Chapter One
The Canyonlands, dry and desolate, shimmered like fire in the orange light of the dawn. A stray shard glanced off my favorite curved knife as I ran through combat drills. My body hurt. My throat burned from thirst. Sweat stung a graze on my temple. But still, I pushed myself, lunging forward, jumping back, dropping low and swiping out at unseen enemies until my breath heaved in and out of my chest and I fell to my knees on the reddish stone.
“I think you got them all.”
Dorian stood in the narrow entrance to the cave system that served as a hideout for the remains of his vampire clan and my teammates. He gave me a shadow of a smile.
I shrugged, sheathing my knife into my boot and moving to sit with my back against the wall. Staring up at the clear sky, it seemed bizarre that the day was coming to life in the same way it had yesterday and the day before that and the day before that, when everything wasn’t in such shambles.
He came to sit beside me, although there was a good foot of space between us. His glacial eyes looked out at the bleak vista, his dark hair fluttering slightly in the fresh morning air. Even amid chaos, I found his handsome face distracting.
Honestly, the distraction wasn’t unwelcome. The Occult Bureau, the institution I had built my life around, had betrayed me. I was on the run with a group of vampires I wasn’t entirely confident trusted me. My brother was injured. We had no supplies.
Dorian offered me a canteen. “Gina asked me to bring this out for you. She said it’s the last of the water.”
I took it and sipped carefully, wanting to make it last. After a minute, I pulled the stone Dorian had given me out of my pocket, studying it in the sunlight creeping over the top of the tall outcropping we were seated on.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked, my thumb tracing the stone’s charcoal-like edge. It comforted me because it was from him. I swallowed hard, feeling heat flame my cheeks. What would happen if I told him that? I tucked the stone into my closed fist.
Dorian shifted beside me with a tired sigh. “Everything. Strategies.” He paused for a moment, and my stomach flipped with anticipation. “Things.” The way he said “things” made me shiver, intrigued.
“It’s really a mess right now,” I muttered. That’s an understatement, Lyra.
“It is,” Dorian said. The corner of his mouth turned upward. “But I have to say I feel better having you on my side. Especially after watching that display.”
I blushed, searching for a witty comeback. “I feel the same way, but—” My throat tightened with conflicting emotions. I was terrified about our situation, but I wanted to connect to Dorian. Judging from the interest in his face, somewhere deep down, he was curious too.
“I want to talk about what happened… between us,” I said, meaning it. There were questions burning in my mind about what happened between us during the trial. Could we work together to figure out the source of the sudden and intense pain I’d been experiencing around him? Why kissing him had nearly made me pass out, and not in a good way?
A flock of redbills—the huge, dark avian-like creatures the vampires could communicate with and ride—rose into the air. Dorian’s head snapped to attention at the sight of them.
“Those are the scouts. I should go and help them,” he said, with a bite of guilt in his voice. I knew survival was a priority, but I was curious about his torn expression. Was he thinking about yesterday’s events?
Or how tense the air felt between us?
He left, pausing for a moment at the entrance to the cave as if he wanted to change his mind, but then he disappeared in the gloom.
I pushed down my disappointment and placed the stone back in my breast pocket. He had watched his clan splinter apart after barely escaping with their lives from people we both thought we could trust. Everything was different now that we were all fugitives from the Bureau. It felt like there was nothing I could rely on, no absolute truth I could trust.
My hand fell to the empty space beside me, and I felt Dorian’s absence with a heavy heart.
I sighed and picked myself up from the dusty stone. Our merry band of humans needed food and water to survive, and while I felt calmer after my workout, I was now starving and still thirsty. We soldiers had what we’d brought with us when we fled, but it was mostly gear rather than food rations.
Heading back into the cave, I checked in on Gina and my brother.
She remained on Dorian’s bed, a threadbare thing, with my brother beside her. She stroked his face and didn’t look up as she spoke. “He’s asleep, but he’s not comfortable.”
Gina rarely worried; she was one of the finest soldiers the Bureau had trained. I moved quietly, so I wouldn’t wake Zach. I didn’t even see him get hurt. Some sister I am.
We’d taken care of his injury as best we could last night, but there was still a risk of infection. His face twitched as he slept, his chest rising and falling erratically. My stomach twisted. I hated seeing my brother like this.
My gaze finally rose to Gina’s. It didn’t surprise me to see a tint of red in her light amber eyes.
“We’ll keep his wound clean,” I told her. “I’ll see about getting more water.”
“We can ration the disinfectant in the gear bags,” she said, turning back to Zach. Her fingers wiped a bit of sweat from his brow. I suddenly felt as if I were watching an intimate moment between my brother and his girlfriend. I excused myself. A moment later, footsteps fell behind me. Gina’s hand clapped my shoulder. I jolted in surprise.
“Let’s look for rations together,” she said.
I knew she didn’t want to leave Zach, but she was a soldier first. I nodded. “Thanks, Gina. It’s better if we can make him comfortable. Seeing him like this—” My words caught in my throat.
Gina nodded in understanding. How many times had she seen Zach hovering by my bedside?
We made our way through the narrow cavern that led to the central area of the cave. On the way, we found Bryce, a small slant of light falling across his face from the ceiling. He appeared tired and haggard, but when he turned to watch us approach, something sparked behind his eyes. A curiosity beneath the fatigue.
“Captain Bryce,” I said.
He waved a broad hand and shook his head. “Just call me Bryce.” Shadows gathered on his face as he shifted from the light. “We aren’t in the Bureau anymore.”
Another familiar comfort, that of rank and structure, crumbled to dust in my throat. I bit my lip as a swell of anxiety came over me. “Yes. Of course.”
“We’re going to see if we can scrounge any human provisions,” Gina explained. Even with my brother injured and in this desperate situation, she stayed calm.
I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for her, using her voice to steady myself. I had to focus on what I could do, address the practicalities. Water. Food. Medicine. I led them toward the main cavern.
“Kane left without us,” a bitter voice said.
I froze, as did Bryce and Gina behind me in the passageway. Dorian stood at the far end of the cave, his exit blocked by several vampires who were unfamiliar to me. His posture looked stiff, broad shoulders steeled. My eyes dragged over to where the rest of the vampires, save our original allies, were looking less than happy. This was not a friendly conversation but a war negotiation. I kept back with a wary eye.