Dark Horizons (The Red Sector Chronicles) (39 page)

Exhausted, I let myself drift off to sleep.

And wished I hadn’t.

***

The first thing I thought when I woke up in the dream world was that it was awfully dark.
The weird
thing
was that
only the sky was slate gra
y; everything else was still colorful,
and the sky only made
the surrounding
color that much more vivid.

This time I had on a bright red dress. Judging from the way the fabric eagerly whipped in the wind, it was made out of some sort of gauze.

Scanning the area, I relaxed a little when I didn’t see any Rogues. Though the sky looked unhappy, it didn’t look like it was on the verge of a colossal downpour, either.

A speck of blond hair flashed from somewhere in front of me, and my heart skipped a beat as I furtively searched for
him
.

There.

I ran toward the tree, the tip of its foliage just visible above the crest of the hill. Nearly twisting my ankle on the other side, I forced myself to be careful as I hastily descended, coming to a stop in front of Aden.

He was lying next to the tree, his back propped up against the trunk. Both hands lay at his sides, and it looked like he was sleeping.
In the distance
the ocean whispered, the scent of the salt in its waves car
rying on the wind. I thought I had
smelled the ocean
when I first came here,
but
I
hadn’t seen it because we’d always been on the other side of the hill.

A trickle of fear ran through me
as I looked my maker over
. “Aden?”

His eyes cracked open as he sucked in a weak, raspy breath. “Sloane?”

I dropped to my knees beside him, not caring if I ruined the d
ress in the mud. It wasn’t real
anyway. Carefully, I examined him with growing worry. “You look paler.”

The corner of his mouth turned up as if he found this funny. “I feel paler.”

I popped my lips. “O-kay. What, does Paris have you on too many pain meds?”
I realized how much that statement was in poor taste and quickly bit my lip. “Er, sorry.”

He reached over and grabbed my hand, then squeezed it with the strength of an old man on the verge of death. “You’re different,” he wheezed. “Something’s changed about you.”

I warred with myself over whether or not to tell him about t
he newest addition to our effed
up vampire family.

The coughs came without warning. One second he was fine; the next, he doubled over, his body shaking as he heaved cough after powerful cough.

“Aden?” I bent over him, placing a hand on his shoulder as I grew more afraid for him. “What can I do?”

“Nothing.” He sat up, his eyes filled with pain. Smatterings of blood – the most I’d seen since he caught the virus – soiled his arm w
here he ha
d coughed on it.

My face went white with fear.
It was happening. He was
actually dying
, and I wasn’t
there to do a damn thing about it.

Around me, the grass wa
s curling up and turning a dead
brown color. Leaves from the tree decayed and fell to the ground, first one by one and
then in waves. In the distance
something crackled, like boulders tumbling down a mountain.

Wildly, I looked back at Aden. He was so still.

“No,” I said, placing a hand on his cheek so I could tilt his face toward mine. “No, please.”

Aden’s eyes opened, finding my gaze; he seemed to be peering into my soul. “Stay strong,” he whispered, lightly touching my cheek with his fingertips. “And never give up.”

Wh
en he leaned forward to kiss me
I didn’t move. I didn’t even blink, for fear he wouldn’t be
t
here after I did.

The kiss never came.

He literally faded away into nothing before my eyes. I sat there, stunned. He was gone.

“Aden?”

I looked around as the rumbling grew louder. I was alone.

The earth rumbled beneath me as the last of the color was sucked out of the grass, and hell itself opened up to swallow me whole.

CHAPTER 23

“ADEN!”

His name echoed throughout the grocery store as I clawed myself awake. I was shaking so badly, my teeth were rattling. In my mind, the black, fire-swept abyss
hurtled toward me, reaching up
, fighting
to claim me for its own.

Footsteps pounded toward me. Leo rounded the corner of the deli counter and crashed onto the floor beside me,
tentatively laying a hand on my shoulder
. “Hey, are you all right? We heard you screaming.”

Dezyre and Rook
came up
behind him, gazing at me with a mixture of wariness and concern.

“I – he was – I lost him –” I could hardly speak because I couldn’t stop trembling.

Leo promptly swept me up in a tight hug. I’d always teased him a
bout them being too snug – “man
hugs,” I called them – but right now, I couldn’t get close enough to him. I needed to hear his heart pounding, to know I wasn’t alone.

Aden.

I pushed back from Leo, looking at Rook and Dezyre. “Aden’s dead.”

They looked at each other, skeptical. “How do you know?” Dezyre asked.

“I had this dream.”

She nearly snorted
, but I saw the flash of surprise in her eyes that said she believed me
.
She had been the one, after all, to bring up the subject
of dream-
sharing
back at the
Laundromat
.
“
It was probably just a nightmare. You’re overreacting
.”

“I saw him!” I shouted, rising to my feet. Leo caught me when I swayed, keeping a hand on my arm for safe measure. “I know it was him!”

“Whoa, whoa,” Rook said, holding up his hands. “Just back up. What do you mean exactly?”

I h
astily recounted my rendezvous
with Aden in th
e field.
Rook’s eyes widened
as I spoke
.

Dezyre playfully elbowed him. “Oh, don’t look so shocked. I’ve dreamt of you too.”

He blushed, looking away. “I, er, didn’t know what it meant. That’s all.”

Dezyre rolled her eyes. “Well, you don’t have to worry about me professing
my
endless love. Though
we do have some catching up to do on the
‘
family quality time
’
department.”

More than anything, their banter irritated me. I just wanted to know if Aden truly was dead, if we should just call it quits and head home.

If I’d be welcome there anymore.
Knowing Frost, she’d have me shot at the entrance for my little insult. Escaping from a general’s grasp had to come like a slap to the face.

“What do you think it means?” I snapped, interrupting them.
“
My
dream, that is.”

“
As I said,
I think you’re overreacting.
” Dezyre
crossed
her arms. “
You said so yourself that the world fell apart when he vanished. Have y
ou been having trouble sleeping? Any
nightmares?”

I gulped. I couldn’t tell them about the casket dream
,
or the one where Aden and I were assaulted by Rogues. “You could say that,” I mumbled.

“Then how do you know it was real?” Dezyre said. “It could have just been a bad dream. I wouldn’t sweat it.”

Though my trembling had subsided, the bad feeling in my gut hadn’t. I couldn’t shake the image from my mind of Aden
disappearing
.

Gone. Forever.

The t
hought of that came with a soul-
crushing weight that I thought would cripple me.

“Besides,” Rook said, breaking my thoughts, “we have something we should prepare for.”

I blinked. What could possibly be more important than saving Aden’s
life? “What do you mean?” I asked
.

“We –” he pointed to all of us – “have a ball to attend tomorrow night. Or I guess, technically, it’s tonight, considering it’s nearly 7
a
.
m.”

J
eez,
it’s
that late already?
I’d been out for nearly two hours, but the dream had only lasted a few minutes. No wonder I felt like crap.

“Why’s this so important?” I asked.

“They’re honoring an esteemed scientist who’s done some research on vampire and human genetics,” Dezyre said, sounding genuinely interested. I guess the medical side of it interested her inner nerd. “They’re calling it the ‘Creator’s Ball’.”

“Creator?” I said. “As in, the ‘Mark of the Creator’?”

“Maybe,” Rook said. “There’s only one way to find out.”

“There’s another thing,” Dezyre said, her eyes sparkling. “
The honoree’s name is Dr. Ivan Johansen.”

That got my attention. “That’s the signature on all those papers we found back at the lab.”

“Precisely,” she purred.

Hope flickered to life inside me. This was almost too good to be true. “How did you find out about this?” I said, looking between the two of them.

“We found an old radio in the back while you were sleeping,” Dezyre said. “We thought it’d be a good idea to listen in to see if they had any updates or news about the lab invasion, but all they could talk about was this gala. Lucky us.” Her eyes
twinkled
, most likely at the thought of getting dressed up.

I barely heard what they said because I was
so wrapped up in my own thoughts, thinking through the possibilities. “If this Johansen is going to be there, then –”

“ – s
o could Orion,” Dezyre finished.

“Where’s the ball being held?”

Dezyre had the grace to grimace. “At the Sovereign’s mansion,” she answered reluctantly.

I immediately frowned. The last time I’d visited my dear mother, she’d threatened to execute me for treason if I didn’t comply to have a blood test.
She thought that my traipsing around in the Red Sector could have tainted my blood with vampire ilk. She had no idea how close to home she’d hit.

I chewed on my lip, frowning.
Something
told
me
that
outwitting
the
Scarlet Guard
stationed
around her property
and sneaking back to the Syndicate
under her radar
wasn’t going to set real well with her.

“Hold up,
” Leo said, forming a time-out
symbol with his hands. “This thing is at Mrs. McAllister’s place? It’ll be crawling with
Scarlet Guards, and most likely
S.IA
personnel
. To go there would be suicide.”

“But it could be the only way to find and stop Orion,” Rook said wisely.

I shifted my weight, thinking. Leo was right. There was a
good
chance this whole expedition
would fly south quickly
. Then again, Rook was also right. If Aden was still alive and Orion would be there, it could be my last chance to obtain a sample of his blood.

Jaw fixed, I looked up, steel in my eyes.

“Count me in.”

***

I gulped as my mother’s sprawling evergreen grounds and massive Southern plantation-style mansion came into view. The scenery lights were on, dotting the pea gravel drive and spotlighting the white columns on the house I’d come to think of as a sort of prison. Limos pulled up to the front stairs, where valets dressed in red jackets with long coat tails, like something from the Civil War, helped guests out of their vehicles.

A nervous jitter flitted through my stomach, making it flip. “You guys sure about this?” I asked.

Leo, clad in a black tuxedo that more or less fit, bumped my shoulder as he walked up behind me. Truthfully
, I didn’t mind him being close
because it meant body heat.
When I went to put my hoodie
back on
after dressing up
, Dezyre had been mortified. “You are
not
going out in public wearing
that
thing with that dress,” she’d said.
At
her
insistence, I’d sullenly grabbed a silk wrap. I had it pulled tight across my shoulders, but it did little to no good against the cool January air.