Free Dark Horizons (The Red Sector Chronicles) by Krystle Jones

dingy bubble lights strung over the street.
    “I didn’t know the people cared so much about my brother,” I said, not without irritation.
    “Before Orion and I came down here, there was nothing but a bunch of scared, half- starving vampires living in squander.” A strange sense of pride came through Rook’s voice, a faraway look glossing over his gaze. “Orion was brilliant. He saw what had to be done , and the people liste ned to him. They were desperate. Orion was the savior they had been waiting for.”
    I thought back to my brother, to the psychotic glee in his eyes as he murdered all those guards without hesitation. The part of me that remembered him as my brother could see him being a leader and showing compassion to those less fortunate than him. The other part of me – the older , wiser Sloane who knew better – couldn’t help thinking of him in any other light than that of a killer.
    And he had a whole city of people who practically worshipped him.
    I gritted my teeth against the high-pitched squeal of tires as we spun around a curb and barreled toward a blank space of wall that was clearly a dead end. Thinking maybe Rook would turn at the next intersection, I didn’t start panicking until he blew past it and kept going toward the wall.
    I glanced at him. “Rook?”
    “Hold on.”
    I sucked in a tight breath, eyes going wide as they snapped around to stare at the approaching wall.
    We never hit. A pressure sensor must have triggered it because a few feet away a piece of the wall rose up, revealing a dark tunnel that wove straight through the earth. The road steepened, climbing upward at a deep incline. Ro ok flicked a switch and the car’s headlights came on, though they seemed dimmer than I remembered most cars having.
    I could smell Dezyre’s nervous fear coming off her like some twisted perfume, and I wondered if they could detect the same from me. Then again, my glam our was stronger than most vamp s ’ , so maybe I was the only one who noticed their labyrinth of twisted emotions. Adrenalin electrified my veins, staving off the heavy wave of exhaustion that fought to break through.
    The tunnel wove up and up, and I didn’t dare spea k lest I disturbed Rook’s attention. H e seemed to need all he could get to keep us from crashing into the walls. His jaw flexed as he carefully maneuvered us through the slim tunnel. At last, the red hazy cloud cover I thought I would never feel excited to see came again into view through an opening in the earth above, and we shot out of the tunnel onto a cracked, paved road.
    Dilapidated houses with rotting shutters and gas stations guarding their rusting pumps rushed by us in red-ti nged , monochromatic blurs. Big scarlet clouds billowed from the Scarlet Steel factories in the distance, staining the atmosphere – and thus the moonlight – red.
    Not a soul was in sight, giving the neighborhood a lonely, desperate look.
    “We’re in a Red Sector, aren’t we?” I asked.
    Red Sectors had become no-man’s- land . After the Eclipse, they were blocked off by the government, which considered them dangerous because of the vampiric monsters known as Rogues that lurked there. Though the media said the military had the Red Sectors secured, that they were “safe” now, I knew better.
    Ro ok nodded, his expression grave and the look in his eyes on edge. Dezyre cleared her throat, suddenly looking uncomfortable. The tension in the car thickened to the point of choking on it.
    I pried my eyes off Rook, scanning the area. Buildings with peeling paint and crumbling foundations lined the empty streets. Broken stop signs with big black spray-painted crosses flashed by, the Black Cros s Guild’s way of marking their territor y. Nothing moved, but I would be stupid to believe we were totally alone. “Where are we going?” I asked, pryi ng my eyes off the broken-down cars and missing person posters.
    “Toward the Pittsburgh White Sector,” Rook said, casting a quick