Darklight 2: Darkthirst Read online

  Darklight 2: Darkthirst

  Bella Forrest

  Contents

  Problems reading?

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Ready for the next part of the journey?

  Read more by Bella Forrest

  Copyright © 2019

  Nightlight Press

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Chapter One

  The Canyonlands, dry and desolate, shimmered like fire in the orange light of the dawn. A stray shard glanced off my favorite curved knife as I ran through combat drills. My body hurt. My throat burned from thirst. Sweat stung a graze on my temple. But still, I pushed myself, lunging forward, jumping back, dropping low and swiping out at unseen enemies until my breath heaved in and out of my chest and I fell to my knees on the reddish stone.

  “I think you got them all.”

  Dorian stood in the narrow entrance to the cave system that served as a hideout for the remains of his vampire clan and my teammates. He gave me a shadow of a smile.

  I shrugged, sheathing my knife into my boot and moving to sit with my back against the wall. Staring up at the clear sky, it seemed bizarre that the day was coming to life in the same way it had yesterday and the day before that and the day before that, when everything wasn’t in such shambles.

  He came to sit beside me, although there was a good foot of space between us. His glacial eyes looked out at the bleak vista, his dark hair fluttering slightly in the fresh morning air. Even amid chaos, I found his handsome face distracting.

  Honestly, the distraction wasn’t unwelcome. The Occult Bureau, the institution I had built my life around, had betrayed me. I was on the run with a group of vampires I wasn’t entirely confident trusted me. My brother was injured. We had no supplies.

  Dorian offered me a canteen. “Gina asked me to bring this out for you. She said it’s the last of the water.”

  I took it and sipped carefully, wanting to make it last. After a minute, I pulled the stone Dorian had given me out of my pocket, studying it in the sunlight creeping over the top of the tall outcropping we were seated on.

  “What are you thinking about?” I asked, my thumb tracing the stone’s charcoal-like edge. It comforted me because it was from him. I swallowed hard, feeling heat flame my cheeks. What would happen if I told him that? I tucked the stone into my closed fist.

  Dorian shifted beside me with a tired sigh. “Everything. Strategies.” He paused for a moment, and my stomach flipped with anticipation. “Things.” The way he said “things” made me shiver, intrigued.

  “It’s really a mess right now,” I muttered. That’s an understatement, Lyra.

  “It is,” Dorian said. The corner of his mouth turned upward. “But I have to say I feel better having you on my side. Especially after watching that display.”

  I blushed, searching for a witty comeback. “I feel the same way, but—” My throat tightened with conflicting emotions. I was terrified about our situation, but I wanted to connect to Dorian. Judging from the interest in his face, somewhere deep down, he was curious too.

  “I want to talk about what happened… between us,” I said, meaning it. There were questions burning in my mind about what happened between us during the trial. Could we work together to figure out the source of the sudden and intense pain I’d been experiencing around him? Why kissing him had nearly made me pass out, and not in a good way?

  A flock of redbills—the huge, dark avian-like creatures the vampires could communicate with and ride—rose into the air. Dorian’s head snapped to attention at the sight of them.

  “Those are the scouts. I should go and help them,” he said, with a bite of guilt in his voice. I knew survival was a priority, but I was curious about his torn expression. Was he thinking about yesterday’s events?

  Or how tense the air felt between us?

  He left, pausing for a moment at the entrance to the cave as if he wanted to change his mind, but then he disappeared in the gloom.

  I pushed down my disappointment and placed the stone back in my breast pocket. He had watched his clan splinter apart after barely escaping with their lives from people we both thought we could trust. Everything was different now that we were all fugitives from the Bureau. It felt like there was nothing I could rely on, no absolute truth I could trust.

  My hand fell to the empty space beside me, and I felt Dorian’s absence with a heavy heart.

  I sighed and picked myself up from the dusty stone. Our merry band of humans needed food and water to survive, and while I felt calmer after my workout, I was now starving and still thirsty. We soldiers had what we’d brought with us when we fled, but it was mostly gear rather than food rations.

  Heading back into the cave, I checked in on Gina and my brother.

  She remained on Dorian’s bed, a threadbare thing, with my brother beside her. She stroked his face and didn’t look up as she spoke. “He’s asleep, but he’s not comfortable.”

  Gina rarely worried; she was one of the finest soldiers the Bureau had trained. I moved quietly, so I wouldn’t wake Zach. I didn’t even see him get hurt. Some sister I am.

  We’d taken care of his injury as best we could last night, but there was still a risk of infection. His face twitched as he slept, his chest rising and falling erratically. My stomach twisted. I hated seeing my brother like this.

  My gaze finally rose to Gina’s. It didn’t surprise me to see a tint of red in her light amber eyes.

  “We’ll keep his wound clean,” I told her. “I’ll see about getting more water.”

  “We can ration the disinfectant in the gear bags,” she said, turning back to Zach. Her fingers wiped a bit of sweat from his brow. I suddenly felt as if I were watching an intimate moment between my brother and his girlfriend. I excused myself. A moment later, footsteps fell behind me. Gina’s hand clapped my shoulder. I jolted in surprise.

  “Let’s look for rations together,” she said.

  I knew she didn’t want to leave Zach, but she was a soldier first. I nodded. “Thanks, Gina. It’s better if we can make him comfortable. Seeing him like this—” My words caught in my throat.

  Gina nodded in understanding. How many times had she seen Zach hovering
by my bedside?

  We made our way through the narrow cavern that led to the central area of the cave. On the way, we found Bryce, a small slant of light falling across his face from the ceiling. He appeared tired and haggard, but when he turned to watch us approach, something sparked behind his eyes. A curiosity beneath the fatigue.

  “Captain Bryce,” I said.

  He waved a broad hand and shook his head. “Just call me Bryce.” Shadows gathered on his face as he shifted from the light. “We aren’t in the Bureau anymore.”

  Another familiar comfort, that of rank and structure, crumbled to dust in my throat. I bit my lip as a swell of anxiety came over me. “Yes. Of course.”

  “We’re going to see if we can scrounge any human provisions,” Gina explained. Even with my brother injured and in this desperate situation, she stayed calm.

  I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for her, using her voice to steady myself. I had to focus on what I could do, address the practicalities. Water. Food. Medicine. I led them toward the main cavern.

  “Kane left without us,” a bitter voice said.

  I froze, as did Bryce and Gina behind me in the passageway. Dorian stood at the far end of the cave, his exit blocked by several vampires who were unfamiliar to me. His posture looked stiff, broad shoulders steeled. My eyes dragged over to where the rest of the vampires, save our original allies, were looking less than happy. This was not a friendly conversation but a war negotiation. I kept back with a wary eye.

  The vampire who spoke was a woman appearing to be in her fifties, accompanied by a man who seemed to be of a similar age. She had her chin lifted high, a few greasy-looking strands of her dark bluish hair falling around her lined, angular face. Her haughty gaze barely registered our human trio. The man next to her shifted.

  “We should go too,” she insisted. “Today.”

  “She’s right. The Immortal Plane is a better choice than staying among these traitors,” he said. He was tall and willowy in a way that made him look unbalanced, with skin so pale it seemed almost translucent. His short blond curls looked like they were being leached of color as they faded to gray.

  Beside Dorian, Rhome shifted with a strained expression, no doubt thinking of Kreya and his children. Dread filled me. I couldn’t take another thing falling apart. Laini watched Rhome carefully from the corner of her eye, a stitch of worry in her furrowed brow.

  “You can follow if you choose,” Dorian said evenly. “Though I believe you’ll be in more danger if you do. We are stronger together. Much stronger.” The shadows beneath his skin seemed more agitated than usual. He must have been afraid to lose more vampires, but I couldn’t see it on his face or in his body language. My heart ached for him.

  “Why should we trust the humans?” asked a young vampire, a woman with long inky hair and skin only a few shades lighter. Someone moved from behind her. An identical woman. They looked even younger than me, though who knows how old they actually were. Their acidic green gazes did nothing to calm my suspicion that things were falling apart.

  “Humans lie, Dorian. Isn’t that obvious to you by now?” the other added. They moved fluidly but not identically, complementing each other in distrustful sync. Their voices were high, almost mocking. I tried to repress my worry.

  “Myndra and Sabal, I ask for your patience. You are welcome to join Oleah and Hart if you want to, but I know we would benefit greatly from your presence.” Dorian glanced toward the older couple. “I want to remind everyone that we know going back is dangerous.”

  The older woman, Oleah I guessed, frowned with an offended air. A tense silence fell over the cavern.

  I examined the remaining vampires, trying to determine where they fell in this argument. Leaning against a wall, the most massive vampire I’d ever seen stared stoically at the scene before him. His hard muscles were evident even beneath his tattered green cloak. He had a young face with a tightly set jaw, but his eyes were calm. He somehow looked less hostile than the other four strangers.

  My gaze traveled to the stout woman next to him. She was the vampire missing an arm, I realized. A half-smile woven with both tension and amusement sat on her strong face. I wasn’t sure how she was reading the situation, which made me unsteady. With her copper skin, short brown curls, and dark eyes, she almost seemed human in this light. She shifted and leaned against the wall next to the hulking vampire, hanging back from the rest. At least they weren’t screaming openly about the evil of humans.

  The last visible vampire sent a shiver down my spine. I couldn’t explain why. He stood farther back than the quiet woman and the tank… but he watched with the most amused, almost wolfish grin. I pegged him as forty-something, probably older than the woman missing an arm. Something about the way he held himself, the way his eerily pale blue eyes darted around, how his thin lips couldn’t quite cover what seemed to be too many teeth for a humanoid mouth, unsettled me. He reminded me of the used car salesman ads I sometimes caught on TV at home.

  There were a few more vampires, but they gathered tightly in the shadows with indistinguishable faces.

  “Why should we trust them?” Oleah asked, pointing in my direction.

  “These humans risked their lives to support us. I truly believe they are trying to help our people. We have no evidence to the contrary,” Dorian said. He sounded exhausted in the face of their distrust. My uncle’s face came to mind. There were people I wasn’t sure deserved to be trusted.

  Vampires fed on darkness. If Dorian had met my uncle in person, I wondered if he would have sensed something evil inside Uncle Alan. My stomach churned. I had some remnants of hope for my uncle even with the evidence of the extermination plans in my pocket, though that hope was dwindling.

  I couldn’t blame the vampires for their distrust. Humans had betrayed them once. Why not again?

  “We’ve sent Lex on a redbill to make sure they made it through safely,” Oleah said. Hart smirked to himself.

  Dorian’s nostrils flared. Obviously, he wasn’t thrilled that they’d undermined him by sending someone out without consulting him, but he maintained his surface calm. “I wish you hadn’t done that,” he said. “Those who went through last night are probably already far from the tear by now. We shouldn’t separate, in case the humans find someone alone and attack or find us here. I’d hate to leave someone behind in an emergency.”

  Oleah lost her prideful edge and deflated at his reasoning.

  “We can’t trust the humans,” one of the twins said in a voice almost like a hiss.

  I felt a flicker of impatience.

  “Myndra, our alliance with the humans isn’t up for discussion. Our survival is at stake,” Dorian said impatiently. The conversation was beginning to fray his nerves. It was evident on his face. “The humans helped us escape yesterday. That’s the only reason we’re standing here now.”

  “He’s right. The humans are trying to help,” another voice said. Sike appeared from behind Dorian. His eyes found mine immediately. “We know you are.”

  I offered a grateful half-smile in response.

  Dorian looked in my direction, and realization dawned on him. He cleared his throat and angled to face me. Every vampire turned to regard us with heavy stares. I would sooner fight a redbill barehanded than wish the gaze of several angry vampires on another person.

  “Lyra,” Dorian called out and then smoothly gestured toward me, “is our ally. She was our initial contact, the first one to believe in us. She realized we had all been lied to, the soldiers and our kind. She took great risks to help us escape the Bureau’s trap.”

  I stepped forward and tried to rally myself. Hard to do while fifteen vampires stared with barely masked suspicion. “Hello, everyone.” I smiled warmly, trying to project trustworthiness. “My name is…” I faltered. Usually, I would introduce myself as “First Lieutenant Lyra Sloane,” but that was no longer my title.

  Someone snickered, making me shrivel inside, but I didn’t let it show on my face.

&nb
sp; “My name is Lyra Sloane,” I managed, pushing past it. “I was a first lieutenant in the Occult Bureau until yesterday, when I discovered plans that the board had hidden from us. There wasn’t much time to act, but we successfully escaped. I hope to work with you all and move forward to fix this. I believe humans and vampires can work together,” I finished with another friendly smile. There. That hadn’t gone too badly.

  Their faces remained guarded. Some, the twins and the older snobby woman, openly sneered at me. I held my ground, though I could feel nervous heat on my face under the needling stares.

  “Yes, thank you,” Dorian said. His formal tone sent a wave of frustration through me. It was as if we were business colleagues. As if we hadn’t kissed yesterday, in front of everyone. “We appreciate your work.”

  His eyes said more, something I couldn’t interpret, but his mouth shut firmly. It would have to wait. Whatever he wanted to accomplish meant our more intimate alliance wasn’t to be advertised in front of the other vampires.

  Sensing the discussion had reached a temporary stalemate, the vampires dispersed. Some, like the hulking figure and the one-armed woman, left to go deeper into the caverns without another word.

  I turned to address Gina and Bryce when a sudden electronic ping echoed through the cavern near our trio. Everyone froze. The vampires snapped their heads toward the sound.

  “Search everywhere,” I commanded. “It sounds like a phone.” The sound blipped out again. I frantically patted down my body, even though I was sure I had taken my battery out of my phone. Bryce and Gina lifted their hands. Nothing.