stake in his hand, the tip lodged in her ribs, but not her heart. It continues to beat.
Her knees begin to buckle as she shows her fangs and grits her teeth in pain. Her eyes are large, a combination of frustration, anger, and agony.
Within minutes, Eris is on the ground, chains wrapped tightly around her. They constrict her, make it impossible for her to dislodge the iron links or the stake still planted in her ribs. But rather than scream with pain and frustration, she merely looks at me with an immense fury, like nothing I’ve ever seen on someone so beautiful.
Richard and Faith are going about the bodies, turning them over and crossing their arms in the dignified manner of forever sleep.
Michael and Ian are still looking among the ruins, perhaps for Day Walkers that decided to hide rather than fight. But they don’t find any. Facing my friends was a lesser evil than facing a disappointed Sin.
“It looks like your plan worked,” Victor says to me, in full view of Eris as though she were nothing but a beautiful rock. No threat.
“How?” she shouts.
I take off my shoe and dump the tiny microchip into my palm. The chip that would allow Victor to track the citizens of Denver. The chip designed to locate those who have not met their quota. A chip that allowed him to follow me instead.
As I explain it to Eris, she screams her outrage.
“Now,” Victor says, approaching Eris and kneeling in front of her, showing no fear, no animosity. “We have a great deal to discuss.”
“I’ll never tell you anything,” she says.
“We’ll see. . . .”
Chapter 17
Victor, 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
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
