Dark Season: The Complete Third Series (All 8 books) (36 page)

"Is there anything I can do to persuade you to stay?" Todd asks.

I smile. "No," I say, glancing back at him.

"For Abby's sake," he continues. "I'm worried about what Benjamin might do to her. I might need you". He looks around, to make sure no-one can overhear us. "What if I told you that I'm starting to think Benjamin is dangerous? What if I told you that I don't think he should get his hands on Abby? I don't want to see her being tortured and imprisoned. He did that to Patrick, and I can't let him do it to Abby".

"Then come with me," I say. "Let's go".

"If I leave," he continues, "Benjamin will just promote someone else to take my place. Besides, no-one leaves the Watchers. It's better if I stay and try to stop all of this from within. I'll help him look for Patrick, but I'm not going to let him get hold of Abby. I'll sabotage anything he tries with her".

"You don't need me for that," I reply.

"I might".

"Tough," I say. "None of this is my business any more. Abby's not a scared little girl. She's a dangerous monster. She's like Patrick. Maybe it'd be better if Benjamin captures her. At least that way, she wouldn't end up killing anyone else".

"You can't seriously mean that," Todd replies. "There's no way you can believe that Abby deserves to be held prisoner by Benjamin".

"Maybe I do," I say. "Either way, I'm out of here".

At that moment, Todd's laptop screen changes. Turning to look, Todd seems transfixed by the screen. "He's back," he says incredulously, looking over at me. "One of the remote sensors has detected Patrick. He's less than a hundred miles away, just appeared out of nowhere!"

"What about Abby?" I ask.

"No idea," he says. "We don't have a tracker on her!" He reaches over to grab his phone, but I put my hand on his wrist and stop him.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"I'm letting Benjamin know".

"After everything you just said about him?"

"Patrick killed my sister," he says. "I have no problem with helping Benjamin to track the bastard down. If Abby's there, I'll make sure she escapes. You have to come with us. Abby might need you".

"No way," I say, shaking my head. "This doesn't change anything".

Todd stares at the screen for a moment. "He's moving so fast," he says. "Faster than he's moved in months. It's as if he's deliberately trying to get our attention, but that doesn't make any sense. There's no reason he'd do that".

"Unless he wants to distract you," I point out.

"I'm going to wake Benjamin," Todd says, heading to the door.

"I'm leaving!" I call after him. "I'm out of this. Don't even let me know how it goes, because I don't want to know".

"Shelley!" he says, looking back at me. "Please, for Abby's sake, stay a little longer. At least until we know what's happened to her". With that, he hurries out of the room, leaving me to look down at the laptop. A bright red dot is moving across a map. Is that really Patrick?

After a moment, I turn and head through to the corridor. I can hear a commotion in some of the other rooms, as Benjamin's team gets ready to go and get Patrick. Walking straight to the main exit, I pause for a moment. Whatever happens with Patrick and Abby, I don't want to be involved. As far as I'm concerned, they're both monsters and they deserve each other. I hope Abby is able to keep away from Benjamin, because I still believe she has some humanity hidden deep in her soul. As for Patrick, however, I hope he gets caught by the Watchers and brought back here to be tortured as he dies. Some things are inexcusable, and I can never forgive him for killing my best friend. If I could choose what happens, I'd let Abby run free and I'd have Patrick locked up forever. Whatever happens, though, I don't want to be a part of it any more.

As I reach the door, I take a deep breath. I'm going back to New York, and I'm going to make damn sure that I never again get involved in Abby's life. I wish her well, but I'm done. Stepping out into the cold morning air of Dedston, I feel a sudden chill wind, and for a moment it occurs to me that perhaps it's a message from Sophie, urging me to go back inside and help her daughter. Taking a deep breath, I remind myself that it's no such thing. Before anyone can come and try to change my mind, I hurry away and I don't look back.

Book 6:

By the River Dark

Prologue

Dedston - Sixteen years ago.

"Is Sophie going to come home tomorrow?" I ask, standing in the doorway. It's way past my bedtime, but I've spent the past few hours lying awake in bed and worrying about my sister. It's been weeks since I last saw her, and I can't stop thinking about all the bad things that might have happened. "Mom?" I say. "Do you know if Sophie's going to come home tomorrow?"

My mother shrugs, barely even looking over at me. She's engrossed in the late-night quiz show on the TV. It's as if she hasn't noticed Sophie's absence, or maybe she just doesn't care.

"Do you know where she is?" I ask.

She shrugs again. "She never tells me anything".

"Have you tried calling her?"

"She hasn't got a phone".

I pause for a moment. I want to trust my mother, but I've learned over the years that she's far from perfect. "How do you
know
she's okay?" I ask eventually.

"She'll be fine," my mother replies. "She's a big girl, she can take care of herself". She turns to me. "Shouldn't you be in bed by now? It's nearly midnight". She sniffs. "While you're up, fetch me some more potato chips from the kitchen".

"I'm worried about Sophie," I tell her. "Aren't you?"

"No," she says, "I'm worried about running out of potato chips". She stares at me for a moment. "Look, if she doesn't want to tell me where she's going, I don't see why I should get myself all worked up. She's too old to be living at home anyway. Maybe she's out finding a job and an apartment". She laughs. "Fat chance. Are you getting those potato chips or not?"

I stare at her, realizing that there's no point asking any more questions. Even if my mother
did
know something, she'd probably keep it to herself out of spite. "Good night," I say, turning and walking along the corridor. I listen out in case my mother says anything, but I only hear one sound: the roar of the crowd on the game show. I figure my mother can get her own potato chips.

Once I'm in my room, I kneel by the bed and put my hands into a praying position. "Dear God," I say, "please bring Sophie home soon. Even if it's only for a few hours, can you bring her back? Please? And then..." I pause, before continuing with a lowered voice in case my mother overhears. "If Sophie has to go away again," I say, "please make it so she takes me with her. Amen". Climbing quickly into bed, I switch off my bedside lamp and get ready to go to sleep. Every night, I hope that Sophie will come home the next day, and every morning I'm disappointed. Still, she has to turn up some time. She can't just go away forever.

A few hours later, I wake up and realize there are voices elsewhere in the house. I try to go back to sleep, but eventually I realize that there are two or three people here, talking to my mother, and there are bright lights outside the window. I get out of bed and open my door, looking out into the corridor. I can't quite make out the voices, so I creep along the corridor until I'm close to the kitchen. I look around the corner and see my mother sitting at the table, with two men standing opposite her. My mother has her head in her hands, and she looks upset.

"We're still looking for witnesses," the first man is saying. "We're hoping that a surveillance camera nearby might have caught something. We've got people checking the tapes right now".

"We have a lot of leads," says the other man. "You can rest assured that we're going through all the possibilities. We
will
find whoever -" He glances over and makes eye contact with me. Panicking, I pull back, hoping he didn't see me. Seconds later, the second man walks around the corner and stops, looking down at me and smiling. "Hi," he says after a moment. "Now let me guess. You must be Todd, right?"

I nod cautiously.

"Todd!" my mother calls out. "Get in here!"

"Maybe you should go see your Mom," the man says. "It's okay. My friend and I are just leaving. I think your Mom would like to talk to you". He has a kind face, but there's a sad look in his eyes.

"I'm supposed to be in bed," I tell him.

"I think it'll be okay," he replies.

"Todd!" my mother calls again.

Reluctantly, I walk past the man and head into the kitchen, walking over to the table and finding my mother with tears in her eyes. She looks like she's been crying for a while now, with her eyes all puffy and red. I've never seen her like this. She gets angry sometimes, but never sad. The last time she actually, genuinely cried, it was when she sat on the remote control.

"I'll be in touch in the morning," the first man says. "There'll need to be a formal identification, and we have some people who can put you in touch with some excellent counselors".

My mother doesn't say anything. She seems totally lost and in shock; ominously, the TV has been switched off, which only happens when something really major has happened. The last time the TV was turned off so suddenly, it was the time we found out that my Dad had died. Now, as the men say their goodbyes and head out of the house, I find myself standing by the table and waiting for my mother to say something.

"Mom?" I say eventually. "What's wrong?"

She takes a deep breath, and then she waves me away. I turn, but I only get as far as the door when I hear her call after me. "Todd," she says, "get back here".

"What is it?" I ask, walking back over to her. I wait for her to reply. Eventually, I go over to the cupboard and grab a bag of potato chips, taking it back to the table and putting it in front of her. "What's wrong?" I ask.

"Sophie's..." My mother pauses. "Fuck, I don't know..." She says. She has a tissue in her hands, and she's picking it apart piece by piece. "Well, sometimes bad things happen," she continues, "and this morning -" She closes her eyes, and I see another tear slip out and roll down her cheeks. "This evening, I mean -" she says, taking a deep breath as her voice starts to waver, "they... found her".

"They found her?" I reply, my hopes rising. "You mean Sophie? Where is she?"

"She's not coming home," she replies, reaching into the bag of potato chips. "She won't be coming home any more. When I say they found her, what I mean is..." She pauses, and then she looks down; she starts trembling, and I notice more tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Mom?" I ask, feeling a sense of unease start growing from the pit of my stomach. I wait for her to answer, but she just sits there, trembling with her head bowed down. "Mom?"

Suddenly she reaches out and puts her arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug. Burying her face in my shoulder, she starts letting out a slow wailing sound. I try to pull free, but she's got me held firmly. Finally, realizing there's not much I can do, I decide to just stand there until she decides to let me go. In some strange way, I kind of wish those two men had stayed. I don't like it now; I don't like it being just me and my Mom, with no-one else around. Things would be different if Sophie was here, but somehow I get the feeling that she's not coming home. Not now, and not ever.

Chapter One

Louisiana, Today.

"This doesn't make any sense," says Constance as we trudge through the undergrowth. It's late at night, and an overcast moon means we've got our night-sight goggles switched on. Ahead, there's nothing but the dark green haze of the swampy marshlands that surround us. We've been out here for hours and, unless we find Patrick or Abby soon, we're not going home tonight. Unfortunately, the tracker we placed on Patrick has gone dead, but the last time we located him he was in this area.

"He's a thousand-year-old vampire," I reply, checking the readout on my hand-held scanner. "How could anything he does
possibly
make sense to us?"

"I know," she says, "but I've studied him, Todd. I've read all the reports over and over again. He's never been to this part of the country before. He has no connections to Louisiana. I don't see why he'd come here, of all places".

Beneath my goggles and head-mask, I can't help but smile. Constance is a researcher first, and a librarian second. She's happy in a laboratory or a room full of books, and it's a sign of Benjamin's desperation that he's pressed her into service for this hunting trip. Even as we're knee-deep in thick, swampy weeds, Constance is trying to apply logic to the situation. We're hunting down a dying, ancient vampire - the last of his kind - and she thinks he'll be acting logically. It'd be funny, were it not for the fact that we're a team and I might have to rely on her to save my life if things go wrong.

"Something up ahead," she says, stopping in her tracks.

"Give me that," I say, grabbing her scanner. It takes me a couple of seconds to see what she's picked up. "It's a frog," I say.

"How can you tell that from the scanner?" she asks, staring down at the screen.

"I can't," I say, "but I can see the damn thing up ahead". Sure enough, my night-sight goggles are picking up a small, glowing spot that seems to be hopping past us. "Trust me," I continue, "if there's an actual person, or a vampire, up ahead, these scanners are going to light up like Christmas trees. Don't get too jumpy, okay?"