Fading Darkness (Bloodmarked #1) (25 page)

He looked like he might be the younger
brother. He was decent looking, but definitely not edgy enough for my taste.
There was no way this guy could keep up with my lifestyle, not that I would
ever get him involved in it.

Holly moved to stand by Derek, giving him a
drunken kiss. In a not-so-subtle way, she nodded toward Daniel while wagging
her eyebrows up and down, looking at me with insinuation. I just shook it off
as I offered to shake Derek’s hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m glad to
see Holly so happy.”

“It’s nice to meet you. Holly’s told me a
lot about you,” he said.

Panic shot through me as I considered the
idea of Holly confiding my secrets in Derek. “All good, I hope,” I said
nervously, shooting her a worried look. She just shook her head, as she
understood the meaning of my fear.

“She told me you’re the one person she can
trust to always tell her the truth. For some reason, she admires that coming
from you, but if I ever tell her the truth about how beautiful she is, she
doesn’t believe it,” he said more to her than to me as he wrapped his arms
around her.

“That’s because I know you’re lying when you
say it, because you’re just sucking up to get some ass,” she said and swatted
at him.

“Well, that’s true, but you are beautiful,”
he said, and at that point, I noticed how awkward Daniel must have felt by
looking at him. It was probably the same way I was feeling, as the two of us
were slowly being snuffed out of this conversation.

Perfect. Way to put the pressure on us,
Hol.

This was one of the reasons I hated being
set up. It felt so unnatural and so forced. The last thing I wanted was to be
pressured into hitting it off with some guy I didn’t know, especially one who seemed
so wholesome. I really hoped Holly didn’t promise him she would set him up with
me.

“Um, excuse us. We’re just going to… Yeah,”
Holly said, as she grasped for an acceptable excuse to leave without actually
having to tell us that they were about to go have sex. As they walked away
clinging to each other, Holly said, “You two should talk. Get to know each
other.” At that, she winked and disappeared in the crowd, officially capping
off the awkward moment. I could have strangled her.

I guess there was no harm in talking to
Daniel. I was still trying to keep an open mind to this whole normalcy thing,
needing the distraction from the very unnatural events currently in my life. He
still seemed uncomfortable when I looked back at him. He smiled at me
sheepishly, not knowing what to say. This was going to be good. I wasn’t
exactly the best person for normal conversation. What did I know about that?

“So,” I prompted awkwardly. “Do you go to
college with Holly, too?”

“No,” he started, still not able to make
full eye contact with me. “I’m in the army, but I’ve got leave right now.”

Wow, a military man. That would explain the
clean cut look. This peaked my interest a little. He was a trained soldier, so
if all else failed, we could talk battle strategies. Maybe I could get a few
good pointers.

“So how long have you been in the service?”
I asked, my best attempt at casual conversation.

“Oh, I just started basic training. I’m on break
for the holidays, but I still have a while to go. Once I finish, I hope to get
more hands on training in technical support, working with, like, computers and
stuff,” he explained, thankfully in laymen’s terms. Anything beyond “computers”
and he would have lost me.

So he really wasn’t much of a tough guy
after all. I guess that meant we wouldn’t be talking combat or weapons
training. Feeling a little deflated from that knowledge, I had already started
to give up on this whole normal conversation thing.  It felt so unnatural to
me, and it didn’t help that he was so shy and couldn’t contribute to the
conversation.

I gave it a few more seconds to see if he
could redeem the subject or if anything worth saying would come to me, but I
had nothing. This was already a disaster, and there was no way to revive this
conversation, so I bailed.

“Well, it was nice meeting you, Daniel. I
think I’m going to hunt down something to drink,” I said before craning my neck
over the crowd.

Holly was nowhere to be seen, so I hung
around for another half an hour talking to some of her college classmates
before she made her reappearance. Sadly, I clung to her the rest of the night.
I was not in my element, and as the clock ticked closer to midnight, Holly’s
friends were getting more and more intoxicated, which made them more and more
annoying.

That outsider feeling that was so familiar
to me began resurfacing, and as soon as the clock struck midnight, I said a
brief goodbye to Holly while her attention was directed mostly to Derek. She
wouldn’t miss me, so I ducked out before she could respond, not even bothering
to collect my own clothes I left in her bedroom when I changed. I would just
have to return her dress the next time I saw her.

This wasn’t my life, as much as I hoped it could
be- parties, and drinking, and boyfriends, and being completely carefree.
Ignorance was bliss, and sometimes, I just wished I could be completely in the
dark about all things evil. But knowledge was power, and if I was going to stay
dedicated to saving as many innocent people from a horrible fate as I could, I
needed as much power as I could get. I was going to have to light up the dark
with as many answers as I could find.

The problem with that, however, was that I
wasn’t exactly the kind of person that could just walk up to any vamp on the
street and start asking questions about other vampires, especially considering
the ever-present target on my back. There was only one place I could think to
go, and I knew then, that I must have been desperate.

Before leaving, I looked back over my
shoulder, and seeing how happy Holly looked in Derek’s arms made me take in a
sudden breath. It left an emptiness in me, and an image of Gavin popped into
mind that baffled me. I hated the thought of him, but I was confused as to why
his betrayal hurt so much. I obviously couldn’t shake him from my mind, and I
began to wonder if this desperate attempt at ignorance and bliss was a way to
forget him. Why the hell couldn’t I shake him? I realized I had started to get
used to him giving me the answers I needed.

I walked out of Holly’s apartment,
determined to find my own answers for once. I couldn’t rely on a bloodthirsty
monster to help me save human beings from the very thing that he was, even
though I intended to get help from one.

†

Five minutes later, I was standing in front
of the entrance to the Underground, my high heels dangling from one hand and my
hair even more disheveled than before. This time, there would be no pacing.

I barged in and marched past the crowd of
old and misfit patrons that all gave me strange looks. It was an unspoken
message that told me I didn’t belong. What else was new? I went straight to the
bar, where Trixie and another bartender frantically moved back and forth down
the bar, refilling pitchers and beer mugs.

I squeezed myself right up against the bar,
the older men on either side of me moving away and giving me wide berth like I was
a plague. When Trixie spotted me, she sauntered over with a scowl on her
normally peppy face. Apparently, she reserved her good mood for Gavin.
Great
.
Why did he always have to be the key to getting answers? From the look on her
face, it began to feel useless to even try, but I decided that I wasn’t leaving
without something.

“What do you want?” she snapped.

“Got a minute?” I asked, matching her tone.

She eyed me a moment before calling over her
shoulder to the old man behind the bar with her. He had salt and pepper hair
that was pulled back in a ponytail. “I’m taking five,” she shouted.

She bounced around the bar in her usual way
and led me to an empty table nearby. She sat and I followed, taking the seat
across from her. “Talk fast,” she said.

“I need answers. I know you know what’s
going on in this town with that new drug vampires are passing out to humans to
turn them into their own little party favors. Tell me everything you know,” I
started.

“Why would I help you?” she said,
uninterested.

“Because a vampire trying to make an honest
living in a human world tells me you wouldn’t want the humans finding out about
vampires, because if they did, you would lose everything and become a target.
And believe me, it’s no fun being targeted for death,” I said.

“What exactly does that have to do with me,”
she said.

“Because if this gets worse, humans will
start to suspect something, and if they do, you’ll all be run out of town or
hunted to death. So if you know something, you need to tell me, so I can stop
the asshat that’s behind all this,” I said.

“How are you so sure they will suspect us of
anything? There’s nothing to suspect when they don’t have bodies,” she said.

“What are they doing with the bodies now?” I
asked.

“Does it matter? The fact is that there
aren’t any to find,” she said.

“But that still doesn’t make it any safer
for you. They’re still drawing attention to the mysterious missing persons in
this town. Are you honestly going to refuse to help me, because I could just
kill you right now,” I countered.

She shifted uncomfortably in her chair and
waged her options a moment before answering. “I don’t know who’s behind it all.
No one does. He stays low and most just seem to share the same opinion of him.
Everyone seems to be under the impression that he’s just in it for money and
prestige,” she said.

“But you don’t?”

“It seems a little elaborate and risky for a
little extra cash. I know there’s more to it than that, but I don’t know what’s
going on,” she answered.

Something had changed in her expression. She
looked scared. Whatever was going on in this town wasn’t good. “What else
aren’t you telling me?”

She met my eyes and her expression hardened
again. “Nothing. I don’t know what’s going on anymore. None of it makes any
sense to me,” she said, more to herself.

Her lack of an answer in that incoherent
response didn’t really make much sense to me, and I knew I had to take a new
direction if I was going to get any more out of her. “Who are the ancients that
are still here in St. Louis?”

Her head jerked up, and her gaze bored into
my eyes. “Maybe you should ask your friend, Gavin,” she spat. Wow, jealous
much. That was like a slap in the face to, once again, know that Gavin had
answers I needed. Damn him.

“I’m asking you, so why don’t you just tell
me,” I said.

“I don’t know them very well. It’s not like
I’m the kind of girl who goes around hanging out with the most powerful and
elite vampires in town,” she said.

It was clear she was not going to answer
questions relating to the ancient vampires that Gavin had mentioned, and I
wondered if there was something in that. Great. More questions without answers.
“So is there anything else about the vampire drugs that you can tell me?”

She looked at me incredulously. “Vampire
drugs? No, there’s not much I can tell you about the vampire drugs. Except that
they’re manufactured locally, but the location constantly changes. Last one I
heard about was down on Seventh and Quincy,” she said.

“Wait. So what you’re saying is that there
are actual vampire drug labs in town? How the hell have I missed all this?”

“Well, you do have your own problems to deal
with? Word is, you have some assassins pissed off at you,” she commented.

“What? What have you heard about that?”

“They’ve caught on to a certain someone who
goes around killing our kind. It was only a matter of time before they closed
in on you. And then there were those humans in that town up north they
destroyed who managed to go missing. Yeah, don’t think they didn’t notice
that,” she said gaging my expression.

“But they can’t just pull a bleed and burn
on a big town like this. So I’d say you’ve got a little time before they figure
out a plan for extracting you. I’m not sure they know exactly who you are yet
either, so it could be a while before they find you. Maybe you should worry
more about yourself and stay out of vampire business. You’re drawing their
attention right to you,” she said.

That was redundant. Gee, where have I heard
that before? I was getting really sick of hearing that over and over. “Why
don’t you worry more about yourself and don’t concern yourself with my safety.
I can take care of myself,” I said.

“That is exactly what I plan to do. If
you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work. I would appreciate it if you
never bother me here again,” she said in a way that was meant to be
threatening. I hoped I wouldn’t have to stoop to asking her for more answers. I
was getting really sick of working with vampires.

A couple weeks had passed which were
relatively uneventful. I had checked out the small lead I got from Trixie about
the vampire drug lab, but it was a dead end. It was an abandoned building with
no evidence anyone had ever been there. I thought seriously about going back to
Trixie and killing her for leading me on a wild goose chase but decided to give
her the benefit of a doubt, since she was really the only source of information
I had on the inside of a world that didn’t want anything to do with me. I felt
the same way, but like the old saying went- keep your friends close and your
enemies closer. Getting closer to that world was the only shot I had at
destroying it.

I always knew this, but I never actually had
an in with it. That had been my problem all along as Gavin pointed out. They
weren’t about to welcome me with open arms into their underworld, but I had my
own idea about that. And it didn’t involve listening to an egotistical
bloodsucker with a superiority complex. His ideas involved more of a hands-off
approach, but I was never a hands-off kind of girl.

Following his lead so far hasn’t gotten me
any closer to killing the bastard in charge of this whole vampire drug ring.
It’s only gained me more questions. So I decided it was time to get back to my
way of doing things. Recklessness was what I did best, and if it got me killed
in the process, so be it. It had been a while since I had done anything
reckless.

I pocketed a few old glass vials and
syringes from my kitchen cabinets and gathered varying forms of stakes I had
lying around before heading out into the dusk. These were things I had picked
up over the years from either pawn shops or hunting locations. I knew they
would come in handy someday, and today was that day.

Going out into the brisk winter evening, I
bundled my new black down coat up around my chest and neck. I bought it at the
Salvation Army the other week to replace the one that was ruined at the fight
in the den. This one was similar but it had a faux fur rimmed hood. It wasn’t
my first choice, but for five bucks, I couldn’t be picky.

I walked a few blocks down from my
neighborhood to the nearest church, which was a small Catholic church that
looked original to this town. It didn’t fit in this time. The size alone
suggested it was only meant for a small community, but it was also styled in a
more old-fashioned English Gothic manner. The stone façade was aged and
weathered, and there was a small bell tower that sat on top of the A-line roof.
The bell itself looked newer as if the original one was replaced. The shine
from the bell drew the attention away from the little worn church beneath it.

I took the stone steps two at a time, and it
only took about three steps to reach the arched double wooden doors in front.
Being close up, I noticed the two lancet windows on either side of the doors.
They were stained glass and might have been beautiful back in their glory days,
but at the moment, they were in desperate need of a good cleaning. The color
was washed out of them and the amount of built up dirt and grime was enough to
keep the full light of the sun from filtering through.

Looking further to the side of the church, I
saw a tiny cemetery surrounded by a weathered wrought iron fence with old
headstones that were overcrowded by weeds. It was also overshadowed by the
adjacent building that towered three stories above it. This place was in
serious need of a little TLC.

Turning my attention back to the church, I
grabbed the cold wrought iron handle and pressed down on the thumb latch
expecting to hear that eerie moaning, creaking sound when I pushed the door
open. I felt the half smile spread across my face when it didn’t disappoint.

“Classic,” I said to myself.

Stepping through the threshold and into the small
vestibule led me straight to another set of double doors that opened up to the
main part of the church. Although it was a relatively small building, it was
wide enough to hold an office space off to the left side of the vestibule and
bathrooms on the right. The office door was closed and the only light came from
the soft lighting of the small ceiling lights running the length of the side
aisles and the prayer candles at the front near the alter. There was one main
aisle that led up to the alter and on either side were rows of wooden pews.
Windows lined the side walls and at the front just beyond the alter was a giant
crucifix depicting Jesus as he was nailed to the cross.

I felt unworthy just being here, knowing
that there was no place in His kingdom for me. I didn’t think Heaven wanted me,
and being immortal meant that hell wouldn’t take me. I was one of the devil’s
rejects. Being in limbo was like the story of my life. I just didn’t fit
anywhere. At least while I was here, I could make the most of my time and make
amends for the evil within. I knew I would never be truly worthy, but I would
spend the rest of my existence trying. If my immortality was penance then I
would own up to my sins and not waste any time making up for them.

I drew the glass vials from my pockets
carefully so they wouldn’t clang together and break into several pieces. I
still stood at the back of the church in the threshold of the second set of
double doors, and I moved to the side of the door where a big stone basin stuck
out from the wall.

I took the stopper off the first vial and
held the bottle sideways into the well of the basin until the mouth of the vial
was submerged in the water it held. When it was as full as it would get, I put
the stopper back on it and pulled out the second vial. I did the same for two
more of the little bottles, and I was in the process of filling the fourth when
I heard someone clear their throat behind me.

The sound made me jump and spin around so
fast that some of the water splashed out of the vial. Behind me, the priest
stood with a stern but slightly amused expression on his face. I tried slowing
my breathing after the initial shock began to wear off. He had caught me
completely by surprise, mostly because I hadn’t sensed anyone around when I came
in and because I hadn’t expected anyone to sneak up from the front of the
church.

Looking beyond him, I noticed an access door
to the side of the alter that must have led to an attic or something. My eyes
went back to the priest as he stood there silently waiting for an explanation.

He was a man maybe in his fifties with short
gray hair and barely sunken features that might have looked creepy or ghostly
on some people but actually seemed warm and kind on his face. I noticed he was
still staring after several moments and realized I needed to come up with a
reason for stealing one of the church’s natural resources.

“Sorry, Father, but I need this for killing
evil,” I said vaguely but honestly.

“My child, I’m not mad that you would take
something that costs nothing to this church and is meant for God’s children to
begin with,” he said serenely.

I felt guilty for taking something that
belonged to
God’s children
, but I figured the use would outweigh the
original sin. It was intended to help those people who could actually be considered
one of those children.

“I’m more worried as to why you might need
so much protection. Do you really have that many demons in your life child?” he
asked.

“You have no idea, Father,” I answered.

His brows furrowed with concern. “Is there
anything I can do to help? Would you like to talk about it?”

“Sorry, Father, but the less you know the
better off you’ll be. I can handle these particular demons on my own.
This
is just a little extra protection,” I said, holding up the vial of holy water I
still held in my hand.

He looked unconvinced but didn’t press me
further. He simply offered his hand as he introduced himself properly. “I’m
Father Thomas. If you ever feel like talking, my door is always open,” he said
kindly.

I shook his hand, introducing myself. “Lucy,
and thanks. And next time, do you think you could make a noise or something.
You scared the h-,” I stopped myself and thought better of saying
hell
to a priest while standing in a church. It just seemed a little sacrilegious.
“You scared me,” I finished saying.

“Sorry. I just don’t make a habit of making
myself known to potential thieves. Next time, do you think you could come to me
first if you need something instead of sneaking around?” he countered.

“Fair enough. Where did you come from
anyway?” I asked curiously.

“I was just putting boxes of old files up in
the attic,” he said, confirming my assumptions of the mystery door.

“Oh. Do you need any help with that?” I
offered, wanting to atone for sneaking around.

He smiled, and said, “No, thank you. I’m
finished here, but I appreciate the offer. Come back any time. I can give you
all the holy water you want.”

I bowed my head to hide the sheepish smile I
felt spread across my face. When I looked back up at him, I said, “Thanks. Have
a good night, Father Thomas.”

“You do the same, Lucy. And my offer still
stands. If you need any help fighting your demons, I’m here for you.”

“No offense, Father, but I prefer to fight
them alone,” I called back to him as I turned to go. The last thing I needed
was to get anyone else involved in my messy life.

I headed out on my mission. I needed to get
answers from the enemy, but I had no intention of going around asking vampires
questions they wouldn’t give me answers to. Gavin was right about that. They weren’t
just going to cooperate willingly with me, so I guess I would just have to use
force.

†

The first vampire I encountered wasn’t very
helpful. I dragged her up against a building with my forearm pinning her throat
against the wall while my other held a stake to her heart. When I asked her
about the drug labs, she said that she knew nothing about them, but there was
resistance in her response. I tried again. “What do you know about the vampire
drugs going around in town?”

When she laughed, I drove the stake deep
into her stomach, resisting the urge to plunge it directly into her heart. She
yelped in pain, but still said nothing. I twisted the stake around her
intestines and repeated the question.

“I don’t know anything!” she yelled angrily,
staying true to character. That sounded a little resistant to me, and that
wasn’t the response I needed to evoke.

Twisting the stake further, I repeated the
question, and her tone shifted into what I needed to hear. “I don’t know,” she
cried desperately.

Desperation was a good thing. Anyone forced
into survival mode would get desperate, and when that happened, they would do
anything for the chance to stay alive, even tell the truth, which, of course,
was why torture was so effective. This time, I heard the truth in her response
and knew she really didn’t know anything about the drug labs. I pulled the
stake from her belly and as she took one steadying sigh of relief, I drove it
into her heart. I had no use for a vampire without answers.

With one unsuccessful interrogation, I
pressed on determined to find one that had answers. I approached three more
vampires who were just as ignorant as the first, and I began to grow weary
about my whole bad cop method. I wondered just how secretive this operation
was. I kept at it, though. There had to be at least one vampire in town that
knew something.

I finally had a bit of luck with the next
one I found. As I doled out the same torture to him that I used on the rest, he
gave me more resistance than the others. He was holding onto more information
than them and worked twice as hard to keep it from me. As I drilled him about
the labs in the usual manner, he spat, “You’ll never find them.”

Bingo. This was what I needed. I slid my
stake out of his side and as his wound began to heal, he lashed out at me. I
drove my stake back into his side, deciding it might work better to keep it
there until I could dish out the real punishment.

He grunted in pain as the stake punctured
another hole in his abdomen. I ignored it, and said, “You’re coming with me.”

“Screw you, bitch,” he said cleverly.

“Cute, but I need you to come with me so you
can answer a few questions,” I said, giving my best shot at being good cop,
because he really wasn’t going to want to cooperate when I turned back into bad
cop.

I grabbed him by the arm and dragged him
slowly back to my office. We took all the back alleyways and side roads to
avoid arousing suspicions. I really didn’t want anyone asking why I was toting
a gaunt looking man with a stake sticking out of his side. I did my best to
shield the stake with my own body as I pulled him along.

The whole secrecy thing kept him from
causing a scene in attempt to escape. He would be even less safe from other
vampires than from me if he were to expose what he was to humans. My guess was
that he was biding his time until he came up with a way to escape me. It was a
vain hope on his part, but I didn’t say anything so long as he was still
cooperating.

I paid close attention to my senses in case
we ran into any other vampires. I picked up on one nearby, but I wasn’t sure if
it was one who was spying on me or if it was one who was just in the area.
Either way, I really couldn’t do much about it. There was no way I could risk
letting my captive go by wasting time trying to dispatch a potential spy. And
honestly, did it really matter if the vampires caught me doing this? They were
already on to me.

We made it back to my neighborhood,
seemingly unscathed, and I walked him right past my apartment building and
straight toward the abandoned office building next door. I shoved him through
the entrance and into the run down, dark and dirty office space.

He laughed through his pain and said, “What?
Is all this for dramatic effect? Is this supposed to scare me into talking?”