Hunting the Dark (11 page)

Subject Ten? What the hell kind of name was that? And what was ‘the Facility’? Maybe I’d find out once I accessed Quinn’s—

She made a tiny movement, shifting her weight to the left, and I tensed. But with a blur of speed that was most definitely not human, she broke right and attacked, dropping and rolling as she lunged at me, fists blurring as they pounded into me.

It was the perfect strike.

‘Subject Ten’ was strong and fast, but that didn’t tell me much. Like,
what
was she? And where did she come from? And why was she beating the crap out of me? It’s not like I’d done anything to hurt her.

Yet.

I flipped myself upright and pounced on her, taking her down to the ground so hard that her head bounced. She rolled away and kicked me in the stomach at the same time.

The girl smoothly rose to her feet, watching me from behind her shades, pale face still and unreadable. The sunglasses were cracked and blood trickled from her lip where she must have bitten it going down.

If I could injure her, there was hope that I’d get out of this.

Ten removed her glasses and stared at me from silver eyes that made my throat tighten. Fear hollowed me out, made my knees weak. This girl was a killer – there was nothing in her face that I could recognize as human.

And she had silver eyes.
Just like mine.

Early morning sun glimmered in those impossible eyes, mirroring the bright water of the pond just beyond us.

I’d only had a limited amount of hand-to-hand fight training with Kyle before he’d shown his true colors. I had the increased strength, speed and reflexes of a vampire, but I was still new – and she was way more skilled than I’d ever be. I could see it in the way she moved; in the way she sized me up and evaluated everything I did. She’d been trained from a very young age, which made me wonder about her origins all over again. Somehow, I knew she’d dismissed me even before we started, and that made me mad.

But I had some things going for me apart from my natural strength and speed. I wasn’t afraid to fight dirty, for one thing. I was determined. A survivor.

‘Are you some kind of blond ninja-vampbot?’ I asked, trying to stall her next attack.

‘I already told you,’ she replied, tossing the busted shades away. ‘I am Subject Ten. That is all you need to know,
vampire
.’

She flattened me before I could fight back, kneeling on my torso so that all I could do was flail around with my legs. My arms were pinned and she was
strong
. Stronger than me? No, I didn’t think so, but she was tough and with her athletic build she sure was a pretty good match. She also had the upper hand – literally. At least she was fighting fair and had put that silver knife away. I hadn’t seen her do it, but I’d take whatever bonuses I could get.

We were locked together face to face, lying on the ground and snarling at one another like animals. The noise she was making shocked me – I hadn’t expected that from her. She looked too human, if a little strange and spaced out. Her dog tags were cold where they touched my skin.

But maybe she’d forgotten that I had something that she didn’t. Very sharp fangs.

Also, as already noted, when it came to survival I really wasn’t personally concerned with fighting fair. And I was
famished
.

I struck, like a snake pouncing on its prey, but she was too fast for me. As I went for her throat, she pulled back, just enough so that all I did was graze the surface of her skin. I barely left a mark, but I did get a taste. And I grabbed the tags and pulled, just for good measure.

Luckily they weren’t silver.

She yelped with pain as I half strangled her, then bared her ordinary human teeth at me. If she
was
a vampire (and I really didn’t think she was), she definitely filed her fangs.

‘You can’t beat me,’ Ten said, breathing heavily as I put all my strength behind an attempt to break her hold. ‘I’m faster than you.’

‘Maybe you are,’ I replied. ‘But I’m stronger.’

She dug one of her knees into my ribs so hard that I felt something break. Pain made my eyes water, making me glad that I didn’t need to breathe. She shoved her face close to mine and I half expected her to bite me – despite her lack of fangs. But the press of teeth against flesh never came. Instead she whispered in my ear, her voice so cold and emotionless that it made me shiver: ‘
Stay out of this, or I will end you.
’ She pushed up and away from me. ‘Don’t try to get up – just let me leave. My argument is not with you.’

I gave myself a second, hoping that my ribs would start to heal while I was flat on my back. ‘If you don’t have an “argument” with me, why did you attack me?’

‘You were following me,’ she said.

‘You
wanted
me to follow you.’

‘I needed to know if you were a threat. I saw you go into the old hunter’s house.’

She was watching me? Damn, she was good. I hadn’t been aware of her presence while I was looking for a way in.

‘So you
did
kill Quinn,’ I said, not really expecting a response. ‘Why would you do that? Did you kill Nicole, too?’

‘Just leave me alone.’ Her expression was grim. ‘I won’t warn you again, vampire.’

Like hell.
I wasn’t leaving her to kill anyone else!

With a Xena-style battle cry, I sprang at her, fast enough that she didn’t have time to dodge. Gritting my teeth, I head-butted her so hard that lights flashed in my vision and my knees wobbled. The sickening crunch of bone and cartilage was my reward as I shattered the bridge of her pretty little nose. Blood poured down her face and her whole body went momentarily limp. I shoved her away and prepared to finish her off.

A high-pitched shriek hurt my ears, and I spun to face this new threat, my inner predator growling at the interruption.

Taking my eyes off Ten for just a moment, I found myself looking at a young mother with her toddler, out for an early-morning stroll in the Gardens.

Great.
Just perfect.

Our audience seemed frozen in place, and that’s all my opponent needed. She ran – so fast there was only a dark blur as she raced away. I’d never seen anyone move like that, not even some of the older vamps in the Boston Family. The only sign that she’d even been there was the blood on my sweater  . . . and one of her dog tags glinting at me in the grass. It must have broken free from the pair. I scooped it up and
moved
after my attacker, leaving the woman and her little girl gaping after me.

No way Subject Ten was escaping, even if she was faster than me. I had her scent now.

I caught sight of her on Beacon Street, dodging pedestrians as I gave chase. It felt good to be
doing
something. Not to feel like I was a victim. The air was still fresh from last night’s rain, and I almost lost her as we turned onto Arlington. I trotted at a human pace, careful not to draw too much attention to myself until I’d found my prey. Searching, searching  . . .

There!
She was waiting with a queue of people at the bus stop. She probably thought she’d escaped and was trying to blend in, but surely the people around her would wonder about the broken nose I’d just given her. All the blood. But even from this distance I saw an elderly woman turn her face away, and a young man in a suit stare but just sort of shut down his expression. People didn’t want trouble, or anything to do with someone who might
lead
to trouble. It was still early morning; maybe all they saw was a tough-looking girl glaring at them – daring them to say something. If anyone wanted to ask if she needed help, they certainly didn’t give any sign of it.

I raced across the street, narrowly avoiding being hit by a speeding van, and caught up to the bus as the line of people was gradually filing onboard. A group of tourists ran to join them, all chattering and gesturing and fiddling with their cameras. I searched among the growing crowd for bright blond hair and any signs of inhuman speed, pushing my way through to the front and ignoring the complaints as I trod on someone’s foot.

Where was she? Crap. I’d been watching her the whole time – she couldn’t have gotten away no matter how fast she was.

But then I mentally face-palmed. Of course, I had taken my eyes off her for that split-second I’d altered course to avoid becoming roadkill.

I turned one way, then the other, but I couldn’t see her. The commuters were all safely aboard the bus and the doors
sighed
as they closed. The engine growled and I stepped back to get a last look through the windows as it pulled away. Was she
on
the bus? I could have missed her darting between the closing doors  . . .

I’d lost her. Facing the bleak truth I prepared to walk away, trying to figure out my next move. Whoever she was, it was likely she was responsible for both Nicole
and
Quinn’s deaths. I know I didn’t exactly have a signed confession from the girl, but it was the most logical conclusion to draw. Subject Ten was fast enough, and potentially skilled enough, to have pulled off a motorcycle hit on an Elder vampire. But what possible link could there be between the two victims? My mind raced with theories, none of them seeming even remotely possible. I should feel glad that I had an alternate suspect to hand over to Theo, but Ten wasn’t what she seemed. There was more to this, and I was desperately curious. What was her story? Who was she?

And forgetting about ‘who’ she was, just for a moment  . . .
what
was she?

A sudden movement in my peripheral vision was my only warning that I’d stood wool-gathering for too long.

Hands shoved me hard in the back, and I stumbled in front of the accelerating vehicle. The bus hit me, and my world exploded with light and pain  . . . and then merciful darkness.

The first thing I became aware of was someone putting a jacket beneath my head.

‘Don’t move her,’ a woman said, her voice soothing with an undercurrent of fear. ‘You don’t know how badly injured she is.’

‘Are you a doctor?’ a snotty male voice replied. ‘We should at least be making her comfortable until the ambulance arrives.’

Ambulance?
I kept my eyes closed, wondering how I could possibly get out of this potential nightmare without drawing any more attention to myself. Ha! Yeah, like that was going to be possible. I’d just been mowed down by a stupid bus.

I heard a distant siren. Surely they weren’t on their way already? How long had I been out? I couldn’t let EMTs examine me. The superficial wounds on my hands, where I’d skidded along the gravel and tried to stop my momentum, were already beginning to close. I could
feel
my skin knitting itself back together, my super-healing going into overdrive. Nothing was broken. If it had been, those injuries were already fixed. Nobody would believe I wasn’t more badly hurt.

Well, I
was
hurt. I could feel my entire body throbbing like a giant bruise. But external signs of injury were going to be harder to present to concerned bystanders – and more importantly, to sharp-eyed medical professionals.

I had to get out of there. Now.

In one movement I rolled onto my hands and knees, dislodging the coat that someone had draped over me. A collective gasp rose up from the small crowd that had gathered. I heard the click of cameras (that was probably the tourists) and could see a couple of kids with cell phones. I winced. Hopefully I wouldn’t show up on any of their videos. Being a vampire meant it was unlikely that my image could be recorded, and I certainly couldn’t afford to be the latest YouTube sensation. Theo would be furious.

I stayed where I was, head down, stunned and frozen by pain. I remembered the impact of the bus as it hit me and rolled all the way
over
my limp body. The memory was so visceral I imagined that I could feel each individual tire track across my skin.

Getting all the way
up
proved to be more of a challenge. I tried to stand – twice – and fell both times. I gritted my teeth and pushed my palms against the cool concrete, levering myself into a vaguely upright position. Well-meaning people tried to stop me, to help me, to put their damn hands on me.

I stumbled, but managed to remain on my feet. Standing was one thing, but now I had to
walk
. I trembled as a vicious ache spread from my lower back all the way up to the top of my head. The ground moved beneath my feet. Someone touched my shoulder.

‘Sit down, you shouldn’t be moving.’

Another voice: ‘How is she standing up? The bus hit her.’

‘I saw it,’ said another. ‘She went right
under
it!’

I started walking, shaking off hands that tried to stop me. My head pounded and I swallowed bloody bile. I wanted to cry, but dug broken nails into my palms and forced the tears away.
No time, no time.
I chanted it in my head. No. Freaking. Time.

The howl of the ambulance’s siren split the air as the vehicle screeched alongside the stalled bus. I needed to feed and then I needed to sleep. Preferably for a week, but I’d settle on a few hours.

I picked up my pace, limping, not daring to look back.

Later that day, just after sunset, I sat on my bed with my laptop and waited for Quinn’s files to transfer. I held an empty mug and sighed with relief: partly because the thumb drive seemed to have survived the fight and the bus, but mostly because I had finally satisfied my hunger.

The first thing I’d done after getting home had been to nuke some blood in the microwave. A quick fix had been enough to tide me over so that I didn’t lose my grip on humanity – it had also allowed me to sleep, even though I hated to sleep in the day. But I didn’t want to feel the bloodlust so strongly ever again, the way I had when faced with Quinn’s body. It made me feel like I was splitting into two people – and that Moth, my darker self, was gradually taking over.

I so badly wanted to be Marie, and
only
Marie. I wanted to remain myself – my true self – for as long as possible, which made it more important than ever that I was careful to feed when I needed to. No more trying to delay the inevitable. No more living in denial. That’s why I’d just forced down a second helping of blood as soon as I woke up.