Dark Horizons (The Red Sector Chronicles) (21 page)

I followed him out into the hall and into the den, where Rook and Dezyre were sitting on the couch watching something on the flat
-
screen TV mounted to the wall. Dezyre was leaned forward, her elbows resting on her knees as she chewed on a manicured fingernail. That immediately raised a red flag. No way would Dezyre ever mar one of her nails unless she was incredibly nervous.

Rook looked like he smelled something bad. His nose was all wrinkled up, and he was staring down the TV like if it made one wrong move, he’d rip it off the wall and dance
on the remains of its
glossy
body.

I was about to ask
, “W
hat’s wrong?” when the news anchor’s voice caught my ear.

“Earlier tonight,
a fight broke out between the Scarlet Guard and what appears to be a group of human-like vampires.”

I froze, paling. Leo paused beside me, his expression grim.

“Please be warned, the images you are about to see are graphic,” the anchor said. Her eyes turned sorrowful right before the screen flipped to a close-up of the bodies lying on the blood-soaked pavement in front of the jail. I had a sick feeling in my stomach even before I heard what she said next.

“At least fifty civilians lie dead, massacred by the vampires the Scarlet Guard fought so valiantly to protect them from.”

“
What
?” I roared,
taking a step closer to the TV. I clenched
a fist, ready to hurl it into her blasphemous mouth.

The camera angle changed, showing us getting into the car and driving off. “Our cameramen caught this footage of the suspects fleeing the scene. After working together with the Guard, they have been identified as…”

No one spoke as our faces and names flashed across the screen, mostly senior pictures, or some photo taken from a family album. The tension in the room grew so thick you could slice it with a knife.

Each picture came with the basic info: eye
and hair color, general weight and
height, and our names. Mine was the last to be showed. The hair along the back of my neck pricked, and I could just imagine my mother sitting at her long, fancy table eating
dinner
and dropping her glass of wine when she saw my face.

Her daughter,
the vampire and disgrace to the family name.

“Be warned, these criminals are likely armed and extremely dangerous. If you have any information leading to their whereabouts, you can contact the S.I.A. at the number below. All five su
spects are at the top of their Most Wanted
list, and a one million dollar reward has been issued for the tip leading to their arrest.”

“The S.I.A.,” I said flatly. “The freaking
Scarlet Intelligence Agency
? Are you kidding me?” The agency was THE top-
of-the-
line government information office, charged with apprehending the most violent criminals. Unfortunately, rumors had it they operated more
like a mafia than fancy police officers
interested in upholding the peace.

Rook let out a deep breath and glanced at me. “Now
,
Sloane, don’t panic.”

“Don’t panic?” I shot back. “Really, Rook? We’re wanted by the most lethal band of
hit men
and thug wannabe
s this side of the globe. We have every reason to panic.” I growled, wanting to punch something. “I am so sick of trying to help people and being painted as the villain. This is such bullshit.”

First
the v
ampires under my brother’s rule, now
the humans under my mother’s.

What was next? The whole
freaking world?

“We can’t stay here,” Leo said, interrupting me. “We need to come up with a plan and move as soon as we can. It can’t be long ‘til they think to look here.”

“He’s right,” Rook said, standing. “We need to think fast.”

“We need some sort of map,” Dezyre said. She wasn’t chewing on her nail anymore, though she did look significantly paler. “Some of us aren’t as familiar with this city as others.”

I briefly wondered where she came from, but right then Leo said, “Already ahead of you,” and slapped down a scroll on the coffee table.

We all gathered around it
and knelt down
as he and Dezyre spread it out, weighing
down the corners with cup
holders.

It was a complete
,
detailed map of Pittsburgh. Red lines had been drawn across it in Sharpie, notating where the wall marked off the White from the Red Se
ctor
s
.

“We’re here,”
Leo
said, pointing to Indian Lake. “If I had to
guess, I’d say Orion will be fa
rther in the city, where there will be more humans to feed off of
,
and he can blend in more easily.”

“I’d think the opposite.”

We all turned as Arika strolled into the room. She gazed at Rook, Dezyre, and me coolly. “Vampires favor obscurity, righ
t? That’s how you human wannabe
s have managed to slip under the radar for so long. If anything, I think he’ll hide out in the least populated areas. That way if someone disappears, there’s less of a chance people
will notice
.”

“She has a point,” Rook said.

D
ezyre pressed her lips together, and her eyes darted to mine
. “There
is
another
way to find him…”

Rook stared at her for a few seconds before recognition dawned on his face. He grinned and shook his head. “Dezyre, don’t tell me you’re thinking about the legend.”

“What legend?” I asked, sitting up straighter.

Even Leo and Arika looked intrigued.

Dezyre paused and looked around the room before continuing. “
There are stories of vampire siblings who can ‘sense’ one another’s whereabouts.”

“Oh, please,” Arika muttered, crossing her arms.

No one paid her any attention. I kept my gaze on Dezyre. Admittedly, I was a little skeptical, but hey, she had piqued my interest. “How does it work, exactly?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Dezyre said,
looking away quickly
. “
It has something to do with
reaching out with your mind,
kind of like an out-of-bod
y experience. At least…” Her eyes darted down to my birthmark, a petal of which was barely visible above my sweater neckline. “That’s what the scriptures say about the first vampire king and his sister.”

“He had a sister?” I asked. Aden had neglected that part.

And if
that was
true, then why wasn’t Orion able to sense me when I was at the base?

“This is lame
and it doesn’t help,” Arika said. “We don’t know that this ‘method’ works, and besides, we need to get going before someone –”

She stopped, her sentence interrupted by the sound of someone busting out a window near the back of the house.

We were on our feet immediately.

“We
have to
go,” Leo said. He snatched up the map and rolled it up as we made for the front door.

“Wait!” Leo called, making us stop. “They’re more likely to come in that way. Let’s go out the back.”

“Right,” I said. My sneakers skidded on the wooden floor as I abruptly wheeled about, sprinting after him through the kitchen and toward the backdoor.

Soon as he reached for the doorknob, a
guy in black body armor
kicked the door open. We froze for a pregnant second, and my eyes immediately zoomed in on the barrel of his gun.

“Duck!” I shouted, right before he opened fire.

Bullets ripped through the air above our heads as we hit the floor. Splinters of wood fell all around us as the bullets ate up the walls, destroying the wood paneling.
The sharp tang of Scarlet Steel filled the air, and red bullets rolled along the floor after they had done their damage to the walls.

The moment the man stopped to reload, Leo
leapt
to his feet and charged him. He slam
med the man into the wall, head
butting him before snatching the gun
away
and nailing him
in the temple
with the butt. The man slumped against the wall as his comrades poured through the
door, all a
rmed with Scarlet Steel weapons. I saw
knives, bullets, shells, and even swords.

Grunts and cries broke out behind me as my friends fought for their lives. Their voices fueled my courage, and I shot to my feet and bolted for the first guy I saw.

My speed seemed to have increased; he never saw me coming. By the time his head turned, I was already elbowing him upside the head. He flew into the opposite wall, dropping his gun. I snatched it up and wheeled about, preparing to return fire, when Leo clamped down on my arm. A stream of blood was running down the side of his face.

“Oh my G
od, Leo,” I said. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said, brushing
my concern
off. “We h
ave to get out of here. Come on.
”

He pulled me along, away from the kitchen. Bullets buzzed past my ears, and I turned just enough to get a clear shot at the S.I.A. personnel before firing back.

It had
been a long time since I’d fired a gun, and I used to be pret
ty good at it. Apparently
my aim had suffered a little over the years.

The bullets were
hit or miss. Some struck home
while others haphazardly embedded themselves into the walls
, cabinets, and countertops
.

We raced through the living room and out the front door, which was already open.
Thankfully, it was already dark out and apparently overcast; the moon cast a dim red haze around the dense cloud cover.

The others were in the yard. I looked up just in time to catch Arika delivering a spinning back kick to a guy’s face.

I didn’t bother with the steps. I jumped of
f
th
e porch
and examined my friends’ bodies for injuries. Though they were panting hard and looked scared out of their minds, they
appeared
relatively unharmed.

A black SUV sat in the yard, its doors still open.
Headlights bounced in
the space
between the trees as more S.I.A. agents drove toward the cabin.

“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Rook shouted, switching into combat instructor mode as we ran for the SUV.

A man stepped out of the car, lifting a crossbow
notched
with a Scarlet Steel arrow.

“Rook!” I screamed
.

The arrow fired, and Rook turned his body to the side as it whizzed past. I’d never realized how fas
t he was before I saw him clothes
line the guy with an arm to the throat. The guy cried out with a strangled sound, twitching as he fell to the ground and struggled to regain his breath.

“Nice one,” Leo said, hopping into the driver’s side as Rook went for the back. Arika and I darted for
shotgun
. Since I was faster, I beat her to it.

“Better luck next time, cupcake,” I said, then slammed the door
shut
in her scowling face.

I watched her lips move, calling me something very ugly, and I grinned back at her. Casting me an incinerating look, she climbed into the back beside Rook and Dezyre.

We all buckled up while Leo twisted the key, which had blessedly been left in the ignition, and the engine growled to life.

“Hang on,”
he said and
then floored it.

The tires spun in place for a few seconds, making the back
end fishtail, before the SUV shot off down the driveway. He swerved to the side, driving through the tall gras
s past the approaching caravan. I noted he kept the headlights off so we wouldn’t be noticed.

The shocks
groaned in protest as the car ran through hole after hole. Soon as we cleared the last car
of the caravan
, Leo wheeled the SUV back onto the gravel driveway, sending us fishtailing again.

It reminded me sort of
like
being on a roller coaster. While I loved them as much as the next
adrenaline junkie
, I couldn’t help but to grab onto my seat as we
swerved and
sped down the road.
Finally,
Leo
flipped the headlights on.

I glanced at the speedometer. The red needle was pushing
one hundred miles per hour
.