Fading Darkness (Bloodmarked #1) (3 page)

I sifted through some of the softer rock
songs on my iPod as I let my eyes drift from one grave-marker to another. There
was one that looked like an archangel that was put there to protect all who
were buried here from being disturbed in their eternal sleep.

I would never benefit from his protection.
Eternal sleep was never an option for me. I would be forever stuck in this
horror story, only wishing I could be lucky enough to die as a normal human
being. Except, I’d really just be wondering when I, too, would become the worst
monster of all.

I stared at the angel’s high and mighty
stance, sword in hand and masculine figure. His face held strong features and
was, well, angelic, but when it started looking like a certain detestable
vampire I quickly turned away. I felt my pulse picking up and my cheeks burn with
the thought of his arrogant superior tone, insulting me, insinuating I wasn’t a
good enough killer. Like he was any better at it. Although, he was very precise
and damn was he fast.

Grrrr
!

I switched my iPod to a much harder song
with a lot of cussing and headed back to my apartment hoping a good night’s
sleep would erase some of the confusion of tonight’s events. I was starting to
regret wishing for an eventful night. Vampires working with other vampires, to kill
me no less. A vampire helping
me
, a human (for lack of a better word). No
thank you. Not tonight.

†

I woke to the setting sun and my phone
beeping telling me I had a voicemail. I hauled myself to the side of the bed
and reached down to grab my phone wear I had tossed it on the floor before I
passed out. I checked the missed call list and it showed a missed call from
Holly earlier this afternoon. It was beginning to bug me that I couldn’t
understand why I always felt so drained all the time after fights, even more-so
after really big fights like last night. Again, I wasn’t so sure I could handle
the answer to a question like that, one that points me more in the direction
toward the dark part of my life.

Sometimes I felt like clinging to my human
life as hard as I could, but then the guilt sets in, and I knew I didn’t
deserve a normal human life when the rest of my family didn’t get that
opportunity, most likely because of me and what I am, definitely not human and
especially not normal. Plus, it felt like the more I clung to human lives by acquainting
myself with them, the more I pulled them into the darkness with me, and I
couldn’t risk getting them killed like my family.

My biggest regret has been Holly. I would do
whatever it took to keep her alive, but any target on my back would extend to
anyone close to me. Holly has been the exception to my solitary lifestyle. It
was selfish of me to bring her into my world, but something about her reminded
me of myself, and so far, she has shown an incredible strength and natural
ability to thrive in irrational and terrifying situations that would send most
people running scared. She’s a survivor. Plus, she was stubborn as hell and
wouldn’t stop bothering me until I told her the truth about everything after I
saved her life. That was three years ago.

I opened the phone to listen to the message
and I heard, “Hey biotch.” I hated that word and she knew it. Holly liked to think
of herself as a sort of trendsetter with the ability to bring back trends and
old, overused phrases that should have just stayed dead. The message continued
with, “You know, it’s been like a week and a half since I last talked to you. I
could be vampire food and you wouldn’t have even known it. Seriously Luce, meet
me tomorrow for lunch at the usual spot. We need to do some catching up.”

I knew I should have let her be a long time
ago to give her a chance at a normal life away from me, but she always guilted
me back in by reminding me she was safer with me watching out for her. It was
one of those damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations, but I was damned
no matter what I did. I just didn’t want to be responsible for damning her too.

†

I was walking down the street when I caught
myself thinking about the mystery guy, or evil bloodsucker from last night,
wondering if he would be making any recurring appearances in my fights to come.
It would be nice to know why he was helping me, or better yet, what his
ulterior motive was and what he wanted from me in return. But it wasn’t like I
was holding my breath or anything until I would see him again. That is, if I
even saw him again, which I hoped I wouldn’t because he got on my last nerve.

I was getting worked up just thinking about
him, but not in a good way, more of an annoying, unwanted kind of way. I think
I actually started huffing and puffing out loud because I was getting several
strange looks from the Friday night bar crowd that was slowly beginning to fill
the sidewalks. In bigger weekend crowds, sometimes it was better to take higher
ground in order to spot any trouble.

I climbed a nearby fire escape to the top of
an old brick building converted into lofts. Most of the buildings in this area
were roughly similar in height, which made jumping them a lot easier if I had
to. Up here, I could take advantage of my super hearing to listen for screams
because I could cover more area without the interruption of tall buildings that
blocked sounds. It was much more peaceful up here too, which was nice because I
was never really a big fan of large crowds. My thoughts were just about to
lapse back to mystery guy when I sensed a vampire close by.

At the same time I sensed it, I heard, “Damn
girl. That tight ass in those tight pants should be criminal. I almost forgot
how sexy you were, or maybe you just got even sexier over the past few years.”

Great, like I really needed any more stress
in my life right now. I guess when it rains it pours, and with my luck, it
usually meant a downpour with monsoon winds. Without turning and keeping my
eyes glued to the lights on the streets below, I responded, “It has only been
about a year Shane, not nearly long enough. And I take it since you came to me,
you need something?”

“Just wanted to see you, darlin’,” he said.

“Somehow, I don’t believe that’s all you
want. You don’t do anything that doesn’t benefit you,” I added. Shane Monroe
was the only other vampire I have encountered and didn’t kill.
I know, I
know, the exceptions to my rule are racking up quickly
.

A few years back I ran into him, and he
bargained with me for his life. Normally, I would not accept bribes from
disgusting undead monsters, but he gave me what I wanted- information. He told
me if I spared him he would give me the location of a very large vampire den.
After leading me to it, he even helped me kill them, but then I realized he
really just wanted the building they were hiding out in. I kept my end of the
bargain, and he moved in. He always traveled around a lot so I guessed he
wanted a safe haven of his own for when he came back in town. We have kept up
the same relationship over the years. We stayed out of each other’s way and
exchanged information. Basically, we used each other. But I warned him the
second I caught him killing someone I’d end our business partnership and his
life. He swore to only live off of blood bags and take what he needed. Yeah, I
definitely wasn’t buying that.

“Okay, you know me too well. Just wanted to
let you know the new issue of
Vampire Nightly
had a front page article
about someone who has been killing our kind. You made the headlines baby, and
there is word around town that some vampires are forming hunting parties. As a
common courtesy, I thought I should tell you,” he said all-to-sweetly.

“Well, thanks, but I kind of guessed that
already when a bunch of them came down on me hard last night. So, like I said
before, what’s in it for you?” I asked. I finally turned and took in his milky-smooth
dark complexion and cat-like hazel eyes.

“Well, I was hoping maybe you would finally
let me get in those tight black pants,” he said with a sly crooked grin.

I returned it with an equally sugary smile,
“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t screw the undead.”

“Come on, with all that inhuman strength you
have locked up in that toned body, you don’t think you would want a little more
power between your legs than a fragile human boy who you could break in half,”
he said in a normal conversational voice that didn’t match the crudeness of his
words.

Guess I should have expected a response like
that from him. I never found his sweet lines of shit the least bit flattering
like most girls he charmed the pants off of. He was disgusting, and there was
no way I would ever go for some bloodsucking, wannabe Casanova. Those kinds of
perverted comments just made my skin crawl. They never held an ounce of weight
or sincerity. It was degrading, and it was just his way of dealing with people,
women in particular.

He saw the look on my face and carefully
backpedaled, “I was just messing with you. I just thought I’d be nice and tell
you what was going on so that someday in the future you might consider
returning the favor. That’s all. I mean, come on, you know how it is.”

This sounded a little more sincere, as
sincere as an evil, self-serving vampire could be. There was no chance in hell
I would ever trust him to do anything for me without it benefiting him in some
way, so now I not only had to watch out for mystery man, and a city full of
vamps who were pissed at me, I had to worry about what Shane was up to.

“Okay, so I’ll take your silence as a mutual
understanding,” he continued. “So how many of them came after you last night?”

“About ten of them, and there was this one
who was crazy strong. I feel like I imagined it because he seemed so unreal,” I
answered.

He snorted in response, to the last comment,
I assumed, “Maybe you’re just exaggerating because there is a vampire out there
who got the better of you and you’re not taking it very well.”

I almost laughed at the absurdity,
“Smartass. Hardly. I could care less about superior fighting skills or
strength. As long as I’ve got the better survival skill, that’s all that
matters. But this guy was different. I have never seen any vampire move as fast
as him, or take out that many vampires with such ease.”

He raised an eyebrow, “You mean he was
helping you and not fighting with them?”

“Yes,” I sighed in frustration at the
question. It was the same one I had, but didn’t have an answer for.

“And he had super- super strength and
speed?” I could see on his face that something dawned on him, “Was he tall,
with short hair, blue eyes, and the most arrogant face you’ve ever seen?”

“Yeah, you know him?” I asked, almost elated
with the possibility of getting answers.

“West,” he said to himself, shaking his head
and looking at the ground.

“Who?” I asked a little more eager this
time.

“Gavin West. Yeah, I’ve met him, and my
advice is to stay away from him,” he said, confirming what I thought about not
being able to trust him. I was almost disappointed but didn’t want to think
about what that could mean. Shane seemed uncomfortable talking about Gavin,
which also tells me his opinion is based on a past experience with him, perhaps
a little bad blood there maybe. With such a biased opinion from an
untrustworthy vampire, and the fact that Gavin did help me with those vamps I
concluded that I couldn’t conclude anything about him at this point. I could
tell I wasn’t going to get any reliable answers regarding Gavin West if they
were coming from Shane. Perfect, I just wasted all this time talking to Shane
and learned absolutely nothing useful.

“Well thanks for the insight. That was just
a plethora of non-information. I really appreciate unhelpful tips and a general
lack of answers. I should just kill you now and get it over with,” I said,
knowing his ego wouldn’t take it very well.

The look on his face told me I was right,
but for some reason, he has never tried to kill me for the way I talked to him.
He must really need me for something, and that was the thing that worried me
the most. Maybe part of me was curious to know why he hasn’t wanted me dead
like the rest of the vampires and that’s why I’ve kept him around. Even more
disturbing was that he was no longer the only vampire in town to want me alive.
One thing I did know was that a vampire’s motives for helping me couldn’t be
pure.

After his features calmed and became more
impassive, he finally spoke, “I told you I came to you tonight as a courtesy,
but I am going to find out more about what is going on around here, so unless
you start being a little nicer to me, I might not feel the need to share any
more information with you, which would eliminate the need for our little
arrangement we have going wouldn’t you say? And if we had no more need for each
other, then I guess all you would be good for is dinner.”

“Please, save your threats for someone who
scares easily. Just get me some useful information, preferably that I can use
to kill those bastards, and I’ll gladly help you with vampire infestations or
whatever it is you need help with, and no, that doesn’t extend to sexual
favors, so there’s no need for your vulgar comments.”

That must have helped him get over his
little tantrum because he laughed, “Fine, we’ll play your way, for now.” Then,
he disappeared over the rim of the building and melted into the masses of tiny
dots of people moving in Pac-Man fashion around the sidewalks. Vampires
couldn’t fly, but amped up leg power definitely helped in landing those high
jumps. It also helped in the actual jumping itself. Another freakish quality I
shared with
them.
I wasn’t about to go there at the moment. I turned my
attention back to the world below me but not much was happening, so instead of
a round of self-pity, I stopped thinking about the meaning behind them and
indulged in those eerily mutual powers.