Alpha's Legacy (Black Moon Saga Book 3)

35. In the Dark: Anna Jade

At some point in the middle of the night, I startle awake because of … something, though I can’t immediately tell what disturbed me. It takes a few moments, but then it finally hits me. The buzzing sound of my magical cage is gone, and I don’t feel it anymore, either. I suppose it could be a test or a trap, though, meant to see whether I’ll get up and run the first chance that I get.

Which is what keeps me in my bed, shivering and miserable, for as long as I can stand it. It’s cold in here now, much colder than when I went to sleep, and though Grayson might be assuming that I can handle it because I’m a werewolf, he’s wrong. Though any werewolf can adapt to the cold better than a human could, and the same is true of me, I don’t even have my wolf yet. My passive resistance to the elements is weak at best, and I can’t shift to get warm. The stupid suppression collar might even be affecting my werewolf traits for all I know.

I suppose that means it’s time to try my luck with escaping. I don’t know where I am or how to get out of here, though I suspect that I’m underground, probably somewhere in the tunnels I heard Grayson and Bria talking about before he took me. I also don’t know if it’s only him I have to worry about, or if there are guards that I just haven’t seen yet. So, I don’t have a plan, I have no magic to rely on, and I probably won’t even be able to see once I get out of this room.

And yet, it feels like it’s now or never. Stay and freeze, or go and try my luck against whatever’s out there. If I’m really lucky, I’ll somehow manage to find my way to the surface, and it will turn out to be somewhere within Riptide territory. I’m hoping that all I’ll have to do once I get up there is explain that I’m with Bria and the vampire hunters, and someone will understand that it means I’m an ally and take me to their Alpha.

Either that, or I’m about to escape the frying pan and faceplant right into the fire, or however that expression goes.

Cautiously, I sit up in my bed and work on standing up as silently as I can manage, fearing every little rustle and squeak of the bed as I move. But so far, so good. I don’t hear anybody stirring. After that, it’s just putting one foot in front of the other. At least Grayson left his desk lamp on, so this room is dimly lit and I can see where I’m going. I can also see where I remember that barrier being, but once I cautiously approach that spot, I still can’t sense it.

I think it’s gone. There’s nothing pushing back on the arm that I extend to feel for it, no sound, no passive electrical sensation making my skin tingle and crawl like it was before. I extend my foot and tentatively take a step through, and nothing happens. I still don’t hear anyone moving, either.

I manage to make it all the way over to the door only to find that it’s locked. Worse yet, I don’t even see the lock to try and pick it or anything, not that I even know how to do that. All I do know is that the handle is rigid and unyielding. Magic, I’m guessing, though I take a moment to study the door and the handle some more anyway. Maybe there’s a hidden panel or compartment or something.

I didn’t notice it earlier, but now that I’m looking around the room more carefully and with a better vantage point, I can see that there’s an archway just beyond Grayson’s writing desk that seems to lead into another room or hallway. That’s probably worth exploring.

On my way past, I pause to study the lamp on the desk, wondering if it needs to be plugged into the wall or if it might be battery-operated. But it requires a wall outlet, of course. I can’t take it with me. I suppose that’s good, though. If Grayson is out there somewhere, carrying a lamp around will just make it so he sees me moving around.

The light is dim enough to be useless once I get past the archway, but it’s also somehow bright enough to make it harder for my eyes to adjust to the dark. As much as I hate to do it, I decide to go back and switch off the light, taking a moment to let my eyes adapt.

But as it turns out, it wasn’t the light that was the problem. It’s pitch black in here now. There’s no light from anywhere, which makes sense considering that we’re underground and there are no windows, and I guess Grayson doesn’t believe in nightlights to help him get around in the dark. So, I go back and switch the desk lamp back on. At least then it will give me some indicator of where this room is after I leave it.

Once I’m through the archway again, I’m at a loss of what to do next. I can’t see, and I can’t really hear anything either. Wait, no. I do hear something. It kind of sounds like … well, it sounds like Scott and Deborah did when they were raging with bloodlust in the basement. It’s coming from the right, so I head left. Somehow, I think I’d rather accidentally run into Grayson than accidentally run into a horde of feral vampires.

I don’t know how long it takes me to inch along, running my left hand along the wall and reaching out with the other to feel what’s in front of me before I take each step. Once it’s another wall that I feel ahead of me, I realize I’ve reached a dead end. Since I didn’t find anything along the left wall, I decide to follow this new wall in hopes that it will help me turn around and be able to feel the wall opposite to the one that brought me here on the way back.

I don’t make it far before I feel a door. I know it’s a risk to leave a space that I kind of know my way through, but I don’t know what else to do at this point. I decide to open it as quietly as I can manage and pause to listen before going inside the room. And sure enough, there is a new sound in there that takes me a bit to figure out.

I think it’s someone snoring softly and rhythmically. This must be Grayson’s bedroom, since I never sensed anyone else down here with us. I’ve officially reached the lion’s den. That’s when it finally occurs to me that I might as well just turn around and head back to my own bed because judging by the sound of those feral vampires, even if I do manage to escape whatever hideout or bunker Grayson has us holed up in, outside there is only certain death waiting for me.

I still have that stupid collar on, so even if the vampires could be affected by my magic, I don’t have any to use on them. And I’m both witch and werewolf, a mix of the sweetest smelling snacks there are for a hungry vampire. They’d be on me in a heartbeat. Mine, not theirs.

But wait. I have an idea, although it’s probably a stupid one. I’m cold and shivering enough not to care, though. It’s no good for either of us if I freeze to death, and Grayson assured me multiple times that he meant me no harm. From him, anyway. I think allowing me to freeze could be considered harm, and it would definitely be his fault.

Listening carefully again to see if I can identify where his snoring is coming from, I tiptoe into the room and start heading straight toward the sound before I can talk myself out of it. That jerk probably has a blanket, and I’m going to steal it from him or die trying.

But once I finally make it to his bed, it doesn’t take me long to figure out that he has it clutched to himself tightly enough that I’ll never get it away from him without waking him in the process. I stand there and think it over for a moment before deciding that it’s too risky, and I need to just get out of here. Except once I turn around to do just that, I realize I’m not entirely certain how to make it back to the door without first finding a wall to follow. There’s no light or sound for me to head toward.

“How did you get out of your cage, girl?” he asks suddenly, his voice strangely low and gravelly from sleep.

I’ve been playing brave, but that doesn’t keep me from nearly wetting myself the instant that he speaks. I have to squeeze my legs together and tense my muscles, and it doesn’t help that I’m already shivering so badly that I've also had to keep my jaw clenched to prevent my teeth from audibly chattering.

“I … I, uh … it was gone when I woke up. I promise I’m not trying to escape,” I fib, since it’s half-true. I might have left the room with that goal in mind, but I’ve since reconsidered. “I was just looking for a blanket or something to keep me warm.”

“And you thought it was a wise idea to try and take mine?”

Surprisingly, he sounds more amused than angry. He’s irritated, though. Definitely irritated.

“No,” I answer honestly this time. “I thought it was probably a dumb idea, but I’m cold enough that I don’t really care. Either I steal your blanket, or I freeze to death.”

He laughs, though it’s short and strained, sounding far more impatient than amused this time.

“Don’t be so dramatic, girl,” he chides me.

“My name is –”

“Yes, yes. Anna Jade, I know. Stop being so touchy. That’s two more syllables than I care to waste on you most times.” He sighs, then groans, before I hear him rustling and moving around. “Besides, you shouldn’t let people know that they’re annoying you. It makes it too easy to annoy you even more effectively the next time. Let them call you whatever they wish because it really does not matter.”

“It’s disrespectful,” I can’t help arguing, though as soon as I’ve said it, even I know I sound ridiculous.

He laughs for real this time, and then I feel his hand reach out and grasp me by the wrist, pulling me toward him. I kind of trip and fall awkwardly against his bed, which only encourages him to laugh more. He gives another tug, more forcefully this time, and I finally realize he wants me to get into the bed with him.

“I would say that the kid-napping is probably more disrespectful than addressing you improperly, though you have yet to complain about that part,” he points out, still chuckling softly.

He wraps an arm around me and pulls me against him before draping his blanket over us both, surprisingly taking the time to make sure it’s tucked all around me and even covering my feet. It’s so shocking and unexpected that I’m still speechless. Admittedly warmer, though.

“It’s strange because I can tell you’re not an i***t,” he goes on talking as if there’s nothing weird about us spooning in his bed, sharing a blanket. “You’re a naïve idealist, but not because you lack intelligence. I think you just lack the worldly experience to know better." He sighs dramatically. "But you’ve got to let all that nonsense go, Anna Jade. It makes you too tempting of a target for people like me.”

I still don’t really know what to say, so I don’t say anything. He might not be calling me stupid, but it still kind of feels like an insult. And yes, I see his point. He didn’t even need to say anything. I already felt it. But I’m just so sick of it all, of people bullying and taking advantage of me and calling me by whatever silly names they can think of to tease me with. It’s not so hard to just be a decent person and show a little respect.

He’s also right that I’ve been complaining about the wrong thing, though. Him taking me from Bria does bother me. It terrifies me, quite honestly. I don’t even know where I am or how I’m going to get home, but that’s just so big of a problem that I don’t even want to think of it. I don’t want to talk about it. So instead, I guess I’m focusing on the little problems that feel more solvable. Like my name. It’s a familiar problem, one I guess I feel more comfortable griping about.

“Stop thinking and just go to sleep. I need my beauty rest,” he complains, his voice muffled by how he has his face pressed against the back of my head now.

Which is when I realize he’s been sniffing me. Not just now, but this whole time. And then I flashback to what he said when I first woke up in my cage. He told me that the barrier was as much for me as it was for him. He didn’t say it outright, but now I’m wondering if he meant that he doesn’t know if he can control himself around me or something. Or I guess he could have meant to protect against the vampires, but then why is he the one sniffing me?

“What happened to the barrier?” I ask, hearing the quake in my voice and hoping that he doesn’t notice.

“I had a long, draining day,” he answers, which doesn’t really explain anything. “It’s good that you came to me, though. Things like that will go a long way toward building trust between us.”

I don’t like how that makes it sound as though he plans to keep me for quite some time, long enough to “build trust,” if that’s even possible when he’s keeping me against my will and has a magic-suppressing collar around my neck.

“But the problem is that now you’re stuck with me,” he rambles on, not seeming to notice how tense I’ve gotten. “I won’t be able to restore your cage until after I’ve had some rest and something to eat, but I’ll need to replenish my supply before I can do the latter. For now, getting some rest will have to be enough.”

I guess he means that he depleted his power through the day with all the spells he had to use. He must have if he doesn’t even have enough left to conjure up something to eat. It’s a pretty basic spell. But then again, if he was actively controlling that barrier, then I suppose it makes sense. It does make me wonder why he didn’t just anchor it with some control sigils, though. It only would have required one initial burst of power, and then it would have lasted until he deactivated it without continuously draining him.

“If that’s even possible now,” he grumbles a moment later, pausing to sniff my hair again. “It should be against the law for one person to smell so sweet and yet so savory all at once. How is a man supposed to resist?”

“I thought you said I stink,” I nervously remind him of what he was complaining about earlier, wishing I would have just stayed in my own bed.

“Your magic stinks. But you’re collared now, and the stench is suppressed, so all I can smell is the tantalizing blend of your witch and wolf scents. It’s far too tempting. I might have to just let you run off with my blanket after all. It’s not like my body heat is going to be of much use to you anyway.”

He laughs, though I don’t get the joke. Not until I really think about it, anyway, and start paying more attention to him. He’s right. He doesn’t feel warm against me. He feels … cool to the touch. In fact, it feels a lot like cuddling with Tian.

Tian, who is a vampire. Tian, who needs both blood and rest to restore his vampiric power. And a vampire would have a creator, unless he was trueborn. But how could he be a vampire and a warlock? There’s no such thing as any sort of hybrid involving a vampire. They’re only biologically compatible with humans and other vampires.

“How …” I start to ask him, abruptly closing my mouth and changing my mind when I realize I don’t even know what I’m asking him. “Are you a vampire?” I ask instead.

“It took you long enough for someone who grew up with them,” he chuckles in amusement. “Though I suppose I’m not like any of the ones you know, and I don’t smell like one. I’m the first and only of my kind, a creation that my creator liked to call a vampiric caster. I figure I can tell you that because I plan to remove all your memories of me before I trade you off to the wolves. In which case, I guess I can also tell you that my creator was called Raja. You may even have heard of her, considering that your father was the one who slayed her.”

That revelation literally knocks the wind out of me. My breaths start coming in rapid, shallow little spurts that I have to fight for through the panicky pounding of my heart.

I do know that name, though I suddenly wish I’d paid more attention to all the war stories my dads like to tell. I know she’s the one who created the poison that nearly killed Pete, but I don’t remember much else about her. She was a vampiric scientist of some sort, and I think she experimented with ways to combine dark magic and vampiric powers.

Oh. I mean, Grayson is basically the personification of vampiric power and dark magic. He’s a vampire and a warlock. If there was anyone twisted, powerful, and determined enough to make it happen, I suppose that would be Raja.

“So, this is revenge?” I force myself to ask, fighting through my panic. “He killed your mother, so you want to hurt his daughter?”

“No, silly girl,” he chuckles, and then I feel his lips brush against my temple in a strangely fatherly gesture. “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that I mean you no harm before you’ll believe it. She was my creator, not my mother, and I never had any affection for her. I’m an abomination, and I know it. I don’t thank her for it. In fact, I hate her for it. I was just a normal warlock before she came along and ruined my life. Our connection is mere coincidence, Anna Jade.”

Somehow, that does help. He’s still the jerk who took me and plans to trade me to my mother’s enemies, but at least he’s not over here secretly plotting a revenge killing that I won’t even see coming.

“And you know, I don’t enjoy it,” he adds, sighing. “I wasn’t a bad guy before Raja. No one would have accused me of being a good guy either, but I wasn’t bad. More neutral than anything. I’d cheat on my taxes one day and donate my wages to a beggar the next, just to keep things interesting. But once Raja got her hands on me, well, I don’t think there’s ever been a darker essence than mine. I didn’t earn it, though. It’s just how it works when your vampiric power fuels your spellcasting, and when your most powerful vampiric talent is to gain spellcasting power by surrounding yourself with other vampires. The more powerful, the better.”

“Then why be a bad guy now? And don’t say because Raja made you that way. She’s not even here anymore.”

“I’m not a bad guy, or at least not as bad as you think. I’m just surviving, that’s all. I do what I need to so I can keep other supernaturals off my back, and the rest is just survival.”

“And kid-napping young hybrid casters? Where does that fit in the ‘not such a bad guy’ story?”

“Ungh,” he moans into my hair, inhaling my scent again before he pulls away to talk. “It’s not what it seems, okay? I don’t want you to get hurt, but you’re an opportunity that I cannot pass up. Cannot, will not. But I promise that I’ll make up for the bad karma some other way. I’ll … I don’t know, donate to some sick baby fund or something.”

“That’s not how it works.”

“Perhaps, but it is how I sleep at night. It is what it is, and I am what I am, and all I can do is the best that I can with what I’ve got. Now good night, Anna Jade.”

For a little while, I do try in earnest to go back to sleep. But considering that I’m pressed up against a vampire/warlock/kidnapper who may or may not be a bad guy, and who may or may not try to drain my blood as soon as I’m asleep, it feels impossible. And then there are all the worrisome thoughts circling through my mind that I can’t figure out how to shut off.

“What happens if you can’t sleep?” I ask him after we’ve both been quiet for a bit.

I know he’s still awake, and I figure that it might help if I just ask for the answers to some of the big unknowns haunting my thoughts.

“Then I get grumpy,” he grumbles, his voice still muffled by the back of my head.

“How will you go out and get more blood rations though?” I question more directly. “Assuming that you’re too drained to teleport, I mean.”

“You’re assuming quite a lot, actually. How are you so sure that I rely on blood rations? What if the vampires roaming these tunnels are my own creations, leftovers from feedings gone wrong?”

“Are they?”

“That wasn’t the question. I feel that your answer is more important than mine.”

“You’re impossible sometimes, boy.”

He chuckles and tightens his hold on me, pulling me against him more securely and indulging in another sniff of my scent.

“And you’re surprisingly good company,” he says, allowing his head to rest against mine.

Then he sighs and clucks his tongue a few times as if thinking. Or plotting. Or scheming.

“No, the newborns out there aren’t mine,” he answers finally. “I don’t feed from people anymore, and I do need to go out and get more blood rations. As for how, well, I haven’t figured that out yet. I haven’t felt this drained in a long time, and I’m not sure whether I can teleport to the surface.”

That silences me for another few minutes, and he doesn’t seem to have anything else to say either. I suppose that I should be happy that my captor is in such a weakened state, but I’m not. It’s a problem, to say the least. I need him. I’m relying on him for my own food and water, and I stand zero chance of making it out of here without him while I’ve got this collar on. I have no idea where he’s keeping the key to it, either.

Plus, he’ll be a danger to me soon, whether he intends it or not. I don’t know how old he is or how practiced he is at willful control, but even Tian would eventually succumb to his bloodlust if he got hungry enough. And for this guy, it will probably happen even sooner.

“Feed from me,” I finally decide aloud.

“Don’t say something like that,” he growls, tightening his hold on me until it’s uncomfortable. “You don’t know what you’re offering, or to whom.”

“I can’t pretend that I know you, because I don’t, but I do know what I’m offering,” I argue back, wiggling slightly to see if I can get him to loosen his grip. “One of my dads is a vampire, remember? I see it done all the time. Besides, I’d rather offer it to you willingly than have you take it by force once you can’t hold back anymore.”

He not only loosens his hold but also grabs my hip and somehow manages to force me to flip around to face him, most of the way at least. I turn myself the rest of the way, ignoring when he then drapes his arm over me again.

I don’t want to be so cuddly with my captor, but he seems to be in a better mood since I got in his bed with him, so I guess I’ll deal with it for now. Plus, I get half of his blanket out of it.

“You don’t even have your wolf yet, Anna Jade,” he reminds me, with more warmth and gentleness than I’ve ever heard from him. “You won’t heal as quickly as your mother does, and you shouldn’t trust a strange vampire to stop when he should. I could drain you, and you’d be powerless to do anything about it.”

“How do you know I don’t have my wolf yet?” I can’t help wondering, though the answer occurs to me as soon as I’ve said it.

“Vampire,” we answer in unison.

He laughs softly and adds, “No one has a nose quite as refined as that of a vampire.”

“Not true. I think that honor belongs to the fox-shifters,” I argue, thinking of how sensitive Pete’s nose always was even when he didn’t have access to his inner fox.

“Bleh,” he grumbles, and I can feel him shaking his head. “Foxes are bitter. I try not to think of them at all. They don’t even exist, if you ask me.”

But then he’s quiet again, and it gets a bit awkward just lying there facing each other like that. The only thing that makes it bearable is that I can’t see him, though I can feel him. His breaths are steady and quiet, but I can feel them fanning my face, and it eventually gets to be too much for me.

Just as I’m about to roll over and turn the other way, he grabs my arm, holding me there still facing him.

“Did you mean it?” he asks uncertainly. “You’ll let me feed from you? I’ll be gentle and careful, I promise.”

“You’ve changed your mind?”

“No,” he insists firmly. “I still maintain that you shouldn’t be offering this. But you are, or at least you were, and I’ve determined that I’m powerless to resist your offer, though you can still change your mind.”

“I won’t,” I assure him. “Neither of us is going to get much sleep like this, and it just gets more dangerous the longer we wait.”

“You’re right about that. My plan was to wait until the newborns quiet down out there and try slipping out and walking myself to the surface, but every moment that passes increases the danger of me losing control. If not on you, then on someone up there.”

“And if you don’t make it up there and then back here, I starve too,” I feel the need to remind him.

“I suppose all this is really just a laundry list of reasons why I should let you go, but I’m selfish, so I won’t. I still need you, and maybe I’ll eventually even tell you why.”

He gets quiet for a moment, probably trying to convince himself not to do this, but I’ve already resolved to let it happen. I bring my hand up to touch his face, clumsily feeling for where his mouth is, and then I offer him my wrist the way that I’ve seen my mother do to Tian. But it’s an intimacy thing for them, and I’m definitely not looking for that sort of relationship with Grayson, so I can only hope that my gesture doesn’t carry some underlying meaning I’m unaware of.

He hisses, and I see a flash of unsettling red glowing in the darkness. His eyes, I think, which is about when I start to second-guess myself. I’ve never seen Tian’s eyes turn red before. But I feel fangs sinking into my wrist before I get a chance to pull it away, and though I can’t help crying out from the pain, it’s only a couple seconds before the area gets numb and tingly.

I say a silent prayer in the darkness, hoping that he knows when to stop and still has enough control left to do it.