The Den of Shadows Quartet (29 page)

“I hope that blade is clean. I would hate for this to get infected.” She spoke to break the silence and keep hold of her bravado.

As she had predicted, Nikolas loosened his grip for a split second, and Sarah seized her moment, wrenching her arms down and drawing her knife at the same time. Nikolas only barely managed to avoid the silver blade as she swung it in his direction.

“You’re not as quick as some of your kin, Sarah,” he informed her, from just outside striking distance.

She laughed slightly “Quick enough.”

“Quicker than Elisabeth?” he inquired, and her eyes narrowed as she remembered the long hours of history. Nikolas was one of very few vampires who had killed a Vida and survived to speak of it.

“How much of a fight did she put up?” Sarah snapped. “Did she at least get a knife in you before she died?”

“Not in me.” The words were almost a growl. “Get out of my house, Sarah. I will see you shortly.”

He disappeared before she could react.

As she relaxed, the knife fell from her numb fingertips. She picked it up with her left hand, which wasn’t much better.

She leaned back against the wall and stretched out
her awareness. While she had been occupied with Nikolas, the humans in the house had fled — even the ones she had knocked out were gone.

Her stomach churned with the unpleasant nausea that comes with blood loss. After bandaging her arms as well as she could with the scant supplies she kept in the car, she picked up her cell phone and dialed Adianna.

A
DIANNA TOOK SARAH
to Caryn Smoke’s house, to be patched up for the second time in less than a month. Sarah had managed to fend off her sister’s questions only with stoic silence so far.

“We’re going to have to wash the blood off before I can see the cuts,” Caryn explained as she unwrapped the crude bandages Sarah had made with the rough first-aid supplies she kept in her car.

She had cleaned most of the blood from the ivy before she could see enough to tell what the full design was.

“Oh, Goddess …” The healer looked up, her pale blue eyes wide with shock and full of question.

“What?” Adianna stepped forward to see what the healer had seen.

“Give me some room,” Caryn ordered, her voice steady.

Adianna nodded, and leaned back against the opposite wall.

Caryn turned to the rose. When she got to the other shoulder she cleaned around the wound, revealing more of the damage.

Nikolas
. Caryn whispered the name, and Sarah saw Adianna’s gaze whip toward them as she heard it.

The hunter was on her feet instantly.
“That’s
who you were after today?” Sarah nodded once, and saw Adianna’s eyes racing over the careful designs. Finally she asked Caryn the question Sarah had been avoiding. “Will those scar?”

Caryn’s face was grim as she said, “I’m afraid so. I can heal the deeper damage so there won’t be any permanent injury to the muscles, but the wounds are bad enough that I can’t do much more.”

“My little sister went after Nikolas,” Adianna stated with some surprise in her voice. “He got away, didn’t he?” Again Sarah had to nod.

“He’s had hunters on his tail for more than a hundred years, Adia — he’s clever, and he could feel when I tried to build power to fight him. I didn’t have a chance.”

Yes, you did
, another part of her mind argued as she remembered her moment of hesitation when she had first seen him.
But he looked like Christopher, so you didn’t take it
.

Adianna just shook her head, making her feelings clear: If Sarah had not had a chance to fight, it meant she had screwed up somewhere. Again.

C
ARYN BANDAGED
S
ARAH’S ARMS
for school the next day. Sarah didn’t want to explain the marks. Her story, when anyone asked, was that she had been in a minor car accident.

She was glad that Christopher was not in school again. She had no desire to confront her friend about her enemy. So at her locker that afternoon, she was surprised to see the newest gift. A single white rose and a small white florist’s card.

129 Ash Road, November 4

She read the words twice, not believing them.

She, youngest Daughter of Vida, had been invited to a bash …
intentionally
.

Looking up, she caught sight of Nissa, who was talking with some of her human friends. Closing her locker, Sarah stalked over to Nissa and grabbed the vampire’s arm.

“What is this?” she demanded, flashing the card. Nissa’s friends all backed up, not sure what to do.

“It’s a —”

“I know
what
it is. I want to know why it was in my locker.”

“I have no idea,” Nissa answered, her brows drawing together in a puzzled frown. “Christopher told me what you said, and I would never … can I see it?”

Sarah handed over the card and Nissa went paler, if possible, than her already unnaturally pale color.

“You can’t go. Tell me you won’t go.”

“Why not?”

Nissa looked at the card again. “Where did you get this?”

“It was in my locker. If it’s not from you or Christopher, then who would have put it there? And why does it scare you so much?”

Nissa looked back at her human friends, then dragged Sarah away, lowering her voice so the humans would not hear them. “I’ve been to a bash in that circuit before, but would never go back. Sarah, they’ll kill you. If they know who you are —”

“Who are
they?”
Sarah pressed.

“It’s … it’s one of the harshest of the party circuits,” Nissa explained. “Tizoc Theron goes to these,” she added, naming one of the best-known vampiric assassins in the world. “Kaleo, Jessica Shade, Chalkha, Kamerine, Jega … even Kendra herself might be there.” Sarah took in the names, trying to match them with the faces she had seen at the last bash she had attended. Nissa continued, “Even
I’m
afraid to go to one of their bashes, and I haven’t been human in a long time. These vampires are
not nice
, Sarah. I’ve known them to brazenly invite vampire hunters just for the fun
of it. If they invited you, then they know who you are, and they plan to kill you.”

“Is Nikolas part of this group?”

“What?” Nissa asked, very softly.

“Will Nikolas be there?” Sarah demanded again.

“He —” Nissa’s eyes flickered to the bandages on Sarah’s arms. “My god, Sarah … do I want to know what’s under there?”

“I think you already do.”

“You’re going to go, aren’t you? To murder my brother.” Nissa leaned back heavily, hitting the lockers with a metallic clang. “That group will kill you, Sarah.”

“They didn’t manage to last time.” This was not a conversation she wanted to have. No matter how peaceful, Nissa would surely not appreciate hearing Sarah’s plans for her brother. “Don’t worry I’ll bring friends.”

“No
.”

“I’m not going to let him get away with this.”

“Sarah, I … don’t bring anyone else in. You’ll —” Nissa took a breath to brace herself. “If Nikolas marked you then he’s watching you. Anyone you would bring with you, he already knows about — they would be fair game. If you insist on going, go alone.”

“Even I’m not fool enough to go into the crowd you’re describing alone.”

“They won’t hurt you,” Nissa said quietly.

Sarah laughed.

“Most of the people in that circuit are either afraid of Nikolas, or loyal to him,” Nissa argued. “If he marked you it means he’s claimed you. No one else will touch you so long as Nikolas is alive.”

“Fine — I’ll kill him and then leave quickly. How’s that?”

“Nikolas alone is dangerous no matter how much training you’ve had.” Nissa continued as her voice took on a pleading tone. “Even the humans there will turn on you as soon as you try to fight him.”

“Nissa, I know he’s your brother, but do you have any idea how many people he has killed?” Sarah demanded. “If I let him go because I’m scared of him, he’s going to keep killing.”

“You think I don’t know?” Nissa responded, her voice strained. “I’m the one who gave him the vampire blood, Sarah. Every kill he makes
I
feel the guilt for.”

“W
HAT
?” Of course she had known, but hearing Nissa state it so bluntly was a shock.

“I changed him to save his life. He was in jail, waiting to be hanged for murder.” In response to Sarah’s horrified expression, Nissa continued, “He was my
brother
, Sarah.”

Nissa’s words started to come quickly, as if she had waited so long to tell the story to
someone
, and now she simply needed to get it out.

“Nicholas and Christopher were twins, as you know … Christopher was actually born first, but Nicholas always acted older. After my father was killed, Nicholas … he became more protective. Christopher had barely understood what happened, but Nicholas …” She trailed off. The reality of Nikolas did not need to be detailed.

“When they were eighteen their employer’s daughter returned from school in Europe. She was rich, and beautiful, and both my brothers adored her, though
Nicholas would never have challenged Christopher for anything.

“She, of course, wasn’t interested. We were too poor and too uncultured for her high-society airs. The only reason she even acknowledged my brothers’ existences was because it amused her to tease them. She was always trying to pit the twins against one another.”

Nissa’s gaze was lost on the past, but Sarah caught a glimpse of anger as she described the girl. “Her name was Christine.”

Nissa paused a moment and then went on, “It was at a May Day picnic that things changed. Kaleo was well respected in the town and he had found an invitation for us. Nicholas and Christopher looked so handsome, all dressed up. They had taken extra care to look nice for Christine.

“Christopher asked her to dance.” Nissa’s voice gave away the next part of the story even before she said the words. She took a heavy breath and then continued, “Christine turned him down. Worse, she laughed at him. The things she said to my brother … I would have killed her myself, if I had had a chance.

“Nicholas lost it — he was so protective, and he attacked Christine, furious that she had hurt Christopher. He killed her, in plain sight of the entire town, and was sentenced to be hanged.”

“He was my brother.” Nissa’s eyes begged for understanding. “I had already lost my father, and I could not stand to lose Nicholas, too. Not when I could save him.

“I changed Nicholas, but after that … The only thing I’ve ever been grateful to Kaleo for is that the first time he took me hunting, he didn’t let me kill. The
police were looking for Nikolas, and while I was trying to deal with them, Nikolas woke. It was the middle of the day, far earlier than he should have woken. He ran, and would have died if one of my kind had not taken him in.” Nissa shook her head. “Kendra took him hunting, and she taught him to kill.

“He changed Christopher the next night. They both disappeared from my life for months. Kaleo had everyone he knew looking for them, but no one could find them.

“During that time, they made the decision to give up everything that reminded them of their human lives, and that included me. They even changed how they signed their names.” She took a breath, her eyes pained. “They never contacted me. I didn’t even know they were still alive until I learned a year later that they had killed a witch, Elisabeth Vida. After that … well, they seemed to be everywhere at once.”

Nissa met Sarah’s gaze, her voice hard. “If you kill once, the bloodlust returns twice as strong. It hurts, and after you’ve been living off death for more than a hundred years … it hurts a lot. You have no idea how hard it was for Christopher to give it up, no idea how tempting every human being in this entire school is.

“I have given everything for my brothers, and they have both saved my life more than once when I wasn’t strong enough to defend myself from others of my kind. I would probably never forgive myself for harming a friend — and I do consider you a friend, Sarah — but if you hurt my brother, I
will
kill you, or die trying.”

Sarah flinched at the passion in Nissa’s voice. “I can’t let Nikolas live.”

“Sarah, please —” Nissa broke off, as if knowing there was nothing she could say. The vampire disappeared, but Sarah would not allow her determination to waver.

She threw out the rose Nikolas had sent with the invitation. Nissa had taken the card, but Sarah remembered the necessary information. The bash would be tonight, at 129 Ash Road. It wasn’t the same house she had found before, but considering his age and notoriety Sarah was not surprised that Nikolas had more than one.

She wouldn’t miss this for the world.

If Nissa was telling the truth, then Sarah would only be in danger from Nikolas … until she took him down. There was no need to endanger other hunters. If Nikolas knew who her allies were, he would alert the group immediately and the other hunters would not have even the scant protection that Nikolas’s marks gave to Sarah.
How ironic
, Sarah thought grimly. Nikolas’s marks would enable her to kill him.

S
ARAH FELT A LITTLE GUILT
as she lied to Adianna, telling her that she was going to hunt in the relatively safe city.

She wore black jeans and a white tank top, and her jacket hid the bandages, as well as the knife on her left wrist. Her primary knife was on her back, and she had two slim silver daggers in her boots.

Nikolas was playing with her, which meant he would give her a chance to fight. As soon as she had that chance, she would use it. This time there would be no hesitation.

The house appeared dark as Sarah approached it. All the shades were down, but she could hear a haunting melody from inside, a mixture of pain and loneliness. The door opened just as she reached for the knob, and she was again confronted with the peculiar — and powerful — world of Nikolas.

Black and white
.

The walls were black with a white design running across them, spiraling and plunging, the lines all slightly wrong, drawing the eye to seemingly impossible shapes. The other house she had seen had been crisp in its lack of color; the abstraction in this one made Sarah’s vision spin, so she turned to the vampire who had opened the door for her.