Page 21 of Ever Dark Academy: Vol. 1

Ryder grasped the young man by the upper arms and bodily carried him to a closet he had glimpsed on their way back here. Grayson let out the same squawk he had earlier when picked up. It was almost cute. Okay, it was cute. He held Grayson in one arm while opening the closet door with the other. He placed Grayson inside. The young man immediately tried to dash out. Ryder put up a hand to block him.

“What are you doing?” Ryder asked.

“What are you doing?” Grayson demanded.

The fear smell was back in full force. Ryder hoped it would be enough to stop the craving. It was. But more than that it was the sheer terror in Grayson’s eyes. But it wasn’t terror of the unknown or just Vampires. It was the terror of having seen things, experienced things, that most people did not. This kid was a survivor if nothing else.

“You’ll be safe in here,” Ryder said.

“Safe?!” Grayson let out a sharp laugh and tried to duck beneath Ryder’s arm.

He caught the young man and gently, but firmly put him back in the closet and blocked the way out with his body.

“You’ll be out of the way, which is as safe as we can make you until we take them out,” Ryder amended.

The young man had a good eye for odds and fighting. Again, survivor. Warrior. Something else. The full scent of him was in Ryder’s nostrils as they were both in the small space of the closet. Ryder licked his lips and swallowed. The predator wanted to come out.

Good. Use it on our enemies. But leave this boy alone.

“We’ll come get you when it's over,” Ryder said.

“No, I--I don’t want to be in here! I need a way out!” The young man looked ready to climb the walls.

“This is the only way to keep you safe,” Ryder said even as he wanted to respond to that fear with something other than these harsh words. “Keep it together. You’ve done well all evening. Don’t fail now.”

He hadn’t expected his words to have any real effect on Grayson, but they did. The young man drew in a deep, shuddering breath and held himself in a tight embrace.

“I can do this. I can. It’s not the same… not the same,” Grayson said, but Ryder wasn’t sure if he was speaking to Ryder or himself.

“I’ll be back,” Ryder said and shut the door.

“Promise?” Big eyes stared at him.

Ryder nodded. “Promise.”

He then pulled it towards himself until there was a crunching sound as the door was crushed against the door jam, wedging it closed. Only a Vampire could release him. And he was just in time.

“Oh, you fools, you’re making me repeat myself,” the woman sounded truly aggravated, but then there was a lilt of laughter in her voice as she said, “Not that we were going to let you live your Second Lives anyways.”

Thunder rumbled above them. Lightning streaked through the sky, illuminating the church in a silvery glow for a moment.

Horys Bloodline. Can control the weather, Ryder thought.

Ryder shifted into his treachery of ravens form. His clothes dissolved and his cellphone thudded to the ground. With a soft flutter of wings flew to the roof where he had seen an open patch. Dark as night he flitted through the opening into the air. No Weryn, but him could do what he did next. He divided himself into two large treacheries of ravens. One group went to the front while the other group headed to the back. His vision was split up further than simply amongst the individual birds, but also the two treacheries. But Ryder had been practicing this.

There were only two Vampires in front just like his senses had alerted him. One was a whip-thin Asian woman with her long black hair coiled like a serpent on the back of her head. Her lips were a scarlet slash. She was a study in starkness in her black and white outfit. Only the lipstick gave her any color. Beside her was a man dressed all in white. Even his hair was white. He too was thin as a reed. He was the cigarette smoker. He ground out another butt beneath one heel.

Ryder also saw the Vampires at the back of the church at the same time as the ones at the front. There, in the back, he saw the woman--their leader--standing with her two Vampire companions on either side of her. Her hands were lifted to chest height in front of her. Lightning played between her fingers. There was another crack of thunder and the air shivered. Cold wind brushed his feathers.

The silvery white light of her gift revealed that her chest was covered in blood. Her shirt was wrenched open. That blood on her shirt was not human, but Vampire or mostly Vampire.

How did that happen? Ryder wondered. For a brief moment he considered, Grayson? Could he have done it? No. There would be no way.

He wasn’t surprised at her anger and recklessness at that moment though even if Grayson wasn’t the cause. Her aggression was up because she’d been badly injured. She’d likely drunk enough to heal herself quickly, but he was sure she was still craving and Grayson was the nearest source of blood. His own predator nearly had him issuing a screech of challenge. If anyone was drinking from that boy it was him!

But he shoved that down and told himself to think. Why would she chase the boy merely to drain him? She wouldn’t. She had to know that Grayson could have spilled all he knew to them already. So she couldn’t be here simply to keep what he knew from getting out. Though she said she was going to kill Demos and him. But the phones had worked until recently.

No, something more is going on here. She wants Grayson in one piece, I think. All the more reason to take him to the Ever Dark and not let him out of my sight!

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