Sunset: Pact Arcanum: Book One

by Arshad Ahsanuddin

  “I would have been a Sentinel if I hadn’t been turned. My circumstances were special, so the link remained even after I was dead.”

  “What do you mean dead?” asked Claire.

  “I’m a vampire, Mom. I died and came back. I didn’t have any choice about it, not until the Grace gave me the opportunity to reclaim my soul.”

  She hesitated. “Do you drink blood?”

  “Yes.” He looked away.

  Silence stretched on for more than a minute as his family processed that information.

  “Nick,” Faith said finally, “I don’t want to sound selfish, but Scott said you only become a Sentinel if you inherit it from both parents.” She glanced at Toby, who was obviously wondering what she was getting at. “If you were one of these latents, does that mean we could be as well?”

  “Yes.”

  Claire’s protest caught in her throat; she made a choked sound instead.

  “I haven’t ever tested either of you for latency or allowed anyone else to do it,” Nick told his sister. “I didn’t want to know. I wanted to believe you’d be safe. But that’s not possible now that we’re in the open. We have to know the truth if we’re going to decide what to do next. Scott can test you for the Gift, if you let him.”

  “Why can’t you do it?” asked Faith, looking from Scott to Nick.

  Nick turned to look out over the white city again and then exhaled slowly, shakily. “Because I still don’t want to know. I can’t bear the thought of feeling the taint of magic on either of you. I never wanted you to be part of this world.”

  “You’re part of it,” Toby said. “Doesn’t that mean we are, too?”

  “You’re human,” Nick said, his voice ragged with emotion. “I want you to stay human. I want to watch you have a wife and children. I don’t want to worry that one day you might die protecting them from the monsters that walk the earth.” He turned to face them, and his expression was haunted. “I don’t want either of you to be forced into being soldiers. That would break my heart.”

  “Do it then,” Toby told Scott. “Test us.”

  Faith nodded. “Go ahead, Scott.”

  Scott came forward and held each of their hands, looking deep into their eyes. His lips moved silently as he cast a spell. Walking to Nick, he placed his hand on his best friend’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he told Nick over the link.

  Nick’s face twisted. It was his worst nightmare—one he’d had years to prepare for but never had the will to confront.

  “Both of them?” he thought, struggling to maintain control despite feeling Scott’s mind touch his in silent support.

  “No. Faith is human. Toby is Fire latent, just like you were.” Scott’s thoughts were sympathetic. “I wish I could give you better news.”

  I always knew it was a possibility. Nick closed his eyes. “I can’t do this, Scott. I’m not ready.”

  “Do you want me to tell them?”

  Nick opened his eyes and looked at his family, noticing their dread at his expression. “No,” he communicated to Scott. “They’re my responsibility.”

  Nick stepped forward, trying to find the right words.

  “We know it’s bad.” Toby took the matter out of his hands. “Just tell us who it is.”

  “It’s you, Toby.” Nick watched his brother’s eyes widen in dismay. “You’re a latent Sentinel, element Fire.”

  Toby reeled backward, stunned. “What does that mean?”

  “The Gift programs Sentinels with magical and combat skills but also with an elemental power that is related to their fighting style.” He ticked them off on his fingers. “Fire for magicians, Air for mentalists, Water for shapeshifters, and Earth for weapons.”

  “Who cares about any of that?” Claire said angrily. “What are you going to do to help him?”

  “There’s nothing I can do. He’s old enough to make his own choices. I’ve managed to clear the Citadel of Nightwalkers temporarily, so he’s safe here until he decides how he wants to proceed. If he returns to the States, he can live out his life normally, in human society. Nightwalkers stay shielded in public throughout North America, so there should be no danger of accidentally kindling his Gift. If he enters any other Free People facility or he leaves the Armistice Zone, he’ll be at risk no matter what I do to protect him.”

  “That’s not good enough, Nick,” his mother scolded.

  “That’s the way it is, Mom. If he wants to stay human, he can’t leave North America. Not unless he decides to risk it and we try to take precautions.”

  “What precautions?” Toby asked. “What can we do?”

  Nick clasped his hands together, and a green light shone briefly from his palms before dying away. When he pulled his hands apart, he was holding a golden disk, the edge surrounded by sharp points. He handed it to Toby.

  “This is the best defense I can give you.”

  Toby looked at the disk. Inscribed on one side was a geometric seven-pointed design overlaid with a branching red symbol. The other side held a needle-like pin that extended from one edge of the disk to the other.

  “What is it?”

  “A message to the Children of Darkness,” Nick explained. “Wear it above your heart, on the left side of your chest, whenever you travel out of North America, and never take it off until you come home.”

  “What does it mean?” asked Claire.

  “It’s the seal of House Luscian,” said Nick. “My seal. It places him under my protection as long as he wears it. Any Nightwalker who sees it should leave him alone—if not run the other way.”

  “That’s it? That’s the best you can do?” Faith’s anger seeped into her voice. “You think a pin will protect him against vampires?”

  “I’ll inform the Court of Shadows of his existence and ask that the Children of Darkness not interfere with him in any way. The Court will respect my wishes. They know what will happen if they cross me.”

  “And what does that mean?” asked Faith.

  Nick was silent.

  “Well? What will happen?”

  “Know that I am Nicholas Magister Luscian, called Soulkiller’s Bane, the last scion of the Eldest House, and I am a Child of the Dawn.” Jeremy’s voice was loud in the silence. Scott moved to shut him up, but Nick put his hand on Scott’s arm and silently told him to wait. His family had all turned to face Jeremy, but Jeremy looked only at Nick. “Know that I am not your enemy, unless you make it so. Trouble me, trouble my friends or my family, and I will burn your bones to ash. I will scorch the earth on which you stand and sow the ground with salt beneath your feet. This is your one and only warning. There will be no second chances.”

  Claire slowly turned back to face her elder son. “You said that?”

  “I warned them,” Nick said quietly, looking past her to meet Jeremy’s eyes. “I told them my terms from the beginning.”

  “Nicholas,” said Faith, as if seeing him for the first time. “What happened to you?”

  “Life happened,” Nick told his sister. “Life and death, and life again.” He looked at Toby. “I will do everything in my power to protect you.” Then he turned to his sister. “I will pay any price to keep you safe.” Gazing directly at his mother, he spoke again, his words coldly formal. “I am Nicholas Magister Luscian, and my words are true.”

  HOUSE LUSCIAN SEAL

  CHAPTER 7

  Albuquerque, New Mexico; Four hours earlier, one hour after public exposure

  Anaba watched her husband from behind the soundproof glass of his studio. He was sanding down the lines of his latest sculpture—a firebird in bright alabaster. She could already see the silver, lapis, and coral inlays lying on the workbench behind him, waiting for the final shaping to fit neatly into place. He paused in his work, turning as he detected her presence. He raised an eyebrow above the line of his goggles, and she knew he was smiling behind the white surgical mask.

  Ana sighed. That’s what I get for marrying a First Order telepath. She waited patiently, watching as
he stripped off his protective gear and jumpsuit, opened the door to his studio, and stepped into their home. As he wrapped his arms around her, she inhaled his scent—rock dust, the familiar sour-sweetness of his sweat, the fragrance of home.

  “Welcome home, Anaba.” A mental probe reached out to her through the carefully defended notch in her psychic shields. “Aren’t you supposed to be two thousand miles away?”

  “I jumped to the local chapterhouse and took a cab.”

  He leaned forward and kissed her. “You know, if you’d just build a teleport gateway in the house, like the rest of them, you’d have a lot more freedom to get around.”

  She sighed, enjoying the sensation of his lips against hers, the pressure of his body as he held her. “I keep telling you, Sike. I don’t want that life to come into this house.”

  Sike broke the kiss and let go of her, stepping backward with a sad smile. “It’s our house, Hummingbird, and it’s your life. You deserve to have a place where every part of you is welcome.” He sat in the brown leather desk chair. “Would you like me to make you some dinner? I know they don’t exactly feed you celebrities well at those New York recording sessions. And you’re just going to have to jump right back again in the morning if you want to catch your flight home to maintain your cover.”

  She sat in the small loveseat across from him. “That might not be an issue anymore, Badger.”

  He looked at her shrewdly. “What happened?”

  Her thoughts turned sharp. “Nick.”

  “What did he do this time?” Sike thought with a smile.

  She sighed at his knowing look and carefully related the events in Los Angeles.

  Sike walked over to sit on the loveseat next to her, draping his arm over her shoulders and drawing her close. “So, you’re out of the closet.”

  “I’m sorry, Sike. We screwed it up big time. For everyone. My career is probably over, and we don’t have billions of dollars in Nightwalker assets scattered across the globe to draw on like Nick and Rory do.”

  Sike kissed the top of her head. “We’ll get through this.”

  “I don’t know if I’m strong enough.”

  “Do you remember the night you came into my shop for the first time, Anaba?”

  She smiled wistfully. “I remember.”

  She had wanted a custom choker to match her grandmother’s bracelets. The jeweler she had asked told her Sike was the only silversmith in town who could work with traditional styles and would even consider doing it for the price she demanded.

  Sike ran his fingers through Anaba’s straight black hair, removing the pins so that it hung freely. “Your strength was what attracted me to you in the first place. You knew exactly what you wanted and what you were willing to pay, and you wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

  She snorted. “And here I thought it was the way I saved your life when the local vamps came calling.”

  Sike grinned, burying his face in her hair and inhaling the faint orange blossom scent of her perfume. “Admittedly,” he thought, “the sight of you torching those three Nightwalkers to cinders was a little awe-inspiring, but I was already working up the courage to ask you out as soon as the necklace was ready.” He kissed her cheek. “You’re my little hummingbird, so fierce in defense of what’s yours.”

  “Are you still mine, Badger?” she asked, reaching up to stroke his short beard.

  He laid his forehead against hers. “Do you even have to ask?”

  Court of Shadows Embassy, Icehaven City, Hudson Bay, Canada; Six hours after public exposure

  Lorcan shook his head in disbelief as he watched the recording of Nick’s actions in Los Angeles. How did I wind up with someone so reckless? he thought to himself. Come to think of it, Connor was like that, too. Lorcan was about to rewind to the beginning when the door to his office chimed.

  “Nicholas Magister Luscian is requesting entry,” said the security AI.

  Lorcan paused the recording, looking at the frozen image of Nick staring into the cameras and giving them all a winning smile as the nuclear bomb smoked behind him.

  “Let him in,” he instructed.

  The door opened silently, and Nick shuffled in looking drained. He stared momentarily at the image of himself floating in the air beside Lorcan’s desk before turning to the Nightwalker. “I take it you heard.”

  Lorcan put the remote on the desk and sighed, staring at Nick. Finally, he stood and held out his arms.

  Stumbling forward, Nick threw himself into Lorcan’s embrace and rested his head on the Nightwalker’s shoulder. “God, Ruarc, what the hell have I done?”

  “You’ve exposed us all to the humans and probably saved millions of lives.” Lorcan reached up and gently stroked the Daywalker’s hair, concealing the thrill he felt at Nick’s use of his true name.

  “That part I knew.” Leaning back, Nick gazed into Lorcan’s green eyes and smiled. “Maybe I should have asked, ‘What the hell do I do now?’”

  Lorcan chuckled, then reluctantly pulled away to sit at the conference table. “You certainly made a mess of things this time, Nicholas. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, on both sides is going to be after your head for this.”

  Nick collapsed into the other chair. “You’re right about that. Nemesis was ready to explode with rage when I made my report. Even Rory took a turn yelling at me.”

  Lorcan’s forehead wrinkled in surprise. “Then he must have been seriously upset. I didn’t think you could ever screw up enough to make the Traveler take sides against you.”

  “Neither did I.”

  Lorcan leaned forward and steepled his fingers in front of him. “What are they going to do?”

  “I don’t know. They were already debating when I left the Council Chamber. They’re probably still at it for all I know. I had other bridges to burn.”

  Hearing the bitterness in his Nick’s voice, Lorcan looked at him curiously. “What happened?”

  “I told my family the truth. About everything.”

  “Fire and Darkness!” cursed Lorcan. He studied Nick’s defeated posture. “I presume it didn’t go well?”

  Nick rested his forearms on the table, then laid his head on his arms. “It went fine, right up to the point where I had to tell my little brother he’s a latent Sentinel. Things deteriorated after that.”

  “Oh, Nicholas. I’m so sorry.” Lorcan squeezed Nick’s shoulder. “I know you hoped it would all just pass them by.”

  “I shouldn’t have lied to myself. I should have tested them right away so I could have given him some warning. But it’s too late now. We just have to move forward.”

  “I suppose. What does he plan to do?”

  “He still wants to do his concert series later this year. That will take him outside of the Armistice Zone.”

  Lorcan sighed. So reckless. “Nick, I don’t think that’s a good idea. You’re a high profile target, now even more so, and your brother will be a prime proxy candidate to get to you. You might not be able to protect him.”

  “I’m not going to protect him. You are.”

  Lorcan sat back in his chair. “Perhaps you should explain that.”

  “I said once that if they troubled my family, I would scorch the earth and sow the ground with salt,” Nick said through clenched jaws. “Tell the other houses that if anything—anything at all—happens to my brother in one of their territories, I will use all the power at my disposal to smite that house and that territory into dust and gravel. Nothing will be left when I get through with them, and nothing will ever grow there again. I swear it on the Light.”

  “Nicholas, are you sure? That kind of threat will almost certainly invite a reprisal.” He reached out and clasped Nick’s hands in his.

  “As long as it falls on me and no one else, they can do their worst. But if they so much as breathe wrong at someone I care about, they’ll all pay dearly for it. Tell them that.” He pulled his hand free and stroked Lorcan’s cheek. “Please. Do this for me.”

  Lorca
n closed his eyes, leaning into the familiar touch, knowing Nick didn’t mean it to be anything but a gesture of friendship. Lorcan didn’t care. He opened his eyes again. “All right, Nicholas,” he said quietly. “I’ll tell them.” Leaning forward, he whispered into Nick’s ear. “I’ll see you tonight, maybe. I’ll let you know what they say.”

  Armistice Security Headquarters, Anchorpoint City, Grand Mesa, Colorado

  Ana strode along the deeply carpeted gray halls of Armistice Security Headquarters, her expression stormy. Gauging her mood, agents she had worked with for years wisely scattered before her, choosing to get out of her way.

  When she finally entered the central room in the suite of offices she occupied with Nick and Scott, she closed the door behind her and headed for her private office. Like Scott’s, her office door was marked with the half-circle symbol of Armistice Security overlaid with the colored sword of an element—in her case, the red sword of fire. The door to Nick’s office carried the seal of House Luscian. As she passed the window, she stopped momentarily to gaze out at the view of the lesser spires of the city, which she had always loved. Only when she turned back toward her office did she notice a person sitting on the comfortable black leather couch that adorned the room—a person she never imagined she would find here.

  Michelle Phillips took her eyes off her son, Peter, who was playing on the floor, to coolly acknowledge Ana’s presence before pointedly ignoring her.

  Ana watched for a moment, stung by the snub in spite of herself. Scott’s wife had every right to be angry, of course. Her husband and closest friends had been lying like dogs to her for years about their secret lives, and Scott had almost made her a widow tonight. Ana sighed inwardly and opened the door of her office, flipping on the overhead lights as she stepped inside. Letting the door close behind her, she walked up to the desk and sat in her high-backed leather chair.

  “Nice of you to finally show up,” Takeshi muttered, dropping his shroud of invisibility.

  Ana swiveled in her chair. Take leaned against a filing cabinet with his arms crossed.