Daybreak, BK 4 of the Lightwalkers

XXIV - Seth

As Carrie pulled her Jeep to a stop behind Bryson's car, I focused on Jon. His eyes had glazed over as he curled in on himself. I could see him trembling from clear across the car, and yet he pulled away if I reached out to comfort him.

It was close to sunset, though still, neither of them would tell me why that was a bad thing. The floodlights had come on and saturated the courtyard in front of Nick's mansion with light. Glancing out the front windshield, I saw Remi and Sam helping Jay out of the back of the other car.

"Hang on, Jon, I'll grab your door," I said, practically jumping out of my side of the car, rushing around the car. By the time I'd gotten there, Jon had managed to get the door open and a leg out.

But what was bugged me was the sound of Jon's melody. The one that was so similar to Nick's was twisting. Jon's normal melody had dropped an octave and changed to a minor key.

"Jon, you okay?" I asked as I got to him. He'd hunched over, gripped the Jeep's door for support.

I knelt next to Jon, trying to hear him better as he mumbled. Remi came over to stand beside me, ready to help, but I waved him off for just a moment as I focused on my brother.

Jon looked up at me, but his expression was all wrong. It wasn't him at all.

"Brother, oh, we're going to have so much fun."

"What?" I reached out to touch Jon's shoulder, but he moved faster than I could follow.

Between one moment and the next, everything shifted. Pain blossomed along the side of my jaw, and I found myself sitting in the gravel a few feet away from where I'd been kneeling. I spit blood that rapidly pooled in my mouth from a cut in my inner lip and looked up just in time to see Jon put Remi in a chokehold.

"Jon! What are you doing?!"

Another evil grin spread across Jon's face. "I'm sorry, but Jon is unavailable at the moment. If you'd like to leave a message, well, tough shit. You're out of luck."

Remi struggled against the hold on him. "Kain."

"Oh, has my sunny half been talking about me? Or perhaps it was red over there?" The vampire glanced over at Carrie.

"Kain, let the kid go. Don't hurt him," Carrie said.

Instead, Kain tightened his grip on Remi, making him wince. I got to my feet and started to reach for my dagger, but I hesitated. I didn't want to knick Remi with the blade, but I couldn't just stand here and do nothing. Remi caught my eye and gave a slight shake of his head.

I left my dagger where it was and focused on Kain. Maybe I could reason with him. "Come on, let him go, and we can talk about this."

"Talk about what?" Kain laughed. "How you've kidnapped me?"

"We didn't kidnap you-"

"Of course, you did," Kain snarled at me.

But when he was distracted with me, Remi took the opening to break Kain's hold on him. With swift, sure movements, Remi turned and caught Kain as the vampire collapsed against him.

"What happened?" I rushed over, helping Remi keep Jon from hitting the ground.

"He's okay," Remi mumbled, breathing heavily as if he'd just run five miles instead of disabling a vampire. Almost as if the exchange had taken more out of him than what I'd seen him physically do.

"No, what did you do to him?" I asked. Jon was out cold completely.

"I just knocked him out, but it's not going to last long." Remi glanced over his shoulder, and that's when I noticed Nick was standing on the wide front steps of the mansion, watching us with a grim expression.