After Dawn, What Came Next

It had been so long since anyone truly young had lingered within these walls. He had quite forgotten the energy and enthusiasm and the raw, beguiling innocence of youth. He scooped up the human boy and carted him off into the depths of a suite, tucking him securely into a bed. Cat was tight on his heels, hovering around the boy and fanning his face to bring him around. The Brat Pack was right behind her.

What to do with the human boy was the question on everyone’s collective mind. Their options as to what to do with him were somewhat limited. They could kill him, turn him, figure out some means of motivating him to keep their secret, or take their chances and let him go. Trust didn’t come easily for the paranormal and for good reason. One word, one shred of proof, and it could very well be the end of all of them.

Humanity had been deceived into the belief that they were at the top of the food chain since the first vampire in existence cut his baby fangs on a human throat. There wasn’t anyone old enough to remember the days of pitchforks and crazed mobs. In the dark days, vampire hunters were common. The bonfires burned high, licking at flesh with hungry tongues. Then, the age of enlightenment came. Humanity wasn’t enlightened at all. Vampires just got better at hiding and had been perfecting the art ever since. Apparently, if one human boy armed with a PC and a bit of creativity could discover them. Vampires still had a bit of work to do.

Technology made it virtually impossible to stay under the radar. The more advanced society became. The more difficult it became to hide. Erasing someone wasn’t as simple as it used to be. The brothers were good, but apparently not good enough. It wasn’t as simple as playing dead and assuming another identity, not in this age of digital nightmares. So far, the whole lot of them had been lucky they hadn’t been discovered before now.

The boy had evidence, irrefutable proof that they existed. Damning records from Cole’s childhood and David’s past. Hell, things from his own past he had forgotten about long ago. Unfortunately, other than the moral implications of killing the boy, the brotherhood more or less needed him alive so that they could coax him into retracing his steps and telling them how he did it.

There was always some link to the past. Some trail forgotten about just waiting to be discovered. Vampires had always bore the burden of explaining away the inexplicable. Reasonable doubt, it was called. Feeding the public just enough but not too much, hiding in plain sight as it were. Tricks of light and shadow and smoke and mirrors were how they had existed since the birth of the first of them. Misinformation was a vampire’s best weapon and throughout the centuries they had gotten damned good at wielding it.

These days it was just too easy, but also more difficult than ever. The media was flooded with books and movies on the subject. Carter had never glittered in the sunlight. What a creative piece of fiction that was. He had no soul, but cast a reflection. He believed in God and in the full extent of damnation. How could he not when he had been damned for so very long? At one time, he would have claimed to believe in redemption. But, since then had learned it was only a temporary reprieve from his private hell.

The boy’s computer was on its way to the compound. The brothers needed to discover how Christian had managed to do what he had done. Every shred of proof needed to be erased. But, that was the problem. There was only so much erasing they could do. Nothing was ever truly gone. Whether it was in the form of a signature on a wrinkled scrap of paper, a photograph lost and then found, or a gravestone erected high on a hill. The past always came back to haunt you.

Carter didn’t relish what needed to be done. What to do with the boy? The answer was obvious. But, it wasn’t easy to condemn a soul to a living hell. To pluck him out of the world and drop him into the basket of fruits that was the paranormal. One way or another, and he would offer the boy a choice of how. The boy was in their world now and it was here that he was going to stay.

David was twitchy and on edge. He had been that way since bringing Christian to the Guardians for safekeeping. Something about the whole situation didn’t sit well with him and he hadn’t quite figured out what it was yet. How had Christian unearthed the proof that he had? Rachael’s journals had condemned both Cole and him, but what about the others? How had Christian connected the dots between the two of them and the brotherhood and who was his source? Exactly how had Christian managed to come so close and yet, not have figured out the whole of it for himself?

The full extent of Christian’s research had David on edge. Christian had gotten close enough to the Sons to snap pictures. He had managed to unearth so many truths. Christian had found not only evidence of the Sons and Guardians, but of the pack too. How had he done it? The recorded video footage was grainy and left room for doubt. But, there the evidence was, footage of Hunter transforming from a man into a wolf, and Daniel, his son, along with him.

David hadn’t known Christian’s father. He had followed the family throughout the years to cover his bases. Rod was an intelligent man and one driven by his grief to find some explanation for his daughter’s murder. In the end Rachael had gotten the one thing she had always wanted, someone who believed her. But still, how had Rod managed to pull so many of the paranormals into the mix? How had he connected the pack and the brotherhood to the Guardians and how had it led him to Eric O’Sullivan and his daughter’s murder? There was only one way he could have. His information came from an inside source. But who and why?

Vampires operated on a system of checks and balances. Nobody did anything without an ulterior motive of some sort. Still, David could not figure out what would motivate a vampire to expose his own kind and the wolves along with them. Who would have the slightest thing to gain from such a thing? Luckily, they had caught Christian before he had all the missing pieces. If the boy had managed to get his hands on something other, real, living proof of the existence of paranormals, all of them would have been forced into hiding. As it was paranormals lived on the outer fringes of the real world. They already hid and existed in absolute secrecy. Why would a vampire, risking exposure himself, take such a chance?

David met Cole in the hallway. Given the grim expression on Cole’s face. He had reached the same conclusions. There was only one way to get an answer to their question and that was to ask the boy. Carter was not a stupid man. He would eventually come to the same conclusion himself. It would be worse for the boy when Carter reached that point. Carter wouldn’t kill Christian. He would do something much, much worse. He would use him for bait to lure the traitor out of hiding.

Winding through the maze of hallways that led to where Carter had stashed the boy. Cole and David happened upon the Brat Pack, grim in their mission and determined to protect Christian at all costs. Only one person could have given such and order and made it stick. Cat. Why though? What or whom did she think she was protecting the boy from?

A thought had Cole pressing his steps faster up the hallway. All vampires, no matter what faction or group they aligned themselves with were essentially the same. Born of blood. All the pack was likewise essentially the same. Born of flesh and bone. Only one among them had ever been born of both, of the marriage of immortal blood and mortal flesh. Only one could eat of the fruits of the earth and drink from the eternal wellspring of the vein. Only one. She was more valuable than the entire sum of all the lives of the brothers, the Guardians, and the pack put together. She held the key to life. Only her.

Christian was a ruse to sway their attention from the real issue. David was on Cole’s heels, running faster to match his hurried steps. Cat was a vampire, but she was also a wolf. She was unique among them. The daughter of the Great Father and a wolf queen, Cat had not been made or simply born into this world. She had been gifted to it. And she was the most protected woman in the history of any race. Of course! The vampire exposing them had a lot to gain, if…if he could draw their attention away from Cat long enough to get to her. Only one thing could cause a vampire to betray his own kind and that was the promise not of immortality or happiness, but of true immortality born of flesh and bone.













Chapter 48

The world came into focus and for some strange reason Christian found himself wishing it hadn’t. He blinked against the soft glow of a nightlight and beheld the vision of loveliness staring down at him. The warmth of her stare lasted about five seconds before his awareness snapped to full attention. “Shit!” He scrambled to get as far away from her as he could, effectively trapping his limbs in a knot of blankets. “Stay back or I swear I’ll scream. I mean it. Spawn of Satan! Stay back!”

Cat was startled by Christian’s apparent horror of her. He battled with the sheets twisting this way and that way to free his arms and legs and only managing to effectively get himself tangled up into a tighter knot in the bedclothes. She couldn’t have done a better job of hogtying him if she had tried. It would have been funny. Had she been an outsider looking in. But, she wasn’t and his terror of her wasn’t the least bit humorous. He stared at her blinking wide eyed and gulping, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down furiously between panting breaths. “Spawn of Satan? Really?” She sighed and shrugged. “Do you honestly think anyone here is going to raise so much as an eyebrow if you do scream? I mean you are a hostage in the House of the Damned, after all.”

Christian could have chosen his words better. Cat’s brow was furrowed in suppressed outrage. He tried to piece together what had happened since his brain checked out and hit the reset switch. He didn’t appear to be damaged. He wasn’t chained or shackled to a wall in some dungeon. Timidly, he felt the skin on his neck, checking for pinprick fang marks. “You didn’t…ah…take a bite out of me? Did you?”

Cat gasped in surprise. What kind of person did Christian think she was? Take a bite out of him? Oh, he wished he could get so lucky. She wouldn’t take a bite out of him if he were the last human being on earth! “NO! Hell no! Even a hell bound creature of the night has better taste than to suck on the likes of you!” She got up from the bed and paced the room. To think, she had been worried about him. To think, she had not moved from her spot on the edge of the bed. She had been tending to him for over an hour while his brain went on an unexpected mental vacation and this was the thanks she got? “How did you get here anyway?”

Christian pushed himself up in the bed with a grunt. Damn, he wished he knew the answer to that question. He was bruised. Cole and David hadn’t been all that gentle with him. Manhandling him into a blacked out SUV and then shoving him into an elevator and then dragging him down a long hallway into the heart of vampire central. He really didn’t know where he was. Just that he was somewhere in the city and judging from the elevator ride, a long ways up.

The vampires lived lavishly. Christian had to give them that. Everything was so fancy, from the Persian rugs to the gilt fixtures on the walls. Even the bed linens were the good stuff. One hundred percent cotton and none of that poly blended itchy cheap shit he had on his bed. Cat wore nice clothes. Boots that probably cost more than the average Joe made in a week. He hadn’t noticed it before now. Well, with the shock and everything and all it was understandable. But, she looked nice. She had makeup on and had done something special with her hair. Damn! The date! She had dressed up for him and he had stood her up! Not his fault, but what woman had or would ever believe that from a guy?

“I um…David and Cole brought me. I ah…I’ve been tracking vampires for years. You know when we met on the roof. That’s what I was doing.”

“And you had no idea you were actually talking to one?” Cat scoffed at the lunacy of Christian’s statement. Tracking vampires? Why would anyone want to track a vampire? Was that why he had asked her to meet him in the cemetery? Did he think vampires actually crawled out of their coffins at dusk?

“Are you, Cat? Are you one? A vampire?”

“Not exactly.”

Well, that statement gave Christian pause. If Cat wasn’t exactly a vampire, what was she? She certainly felt warm. Her skin was soft and nice and toasty to the touch. She breathed. She drank hot chocolate, just like a human. But, maybe that was some kind of vampire trick. When they had kissed though, he hadn’t felt the hint of a fang against his lips. What he had felt was something that wasn’t a trick and was very warm, very soft, and so very nice. He kissed a vampire and he liked it. “What, exactly, are you?”

Cat fiddled with the fringe on a lampshade and refused to meet Christian’s inquisitive stare. If he had known exactly what she was would he have been so eager to kiss her? She hadn’t ever been asked to define herself in terms of what she was. She could barely answer the question of who she was. What she was had always been accepted and never questioned and it completely defied explanation. “It’s complicated.”

“Complicated.”

“Yes, complicated. I don’t suppose I could talk you into dropping it for now and just seeing me as me.”

Christian wanted to see Cat as a girl and nothing more, but his curious nature couldn’t let it go. “You drink?”

“Yes.”

“Hot chocolate?”

“Sometimes.”

“What else, Cat? What else do you drink?”

Cat tipped her head and let the curtain of her hair hide her face. She couldn’t look at him. Couldn’t bear the expression of shock on his face when she told him exactly what she was and how complicated it truly was. She had deceived Christian. Well, not exactly out right lied, but she hadn’t told the full truth either. She was just so used to people knowing. It hadn’t dawned on her that someone didn’t know the full truth. Christian had assumed she was human, just like everybody else. “Blood.”

“Blood.”

“Yes, Christian, I drink blood. You’re right. I’m not human, but I’m not a vampire by the truest definition of the word either.” Cat eased her back down the wall and sat on the floor staring up at him from his perch in the bed. Horror marred his features, but she could see the glint of curiosity in his eyes. He wanted to know more. But, what else could she really tell him? “I don’t suppose you can accept that I’m human, but not human at the same time? Could you?”

Christian stayed put, but a part of him wanted to climb out of that bed and crawl across the floor and gather Cat into his arms. She was so unsure. So shy and uncertain about herself and the truths she had just revealed, as if her whole world hinged on his acceptance and understanding of her. He couldn’t do it. A vampire had murdered his sister. Vampires and werewolves had leveled half of downtown and killed innocent bystanders. Vampires and werewolves, they were the bad guys. If she was one of them or some weird combination of the two didn’t that make her by guilt through association one of the bad guys too? “Sorry, Cat.”

“But, you kissed me.”

“I didn’t know.”

“And now that you do. It’s somehow different? I’m still me.”

“Cat, a vampire murdered my sister.”

“And that makes me responsible? We’re not all like that.”

Christian wished he could believe that. Cole had made a pretty convincing argument for vampires. But, still David and Cole hadn’t had any problem manhandling him and basically doing what amounted to kidnapping him from his apartment. He was a prisoner here. He never had been a glass half full kind of person, but it didn’t take a pessimist to realize the vampires weren’t simply going to let him walk out the door. David and Cole had debated what to do with him with the casualness somebody might use to decide what to have for dinner.

It wasn’t much consolation to know they weren’t going to kill him. But, maybe they meant they weren’t planning to do the job themselves and somebody else was going to do the dirty work. Hell, he didn’t know. Christian was implanted with a microchip, as was most of the population. Not that it mattered. People still went missing all of the time. Unless there was a reason to suspect foul play, the cops wouldn’t bother tracking the chip to find him. And there was nobody who would bother to report him missing. He rubbed the bump on his forearm and felt a small amount of reassurance that his tracking chip was still in place.

Christian’s narrow-minded view of the world infuriated Cat. His bias judged all vampires on the actions of a single one. There were plenty of bad humans. History was filled with humans that had committed atrocities. Did he hate his own race based on the actions of his ancestors? Probably not. She watched him rubbing his finger over the small scar on his arm. He thought he was safe because he had a microchip in place. Toby had learned to overcome that particular piece of technology years ago. Guardian HQ was equipped with a dampening field. No signal got in or out without the techies knowing about it. Besides, Cole and David had covered their bases pretty thoroughly. There was no one to notice whether Christian was missing or not.

What to do with him? She didn’t know whether she wanted to take a bite out of him or kiss him. Either option was equally dangerous to the both of them. A flash of fang and a little nip might give him a bit of religion. A kiss though, might make him a true believer. Christian was in a very precarious situation. The Guardians weren’t going to let him go as long as there was even the remotest of possibilities that he was a threat. As she saw it Christian had three options. Blood bond with somebody to ensure his safety, offer his throat and become one of them, or let the secrets he had unearthed die with him.

Now that she knew the whole story, Cat understood Christian’s need for justice. A vampire had murdered his sister. She didn’t suppose it mattered that Eric O’Sullivan was dead. The vengeance he sought had already been dealt years ago. You couldn’t kill someone that was already dead and the body burned to ash and scattered to the four winds. But, to Christian, Eric O’Sullivan was still alive and well.

At least he hadn’t tried to lie about the truth. He admitted he had been tracking vampires and other paranormals for years. Retracing the clues left behind by his father and the steps Rachael had walked two decades ago. Cat wished there was something she could do to make it up to Christian. There was no way to replace a sister he had never known and no way to re-kill the dead. She didn’t know how much Christian actually knew. But, it was evident however much it was. It was too much and that in itself put him in great danger.

The brotherhood owed Rachael. A life for a life. Christian’s life was her payment in full. He would live. It was just a matter of how he would live. He struck her as incurably curious and more than just a bit headstrong. There was probably no way to guarantee his silence. If he had a vested interest in the brotherhood or the Guardians, perhaps… the thought was insane. There was one way to save his life and to keep him human. If she bound him to her and tied their lives together as one, if she took his freedom away from him on the basest most elemental level, the brothers would be ensured their secret was safe and he would be safe.

Cat reached deep within herself and called out the part of her that was shadows and night. The blood flowing through her veins was pure and potent. Powerful enough to form an unbreakable bond with just one drop. The predator within slipped the chains of her control and surged across the room. Cat gripped Christian, pinning him immobile with her strength. His pulse hammered away beneath her lips. The wolf trapped in her human skin howled a low, soulful cry. And the human part of her wept for the loss of another piece of her innocence. It was that soft, so human portion of her soul that had her whispering the words that sealed both of their fates. “Christian, I’m sorry.”