Blood-Kissed Sky (Darkness Before Dawn) (32 page)

“So you knew we were here all along,” I say.

“Of course I did. Did you like your little trip to the beach? That was my idea. I needed a little more time to arrange things.”

When the door opens at the very bottom, Sin walks ahead and we follow him down the long, white corridor. A single door at the end requires a key card, which Sin produces. He warns us, “Try anything, and I’ll make you watch as I kill the other.”

He turns us around and slashes the rope binding our hands. I bring my arms forward, rubbing my wrists, relieved that the tension is no longer there.

Sin slides the key card, the door opens, and the Perfect World nearly drops me to my knees.

T
he room is gigantic. As wide and long as the building itself, it must be several stories high, the ceiling just barely within view. Filling the room are hundreds of glass chambers, small prison cells. A door leads into each one, and inside, nothing but a single chair.

“Do you like it?” he asks, pacing himself slowly like a tour guide, his arms up as if presenting the greatest work of art ever bestowed upon man.

“What is it?” Michael asks.

But I know. Clive mentioned it, and now I know what I was seeing in Victor’s nightmare.

“The V-Process,” I say. “This was built during the war.”

“That’s right,” Sin says. “This is where humans were reborn into Lessers. Of course, it was never used for that purpose. As part of the surrender terms that Los Angeles made, it had to construct one of these. It was unauthorized, Lord Carrollton’s secret. Somehow, it made him believe he had some kind of control over the city. To him, having the constant threat of turning people was just as good as actually doing it. He was a fool. Soon the city built walls around itself, and this place sat idle.”

“Until you arrived,” I say. “That’s how you’ve been turning people so quickly.”

“Right again.”

He leads us through the maze of cellblocks, each one consisting of twenty or so, forming little streets that divide the space and give it some sense of organization. At the center lies a gigantic silver disk the size of a car. Sin operates a control panel on it and the disk rises, revealing stores of blood within its chilled chamber.

“Gallons and gallons of me,” he says. “Original. Old Family. Day Walker. The most valuable blood in the world. I take candidates, strap them each to a chair, hook them up with an IV of this. Then stop their heart with a simple, massive electric shock. The final step: releasing
me
into their bloodstream. And when they open their eyes, not only are they Lessers, they’re Day Walkers.”

Horror slams into me, and I realize that he’s still growing his army. It’s the reason Jake and the others from Dallas were brought here. Not to give blood as they thought, but to become monsters like Sin. I wonder if they’ve already been turned.

“You have your army now,” I say. “So what? It won’t be enough. You have a few hundred? Maybe a thousand? When the Night Train reaches Denver and the story is told, this city will be doomed. The humans can’t do anything but wait inside their own walls, but what about the other Old Families? Did you ever think about that, Sin? Fourteen Old Families who don’t like the idea of Day Walkers running the show.”

“You don’t think I know that!” he snarls. “I was cast out by my own father because I was a
freak
! And every other Old Family sees me that way. But they’ll all beg for forgiveness when I’m done. Not that I’ll give it to them.”

“You can’t possibly take them all on,” I say.

“You aren’t thinking big-picture, Dawn. This is just the first step. Come see the second.”

He leads us down another row of cells and as we head toward the end, the sound of screaming begins. Low at first, so low it could be mistaken for some kind of auditory phantom, but it grows and grows until I want to cover my ears.

Sin stops and turns to look into one of the cells. Inside, strapped to a chair, a vampire with an IV in his arm is being fed blood.

“Vampire blood,” Sin says. “I don’t want just Day Walkers.”

“You want Thirst-infected Day Walkers,” I say, losing my voice at the conclusion.

“Now you see the grand scheme. You met one in the laboratory. His reaction to ingesting Old Family blood was interesting, wasn’t it, Simon?”

Simon steps out of the shadows. His arm isn’t in a cast and when he smiles at me, I realize why. He’s a vampire. He’s already healed. Like everyone else, he was playing a part.

“I believe you’ve met my lead scientist. He’s been researching all the intricate possibilities of the Thirst.”

“It’s so unpredictable,” Simon says.

“And I need it to be predictable,” Sin says. “I need to always be able to control it, just as I controlled the one who was closest to your heart.”

“Brady,” I say, tears fighting to surface. The vampire in the cell—his eyes blackened, his jaw extended, his teeth razor sharp and lined like fence posts—he’s twitching uncontrollably, just like Brady did. And he moves from laughter to screams of rage as easily as a coin moves from heads to tails.

“Brady gave me the idea, in fact. I gave him the power of the Day Walker, and he transformed himself into a monster by taking vampire blood and sparing humans. I was angry at first, but then I saw how he stalked the countryside, and how quickly and mercilessly he killed vampires. I owe all of this to him really. And this,” Sin says, pointing at the monster, “is the future. The final step in vampire evolution. Stronger than Lessers, nearly as strong as Old Family. And they can walk in the sun. Can you think of anything on this earth more powerful?”

“Yeah. I can,” I say, turning to him and smiling. “Victor.”

His raw strength might not be quite what Sin’s is, but he is rational and calculating. He’s not as volatile as Sin. He’d never reveal his frustration or anger by yelling. He’d never lose control, but Sin appears to be on the verge of doing just that.

Sin slowly nods, licks his fangs, and stares across the vast space of this chamber. And then backhands me.

Michael grabs me. I don’t fall. I just glare right back at Sin.

“I’ll cut your face next time,” he says, holding up the other hand, claws dancing. “It’s true. Victor is a nuisance. That’s why I was in Denver in the first place. I got the summons from my father to help create chaos within the city. I didn’t really care about that; I didn’t even really care about the throne. All I wanted was Victor dead.”

“You’re afraid of him, aren’t you?” I ask.

“Of Victor? He’s an irritant, nothing more. He has this annoying habit of fighting to the end, no matter the odds. As long as he thinks he’s on the side of good, he’ll give his life if need be. I wanted him out of the picture before I started my ultimate masterpiece. Unfortunately, he’s a little stubborn in his refusal to die. So I’ll have to begin even while his heart still beats. Of course, if your brother gave me the inspiration for this, Victor certainly played his own part.”

“How could he ever help you with such an insane plan?”

Sin turns toward me and smiles. The room presses in around me, and I feel the earth turning beneath my feet.

“You recognized this place,” Sin says. “You said the V-Process. I assume you think that stands for, what? Vampire Process?”

“What else would it be?”

He grins with relish. “Victor Process.”

I
t takes every ounce of strength I have to remain standing as my world threatens to crumble.

“Look around, Dawn!” Sin yells. “This is Victor’s legacy.”

Sin explains it was Victor’s idea, the unprecedented notion of using facilities to turn humans en masse into Lessers. Victor designed the entire process: how much blood was required to turn a human successfully, how much electricity was needed to stop the heart, how soon to feed them their first blood afterward.

“No,” I say. “That’s impossible.” But I remember how guilty Victor looked when Clive mentioned the process, how Clive had to explain it. I remember Victor jumping in to say the shock was meant to prevent suffering. Again, the guilt. “Victor said he was in charge of destroying all the V-Processing centers.”

“He was. And who better than the one who created them, the one who knew where they all were, the one who knew
how
to dismantle them perfectly because they were based on
his
designs!”

“You’re lying.”

“It’s the truth. Victor said it was the humane thing to do. After all, the Old Families just wanted to burn entire cities with the humans inside. Victor convinced the council that the humans could be turned, and in great quantities efficiently.”

“Then he saved their lives,” I say. “If they were going to be killed anyway.”

“Are you hearing what you’re saying?” Sin asks, stepping toward me. “Are you hearing this, Michael? He saved them? He damned them! He gave them lives as monsters, feasting on the humans they once called friends. That’s what he did!”

I fall to the floor, images of Victor running through my head. But he’s no longer holding me closely. He’s the one constructing this place. He’s the one making the monsters who rule the night. I feel my heart turning to stone and dropping through my chest, breaking on the floor, crumbling into dust, and being scattered across the earth.

Michael kneels next to me and puts his hand on my back.

I remember being trapped in Victor’s nightmare. Now I understand, because it’s become mine.

“Yes, yes,” Sin says. “You two are very sweet. But I’m afraid we must be going.”

I fight back the tears and stand up. I’m not going to cry or think about the things I can’t change, the things I never knew about Victor. Whatever Sin wants, I have to figure out a way to stop him from getting it.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“Haven’t you ever wondered why I chose Brady?” Sin asks.

“Every night.”

“Good. Because you’re about to find out. We’re taking a carriage ride, something you’re used to.”

The carriage is led by six mighty horses, which gallop through the center of the city on the train tracks. We had to go through the Outer Ring, but moved so quickly that it was just a blur, the thunderous hooves blocking out the night screams.

Michael is beside me, Sin sitting across from us.

“Do you see those mountains in the distance?” Sin asks, his manner too friendly, like it was a month ago, in Denver. Before we knew what a devil he truly is.

“Yeah,” I say.

“That’s where we’re heading.”

“Is that where you plan on killing us?” Michael asks.

Sin just shrugs. “If I have to. I’m not picky on where I kill you. But there are things within that mountain that Dawn must see. You’re simply along for the ride, Michael. In fact, you should consider yourself privileged. You will learn things that few know. Things that have evaded the pen of history for a very, very long time.”

Sin pulls out a small attaché case and unbuckles it. From within the metal box, he withdraws a syringe filled to the brim with blood. He injects it into his vein and presses down the plunger. The blood swirls away, driving deeper into him. He grits his teeth as if it were unpleasant. Taking a deep breath, he relaxes for several moments before putting it all away.

“Get some sleep,” he says. “You’re safe in here.”

But you’re not. Not if I can control my dreams.
If I can reach Victor, I can warn him. I close my eyes. The motion of the carriage is so soothing, very different from the one I’m used to riding in. It’s like being rocked. I drift off to sleep.

I wake up to the sound of the ocean. It’s night, but there’s so much blue light, as if the moon is closer than it’s ever been. I’m sitting on the grass, hands wrapped around my tucked legs. The ocean is so beautiful.

Someone approaches from behind and sits next to me.

“I’m in danger, Victor,” I say.

“I know. I can sense it within you. You’ve come back to this place because it calms you, but it isn’t enough.”

I listen to the waves, wanting desperately to relax … but it’s impossible.

“Sin has Michael and me. I don’t know where we’re heading—somewhere in the mountains.”

“I might know. And I’m already on my way. I’ll save you, Dawn.”

“You have to save Denver. Warn Clive—”

“We’ll have time for all that.”

I want to ask him about the V-Process, about everything Sin accused him of. But I’m afraid the accusation will shatter this dream, tear it apart, and leave me with nothing.

“I’m so tired,” I say. “I’m tired of fighting. I’m tired of everything. I just want this to be over.”

“I know.” He places his arm around my shoulder. “But I’m afraid it’s only just begun.”

It takes us two nights to reach the mountains. They always seemed so close before that at times I thought they were running away from us. Eventually, though, we catch up.

The night is fresh, the air cool. Sin opens up a small compartment in the back of the carriage and produces two jackets, giving one to each of us.