Forever Young - Book 3

by Daniel Pierce

  I untangled the last chain, which fell to the floor with a loud clatter. The drawer snapped shut, triggering a door to a different hidden room. This one was small, with an armoire and a locked door. We saw a couple of other pieces of abandoned furniture here and there, just lying around, but they didn’t look like they’d even hold a child’s weight.

  This wasn’t the secret lair. It might be the path to the vampires’ hideaway, but it wasn’t where they actually hid.

  Outside, the sun had completed its descent. I thought of Daisy, alone in the dark in the hotel room. I considered our path out of the favela, which would be a thousand times more difficult in the dark. And I thought about the possibility that the vampires would be out and about soon, able to find us and work against us much more actively than they had been so far.

  Zarya found the next puzzle trap. I wasn’t sure how to characterize any of them yet. I was trying my hardest to memorize the details of each device, in case they meant something later. So far, I couldn’t see anything useful. The only pattern I could see was that the vampires hoped people would give up out of frustration or boredom before ever getting to the end. Death by tedium. Or a blade. Either way, it was evil.

  The puzzle Zarya found turned out to be a cube, with tiles of different colors. It was like that brain teaser from the eighties, but more complex and with spikes that popped out if she got something wrong. I wasn’t a fan, and neither was she. She worked on it for a few minutes before passing it off to Kamila. When Kamila pricked her fingers, she passed it on to Tess, who passed it on to me when she got hurt.

  I worked on it for a while, and inevitably, the toy pricked my fingertips too. It hurt more than a little needle should have, and the pain caught my attention. What could have caused that kind of pain when we were all immune to poison? I didn’t know, but I was reluctant to let Lila try it. She was human. She might not be able to handle whatever was on that needle.

  I passed it back over to Zarya, who got back to work on it. As I passed the thing back to her, I picked up on the sound of someone moving in the first room. I held up my hand, and everyone else stilled.

  I could hear footsteps, and my Ferin senses clarified the sound into three distinct people. They weren’t bothering with stealth, even though someone had clearly been in their building and tripped some of the defenses.

  “I can’t wait until we go,” said one of the newcomers. He sounded tall, inasmuch as a voice can sound tall. “It can’t come soon enough.”

  “I’m glad you think so,” said another voice, this one with a distinctively Canadian accent. “Seeing as how half of the delays are down to you anyway, Jannes.”

  “Nothing is down to me, Patric. The higher-ups have their reasons for the decisions they make, and it isn’t up to us to question them.” Jannes let out a little growl. Their footsteps were getting closer to our hidden room.

  I gestured. Tess didn’t need me to give directions. She was already picking the lock on the other door in the room. She got it open, and she, Zarya, and Kamila slipped inside.

  Lila and I were on our own. I looked over at her, made eye contact, and jerked my head over toward the wardrobe, hoping she would follow.

  Thankfully, she did. She slipped inside, and I stepped in with her. I had just enough time to see a handful of moth-eaten clothes and an array of machetes and guns hanging on the walls. Then I pulled the door closed behind me. If the vampires opened the door to the wardrobe, we were screwed. At the same time, vampires almost never resorted to conventional weapons.

  The wardrobe didn’t leave a lot of space for us. This close, I could feel her hot breath on my shoulder. Her breasts pressed against my chest, and I couldn’t find it in me to object. I still had no idea who Lila was or what she might want. Her origins were a mystery, and so was the real story about her connection to the vampires. That made it downright dangerous to be in the armoire with her, a fact that never left my mind.

  All the same, Lila was exquisite, and we were in close proximity. Even her scent was beautiful, earthy, and sensuous. Shut up in the wardrobe like this, I couldn’t help but notice, and I smiled at the irrational nature of my libido. Even under threat of death, I was still hopelessly male, and I rather liked it.

  Outside, the vampires entered the small room we’d been in only a few minutes ago. “Do you think they’ll let us go to the Source?” Jannes asked, a plaintive note coming into his voice. I’d never heard a vampire getting plaintive before.

  “Would you shut the fuck up about it, Jannes?” This came from the third vampire. “Their decision is already made. There’s nothing you or even I can do to affect it. Stop worrying about it, and it’ll at least make your life easier, huh?”

  I peeped through a knothole in the decrepit wardrobe door. The three vampires would never have pinged me as being together at all. Jannes was tall, but he looked gawky. He even still had zits. He’d probably been taken when he was still a teenager, forever frozen while in the throes of puberty. Patric was shorter, but at least looked like an adult, with a Roman nose and a thin goatee. The third was the shortest of all, but there was no doubt in my mind that he was the toughest.

  I could have taken them. There weren’t any civilians around to protect, the way there had been on the train. I might or might not have been able to take out the vampire there, if that one constraint hadn’t been an issue.

  These guys didn’t strike me as the type to have his kind of power. They didn’t carry themselves as powerful. They carried themselves as twerps, with a hesitant air that told me they were second-raters at best.

  If I killed them, though, I wouldn’t find out what they knew. I would have no way of getting to the lair. Going through the puzzles was driving me insane; it seemed increasingly like busywork, something never designed with an end in mind at all. Letting the vampires lead us to their leader, on the other hand, would cut through all the bullshit.

  “I get that, Anders,” Jannes told the third vampire in a patient tone. “I do. But I also get that we’ve been rotting here in Uruará for decades. We’ve done our part. We deserve to have part of the benefit, don’t you think?”

  Patric grunted. “We’re not being paid to think. Our job is to follow orders. Our orders are to do what we’re told and keep the path clear. Do you want to be the one to look Malfas in the eye and tell him you were too important to support the mission?”

  “No.” Jannes sighed. “I just hope he likes our offering.”

  As I watched, Anders pulled a key from a chain around his neck. He took the chain off and approached a wall at a ninety-degree angle from the one our wardrobe was propped up against. He stared at the frame for a moment until he found a flaw in it. Given that the frame was broken and apparently had been for years, he had plenty to choose from. He seemed to have a specific flaw in mind, though, and he was willing to hunt until he found it.

  When he did, he measured with the palm of his hand. He measured three lengths of his palm, and then he pressed his key into the frame. I’d thought that one spot on the frame was solid, but apparently, I was mistaken. The key sank into the frame like a lover into his beloved’s body.

  A section of the floor in the far corner of the room slid open with a soft “whoosh.” Anders climbed down into the hatch first. Patric went second. Jannes, who seemed to be at the bottom rung of their little stepladder, went last.

  I looked over at Lila, who was gaping back at me. She opened the door and climbed out.

  I allowed myself a small pang at the loss of her body against mine, then let out a low hiss of frustration. “Are you shitting me?” I kept my voice low. “There’s a fake trap door to distract from the real trap door?”

  Lila shrugged, but her eyes were wild. I couldn’t tell if she wanted to laugh or cry. I didn’t know which one I wanted to do myself. “Apparently,” she said and smoothed her dark curls back.

  These vampires had too much free time. I could picture them all too easily, whiling away the long tropical hours designing pointless p
uzzles and traps. “If I had any doubts, they’re gone.”

  “Doubts about what?” Lila asked.

  “Vampires are dicks.”

  22

  Tess, Kamila, and Zarya returned from their hiding space. Lila and I gave them a quick recap of the vampires’ conversation. They seemed interested in the number of vampires involved and in the hierarchy that was on display. “There may be more vampires here than we initially thought,” Zarya mused. “This could be bad news.”

  Anything with vampires was bad news, but since we didn’t have any intel on how many there were, my thoughts lingered on the second trap door. “I’m still floored by the amount of . . . of obsession, I guess, that must have gone into this. I have to wonder if it’s a function of their lifespan. And evil nature, of course.”

  “I can see that.” Tess dropped a kiss on my cheek. We’re talking about people who can make themselves drink the blood of the living. Not sure I ever want to truly understand them, you know?”

  “You have a point there.” I smiled, but it was thin. “Listen, did you ladies see anything in that space where you were hiding? Anything useful?”

  Zarya gave me a pained look. “We saw rat droppings. My favorite.”

  “I guess we got the better end of the deal. There weren’t any rat droppings on our side of things. But then again, we couldn’t see much. Lila and I heard more than we saw.”

  Kamila scratched at her chin, eyes far away. “I think the vampires were probably talking about the place on the map. At least, that’s what it sounds like to me. They were talking about an offering to Malfas, and we know he’s associated with the space inside the red circle. What do you think?”

  “I’m betting he’s there,” I said. “And soon enough, we’ll know.”

  “Agreed,” Lila said, followed by Kamila and Tess. Zarya said nothing, her eyes still lost in thought.

  I picked up the tiled cube again. “And since they’ve got an offering for Malfas, it sounds like the kind of thing we should probably disrupt.” I gave the cube a few twists with my bleeding fingertips, and finally all the colors were in the right places. The spikes retracted into the cube, and I put it back onto the platform.

  My blood dripped onto the floor, but I ignored it. If they didn’t already know we were here, they would soon enough.

  The platform retracted into the wall, and a mirror slid into place where the picture frame had been. Seeing ourselves in the mirror sent my nerves into high gear. They had to be watching us, and they could see we weren’t vampires. They could see I was the goddamn Lifebringer.

  My fingers twitched with the desire to burn the place down, but it was still too close to the other buildings in the favela to take such a risk.

  I looked to the others. “We know the mechanism is in the frame. What do we do with the mirror that could trip the mechanism without setting off a trap?”

  Tess smiled. Then she took out her lockpicks. “I’m so glad I stopped traveling without these.”

  “Me too.” I flashed her a grin.

  She got to work while Kamila, Zarya, and I headed over to the corner with the trap door and waited for it to open. If it tried to close before Tess could get to us, one of us would hold it open. I couldn’t be sure she would be able to pick the lock, but I hadn’t been able to see anything special about the key Anders used. It just looked like a plain metal key, unremarkable in every way.

  Much to my surprise, and definitely not to my delight, Lila took up a position near the trap door with us.

  “Look, Lila, I get you want to see what’s down there, but I can’t let you go into that tunnel. It’s way too dangerous. It’s too dangerous for us, never mind for a human.” I held out a hand for her to shake. “Thanks for everything you’ve done, and I appreciate it, but we’ll take it from here.”

  Lila regarded me evenly. “I can help you. I know it.”

  “A little quiet would go a long way,” Tess told us from her position by the frame.

  “That’s not something we can do, Lila.” Kamila spoke to her like she might speak to a child. “You’re human. You’re fragile. You’re strong for a human, and you’ve done a hell of a lot more than most humans could ever do, but we’re going places and doing things that would get someone like you killed in a heartbeat.”

  “And yet a delicate little china doll like me saved the big bad Ferin twice today. Funny how that works.” Lila stuck her chin out in pure defiance. “If I hadn’t shown up when I did, you wouldn’t be alive. And if I hadn’t given you my help, you would never, ever have gotten this far. You’d still be on your second puzzle, if you’d survived those two Ferin-killing traps. You need me, Jason, and you know it.” She didn’t even bother addressing Kamila, a fact that wasn’t lost on Kamila herself, as she straightened up and narrowed her eyes at the local woman, clearly annoyed.

  Zarya harrumphed. “Need you? We don’t even know you. Look, Lila, you’ve helped us, sure. And we’re grateful. But we don’t know why. We don’t know who you are. We don’t know what it is you want from the vampires. What we do know is some of the vampires in this area can control human minds.” She left the rest of her fear unsaid.

  Lila made a sour noise. “What do I have to do, die for you? I’ve been watching these vampires for a long fucking time. I know more about them than anyone living. And you know I do, because you’ve seen it in action. Experience and knowledge go a long way toward beating these—these monsters.”

  “That’s part of what has me so nervous.” Kamila grimaced and rubbed at her arm. “It’s not that we don’t like you. It’s just that we don’t have a great track record with people we don’t know, whose motivations we can’t suss out. And then we get back to the whole ‘hugely breakable’ thing, and you can probably see where I’m coming from.”

  Lila smiled. “I promise you, I’m a grown woman, and I can make my own decisions.”

  “Sorry, sweetheart. I’m over 500 years old. To me, even Tess and Jason are pretty young.” Kamila winked at her. “And Tess grew up in a time before cars, so I’m sure you can imagine my definition of ‘grown’ is a little different. In all seriousness, though, this is not a reasonable thing for you to do. And it would be immoral of us to allow it when you can’t possibly make an informed, rational decision. You going in would be suicide, and since that isn’t a rational decision, we have an obligation to stop you. It’s not right. It’s not okay. We’re the ones who have the experience, the knowledge, and frankly, the physical capacity to take this on. It’s on us to keep people who don’t have those advantages as safe as we can.”

  Lila tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Listen. I know you think you’re trying to protect me, but you have no idea how pervasive those monsters are around here. And believe me when I tell you, those of us who are willing to fight them have had to be fast, strong, and creative. I’ve survived more than once, Kamila.

  “I will go down into those tunnels. I’ll do it with or without you. You can choose to be there with me, accept my expertise, and win. Or you can choose to ignore me, still not get your way, and wind up decapitated or worse because you turned down a resource because you didn’t like where that resource came from.”

  I stepped between them. “Lila, it’s not that we don’t like where you came from. It’s that we don’t want to see you die. Plain and simple.”

  “What part of this do you not understand?” she asked. Lila was radiant with anger, and it made her even more beautiful. “The people of Brazil have suffered long enough under the vampires, and we deserve better. I’m going to be part of this. I must be part of this. For my country.”

  Tess leaped back from the mirror just as a curved blade swung out on some kind of arm. It swung out at neck height, of course, but the trap door opened.

  I took a deep breath and held my hand out. “Ladies first.”

  Kamila gave me a sour look. “This is going to end in tears.”

  “What doesn’t?” I shrugged as she shimmied down into the hole.

&n
bsp; 23

  I made sure every one of the other women got down into the tunnel before I made my way down. The door closed behind me as soon as I cleared it. I suspected there might be a motion sensor up at the top, detecting the presence of people who might be waiting to go through. The door closed, and darkness followed.

  No light from the surface reached down here at all, and being vampires, they didn’t need to install lights. Mustache Guy, who was not a vampire, had clearly gotten around somehow, but flashlights were cheap and plentiful, as well as lanterns and candles.

  The initial passage was wider than my shoulders by a foot. In a way, that protected us, since we couldn’t be flanked. The walls were smooth to the touch, and I reached out to check them every few feet. Given the complexity of the hut above, I didn’t trust the tunnel. Appearances could be deceiving, if not deadly.

  The first attack began when Kamila uttered a grunt, struck by something hurtling out of the dark. We all surged forward, and I sent a disc of fire up toward the ceiling to light our way. Six vampires stood in what looked like a little rotunda, complete with an inlaid floor that shone warmly in the light of my flaming disc. Other tunnels led away from this rotunda, but they didn’t have doors. There was no other security. We were in.

  I recognized three of the six as Anders, Jannes, and Patric. Patric curled his lip when he recognized us. “Ferin,” he spat, and sniffed. “Not even all Ferin. Four Ferin and one human too stupid to know when she’s been given a gift. Well, I don’t care. We’ll drain you dry and put you out in the dumpster with the rest of the bodies. No one will know or care.”

  I barked a laugh. “Is this something they teach you at villain school, you grandstanding douche? The whole posturing and speechmaking thing? Because I don’t mind telling you I’m over it.” I launched a fireball at him that took his head clean off, leaving nothing but the charred stump.