Dawn of Darkness (Daeva, #1) (37 page)

"You're
back early," he said. "Nate's in his room if you wanna go talk to
him."

I was in
need of a break anyway, so I popped over to Nate's room, intent on
confronting him about the inaccuracy of his stories. I hesitated as
I reached the door. It sounded like Nate was talking to someone. It
wasn't clear what he was saying, but he sounded a little angry. I
knocked on the door anyway, and a few seconds later it
opened.

"Hi, Mik.
Did you need something?" he asked, peering out from behind the
door.

"I need
to ask you something," I said. Nate's brow furrowed, but he let me
in and parked himself on the end of his bed. "You been thinking out
loud again?"

"Yeah."
Nate looked away from me. "You wanted to ask about my file,
right?"

"Daniel
told you?"

Nate
nodded. "Truth is, I originally said yes to them. I tried to pull
out later and... well, you know the rest of the story."

"Then why
didn't you say that to begin with?"

"I
dunno." Nate sighed. "Maybe I was just ashamed."

"There's
nothing to be ashamed about," I said. "Everyone in Rachat has been
deceived by them. How were we supposed to know something was
up?"

"Yeah, I
know. And I shouldn't have lied to you."

"So what
made you change your mind about the army?" I asked.

"You
remember how I told you about Shannon?"

"Yeah."

"Do you
remember her last name?"

I had to
think about it for a minute. Normally, I didn't pay much attention
to what was happening in the city, but when a Daeva supposedly
loses control of their powers, kills a few people, and has to be
shot, it's difficult not to hear the stories. I knew it began with
an 's'. Sanders? Saunders? Summers? That was it, Shannon Summers.
Then the realisation smacked me in the face.

"But
that's your–"

"She was
my twin sister," Nate said, interrupting me. "We'd known about each
other's abilities for a while. After the army found me, I knew it
wouldn't be long before they discovered her too. I tried to
convince her to join, and she refused. I'm sure you can work out
the rest."

A heavy
weight sat in my stomach. I felt like an idiot, trying to unravel
some big conspiracy when there was a relatively simple explanation.
It seemed I had a habit of unearthing painful memories. First Ash,
then Daniel, and now Nate too. I really had to try and stop doing
that. I could see Nate was hurting, his shoulders slumped and his
breath coming in short gasps, so despite my better judgement I sat
down next to him and put an arm around him. He didn't cry, but a
few tears slid down his cheek. Now I understood why Nate wanted
revenge so bad.

It was
almost a month since the incident at Boursac. I spent much of my
time focused on training my ability. In the last two days, I had
come pretty far, and was now tearing through boxes with ease. There
were, however, only a limited number of boxes to use, so I had to
find a new practice target. The walls of an abandoned house down
the road that was due for demolition served this purpose perfectly.
It was a lot tougher than cardboard, but soon I was able to build
up enough power, and keep it under control, to leave behind a
decent-sized scratch. They weren't very deep dents I was making
though, and I knew there was still a lot of room for
improvement.

When I
wasn't slashing at walls with my mind, I was either exercising the
rest of my body, or hanging out with Daniel and Nate. We went back
to The New Moon one night, which ended with Nate having to be
carried home by Daniel. Amusing as it was to watch, I didn't
appreciate the long hug and 'I love you, man,' he gave me. Still, I
found it hard to blame him when I kept telling myself it was my
fault. And if Anna's advice was anything to go by, all I could do
was wait and hope he moved on.

The second night, we went to a
movie theatre. We watched an old slasher-horror movie called
'Halloween'.
I jumped out my skin
several times, which Violet found hilarious. In my opinion, being a
vampire is cheating when it comes to horror films. A few times I
started talking to the characters. 'Don't go in there,' I'd tell
them, or 'Turn around!' Then someone in the audience would scream,
and it would be enough to startle me. In my defence, it was the
first horror film I had ever seen, so I was going in completely
blind. Of course, the others laughed, probably wondering how it was
possible for a trained soldier to scream and jump so much during
one film. To be honest, I was wondering the same thing
myself.

Daniel,
Nate and I were planning on going to the theatre again, but our
plans were interrupted when Violet came knocking at the door as we
ate.

"We've
been summoned," she said. "Meet outside Marcus' residence in half
an hour." And just like that, she was gone.

"So much
for our plans," Nate muttered.

"Just
think how much free time we'll have if we manage to take down the
Silver Dawn," Daniel said.

"Just
think how much we'll not get paid too," Nate replied.

Daniel
grinned. "True. We might have to start pimping you out for some
extra credits."

"Very
funny." Nate pouted. I stifled a laugh.

*****

After
finishing our food, we began the short walk to meet Violet and
Sebastian. Leigh came out to greet us, and took us into the
library, where Marcus was busy discussing something with Adam. They
were hunched over the desk, looking at a pile of papers.

Marcus
stood as we approached them. "Thank you for arriving at such short
notice," he said. "Doctor Reid was just explaining the results of
the analysis on Mikhail's blood." Marcus nodded to Adam.

"Well, as
the files described, we found something a little off with the blood
sample."

"A little
off?" Like what?" I asked.

"To put
it simply, we found a large number of abnormal blood cells in the
sample we took. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you had been
bitten and were becoming a vampire."

"But–?"
Nate said, urging him to continue.

"But if
that were the case, then the vampiric cells would be attacking the
regular blood cells. In your case, that wasn't happening. They just
seem to co-exist. Honestly, I've never seen anything quite like it.
By all accounts, you should be growing fangs right now."

"So what
does this mean?" Daniel asked.

Adam
shrugged. "Honestly, I'm not sure. As far as I can tell, the Daeva
are humans that have been infected by a vampire, but are somehow
immune to it."

"Then I'm
a living vampire," I said. But the questions still remained. Why
was I immune to it? Why were any of us immune? And more
importantly, how were they finding out who was immune and infecting
them?

"That's a
good way to put it," Adam said.

Nate
laughed and slapped me on the back. "Who cares what we are? At the
end of the day, we're still us. And that's what matters, right? So
don't go getting all mopey, okay?"

"I'm not
upset about it," I said. "I just want to know the truth for
once."

Marcus
coughed. "Moving on." He lifted a tiny velvet bag, tied with a
golden rope, and threw it to Violet. "Keep this with you. The magic
contained within should allow you to pass through Verloren's
seal."

Daniel
wrinkled his nose. "Do I wanna know what's in that?"

Leigh smiled. "Probably not. And
whatever you do, do
not
open it. Once opened, the magic will be broken."

"Understood," Violet said. She stuffed the pouch into her
pocket. "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow
evening," Marcus replied. "We're still in the process of contacting
the others who will be accompanying you, and I'll have to bring
them up to speed on the issue of the pure-blood"

"How many
others?" Violet asked.

"Ten."

"Only
ten?" Nate exclaimed. "You wanna take down a city with only fifteen
people?"

"We do
not mean to destroy the city," said Marcus. "The citizens of
Rachat, including their soldiers, are innocents. We merely wish to
remove their corrupt leadership."

"And then
what?" I asked. "What's to stop someone from assuming power and
continuing the war?"

"I
realise it will not be easy–"

"Not
easy?" I yelled, my fists clenched. "These people believe you guys
caused the plague that wiped out most of the planet. They believe
if they associate with you, in any way, that it's gonna happen
again. So tell me, how do you plan to convince them that the Silver
Dawn was wrong?"

"Do not
misunderstand my intentions, boy," Marcus growled. "This is about
ending a war. We will remove the Silver Dawn and attempt to show
the people their lies, but if they will not listen, then there is
little we can do for them and they are on their own. We can hardly
force them into anything."

"Without
leadership, the city will fall into chaos. Without Verloren's
magic, they will be left open to attacks from other vampires.
You'll be leaving them there to die!"

"And what
would you have us do?" Marcus snapped. "The best we can do is hope
to convince some of them, and perhaps others will follow. We would
be willing to take them into our city, but if they will not accept
then we reach an impasse."

"So you'd
give up on them?" I felt a hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off
and began to storm out of the library. I stopped halfway to the
door. "And to think I actually believed you were the good guys in
all this, but all you care about is winning your stupid war," I
said, before continuing out of the mansion, slamming the doors on
my way out.

I kicked
at the gravel outside the porch, feeling the rage swell up inside
me. And it wasn't just anger, because I could feel my magic
building too. I had to release it somehow before it overflowed and
I lost control again. "Fuck!" I shouted, directing all my anger
onto a nearby tree, leaving behind a deep scar down the length of
the trunk and severing a few twigs.

"Damn,
remind me not to get on your bad side," Daniel joked as he stepped
out the front door. I might have laughed, but I wasn't in the
mood.

"What do
you want?"

"I think
you're right," he said. "I can't in all good conscience leave those
people there to die. So, after this is over, I'll be behind you one
hundred percent."

"Thanks,"
I said. I took some deep breaths to calm myself down. "But what can
two people do?"

"Two?"
Sebastian said from the doorway. "I think you underestimate us.
Violet's kicking up a pretty big shitstorm in there right
now."

The edges
of my lips crept upwards.

"Any
plans?" Daniel asked.

"Exposing
the pure-blood seems to be the best option," Sebastian
said.

"But
that's only the first step," I said. "Even if they renounce the
Silver Dawn, there's no guarantee they'll change their beliefs on
vampires too. And that's assuming the knowledge of the pure-blood
doesn't make them even more afraid of vampires."

"A new
leader would have to be appointed quickly to stop the city from
going into anarchy," Daniel said. "If we can sway that person, then
perhaps they can begin to change the way people think."

"But what
would we convince them with?" I asked.

"Evidence
of the pure-blood working with the Silver Dawn," said Sebastian.
"Maybe the corpse would be enough, though it would be far easier to
bespell a few influential people."

"General
Marsten," I said. Daniel and Sebastian both looked at me. "He's one
of the most powerful people in Rachat, and one of the most well
known. I assume he's in on the whole thing since he's been doing
the dirty work. If he were to confess in public, then it might be
enough to shake the public's faith."

"Kill the
pure-blood, compel the Silver Dawn's leadership into a public
confession... it could work," Daniel said.

"We
should let the others know."

"Already
done," Sebastian said. "Marcus seems to be agreeing."

"That's
cheating." They laughed and I joined in. It felt so good to laugh
that a few tears trickled down my cheeks. I was still pissed off
though. Whether or not Marcus was now agreeing, he had been ready
to abandon everyone in the city. But I guess that's how vampires
are, especially the older ones. Overly practical.

When
Violet and Nate emerged from the building, they informed us that
Marcus had agreed to the plan, but only under the condition that
the vampires kept a low profile during the aftermath, to avoid any
suspicion.

"We're
meeting at the tunnel entrance at seven, tomorrow evening," Violet
said. "It'll take at least an hour to get there, so I want you at
my place by half-five at the latest."