Darkness Divides (Sensor #3) (8 page)

We had a difficult time finding a navigable route to my house. First we had to find a way through the city. I had no idea how Derrick had gotten us to the hospital so quickly before. Many of the roads had buckled and cracked, forcing us to make multiple detours just to get to the outskirts of Fairbanks. It didn’t get any better once we left civilization behind. The main highways to my home had been damaged enough that we were forced to go off road twice. It shouldn’t have been more than a thirty minute trip, but already an hour had passed.

Despite the delay, I drove extra slow with Emily in the car. My night vision might have improved since drinking Lucas’ blood, but I could only see so far ahead with all the twists and turns. Not to mention the uneven terrain. I wanted to avoid jarring her as much as possible and cringed every time we hit a bump I couldn’t avoid. At least Nik was in the back keeping an eye on her. Emily sat stiff as a board with no expression on her face. The vampire hadn’t been able to draw her into any kind of conversation. That worried me.

She’d had two more doses of his blood—one an hour before dawn and another soon after sunset. Micah had insisted on waiting until she could keep food in her stomach before we moved her. I was glad they had only shaved part of Emily’s long hair. With some creative styling, she’d hopefully be able to cover up most of the bald spot. She didn’t need the reminder and I desperately wanted her to return to normal as soon as possible. The girl in the backseat was not the same one I’d taken to school yesterday morning.

Kariann stood outside the house waiting for us when we arrived. The big, blonde vampire leaned against the door frame, trying to appear relaxed, but there was an edginess in her mood that I could sense. Nik had arranged for her to check over the house and make sure it was safe to return. She’d reported back that there’d only been a few minor cracks in the interior walls—plus some broken dishes. As soon as the sun set, she began repairing and cleaning things up.

Nik had the house remodeled before Emily and I moved into it and added reinforcements to the structure at the same time. Not because of possible earthquakes, but because I had a lot of enemies and he wanted the house to hold against attacks. My blood—when circled around it—could ward off magic, but that didn’t stop physical means of destruction.

If my blood had circled it yesterday it might have been spared from the explosion altogether, but I’d left the house open so Micah could flash inside whenever he visited. At least it had held up well enough that we could come back to it.

I glanced at Emily’s face in the rearview mirror. She stared out the window with distant eyes. If she was happy to be home, I couldn’t tell.

“You doing okay?” I asked her.

She gave a small shrug. “I’m fine.”

Nik and I looked at each other. He sighed and opened the door, climbing out to help Emily. She wasn’t supposed to be walking around yet. Nik had volunteered to carry her inside when we got here. I could have done it, but it would have given away my newfound strength. Emily wasn’t big, but at a hundred and fifteen pounds she was technically too heavy for me to carry that far.

Kariann pushed the front door open wide when we reached her.

“Thanks for helping out with the house,” I told her, letting Nik go ahead so he could take Emily to her room.

Kariann was part of Nik’s inner circle and third in line for command. One look at the female warrior and you wouldn’t question her placement. She fought like an Amazon and kicked my ass regularly when we trained together. I couldn’t use my enhanced strength against her, but considering she had over six centuries of battle experience I would lose even if I didn’t hold back. She was that good.

“No problem. Master Nik had me collect all the food people have been bringing for you.” She grinned. “The good news—especially for Emily—is you shouldn’t need to cook for the next month.”

She led me to the small kitchen. The counters were stacked with baked dishes and the dining room beyond revealed the table had a couple things on it too. There was a casserole, some mini sandwiches, a crock pot with soup, and several kinds of deserts. My stomach growled at seeing it all. I hadn’t eaten much since the explosion.

“Wow,” I said, shaking my head. “I thought people only did stuff like this in the movies.”

It was going to be fun trying to fit everything in the fridge, too.

She leaned against the counter. “Most people know what a bad cook you are and they wanted to make sure Emily actually stood a chance at recovering.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not as bad as I used to be.”

“Melena,” she gave me a pointed look, “I saw the burned Ramen Noodles in the trash can. Only you could screw those up.”

“What would you know? The last time you ate human food was when the Crusades were still going on.”

“Nah.” She shook her head. “They were pretty much over by the time I was born.”

I grabbed an oatmeal cookie off a nearby plate and chewed on it. “So give me the scoop on what’s been going on. I’ve been kind of out of the loop.”

“It’s not good,” Kariann said, sighing. “We’ve only accounted for half our people so far, but we know for sure two vamps are dead. Their houses were damaged and they were exposed to the sun. Oh, and one werewolf was working in a mine when the earthquake caused it to collapse. He got out, but he’s in bad shape.”

Werewolves could heal fairly fast, but broken bones and crushed spines could put them out of commission for at least a couple days—though it depended on their age and power level. A really strong one could bounce back sooner.

“Any idea who set off the explosion?” I asked.

“Not yet. We’ve confirmed it originated at the fae city, but communications with them are down. No one has any clue who would want to do this or why. It doesn’t make any sense.” She shook her head and sighed.

Kariann was tough, but recent events seemed to be getting to her, too. Hell, they were getting to all of us. As selfish as it might seem, it made me feel better that I wasn’t the only one feeling a little frustrated and helpless.

“Ladies,” Nik said, coming down the stairs, “Emily’s settled in her bed and Micah just flashed in to check on her. He says she’ll need to rest soon so if you want to see her, you should do it now.”

Kariann and I exchanged glances and headed upstairs. My house wasn’t big. The common areas, plus a half bathroom and storage closet were on the first floor. Two bedrooms and a full bath were upstairs.

It was an older place, but Nik’s renovations had modernized it enough to be comfortable. He’d put beige carpet in all the rooms and painted the walls off-white. We could change anything we wanted, but we’d never got around to it. All the furniture was simple and comfortable—nothing extravagant.

Emily and I had both moved around so much in our lives, I think we were afraid to get too relaxed. Life can change in the blink of an eye. You never knew when you might have to pick up and leave it all in an instant. Better to not get too attached to anything.

We walked into Emily’s room and found her settled on her queen-sized bed with a dark red comforter on top of her. She was pale from the trip, but at least the swelling and bruising on her face had gone down. She’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail, fully exposing her bald spot. I could see the faint outline of the surgical scar. The vampire blood had healed it enough so that it was almost non-existent. Micah had told me this morning he expected her hair would start growing back soon.

Emily hadn’t seemed to care about that so far, but it could become an issue for her eventually. At least school would be out before she could go back. I’d already called them and arranged to have all her homework sent to our house so she could work on it over the summer after she recovered. So long as she finished it, the teachers agreed to allow her to move on to her junior year.

Micah sat in front of Emily holding up one of the drawings I’d done last week. He shouldn’t have taken those from my room, but now wasn’t the time to complain about it.

“What is this?” he asked her.

Emily’s forehead wrinkled and she squinted at it hard. “I don’t know.”

I came around the bed and looked. It was a drawing of our house—the one we were currently in.

Micah flipped up another sketch from my notebook. This time it was of our shape-shifter cat, Sable, where she stood next to a river. I’d done that one last month while out on a particularly long walk. She’d been in her usual lynx form at the time.

Emily stared hard at that one, too.

“I don’t know.” She turned her head away and stared out the window.

I swallowed back my worry and turned to Micah. “What does this mean?”

“It’s a side effect from her injury. With time, she should be able to recognize drawings again, but I wanted to see where she was at now. I didn’t let the doctors conduct any of these tests because I didn’t want any more documentation to cover up. We’ll check again in two days when she’s had more time to recover and heal.”

“But how can she recognize us and not a drawing?” That made no sense to me.

“She sees us as three-dimensional. The trouble is drawings are two-dimensional and the brain processes them differently. There are a few other tests I need to give her where she may have difficulties, but this isn’t something to worry about yet. She just underwent surgery yesterday. With time she should overcome most, if not all, of any lingering issues.”

Emily’s lips were pursed when I looked at her again. She wasn’t crying, but I could sense her frustration. I sat next to her on the bed and rubbed her arm.

“It’ll come back, Em. Just be patient.”

“Whatever.” She didn’t meet my eyes.

“Want me to bring you something to eat?” Kariann stepped forward and asked. “There’s all kinds of stuff downstairs. I think I even saw some chocolate cake.”

Emily usually loved chocolate cake, making it a good choice.

“I don’t want anything,” she said, still staring at the window. It was dark outside. Not much to see out there, but that didn’t seem to stop her from looking.

Micah gave Kariann and me a commiserating look. “I need to finish these tests and then she needs to get some sleep. Perhaps she can try eating something when she wakes.”

We nodded and left the room. I really hoped her side effects and mood were temporary because I hated the thought I might have lost the old Emily for good. Where was the bright and cheerful girl I’d grown to love?

Chapter Seven

Kariann and I sat downstairs in the living room watching a repeat of the last Game of Thrones episode. It was one of the few things she, Emily, and I enjoyed doing together. I tried not to think about the girl upstairs missing it, but she needed her rest.

When my cell phone rang, I picked it up and checked the caller ID. It was Aniya—my best friend since high school. I hadn’t heard from her since the explosion the day before and she hadn’t returned my calls.

“It’s about time,” I said, answering the phone. “I was about to send out a search party.”

“My mom’s dead,” she whispered.

I sat up straighter. “What happened?”

She made a pained noise. A full minute passed before she got herself under control enough to answer.

“The…earthquake. When I woke up last night she was lying on the floor with dried blood on her head. The fireplace had collapsed and some of the bricks must have fallen on her. Oh, God! It’s my fault she’s dead. If I’d just woken up then maybe I could have saved her!”

She was crying again. “Aniya, listen to me.”

I waited until the line grew quiet.

“This is not your fault.” I gripped the phone. “You’re a new vampire. There’s no way you could have woken up during the day to do anything. You can’t blame yourself for this.”

“But I’m the one who made her move here from California. If I’d just left her there then maybe she’d be okay now.”

“Do you hear yourself? California? Home of the massive earthquakes. You can’t know what might have happened if she stayed there instead. Maybe she would have died in a different earthquake or a mudslide or any number of things. At least this way she was able to spend her last days with you. Think about that. She loved you and she wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else.”

Aniya let out a shaky sigh. “Maybe.”

“There is no maybe,” I said forcefully. “You know I’m right. Now, have you called Nik and told him what happened?”

“Yeah, I talked to him just before you. I’d needed some time first to…deal with things, but after I woke up this evening I knew I couldn’t wait any longer. He’s on his way here.”

Her mother’s body would have started to decay by now. I didn’t want to think of Mrs. Singh lying there on the floor dead. She’d been like a second mother to me, or rather a third since I’d been adopted. I’d wanted to believe she would keep going forever. She’d been sweet and kind. The type of woman anyone would want for a mom. This had been a bad way to go, but I couldn’t worry about that now. Aniya needed me.

“Listen to Nik when he gets there and let him help you. I’m going to head over in a few minutes. Just try to stay calm and we’ll take care of this. Okay?”

“Okay,” she said.

I thought about mentioning Emily, but decided against it. Aniya didn’t need anything else to worry about right now. After hanging up, I met Kariann’s sympathetic eyes. She must have heard the whole conversation with her vamp hearing.

“I’ll watch Emily. You go,” she said before I could ask.

I gave her a weak smile. “Thanks. I’ll be back before dawn.”

***

The damage wasn’t quite as bad as I expected—all things considered. The only part of Aniya’s house that had collapsed was the fireplace. There were some cracks in the walls that I could make out as I climbed the front steps, but nothing else significant.

I didn’t bother knocking on the door. Finding it unlocked, I stepped right into the living room. There was a blanket over what had to be Mrs. Singh’s body. I knelt over it and lifted a corner. Her body was front side up with half of her black and gray hair soaked in dried blood. Already her olive skin had started to change into a sort of greenish color. She was beginning to swell too and a less than pleasant odor permeated around her. I wrinkled my nose and tried to ignore the scent as best I could.