Darklight 4: Darkblood Read online

  The stench of smoke hit my nostrils at the same time I heard Dorian hiss.

  Laini jerked her head up. I froze. Roxy had leapt to the next roof and stopped, dropping into a wary crouch. Something droned in the distance above us.

  "Incoming patrols!" Laini said. "They're close."

  A whooshing noise closed in on our group. We hurtled to the next roof and into the shadows created by four pairs of bulky gargoyle statues. Their uncanny gem eyes sparkled, as if they were amused to hide troublemakers. I ducked beneath one of their huge paws, and Roxy did the same. Dorian took the very last gargoyle, keeping his distance from me as best he could. My chest still burned, but there was no helping it.

  Kane sucked in a sharp breath as the whooshing sound grew closer. I scanned the sky, trying to look past the dazzling neon glow of the city. Blurry white shapes, like giant paper airplanes, whizzed over our heads. They were as big as redbills but moved with an audible mechanical whir. Their frames were lined with tiny yellow lights, glowing balls that danced and bobbed. The white plane dipped down, circling closer to our area. Finally seeing them up close, it wasn’t difficult to guess that these were skimmers.

  Laini shot me a grim look. Roxy watched with hard eyes, her hand moving toward her holster. Every nerve in my body burned fiercely from both Dorian’s proximity and the tension.

  The skimmers hovered above the roofs of the building two doors down. My nervous breath caught in my throat. The skimmers' wings folded inward as they sank to the street and completely disappeared from view. I exhaled with relief.

  "Maybe we'll be safe for a while longer," I whispered hopefully to Laini.

  Her wide eyes and furrowed brow told a different story. Dorian whispered something I couldn't hear. Kane swore.

  "What is it?" I asked. Roxy leaned in beside me, closer to Laini than Kane or Dorian.

  Laini's face paled considerably. "If Dorian's directions are right, the skimmers just touched down where the safehouse should be."

  My hope and burning heart sank. We were too late.

  Chapter Three

  Using the cover provided by the gargoyles, Dorian cautiously gestured for us to keep moving. The commotion on the streets continued, but we would have to get closer if we wanted to see what was happening. I stayed close to Roxy as we leapt to the next rooftop. I nearly slid in a puddle of water on the pockmarked roof, distracted by the burning that burst into my chest, but Laini helped me right myself. Dorian was too close; there was little room to escape in the shroud of shadows that covered us. We had landed on a strange roof, which bent and buckled in various places, making it difficult to cross. Keeping our steps silent and crouching low, we hid behind black stone parapets and watched through the diamond-shaped openings in the stout wall.

  Below us lay a riot of gardens packed with flowers, bushes, and trees in an overwhelming combination of colors and textures. At the edge of the park area nearest us stood a four-story building with powder-blue stucco walls. The structure was protected by a thick wall of trees with glowing purple flowers, which had no gap for entrance that I could see. The trees moved and shifted, their flowers stinking of decaying earth. The breeze carried the scent into our faces in our shadowy hiding place.

  My shoulders sagged as we studied the scene. It was definitely the safehouse, and we were definitely too late.

  In the streets surrounding the tall building, a commotion erupted on the gold pavement. The skimmers had folded themselves up, and a group of ruler-caste hunters, decked out in armor similar to that of Inkarri and her companion from the lake, milled among them. A crowd of rulers had gathered in the street, hanging back at a respectful distance to watch them work.

  I immediately recognized two of the hunters hacking at one of the trees with long, curved swords. One, a male, had hundreds of red-and-black braids falling to his knees, most tipped with wicked barbed hooks. He had been the one to capture Kono as he tried to flee Itzarriol the day before. The other, the female, was the porcelain-white Immortal ruler who’d accompanied him, her armor glittering silver. Her arms, bare but for a set of rose gold bracers studded with gems, rippled with muscle as she smashed her sword through the wall of trees. Violet flowers shook violently and let out a weeping sound as they dropped like snowflakes. The petals sizzled against the gold pavement. Chips of wood followed, and more branches leaned down to cover the resulting gap.

  Other hunters moved forward to join her charge. The tallest, a man dressed in a pine-green outfit to match his long hair, smashed through the splintering bark.

  There was a crackle and flash of light as one of the hunters let off a blast from a gem-powered gauntlet like the one Inkarri wore, destroying a portion of the wall large enough for several hunters to charge inside. They’d finally created more damage than the trees could repair.

  "We know you're here!" the male with long braids bellowed.

  Through the wreckage, I saw branches strewn across a courtyard inside the garden wall. As the hunters raced through the hole, sounds of struggle leaked from inside.

  "All of you leeches, out," the green-haired hunter snapped as he emerged from the hole, his weapon bloody. “Try anything else and I’ll stomp on your head until your fangs crack.”

  A parade of crestfallen creatures began to emerge. First came a pair of wildlings partially covered in rock, but with patches of algae on their heads and scales skirting their necks like collars. They looked similar to the aquatic wildlings who had taken us to the Gray Ravine. One clutched at his neck, stemming a trail of black blood. He wheezed, and his female companion tried to support him. The green-haired hunter smacked her away. She recoiled and growled, showing a row of tiny pebble-like teeth, before trying to bite the hunter, but he was far too quick. He smashed the pommel of his sword down on her head, making her let out a piercing scream.

  Watching such brutality while helpless to intervene was becoming a distressing norm for us these past few days. My throat tightened with disgust that quickly turned to white-hot rage. Laini squeezed my arm, pulling it away from my holster, her eyes trained forward.

  Behind them, one of the four-armed metal beings came forward, but she looked up carefully at her captors beneath her lashes. For half a second, she dodged to the side, as if to try to escape. Faster than my eye could track, the white hunter brutally kicked one of her legs out from under her. The blow shouldn’t have been enough to damage metal, but it seemed she wasn’t made of metal after all. There came a definitive crack, a scream, and the creature fell to the ground, her leg hanging at a sickening angle as she struggled to stand. She failed, collapsing onto her front. On instinct, my hand flew to my gun, and I had to force myself not to draw it. The poor creature groaned as she dragged herself forward using her arms, to avoid another kick. Someone in the crowd cackled, a terrible, dark sound that echoed over and over in my mind.

  A woman dressed in a stuffy high-collared robe released a melodramatic gasp as the next shapes emerged from the house. The four-armed woman’s attempt to escape had inspired others. Two cloaked figures darted forward.

  “Fangs! I see fangs!”

  Indeed, the telltale snarl of a vampire sensing darkness rang out. I gripped Laini’s hand as we watched, helpless to aid the two vampires. The hunters descended upon them with fierce blows. A hand reached out from the struggle, more human-looking than the rulers. The white hunter snatched the hand up and twisted it violently, earning a pained cry.

  "No," someone else in the crowd cried. "What are those insects doing here?"

  From my position I could only just see through the gap the hunters had hacked into the wall of trees, but I could see well enough to watch the hunter drag two vampires to their feet. One of the vampires clutched his wounded hand, another his leg.

  The green-haired hunter growled and shoved them along. “Try to fight, and we can give you a pleasant blast of magic straight to the face.”

  Kane hissed under his breath, the sound a tiny pressure release for his rage, as the vampire in the back sm
ashed into his companion. They looked like brothers. If I’d seen them in Chicago, I would have pegged them as fresh college graduates, young and clean cut. One brother had shadows dancing beneath his tan skin, but the other—the one who had been pushed—only had trickles of shadow on his face. Only the first had managed to feed recently.

  If only we had come earlier… would it have made a difference? Kono’s capture flashed through my mind, and my brain offered up a string of things we could have done differently. It had been too dangerous for us to move after his capture, stuck up on the cliff watching patrols of hunters and diving skimmers scour the edges of the city. The dark fury of my frustration weighed my entire body down. If we’d arrived even minutes earlier maybe we could have warned them… but we hadn’t. We failed to get here in time, and our allies would pay the price for it.

  My stomach clenched as a familiar voice cut across the scene, accompanied by the harsh sound of solid wheels clattering on gold.

  "Good find," Inkarri said, clearly relishing the situation. Her velek with its trademark gemstone followed obediently. She grinned and grabbed the chin of the weaker vampire, forcing him to look at her. “I take it their friend broke quickly after being taken to the sanitarium?”

  The female hunter nodded, her hair glittering like it was coated with flecks of ice. “Zeele is good at his job. The leech only gave us scraps of information, but that was all we needed.”

  I noted the names and other hints the rulers were giving away. We might not be able to save Kono, but I already had a name and a location that could be worth investigating if we got the chance. Zeele. The sanitarium.

  "What are the official orders?" the male hunter with the red-and-black braids asked. He ripped the cloak off one of the vampires with a sharp yank, using it to wipe his armor and sword clean of bark and sap from his tree rampage.

  Inkarri waved a hand. "Collar them."

  Obediently, the green-haired ruler and his companions stepped toward the captives. They each removed something from their side satchels, and though I couldn’t see the source from my angle, I saw a bright green spark leap into the air. The hunter snapped a crackling circle of magic around the stronger vampire's neck.

  "Two on him," Inkarri said, running a finger across the shadows on his skin. "He's found himself a recent meal. He did what leeches do best… feed off those stronger than him."

  Kane jerked forward as if to jump off the roof. Dorian snatched him back, shaking his head fiercely.

  Nobody spoke, but I could feel the anger coming off Kane in waves.

  Laini hadn’t let go of my arm. She squeezed it again and shot me a pained look, gesturing her head to the scuffle.

  We were all thinking the same thing. Could we interfere? We hadn’t been able to help Kono because he’d been too far away, but we would have the element of surprise in this situation. With the other two vampires and their allies, our odds against the rulers were much better than they had been the night before. Roxy exhaled heavily through her nostrils, her shoulders shaking from frustration as we watched.

  Dorian made fierce, quelling eye contact with all of us. He made the hard decision, shaking his head and mouthing, “Too dangerous.”

  We might have reinforcements if the captives helped us, but our allies were already injured. The hunters would call more of their troops.

  I cursed every part of this impossible situation and made a mental promise that these captives would see justice. Somehow, some way, we would save them—but not right now.

  The vampire's fangs extended slightly at the hunter’s comment, but Inkarri only chuckled as her comrade placed another green collar around his throat. The vampire’s chest rose and fell sharply, but he gave no other sign of pain, glaring at Inkarri with obvious hatred. His brother crumpled to his knees, clawing at the collar.

  Two giant, black equine creatures with manes of blue flame dragged a copper-plated carriage toward the ruined safehouse. It had two double doors in the back and a small barred window on the side. A gurgling laugh came from a tiny imp who sat on a cushion on the front of the cart. It leered at the group of prisoners as it slowed the carriage to a halt, the wheels squeaking against the gold surface. The sound sent goosebumps over my skin.

  "Disgusting," a woman from the crowd said, her chignon hairstyle glittering with diamonds. She covered her mouth with a gold-trimmed handkerchief as if breathing the air near the captives might kill her, and her voice was edged with fear.

  My eyes were trained on Inkarri and her hard smirk, remembering her cruelty at the battle at Lake Siron. When I recalled her terrible voice, I could almost feel the sway of it still pulling me. It coaxed me into submission, made me want to please her. If her gem gauntlet hadn't malfunctioned in the nick of time… I forced my fingernails into my thighs, wishing I could pull my handgun and drop her where she stood. This hunter was responsible for the broken bodies of Bryce and Sike. She had snapped Sike’s arm without a thought and gleefully shot down their redbill.

  More carriages stopped to watch the show, blocking those behind them. A herd of velek pulled a smaller ornately decorated carriage, with curlicue patterns of gold and purple and a glittering roof of gemstones. It halted, and the velek twitched their heads from side to side, stamping their feet lightly. Reinforcements, or more citizens being inconvenienced by a sudden roadblock? Two riders sat in the front of the carriage on a glittering bench. One was another of the strange metallic creatures, who used one of his four hands to scratch beneath his chin. He furrowed his brow as he stared at the racket. The other rider—an Immortal ruler with long silver hair and slate-gray skin—made a quick gesture of annoyance.

  Okay, so not everyone is impressed by this spectacle. I scanned the faces in the crowd. Most of the nearby wildlings seemed focused on their own kin who had been captured, while the rulers leered and stared unabashedly at the vampires.

  The parapets we hid behind vibrated slightly as Inkarri's booming voice washed over the area.

  "Do not fear," she called out, her voice feigning charm. "We've merely caught some vermin. Load them up."

  The unfed vampire looked up at the sky in futile supplication, mouth slightly open, panting. His gaze crossed mine, and he swallowed, his expression sharpening at the sight of strange vampires on the rooftop. But he didn’t give us away, and the rulers were too focused on the spectacle in front of them to look up. Tears stung my eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” I mouthed.

  Chapter Four

  The double doors of the prisoner cart flew open without being touched, and Inkarri’s lackeys forced the captives into the back. I caught the barest glimpse of battered wooden benches built into the metal walls of the carriage. The wildlings went in first, the sparks from the green collars around their stout necks looking absurdly like costume jewelry. The metallic woman followed, dragging her broken leg. The cart’s floor bowed under her weight as she lumbered inside.

  Inkarri appeared to take great pleasure in watching the two vampire men stumble into the back. She snapped her fingers, and the green-haired hunter slammed the door shut. The imp cracked his whip and said something in a harsh tone. The horses took off, but the cart left much more slowly than it had arrived. The bitter taste of hatred filled my mouth. Somewhere in the crowd, a female ruler gave a wild wail and fainted. The annoyed rider from earlier applauded sarcastically. Inkarri glared, and the man stopped immediately, tucking his hands underneath his legs with an overly innocent smile.

  She's got a reputation.

  I exchanged a look of dread with Laini and Roxy. Kane and Dorian spoke in hoarse whispers. Laini shook her head, a fist pressed to her lips, silently mourning the other vampires. Roxy twisted her mouth as she watched the cart trundle through the crowd. The onlookers began moving slowly away, giving Inkarri and the other hunter a wide berth.

  The safehouse was compromised. This was what the Hive vampires were terrified would happen. Would they blame us? My mind raced, wondering if there was some way to send news back to the Hive.
If they suspected our interference had led to the safehouse being compromised, even though Kono had been captured before we reached the city, who knew how they might treat our friends who had been left behind. Injuries or not, I doubted the Hive would keep them around if they thought we’d brought trouble. And if the hunters decided to keep watch over the safehouse, the next Hive scouts could walk right into their trap.

  Dorian gave a subtle gesture, summoning Laini and Roxy closer. Unfortunately, the need for distance meant I was excluded. Dorian leaned into a circle with Kane and the others, their heads bent as they fell into fervent whispers. I focused on their body language and tried to pick up the odd word by reading their lips. I could tell from their gestures that they wanted to retreat or at least get out of the area. Kane jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the falls. He had a good point—we could hide among the stinking jasmine seaweed and concoct a new plan, maybe scout the edges of the city for somewhere else to hide. Dorian cocked his head, the lines of his face sharp as he considered it. Laini lifted her hand, volunteering herself for something. If I had to guess, they planned to go back to the garden, and Laini had volunteered herself as a scout. She was the smallest vampire, so that made sense.

  Leaving them to their planning, I returned to keeping watch over the fray below. The wreckage from the hunters’ destruction of the house was being kicked across the street by ruler children. Inkarri and the hunters milled around, talking in low voices. The male with the braids kicked another section of the tree wall down for no reason at all. A few inhabitants of the city, mainly well-dressed Immortal rulers in a rainbow range of clothing and hairstyles, hovered around the scene, obviously experiencing some level of titillation over being present. Then came a sound that made me catch my breath, my fight-or-flight instinct immediately kicking in.

  Inkarri’s velek had begun to bay.