Darklight 2: Darkthirst Read online

  When I was sure he was asleep, I looked down to see only an inch of space between us.

  It was the last thing I remembered thinking about.

  * * *

  I slept like the dead.

  When I awoke, my hands found warm blankets covering me. I turned and felt someone equally warm against my back.

  I was next to someone, one of their arms draped across my waist.

  It must be Dorian if I fell asleep in his chamber, yet… I had no pain in my chest. I frowned in a state of half-conscious delirium. This was too confusing. My eyes begged to close for another good eight hours.

  This had to be a dream.

  If it was a dream, then I didn’t have to face reality. With that sleepy logic, I snuggled closer to the body. The arm tucked me closer to a broad chest. My entire body relaxed into the touch and the heat. I drifted into sleep once again, feeling content and secure.

  * * *

  I woke again, feeling colder.

  My neck groaned in complaint as I moved, and I winced when my head struck rock. Groaning and holding the new ache, I slowly rolled onto my back, eyes adjusting to the light.

  Wait… I was in the side tunnel beside Dorian’s chamber. Someone had wrapped blankets around me, but this was not where I remembered being last. For a brief second, panic bloomed in my throat. Who had moved me?

  Beneath my head, I felt something soft that smelled strongly of cedar. I reached up to find Dorian’s cloak rolled beneath my head to mimic a pillow. Did Dorian move me? Maybe he was worried about someone walking in to check on him and discovering us in bed together. My cheeks burned with embarrassment as I hugged the cloak. I could almost feel the warmth from when I woke earlier this morning.

  Had last night been a dream? I tucked the cloak away and brushed myself off, trying to forget the enchanting smell of cedar.

  In the main cavern, steady activity was already brewing as I wandered in.

  In our absence, everyone who stayed behind had worked diligently on improving the hideout. I hadn’t noticed the changes in the chaos of yesterday.

  They had cleared an area on one side of the chamber to make way for a new, larger firepit edged with stones. Next to the firepit was a tidy stack of firewood sorted into kindling and larger pieces. By the fuel, someone had left a shovel and a large stick for prodding the fire, I assumed.

  Gina caught up with me while I inspected the firepit, which was burning low. Taking the large stick, I poked at one of the smoldering logs to push it back into the glowing coals.

  “We’re trying to keep it burning low to save on firewood,” Gina said. There was a hint of curiosity in her eyes. Was she wondering why I hadn’t been in bed with her and Zach this morning?

  “Makes sense,” I muttered, trying to act normal. The awkward situation between Dorian and me was reasonably public news, but I didn’t need questions about it, especially after yesterday’s disaster. After some chatter about the changes to the cave, Gina left me to help Zach change his bandages.

  On a table near the organized supplies was a new pile of brightly colored sweatshirts and scarves that had a distinctly musty scent. I raised an eyebrow in bemusement. When I turned back to Gina and Zach, a matching scarf was around Zach’s neck.

  “Ow!” Zach cried as Gina peeled off the last of his old dressings. “This is abuse of a patient. I’m suing for malpractice.”

  She smirked and flicked his other leg. “You need it cleaned every day, you know that,” she said.

  “Abuse,” Zach repeated with his nose in the air. He caught my amused face and pointed at Gina in mock accusation. I grinned, delighted to see him getting back to his old self.

  Roxy, Grayson, and Louise sat in an area behind Zach and Gina, perhaps waiting for Gina and Zach to attend to their wounds again for a checkup. I hopped in to help since the other two were currently busy. We’d exchanged one unhealthy brother for three unhealthy teammates. I didn’t like how things were going. If anybody else got hurt, it would become nearly impossible to successfully stay on the run.

  I tried not to let my hope falter too much. Their injuries weren’t terrible. Rest would do them well.

  “How are you holding up?” I asked Roxy, trying to radiate positivity with a bright smile.

  She shrugged. “About as good as I can.”

  The movement made her wince. My smile wavered as anger washed over me again.

  Louise blinked blankly next to Roxy. Right. I filed Louise under “still out of it” in my mental folders. She shook her head as if there were water lodged in it. How long would she be like this? Her wounds would be harder to treat because they weren’t physical. Maybe Bryce would have some advice.

  Grayson toyed with the edges of the bandages around his ankle. “I’m supposed to sit out of all fights,” he explained.

  Gina and Bryce probably gave out treatment plans this morning. No fighting for the lot of them, I’d be willing to bet. Roxy and Colin seemed like they might recover faster, but we would see.

  “Hey, Lyra,” Roxy murmured out of the side of her mouth. “What’s the scoop on the new guys?” Her eyes went specifically to the newer vampires. They’d gathered on the other side of the room.

  I refrained from pointing out that Roxy was, from the new vampires’ perspective, technically also new to the group.

  “I wouldn’t say they’re friendly,” I admitted as quietly as possible. “Let’s try to get along with them, though.”

  “Those guys weird me out,” Roxy said with a grunt. She leaned back in her seat, staring openly at the twins, who were closest to us.

  It was the first time I had gotten a good look at them since our arrival.

  Myndra braided Sabal’s long, ink-colored hair. Next to Myndra and Sabal, Oleah and Hart openly stared at our group of humans. Their haughty air could have filled the entire chamber.

  “I’m not surprised to hear about how Dorian suffered,” Oleah said loudly enough for us to hear, “due to those humans.”

  Hart gave a curt nod.

  Beyond them, Arlonne sequestered herself in a corner. She kept her head down and sat in perfect silence.

  So that’s Team Not Interested. Got it.

  To my surprise, Gavril, the massive vampire, lingered near our group. I usually saw him leaning against walls, looking less than interested in human affairs, or carrying in loads of firewood and snow to be melted for water. A shadowy figure moved beside him. I hadn’t noticed the sleazy-looking vampire until that moment because he was dressed entirely in black.

  “We could say hello,” Louise offered, her voice slightly slurred. “We worked with the other vampires in the trial.”

  I hummed with hesitation. “Yes, but we’re not as well acquainted with these vampires.” That was an understatement. My first meetings with them had been about as warm as the ice Grayson had been using on his face to bring down the swelling.

  “Our first interactions with the other vampires weren’t great either,” Colin piped up. “But they taught us a lot.” He had shown great aptitude working with the vampires during the lessons on redbills they’d given us.

  The enthusiasm the two members of my team had for gaining allies was good to see. Still, I felt pinpricks of doubt press against my neck.

  It had taken us weeks to win the trust of the original vampires, many of whom were no longer here to back us up in our diplomatic overtures. I imagined sweet, wide-eyed Louise complimenting Sabal’s braid and getting her throat torn out by one of them for her trouble. It probably wouldn’t come to that, but I couldn’t picture our attempts going well.

  “We should be cautious with the new ones,” Grayson muttered. The cold had cracked his lips during the night. He pressed ice against the corner of his mouth.

  Interesting. He had only said the new vampires. Did he trust the old ones?

  Roxy nodded. “He’s right.”

  I shifted on my feet, taking time to ponder the situation. If we wanted to be strategic, it would be best to attempt some friendly
gestures in a large open room where we could quickly escape. Oleah said something to Hart, her tone snide even if I couldn’t make out the words, and they laughed bitterly.

  Or… maybe Oleah and Hart could just not talk right now. The other vampires gathered among themselves. It might be too hard to break into their new ranks to try to connect with them. At the trial, it was easier, since the vampires were forced to associate with us. Would the other new vampires not trust me because of how we brought Dorian back? I could try to reach out to some of them later… without Oleah or Hart around. I turned back to my team.

  Laini, Rhome, and Sike came over to our area. Roxy scanned the room, possibly looking for Bravi to test the tension between them.

  “Here,” Laini said as she approached. She came to Colin’s side with a canteen. “We melted snow into water.”

  The vampires had also been productive in our absence. Had they suspected we would bring back our people?

  She cracked open the canteen for him because his hands were covered in bandages from the variety of cuts he’d sustained.

  He smiled gratefully. “Thanks, Laini.” He took a generous gulp from the canteen.

  Rhome threw himself down onto a tattered couch near the group. He tried to maintain an unbothered look, but worry strained his eyes. For Dorian, certainly, but there was a deeper exhaustion stretching beneath his brave façade. I didn’t need to ask to know he was afraid for his family.

  “Quite the week, huh?” he asked our group.

  Roxy snorted. “I’ll say,” she muttered. “There’s a saying that when it rains, it pours. I didn’t realize we’d signed up for an eternal hurricane.”

  Hurricane might be an understatement, especially for Rhome.

  Louise laughed joylessly. I wasn’t sure she even knew why. Rhome chuckled along, but his eyes focused on something beyond the group. The small smile on his face wavered.

  Roxy cleared her throat. “How are the children, Rhome?”

  His head fell forward in grief, his expression contorting for a moment before he smoothed it out.

  Roxy’s eyes widened, and she looked to me in shock. What did I miss? her expression asked.

  “Kreya took the children to the Immortal Plane,” he explained gravely. “She left, along with Kane and the others.”

  They’d had no news. By now it was clear Kreya wouldn’t be changing her mind or coming back for him.

  Roxy pawed her cheek. “I didn’t know.” Her voice was surprisingly gentle. “How are you holding up?”

  Roxy’s concern sent a funny ripple effect through the group. Thank you, Roxy, for asking him. Gratitude filled me. Her uncharacteristic softness was a good reminder that we hadn’t lost everything.

  Rhome smiled back, weakly. “I’m still moving.”

  I took in his hollow eyes and sagging posture. Yes, but for how much longer?

  “I’m sorry about your kids,” Roxy said.

  In spite of Rhome’s pain, my heart swelled with pride. A new, small thread of camaraderie thrummed through our unusual group, the humans and vampires leftover from the facility experiment.

  Laini caught my eye and nodded as if reading my thoughts. The group looked around at each other with new levity.

  Despite everything, there was still hope for human-vampire relations in our strange wintry hideout.

  * * *

  The rest of the morning passed without incident. For lunch, I dined on salted rice—again—and the stalest piece of bread in existence. Laini had snagged the bread being thrown out from a bakery during a vampire hunting excursion. It was something, but vampires didn’t quite understand the finer points of the human gustatory experience.

  Once we’d scrubbed the pots as well as we could and draped some of the blankets near the fire to make sure they didn’t get damp, Gina and I prepped for another scavenging mission.

  “More firewood and any other food we can find in the kitchen or bar,” I said to myself as I stood beside Gina, making a mental list of things we needed. “Do we need anything else for injuries right now?”

  “I’d prefer a fully stocked first-aid kit, but I’ll settle for firewood and whatever you can scavenge today,” Gina replied.

  There were plenty of things we would both prefer. She tidied up the box of medical supplies, which looked worryingly sparse. I glanced at our pile of canned food, which now consisted of baby corn, olives, and a dented one filled with asparagus.

  I caught sight of Dorian emerging from the entrance tunnel. He appeared noticeably weak, but he was walking. I pushed down an inner cheer and took a step toward him. I wanted a moment alone with him to talk about plans.

  An idea was cooking up in the back of my mind about our next steps with the Bureau. If we could report the Bureau to another agency, then maybe we could stop running. Tensions were high right now, though, especially with the new vampires. I needed to see what Dorian was thinking for his next steps before I publicly aired anything.

  I left Gina to her medical supplies. Dorian’s face lightened almost imperceptibly as I sidled up to him.

  “How do you feel today?” I asked.

  Keeping eye contact, I waited for the pain in my chest. Nothing. What had changed?

  He smiled, confident, and the corners of his tired eyes crinkled pleasantly. “Better than yesterday, when I tried to murder my own clan.” He stretched his arms above his head, a satisfied growl rumbling in his throat as he flexed powerfully.

  “I was hoping to organize a scavenging mission,” I said slowly. “For firewood and anything else we can find left at the resort. Hopefully, food and some stray medical supplies. We could discuss future plans for our next steps. Are you interested in going?”

  “Of course,” he replied.

  “Scavenging?” Zach’s voice piped up behind me. He was up on his leg and doing fine, apart from a slight lean. Gina hovered beside him, untrusting.

  Well, there went my super amazing plan to get Dorian alone.

  “We can help,” Gina said. “We know which areas of the resort haven’t been searched yet.”

  “Fantastic,” I said, but I couldn’t deny the flicker of disappointment. Okay, so maybe my desire to spend some one-on-one time with Dorian wasn’t just for planning. I shook off the feeling, slightly ashamed of my selfishness. Moving in a group would be better for survival. And Gina had a point: Dorian and I hadn’t been out to the resort yet, and we could potentially waste a lot of time covering ground that had already been covered. Besides, this was the first time I’d seen Zach looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in days.

  “Will your leg be okay?” I asked Zach.

  He waved me off. “It’s better than ever. I’ll take it easy.”

  To his surprise, I stepped closer and gave him a quick hug.

  “What was that for?” he asked, grinning but with soft eyes.

  I mock punched him in the shoulder. “Just making sure you can actually stand upright and aren’t just trying to sneak outside because you’re going stir-crazy.”

  He swiped a fist at my face but allowed me to easily dodge it. “I’m fighting fit, you little drill sergeant.”

  “We can each take a flashlight,” Gina said, grabbing several from the supplies area and tossing them to our quartet. “And I’ve got a gun just in case.”

  The flashlights were from our Bureau kit. Though they were small, they ran on solar power, so all we had to do was place them in sunlight for an hour or so every day.

  “Are you sure you’re ready?” Zach hesitantly asked Dorian. “It’s been less than a day.”

  Dorian nodded. “I’m doing better.” His face didn’t look like the portrait of health, but none of us argued with him. “You?”

  Zach gingerly placed his full weight on his leg. He barely winced. “Raring to go.”

  We made our way through a back tunnel.

  “We can come up by the resort this way to better avoid being seen,” Gina informed Dorian and me.

  Zach hobbled along nicely with us. I offer
ed my arm with a smile, and though he scowled briefly, he took it.

  Gina pressed against a small grate, and it gave easily, the metal eaten away with rust. We emerged from a thick gathering of bushes that completely concealed the entrance to the tunnel. The arrival station of a defunct ski lift sat on our left, eerie in its emptiness. Chairs creaked and swayed in the wind, suspended on aging wires. Birds perched on the branches of the few deciduous trees planted around the resort and chirped cheerfully. The leaves were just beginning to fade from the vibrant green of high summer, and a few had already drifted to the weed-riddled ground.

  “Let’s aim for the back of the resort,” Dorian said. “There used to be some fancy restaurant there, I think.”

  The ski resort, which looked big enough to house maybe fifty or sixty people, had probably been a luxury holiday spot about twenty years ago but had become less and less popular until the owners just stopped bothering to run it one year. The exterior was inspired by a high-end lumberjack aesthetic with unstripped logs making up the majority of the walls. With plants growing wildly through splits in the logs, it now looked more like somewhere serial killers would dump a body. There was a large stone-clad chimney rising from one end, the mortar between the stones crumbling with moss and damp. The windows facing us were mostly broken, their jagged edges like teeth.

  The restaurant no longer looked fancy in any way, built in the same rugged style as the main lodge and equally dilapidated. I nervously eyed the sagging roof. A faded sign at the entrance promised handmade cocktails. It was half-submerged in a frozen metal barrel, which had split open from an angry crack.

  “We didn’t make it into here,” Gina said, letting a puffing Zach lean against her. “Couldn’t get the door open, and none of the vampires were with us. It’s frozen or swollen shut.”