A Blood Seduction (Vamp City #1)(25)

"Your mother and I still don't understand why he didn't tell us about this before he left."

"She's not my mother."

Silence. "I'm surprised he didn't call is all."

"He's skipping class, Dad. It's not really something a guy wants to tell his parents. Not until after the fact, at least."

"That's not like him. He's never done anything so irresponsible before."

"One last fling before he enters the real world, I guess."

"And you didn't try to talk him out of it?" There was accusation in his tone. As if none of it would have happened if he hadn't been living with her. The worst part was, she knew damn well Zack's being missing was all her fault. She was the one who'd led him to that strange column. She was the one who'd grabbed his arm as he reached for Lily's pen. If she hadn't touched him, he'd probably have picked up the pen without any problem, without ever knowing he'd breached the intersection of two worlds. He'd have passed through the sunbeam unaffected, just like everyone else. But she'd fallen victim to her curiosity - first mistake - and tried to protect him - second mistake. And gotten them both sucked into that world instead. At least her dad didn't know he was missing. Yet. "I made my opinion known, but he's twenty-two, Dad. He's an adult."

Out of nowhere, the hair on her arms began to rise. Her breath caught as she recognized the energy that meant the worlds were once more bleeding together.

"Yes, but you're five years older. Your mother . . . Angela . . . and I think it's high time - "

"I've got to go, Dad. I'll have him call you when he gets home." Without waiting for a reply, she hung up, ran to the kitchen for her backpack, and raced out the door, ignoring the elevator for the stairs. Forty seconds later, she was flying out the front door of the apartment building. There, not ten feet away, stood those odd shadows through which she could see that crumbling house with its cockeyed lion's-head doorknocker.

She started forward, letting the crowd on the sidewalk carry her forward, allowing that now-familiar energy to grab her and suck her back into Hell.

Like before, Quinn landed on her hands and knees on the pavers. The pull was oddly stronger going in than coming out. Unlike before, she knew exactly where she was and why. She'd done it!

The moment's triumph dissolved in a rush of gut-cramping terror. She was back in Vamp City.

The sunbeam lit the street, revealing the same disintegrating house it had the first time. Dust floated in the sunlit air while the sunlight illuminated her like manna from Heaven. Or dinner to a vampire.

With a chill, she pushed to her feet and ran out of the sunbeam. Rounding the nearest corner, she slipped into the shadows, taking care to make as little sound as possible. If only they'd been more careful the first time, maybe she and Zack would still be together. Maybe he'd still be free. The ache of loss had settled beneath her breastbone, a constant dull throb.

Heart pounding, she stopped close to the wall, avoiding the moldy brick as she listened for the sound of a horse or Jeep. Or vampire. No sound met her ears. She and Zack had found nothing and no one between here and the White House the last time. Maybe she'd be lucky again. But she was taking no chances.

With a deep breath, she continued on, cutting between buildings, staying to the shadows until the sun went out, which she suspected could take anywhere from a minute to possibly an hour or more. If Lily really had disappeared through the same sunbeam she and Zack first passed through, an hour wasn't unrealistic.

As she rounded the front of an abandoned building on Nineteenth Street, in the distance she spied a glow in the sky. Another sunbeam? It was north of where the vampire's house would be. They were obviously breaking through in multiple places, which was a good thing to know in case she needed another quick out. Looking both ways, her heart drumming in her chest, she slipped across the street, feeling like she had crosshairs aimed on her forehead, then dove between another pair of buildings on the other side. Halfway through the block, the light from the sunbeam disappeared behind her, blanketing the landscape in the gloom that marked day around here.

In the distance, she heard a shout. And a scream. Sweat broke out on her brow, and she pressed deeper into the shadows, her stomach cramping with fear. Now that she'd finally gotten back into the place, all she wanted to do was run the other way. Find another sunbeam and escape again.

But she had a mission this time. And the sunbeams were gone. She had no choice but to continue forward.

In the distance, the cheer of a crowd lifted into the air, followed by the peal of laughter. It was as if the sunbeams had silenced everything, and with their retreat, the world had come alive again. That was probably exactly what had happened. The sunbeams threatened the vampires' existence. That part of the legend was almost certainly true, or they'd never have created a dark world in the first place.

The pounding of horses hooves carried over the still air.

Quinn pulled one of her wooden stakes out of her backpack and gripped it tight. She'd never before hated the dark. As a kid, she'd been notorious for escaping into the backyard in the evenings, scrambling up the trees, feeling the darkness close around her like a security blanket. Angela would yell and yell for her to come down from the tree as Quinn huddled, shaking with fury and hatred and hurt. But Angela couldn't see her in the dark and couldn't have climbed the tree after her if she had. How many times had Quinn snuck back into the house, long after everyone else had gone to sleep, and slid into bed with bark scratches on her shins and elbows? If she could have slept on a tree branch, she'd never have gone back inside at all.