After Daybreak (14 page)

Chapter 17

V
ictor, Faith, Richard, and I take the car. Michael and Ian each transport a carriage. Inside one of them, Eris is chained up tightly to the velvet seats she loved so much.

After we reach Valentine Manor, everything is parked in the garage and stables. Ian and Michael exchange a few words with Victor before leaving for Denver. The rest of us head inside. Once in the main hall, Victor looks toward his prisoner. Eris’s chains are held by Faith and Richard as they pull her along. She takes slow and stubborn steps, her face defiant.

“Take her to the dungeon,” Victor says.

Faith and Richard nod and drag her away. When she resists, they give a harsh tug, the chains rattling. She picks up her pace. Victor and I go to his study. The drapes are drawn, the room filled with shadows. A few lamps burn. A fire dances in the fireplace. I stand before it, trying to get warm.

Victor comes up behind me and puts his arms around me. “That was the longest day of my life. Did she say anything about Sin?”

“Only that he’s to the west.”

“Maybe she can tell us exactly where.”

“Do you think she knows?”

He hesitates, then says, “No. She may have an idea, but I suspect he set up a rendezvous point where a couple of his soldiers are waiting. He wouldn’t expose himself.”

“That’s what I’m thinking, too. That’s why I didn’t suggest that we wait until she had taken us to him.” I turn around in his arms. “But how are we going to get her to talk? During the war, interrogation consisted of dragging vamps out into the sun, letting them burn, then dragging them back so they could heal, and doing it all over again. It was cruel, but effective.” For Old Family, had any ever been caught, it would have been more horrendous. Their healing properties are more advanced. They could survive for hours in the sun, burning and healing, losing ground slowly, until eventually the sun would win out. “As a Day Walker, she’s immune to that. What can we possibly do?”

“I have some ideas.”

The dungeon is dank and cold. The light comes from lamps secured to the brick walls. Metal doors line the corridor, maybe a dozen in all. Our footsteps echo over the stone floor.

Faith, Victor, and I relieve one of the servants who was in charge of watching Eris. He leaves, shutting the door behind him with a resounding echo that I hope puts some fright into the beautiful Day Walker. The chains are still tightly wound around her body, only now the tail end is hooked into an eyelet on the wall, making it impossible for her to escape. She should seem helpless, but even though her body is chained, her mind isn’t, and as Sin’s emissary, she can be devilishly sharp.

Victor kneels in front of her, with Faith and me standing behind him, half-hidden in the shadows.

“What does Sin want?” Victor asks.

“Your death. Obviously.”

“No. That’s merely a step to get what he wants. What’s his ultimate aim?”

Eris stares at Victor, and I’d give anything to know her thoughts. As long as they didn’t match the flirtatious grin she wears so convincingly. It may work on others, but surely not on Victor.

“Sin will birth a New World Order, a Utopia that will stand for millions of years. A perfect system. A city, ten times the size of Los Angeles, made of three rings. In the center, the humans. Next, Lessers and Day Walkers. And finally, on the outside, the Chosen.”

“The Infected,” Victor says.

“Precisely. Three rings, each one more powerful than the one it surrounds. A perfect system. Lessers feed off humans, the Chosen off the Lessers. And Sin will rule them all.”

“And what about the Old Families? Where do they go?”

Eris puckers her lips as though she were trying to kiss him and blows seductively. “They go into the wind, as dust.”

“And where does that leave you?” Victor asks. “Will you join Sin? Partake in the Thirst? Become a monster?”

“No,” she says. “For my years of dutiful service, I will be in charge of the second ring, the Day Walkers. I will rule over all of my kind, because I see their place in proper perspective: as a food source for the Chosen. Just as you humans are nothing more than cattle to us, so we are nothing but cattle to the Infected.”

I always imagined Sin would bless Eris with the Thirst, since he considers it the highest honor. Although with her vanity, she’s probably thrilled to remain a Day Walker. The Chosen may be powerful, but they lose the natural beauty of the vampires. Their teeth become maws filled with razor fangs that can’t retract. Their eyes blacken, the whites and pupils giving way to the darkness unfolding within their hearts. Their gaunt faces are frightening, all glamour destroyed as though it never existed to begin with. That’s the inevitable result of the Thirst, and I understand why she fears becoming that.

I’m sure Victor recognizes the reasons behind her fears as well.

“How are the Day Walkers getting into the city?” Victor asks.

“Ah, I’m afraid that little secret must remain just that: a secret.”

“They aren’t simply walking in. Clive has tripled the number of spotters searching the area. They would have found traces of them by now. So, tell me, how are they getting in?”

“Maybe they’re invisible; did you ever consider that?” she asks with a smile.

“Last chance,” Victor warns.

“What are you going to do? Drag me into the sun?”

Victor reaches out and Faith gives him a small black case. He places it on the ground. The latches
click
and echo ominously throughout the tiny chamber. Slowly he opens the lid. What’s inside makes my skin crawl. When Eris sees the syringes nestled inside, her smile disappears.

Victor pulls one of them out, the vampire blood inside a dark crimson, darker than most can imagine, holding ever darker possibilities.

He holds up the syringe, the light finding the sharp needle point, making it glisten momentarily. “I wonder what will happen when I inject you with my blood.”

Eris squirms uncomfortably, the first involuntary action I’ve ever seen from her. Her cold, calculating mind must be reeling, searching frantically for a way out of this. But it might as well be as bound as her arms.

Victor holds her chin. “Imagine all your beauty destroyed. It’ll be wiped away, and you’ll become one of the Chosen.”

“Is this your brilliant plan? Make me into an even stronger monster?”

“How long have you been a Lesser? A hundred years? Imagine looking in the mirror and that porcelain skin, that perfect symmetry, those brilliant eyes are all fading away. You know what I think? I think it would drive you mad.”

“I won’t talk.”

Victor moves to her side and pinches the tissue around her shoulder, much like a doctor preparing to inject a vaccine.

“I have no idea what will happen,” Victor says. “The Thirst affects everyone differently. All it may take is a single drop of blood to turn you, to make you crave more. Or it may take the entire syringe, or the entire case. It doesn’t matter; I have all the time in the world to find out.”

“If you stick me with that, I’ll never tell you,” she says, sweat beginning to form at her brow.

“You won’t tell me anyway.”

Victor jabs in the syringe but doesn’t press down on the plunger. Eris is looking at the ground, defeat in her eyes, her curled lips baring the fangs that have brought her eternal beauty. Fangs that may change before long.

“One last chance,” Victor says.

“Fuck you.”

He pushes the blood into her. I expect her to lash out immediately, to react as Sin did—laughing maniacally. Instead she looks more helpless than ever. Victor calmly puts the syringe back in the case, latches it shut, and stands.

“We’ll be back. And if you still aren’t in the mood to talk, it’ll be two syringes.”

Victor becomes somber, almost mournful as we walk back to the study. What he did to her may be worse than death. Only time will tell.

“So how did it go?” Richard asks, lounging on the couch.

“She didn’t talk,” Victor says, putting the case onto the table. I sit in a chair. Faith drops down on the couch next to Richard.

“But then, you didn’t expect her to,” Richard says.

“No, I didn’t.”

“She worships Sin,” I say. “She would die for him.”

“She’ll break,” Faith says. “Her vanity is worse than my own.”

“She may not get a chance to talk,” I say. “She may be turning already.”

Victor smiles. “I doubt it.”

“How can you be so sure?”

He taps the case with his palm. “It’s cranberry juice. Nothing more.”

Shaking my head, I laugh lightly. Victor’s plan is perfect. We couldn’t take the chance of her succumbing to the Thirst, because then she’d be useless to us, not to mention much more dangerous. Yet without any blood at all, she’ll begin to starve, and that sensation will trick her into thinking the Thirst has kicked in. I have a hunch that Eris hasn’t been starved for decades, not while under the watchful eye of Sin, who rewards loyalty with lavishness.

“Unfortunately,” Richard says, “even if she talks, it doesn’t solve our lack of blood problem.”

“No, no, it doesn’t,” Victor says. “Our capturing Eris was a good faith gesture. I’ll talk to Clive tonight. Tomorrow we’ll start inserting the chips.”

I hate that idea, can hardly fathom that he’s still considering it. “Victor, you will get so much more blood if the people feel safe.”

“You’ve always said that, but it’s never worked.”

“Think about Crimson Sands.”

“I’m sick of hearing about Crimson Sands,” Victor says. “It’s a mirage in the desert. It would never work on a large scale. Too many vampires need feeding, and too many people are willing to pass the responsibility on to their neighbors.”

“Because they see it as a duty, not a privilege.”

Victor studies me, obviously confused by my wording choice. “We have to change their attitude toward vampires,” I continue.

“That’ll be hard to do when vampires in the city are slaughtering them,” Victor says, frustration running through his words. Though whether it’s aimed at me or the vampires inside the walls, I’m unsure.

“The Day Walkers are the enemy,” I say. “Let
your
vampires be the heroes.”

Victor nods. “I’m listening,” he says, eyes meeting mine.

“Clive says he doesn’t have enough manpower. So here’s my proposal: Let the Night Watchmen guard the city during the day, and then let your Lessers guard it at night.”

“The people will never allow that.”

“We won’t tell them,” I say. “You said that you have the Lessers’ loyalty. Tell them that they are to guard the people and kill the Day Walkers. It’ll only be a matter of time before the Day Walkers are finished. Afterward we can tell the citizens who are the real heroes and who are the real monsters.”

Victor sits back, eyes on me, then upward, looking for answers in the ceiling, contemplating all the ways my plan could go wrong. But I hope he sees all the ways it could go right. He then looks at Richard and Faith, who both subtly nod.

“I’ll send Clive a letter tonight,” Victor says. “Only those most loyal to me will be allowed into the city. They’ll be led by Anita. None of my Lessers will question her.”

“How will they get in?” I ask.

Victor just smiles. “I have a few connections among the guards, those willing to look the other way for the right price.”

“No,” I say. “No more secrets. Get them together, and we’ll march up to the gate. I’ll have Clive meet us.”

Victor stands. “You’re right, Dawn. Clive needs to trust me, now more than ever. We should all probably try to get some sleep. It’s going to be another long night.”

Upstairs, I clean up in a bathroom down the hall from Victor’s room. It’s all marble, luxurious but cold. Everything that can be gold or silver is. I’d love to spend an hour in the massive tub fitted with lion’s feet and gold fixtures, but that’ll have to wait for another time. I put on silk shorts, a tank, and a robe that Faith found for me. It feels so wonderful against my skin. Maybe she’s right. I should let the flannel go. I make my way back down the hall.

It wasn’t long ago when I dragged Victor down this corridor, bleeding from the strike his father delivered, a strike that wasn’t fatal, unlike the one Victor gave in return. When I enter Victor’s bedchamber, my heart gives a little flutter. He’s waiting for me, standing beside the fireplace, where flames crackle.

I walk over, sit on the couch, and tuck my feet beneath me. “How long do you think before Eris talks?”

“Impossible to know. Sin instills loyalty in those he turns.”

“How can someone so evil be so charismatic?”

“Throughout history, those who start wars usually are. Take Roland Hursch, for example. You and I both know that what he is doing is not for the greater good, and yet the citizens believe in him.”

“I figured you named him delegate because you wanted to keep an eye on him.”

“I did. It was poor strategy on my part.”

“So we’re just going to wait Eris out?”

He sighs. “I don’t see that we have much choice.”

“I hate the chaos that the Day Walkers are causing in Denver, but we don’t need her information to destroy the V-Processing center in Los Angeles.”

He joins me on the couch and puts an arm around my shoulders as he presses a kiss to my temple. “I don’t like that you’re going. I’m going to send some of my Lessers to watch over you.”

“The others aren’t bringing Lessers. And the more vampires we have, the more blood we’ll need to travel with.”

“Then we’ll get more blood.”

“Victor, if I’m claiming to be equal to Old Family, then I can’t be given special treatment.”

“We’re going to disagree on this.”

“Yes, but in the end, you’ll recognize that I’m right.”

“Maybe,” he grumbles. He combs his fingers through my hair. I could become so lost in the gentle sensations.

“When do you think the Old Families will arrive?” I ask.

“Sometime in the next night or so, hopefully.”

“Then I need to go to Denver tomorrow,” I announce. “I need to let Clive—everyone—know that I’m leaving . . . and why.”

He places his hand on the back of my neck, begins kneading my tight muscles. “It won’t be easy.”