Caught in Darkness (29 page)

Veronica opened her mouth to snap
back, refusing to accept the blame from the murderer himself, but his hand
pressed a little heavier and she found even breathing was difficult. And then
his free hand grabbed one of hers and the next thing she knew he’d leaned down
and embedded his fangs into her wrist. It was immediately more painful than any
time she’d let Seth feed from her and she reflexively tried to cry out, but her
voice was cut off by the hand still pressing into her throat.

Her body burned, but not in the way
it did when Seth drank from her, and her heart was slamming against her chest. Her
lungs ached, begging for more air than she could give, and more tears began
trailing from her eyes. She was pinned. He was stronger than her, faster than
her, and he was his own weapon, whereas she was completely unarmed. She
couldn’t even scream for help. She had one arm that was free—theoretically she
could move it, try to use it to get him off of her—but the lack of oxygen and
the already-fading adrenaline in her system was making her weak.

And he was still drinking.

****Thirty-two minutes. It was
thirty-two minutes before Seth finally found himself standing in front of an
older, unassuming single-story house in a sparsely-occupied neighborhood across
town. He and
Jasen
had split up after discovering
Veronica’s
shirt,
with Seth looking for her while
Jasen
looked for the enemy. Her car had been gone from his
condo, she wasn’t answering her phone of course, and her house had clearly been
gone through. It was amazing the kinds of horrific scenarios he’d managed to
conjure up in the course of half an hour. But now, finally, with the help of a
note conveniently placed beneath the windshield wiper of his car, he knew where
to look.

He wasn’t going to wait for
Jasen
to catch up and he wasn’t going to knock. Veronica
was in that house. So were the men responsible for taking her.

Seth was up the steps and through
the front door without another thought, not caring if the door slammed against the
wall and loudly announced his arrival. But he came up short halfway into the
living room, when his eyes landed on Veronica. She was barely conscious, a thin
stream of blood dripping off the fingers of her left hand as her arms hung limp
at her sides. She was on her feet, being held aloft by Richards, who was
standing behind her with one hand braced beneath her jaw and the other arm
wrapped around her torso. Richards’s hold offered a perfect view of the bruise
forming around her neck, as well as a dark spot around her right elbow.

“I was wondering how long it would
take you to show up,” Richards taunted with a broad smirk. “As you can see,
I’ve been helping myself to her blood to pass the time.”

Hands curled into tight fists at
his sides, Seth growled, “Let her go. I’m the only threat to you here.”

“Right,” Richards scoffed, “because
I haven’t noticed that you called in an Enforcer.” He licked his lips and
lowered his head faintly until he was almost in the perfect position to sink
his fangs into her throat before adding, “Besides, Hunter—she may not be a
threat, but I truly hate this woman. I want her dead for my sake.”

A pit forming in
his stomach, Seth demanded, “Then why bait
me at all? If killing her is
your goal, why tell me you have
her
and then wait for
me?”

“To see the look on your face,”
Richards replied.

He was going to do it. Richards was
going to kill her right in front of him. He bared his fangs a beat later,
either intending to drain what blood was left in her system or to tear out her
throat. Seth reacted on instinct and lunged forward as fast as he was able. Richards
barely got his fangs beneath the surface of her skin before Seth managed to
grab him by the top of his head and throw him bodily backwards. The reversed
momentum—combined with Richards’s grip on her—caused Veronica to jerk sharply. Seth
heard the unmistakable sound of bones snapping and the top layer of flesh at
the base of her throat—where it met with her collar—was torn off as Richards
was forced to release her.

Richards crashed into the far wall
with a grunt, but Seth ignored him. As much as he wanted to tear every limb
from Richards’s body his priority remained Veronica. He spun in place and only
barely managed to catch her against his chest before she collided with the
floor. She was bleeding again—all the worse given her blood loss—and her body
was far too limp. He could still hear her heartbeat, but it was struggling. Her
chest heaved with the effort it was taking to draw breath.

Seth’s heart
clenched tightly in his chest.
He’d witnessed enough death to know the
sound of a dying heartbeat when he heard it. She had only minutes left before
she was lost to him.

“
Heh
,”
Richards grunted from behind him, “may not be how I’d planned it, but she’ll be
dead soon enough. I’ll leave you to say your goodbyes.”

He knew he was supposed to stop
Richards. He had been hired to subdue Richards, and he’d sworn to kill him. But
fulfilling either promise would mean leaving Veronica alone for her last
moments of life, and he couldn’t do that. He was going to have a hard enough
time pushing forward without her as it was. So he didn’t even turn his head as
Richards dashed from the building.

“S-Seth,” Veronica choked, her eyes
fluttering as she struggled to keep them open.

“
Shh
,” he
breathed, curling one hand over her shoulder to hold her in place. His throat
was constricting as his eyes started to burn. It had probably been over half a
century since he’d cried, but this night threatened to shatter that record. “I’m
right here.”

She tensed and shifted, attempting
to roll into him, and gasped sharply with the pain of her injuries. Prying her
eyes open again she looked up, finding his, and blinked past the tears as she
managed, “It’s not…t-too late.” As she spoke she rolled her left wrist over,
exposing the bite marks that hadn’t yet healed and the drying trail of blood.

In that instant he knew what she
was asking. She was asking him to
Turn
her, to
transform her into a vampire and take her away from the life she knew forever. And,
though he’d been steadfastly against the idea only a few hours before, it was
suddenly tempting. She was going to die either way; he couldn’t use that
argument to stop himself from being selfish. But did she really know what she
was asking him to do to her? He knew so many vampires who regretted Turning; he
didn’t want her to become one of them. The alternative, however, was to lose
her here and now.

“P-please,” Veronica gasped. She
swallowed thickly, choking for a moment before adding, “Turn me.”

“Veronica,” Seth murmured sadly. He
held her gaze for a second before lifting his hand from her stomach and sinking
his fangs into his own wrist. He bit deep, knowing his wrist would heal
quickly, and then pressed the bleeding appendage wholly against the wound at
her throat.

She cried out from the pain of the
contact and the pressure he had to use to keep it and he heard her unsteady
heartbeat increase a bit. That was good. But he still had to remind himself not
to panic when she went limp in his arms a second later. He held his wrist in place
until he knew the bite had sealed and then, slowly, he sank back and bowed his
head as he held her tighter.

****

Veronica startled awake from the
depths of an intense nightmare, her heart slamming against her ribcage. She
groaned, cringing at the light in Seth’s bedroom, and rolled over, curling into
herself.
Her head was pounding like it never had before and
she was ridiculously famished.
“Oh,” she groaned aloud, hands pressed
firmly against her temples. Whatever it is that I did, please don’t let me ever
do it again.

But that raised a good question. What
had she done? Just trying to think was making her headache worse.

Approaching footsteps were suddenly
pounding out of synch with her headache and for a long second she felt like she
might be sick. Only she also felt like she didn’t have anything to expel, and
that didn’t sound particularly fun. But then Seth’s voice was calling to her
gently, trying to ease her world back into focus.

“There you are,” he said, a sad
smile in his eyes when their gazes met. He sat carefully on the side of the
mattress and reached out, wrapping her nearest hand in his.

“Why does everything hurt?” she
asked,
her voice hoarse from too much sleep. And it was far
too loud. Was she screaming?

Seth frowned faintly and replied, “
It’s
part of the process. While your body adjusts to all of
its new senses and cravings you’ll be sore and hyper-sensitive.”

Veronica stared at him blankly for
a long moment. “The…process?” she whispered it this time and the sound wasn’t
so abrasive on her ears.

And that was when she remembered. Her
stomach lurched with the memory of the fear and pain. Tobias had delivered her
to Richards, who had promptly started using her as his own personal restaurant.
And then…. Tobias.

Swallowing, Veronica dragged her focus
outward again and asked, “What happened…to them? Did you get them?”

His frown was blatant this time and
he slowly shook his head. “No. Richards got away while I was…distracted, and we
never found either Wilson.” He gave her hand a squeeze, frown softening, and
added, “Don’t worry about them right now, Veronica. You need rest and
nourishment.”

She wished she had the energy to
argue with him. Or even to tell him what she’d learned at the cemetery (which
he was probably angry about, or would be if he didn’t yet know), but he was
right. She was tired and about as close to ravenous as she had ever been. Sighing,
Veronica let her head slump back against the pillow and asked, “How long am I
going to feel like this?”

“It’ll start to ease after a couple
of feedings,” Seth assured her. “At least as long as you don’t push yourself.”

“Okay,” she mumbled, her eyes
drooping already. And then his words sank in and her eyes popped open again as
the one thing she wasn’t so sure she’d considered was suddenly glaring in her
mind. “Feedings?” she repeated. “Do you mean I have to…?” How was she supposed
to work up the nerve to bite another human being? The idea of drinking blood
was bad enough!

His lips twitched slightly, a light
of bitter amusement in his eyes, and he shook his head. “No. I’ve got some
blood for you here. One step at a time, I promise.”

The knot in her stomach eased and
she nodded, wincing immediately as her head reminded her of its fury. “Thanks,”
she managed.

“Stay here,” he said, giving her
hand another squeeze before releasing her and pushing back to his feet. “I’ll
be right back.”

She remembered not to nod, instead
saying, “Okay,” as he turned and started out of the room. At least now I know
why my head hurts so much. She’d never really given a thought to what
super-hearing actually meant.

Seth was back before she’d even
finished her contemplation, a coffee mug full of thick red liquid in one hand. He
held it out to her, saying, “Drink as much as you can; you need it.”

She looked at the mug for a long
minute. Her brain was telling her that the contents of that innocent ceramic
cup were disgusting and that the idea of drinking those contents was abhorrent.
But her nose was telling her that it smelled amazing, and that smell was
telling her stomach to get ready. Still, her brain was very loud about its
disagreement, and her hands were shaky as she reached out and took the mug from
Seth. She knew she needed to drink it, and she knew that the longer she stared
at it the more likely she was to freak out and throw it away instead. So she
closed her eyes and brought it up to her nose, letting the frighteningly
appealing scent of the liquid overwhelm the rest of her senses.

Her mouth was starting to water and
her stomach was growling with anticipation, so she tightened her hold on the
handle, put her lips to the edge, and drank.

She had never tasted anything more
satisfying.

“Thank you,” Veronica said quietly
as she licked her lips and handed the mug back to Seth. She was downright
embarrassed by how much she had enjoyed it.

He took the mug, inclining his
head, and his lips lifted reassuringly as he said, “Don’t be embarrassed; it’s
natural. Well, for us.”

She nodded slowly, belatedly noting
that the movement only barely hurt. In fact, her whole body felt better and she
wasn’t so tired anymore, either. Suspecting that wouldn’t last, Veronica
decided to take the opportunity while she had it and called, “Seth. I learned
something last night….”

She swallowed, the taste of her
first cup of blood still lingering in her mouth, and their eyes met before she
added, “It was Tobias. He’s the one who killed my father.”

Seth’s eyebrows rose immediately
before his expression fell into a natural, thoughtful frown. “Are you sure?”

Again she offered a careful nod. “He
was the one who found me in the cemetery, and he confessed. He confessed to
killing my…um, grandfather, too.”

Seth pulled in a long, slow breath.
It was a long minute before he said, “At least we finally have a name.”

He returned his gaze to her and she
knew he was about to switch the subject, so she quietly offered, “I’m sorry. I
know it was stupid to go to the cemetery.”

He was frowning, but his voice was
not accusatory as he asked, “Why did you?”

“I thought…it would help clear my
head,” she admitted.

Seth was quiet again for a second,
then he bent down and set the mug on the floor before leaning toward her and
wrapping his fingers around her wrist. One sharp tug propelled her forward and
the next thing she knew he was kissing her. His lips were over hers, his tongue
had invaded her mouth, and one hand had tangled in her loose hair.