Blood-Kissed Sky (Darkness Before Dawn) (6 page)

“You were there? When I was in the coma?”

“Every night. Just long enough to make sure you were still breathing.”

“Faith and Richard said you weren’t coming into the city.”

He grins. “I don’t tell them everything.”

The most Victor and I have ever shared is an amazing kiss, but I’m closer to him than I’ve ever been to anyone in my life. It’s more than the fact that we faced death together. We saved each other, in more ways than one.

“How did you know I was here?” I ask.

He brushes his fingertips over my neck, over the place where he drew blood. “I saw you leave the hospital. I was hoping the nightmares would stop. Are you dreaming about me taking your blood?”

I see the worry in his eyes; the thought that he’s responsible for my nightmares is unbearable to him. “No, no. It’s weird. It makes no sense. I’m wandering through a mountain, and someone is calling to me to find him. It seems so real that I’m always disoriented when I wake up. The doctor had me talk to a shrink. He says it’s nothing. Just my subconscious trying to figure things out.”

“Humans are so complicated.”

“And vampires aren’t?”

“Maybe it’s just you who’s complicated.” He releases another soft laugh.

I enjoy that rich sound for a moment. It seems like since we met it’s been nothing but drama and near-death. I have to cherish these precious moments, because they’re so rare.

He’s still stroking my throat and I’m growing warm. He’s looking into my eyes but every now and then his gaze flicks down. Then finally it doesn’t come back to my eyes. His nostrils flare and I imagine he can smell my blood, because I can hear it thundering between my ears.

“Is it hard being overlord?” I try to distract him.

His eyes shift back to mine. “Harder than I expected. I’m going to have to demand more blood.”

“Rachel says people have stopped donating. They’re frightened.”

The muscle in his jaw clenches. “They’ll have reason to be if they don’t give blood.”

Shoving him back, I sit up. “That sounds like a threat, Victor.”

“If vampires don’t get human blood, they’ll turn on themselves, become infected with the Thirst. Then no one will be safe. You’ve seen what it does. Do you really want that to come to Denver?”

A chill runs through me and I rub my arms. “Of course not. But …”

“But what?”

“You can’t just demand blood. You know that doesn’t work.”

Victor seems to lose patience. “I need blood. End of story.”

I swallow hard. “Then you’ll have to talk to the delegate, and right now, I don’t want to shift into delegate mode. I just want to be Dawn with you. I don’t want you to be the overlord. I just want you to be Victor.”
My Victor.

“It’s not something I can turn off, like a light switch.” He rolls to a sitting position, his feet hitting the floor, his back to me. I want to press myself against him, curl around him. “I thought you were different, Dawn. I thought you understood.”

“And I thought you were different from your father.”

He comes up off the bed in a blur of fury. Old Family vampires can move that quickly, that smoothly. I know I should be frightened, but I’ve never been scared of Victor. Even in the beginning when I first realized what he was. I hated him. But I was never afraid to stand up to him.

“Never compare me to the Bloody Valentine,” he grounds out.

I jerk up my chin. “Then don’t act like him. You once told me that bullying humans into giving blood wasn’t the way to handle the tenuous relationship that exists between our kinds.”

He plows his fingers through his hair. “I didn’t realize how bad it was out there. Father never talked about it. He kept control over the Lessers with an iron fist; if one of them stepped out of line, he killed him. I don’t want to do that, so I need blood to stave them off. I don’t have time to be diplomatic. Once they’ve been fed, they’ll listen to reason.”

“The citizens of Denver will listen to reason,” I say. “Have you held a press conference? Have you tried talking to the people? Your father never did that; this is how you can show that you’re different from him.”

“After Hell Night, they don’t care what I have to say.”

“Hell Night?”

He groans. “That’s what they’re calling the night of the Teen Initiative party. You know how the media is; they need a catchy sound bite.”

“And an appropriate description.”

“Unfortunately, Sin damaged the human-vampire relationship. It may be beyond repair at this point.”

I clamber off the bed to face him evenly in order to give more weight to my words. “I believe in us, Victor. With you as overlord and me as delegate, we can make things better for humans
and
vampires.”

Pain crosses his features. “Don’t, Dawn. I’ve told you before that you’re my weakness. There can be nothing between us. Nothing. So, I wanted to tell you in person … I’ll be requesting a new delegate.”

Is he serious? He has to be; he wouldn’t joke about that. And it hurts so badly, like his hand is wrapped around my gut, squeezing tighter. I always complained about the difficulties of the job, how I never wanted it. But now that it could be taken away, I realize it means much more to me; it has started to define me. I’m not sure how
not
to be a delegate.

I want to be professional, but this is personal.

“When did I become such a liability to you? I helped you overthrow your father. I saved your life. I’ve proven that I’m not afraid of what you are!”

“You should be!”

Victor looks at me with those sharp eyes, a haunting anger in them. Not at me, but at himself. I remember that look from long ago. Before I loved him … before we meant so much to each other, I saw that look.

“What are you so afraid of, Victor?”

“I’m afraid of what I’ll do to you. We can’t be together, Dawn. Not professionally. Not … romantically.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because it’s difficult to let go.”

I barely see him move, but suddenly I’m in his arms again, his mouth hot and demanding on mine. I scrape my fingers up into his hair and hold him close as he deepens the kiss. I want this forever, but it’s never felt so far away.

Victor draws back. He presses his thumb to the erratic pulse at my throat. What song does it sing to him? I see his teeth clench, and his fangs begin to grow. He releases me and steps away. “I don’t understand. It’s like your blood is a drug that overpowers everything else. I want
you
, Dawn. And yet …”

“You can control it.”

“I don’t know if I can. I have to go.”

He heads toward the balcony with purpose. I could keep him here with a single word. But he has to leave. If he doesn’t, things between us will change dramatically, and I’m not sure I’m ready for that. He’ll take us places I’m not prepared to go. Not yet, anyway …

Suddenly he stops, his gaze falling on my desk. He lifts the paper that I snuck out of the shrink’s office. “What’s this?”

“Nothing, really. Just something I see in my dream.”

He faces me then, his brow furrowed. “This dream that seems so real?”

“Yeah.”

“How does this symbol come into play?”

“It’s carved into the side of the mountain.”

“Strange,” he says, studying the drawing carefully. “It’s Ancient Vampiric. It hasn’t been used in a thousand years, at least.”

“Why would it be in my dream? I’ve never even seen it before.”

“I don’t know, Dawn.”

“Well, what does it say?”

“I don’t know that either. Like I said, it’s ancient. Vampires don’t even use their own language anymore, let alone the ancient version of it. All I know is that it’s a character or symbol from a long time ago.”

I look at it with him, hoping this new information will help me pick out something different. But it still just looks like a mess of lines to me.

“Well,” I say, “who does know Ancient Vampiric?”

“You’d have to find an Old Family vampire, one old enough to remember this. I’m not sure if there’s any alive. As you know, Old Family stick together, but they also have an unfortunate tendency to kill one another.”

“No humans know this stuff, huh?”

Victor looks up, his expression troubled. “Actually, there was one.”

“Who?”

“Your father.”

T
he next morning, after Rachel leaves for work, I find myself studying the symbol and thinking about Victor’s revelation regarding my father’s knowledge of Ancient Vampiric. I shouldn’t have been surprised. During the war, my father was an intelligence officer. He was known as the foremost expert in vampirology. He helped draft the VampHu Treaty that brought a final end to the war. And before he became a delegate, he was a professor of vampire studies at the local university.

Much of his work from the war is archived at the Agency, and I can’t help but wonder if I might find some clue there regarding the meaning of this symbol.

I head to the Agency, sunglasses in place, my hoodie pulled up over my head so I’m not easily recognizable and am less likely to run into any “Death to Dawn” advocates. Strapped to my thigh is a leather holster and stake that Victor gave me shortly after we met. I have another stake tucked into my boot. Beneath the high collar of my shirt is a chain-link choker to protect my neck. Just because there have been no incidents since Hell Night and the Agency thinks they destroyed all the Day Walkers doesn’t mean none are around. Besides, Sin is somewhere and I want to be totally prepared if he steps into my path. I’m going to take him down.

I hop on a trolley. It carries the usual Saturday crowd. Looking out the window, I can see the city move by lazily. Few cars are on the street, and those that pass us are usually Agency-owned. Gasoline is rationed—by the Agency. For the most part, people walk or “ride the rails” of the trolley.

As we near the center of the city, the government district, everything becomes cleaner, brighter. Once the war ended, the rebuilding efforts began in the center and expanded outward. But progress has been slow. Supplies are scarce. VampHu outlawed any sort of mass distribution vehicles. No airplanes, no eighteen-wheelers. One train is allowed to travel across the country delivering goods from one city to the other. The only thing in abundance anymore is fear, and hatred for the vampires that made us into this. I think about what Victor said last night, how the citizens wouldn’t want to listen to him now. Sadly, in the light of day, I think he’s right.

I spot the Agency building long before we reach it. In the heart of the city, it looks like a giant crystal cigarette. It’s a tower of windows reflecting the sun outward. Its brightness is the perverse opposite of the despair that surrounds it.

I step off the trolley and walk the last couple of blocks. The guard in the lobby waves me through. He’s always taken his job seriously. Doesn’t even offer a smile or ask how I’m doing. That’s fine with me. I’m on a mission and I want to get in and out before Rachel is alerted that I’m here. She and Clive have become too protective.

I take the elevator to the basement floor, the archives. Stepping into the short, dimly lit hallway, I greet the man sitting at the receptionist table.

“Hello, Calvin.”

“Miss Montgomery,” he says. “It’s been a while.”

Calvin is in his midtwenties and has shaggy hair. His thick glasses are always sliding down his nose in an attempt to escape. A harmless guy who I think might live down here. Someone Tegan could make look good with just an hour of his time. But I don’t think he’d keep it up. Besides, he may not have an hour to spare: A road twenty miles long could be made out of all the documents and books in this massive archive, all waiting to be categorized by this one-man army.

“I’m still waiting on that date you promised me,” he says. “Remember? For finding out the original birthplace for Murdoch Valentine. It wasn’t easy.”

“Or very useful,” I say. He was born somewhere in eastern Europe. A country that disappeared centuries ago. I remember hoping it would give me some edge in my first encounter with Valentine. I don’t know what I was thinking. I guess you can never have too much knowledge about your enemy, though.

“Well, maybe I’ll let it slide, then,” he says. “What can I help you with today?”

I show him the symbol from my dreams. He studies it in much the same way Victor did.

“It looks like Ancient Vampiric. I haven’t seen this in a long time.”

“Any idea what it says?”

“Not a clue. The only thing I can tell you is that it’s probably a name. It’s so complex, you know? Not a common word, but a collection of sounds, if that makes any sense.”

“Kind of. Like the name of a person?”

“Or a place. No way of knowing.”

“I heard that my dad knew some stuff about Ancient Vampiric.”

“Some. Not a whole lot. I mean, don’t get me wrong, your dad was a genius with this kind of thing. The leader in vampire historical studies. But this language is so rare, only a handful of surviving documents use it at all, not nearly enough for accurate translations.”