Falling to Ash (23 page)

I tried to dig my elbow into the skinny ribs pressed
against
my back, but it felt like my wrists were being crushed in a steel trap. ‘Get off me, Kyle.’

‘Say please,’ purred that irritating voice in my ear.

‘Go screw yourself. Theo won’t be happy when I tell him about this.’

Kyle loved to mess with me; it was one of his hobbies. ‘Sorry, kid, but the boss isn’t here tonight. I’m keeping an eye on things. And what are
you
doing here? I didn’t think Theo had given you permission to come in here yet.’

I tried to rein in my temper. ‘I was looking for Theo, OK? If he’s not here, I’ll just leave. Is he at home?’

His eyes glittered, and his smile was as sharp as knives. ‘He’s out hunting, little Moth. Same as me.’

Theo was hunting again? He hardly ever went out on a hunt by himself, let alone this regularly. He’d already been out on Saturday – when I’d found him almost glowing with fresh blood.
Erin’s blood
. A horrible thought wormed its way into my mind, but before I could focus and try to unravel it, Kyle grabbed my chin and forced my head up until our faces were almost touching. His talons dug into my flesh, forcing a gasp of pain out of me. Kyle’s nails were more like claws – just another weapon he could use in combat. His eyes spat burning silver.

I tried to twist out of his grip, while nervously looking around at the human patrons nearby. ‘Put a lid on it, Kyle, you’re
sparkling
all over the freaking place.’

I couldn’t believe it was
me
having to tell
him
that. What had gotten into him? ‘Listen, I know this is our territory but there are still humans around.’

‘Ah yes, all the lovely sheep. So many tasty snacks wandering around.’

He moved next to me, pressing his hip against mine as he leaned against the pillar. He slid his arm around my waist and kept hold of me, gesturing at the spinning dancers with his other hand.

‘See how they move, little Moth. Can you smell it?’ His stance was watchful, focused, and his gaze was hungry. His presence seemed like a jagged rock in a stream. Wiry and feral.

I was starting to get seriously pissed. If I didn’t know better I’d say he was high, but vampires weren’t affected by narcotics – especially not the older vamps, and Kyle had more than a century under his tasteless studded belt. And just what was with his outfit tonight, anyway? He was dressed like a blond version of Russell Brand: all skinny jeans, unbuttoned shirt and guyliner.

‘What are you talking about?’ I tried to move away from him but his fingers dug into my side, those long nails like small needles piercing my skin even through the material of my coat.

‘Take a good, long sniff, my dear. Breathe it in. Life . . . The scent of the living.’ He pressed his face close –
so
close that his long hair tickled my cheek. He opened his lips, showing the tips of white fangs. ‘
Food
.’

‘Get a grip,’ I snapped, trying to sound braver than I felt.

‘I’m perfectly in control,’ he said. ‘Just speaking the truth. Don’t tell me you haven’t felt it too. It’s what we are. It’s the darkness inside all of us, giving us the chance to lose ourselves in really bad places. I mean,
really
bad shit, you know? It’s being bad and liking it. You can pretend all you like, but you want to watch them bleed as much as I do.’

It was the way he said it that turned my stomach to lead. A weird sort of precognition, intuition or one of those fluke ‘feelings’ . . .

‘Get your hands off me and maybe I won’t tell Theo.’ Yeah, right. Because I really
wasn’t
going to tell Theo that his unofficial right-hand man was a total freak just waiting to flip out and go on a murdering rampage. I glared at him, seriously tempted to kick chunks out of his shins with my steel-toe-capped boots.

‘Theo doesn’t care what I do.’ He ran his tongue along his teeth, flicking it between razor-sharp fangs. ‘The boss is getting soft in his old age. Maybe he’s losing his touch – maybe
he’s
the one losing control, eh?’

OK, now this wasn’t good. Not good at all. My mind raced as I pictured Erin’s lifeless body and Rick’s transformation from emo-kid to Zombie Boy from hell. Kyle
had
been the one to look into their deaths for Theo, hadn’t he . . .?

Of course, we only had
his
word for whatever he had or hadn’t done to investigate these vampire-related deaths. Did Kyle really have anything to do with all this crap? He was probably the right age to create revenants – that book had said vamps were usually under two hundred years old in order to screw up a Turning enough to
Unmake
the victim.
Was
that him in the photo with Murdoch? I shivered. What was I getting myself into now?

‘Ah, Moth. I’m surprised you haven’t noticed anything . . . wrong with the boss lately. Considering all the
quality time
you spend with him.’

‘Stop talking crap, asshole, and get your stinking hands off me.’ I grabbed a handful of his stringy blond hair and yanked down on it. OK, so hair-pulling was kind of beneath my dignity, but whatever worked in a tight situation was fine with me.

Kyle growled and pushed me away so hard that I stumbled and banged my hip on one of the chairs tucked behind the pillar. I hissed with the sudden burst of pain but jumped up onto the chair, giving me the high ground – and a good view of the dance floor. All the way across to the exit, which was flanked by what looked to me like two vampire doormen. I wondered if the human manager of Subterranean knew that the silent owner of
the
club, Theo, was providing more and more of the staff. Most of the muscle was undead, although Holly had told me that the bar staff remained human – for some reason vampires couldn’t mix a good cocktail. Not like Augusto, who reigned supreme at the main bar.

‘Ah, so you don’t want to dance with me tonight,’ Kyle said, his voice dripping with fake disappointment.

‘Thanks,’ I replied with a not-so-sweet smile. ‘I think I’ll pass.’

He shrugged. ‘Yeah, because I really give a rat’s ass about a runt like you.’ He shrugged and half turned away. ‘My work here is done, anyway.’

I frowned. Now what was the stupid idiot talking about? ‘What work? Collecting glasses?’ Then understanding dawned hard and cold. He’d been playing with me – holding me up for some reason. Keeping me from . . . from what? I jumped down from the chair, hating myself for going to him but needing to know what had just happened. ‘What are you talking about?’ I grabbed his arm. ‘What have you done?’

His face was suddenly empty of emotion. Even the gloating smile had slipped away, leaving a blank mask. ‘You didn’t come here alone, child.’

Confusion washed over me, making it difficult to think. The flashing lights and pounding bass weren’t helping. ‘But I did come alone. You’re not making sense.’

The older vampire looked thoughtful for a moment
and
then that slow smile spread across his face again. ‘Maybe one of your little human friends has been following you, then. What a pity for him . . .’ He let his voice trail off in mock sorrow as he shook his head.

Oh God, no. Please don’t let Jace have been dumb enough to come after me. Why the
hell
had I left that stupid message? I licked my lips and stared at Kyle, fury waging war with terror in my gut. ‘If you’ve hurt him, I’ll make you sorry.’

‘Ah, so concerned about the human boy.’ He spat on the ground and then fixed me with cold, cold eyes. Eyes that had gone the color of flat steel.

I didn’t wait around to ask more questions. If Jace had followed me here, surely he would’ve brought weapons – he was potentially crazy, but not crazy enough to arrive unarmed at a place like this. I had to find him. He’d be out back in the alley; I might not have been here before, but I knew how the vampires dealt with unwelcome visitors to Subterranean. Holly’s stories had
some
uses.

Running through a small crowd of clearly underage kids on the edge of the dance floor, I pushed someone out of my way and ignored the girl who yelled something at me. I couldn’t hear anything above the beat of the music, the bass making time with my pounding heart. I was almost too overcome with fear to notice how hard my inhuman heart was suddenly trying to beat – something that would normally make me bizarrely happy.

I slammed through the fire exit so hard that I left the imprint of my hand on the metal bar across the door.

The cold air hit my face and brought me to a sudden stop. The night was still and the rain from last night had already frozen into icy puddles dotting the alleyway, making it difficult to stay upright. I looked left, toward the main street: nothing.

Turning my head, I held my breath as I looked to the right. At the end of the alley a crumpled shape lay on the ground. It was too dark to make out any detail, but it looked like a guy-shaped body curled into a foetal ball. Shadows danced as an overhanging tree was caught by a sudden gust of wind, its empty branches making spidery trails on the alley’s high wall.

I walked slowly toward the body – no, not the body, I wouldn’t think like that – toward the
shape
on the cold ground. I trod carefully on the light covering of frost as I knelt down beside the young guy who lay so very still.

It took me a moment to register the fact that he was wearing a long black coat and heavy black boots. Camouflage? A disguise of some kind? I frowned as I gripped his shoulder and turned him over.

‘Oh no,’ I said. ‘No.’

His stark white face glowed in the darkness. His sludgy green eyes were wide open and blood still seeped from the gaping wound in his throat. The blood seemed leached of color; it was almost black in the surrounding
gloom
as it slowly dripped into a growing puddle beneath him.

‘Byron,’ I whispered. ‘You
idiot
.’

It wasn’t Jace at all. The whole time that Kyle had been tormenting me – delaying me and playing for time – Byron had been lying out here in the cold, slowly dying. All alone. A sob hitched in my throat. He was just a dumb kid whose only ‘crime’ was to love his girlfriend and try to find out what had happened to her. Tears ran hot down my frozen cheeks, taking me by surprise.

Now there was another murdered kid to deal with. Murdered by Kyle? How else might Theo’s Enforcer be involved? And what about Theo’s scent on Erin’s body? I rubbed a hand across my tear-stained face. Whatever else was going on here, I knew one thing for certain: this boy was dead because he’d been following me, probably desperate for the answers that I’d held back this afternoon. He must have waited for
hours
outside my apartment.

I swallowed bile as I looked at the bloody mess of his throat, knowing that I’d cost him his life.

Chapter Nineteen

BYRON’S EYES WERE
half open, glazed. I brushed his streaked hair away from his face, gently, as though I might disturb his peace if I moved too quickly. Grief closed around my heart like a fist. And the scent of blood took me back, back to that earlier time. Those first few days . . .

‘
I can smell it from here,’ I say. I want to cry, but the tears won’t come. ‘Why can I smell it from all the way out here? Why does it smell so good?
’

Theo kisses my forehead. He casts no reflection in the window. ‘Because you’re hungry,’ he says, so softly I almost don’t hear him
.

‘But I’m always hungry,’ I whisper
.

‘
Yes
.’

* * *

I couldn’t leave Byron’s body here. Much as I wanted to make an anonymous call to the BPD and let Smith and Trent come out here to do their thing, I couldn’t take that risk. Not right behind Subterranean. And what if Byron went the same way as Rick? His girlfriend hadn’t – or not that I’d heard – but it didn’t mean that this boy would be so lucky.

Lucky
. What a word to apply to a murdered teenager.

‘Screw it,’ I said under my breath, reaching for my cell phone. Then I cursed loudly. I shouldn’t use my own phone. Not here. What if calls could be traced? I didn’t need my name coming into
another
murder investigation. I forced myself to take a breath to steady myself, then dug through Byron’s pockets. It felt wrong, gruesome, to disturb him in death, but I needed a phone and his had to be here somewhere.

Of course, Byron’s cell phone had a cracked screen.
Crap
. I held my breath and hit the ‘on’ button. Waited what felt like an eternity. But finally the graphics shuddered into view. I didn’t know where Theo was, and he didn’t carry a phone anyway. I couldn’t call out the vampire security – not while Theo was trying to convince them I was nicely under control. Who was to say I wouldn’t be blamed for this death? So there was only one person I could call for help. I punched in the number still stashed in my jeans pocket. Thank God I hadn’t dumped it, or left it in my leather jacket –
which
was safe and sound with my sister.

After two rings Jace picked up.

After a brief explanation he was on his way.

And that’s how it came to be that it was
Jace
who helped me lift the body into the back of his father’s van.

‘So,’ Jace said, his casual tone hiding something darker, ‘is this kid going to vamp out on us?’