Tooth: An Alpha Like No Other (A Song of Starlight Book 1) Read online

  I grimace—or, the man in the cabin grimaces—and dart through the walls of the town hall.

  I drift in through the ceiling of the basement.

  The scene that greets me is the reason I’ve spent so long fighting the Horde. If they do things like this, they deserve to die.

  There are no windows in the room, but the staircase has been barricaded with furniture to stop any shred of sunlight entering. Even so, the vampires crouch low from the sunlit heat of the ceiling. Many of them huddle in the corners. All of them are dressed in black, covered in black makeup, and grinning with black-painted teeth.

  Abraham stands a few yards from the table, rubbing his hands together. Casey is on the table, tied down with zip ties. The grime on the table is so thick that when she squirms, it gathers in thick clumps. She looks around wildly, snapping her head from side to side.

  “This is a special occasion.” Abraham steps forward. “You, the King’s Disciples, shall witness the king himself turn a paltry mortal into a child of darkness!” He growls, low and mean. I smell his hunger, a stain on the Other.

  I start gathering the power needed to kill them. Lila’s screams get louder. I’m tearing more starlight from her, I think, guilt pounding into me like a sledgehammer. I’m torturing her.

  Just take it! she screams. Just take it and save her! Just do it! Just save her!

  I pull more and more power, but each time I try and cast it against the Horde, I’m met with a wall of energy. Not enough. I take more until back in the cabin Lila is flopping madly in my arms. She butts her head against the floor and her back arches as though she is being exorcised. She waves her arms, pounding the floor with her fists. Come on. I try again to cast the energy—nothing. The wall rebuffs me. More!

  Abraham’s cronies chant as he prowls across the room toward the terrified child. “The Nightmare Man! The King of the Night! The Nightmare Man! The King of the Night! The Nightmare Man! The King of the Night! The! Man! In! Black!”

  Abraham, who once fought to protect freedom, walks slowly toward the captive girl. She sobs loudly. Her face is twisted, all her features marked with terror. Her chest moves up and down so quickly it’s like she’s having a panic attack. Her fingers claw at the table. The zip ties bite into her wrists, leaving deep red gouges.

  Save her! Lila cries. She’s having a fit, and yet I draw more power from her. I feel like a piece of dirt. I wonder at myself. Before I came to this nowhere town, I was Tooth the Protector. All my life had been a journey to my lifelong mission. Save and protect the Woman of Starlight. And now she is being lashed with a thousand whips and all because of me.

  I throw the power out, unleashing the gathered energy—the wall swats it away as a hand swats a fly.

  I need more, I think, sick rising in my mouth.

  Then take more! Take all of it! I don’t give a damn!

  Abraham lifts his hands, waving his cronies quiet. “I am going to change this girl in the name of the Night. She is the same blood as the Woman Who Will End the World. When this pup has been turned to wolf of the night, we’ll use her to draw cowardly Tooth and his ward out from hiding. My children, I tell you this now. We will own the world!”

  The vampires hoot and howl, stamping their feet on the floor.

  One man, wearing a long black coat and chunky black soldier’s boots, steps toward Casey. He leans forward, sniffing and licking his lips. His teeth are painted black like everybody else’s, but his are pricked crimson from where he’s bitten his lip in anticipation. He’s almost at the table when Abraham darts across the room, vampire-quick. He punches the man so hard all his teeth fly from his mouth. His vampire canines clatter at the feet of a woman. The woman scoops them up and hurls them into a corner. “How dare you try to feed before the Nightmare Man!” she hisses.

  Abraham hits the man again and again. The man, toothless mouth opening and closing, collapses to the floor and curls into a ball. Abraham kicks him in the head. His neck snaps.

  “My sweet children.” Abraham cleans blood from his knuckles with his sleeve. “Surely you know by now that I am to take the first bite.”

  “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

  Abraham wipes his boot on the man’s coat and turns to the table.

  Tooth! Lila screams. Tooth, take more! Take everything! Empty me!

  The man in the cabin takes a deep breath and I—the orb of gathering energy—wrench more of Lila’s starlight from inside her. I gather and gather until Lila starts to foam at the mouth, froth rising between her lips and sliding down her chin. More, she says, her voice breathy and faint. More, more, more. I hate myself, but I take more. It’s what she wants. It’s what must be done. I feel as though I am standing outside myself twice over. Once, as the orb of energy. Again as the man I was mere weeks ago. The man who would’ve refused the Woman of Starlight point-blank, the man who would’ve left the girl and rescued the Woman.

  Abraham leans over Casey. The girl fidgets, twisting her body, but she can’t get free of the zip ties. She looks like a baby deer trussed up for slaughter. Her eyes are full of shock and disbelief. Her teeth chatter together so loudly the noise rises above the vampires’ groaning and Abraham’s hisses of hunger.

  Abraham brings his face close to the girl’s. “Don’t fear, child,” he purrs. When he strokes the back of his hand along Casey’s cheek, she freezes. It’s a freezing I’ve seen many times. It’s the freezing that comes over a person when they know they’re going to die and there’s nothing they can do about it; Casey’s glazed eyes remind me of the thousands of men I’ve seen kneel at the executioner’s block, knowing there’s nothing they can do to forestall the scythe. “Ah,” Abraham mutters. “She knows what is upon us, my friends. She can feel it. Can’t you, girl?” Casey doesn’t respond. Abraham smacks his fist down on the table next to her head. “Answer me!”

  Tooth, Lila begs. I don’t care anymore. Turn me to a husk. I don’t care. Just keep her safe.

  I want to put it off, but Abraham’s scent in the Other is like a dog in heat. He licks his lips. Even his tongue is trembling with hunger. He trails his fingers along Casey’s arm. “She will make a good Blood Bride,” he whispers. Blood Bride, I think, and the man in the cabin feels his blood turn to ice. What is a Blood Bride? Lila demands. I tell her: a newly-turned vampire taken as a pet, forced to serve for fifty years in every way imaginable, and then given her freedom.

  Empty me!

  I can’t delay any longer. The chanting of the vampires grows louder and Abraham is so close to Casey now that beads of sweat from his forehead land in her eyes. She is too nervous even to blink and the beads slide down her cheeks, mixing with tears.

  Okay. Forgive me.

  With one final effort, I tear at the starlight. I feel it dislodge like a splinter coming loose from flesh. It speeds across Love’s Spring, into the basement, and batters into me. I gather the energy around me. My Other-eyes watch as the basement fills with blinding light. I take and I take until the froth around Lila’s mouth covers her face like a white beard. Then I take more. She batters her hands against the tiles; bloody fist-prints mark the floor.

  I close my eyes, both in the cabin and here, and aim the energy.

  I unleash.

  This time, the wall of energy crumbles and Lila’s power explodes into the room.

  The vampires drop like stones to the floor. They collapse on their faces, coughing and vomiting and writhing. The starlight pours in through their mouths and noses and ears, burning into their pores, filling their bellies with fire. Some turn onto their backs and I see their eyes glow red. Their flesh burns; smoke rises into the air. Flesh sizzles and the basement is filled with the smell of cooking meat. Their fingernails slide away from their hands and their teeth fall from their mouths. One by one, the King’s Disciples die.

  I grit my teeth as starlight touches the Other and spills out into reality. My chest tightens. Sweat stings my eyes.

  When the business is completed, I take the starlight and hurl it back acros
s town. Lila, veins pressing well-defined against her skin, eyes bloodshot, lets out a long breath and falls still.

  It is done.

  But then Abraham climbs to his feet. His clothes have burnt away and he stumbles unsteadily. He looks like a drunk man as he lurches around the room, looking down at his cooked dead cronies. He throws his head back and screams: “Tooth, is this you? What magic is this?” He falls to his knees, panting.

  From the table, Casey moans. But not in pain. None of the energy touched her. She tugs at her bindings, trying to squeeze her hands out of the zip ties.

  He’s still alive, Lila moans. Tooth, take more. Kill him!

  It will kill you, I reply. I can’t.

  Abraham, clutching his belly and coughing, turns to Casey. “So, it’s just me and you, is it, girl?”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Lila

  Isaac releases me and the pain flutters away. The woman in the mirror lies still, foam clinging to her face like she’s just dunked her head in a bubble bath.

  I throw myself on the bed, feeling like I’ve just got back from a hard day at school where all the girls chased me and threw stones at me because of my whisky-stinking clothes. Isaac has vanished.

  One day, a voice says in my head, the same grownup voice I heard before, your parents and your brother will be dead. But before Isaac dies, he’ll have a daughter called Casey. You’ll care for Casey more than anyone alive. You’ll love her more than you’ve ever loved anything. You’ll love her so much that you’d give your life for hers. She’s in danger. You have to tell him. You have to tell him now!

  “Tell who what?” I mutter, feeling sleepy. I wish the voice would be quiet.

  Go to the mirror.

  The voice of the grownup lady is scary, like Mom’s voice when she gets angry because the house is dirty. This always seems strange to me. The only reason the house is dirty is because she and Dad never clean. But she still scares me when she talks in that dark mean voice. A voice which makes me think of all the nasty things in the world.

  I walk to the mirror.

  The lady and the man are gone. In their place is a little girl a few years younger than me tied to a table. All around her there are bodies. Teeth cover the floor like confetti. A naked man stands up, smoke curling in the air around him, skin all scarred and red. He grits his teeth and holds onto his belly. A ball of light floats in the air.

  That’s Tooth, the grownup lady says. You have to beg him, Lila.

  “Beg him . . . for what?” I press my hands against the frame of the mirror and lean close to the glass. The girl tries to wriggle free from the zip ties, but her hands are too big. She makes them as small as she can, clenching her fists, and tries to pull loose. She’s sweaty and she manages to get them half way, her skin turning bright red with the effort, but then she gets stuck.

  Beg the man in the light to take all of us, to kill us, and save Casey. Say it. Now!

  My lips are dry, but the grownup’s voice is too scary to ignore. I just want this to be over so I can crawl into bed and forget about everything. I can pretend I’m somebody else, a different girl in a different family whose parents are loving, whose Mom hugs her at night and tells her bedtime stories, who never cries into her pillow as she listens to her parents stumbling whisky-stupid up the stairs, crashing into walls and stamping their feet.

  “Okay. You have to leave me alone after.” I lick my lips and shout at the mirror. I’m shocked by how loud my voice is. But it’s not my voice, I realize. It’s the grownup lady talking through me. “Tooth, take it all. Take everything you need to kill him! Just take it! Please! Tooth! I can’t watch her die! I can’t! She has to live! I promised Isaac I would protect her!”

  I can’t. The no-accent man sighs. I can’t, Lila. I love you. I can’t see you die.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Tooth

  I love you, I repeat. I love you more than any man has ever loved a woman. In my love there are oceans and mountains and time and space and stars and hurricanes and volcanoes and battles and fire. My love for you is a natural force. My love for you is gravity. It is too strong. It won’t let me kill you. It would kill me, too.

  Then we both die! Lila wails. I don’t care, as long as Casey lives!

  I watch, torn, as Abraham collapses to his knees. He grits his teeth and tries to rise to his feet, but there is fire in his bones. He collapses again, laughing grimly. “Oh, Tooth, you sneaky boy!” he cries. “Is this the Woman Who Will End the World? Is that how you conjured up this little trick?” He coughs into his fist, blood spraying into his hand. “But you didn’t count on my strength, did you, eh? Turns out I’m not just bluster and titles after all.”

  I love you, too, Lila whispers. There are tears in her voice. You are right. We are destined to love each other. But if our love is great, my instinct to protect Casey is greater. I am sorry, but that’s the truth. I love you. Yes, I do! But she can’t die.

  I feel the connection weakening as more and more starlight pours back into Lila. I have two choices: wrench it out once again and kill her, or let it dwindle and return to the cabin. I sense that I only have a couple of minutes to make my decision.

  Abraham stumbles to the table, grips the edge, and hauls himself up. He wipes his bloody hand on his thigh and growls: “You won’t rob me of this, girl. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had a pretty little thing like you? Well, in truth, about two weeks. But that’s two weeks too long!” He hunches over, sputtering. “Two weeks is far too long for me to wait. I am the Honored One, the King of the Night, the Nightmare Man. Would you like to know something?” He grins. “I’m not going to change you now. I’m going to drain you instead. You have your skinny-toothed friend to thank for that.”

  Tooth, now. Take me. Use me. Aim me.

  Kill him.

  Save her.

  The room grows dimmer as the energy leaves me. From across Love’s Spring, Lila’s starlight tugs me back. I feel as though a rope is looped around me, pulling. Each moment that passes, the pulling becomes stronger. Abraham hauls his burning body up the table so that he’s leaning over Casey.

  Casey, crying silently, tugs again and again at the zip ties. Her hands are soaked with sweat, making her skin slippery. Abraham maneuvers so that he’s in position to bring his teeth down on Casey’s face.

  Tooth . . . end . . . it . . .

  Kill . . . me . . .

  Save . . . her . . .

  “I am a very famous man, girl,” Abraham brags, studying Casey’s face, aiming his bite. “You should be proud; you’re going to be killed and fed upon by a very famous man. How many humans can say that, eh? Not some nobody wizard or who-cares warlock or wart-covered witch. No! Me!” He laughs like a little boy on Christmas morning.

  Then he opens his mouth wide, lifts his head back, and brings his teeth down on Casey’s neck.

  A hair of a second later and Casey would be dead.

  But she moves fast. She slides her slippery hands out of the zip ties and twists her body away from Abraham’s teeth. His mouth slams into the table. He falls back with a scream. He stumbles into the wall, slams into it, and slides down. Bringing his hands to his teeth, he moans. “What? What?”

  Casey rolls from the table and lands on the floor. She jumps to her feet and looks around the room with the skittish eyes of a squirrel. She jumps over the couches and chairs barricading the basement and dives up the stairs, slamming her fist into the door. It flies open and sunlight beams into the room. Motes of dust dance in the air. Casey, gritting her teeth with a determination which would be impressive in a girl three times her age, darts into hall.

  Abraham lurches into the corner of the room. “Ah!” he wails, covering his eyes. “Ah, no, ah!”

  I make to follow Casey to see where she’ll run, but then the energy seeps out of me.

  Tooth . . . Tooth . . . Tooth . . .

  I open my eyes.

  I’m in the cabin. Lila lies beside me, muttering: “Tooth . . .
Tooth . . . Tooth . . .”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Tooth

  “She got away.” Lila sits up and wipes the froth from her mouth with the back of her hand. She tries to stand up. She groans, falling down. Her gaze bolts to me. “I told you to take it all. I told you to save her.”

  “I couldn’t. You know that.”

  “Where is she?” Lila breathes in pain. “We have to get to her. There are more things out there, aren’t there?”

  “Lots more.” I feel the Other. Casey is on the ground floor of the town hall, running back and forth aimlessly. All around her, in the street, are the Horde. Werewolves and witches and wizards and shifters and seers and even a botchling, roaming through the streets in search of survivors. I stand up and offer Lila my hand.

  She considers it for a moment. Does she still hate me? I wonder. She said she loved me, as I love her, but that was in the dream-space, the space-within-space, the no-space. I swallow, anxious, as she studies my hand. But then she takes it. I help her to her feet. She wobbles and then grips my shoulder.

  “You’re tired,” I note.

  “That doesn’t matter. We need to get moving. Casey is out there, alone.”

  “And alive.”

  Lila smiles. A small smile. The shadow of a smile, really. But a smile all the same. “There’s that,” she concedes.