Manipulating Fate (Carousel Series #2)

Chapter 1: Los Angeles, CA | 1987

Darkness. Flat darkness, unknown darkness. Not like the murky dark that you encounter when you're under water. Unending darkness. Without sound and senses. Then a groan.

Ruby blinked, her eyes snapping open. A groan. Someone groaned? Who? She could see, but it was almost like a night vision scene: Wherever she was it was an artificial darkness, created to be dark. Safe. Her thoughts flooded at once. This wasn't the cave, where everything was safe and Marko was waiting for her. This wasn't the theater where they had just seen the movie and realized their dreams. This wasn't the alley where the gigantic angry vampires had attacked her and David... David...!

"DAVID!" Ruby's voice was more an angry croak then a shrill scream. Sitting up quickly, she grabbed at her throat... where the vampire had slashed his talons across her skin, severing her throat and windpipe. Where her blood had spilled and her life had drained away with it.

"It's ok Ruby, I'm right here." David's voice was in her ear. He was slowly around her, easing her back to the shoddy mattress. Ruby croaked a few more times, unable to understand why her voice wasn't working, why she sounded so different.

"But the vampires..." her voice trailed off in a particularly nasty sound.

"They're not here. You're safe. They won't find us here." David sounded tired, drained himself of any of the energy he might have drawn upon to sound confident. He also sighed, which wasn't a noise that normally passed his lips in public.

Ruby laid back down as David positioned her. Looking around she realized they were in some room, almost a one-room apartment. She could see a bank of windows, or what she thought was windows, covered over with black plastic and blankets nailed down to block all light. Gazing around some more she saw David's bike was also there, in several pieces.

"Your bike." Ruby croaked. She felt rather then saw David grimace.

"I know. They put blood in the gas and oil tanks, and hacked on it pretty good by the time I managed to get back to it. I can fix her. Have to, so we can get home."

"The cave." Although she was still unused to her voice and didn't trust it, Ruby's mind was far more curious and needed to know what had happened. "Makro!"

"Shhh. You'll excite yourself and you'll get sick." David's hand held her down by the shoulder. She could feel it, the coldness of him, through the leather glove. She never had before. And the pulse of blood. An unnatural pulse.

"Oh my god." Ruby's hand flew to her mouth in a way her own mother's had when she'd learned of her son's death. "No!" Again she felt David's expression rather then seeing it in the dark.

"I had to Ruby. You would have died on me. And as much as Marko is going to hate me for eternity, I would like to err on the side that he'd rather have you in his arms then in the ground. It doesn't mean he's going to be happy and pleasant about it though. He'll resent me for ever for taking the very thing he wanted away ..." David trailed off, his grim news finally delivered. His hand didn't move from her shoulder.

Ruby let the silence hang in the air for a moment. She was what she had wanted for so long, after months of living with the Boys. But it didn't feel right. She hadn't accepted the choice, hadn't gone in with her eyes open. It had all seemed to be done under cover of darkness.

"What happened David."

"When that asshole slashed your throat, I don't know. Everything went red, almost like it was on fire, burning in front of my eyes. I found I had a reserve of strength I'd never known and went berserk. I hauled off the ones that held me and tore off heads, and I'll spare you the details of what I did to the one who... well, killed you is the only term that's really gonna fit. The rest were so stunned that I had just killed three of their ranks with my bare hands that they backed up. I figure they were trying to gage whether I would attack them as well. But I didn't. I knew what I had tapped into was fleeting. I snatched you off the pavement and hit the air. I haven't checked the newspapers but I'd be really surprised if I wasn't seen. I knew we had always kept this garage a neutral safe house and just hoped it wasn't being used. Not enough of the others in the city know about it, so we haven't been bothered."