This Blackened Night (2 page)

When they reached the correct suburb, Lori paused. She didn’t want to violate the premises again, not when she knew she would glean nothing else. She hadn’t had a vision for months. Forcing one never worked. Instead of entering, she stood silently and thought.

Eventually, Terrence tapped her on the shoulder. “Only an hour or two ’til dawn,” he murmured.

So? I won’t burst into flames
.

Lori stomped down the uncharitable thought. She was getting tired, and her thoughts had led her in dizzying circles. The longer she brooded, the tighter her stomach clenched. What if she never found the Spenta Michos?

Glory meant nothing to her. Any member could save him and she would be overjoyed. But the Spenta Michos was important to her. He should never have been put in danger. The compulsion she felt to find him went beyond duty to the Order. The Spenta Michos made the world a better place.

Terrence peeled her away from her position, steering her in the direction of the nearest bus stop. He didn’t say anything. Maybe he even understood, a little. He had joined the Order after the Spenta Michos’s disappearance, so he couldn’t possibly feel the same way she did. He’d never witnessed the SM’s brilliance for himself.

They reached the university campus without speaking. Terrence followed her silently to her dorm room. Once inside, he shut the door.

“Lori, are you all right?”

“Fine,” she answered mechanically.

He stopped her from dropping onto the bed. With cool fingers, he turned her face to his. His forehead wrinkled with concern.

Dropping her gaze to his chin, she tried to push away.

Terrence tightened his hold, wrapping an arm around her back. “Don’t fight me, Lori. We’ll find the Spenta Michos. Together.”

Hollow comfort. Just empty words. At this rate, the Spenta Michos might never be found. Even if she’d received no mysterious texts confirming his death–as she had when he’d gone missing–the Spenta Michos might even be dead. Were her efforts for nothing?

Terrence smashed his mouth onto hers. Molten contact.

Lori gasped. A vision slipped into view. One she’d seen before, but this was different.

The Spenta Michos clawed at the pale hand covering his mouth. The whites of his eyes showed stark against his deep brown skin and irises. Behind him, his attacker stood in profile.
Lori could never mistake that face.

Terrence.

Chapter 2

Lori gasped, breaking the contact with Terrence. She stumbled back, out of his arms. Her heart pounded like a jackhammer.

Could Terrence have kidnapped the Spenta Michos?

Her synapses worked in succession, piecing the puzzle together. She’d only met him after the Spenta Michos had disappeared. Since she’d agreed to work with him, he’d led her in circles. And even though months had passed, during which she’d shoved the horrifying episode from her mind, a madman’s accusations poisoned her thoughts. After trying his damnedest to stake Terrence, Devin had accused him of raping and murdering his family. At the time, Lori had dismissed the thought. The Terrence she knew wasn’t capable of it.

The Terrence she knew wasn’t capable of kidnapping the Spenta Michos, either. Just what kind of monster was he?

Terrence reached out, but Lori recoiled. “What’s wrong?” he asked. His fangs winked in and out of sight.

Lori tried to answer. Her voice lodged in the growing knot in her throat.

A cocky smile spread over his face. “Don’t tell me it’s my kissing. We’ve kissed before. Many times.”

Stolen kisses, but that wasn’t the point.

Lori eased onto the bed. Closer to the stake and knife in her boot. She’d staked him once before. After battling heartache, she’d been careful not to do it again. But if he wasn’t the man she’d thought–if he’d done the unthinkable…

Terrence reached out to touch her cheek. Recoiling, she yanked the stake from her boot. The snick of silver-coated steel punctuated the silence. “Don’t touch me.”

His eyes dimmed. Dropping his hand, he frowned. “Lori my love, I would never hurt you.”

“I’m not anything to you!” Lori felt like she was replaying the past. The same words, the same action to follow, only this time if she staked Terrence, he might stay dead.

He’d kidnapped the Spenta Michos. He’d known all along, and she’d trusted him.

“I had a vision,” she spat.

His face hardened. She saw the same bloodthirsty man she’d glimpsed only twice before, each time when he’d saved her life. Was he about to kill her like he had the lunatics who had threatened her back then?

“When?”

“When do you think?”

Her fingers curled around the stake. The cold metal started to heat from her skin. Her palm was slick with sweat. Could she really go through with this?

“What did you see?”

Four words, spoken in a deep, cold voice. Did he know? Did he already suspect what she would say? She levered her weapon between them, moving into a fighting stance before she delivered her words. “I saw the Spenta Michos being kidnapped. By you.”

Panic crossed his face.

Yes, I know now
. Lifting her chin, she prepared to deliver the final blow.

He gripped her by the shoulders. Heedless of the stake between them, digging into his chest. She hadn’t sharpened the tip in a while, but it wasn’t that dull. It had to hurt. Was she angled right to give the final thrust? Last time, in her panic, she’d miscalculated. She couldn’t afford another mistake.

A little to the right. But somehow, she found herself slipping the stake more to the left. Out of harm’s way.
He’s a monster
. But she couldn’t kill him.

Terrence shook her. Clenching her hand around the stake, she glanced up into his face. His eyes held the same panicked look she’d envisioned on the Spenta Michos’s face only seconds ago. Pupils wide, nearly drowning out the blue. Whites showing all the way around. His lip trembled.

“Are you sure it was me? Did you see my face? All of it?”

“Your–your face?” The stake dipped. Lori steadied it. “Of course it was you.”

“Did you see all of it?”

Lori winced at his roar. “No,” she spat. “Only one side, but I’d recognize you anywhere.”

Terrence released her. His features grew stony, impenetrable. She didn’t want to listen to what he had to say.

If she couldn’t bring herself to kill him, she would at least expel him from her life once and for all. “Get the fuck away from me, and don’t come back.”

His gaze seemed to pierce right through her. “Or you’ll kill me, Lori?”

“Yes.” Her arm trembled. She tried to keep it still. “Just get out.”

Turning his back, he swept out of the dorm room, shutting the door behind him. She collapsed onto the bed.

Shudders wracked her body. Her heart pounded so loudly it sounded like a firing squad.
He’s gone. He won’t be coming back.

Then a horrible thought intruded. Now that she’d exposed him as the kidnapper, he might decide to dispose of the Spenta Michos.

Lori’s stomach bucked. She bolted for the door, choking back bile. The dorm halls blurred together as she staggered down their length to the door. A chill nip in the spring air cleared her head. She searched the shadows.

“Terrence?”

He didn’t answer. What would she do if he had? Beg. Plead. Something to save the Spenta Michos’s life. Instead, she’d antagonized the very person who held her idol at his mercy. Her legs threatened to buckle. This was her fault.

It may not have been at first. Since another Order member had been assigned to watching the Spenta Michos, it was all too easy to lay the blame for his capture at someone else’s feet. But if Terrence killed him tonight… Lori had no one else to point to. Moisture tracked down her cheek. Rain?

No. She was crying. She wiped the driblet away. No time for guilt. Maybe she could still stop the inevitable from happening.

No buses ran at this hour, so she called a cab from her cellphone. Every moment until it arrived was agony. She felt as though she was splintering minute by minute. Finally, headlights hailed the arrival of a vehicle. She dashed toward it.

Where would Terrence go? She rattled off the address to Underground. As the cab pulled onto the road once more, she felt like she was being watched. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She glanced behind her. Had Terrence lingered nearby?

The shadows remained still.

Her stomach knitted itself into a snarl. Was she in danger? Her stake sat heavily in her boot, but even so, she didn’t feel at ease. She needed to know for sure. Closing her eyes, she brought on her second sight. The ability to see auras. No flashes of color pierced the darkness behind her. The only person to examine was the driver. No malicious intent. A touch of weariness. Before the colors overwhelmed her and added to a growing headache, she banished the sight. For the moment, she was safe.

The cab pulled to a stop.

“Wait here,” Lori barked, jumping out before she paid. She ran to the club door. It wouldn’t budge. Locked, already. Shut down for the night. He couldn’t be here.

She returned to the cab, but paused with an address at the tip of her tongue. Could Terrence be holed up in the warehouse district? No. With three deaths in the past six months, the police patrolled the area constantly. She recited the address to Terrence’s apartment.

This time, when the taxi slowed, she paid the tab. As a vampire, did Terrence have superior senses? She’d never asked. Just in case, she didn’t want him to hear the waiting car. Dropping someone off was commonplace enough.

She didn’t ring the bell. The last thing she wanted to do was alert him to the fact she’d arrived. However unlikely that he might have hidden the Spenta Michos in his apartment, it might hold some clues. She picked the lock and quietly ascended the stairs.

She pressed her ear to the door. No sound within. Picking the lock took seconds. She stumbled inside the darkened apartment, but didn’t flip on the light. Just in case the resident returned home, she used the thin light of her cellphone instead.

The apartment was sparse. Her painstaking search turned up nothing. She peeked through the blinds to the street outside. Pink strips of sunlight edged the horizon. She sat heavily on the bed.

Terrence wasn’t coming back. What could she do?

Chapter 3

Lori didn’t know whether to smile in relief or cry in frustration when she found Terrence outside her dorm room the following night. Dressed in black, he blended into the shadows.

“Are you here to kidnap me, too?” she spat.

That’s it, Lori. Antagonize the vampire
. She shifted on the balls of her feet. The stake in her boot caressed her calf. A small comfort.

Terrence reached out. “Lori…”

The solid wood door hemmed her in. When had she backed up? Terrence looked as betrayed as a kid stripped of candy. When he buried the expression, she relaxed marginally.

“I didn’t kidnap the Spenta Michos,” he said woodenly.

“I know what I saw!”

A door opened nearby. Out poked a tousled golden head. Keri. Lori’s neighbor and a woman who knew entirely too much about her.

“Lori, are you all right?”

Having an argument in the hall wasn’t the brightest decision. Doubly so, considering the topic. The Aka Druj Spenta Michos had strict rules. No one outside of the Order could know of its existence. On pain of death.

Lori mustered a smile for Keri’s benefit. “We’re fine, thanks.”

As suspicion flickered across Keri’s face, Lori realized her mistake. She never smiled.

Terrence came to the rescue. “Weren’t you about to join me for breakfast?”

Breakfast. Well after midnight. Tonight, the statement didn’t make her crack a smile. She might be the meal.

Terrence peeled her away from the wall with a light touch. Did he think she would break? She went with him quietly, happy to be parted from Keri’s shrewd gaze.