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In The Dark

Charlotte&039;s hand smacked down on the empty space beside her The undisturbed comforter was cold and empty-more like slate and less like satin-as she sat up and assessed the all-too-quiet room Thick, velvet drapes to the s that overlooked the town square had been left open, letting the soft starlight in, creating silver pools on the dusty floor She sat up in the cold bed, realizing just how void the room was She realized she was co very possible corner of the bedroo the wool blanket under her chin It was cold in the rooh a crack in the , for she could see puffs of mist form in front of her nose with each nervous breath Quickly, she reached for her nightdress and pulled it over her head Vacancy hollowed out her ears as she toed over to the large, glassy pane Peering to the outside, she found the streets just as eht see her human vision The town square was ht There was no movement in the street, as far she could tell It was alhtti that had been unfa, she turned on her heel to see a very tall, baleful shadow loo suddenly near the bed Her heart leapt as a sh the thick shadows as she stepped once toward it

"Valek?" She cocked her head and hugged her arms around herself Her heart lurched in her chest when the shadow clucked at her, its large head shaking fluidly back and forth as it finally took one step into the light That hen she realized the figure was not at all who she thought it was

Charlotte stopped walking when Lusian&039;s slanted, glacier eyes were the gaze thatthere, her scar at the left side of her neck began to throb under a dull ache, and she pressed her hand against it Her throat felt drier than sand, and she struggled to get her next thought out He

"Th-thirsty?" She choked

Lusian&039;s cocky, overconfident grin flashed across his sain as he stepped steadily closer to her She froze, eyeing him carefully, his body only inches before hers The intensity of the way he looked at her forced her gaze to the floor

A dark chuckle resonated froh you wish I were, don&039;t you?" He stopped only inches before her and ran a silver claw from the hollow at the center of her collarbone down her erous place It made Charlotte shiver Her pulse in her throat stopped her airflow as her cheeks began to burn

She frowned Soain, Lusian&039;s only reply was a srin and a deep chortle that was so low, Charlotte questioned if she actually heard it at all

"Won&039;t you tell ht to say the words as sweetly as possible in spite of her tongue going dry-in spite of her addiction that grew steadily worse with each passing moment she looked the Vampire in the face In spite of how afraid she was of hi to overcoh the walls into his mind The scar smoldered under her hand Where is Valek?

The Vampire reached to her and tucked a stray curl behind her left ear Her stoood way it did when Valek touched her This was usted her far beyond anything before Yet her need still lingered behind the apprehension, behind the hatred, behind the contempt She was drawn to him, as she was to all the rest of them, perhaps because that was the predatory effect they had on all hus-to lure them in His sapphire eyes flashed inches away fro to her one," Lusian said simply and widened his stance He crossed his thick arht, Charlotte noticed his eyes harden as he said this

Charlotte frowned "Is he hunting?"

"No He left with Sarah just minutes before you woke up"

There was an odd sort of finite feeling to the way Lusian said this She could tell he was being truthful What was he talking about? She pressed her lips together as she struggled to tear through her own ht before hit her abruptly How Valek had betrayed her, the cathedral garden and, and their conversation back inside the house

"He is not to return?" she asked as her heart haes froht before flashed in half-second incre in her s and the roo on her shock, she needed to sit down The salty water that gathered in her eyes stung the bridge of her nose She wound her fingers into tight fists at her sides as she fought the nausea away

Lusian shrugged and turned away fro about the room "Don&039;t know"

"He didn&039;t tell you?"

"Nope His thoughts were heavily guarded, too, so I suppose it wasn&039;t solare back on her "I guess that includes you as well"

"No," she said mostly to herself "No, he promised he would come back"

"And I am certain he will keep his proned kindness

It was beco harder to breathe no could he just leave? How could he leave without her? Soht at the corner of her eye She shifted her gaze to the headboard, where she saw a mess of e, silvery bolts, hanging there, like they aiting for her The sas from Valek&039;s office The same ones he&039;d used to lock up that mortal woman for his bizarre experiurney to be fastened there to the bed Her heart plunged from her throat to her bowels as she looked back at Lusian&039;s disgusting grin again So instinctive told her she needed to run

Charlotte raced out of the bedroo, upstairs hallway The h the s created a harsh, white glow that burned her eyes with the suddenness of it She plummeted down the staircase and into the study where she found all of the familiar, bloodless faces that had become like fixtures in the house Every familiar set of blue eyes, every extreme jaw line and set of claws and shiny incisors All of theazed back at her froh she didn&039;t lock eyes long enough with any of the on their faces The roo of Valek&039;s absence Where had he gone, she asked herself again She tore through herthe days leading up to this The ih the town square just the night before The irapple with the pain just a few nights earlier As he&039;d watched Lusian

She spun to face the threshold where Lusian stood, his ! He told you where he was going! I know he did!" she hollered "Tell irl"

The rest of theaze dashed about the rooh he ically appear He didn&039;t Valek had to be coht He would never abandon her Not in a million years Not with these predators Never

She shoved past Lusian and ran around the stairs, through the kitchen, and into Valek&039;s white, sterile office Empty Valek&039;s papers were a mess around his desk-the way he&039;d left theo He&039;d never gone back to his work Charlotte shuddered when she thought about as left over in the freezer The wo hole in the floor, the one that led to Mr T&345;inozka&039;s ho had been barred by a makeshift barricade Various chunks of metal that looked to have been disled and bolted there by inhu the twisted e "Mr T&345;inozka!" she cried She was in so much trouble "Mr T&345;inozka! Edwin! Can you hear ed from the dankness of the burrow The battered appearance of her Spider friend was enough to suck all the air froles had been smashed and dented in several places She could see one massive black eye behind the and his skin carried a sickly sort of blue color

"Run, Charlotte," he arbled, as if his throat had been ravaged "You are in severe danger"

Charlotte flew backward froh the house, tearing open the front door and bolting off the porch and down the ay to the outside until a very large hand grasped her at the back of her dress

"Letto find hih he had already beco to need you here with ! I know you have! He would never just leaveon his chest "You&039;ve done soround disappeared fro around inher up froh he easily dodged every punch

"You&039;re a ! Why would they just leave?"

"I&039;ve done nothing!" he yelled into her face

Her arms went limp, and she was quiet Silent tears streales of her jaw She just glared up at hih she were some stray animal

"Lusian, drop her!" Dusana ordered from the threshold of the front door

Lusian snorted, one corner of hisup in the s turning in his head as he studied her for a minute

Before Charlotte could blink, Lusian had swept her body up so that he was holding her in both of his arms "There now," he crooned at her "You&039;re ain, but he was already racing up the stairway, though it was nothing but a dizzying brown blur to Charlotte

In an inhuh Valek&039;s bedrooh she landed perfectly on the bed, bouncing against the nashing sound of two Valed to lock Valek&039;s doors Dusana fought him tooth and nail

"I won&039;t let you do this to her! Weinto the wood as her fangs chorowls eht, Abelione to the Dark City to save her Lusian grabbed at Dusana&039;s chopped, black hair Charlotte couldn&039;t see Lusian&039;s face, but Dusana&039;s eyes were fierce and black With a swipe of her claws, she iant wound across Lucian&039;s perfect cheek Three distinct lines dripped with fresh blood

Finally, Lusian shoved his foot so hard into Dusana&039;s center, and her body flew backward down the hallway before sla crunch into the wall near the stairs Bits of ceiling and wood splinters sprayed down around her, and he succeeded in shutting the doors, locking therumbled sarcastically

A bitter mix of bile and fear rose up in the back Charlotte&039;s throat Valek really was gone He would never have left her alone and in this sort of danger Her heart ha, though she tried her da her vulnerability to show through Her fists balled up in the material of her dress as she scowled at him as he neared her on the bed The look in Lusian&039;s thirsty eyes suggested that he was about to do so She had to fight-to get away so she could run She had to find Valek, wherever he was

Lusian swiftly leaned one knee up on the bed and grabbed a fistful of Charlotte&039;s hair, yanking her doard to the mattress A sharp cry tore frorowl rumbled in the back of his throat

"What&039;s the rin behind his words, double-toned with thirst and savage instinct "Finally afraid, are you? Finally afraid of the an to fasten her wrists tightly in theher flat to the bed There was no escaping He tucked the sain

Charlotte could only continue to glare at hi her look alone would cause the monster before her to finally drop dead She choked on the pain of both her scar and the shah she refused to cry any more She would not show him her weakness She would overcorow beyond the concern "Do you honestly think I would ever hurt you, usting vision of him reflected in them "Do not call me that" She wondered if the others, aside from Dusana, were in on Lusian&039;s hostile little takeover Now that Sarah and Francis and Valek were all gone, no one was left to save her but herself She would suffer, but she would get out of this alive After everything she had already gone through, dealing with this was going to be a piece of cake, she told herself There was no other choice She had to rehts of self-preservation must have distracted her, because suddenly she felt the Va, felt the skirt of her dress pulled up around her hips Don&039;t cry, she re he was privy to these thoughts in her ain