

  “Chica, that is the last time we take you to a bar.” Jacinta slapped Tilde on the back and laughed her way to her car. “You can run, but you
cannot handle drink.”

  Tilde looked like crap, the lavender half-moons under her eyes visible through gold-tone makeup, her natural blush washed out by the harsh fluorescent lights of the garage. Her cherry-red lips were garish and dry. She gave Jace’s back the finger as she drained a liter bottle of water without pausing.

  “Good to see you back,” I said, heading toward the office. Carla wore a wrapped turquoise blouse, chunky orange beads, and had company. I waited outside, watching the pair of vampires. One filled out delivery slips for a pile of thick, off-white envelopes. The other faced the window, scanning the street. His eyes never stopped moving, back and forth, high and low, and his head canted at irregular angles. Listening. But I didn’t see any tension in his body. If Soraya was already following me, she was being more discreet about it. That, or she was out playing vigilante, righting the wrongs done to women with swift, bone-crunching justice.

  The vampires left. One moment they were there, the next they were simply gone. The bell on the front door jingled merrily as it swung shut on nothing. Carla glanced at me as she gathered the new deliveries. Her full lips were pressed tightly together.

  She locked the front door and pulled the chain on the neon light to show Closed, meaning that she wasn’t taking any more deliveries for the night. I wasn’t used to that. At I&O, we were always open. Runners tripped over each other, in the process of breaking laws and possibly transmissions, for last minute calls. The price tag went up the closer we got to dawn, and so did the couriers’ percentage. I missed my eighty percent—cut nights.

  “Tilde,” Carla said as she clicked into the garage on high, square heels. “So nice to see you. Tonight, we have some changes.” She handed out assignment sheets. Mine had returned to three pages, which meant I’d been shuffled back down to the low-rent run. I affixed the list to my clipboard, resigning myself to a pile of houses on Mediterranean, while Tilde got the reds and yellows and Jace smirked from the penthouse of her hotel on Boardwalk.

  “We will no longer be servicing the Vega account,” Carla said. I bit my lip to keep my mouth shut. “Vega has changed his house management, and the new male has other loyalties. He’s moved their contract to Perralta. Hijo de puta de mierda.”

  I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but Carla hated Perralta and his bigger, flashier shop, so I assume it was bad. Jace laughed and I relaxed a bit.

  “Did Lalo…retire?” Tilde asked. A line burrowed between her eyebrows, and sweat glistened on her upper lip. My stomach flopped at the idea of what Lalo might have attempted with me had he not been interrupted. Maybe Tilde was tired and drinking heavily for a reason. Lalo had been her customer for weeks.

  “No.” Carla organized the papers in her hand as if she were sorting playing cards. “He is no longer there.”

  I stared down at my clipboard, pretty damn sure that Malcolm not only knew where Lalo had gone, but had something to do with it. He’d been so angry at the way that weasel had treated me. I didn’t feel bad exactly. Lalo was a menace. Still, the idea that I could mention something in passing and that he’d act on it—without even talking to me—didn’t sit well. What if I slipped and told him Jace irritated me, or that Soraya had manhandled me?

  Actually, I didn’t think he’d do anything to Soraya. He was too familiar with her, and she didn’t seem like the kind of person who made that easy.

  “This opens some space in our schedule, which is good.” Carla raised a handful of slips and smiled, dollar signs rising behind her eyes. “Because we have loads of last-minute packages tonight. Tilde will handle most of them. Jace, you have the four on the east side. Remember girls, keep your eyes on the road and your mirrors, and make sure you are in before dawn.” She turned back toward the office.

  Wait, what?

  Jace gave a war cry and started collecting her deliveries. I marched into the office on Carla’s heels, closing the door behind me. She dropped into her chair and slipped on her half glasses.

  “What is it?” she asked in a voice that said she didn’t have time for anything I might say. Too bad.

  “Loads of bonus runs and I get none of them? I finished early two nights ago, ran Tilde’s entire route without a single incident on my first go.”

  Carla pulled out her keyboard tray and jogged the mouse. “I made my decision.”

  Dismissed. I hate being dismissed. Almost as much as I hate being underestimated. I slid a basket of potpourri out of the way—some eucalyptus-heavy concoction to tangle the vampires’ noses—and leaned on the desk.

  “Why don’t I get any of these calls?”

  “Ten paciencia, Aerin.” She leaned back in her chair and steepled her hands before her. “I need people who do not prove themselves in single runs or in a matter of nights. I need runners who can simply work. Who are…” Her brow furrowed.

  “Reliable,” I ground out.

  “Gracias.” She nodded. “Reliable. I would like to grow this shop, to compete with the Perraltas and the corporate shops.”

  I pressed my hand against my chest. “So give me more. I can handle it.”

  “It doesn’t matter—”

  “Like hell it doesn’t matter. Tilde’s limping out there. She was barely finishing her run on nights when she was a hundred percent, and now you’re running her into the ground.”

  Carla shot up out of her chair. “Enough. You don’t know what it’s like—”

  “Maybe you just don’t like me, Carla. Fine. But don’t burn out one of your employees while ignoring me. Or is this about Jace?”

  She snorted. “What about Jace?”

  “You told me not to challenge her, and now you refuse to even give me a chance to!”

  “That’s not—”

  “Then what is it? You want me to spend all night guessing?”

  “Stop,” she yelled. “Just stop.” She took a deep breath, and I crossed my arms.

  “I know what you can do. I see it. It is the others I need to test, to see how high they can rise if I need them to. For now, I have only the three of you, and soon I will need you to do the work of four, then maybe five. I cannot be obvious, can’t put more cars on the road before I’ve secured more work. If I do, the big boys will smack me down. They don’t know you, which makes you the…the ace up my sleeve.” She tilted her head and smiled, showing the beauty she must once have been, but her eyes were cold with calculation.

  “I see.” One of the bay doors opened behind me, and I was glad Carla turned her attention to it so she wouldn’t see me trying to mask a sudden flare of pride.

  “If you need extra money—”

  “No,” I said, too quickly. “No, it’s…I just need to know where I stand. I don’t like being sidelined when there’s work available.” And maybe I was missing the position I’d held in Anchorage, where my opinion had mattered because I’d proven myself for years longer than anybody else. I turned away and Carla tsked at me.

  “Stupid girl. You’ll get nowhere if you turn down money. Now, go. And be careful out there.”

  I closed the door behind me and gathered up my deliveries. When was the last time I’d turned down money? Never, that’s when. Money kept the lights on, made the car shiny and fast, and went into a retirement-slash-escape fund. Except now I used candles, drove a car I hadn’t bought and my account sat idle. I’d never before chosen to rely on someone else. But then I’d never had a vampire interested in killing me. Malcolm wasn’t pushy, but depending on him still rankled me.

  Tilde sidled up beside me.

  “How are you?” I asked, trying to smile warmly to make up for the band of red stretching from the outside corner of one eye to the other and the black liner marking a thick line from my lower lip to the bottom of my chin.

  “I’m well.” She nodded, too fast and too hard. “I was hoping we could meet up sometime. Maybe get to know one another.” She set her bag on the small table and slid envelopes in. If I hadn’t been paying attention, I might not have noticed the way she was avoiding eye contact, an
d my stomach slipped. The other night, before she’d drunk herself useless, she’d been trying to talk to me. She was alone here, I reminded myself, and probably more lonely than I was.

  “Sure.” I arranged my packages in delivery order. Malcolm was still gone, and Soraya would be pissed if I stood her up, which made the prospect almost irresistible. “I’ve got to drop the POS off at Mickey’s garage after this shift. Do you want to meet me there, grab breakfast after?”

  She nodded, smiling down at the table. I closed the flap of my bag, and she launched herself at me, wrapping her skinny little arms around me in a fierce hug. I froze, shoulders jumping up, cringing at the contact and wondering why she smelled so clean.

  “Thank you so much.” She sounded close to tears. “Thank you.”

  She trotted off to her car while I searched for something to muddle the odor she’d undoubtedly left on me. Someday, when Carla trusted me more, I’d talk to her about making sure her runners weren’t leaving their natural scents behind like bread crumbs in the homes of her vampire clients.

  I snagged a half-empty bottle of Bilz soda Jace had left beside her couch, poured it on my hands, then rubbed those over the front of my coat and sleeves, hoping the red dye wouldn’t stain. Tilde closed her door and smiled with a face like fatigued sunshine before backing her Peugeot out. God, she was so sweet I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stomach breakfast with her.

  * * *

  I pushed tentatively on a rusted gate that had been dragged out of somewhere—the weeds, judging by the limp fronds hanging off of the links—and propped against cinder blocks at the end of Livia’s driveway. A dark van was backed in near the front of the shanty at just the right angle that I couldn’t see the door. Fabulous. I smoothed my laminate and walked around the gate with one backward glance at the Tercel. I’d left it running, as instructed, and it was crowded into the narrow space between the gate and the road.

  My boots crunched, the sound nerve-rackingly loud in the quiet industrial area, and an uneasy feeling spread outward from my chest. I glanced back twice, catching nothing behind me but my shadow, twisted and lengthened by the large exterior light of the building. I circled the van slowly. The windows weren’t tinted and a sticker low on the windshield showed the name of a local rental company. I stopped, perplexed because the vehicle wasn’t vamp proofed.