High Society (The High Stakes Saga #3)

“How do you do that?” I breathed, watching as broad, dry brown leaves tumbled across the kitchen’s tile floor.

“Enoch could do it. Terah, too. But now they’re too afraid.”

“Of what?” I asked, watching as he turned away and looked outside at the clear night sky. It was full of stars, and I wondered if he could only call dark things to him, or if he might be able to call on something lighter. The way he called the creatures in the earth, the fog, and now the wind wasn’t much different from the extra upgrades that gave me the abilities I had over Titus and Abram.

“My sister and brother have always feared the darkness that lurks inside us.”

I knew the feel of it. The way it pushed you forward, clawing at you to get up if you failed, screaming through your mind that you could do better. That you had to be better. Different. More. Unapologetic about your abilities. “But you don’t fear it?”

“No, Eve. I don’t. My brother, you will find, believes that he has sacrificed much for his siblings. I know better. Enoch knows nothing of true sacrifice.”

“And you do?” I baited.

“I have found that turning oneself over to complete darkness is the only way to find the scant amounts of light left in this world.”

With those words, he glided across the yard to the cellar and removed the stick I’d wedged in the handles before lifting the wooden slab. He descended the steps and let the darkness of the cellar envelop him, but that wasn’t the darkness of which he’d been speaking. It wasn’t anything as simple as shadows and lack of light; it was something inside of him. Something broken and desperate. Something I recognized, because I felt the same way sometimes.

I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the sounds that came out of the small, dank space. The struggle. The gulps. My clone’s racing heartbeat. The way she let out a sigh as he finished drinking. And the smell of her blood on his mouth when he emerged.

I was furious. “You think you’re stronger because you give in to the darkness, Asa? Well, you’re not. It makes you weak. It makes you careless and… Do you ever stop to think about what you’re doing before you do it? Just now, you could’ve lost control and turned her. You could’ve given her what she wanted all along!”

He was in front of me in a flash, grabbing my forearm and squeezing it painfully tight. His eyes were wild with bloodlust. “I was in control the entire time, Eve. I knew what I was doing. But let me ask you this: Do you? You’re playing with fire. What you and your little friend should do is leave. Leave this time and place and go home. You can wait for Enoch there.”

“You might hate him, Asa, but you love him, too.”

“Of course I do. He’s my brother.”

“Then why let something as insignificant as a woman tear you apart?”

“Because she wasn’t insignificant!” he roared. “I loved her, and Enoch killed her because of it.” His dark lashes fluttered and he pushed me away. “Go.”

My chest felt heavy. Did Enoch really kill the woman he loved? I couldn’t imagine why. There had to be a reason. Either she did something to provoke him, or she was scheming behind Asa’s back. Enoch wouldn’t just kill her because his brother loved her. That was ridiculous. Asa’s despair had obviously distorted his view of his brother.

“Eve,” he pleaded softly. “Go.”

“Where?”

“I don’t care!” he shouted. “Just get out of my sight!”

My heart pounded, but I didn’t test him further. I ran like hell to Titus, all the way through the house and up to his attic room. I met Terah in the hallway and she let me pass without as much as a word. “I guess you heard all that.”

“Of course I did.” She sauntered down the staircase while I resisted the urge to kick her between her shoulder blades and send her sprawling onto the landing. If I was lucky, maybe she’d break her dainty neck.

“Eve?” Titus gaped, pulling me into his room. Not that it could really be considered a dwelling. It was a dusty attic with an equally dusty cot. “What the hell?”

“I know.”

The look of bewilderment on Titus’ face said it all. “He wants to make anti-venin. What does he think he’ll be able to do with it?”

“My guess is that he wants to inoculate the human population against the vampires. Ultimately, I think he’s looking for a way to make human blood toxic to vamps. I think that’s what he tried to do with mine in an upgrade that didn’t take.”

Titus cursed. “You remember it?”

“Not enough of it,” I answered grimly. “Just lying on a hospital bed wondering why my limbs felt so heavy, and hearing Kael tell Victor the upgrade had failed.” I flopped down on his cot, puffs of dust floating into the air. “I wish I could remember more, but at the same time, I’m terrified to know everything.”

He gently sat down beside me. “I’m having dreams, too. I remember being in a tank of water, blinking my eyes open and feeling around for a way out. Kael stood outside the tank watching me, but wouldn’t help. He just kept making notes on a clipboard. I could hear the pen’s tip scratching across the surface every so often, even inside the tank. I banged on the acrylic but he wouldn’t let me out, or drain the water or anything. He just watched. I swam up, looking for a pocket of air, but there wasn’t one. I remember feeling so angry with him that he wouldn’t do something. Anything. But that was the point, I guess. Another test. And when I couldn’t fight anymore, I looked around and beside me was another water-filled tank. You were in it.”

“Was I dead?”