Sunfall Read online

  The corridor ended in a large, windowless door, and we managed to reach it without encountering anyone else. The scent of oil and gas was even stronger here, and after checking to ensure that Tian was behind me, I took a deep breath and opened the door just a crack.

  It was a garage. Naked light bulbs hung from the ceiling, casting eerie shadows on the concrete floor. Cars, trucks, and snowcats were parked in neat rows, waiting for use. I couldn’t see any guards from this angle, but that didn’t mean they weren’t present. As quietly as I was able, I slipped through the door and held it open for Tian.

  We crept along the periphery, keeping our backs to the walls as much as possible. Every time I saw a Jeep, I moved forward and placed my hand on its hood, testing for warmth. Finally, on my fifth try, I found the vehicle we were looking for.

  The sound of a muttered conversation near the front of the garage reached my ears as I jammed the key into the lock and twisted. Tian, still barefoot and carrying her outwear, regarded me blankly as I gestured for her to open her door. Her brief moments of lucidity were quickly becoming few and far between. Biting my lip to keep from cursing, I skirted the outside of the car, opened her door, and gently pushed her into the passenger’s seat. Once I’d buckled myself into the driver’s side, I scanned the interior of the car for something that would help us get out of here. Some kind of remote control device was clipped to the sun guard. I peered out the windshield, hoping to find a door, but fifty yards away, the garage tapered off into a two-lane tunnel that I presumed led up to the surface. Maybe the entrance at the end of the tunnel was sealed, and this remote would activate the door? Making that assumption could be a fatal error, but we didn’t have much of a choice.

  I glanced over at Tian, who was staring straight ahead with a glassy-eyed expression and moistening her lips continuously with her tongue. She hadn’t put on her seat belt, so I reached over to buckle her in. Setting my gun on my lap, I braced one arm against the wheel and turned the key halfway in the ignition so I could lower the windows.

  “This could get ugly,” I said, uncertain that she could even hear me. “Shoot anything that moves.”

  The car roared to life, and I put it in drive and pressed down hard on the accelerator. Tires screeched against concrete and the Jeep shot forward. Over the sound of our acceleration, I heard shouting. I grabbed my weapon, pointed it out the window, and fired blindly in the direction of the sounds even as I guided the car across the open space and into the narrow tunnel. The road began to slope upward almost immediately, and when I switched on the bright lights they illuminated the rock walls and rough asphalt surface of the tunnel. Ready to slam on the brakes at a moment’s notice, I curled one hand around the sunshield and pressed the remote in the hopes that I’d activate whatever door was waiting for us from the maximum distance.

  “There!” It was the first word Tian had said in hours, and it surprised me so much that at first I didn’t see the rising gate several hundred feet ahead, its metal glinting in the scant light that filtered in from outside. I risked a glance down at the clock and saw that it was just after eight o’clock in the morning. Half an hour until sunrise.

  “Damn it,” I hissed, realizing I’d need to find a way to find a way to shield Tian from the light rather than make a clean escape immediately. But for now, I had to concentrate on making it out of this tunnel, and then on getting as far away as possible from Brenner’s installation before we needed to stop.

  The car rocketed out into the pre-dawn, and I welcomed the fresh, cold air against my face. Pushing the accelerator down to the mat, I urged the Jeep forward over the cracked and bumpy surface. This was the only road in sight, and quite possibly the only way in and out of Brenner’s facility.

  What was he doing right now? Would he send vehicles out after us? Airplanes? A chopper? As much as he wanted to remain off the Consortium’s radar, I knew he wouldn’t simply let us go. The only question was how and when he would come after us. With intimate knowledge of the land and vastly superior resources, he had the clear advantage.

  Mile after mile passed without any sign of pursuit, but I only grew more and more tense. Tian seemed to pick up on my restlessness, or perhaps she was reacting to the proximity of daylight. She fidgeted in her seat, face and hands pressed to the glass of her window. At first, I tried to tell her about my plan to find us both shelter before the sun rose, but she only peered at me intently before turning back to her contemplation of the landscape, and I suspected she was now beyond hearing.

  The road began to climb, twisting around rocky outcroppings as we ascended into a line of hills. As we ascended, the land fell away until we were driving along a narrow ridge, sheer cliffs dropping into the valley on both sides. Tension burned in my shoulders as I divided my attention between the road ahead and the sky above, searching for signs of pursuit.

  Suddenly, a sharp cracking sound against the passenger side window made me momentarily lose my grip on the wheel, and the car swerved first left, then right. Heart pounding, I risked a glance at Tian only to suck in a sharp breath in horror as she pounded her head and fists against the glass. When I grabbed her arm, she spun to face me, blood streaming down her cheeks. Its pungent, metallic scent turned my stomach.

  “Tian! Stop! What are you—”

  Curling her fingers into the shape of a claw, she pierced the skin on the back of my hand as she forced me away. Drops of my blood welled up into the air, and finally, epiphany struck. Tian had been fighting herself this entire time. She was thirsty, and she wanted to drink me.

  My thoughts collided chaotically as I tried to process what was happening and determine what to do about it. How had she resisted her appetite for so long? Was it because the flower in my blood made me different? Because she had fed only a short time ago? Or because she still retained a shred of her legendary self-control? And how was I going to save her if she wanted to tear me to pieces?

  “Tian. You can fight this. I know you can. I’ll pull over soon, just—”

  I could sense the precise moment she lost control. Her every muscle tensed, and darkness swallowed the whites of her eyes. As the thirst overpowered her, she lunged for me. In desperation, I spun the wheel violently to the right and then to the left. The car swerved sharply, knocking her off balance just enough so I could grab the pistol and smash it hard against her temple. Dazed and reeling, she fell forward into the dashboard.

  I looked up to the sight of the sunrise. In a burst of flame that set the wispy cirrus clouds ablaze, the sun climbed up over the horizon. And then I realized that the Jeep was seconds away from vaulting off the cliff and into space, and that there was nothing I could possibly do to change our trajectory.

  Desperately, I shoved at the door handle with one hand and slammed my other fist down onto the seat belt lock, then threw myself out of the car. As I slammed into the ground, the breath was knocked from my chest and my injured leg screamed in protest. The scenery passed by in dizzying glimpses: jagged rock, deep snow drifts, a winding road. The ground raced up to meet me. Pain shot through both shoulders and down along my spine. I screamed, and then I was falling again.

  Coldness caught me, cushioned me, held me. Whiteness filled my eyes, my ears, my mouth. For a moment, I was at peace, as though I had landed on a cloud. And then the explosion shattered the silence, roaring its fury to the heavens while the earth rolled beneath me in protest.

  I sat up slowly, testing out each limb in turn. My lower back felt as though it were on fire, and my stomach roiled whenever I moved my head too quickly. Otherwise, I seemed remarkably unscathed. Blinking the moisture out of my eyes, I took stock of my surroundings. I’d rolled several dozen feet down a steep incline. Thankfully, instead of going over the cliff, I’d been lucky enough to fall into a snow bank, where my landing had carved out a sizeable hollow. But when I tried to scramble to my feet, I only sank further.

  I got on my belly instead, army crawling my way up until I reached a point where the snow was packed firmly enoug
h to bear my weight. As soon as I rose to my knees, I saw the crash site. Black smoke billowed above the flames devouring the twisted body of the Jeep. Metal shrapnel littered the snow for a hundred feet, marking the path where the vehicle had skidded. No one could have survived the crash, and I felt a swift surge of grief that Tian had come to such an end.

  Tian. The Blood Prime of the Sunrunners—arguably the most powerful vampire in the world—was dead. Perhaps it was a blessing. The hybrid parasite had decimated her will and her psyche. Mindless with thirst, her brief moments of lucidity had been shot through with pain. Doubtless, her death had been mercifully quick.

  Cold water trickled down into my boots, soaking my ankles and feet and reminding me of my predicament. My grief would have to wait until I had managed to get myself to safety. I wouldn’t last long in the middle of this wilderness. Before me, the wilderness stretched white and forbidding, but in the distance I caught sight of a massive black snake winding toward the horizon. A highway—much larger than the road we’d been on. Between it and me stretched a hundred feet of vertical cliff and, if I had to guess, a mile of snow-covered plain. But there was no way I could climb down a nearly sheer rock face in my present condition. I would have to follow the access road for a while longer, until I could find a suitable place to climb down.

  Laboriously, I clambered back up the way I’d fallen. My feet sank only a few inches with each step and I set a brisk pace toward the road. Already, my toes were growing dangerously cold. There was no way I could avoid some degree of frostbite, but the more quickly I got to the highway, the less likelihood I had of damaging myself irrevocably.

  The wind whistled around me, chapping my face. Above, wispy clouds the color of cotton candy scudded across a slowly brightening sky. The sunrise was magnificent, and I found myself hoping that some part of Tian had been able to appreciate it—the first she’d seen in centuries—in the moments before her death.

  After about half a mile of walking along the pockmarked surface of the access road, I found an incline shallow enough to scramble down. Pulling my hands into the sleeves of the parka, I half-slipped, half-slid down the icy, rocky slope. By the time I reached the bottom, my tailbone was bruised and frozen. To distract myself from the searing pain in my back and the slow burn of my feet, I imagined how it would feel to ride across this landscape in a sled pulled by a team of magnificent huskies, Alexa at my side. To skate over the ice and under the sky, to feel the strength of the dogs and hear their joyous barking, to find warmth in each other at night…it would be glorious.

  I was so focused on maintaining my forward trajectory that when my foot struck solid ground I tripped, and my right knee crashed down hard. Gritting my teeth against the stabbing pain, it took me several seconds to register what my torn scrubs and bruised skin indicated. Asphalt. I had reached the highway.

  As the minutes passed without any sign of a vehicle, I began to shiver. My feet felt like blocks of ice, and my soaked-through pants were only making my condition worse. And then, just as I was about to start doing calisthenics in an effort to stay warm, headlights appeared on the horizon.

  I stood in the middle of the highway, removed my parka, and began to wave it like a flag, hoping that some part of it would reflect off the oncoming lights. The distant roar of the engine diminished slightly, and I realized two things: the oncoming vehicle was a freighter, and its driver might have just seen the smoke still billowing skyward from the Jeep’s crash.

  The truck approached and I kept waving until the last possible moment before jumping off to the side. It continued on, and as I watched it go, dejection made my shoulders slump…until the screech of its brakes filled the air. Elation propelled my sore and weary legs into a brisk walk, but as I approached the driver’s side of the cab, I wondered just how bad I looked.

  The window descended, and as I stepped closer, the portly man behind the wheel gaped at me. “Were you in an accident? The smoke—”

  “Yes,” I interrupted, pitching my voice low to ensure that I’d pass as a man. “My Jeep crashed. I’m fine, but I really need a ride to the nearest town.”

  “Sure, boss, sure.” The driver seemed excited to be able to help. Maybe he thought I’d offer him some kind of reward, or that he’d make the news and become a famous hero. “Hop on board.”

  I climbed in the passenger’s side, closed the door, and lunged for him. He struggled against my grip, but despite my depleted strength, I held him easily. As my hand clenched around his throat to cut off his oxygen, I couldn’t help but focus on his pulsing jugular vein. Saliva flooded my mouth, and my throat burst into flame. His blood would be hot and viscous and sweet on my tongue. It would fill me up, warm me up, make me strong. I needed it. Now.

  With a Herculean effort, I jerked back into the passenger seat, panting with need. No. I had no idea how long I’d been in Brenner’s captivity, but I could wait a few more hours. Or even longer, if necessary. I had sworn to Alexa that I would never again betray her, and I would keep that promise, especially now. I could wait. I would wait.

  Clenching my teeth against my thirst, I inventoried the cab. In the space behind the seats, I found a suitcase, a toolbox, and a cooler. From the suitcase, I grabbed socks, a pair of sweats, and a sweatshirt and quickly stripped off my icy clothes. Once I had changed, I took off the man’s sneakers and put them on, then tied his hands and legs with duct tape from the toolbox. After pocketing his keys, cell phone, and cash, I opened the trailer and arranged him among his freight, adding a piece of tape across his mouth to keep him quiet.

  The truck was a fairly new model with a built-in GPS, and I quickly took stock of my position as soon as I returned to the cab. Right now, I was two hundred miles northeast of Fairbanks, which meant that Brenner’s base was twenty miles or so farther north. I took note of the GPS coordinates, repeating them under my breath until I had committed them to memory.

  After a quick inspection of the gears, I got the truck underway. Any minute now, another vehicle could appear on the horizon and I couldn’t risk them stopping to check on me. For the first few minutes, I accustomed myself to the gears, the brakes, the tightness of the steering. Once I was pointed south on a long, straight stretch, I reached for the trucker’s phone and plugged his headphones into my ears.

  Anticipation and anxiety flooded through me as I punched in Alexa’s cell number. Her phone might have been lost during our scouting mission to the hangar, but surely she would have gotten a new one. As long as they had all made it back. But no. No. I couldn’t think like that. She had survived. I had to believe it. My hands trembled as I hit the “call” button.

  One ring. Two. Three. My heart stuttered as hope faltered. What if—

  “Hello?”

  When I heard her voice, I realized part of me had despaired of ever hearing it again. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to cry. She was in pain. Even those two simple syllables had sounded so tired. Defeated.

  I tried to speak and failed.

  “Hello?” Irritation and suspicion crept in behind her fatigue. “Who is this?”

  “Baby.” I finally croaked out the word.

  Silence. I swallowed desperately, throat tight with unshed tears. “Alexa? It’s me.”

  “Valentine?” She spoke my name incredulously, and I could hear the tears in her voice. Answering moisture cascaded down my own cheeks.

  “Yes, love. Yes. It’s me. I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  “Val, my God, I can’t believe I’m—we’ve been out of our minds with—where are you?”

  “In a truck two hundred miles northeast of Fairbanks. I’m driving back to the safe house as we speak. Did everyone…make it back? From the hangar?”

  “Yes. We’ve been combing the area around that airfield since you were taken, but every lead has been a dead-end.” She paused to take a deep breath. “Val, did Brenner…succeed?”

  “He did. He infected Tian, but it didn’t work on me. Tian is dead, love. She died during our escape.”

 
; For several seconds, she didn’t speak. “This is insane. God, Val, I was so scared. So, so damn scared.”

  “I know. Me, too. I thought I’d never see you again.” I swiped at my eyes, letting the sound of her rhythmic breaths comfort me. “How long has it been since that night?”

  “Five days.”

  My mind struggled to assimilate the news that I had only been in captivity for less than a week. “It felt like a year.”

  I heard her swallow hard. “How badly did he hurt you?”

  “Nothing that won’t heal. But I need you.”

  “Do you want us to meet you half way?”

  I shook my head, even though she couldn’t see me. “No. You’re going to be needed there. Have Malcolm pull surveillance data from the Alaska interior. The closest town to my position is called Central. Brenner’s base is about twenty miles to the north.”

  “You don’t want us to just meet you there?” she asked.

  “No. It’s too close. He’ll catch wind of us. Right now, I’m ninety percent certain he thinks I’m dead, which gives us some time to formulate a concrete plan.”

  “Okay.” When she spoke again, her voice was thick with unshed tears. “I still can’t believe I’m talking to you, Val. This whole week has felt like a nightmare.”

  The distraught tone of her voice made my heart ache. “I know, baby, I know. But it’s all going to be okay. I promise.”

  For a few moments, neither of us said a word, content simply to listen to the sound of the other breathing. But finally, Alexa sighed.

  “I should go. This place is about to turn into even more of a madhouse.”

  “I know. I love you.”

  “And I love you,” she said. “More than anything.”

  When the call disconnected, I couldn’t help feeling bereft. But that was ridiculous. Within a few hours, we would be reunited. Until then, all I had to do was stay alert and guide the truck safely to Fairbanks. Glancing in the rearview mirror, I caught sight of my face. I was deathly pale and my eyes looked like dark bruises. I had clearly lost weight. Exhaustion thrummed behind my eyes, but I refused to acknowledge its pull. Rest would have to wait until I reached the city.