Dark Horizons (The Red Sector Chronicles) (35 page)

My rapid heartbeat reminded me why I was so nervous, and I tried slow
ing
my breathing to
calm myself as Leo gave us the okay
and we filed into the hall.

This one was a bit wider, thoug
h short, with several doors and adjoining halls. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath
s
, straining to hear the click of a gun or the squea
k of a boot. As we walked,
I examined the place, running visual recon. I frowned.
Dust had gathered in clumps along the floor. “It doesn’t look like this place has been used in a while,” I said, still keepin
g my voice soft just in case we weren’t alone.

Rook and Dezyre were scanning the ceiling, looking for cameras, of which I saw none.

Rook frowned. “It doesn’t appear to be very closely guarded, either.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Leo said. “Nothing about what my father did went unprotected.
Something’s not right.
”

We wandered down several hallways, always watching each other’s backs and never separating. The farther we explored, the deeper my frown got. Not that I wasn’t relieved to not run into any trouble, but still, this was not what I was expecting when sneaking into a top secret government lab.

We had just rounded yet another corner when I went to take a step and
something squished beneath my foot. Lifting my heel, I saw a red smudge against the floor.
What the…
?
Frowning, I lifted my whole foot.

My breath caught
as an eerie chill swept through me
. “Guys…”

They gathered around me in an instant. With a growing sense of dread, my eyes followed the bloody trail down the hall, where it disappeared under a slightly ajar door.

Grabbing one of my knives and flipping it open, I slowly began walking down the hall, the others close behind.

Leo’s hand rested on my shoulder, making me pause. A warning was in his eyes, mixed with concern. I gave him a smile, hoping my expression alone conveyed that I would be careful, and stepped up to the door.

It was solid white, with the forget-me-not symbol emblazoned o
n a gold plaque in the middle.

The Mark of the Creator.

Puzzled and a little excited, I gently pushed the door open and stepped into the room.

My ey
es landed on a hulked male form
and I froze.

The bloody trail went clear across the room, ending in a pool of blood surrounding the dead guard.
Or rather, guards. The room had been decorated in Scarlet Guard body parts.
Papers – ranging from fact sheets to pie graphs – littered the ground, stuck to the blood and stained scarlet. My eyes flickered over a few, seeing the same name either printed or scrawled on every sheet.

Ivan Johansen.
I had
never heard the name before, but whoever it was, t
his must be his research.

Mentally t
ucking the name away for safekeeping, I focused all my attention on the dark shape looming ahead.

The guard whom the figure crouched over looked intact, for the most part.
His hood had been torn off,
leaving
his neck exposed as someone – or something – fed from him
.

The figure jerked his head back, gasping for air before slowly standing and turning around to face me.

The room swayed.

Blood dripped down Orion’s chin, coating his lips like cherry lipstick. His eyes were
blood
red
, wild with pre
datory glee as he observed us.

A chill ran through me. This wasn’t the Orion I saw back at the club. This was something else entirely, something I recognized deep inside myself.

A beast given human form.

I felt the air at my back heat as Rook came up behind me. “Careful, Sloane,” he murmured, never removing his eyes from Orion. “Drinking from another vampire does screwy things to us. It’s how Rogues are made.”

I swallowed, nodding so he would know I understood.

Orion’s head turned sharply to the side as he watched me, smiling slightly
with a deranged look in his eyes
.
His fingers twitched rapidly, as if itching to sink his nails in
to
fresh prey.
“I knew you’d come,” he said, his deep voice rough with bloodlust. “You can’t seem to let me go.”

It took me a moment to form a coherent reply. “Orion, what are you doing?”

He held out his arms, shrugging. “Embracing our heritage,
S
is
.”

“We are not monsters,” I said. “Even when we were pic
ked on relentlessly at school, F
ather taught us never to be monsters, to never stoop to their cruelty.”

Orion
laughed, running his hand over his mouth, which only succeeded in smearing the blood across his face. “You really don’t get it, do you?” he said, pacing. “We’re not like other mortals, Sloane. We’re not like them, either,” he added, gesturing to my friends. He leaned on a table, grasping the edge so tightly his knuckles turned white. “We’re more. We are descended from gods. It’s all here, every bit of it.”
He swept the room with one hand, gesturing to the piles of bloodied research.

My brows furrowed. “What is?”

“Proof!” he shouted, dark eyes glittering. “I even know where he is.”

“Who?”

He paused, holding my gaze.

“The first king. Our great-great-great-great
-so-on
grandfather.”

I stared at him, a little shocked.
So that’s what he was after. He wanted to know where to find the first vampire. But why? I
could
understand his curiosity, but this
was
more than that. It always
was
with him.

“That’s impossible,” Rook said
. “The first king was killed during a war
over two thousand years ago.”

“According to whom?” Orion said softly.

No one seemed to know what to say. “We’re living proof that history’s truths can easily be covered up,” Orion went on, walking toward me.

I tensed but didn’t back up as Orion stopped a few f
eet away. I glanced at his bare
arm. He was so close. If I could only get a sample of his blood, this whole mess would be over.
I wanted to glance around, to find something to draw his blood, but I was too afraid to take my eyes off him.

“Don’t you want to know more about our family, Sloane? Don’t you want to find a place where we belong, where we can be accepted?” Orion said, each word sounding seductively wonderful.

I thought back to everything that had happened recently; of the flower field with Aden, the stolen kisses I’d shared with Leo, the secrets Dezyre had imparted to me, and the quiet camaraderie Rook and I had.

“Sorry, Orion,” I said, regret shining in my gaze. “But I’ve already found a place to call home.”

I lunged for him, but he swiftly leapt onto the table and kicked me hard in the chest before I could think to block, sending me flying across the room
and
into a
cabinet
. The air rushed from my lungs upon impact, stunning me for a few sec
onds as I slumped to the floor. Things pelted my
back as whatever contents resting
inside the cabinet came crashing down on top of me.
It was mostly fragile, judging from the cacophony of tinkling and cracking glass all around me.

Rook and Leo opened fire, but Orion latched onto the ceiling like a demon, hissing at them as blue veins sprouted along his forehead and neck. Clinging to the ceiling like a spider, Orion scuttled over them toward the door, the bullets sending a shower of tiles crashing to the floor in his wake.

I watched
my brother
as
best I could. Glass snapped under my palms, slicing it as I tried to push myself up. I glanced down. Various medical supplies lay around me: bandages, gauze, plastic gloves, and –

“Syringes,” I breathed.

I grabbed one, examining it. It didn’t appear to be broken.

Dezyre ran over to me. “Are you okay?”

I ignored her question, prying my gaze away from
the syringe. I wrapped it in a glove
in an effor
t to keep it somewhat protected
,
and tucked it away in my hoodie pocket, zipping it closed.
“How did he get so fast?
” I asked, glancing back at the ceiling. “
And since when can he pull a Spider-man?”

“It’s because he drank from another vampire,” she said grimly, wrinkling her n
ose at the puddle on the floor. “It’s one of the worst crimes a vampire can commit, and it was outlawed in the city.” Her gaze flipped back to the door. “But I see some laws can easily be broken, especially when you’re the one making them,” she added dryly.

“We have to go after him,” I said. My ribcage flared up with sharp shoots of pain on those first few steps, and I winced but kept going. “I can’t let him escape again.”

I ran after him,
hop
p
ing over dismembered bodies like
hurdles at a track meet
while
Dezy
re shouted
protests
behind me
. The battle had spilled into the hall, where Leo and Rook were facing off with Orion.

It was mesmerizing. Orion
moved like a shadow, quick as d
eath, deftly blocking every move Leo made. After punching him squarely in the jaw,
Orion
slammed
Leo against the wall.
Leo blinked
several times,
no doubt seeing stars.

Rook fared a little better, since he was a vampire.
Still, i
t was all he could do to keep up wi
th Orion’s lightning-fast moves
.
Orion sidestepped an uppercut and brought his elbow down hard onto Rook
’s collarbone. I heard the bone
crack from where I was standing. Rook’s face went white with pain as he cried out, falling to one knee. Orion didn’t hesitate. He kicked Rook in the back of the head, sending his face
smacking
into the floor. His body squeaked against the floor as he was driven forward by the momentum of the blow.
I cringed. At this rate, his chest wound was going to open back up.

Orion watched him slide with a satisfied smile.

It was now or never.

With Orion’s attention
diverted, I ran forward, yanked
the syringe free from the wrapping
, and aimed
it toward Orion’s exposed arm.

His gaze snapped around so quickly that it startled me. I
drew up short as his demonic
eyes
met mine, a few inches from my face.

He grabbed my wrist, squeezing painfully as he jerked it up and eyed the syringe with an amused half-smile. “Really?”

I growled, fighting to break free, but it was like an iron vice had hold of me.

He pinned my arm against his chest, forcing me closer. My reflection stared back at me in his red eyes, filled with hatred.

“Last chance,” he said. “Come with me?”

My bottom lip trembled, not from fear but from the heart-wrenching guilt and sorrow
I felt
at losing my twin, my other half.

“I can’t,” I whispered. “You know I can’t.”

For a flickering of eternity, his eyes betrayed his human emotions, and I saw the regret my brother – my real brother – felt at having driven us to this point. In a blink, it was gone.

“Suit yourself,” he said.

I braced myself, fully expecting him to rip my heart out with his b
are hands. Instead,
he hurled me backward and I crashed into Dezyre. We both
went down in a tangle of limbs, and I felt the syringe break in my hand. Swearing, I shook my hand out, letting the remnants of the syringe drop to the floor.

“Don’t worry,” Dezyre said, patting her pants pocket. “I got some more for that very reason.”

I shot her a grateful smile. “You know, sometimes you’re not too bad.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Her eyes flickered upward, widening.

W
hen I turned around, Orion was by the wall, hand poised above the emergency button,
which was
tucked away in a glass barrier.

I inhaled a breath to scream, “Don’t!” when he punched through the glass and slammed his fist against the button.

Instantly,
a siren flared to life
and blue lights lowered from the ceiling, circling and shrieking like police sirens.