3 | Silver
Inever thought I’d return to Arcanum Heights, with its snooty gated mansions looking down at all the rest of the city. I haven’t stepped past the wrought-iron fence that marks its boundary since I was twelve years old.
I’m back now, though. Not through any choice of my own.
I’m inside one of the many ostentatious bedrooms of the Laskin’s mansion. I grew up only three doors down from here, and I can see their creepy garden statues and ugly topiary from here.
As the last zombie fell, Simpson grabbed me before I could take a breath. He used his crazy super-speed to get me out of City Hall, into this monstrous house which they’ve decided to commandeer as their own.
I’m upstairs with Ember, who is currently giving me puppy-dog eyes while I glare at him from the rock-hard armchair beside the window. I need to get out of here. I can’t imagine any of the idiot vamps downstairs will be happy to let me go willingly. Not since they’ve decided they want to use me as a weapon in their endeavor to take over the city.
There’s not much scarier than a superpowered vampire with a lot of deep-seated anger and a plan of city-wide domination that’s wooly at best.
I can’t even be free with my own thoughts right now. I can’t trust that Ember’s not listening in now he’s apparently tossed his damn morals out the window, along with his sense.
“You’re mad at me,” he says.
I want so badly to roll my eyes at him. When I can’t even muster any words to express quite how damn mad I am right now, I just wind up glaring some more.
“I get it.” He holds his hands up in surrender, which somehow makes me even more annoyed. “I get it. But don’t you see this is the best way that tonight could have gone?”
I fight the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose and the other lurking desire to toss him out the damn window. Ember’s not an idiot, so I cannot understand how he thinks that tonight went well.
Nothing good happened. It was a damn horror show.
I’ve spent the past decade living in the shadows and had to fake my death to escape my execution. In what world would it be a good thing for my business to be laid bare in full view of a roomful of people?
Including my mother, who had me arrested for less.
I’m not even thinking about how there were a whole lot of cameras outside City Hall tonight and at least one of them is likely to have caught the entire thing.
That my safe little life, hidden in obscurity, is over.
I can hear Simpson and the other vamps downstairs. By the sounds of it, they’re tossing furniture around. I’d bet that with their suped up powers, they have a bunch of energy to burn. There’s a lot of cackling laughter that has me right on edge.
CRASH.
It sounds like someone’s battering a chair against the wall.
They crank up some music and there’s the sound of smashing glass, followed by more laughter and chanting.
My shoulders creep up to my ears. There’s no way I’m safe here.
Ugh. I really need to get far, far away. It sounds like they’re about two seconds away from tapping a keg and chugging beer like drunken frat boys. I’m not sure how many of them there are, since I only caught a glimpse before Simpson dragged me upstairs and locked the door from the outside. But they’re all high on super powerful blood and they’re unpredictable at best.
Dangerous.
It sounds like they’re having a party, clearly high on the thrill of getting one over on the city’s elites.
I rub my eyes and try to will away the pounding in my head, but it doesn’t do much.
I’m drained. Exhausted after using so much of my magic tonight and I feel... pretty gross. Like using necromancy magic has left a filmy residue on my insides.
I need a long shower and some sugar, followed by a twelve hour sleep.
CRASH.
Another roar of laughter.
Something tells me I’m not going to be getting any of those things here tonight. I can’t imagine letting my guard down enough even to nap for twenty minutes, even though I desperately need the sleep.
I pull my legs up so I’m hugging my knees and eye Ember over the top of them.
“I need you to explain to me what happened tonight,” I tell him. “Maybe my brain is fried, but I just—I don’t understand.”
Ember perches on the edge of the king-size bed. I briefly wonder how long it’ll be before the house’s occupants come home to discover the chaos downstairs. Maybe that’ll be my chance to escape.
I won’t hold my breath.
With how suped up the vamps are downstairs, I can’t see any confrontation going well.
“When did you meet Simpson?” My throat’s dry as hell. I desperately need something to drink. Coffee. Whisky. Anything.
“Here.” Ember thrusts a bottle of water at me and I unscrew the top, thirstily gulping it down. It tastes kind of stale, and I wonder exactly how long it’s been hanging around.
I’m trying to keep my cool, to tamp down the panic that’s simmering inside me. My cell phone’s battery died right after we got here and I haven’t been able to check in with any of the guys in hours. Not since before Simpson used his compulsion mojo on me.
“It was after I found those bodies outside the cafe,” Ember says. “After your Mr. Forget-Me-Not asked me to start eavesdropping on anyone I could. All that spy shit.”
“After—” I repeat the word faintly, trying to trace back over the events of the past few months.
I’ve been running through the possibilities while we’ve been sitting here, listening to the vamps getting rowdier. I know I haven’t been around as much over the past few months, but I dunno how I could have missed something so major.
My brother. In league with a bunch of murderous vampires.
I had wondered if maybe it had started before then. My mind’s been going crazy over it. Maybe it started around the time he didn’t answer me while Ro, Zeph and I were down at the docks and we nearly got blown up.
Had Simpson orchestrated that? Or was that someone else trying to mess up the status quo in the Nexus District?
My brain can’t even cope with the possibilities.
If I trust Ember”s telling me the truth—and that’s a big if right now, we found the bodies outside the cafe weeks after we were nearly blown up.
“You found the vamps that dumped the bodies?”
“I didn’t approach them or anything,” he says, pacing fretfully in front of me. “I was keeping an ear out for anything and everything, you know? I didn’t know about SImpson’s involvement until later.”
“Not until after he threatened to turn me into his little pet, you mean?”
Ember shakes his head emphatically and then has the nerve to sigh, like I’m being unreasonable. “I first spoke to him after that, yeah.”
Oh.
I’d suspected as much. But I have to admit, the confirmation rocks me. My brother tracked down the guy that wanted to turn me into his little blood slave. And instead of fighting him, he made a deal with him.
“It sounds bad. Worse than it really is, honest.” Ember grunts, rubbing his eyes. “I can’t explain like this. Not here. Why aren’t you letting me talk to you like normal?”
Inside my head, he means. Our own little private communication.
One that’s tainted now.
I...
Fuck.
I don’t trust Ember. Can’t give him the benefit of the doubt right now.
That’s another reason I’m exhausted. Drained. I’ve got my mental walls as high as they can go so that he can’t sneak in and read my thoughts. It’s like endlessly tensing a muscle and I’m getting a mind-cramp.
Even if Ember’s na?ve enough to have had good intentions, I can’t get over how he’s been lying to us all. Keeping secrets for weeks.
“The club?” My voice comes out croaky.
“I didn’t know what they were going to do,” he insists. “Or that it was the night we were going to be there when they decided to do the big drain.”
When they drugged and killed at least fifty people, he means.
“The vamps put something into the air-con unit?” I ask.
He nods. “It’s like an aerosol version of Rapture. Gets people high really fast. They lose their inhibitions and something about their blood afterwards gives the vamps a major power boost.”
“We were all there. All drugged out of our heads without realizing and what... you were meeting Simpson in a back alley while it was all going on?”
“I was in one of the vamp booths,” he admits, tugging at his sleeves like he’s finally feeling uncomfortable. “We had a deal. None of you would get hurt. That’s what I made them swear.”
I have to fight not to roll my eyes. Because vamps are so good at sticking to their promises. Simpson certainly comes across as a trustworthy guy.
Ember’s eyes are wide and pleading. His red hair’s a mess and he looks about as exhausted as I feel. He looks like my Ember. The guy who’s so laid back, he never worried about money or having a place to stay as much as the rest of us. The guy whose art was all he really cared about.
“You want to rule the city?” I ask him. The ‘since when’ is pretty obvious without me having to speak the words. Ember didn’t want to rule our household or his own damn life six months ago.
What happened? When exactly did that change and I didn’t notice?
There’s another shout of raucous laughter from the vamps downstairs. Something smashes and then I hear them tramping up the stairs, coming closer to this room. My heart rate picks up and I take a deep breath, trying to keep it steady.
They head right on past the room we’re in and I breathe out slowly.
I need to stay calm. They’ll be able to sense if I’m panicking, and then they’ll wonder why.
There’s another almighty crash followed by a chaotic jumble of sounds, like they’ve just chucked a piano down the stairs.
Maybe they have.
They whoop and cheer. Egging each other on like a bunch of mindless idiots.
It’s like a pack of hyenas have set themselves up as de facto leaders of the city.
Murderous hyenas.
And I thought the Archarcans were bad enough.
I mean, they are. They’re arrogant. Elitist. How many stains are there on their collective consciences? How many people have died through neglect because they weren’t powerful enough to be important? Or how many others have been imprisoned or executed because they didn’t fit the mold and were at risk of being too strong?
Like me.
Rook.
Hanna.
Luna.
Ember too, I’d guess.
“I watched you struggle for years, Silv. All of us were scraping by and you were working harder than anyone. You’re powerful. Brave. Smart. You deserve to be free to do what you want. But because of how this city is run, because of the messed up hierarchy. We’re the dregs of society.” He runs a hand through his hair, making it even more of a mess. “Things in Nexus were already changing. People are unhappy with your princes and their fathers ruling the roost and never struggling with anything. It’s easy to believe things are the same all over the city.”
I rub my tired eyes, fighting an exhausted sigh.
The thing is, he’s not wrong.
He’s not so wildly off-base that I can discount what he’s saying either. It’s all true.
I just don’t think that teaming up with murderous vampires is the way to go. Or that I would be better at being in charge of this city than anyone else.
Blame being homeless and eating out of dumpsters at age twelve for my lack of ego. I can acknowledge things aren’t right in the city, while also knowing I’m not the right person to fix them.
CRASH.
Another broken piece of furniture, this time is sounded disturbingly close.
These vamps definitely aren’t the right people for the job.
Ember seems to know what I’m thinking, even though my mental shields are still firmly in place.
“It’s a means to an end,” he mutters. “They can do the messy jobs until we don’t need them anymore.”
How he thinks that’s going to play out, I have no idea.
I’m clearly not going to convince Ember to help me get a safe route out of here. I need to check in with the others. Plan an exit strategy.
“Have you heard from anyone?” I ask. “After you knew zombies were going to be let loose while our family was on the streets, did you think to check in with everyone? Have you confirmed they’re all right?”
He blushes. Looking down at his feet like a chastised kid. “I’ve been kind of busy and distracted, Silv. Even with the power boost, creeping into over a hundred people’s heads has fucked me over.”
Boo-fucking-hoo.
I slip down my shields just a smidge and try to check in with Roscoe.
Nothing.
Huh, I guess I’m more tired than I thought.
Either that, or he’s sleeping. I guess it’s probably the middle of the night. Although there’s no clock in here, and with my phone being dead, I can’t check.
Then I hear Zeph’s voice. It’s faint, like our mental link has a dodgy connection. It barely sounds like he’s talking to me.
“Please be okay. Tell me you’re okay. I can’t do this without you, Silver. Little Witch, talk to me. Tell me you’re okay.”
In fact, it doesn’t sound much like he’s talking to me at all. It’s almost like he’s... praying.
“Zeph? I’m here, I’m okay. What’s happening?” I have to drag up the dregs of my magic to speak to him and even more to listen to his response.
“Oh fuck, Silver.” He lets out a little sound that’s almost a sob.
My chest goes tight. “Zeph?”
“You need to get down here. The Spire. Ro is... Ro’s hurt. We can field off Felix. Just get down here.”
“Felix is dead.” Something that I’d almost forgotten with the absolute mess of tonight filling my brain and overloading me.
“I—I’ll come. I’m going to come right now.”
I get to my feet. “I need to go.”
Ember shakes his head, hopping up and holding up his hands. “You can’t. You can’t just leave.”
I stand off against him, folding my arms. But what exactly am I going to do here? Throw a fireball and jump out of the window? Punch him in the face?
Before I can do anything, I hear Ember’s voice in my head.
“She wants to leave. Watch the doors.”
There’s a stabbing in my chest as I gape at him. He warned them.
Them. The vampires that want to chain me up and use me as their pet.
Raw betrayal guts me and I gasp out a breath. There’s a stampeding of feet as someone thunders up the stairs.
“Stay here. Think it over,” Ember pleads, skirting around me and heading for the door. “It’s going to be fine. Please, Silver.”
Then he’s gone. Slamming the door behind him.
The click of the lock has me freezing on the spot, but only for a moment. I’m terrible at getting out of locked rooms and I don’t even have a lock-picking set with me.
Dammit.
And there’s no way I want to go up against a wall of vamps to get out of here.
The last time I was in a situation like this, I had Rook to help me with Ember acting as my go-between.
But this time, I’m on my own.
I guess, jumping out the window, it is.