Break of Dawn

by Chris Marie Green

  Perversely pleased, the Master turned to Sorin, who was already looking away, eyes squeezed tightly shut against all the terrors he was seeing in the form of his father.

  Wailing, Benedikte took off, out of control, banging from one side of the room to the other, chipping away rock from the walls, giving the Underground a demented heartbeat. But something on the other side of the room stopped him.

  His ghastly, distorted image blurred over the reflection of a dead TV screen, and he screamed in utter horror at what he saw in himself: alienation, a stretched eternity of being alone and unloved.

  With a yell of agony that shook the walls, he darted back to Eva, swiped at her with an ethereal claw. She flew in an arc, banging against the rock and crushing the surface of it to dust before slumping to the ground like a pile of discarded, flowered rags. There she remained, unmoving, her hair covering the face he’d so dearly loved.

  Was she . . . gone?

  A pulse of Awareness told him that she hadn’t expired . . . not yet. Heal . . . ? How long would it take her to heal back to the woman he . . . ?

  Hating his weakness in not being able to kill her—to kill his pain—the Master shrank back into his original, solid Benedikte body, weeping, stumbling forward until he fell over the top of his desk.

  Sorin immediately came to his side. “Thank the day, Master! Finish her—it is the right thing, the only thing! And as for Dawn Madison . . . I see how mother and daughter sway you. They are lethal, and I would kill Dawn myself, truth be t—”

  Benedikte punched his hand through Sorin’s skull, yanking out his brains in one profane pull before taking his other hand and crush-popping his son’s head from his spine.

  Sorin’s body plopped to the ground.

  As blood and gray matter dripped to the tile, the Master stared at what he held.

  “Sorin?” he whispered.

  On the floor, his son’s body bled out, his separated head a mash of unidentifiable red, spangled with shards of white. Then the whole of it disappeared, sucked into nothing.

  Even Sorin’s brain did the same. But Benedikte’s fingers were still coated with blood, and he investigated them, trying to figure out what he’d just done.

  “Son?” he asked.

  He remembered Sorin’s birth night, near the flames of a camp-fire. A beautiful sorcerer who had enthralled Benedikte with his magic. His blood had tasted of joy, as had his soul.

  Then Benedikte remembered the child Tereza had borne him in life, the stiff, blue tragedy of a tiny body that had never even taken a breath.

  The Master dropped to his knees, touching the bloodstains from his vampire progeny. Somewhere in this world, there were two vampire women—Sorin’s missing preternatural daughters, his only children—who had just turned into wrinkled human old ladies, perhaps even in the midst of a sentence. That was how Benedikte’s line worked, and that was how it should have gone with him and Sorin. The father was not meant to outlast the son, not in human life, not in a vampire’s, either.

  He cupped what was left of his child . . . the best part of him . . . in his palms, cradling his son’s blood, looking up as if to ask why.

  TWENTY

  THE HOMECOMING

  IN the meantime, seconds after Eva had deposited Dawn by the Limpet house’s pool, the back door banged open.

  “Get in here—quick!” It was Kiko.

  Dawn scrambled, rushing the entry that led to an old kitchen that’d been converted into a stainless-steel haven. It was dreary, curtains blocking the night from looking inside.

  The psychic banged the door shut behind Dawn as she got to her knees and hugged him until he pounded at her back.

  “Breathe—” he gasped.

  Backing away, she still held his arms, taking a good look at him. Last time she’d seen Kiko he’d been passed out on a couch in that office. Now he seemed rested, but there was a hardness to him that went beyond a back brace.

  “You okay?” she asked. “Did they—?”

  “I’m fine. What’s going on?”

  Dawn shoved back the hair that had fallen into her face. Wait—before she started talking, there was something. . . .

  Breisi. She’d called for Breisi in the Underground.

  Hastily, Dawn whispered another command that would hopefully reverse the first, ill-advised summons, praying it wasn’t too late. Then she ran out of the kitchen and through the dark halls, coming to the thick door that guarded the lab.

  She pulled at it, wanting to go downstairs, to check Breisi’s picture, to see if she was down there. “Breisi!”

  Kiko caught up, panting. “Don’t even try. Most of the Friends have been resting in their portraits, and this door’s been locked from the inside, so I have no idea what she’s been up to since double dicking me around. But Frank’s around here somewhere, safely avoiding me.”

  Dawn spun around. “Frank?”

  “Yeah.” Kiko made a weird face. “Your dad? Remember him? He’s got this big escape story—”

  “I know, I know.”

  Before she could ask more, Kiko ran a gaze over her disheveled state. “So what the hell, Dawn?”

  When she opened her mouth to ask her questions, her coworker said, “Na-uh, you tell me first.”

  She would work at getting the door open while she talked.

  Dawn pulled at it some more. “Long story. The thimble version is that Eva took pity on me and got me out of the Underground, which I ended up in after Costin planted his metaphysical foot on my ass.” Her head swam, catching up to what had just gone on. She hadn’t even recovered from being with the Master yet and here she was trying to get to Breisi. Her perception was still a blindsided mash of surreal fragments, so she rested. Just for a minute. “Eva brought me back here, but I’m not sure I’ll stay.”

  “You’re not going back outside. There’re Servants watching the house, and we’ve seen them in midskulk ever since Frank made a run for our door. Don’t know if any Groupies or Guards have also been sent up here by now—”

  “I think they’re all Underground, ready for a fight.”

  “So what? You’re staying in here, where none of them has any chance of getting to you. Now, come on, more details.”

  Dawn shook her head, still not sure if this was the place for her to be. “I appreciate the hospitality, but do you remember what happened? I got kicked out in a major fashion. And . . .” Abruptly, she reached into her back jeans pocket, then brought out the gutted remains of the locator. “I found this on me. Costin set me up to get tracked. He wasn’t finding the Underground through meditation or research, so he sent me out there to be his bomb robot.”

  Kiko took the dead device from her. “Way earlier, after I woke up, Breisi told me about what they did to you. I told her it was wrong, then she got all quiet and went back to the lab. I don’t think they care about what they’ve done, though.”

  Wiping a hand over her face, Dawn tried to reconcile herself with that. This agency, which had seemed like a savior when she’d first tried to find Frank, had turned out not to be friendly at all.

  Speaking of Frank . . . Where was he?

  As she went back to door pulling—Breisi first—she groaned in discomfort, her body sore from all it’d been through.

  “I’m glad you’re back,” Kiko said.

  Aw. “Me, too, Kik. Trouble is, am I in more danger with Costin and the Friends than I am out there?”

  “I wish I could tell you, but I’m in your boat. When I woke up, the boss—Costin—had locked himself away again, and Breisi got back to work in the lab soon after that. Haven’t seen her since and, as I said, I can’t get down there. I wanna know what’s happening, because from the looks of things, I’m not sure who we’ve been working for. But Breisi still trusts him. . . .” He must’ve remembered that he hadn’t known his other coworker quite as well as he’d thought, either, what with Breisi having been privy to more of the boss’s secrets than he’d suspected. “I tell you, I’ve always been pretty easy about
not getting in everyone’s business, but I’m thinking those days are gone.”

  She reached down to squeeze his hand in understanding, but he shrugged away, shoving his hands into the pockets of his cargo pants instead. “I’m just frustrated.” His voice was thick. “The crazier things get, the more useless I am. If you were so ‘key,’ like my vision told me you’d be, why did Costin throw you out? Maybe I was wrong. Maybe my brain has been dying day by day and I’m either getting false vibes or nothing at all.” He was talking about what the pain pills had done to his powers—wiped them clean whenever he was stoned.

  “Kik—”

  “I never even saw it coming—what happened today. Shouldn’t the boss’s real identity have been important enough for me to catch ahead of time?”

  She’d witnessed her coworker go through some major highs and lows lately, but this was rock bottom. Kiko had always taken great pride in his talents. You could even say he was a cocky son of a gun. But to see him brought down like this . . . ?

  “The team wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without you,” she said softly. “You’ve been indispensable.”

  “To who?” His eyes got glossy. “To the vamps? To whatever Costin is?”

  Dawn shut her mouth, first of all because she had no idea what to say. Second of all because Kiko was inconsolable and there wasn’t a thing she could do to change that. She’d never been good at being a friend, and it made her sick that she sucked at it now.

  Minding her bruises and aches, she got back to heaving at the door. But Kiko wasn’t done.

  “Look at your jeans. Look at . . . you. Tell me the rest.”

  All right, as a friend who was trying real hard here, she’d tell Kik anything he wanted to—

  “Dawn?” said a deep voice from behind her in the hallway.

  She turned to find her dad framed by the entrance, one arm reaching out to her.

  For the longest heartbeat, she got used to him again. His rawhide skin, creased around a mouth that used to love smiling and eyes that had only recently cleared of a reddish drinking haze. His dark hair worn proudly in receding scruffiness. His bodyguard build accessorized with a dark T-shirt and jeans.

  Frank didn’t look like a vampire—not now anyway.

  Wearily, Dawn walked over to him, then rested her cheek against his big chest as he enfolded her. She didn’t say anything for a while, just allowed him to be a pillar until she needed to stand on her own again.

  So what if there was a slight possibility that he and Eva had cooked something up and he was here only to mess with Limpet? Yeah, she’d considered it. But she didn’t want to deal right now. She just wanted to be with Dad.

  Finally, Dawn backed away, pushing her hair from her face. “Jonah gave you permission to be in the house, huh?”

  Frank jerked, as if a dart had gone astray in a bar and nailed him in the chest. “Go ahead then. Give me hell.”

  “That’s the last thing I want to do.”

  After assessing her with a cryptic gaze, he sighed. “So why did I let Eva turn me? It’s easy. I was so surprised to see her that first night. Day after day, giving in to her seemed real natural, like a reunion. You came right after that, and I realized just what I’d done.”

  “I suppose if I told you that her death would make you human again, you wouldn’t celebrate?”

  A harsh glance from her dad answered that. But a perplexed afterglow went right back to confusing everything.

  Kiko took to Dawn’s side. “I told Frank that if he has anything Underground up his sleeve, the boss is gonna know. We’re waiting until Costin comes out again to find out.”

  “You trust him?” Dawn asked.

  “Ah.” Kiko kicked at the floor. “Who knows?”

  Frank swept a concerned gaze over Dawn. “Kiko told me about what happened today. I knew our boss was hiding things, but . . . He’s got a lot to answer for.”

  “Until Costin decides to show himself,” Dawn said, “we aren’t getting much from him.”

  “Not true.” Kiko gestured toward Frank, obviously intending to launch a few questions on this front. “These vamp powers of yours . . . What are you? An Elite? A Groupie?”

  “Can’t you touch me and find out, Kik?” Frank asked.

  Before Kiko could decide to be pissed, Dawn answered. “He doesn’t get vamp readings. Something about you not having a soul anymore.” She tried not to acknowledge what that really meant for her dad. God. “Eva told me that you’re somewhere in between the two vamp levels. Is that right?”

  “I guess.” Frank paused. “When I got here, it wasn’t hard to out-speed the Servants staking out the house. Same with the lowly vamps who hadn’t started snoozing yet when I left the Underground—they didn’t even see me go. I couldn’t function well in the sunlight, though. It drove me into an abandoned gas station, where I rested in a closet before night came.”

  “So, all in all, would you call yourself a ‘good’ vampire?” Dawn asked, recalling how Kiko had mentioned way at the beginning, on that night they’d first gone to Robby Pennybaker’s, that some fang-pies could be helpful. That was why the team always had to be careful about attacking a new one.

  “I swear on your life,” Frank said, his gaze earnest, “that I’m here to help, Dawn.”

  A crusader, she thought. Costin had once said that this was what Frank had become, and she hadn’t believed it until now.

  But they would find out if that was true when Costin finally deigned to emerge. Would he even have time for them? Or would he kick Dawn out again, then march off to war?

  After spending hours cursing him and growing back some strength, she was ready for whatever happened, especially since she was now armed with the info about “Matt”’s real identity that Costin would want. If she decided he was good for it.

  “Strange,” she said to Frank, “but Kiko and I tried to get some vibes on you through touch, so we could find where you were being kept.” She pointed to the tank she was wearing. “It used to work, but not this time. Not since Eva took you again. I guess we got readings from your shirts when you were human. When you had a soul.”

  Frank looked ill. “Besides that, when she kidnapped me . . . Breisi was dead—that’s what I thought. I wasn’t doing much caring anyway.”

  At the mention of Breisi, Dawn’s face went hot, her palms clammy. She had to tell them what she’d done.

  “Listen, some shit went down Underground and I . . .” Damn it, she’d been so stupid. “I called Breisi to help me. I didn’t think of—”

  Frank took a menacing step forward. “You did what?”

  “I’ve already commanded her to get back here. I know—it was selfish and it was idiotic, but I was kind of in shock.” Yeah, with the Master—not Matt—kneeling in front of her. Still, it was no excuse.

  Frank zoomed to the locked lab door and began pummeling it with his fists. The heavy wood quaked, splinters crunching away from the door. Vamp strength.

  “Dad!” Dawn tried to pull him back, but he’d always been as strong as a bull, even as a human.

  He was breathing heavily, and when he turned to them, his eyes held a sheen of silver. Both her and Kiko stepped back.

  Then Frank let out a bellow. “Cooooossstiiiin!!!”

  His ire shook the air, but there was only silence in the aftermath.

  Moaning, Frank turned back to the door, giving it one last epic pound. Dawn went to him, vampire or not, and held his arm.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “If I could do anything, I—”

  “Don’t make promises like that,” Kiko said. “You just came from the Underground, and from the looks of it, you escaped. Maybe you need to be telling us everything.”

  So she did: she told about almost running Eva over in the car; about going to Matt’s house, then being tricked by her mother into coming Underground. Editing out the more personal parts, she relayed details about how the vamps were training to fight down there, then about finding the locator on her jeans. She was just get
ting to the hardest part—about “Matt” actually being the Master—when Kiko spoke up.

  “Just whose side is Eva on?”

  During all this, Frank had slid to the ground, his back against the wall. “She’s on her own side, Kiko.” His eyes still held a wisp of silver over the green. “Dawn, the Master didn’t find out what Eva’s been up to?”

  “No, not yet.” She paused, trying to gauge her father’s emotions about his wife. “But Eva did tell me that she let you escape the Underground. She wanted you to leave because she thought you’d decide to come back to her in the end and that would signify your change of attitude and heart toward her.”

  “Damned woman,” Frank said, putting his hands over his face. Exhaustion? Or didn’t he want them to see that he still cared?

  “Seriously,” Dawn said, sinking to the ground next to him. “I can’t tell what to make of her, either, most times.”

  She thought of how her emotions had surged after Eva had dropped her outside by the pool, how Dawn had only wanted to finally tell her mother that she loved her.

  “I want,” Frank said between his fingers, “to charge Underground and get Eva out of there, even if we don’t have a marriage anymore.”

  Dawn glanced at him hard. From what she’d seen of Frank and Eva, they definitely still had a connection, even if he’d moved on with Breisi more recently. It’d been obvious when Eva had kept them both captive that his feelings for his wife hadn’t died, even though she had.

  But now that Breisi was a ghost . . . ? Man, love was complicated. Dawn hated it.

  Frank slid his fingers down his face, leaving pink trails from the pressure. “But,” he added, “the other part of me needs to see even more if they’re holding Breisi Underground.”

  None of them commented. The Elites had learned to captivate Friends, and if Breisi had made it Underground, she might very well be a goner.

  Frank hit the wall behind him. “Where’s Costin?”

  A terrible thought slapped Dawn. Wouldn’t Breisi have come upstairs to greet Frank no matter what was going on? Then again, Breisi was incredibly focused, and Dawn wouldn’t put it past her to keep right on working and put off a reunion. . . .