Darkness Before Dawn (8 page)

V
ictor immediately stands and holds up his hands. He’s not wearing the suit anymore. He’s in a black T-shirt and jeans. Once again blending in with the night. Or he would be if he wasn’t in my blue bedroom. He sorta sticks out here. “I’m not here to hurt you, Dawn.”

Right. His tone is reassuring, but since I saw him beside his father, everything about him is suspect. Not only is he a vampire, he’s Old Family, which means he’s manipulative, deceitful, cunning. He’s nothing like I thought he was.

I don’t have to ask how he got in here. The French doors leading out onto my bedroom balcony are slightly ajar. With a vampire’s strength and uncanny agility, he could have easily scaled the building, leaping from balcony to balcony. And he didn’t need to wait on an invitation to enter. At this moment, I really wish that wasn’t just a myth.

I bolt for my dresser, open a drawer, yank out a metal stake, and spin around. But Victor moves too fast, displaying the blinding speed possessed only by the powerful Old Family vampires, those born with fangs, those who don’t know what it means to be human. I barely have time to raise the stake before he grabs both my wrists and manacles them behind my back with one hand while the other covers my mouth, as we slam into the wall.

I’m immobilized, completely helpless. I hate him for that. For overpowering me so easily.

I realize that last night he moved more slowly, deliberately striving to disguise what he was. Even now, with his mouth closed, his fangs hidden, he’s too human. He leans in and I feel the press of his body against mine. His warm breath skims over my cheek, circles around the shell of my ear. “If you make any more noise, Rachel is going to come in here. It won’t be pretty.”

Fear assaults me. My stomach sinks to the floor. I know what his veiled threat means. He’ll kill her.

He eases back, and once again I look into his blue eyes. Last night they’d intrigued me. Now I’m repulsed. His gaze drops to the rapidly pounding pulse at my throat. We stay like that for what seems an eternity. Normally I wouldn’t let him touch me without a fight, but he’s right: With all the noise I’d make defending myself, Rachel would come in here—

I can’t lose someone else I love. And I do love Rachel. She’s been a part of my life ever since my parents first went to work for the Agency. She was a friend to the family long before I needed a guardian. I don’t want to be responsible for her death. My brother died protecting me. I don’t know that I could survive any more guilt.

A knock sounds on the door, and I jerk, my heart speeding up.

“Dawn? I heard a noise. Is everything okay in there?” Rachel asks. Her voice is sweet, innocent. She’s completely unaware of the monster in my room.

Victor’s gaze burns into mine. “Your choice,” he says quietly, and slowly removes his hand from my mouth.

I swallow hard. “Just me being a klutz. I dropped something. I’ll be there in a few minutes, Rachel.”

“Hurry. Food will be on the table in ten. Don’t want it to get cold.”

I hear her footsteps retreating and briefly wonder why I didn’t hear them arriving. Something to do with my focus being on Victor. Victor. I may not be able to fight him, but I’m not going to die docilely. I set my jaw and glare at him, daring him—

“You think I’m here for your blood,” he says quietly.

“Why the hell else would you be here?”

“To forge a friendship.”

Is he joking
? “Yeah, well, that’s not going to happen. You’re a damned vampire. Why didn’t you tell me who—what—you were? You let me believe that you were a Night Watchman. That you were …
human
. But you’re a monster, just like your father.”

“Don’t ever say that. I’m not like him.”

“It’s in the blood.”

“You think you know everything about vampires, but there is so much you don’t understand.”

“I understand you’ve destroyed everything I care about. I know I loathe you.”

If vampires had feelings, I would have thought that I’d hurt his. He gently takes the stake out of my hand, as if he were taking a present, then releases his hold on me completely. I quickly slide away from him and cross my arms over my chest.

“Has Tegan recovered from the other night?” he asks. Okay, I wasn’t expecting him to care about that. But, of course, he doesn’t. He just wants to keep track of all the players on the board.

“Yeah,” I say. “She doesn’t remember much. And I haven’t told her anything. She’s not a threat to you.” I don’t want him trying to get her next.

“I never thought she was,” he says.

His arrogance increases my hatred of him. Unsaid is that he doesn’t see me as a threat either. And I want to be. So badly.

“Why are you really here?” I ask.

“Because I
know
how much you hate my kind,” he says, anger and frustration mixed together. “I figured the first thing you’d do now that you know about me is tell the Agency about the theater. I wanted to ask you to honor your promise not to.”

I shake my head.

“Dawn, there are good vampires out there. We’re not all like those monsters who attacked you, and we’re not all like my father.”

“Prove it. Turn yourself in to the Agency. Work for them.”

“That’s impossible. I won’t have them monitoring my every step. They’d lock me up and use me only at their convenience.”

“So?”

“I wouldn’t be able to wander the night.”

“Your problem, not mine.”

“It would’ve been your problem when you were attacked on the trolley,” he says. “Had I been locked up in an Agency tower somewhere, then where would you be now?”

An image flashes through my mind: me being fed on by vampires. No, a single vampire. Nameless, faceless, shapeless. But he sounds just like the one in front of me. I force it out of my head.

“Why
did
you rescue me?” I ask.

“I told you: right place, right time.”

As soon as I saw Victor standing next to his father, I thought this was all a game, and his intentions were to manipulate me. I figured his father sent Victor after me, maybe even arranged that attack on the trolley so his son could rush in and save the day. That sounds
exactly
like something Valentine would do. No, Victor saving my life can’t be just a coincidence.

“You expect me to believe that?”

“Would you rather I hadn’t?”

“It’s just a little unlikely,” I say. “The city’s delegate being saved by a Valentine vampire? I mean, what are the odds?”

“Good, if you watch the night like I do,” he says. “You really think you’re the first human I’ve saved?”

A strange part of me wants to believe him, to think he’s different from the monsters in my dreams. But I have seen what monsters can do.

“There have been others?” I ask.

“Of course. Those weren’t the first Lessers I’ve slain, either. The Night Watchmen patrol this city, but I do my fair share, too.”

“Why? What do you have to gain from killing your own kind?”

“They aren’t my kind!” he says, his voice low but bordering on anger. “They’re murderers who think they have the right to feed off any human they please. I’m not like that. Humans have hearts and souls, and have every right to walk the night without fear of being attacked. But we need more blood, Dawn. Vampires have the right to survive, too. Trying to bully it out of the humans—I know that’s not the way to do it, but we can’t survive without it. Animal blood doesn’t cut it for us. You know that.”

“Save it for the negotiation table. Or
are
you here to take my blood?”

“If I wanted it, I’d already have it.”

I can’t deny the truth of his words. He’s had so many opportunities: on the trolley, at the theater, right now. He’s done nothing to indicate he’s a threat to me, but I’m having a hard time looking beyond the fangs. And he did threaten Rachel.

“Dawn?” It’s Rachel again.

“Coming!” I look at Victor. “If I don’t go, she’s going to come in here.”

“Just think about what we can do to get more blood.”

“We?”

“You’re the delegate, but if there’s something I can do to help, I will.” He purposefully sets my stake down on my dresser and starts walking toward the balcony.

“Victor?” He stops, his back to me. “You knew I would be at the manor tonight. Why did you go there?”

“Because, like you, when I’m summoned by my father, I can’t say no. Disobeying him can lead to … unpleasant consequences.”

A chill goes through me as I try not to imagine what those might be. I feel a twinge of sympathy toward him—which is the last thing I want. He’s a vampire. I can’t forget that. I move to my dresser and pick up my stake.

“If Rachel had come in here, would you have killed her?”

He turns and his eyes pierce mine. “The only answer you’ll believe is yes, so why bother to ask?”

He’s right. Even if he said no, I’d think he was lying. He knows me so much better than I know him. I’m at a disadvantage. One I’ll stay at, because I have no desire to become familiar with him.

“I have to tell the Agency about you,” I say. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let an Old Family vampire walk the streets without alerting them.”

“What will you tell them?”

“About the attack. The rescue. The theater.”

“I can just move. They’d never find me.”

“Still, I have to.”

“I saved your life that night. If I’ve earned a measure of trust, no matter how small, then keep the theater a secret. If you have to tell them a Valentine is within their walls, I understand. But don’t tell them you know where. If you do, any deaths that happen as a result will be on you.”

I don’t like the implied threat, but I think about Victor staking those vampires, how quickly he saved my life. He saved Tegan, too. He took us into his home. I think about the warm feeling that ran through me as we talked, and how good it felt knowing he was protecting us from the night. All these pictures and emotions rush through me, and I can’t believe what I’m about to say.

“Okay. The theater stays between us. For now. But if I suspect you’re killing humans…”

“Thank you, Dawn.” He takes two steps, stops, and looks back. “A bit of advice: When you’re dealing with my father, let him see the Dawn Montgomery who’s facing me now. He doesn’t realize how strong you are. I didn’t either.” He appears uncomfortable admitting that. “I—he—thought you were just a puppet. Learning differently will unsettle him. Give you an edge.”

“Why would you give me advice?”

“Maybe I don’t like my father any more than you do.”

Before I can think of a response, he steps out onto the balcony and closes the door behind him. I rush across the room and open the doors wide. He’s gone.

But I have a feeling I haven’t seen the last of him.

Chapter 8

I
walk into the kitchen to find Rachel staring at a small TV on the counter. The few available channels show news or some very, very low-budget soap operas. They’re recorded in small studios using ancient equipment that barely works. One of the stations shows reruns of old television series made before the war. I wish a comedy were on the screen now, but unfortunately, it’s Roland Hursch, the wealthiest man in the city, and the most antivampire. He’s ranting outside of a blood site, protesting against those going in to donate.

“This is our enslavement! This is our curse!” he shouts, holding up two empty blood bags. “We give to those monsters, and for what? They still violate VampHu; they still find their way into our city; they still abduct our citizens and drain them dry. It’s time we stand up against the Agency; it’s time we make our voices heard. It’s time for Dawn Montgomery to step down as delegate, and let someone with actual experience, actual knowledge, take charge at the negotiating table with Valentine.”

I must have made a sound, because Rachel suddenly jerks around. “Sorry.” She clicks off the TV.

“That’s okay. It’s not anything I haven’t heard before,” I say as I reach into the fridge for some orange juice and pour myself a glass. I try not to wonder whether Roland Hursch is right. Abductions are on the rise; blood donations are down. What good am I to the city? Then I remember what Victor said—that I’m stronger than he realized....

I shake my head. I’m not about to start taking compliments from a vampire to heart. They’re notorious liars. Anything to get what they want, Victor included.

“Kids aren’t bullying you at school, are they?” Rachel asks, her voice filled with concern.

“Nothing I can’t handle.” It’s not so much political with them as it is jealousy. Working for the Agency, I get a nice apartment, clothes, anything I want. Plus I’ve acquired a sort of celebrity status—even if most of the press is negative, some kids envy that.

“We can talk to the principal, have bodyguards with you at all times,” Rachel says.

“Yeah, like I’d want bodyguards traipsing along behind me in the hallways.”

“They’d be incognito. No one would know.”

“Rachel, think about where I was earlier. Valentine Manor. Do you really think I’m bothered by a couple of kids at school painting my locker red?”

“Did they do that?”

“You’re missing the point here. I’m okay at school.”

She studies me for a moment, then says, “Let’s move on then. During your meeting with Valentine, what did his son do, exactly?”

I lean against the kitchen counter and gulp down my juice. My gaze falls on a faded picture held in place on the side of the fridge with a magnet. It was drawn in crayon with a child’s hand. My hand. It shows four people, all smiling. My family. The only picture I have with all of us together. I don’t know why I keep it. It doesn’t even resemble us, really.

“Just observed, mostly.” I know I should tell her about Victor rescuing me or being in the city or his visit to my bedroom, but for some reason saying the words is harder than I expected. Not so much because it’ll mean confessing what I was really doing that night with Tegan—but because I’m not ready to tell her
everything
about Victor. Which makes no sense. It’s certainly not because of a stupid promise I made to a vamp. They’re not binding.