Darkling

"Tim. Tim!"

Startled, he blinked and looked up at me from his prone position. "Huh?"

"Get back. Slowly crawl away from her. Now. She's had enough for the moment." I waited until he rolled away, then gently turned Erin around to face me. "Erin, do you know who I am?"

She gazed at me for a moment, then nodded. "Menolly. But… what happened? Where am I?"

"Do you remember being kidnapped?" I spoke slowly, wanting to break it to her gently in case she didn't fully understand just what had happened. But she surprised me here, too.

"Yeah," she said, her gaze dropping to the ground. "The vampires captured me. They almost killed me."

"They did kill you," I said. "But before you died, we found you. Do you understand?"

As the blood raced through her, strengthening her, she glanced over at Tim. "I'm one of you now," she whispered, looking back at me. "I'm a vampire, and I just fed on my best friend and liked it. I want more. What's going to happen to me?"

I gathered her into my arms and held her tight. The older woman—who would be forever middle-aged with short hair and a little bit of a tummy—hugged me for all she was worth.

"You'll be okay. You don't have to follow a path of terror and destruction. You don't have to turn into a monster. We are predators, true. We feed on blood. Nothing can—or will—change this fact. But you can choose how you respond to the urges, and you can choose who you feed on, and whether you hurt them or give them pleasure. I'm here to help you, and my friends at Vampires Anonymous will help you."

After a moment, I pushed her back to arm's length, looking at her sternly. "But, Erin, know this. I'm your sire. If you do decide to head off into the sunset and go on a killing spree, I'll come for you and I'll stake you. I'll always be able to trace you. Do you understand me?"

Erin shivered. "Yes. I asked for this. I'll never blame you, Menolly."

I bit my tongue. If it hadn't been for me, this never would have happened. Dredge wouldn't be here causing havoc, preying on my friends. But what might have been was irrelevant. What mattered now was where we were.

If there was one thing I'd had to learn over the past twelve years, it was to let go of regret. Baggage, sure, it would always be there, but there was no turning back the clock. We could only change the present and future. And now, my cords to Dredge cleaved, I could focus on destroying him and ridding the world of a terror that should have been obliterated hundreds of years ago.

I looked up at Tim. "Go get Delilah, would you?"

He nodded, scurrying out the door.

Erin gasped suddenly. "I can't breathe!"

"No, remember? You can't, not like you used to. Don't try. Don't let it worry you. As I told you, you won't die, you won't suffocate. You see, we only breathe when we consciously make the effort. Your brain is trying to repeat the patterns that worked for your body in life, but as a vampire you don't need oxygen so your body won't know what to do with it."

"How am I going to learn all of this?" she cried, for the first time looking petrified.

I grabbed her shoulders. "Listen to me. Listen. First, stop struggling. Exhale. Don't inhale, just let go of the breath you tried to take."

She focused on my gaze, and I felt her deflate, the air whistling out of lungs that no longer needed to breathe.

"Good. Now I want you to close your eyes. Look inside of you and pay attention. Are you dizzy? Do you feel like you'll pass out if you don't breathe?"

She obeyed and after a moment of stillness, said, "No. No, I think I see—if I don't struggle for breath, I don't notice that I'm not breathing."

"That's absolutely correct. You'll only go into a panic when your brain tells you to breathe and your body isn't prepared for it. You can take a deep breath and let it out, but you have to prepare the lungs for movement or you'll disrupt your body. It's all part of the transformation." I kept hold of her hands as she focused on relaxing.

Delilah entered the room at that point, followed by Tim. "Is everything okay?" She knelt a few feet away, watching cautiously.

Erin looked over at her. "Hey, Delilah. I… I'm not sure… I mean, what do I do! I can't run my shop, can I? I can't just go home. Menolly, what happens to me next?"

I gave her a gentle smile. "You learn from the best. Delilah, take Roz and go over to Sassy Branson's house. Ask her to come back here. If she's not there, call Wade. In fact, call him first. He specializes in helping newborns adjust." I tossed her my cell phone. "He's in my contact list."

Delilah punched a few buttons. "Static. I'll have to go topside."

"Don't go alone. Take Roz with you. Come back and let me know if you get hold of Wade before you head out for Sassy's. We don't have time to waste so don't dawdle."

Tim cleared his throat. "Erin, I can call someone to take over your shop for a few days. Lindsey, from the Green Goddess Women's Shelter. She has clients who need a temp job." He bit his lip and I shook my head at him, motioning to the blood that welled up on the pale pink flesh. Wiping it away, he shrugged a smile at me.

Erin was still fighting for control. And doing a damned good job. Most vamps went a little crazy when they turned—the ramifications don't sink in until you realize that your entire life has just been turned upside down and you can never, ever go back to the way things were.

"Thanks," she said. "Please, don't tell her what happened. Not yet. I need to come to grips with this first. Just tell her I'm sick."

"No problem," Tim said.

"You'd better go into the other room," I broke in. "She needs to rest and to quit thinking about your heart, which is beating a staccato tremor so loud I can hear it all the way over here."

He nodded. "Okay. But, Erin, I still love you. I wouldn't have offered to be your donor if I didn't."

She managed a faint "thank you" as he left the room. We sat in silence until Delilah returned.

"Wade will be here in a few minutes. He said not to bother going to Sassy's, he's coming from her place, and she's already preparing a room for Erin." A few moments later the door opened and Wade strode in.

"Delilah told me all about it," he said. "You took out the newborns?"

"Most of them, though I think a few might have escaped. We'll have to all be on our guard. We'll talk about catching them after I destroy Dredge. But for now, can you escort Erin to Sassy's? And will you make sure Tim gets home safe? He's still in danger since he's my friend, and frankly, Erin drank a little too much from him, I think. He's pretty wiped out, even if he doesn't realize it."

Wade shook his head. "I think it would be safer if Tim went back to your house. Iris is more than capable of protecting him, isn't she?"

"You're probably right. Delilah, ask Roz to take Tim back to our house and then return as soon as possible. I'm not sure just how he travels so fast, but the important thing is that he does."

As she headed out the door, I turned to Erin. "Listen to me. Wade is a good friend of mine. He runs an organization that I belong to. You've heard me talk about it. Vampires Anonymous?"

She gave me a vigorous nod of the head. "Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Hi, Wade."

"Hey, Erin," he said softly. "Welcome to the underworld."

"Wade's going to take you to Sassy Branson's house. She helps out at the V.A. and she's a vampire, too. She and Wade will keep you there for a while and help you learn how to adjust. I've got a battle to fight tonight. If I win—and trust me, I'm planning on it—I'll come visit you. Probably tomorrow night once sunset hits. Meanwhile I want you to go with Wade and do what he says. You can trust him."

As I hoped, her intense desire to please me reared its head and she held out her hand to Wade. He helped her up.

Dredge had sent me home to destroy my family in the same way I was sending Erin to Sassy's. Luckily my anger and memories of the torture intervened. I'd managed to lock myself away before I could attack Camille. The OIA had taken it from there. At least Erin wouldn't have bad memories of me, and her transition was running far more smoothly than I'd hoped.

Wade led her away and I followed, watching as he guided her out under the night sky. Erin would never again look on the sun, never again bask under a warm summer afternoon. But it had been her choice—although not much of one. Die or live for an eternity. No vampire I knew of was over five thousand years old, so whatever happened to the ones turned before that… who knew?

Maybe there were none. Maybe whatever forces had started vampirism hadn't existed before then. Maybe… maybe all ancient vamps committed suicide after eons trapped in their bodies. I didn't plan on waiting that long to find out. Until my sisters left to meet our ancestors? Sure. A thousand years? Possibly. Most of the Fae lived that long. Forever? No chance.

After Wade led Erin away, I turned to the others. "She should be okay. I think she'll actually make it. But I wish it hadn't come to this."

Chase cleared his throat. "Yeah. And I'm going to have to come up with an excuse for her absence or the tabloids will have a field day rooting around for what happened to the owner of the Scarlet Harlot."

"We'll help," I said. "At least Erin can call a few friends, say she's taking a vacation. Something like that."

"Well, I guess we're done here," Camille said. "What next?"

I motioned for them to follow me topside. "What next? As soon as Roz returns, we go find Dredge, and obliterate the bastard." I checked the stakes in my belt. One way or another, he was going down. And I planned on staking the final blow.

CHAPTER 19

Seattle was beautiful at night, dark and gritty in the back alleys with the brilliant lights of the skyscrapers and Space Needle glowing over the inlet. I'd grown to love the sights and sounds of the city as it slept. Oh, the usual derelicts and college kids and hookers and pushers wandered the sidewalks. And a few gang bangers and gangstas scattered the streets, low riding in their hopped up cars. But, overall, Seattle kept a hushed vigil through the dark hours.

The rippling currents of Elliott Bay glittered from the reflection of the lights that lined the pier as we swung into the parking lot near the hotel. Silent as the night, the six of us gathered in a shadowed recess between two buildings. To the west, we could see all the way across Alaskan Way to the inlet. To the east, a line of warehouses and buildings waited.

"There." I pointed to the Halcyon Hotel. "Supeville central. I hope Dredge is still there, the motherfucker."

We headed across the empty lot, which was really just a patch of gravel punctuated by lines of cement dividers indicating where drivers should park, illuminated by scattered lights here and there. Only a handful of cars besides our own were parked in the lot. One, a Hummer, had a personalized license plate that read, "SEXYSUCC."

I pointed it out. "Ten to one a succubus owns it."

Camille let out a short laugh. "Sometimes I think I'd have made a good succubus."

"Except that your first love is magic," Morio said.

I glanced at Delilah. Morio knew Camille better than I thought. "Okay, listen up, folks. You already know Dredge is terribly dangerous. Remember: He's a sadist. He enjoys inflicting pain. If he gets a hold of you, he'll do anything and everything he can to break you. Killing's too quick for his tastes."

"Do you really think we can take him?" Camille asked, suddenly sober. "What about the rest of the Elwing Clan?"

"They might present a problem. Odd thing is, we've heard reports about Dredge one after another, but nothing about his marshals. We'd better take him down, though, because if he gets away, we're going to be looking over our shoulders every fucking day of our lives. And we'll never again be able to have any friends or family nearby without putting them in danger."

Worst-case scenario, I could get away from Dredge. And Roz could probably escape. But the others—Chase was most at risk, but my sisters and Morio weren't invulnerable by any stretch of the imagination.

As we approached the building, I motioned for everybody to move to the side, out of the sight line of the windows overlooking the lot.

"I need to figure out what floor he's staying on. I doubt we'll be able to pry the info out of the registration desk. Dredge is charming, even without the vampire thang. You can bet they won't have a clue as to who we're asking about, or why, and he'll have them charmed into not handing out any pertinent information on our boy."

I scanned the windows, then turned back toward the pier. There—a statue of a figure carrying a large sack over his back as he stepped off a gangway. The Deckhand. That was the statue I'd seen when I'd looked through Dredge's eyes. And right behind it, the Sushirama. That meant… I glanced back at the hotel. "Fourth window from the left. I'm sure of it. Now let me figure out which floor he's on."

Slowly I began to hover, floating up. One story, nope. Two stories—no. Three—maybe, I thought. At the fourth, I snapped my fingers and immediately descended. "Four stories up, fourth window from the left. Come on, let's go." I led them into the lobby.

The Halcyon Hotel and Nightclub was just that—a hotel with a nightclub off the lobby. Like a number of the Supe clubs that had been springing up throughout the city, it catered to Earthside Supes more than Otherworld inhabitants, but welcomed just about anybody as long as they didn't cause trouble. The sounds of music and laughter came pouring from the lounge as we entered the lobby. The Doors were wailing away on the jukebox.