Lightbringer (Silverlight Book 4)

by Laken Cane

  I gestured to include all of Bay Town. “I care about them all. And I can’t hide the entire town.”

  He took a breath, then let it out in a tired rush. “Safin knows the dragon is one of you.”

  I shrugged. “And all we can do is try to make him believe he’s wrong.”

  He watched me, his expression changing from frustration to worry to tenderness. It made me uncomfortable enough to look away.

  “Be careful,” he said. “You don’t want them sending word back to their employers that you are as interesting as the dragon.”

  I laughed, but sobered when I saw he was completely serious.

  “She will not be taken, Mayor,” Amias said. “Trust in that.”

  He smiled and the captain visibly relaxed. Then he stiffened, frowned, and narrowed his eyes at the master. “If you try to mesmerize me, Sato, I will have you thrown into a cell.”

  Amias put a hand to his heart. “I would not dream of it.”

  “We’ll face the enemy as we always do,” Angus said. “Only this time, we’ll have the city at our backs. And Trin will have us at hers.”

  It didn’t matter to him that I’d become undead. That I’d become a rifter, a vampire, a monster. He still wanted me, as he always had. He loved me.

  I looked at Shane. Did he love me, as well? Was there love mixed in with the disgust, the sorrow, and the self-hatred?

  “You worked with them,” I said, half disbelieving.

  “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, baby hunter.” And even as I gasped and my heart filled with joy, he growled and turned to stride away. But he’d been there, in those cold eyes, for one brief second. His “baby hunter” lingered in the air, and I closed my eyes and soaked it in.

  It didn’t really matter what he’d done or been or even how he felt about me.

  Shane Copas would always be my dark obsession.

  We turned quickly at a sound like a stampeding herd of horses, which grew louder by the second. The very ground seemed to shake with it.

  “What the fuck is that?” Angus muttered.

  Then Leo burst out of the trees and I watched him come with something close to awe. Giants were huge—even half-giants—and they could run.

  No wonder he’d thought he might have a chance at keeping sort of close to me.

  “Wow,” Crawford said. “We could use him on the force.”

  I laughed. “I vote to give him a badge. You start hiring supernats, Captain, and things will change a hell of a lot faster.”

  He smiled at me, and for a heartbeat, I lingered on that smile. Then we both put our attention on the incoming giant.

  When Leo made it to our little gathering he leaned forward, rested his hands on his knees, and attempted to catch his breath.

  “Hey,” I said. “Where’s the fire?”

  He groaned, then straightened and glared down at all of us. “Safin is coming to the way station.”

  I pressed my lips together to keep from smiling. “Been and gone, Leo.”

  “Fuck,” he said.

  I laughed again, and noticed the men watching me, softness in their eyes and tiny smiles on their lips.

  Crawford cleared his throat. “Trinity, could I have a moment?”

  “Sure, Captain.”

  “Come on, Leo,” Angus said, giving me a wink and clapping Leo on the back. “After all that running, you’ll need some dinner.”

  “I am hungry,” Leo said, tossing once last glance at me before walking toward the house with Angus, Rhys, and Clayton. “I could eat a few chickens.”

  Amias said nothing, just melted away into the shadows to give us some privacy, but dawn was near. He wouldn’t go far.

  I turned to Crawford.

  “Has Rhys considered running?” he asked, getting right to the point.

  “I asked,” I said. “He refuses.”

  He shrugged. “I doubt it’d make much difference to Safin anyway. He’s going to believe the dragon is right here until it’s proven otherwise.”

  “Or until we kill him,” I said, my gaze steady on his.

  “Killing him is an idea,” he agreed, surprising me. “But I doubt it’s possible. Executioners can’t do what they do without protections in place. Safin is better protected than most.”

  I needed to know my enemy. “What kind of protections? I know they have the US government behind them—what are we thinking, Homeland Security, maybe?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe. But that’s not what I’m talking about. They have actual physical protection. I don’t know what’s true and what isn’t, but I’ve heard that they’re surrounded by magic.” He hesitated, and I knew whatever he was going to tell me would hurt. “Some of their victims were taken because of what they could do for the executioners. What they could give them. I heard they have a witch on their team who casts circles of protection around them when they face their enemies. I am certain he or she was with them tonight. Safin wouldn’t have come to Bay Town unprotected.”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t see a witch.”

  “She wouldn’t have to actually be with them,” he replied, dryly. “Only her influence. And there’s more. Safin doesn’t face down supernaturals with human weapons. He has weapons of power that even vampires have a hard time recovering from.”

  “Like Jade’s wand?”

  He nodded slowly. “Yes. Like that. Trinity…”

  “No. I will not turn Rhys over to be killed. We’ll fight for him, even if that means we’ll die.”

  “You won’t die.” He didn’t look away from me. “But they will. Think about that before you put them on the front line, Trinity.”

  “That’s a little hurtful.”

  “But true.”

  “I love those men, Captain.”

  His eyes didn’t waver. “Do you, Trinity? Can you?” He gestured at me. “As you are now, can you feel love more than you feel the need to conquer and kill and eat?”

  I recoiled. “Fuck you.”

  “I spoke with the vampire master about rifters and their character. What’s inside them is lust, he says. Bloodlust, pride, the need to devour. To kill.” He hesitated, even as I stood frozen and devastated. “Can you really do what’s best for the supernaturals?”

  “Did the master say I couldn’t?” I whispered.

  And finally, he looked away. Maybe he looked away from the pain in my voice, or maybe he looked away from a lie he would tell me. “He didn’t know.”

  “He’ll stand with me regardless,” I snarled, as rage covered the pain.

  “Yes. He will.” He turned to leave, then stopped. “We all will, Trinity. Despite what I said, we need you. I don’t think I realized how much we needed you until you were gone.”

  There was something raw and embarrassed in that confession, but he put it out there anyway, even if he couldn’t quite look into my eyes as he said it.

  “Captain,” I murmured. “I’m not going to let the monster take me over.”

  Maybe he believed that. “Call me when you need me.” He walked away, climbed into his car, and drove away.

  “Come,” Amias said, appearing as suddenly as he’d disappeared. He took my arm. “Dawn is near and I would like you in my bed. We will sleep in your way station room.”

  I didn’t have to glance at the sky to know dawn was coming. I could feel it. Nervous energy swirled in my stomach, heavy and full of acid. Protective, innate anxiety shivered through my mind. My skin began a subtle crawling, as though ants were climbing my legs, and my eyes grew heavy as my brain grew sluggish.

  Dawn was no place for a vampire.

  We had to fall into the safe arms of nothingness until the sun was chased away by the moon.

  I wanted to talk with Amias about the captain’s fears, about what he’d said, but it would serve no purpose.

  Amias didn’t have the answers. He just didn’t.

  “Let’s go to Willow-Wisp,” I said. “We’ll sleep there.” I hesitated. “I’m eager to see the sun again.”
r />   It was his turn to hesitate.

  “What?” I asked.

  “My love, not many can watch the sun arrive inside Willow-Wisp. Did you not wonder why I was the only vampire to sleep in the graveyard?”

  At my silence, he hurried on. “The elder and I are old and powerful. Willow-Wisp would be crowded with vampires if they could watch the sun. You must come into the way station.”

  But I couldn’t. “No,” I said. “I have to try.”

  That I might not be able to withstand the sun inside the way station cemetery hadn’t entered my mind. There was always the realization that I would have Willow-Wisp. I would have the sun.

  And now he wanted to yank that hope away from me.

  “It is not safe, Trinity,” he said.

  “I have to fucking try.”

  He followed me as I ran, and I felt his fear. His terror. He was afraid I’d die there, burning beneath a sun that did not want me.

  And when we stood inside the gates, waiting amongst the crumbling tombstones, the sky began to lighten, too subtly to see, but strong enough to feel.

  Pain roared over me as my skin began to crisp and smoke, but I didn’t move. It couldn’t be true. I would see the sun. I would.

  I rubbed my arms as they began to blister, but didn’t take my stare from the sky. “Give me the sun,” I begged. “I belong here. Give me my sun.”

  But it was not my sun, and it would not see me as anything other than a vampire to burn. I was a creature of the night, and I would never see daylight again.

  Amias wrapped me in his arms and took me into the ground, because there was no time, not even for someone as fast as him, to get me into the sleep room.

  If he’d have waited another second, not even the ground would have accepted us. Vampires could sink into the earth to sleep, but only before the sun touched and claimed it.

  So there was that one second, and he took it.

  And I was certain I would lose myself to the darkness, because the light did not exist.

  Not for me.

  Chapter Twenty

  COLD

  When I awakened and came out of the ground, I was calmer.

  But Amias was dark and sober as he studied me. “You have made your choice,” he said, finally. “You have chosen the rifters.”

  I flashed him a grin, then wrapped my arms around his waist. “I’ve simply chosen to embrace who I am. Not just the vampire, but the rifter, as well. I don’t have to let it make me a killing machine.” I pressed a kiss against his throat. “Until I need to be a killing machine.” I pulled away and peered into his face, willing him to believe me. Willing me, perhaps, to believe me.

  “I will not become careless with those I love, Amias.”

  He leaned forward to kiss my forehead, and it didn’t make me feel better. It made me feel like he was indulging me. Like he pitied me.

  Later, I stood alone outside the way station and watched the moon. I let her bathe me in that soft, magical light, and I sent my thanks skyward. I would forget the harsh, burning sun, and I would appreciate the moon.

  The sun was my enemy.

  I made a decision not to let my reality distress me. I would embrace what I had, or I would go crazy longing for what could never be.

  It was all in how you looked at things.

  I would rock darkness.

  The moon and my men were all I needed.

  And blood.

  And sex.

  And…

  I shuddered and pressed my palms against my eyes. “Shut up.”

  Bay Town was quiet—too quiet—as the supernats prepared for the trouble Safin and his crew had brought to Red Valley.

  The trouble the dragon had brought.

  I shrugged off the worry over my inner rifter and stood in the still, cold darkness, soaking in the night and its muted sounds and scents and emotions.

  Four vampires slipped from the line of trees behind me and crept forward. I couldn’t smell them and I didn’t hear them, but I felt them.

  “Why are you here?” I asked, without turning around.

  “The master sent us to guard you,” a woman said, holding her palms up when I faced them. “He wanted us to help when Darkness returns.”

  She stared in my direction but didn’t directly look at me, and neither did the three males with her. I walked to them, and could feel their desire to move away from me even as they forced themselves to stay put.

  “Angela, isn’t it?” I asked.

  She looked at me then, surprise in her eyes. “Yes.”

  “I appreciate the help. I need vampires at my back.” I gestured at the house. “Come in, please. The place is too silent. It bugs me.”

  Not that the vampires would liven it up any. They were nervous, quiet, and quickly suspicious. The humans and supernats would come to relax in a changed world long before the vampires would.

  She glanced at the three men with her—all four of them were older, experienced, and deadly in a fight, but they were not ready to settle into a house full of supernats. Or me, because they still felt the rifter inside me and that screwed with them.

  “If it’s okay, we’ll keep watch out here,” she said.

  I nodded, unsurprised. “You’ll be welcome inside if you decide to enter.”

  They needed their invitation, and now they had it. They could come into the way station whenever they wanted.

  I stopped when I reached the porch and turned back to them. “You’re not the only vampires Amias has patrolling the area.”

  “No. There will be dozens of us here each night. And Jade Noel is patrolling with her crew and Alejandro Rodríguez.”

  “What are your orders?” I asked, curious.

  “To maintain your health,” she said, flashing a quick smile. “To protect and defend you and your men.”

  I tilted my head. “And the executioners?”

  She shrugged. “We will fight when we need to fight.”

  “Even if you can’t win?” I asked, curious.

  “Even then.”

  “I will, as well,” I murmured, and my kinship with the vampires was undeniable.

  I left them and went into the house to join the others and wait for what the night would bring. Executioners, maybe.

  Death, likely.

  Safin had given us three days.

  I wasn’t sure any of us believed he would keep his word.

  There was no honor in Darkness.

  Angus sat at the table, and Jin bustled at the stove, but still, it was too heavy. Too quiet. Too depressing.

  I tried to shake off the melancholia but it did not want to budge. Things had changed too much, too fast.

  Shane wasn’t in the room, but as I’d felt the other vampires, I felt him. Only much more strongly. He stood in the backyard, staring into the sky, his thoughts as dark as the night.

  He didn’t run, even though I’d left him alone to give him the chance. He’d made his choice. He was staying with the group, where he belonged.

  Angus opened his arms and I went to him. I wound my arms around his neck and pulled his scent deep into my brain. “Where is everybody?”

  “They’ll be here for dinner.”

  “Leo?” I asked.

  “He’s with Rhys.”

  “Good. I don’t like him out there alone.”

  Angus laughed. “Trin, have you seen what Leo can do?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” I said stubbornly. “Things can happen to supernats. You know that.”

  “Yeah. I know.”

  “Everything would be perfect right now if the executioners would disappear.”

  “Word of the fabricated sightings reached Safin,” he said. “He sent some of his men to look into them.”

  “But he’s still here.”

  “Yeah. The asshole is still here.”

  I began to pace, unsettled. I wished a visitor would come off the path. I was beginning to think I’d somehow failed to take back the reins from the elder since I hadn’t had heard so
much as a peep.

  Angus walked to the fridge for a cold beer, and I grabbed his arm when he walked by me.

  “Angus,” I said. “Bring some of your children. Please. They can have their dinner here. Can they, Jin?”

  Jin practically danced with joy. “I will prepare a feast.”

  “Or just throw in a couple extra potatoes,” I said dryly. Jin tended to be overly dramatic at times. “Is it safe for them to come, Angus?”

  Angus nodded. “I’ll send word for the guards to warn me if Safin leaves the city. I can get my little ones to safety before he gets near the way station.” He patted my ass. “Go on, sit. I’ll call Derry.”

  I hesitated, but in the end, I sat down. Derry hadn’t seen me since I’d turned, and I wasn’t sure how she’d react.

  “There’s this tug of war,” I said, after he’d murmured a few words into his cell, then slid it back into his pocket, “I feel this coldness, and that’s okay with me, but at the same time, I’m jittery and uncomfortable and unsure.”

  “It’ll take some time,” Angus said. “You’ll sort yourself out.”

  Abruptly, I was once again hungry. Amias had fed me when we’d awakened, but apparently, I was a stress eater.

  My appetite grew stronger as I watched the pulse in Angus’s throat jump, as my mind quieted and I concentrated on the roar of blood through his veins.

  He lifted his beer bottle and downed the contents, and I watched his throat work as he swallowed.

  Angus was one tasty son of a bitch.

  He lowered the bottle and then froze at the look on my face.

  “I’m hungry,” I said, simply. I felt no shame in my hunger. I felt only eagerness, desire, and the certainty that in the next couple of minutes, I was going to feed.

  From him, preferably.

  But I was going to feed.

  I was standing in front of him before I realized I’d moved. There was no fear in the alpha werebull’s eyes. His stare sharpened and became bright with a different kind of hunger.

  “So fast,” he murmured.

  I pressed my body against his swiftly hardening cock, and though my desire for his blood was foremost in my mind, my desire for his body was intense.

  “Not in my kitchen,” Jin said, banging a large spoon on the stove. “Out with you! The children will arrive soon.” He chased us from the kitchen and we went, laughing and impatient, and I was as full of nerves and excitement as I’d been the first time I’d ever had sex, fallen in love, or fed.