He was tall, over six feet, and thick. Muscles strained out from every angle. Black veins bulged in his forehead and neck. How odd, I thought. The u da yv la dv were still capable of being frustrated. Too bad they were the evil minions of Hades and wanted to destroy my world. His eyeless sockets crinkled and stared at me hard. Then I realized that during the rant inside my head, he had talked to me, probably even asked a question. All I could do was shrug.
“You don’t know?” He demanded quite angrily.
“Wasn’t paying attention.” I shrugged, again.
“Luke! Why did you bring this insolent little . . .” he looked me up and down in an aggressive way, thinking of the right word to use, no doubt, “ . . . girl here?”
“I already explained it to you, Markine. She was recently turned, by me, and it is protocol. Is it not?” Luke glared at the guy.
He nodded once.
So whoever had turned Luke must have been a pretty big deal if he could shut this big guy up. “Now are you going to let us through? Or are you still trying to be an ass in order to show off?” His voice was snide and his eyes flashed blacker than obsidian.
“I . . . I wasn’t trying to . . . ” Markine stammered back and forced his head down.
“No you weren’t. Now let us through.”
“Yes, sir.” With his head still cast downward, he pulled a ceremonial-looking knife from his back pocket and made a small slit in his wrist. Black goo dripped out onto a small design that had been carved into the dirt. I didn’t have time to think more on the situation because the red light flashed up and around us. My cloak flew out around me from what felt like a small blast. Taking a deep breath, I looked over my shoulder and followed Luke down into a world that I was going to have to destroy.
Chapter 21
Heat. There was so much heat. The glow from my skin cast light so my eyes didn’t take long to adjust to the world around us. Stone and dirt created tunnels and busy walkways. Shadows were everywhere, in every form that they could to take. My spine itched and the humming in the back of my mind tickled at me. Luke didn’t take long to get moving. We didn’t have much time left; we had to hurry.
Tunnels wound through corridors, branching off in dozens of different directions. It would have been easy for me to get lost if I had tried to get in here by myself. Crystallized columns hung from the high carved-out ceilings in the larger rooms, where more people were gathered in groups. They aren’t technically people, I thought to myself. Luke had veered off to the left in a dimly lit tunnel, again. I hurried after him.
We wound through an underground maze of tunnels that had been carved out of marble, granite, and a stone that I had never seen before. It wasn’t obsidian, but it was definitely black. However smooth it looked, it was extremely porous. I reached out to touch it, but Luke looked back and shook his head at me. Clenching my hand into a tight fist, I dropped it by my side and kept my eyes directed on him as we continued our journey.
Even with my eyes trained on him, I couldn’t help but see the beauty in the architecture that was around us. Everything was lit by crystals that gave off a soft humming glow. I hadn’t noticed it at first, but the farther in we went, the more I realized that the crystalline columns in the large rooms were actually acting as chandeliers. We were passing through one more large open room, and as we walked through it I recognized the setup. They were all preparing for war; they were preparing to fight against us. My heart sank deep in my stomach. The u da yv la dv had far greater numbers than we did. The reality of the situation weighed heavily on me.
Luke hung a right, into a dark tunnel. This one was different from the others that we had passed through. It led down a heavily sloping slant, and the ground was wet with what I assumed was water; I didn’t really want to know if it was anything else. There were very few crystal lights, and it twisted and turned at sharp angles. After a few minutes, we passed by dozens of huge metal doors. None of them had windows, and most of them were guarded by large hooded figures. Curiosity made me want to ask who or what was hidden behind the protected doors, but instinct told me to keep my mouth shut. Every so often one of the guards would nod at Luke as we passed by. He didn’t acknowledge a single one of them until we came to the end of the hall.
It took all of my effort not to take a step back. Not only were we standing directly in front a man who looked identical to Markine, the guard at the entrance to this world, but behind him was a set of double doors that were made of silver. In the reflection, I saw myself, except it wasn’t really me who was staring back. Her skin was pale with a hint of dark undertones that were unnatural yet somehow beautiful, her eyes were completely encased in black, and her normally brown hair was now so black it appeared blue. Everything about her was so dark it gave off the essence of evil, yet it was so incredibly beautiful that it entranced me. I was entirely enraptured with how the abscondere spell had transformed the way others could see me.
“This is Drakome; he is Markine’s twin brother. They are two of our most fierce warriors, and they protect some of the most important entrances in our world.” Luke spoke to me as if he were giving a tour.
“Did you get stuck giving the tour to a newbie?” Drakome’s voice echoed off the walls around us.
“More or less,” Luke chuckled. “Plus, she wants me to grab the prisoner and take her to the chambers. She doesn’t think we are getting all of the information that’s in her brain. Besides, she has to learn the ropes, so why not show my protégée everything firsthand?” He smiled slyly, and I knew he was in. We were that much closer to Clamora.
“Whoa, man. She is yours?” The massive guy standing in front of us sounded genuinely surprised.
“Yeah, she is. Why?” Luke played the card of being offended.
“She’s just, oh man . . . You are just far too beautiful.” He took his eyes away from Luke and trained them on me. I looked at him directly then. His eyes were not the same empty sockets as his brother’s; they were just coated in all black, like mine were. Drakome was handsome in the same way that I was beautiful. I knew that before he had been turned, he was just as handsome in the human world.
I gave a small inclination of my head to say thank you, but that’s all I was going to offer.
“She’s still a little unsure about how to address our kind. So pardon her lack of speaking,” Luke offered up when Drakome’s face fell with my silence.
“Ah, that’s quite all right. I remember what it was like during my learning time. But when you’re done learning the ropes, you’ll know where to find me.” He smiled brightly at me and made a small bow.
“Perhaps,” I smiled softly and glanced up at Luke. Our time was being cut shorter and shorter the longer we stood here talking with this man.
He caught my hint and looked at his wrist. There was no watch there, but we all knew what it meant. “Well, we’d better get going. You know how impatient she can get . . . ” Luke trailed off and Drakome immediately stepped aside.
Sharp points stuck out from the silver where door handles should have been. Luke didn’t seem surprised by the fact, and he reached out toward them. I chewed my lip as I watched what happened. Ticks could be heard the closer his hand got to the knob, and then a sharp, clear needle shot out, stabbing him directly in the major vein in his wrist. Black blood was sucked through and sent out in odd patterns along the seam of the doors. A loud clang signaled that the process was over, and the doors swung out wide.
We stepped into an even darker tunnel, and this time sounds echoed off multiple surfaces. Most of the sounds were hollow; some were heart wrenching. Coughs, groans, and shuffling feet bombarded the stillness. I knew where we were without having to look around. It was a prison. Metal doors lined the walls on either side of us, and they all contained a prisoner. The smell that clogged the air told me it wasn’t a typical prison with plumbing. It was medieval. As we walked farther down the corridor, the smell changed slightly. So the prisoners who were more valuable were treated differently. Luke turne
d abruptly and faced a solid metal door. There were no numbers on it, not even a name to tell him it was her, but it was clear he didn’t need any of that information. He slid his thumb over what looked like a thumbprint scanner, but I knew better. It was a blood scanner. It would take some of his blood to open the door, and I was right. As the door unlocked and opened just a sliver, he stuck his thumb in his mouth and sucked it to get the wound to stop bleeding. Once he finished, he pulled the door open the rest of the way and bright florescent lights came to life above us, bringing the room into view.
She was hunkered down in a corner and shrunk away from us as we approached. I wanted to tell her it was us, but we still weren’t in the clear. Luke dropped down next to her and spoke softly in her ear. Her frame stopped shaking and she stood, slowly. I couldn’t help the gasp that managed to escape my throat. The once beautiful woman who was my teacher was now falling to pieces. Cheekbones that showed her heritage were thrown into sharp angles; her cheeks were sunken in, along with her brown eyes. Clamora looked like she had been tortured, beaten, and starved. The long hair that framed her face and trailed down her back was greasy and frizzed out around her. It was perfectly clear that although she may have been an important prisoner, she was still a prisoner. After I had looked at her, I couldn’t bring myself to look at the room we were in. I didn’t want to see how she had lived for the past few months.
A sharp pain gripped at my chest. My two hours was just about up. “We need to go, now,” I hissed at Luke. He nodded tightly and headed back the way we had come.
His hand gripped her arm tightly and he hurried quickly up the prison hall. I was practically running to keep up with him. The pain had gone away the moment we started moving, but I knew it would be back soon. We had maybe ten minutes before the spell started to fade and I started to look like myself again. Heavy clangs from the silver doors ahead told us they were opening, and Luke didn’t wait to hurry through them. He slowed his pace as we walked by Drakome, so we wouldn’t draw attention to ourselves. As we wound our way through the tunnels and back up, I noticed how weak Clamora really was. Her head slumped downward, her feet dragged against the ground, and she periodically stumbled.
Luke stopped suddenly when we reached an area where no one was around us. He nodded firmly at me, and I pulled the small orb from around my neck. This small yellow glass would get us back to the place where Mrs. Summer had opened the portal. I placed it on the ground and stomped on it, hard. Glass cracked under my shoe and a shift in the air around us caused a small quake. Dirt showered down from the ceiling above us. The light of a lantern appeared through a small crack that was growing larger. Once it was fully open, we counted eight seconds and hurried through. When we were spit out on the other side, there were still four seconds left for the portal to close completely. Those few seconds seemed to take years to tick by, but they did and not a single u da yv la dv came through after us. The portal closed with a small snap, and I let out a small breath of relief.
My relief was short lived. Pain gripped my entire body and I doubled over. The abscondere spell was finally ending. I watched as the glowing blue in my veins receded then disappeared. Every muscle in my body was still aching from having Luke’s blood in my system, but it faded little by little as the spell transformed my body back into my own. It was over far more quickly than when I had taken the potion. I stood up after it subsided and Clamora stared at me in shock. Mrs. Summer was standing by and quickly ushered us back to her house. Just because the portal had closed easily behind us didn’t mean that no one knew what we were doing. We were all still in danger of being caught up with, so we moved fast.
Mrs. Summer brought out pasta from her fridge and heated it in the oven. When we returned to her house, she had put up protection wards that would prevent anyone from entering her home unless she allowed them to. Clamora was ushered to the restroom to get herself cleaned up, and she emerged after an hour. The smell of garlic, basil, and feta cheese danced in the air around us. We were all ushered into the kitchen and forced to eat. I started to eat but quickly had to push my plate away after a few bites. My vampire DNA was coming back full force.
“You must eat, you just did a spell, and one that will take quite a bit out of you, I might add.” Mrs. Summer spoke to me with a concerned tone in her voice.
“It’s quite delicious, and I want to eat it . . . ” I looked down at it and frowned. “But I can’t. My body won’t let me.”
“Oh, well perhaps something else, then?” She was about to stand up, but something in the look on my face told her why I couldn’t eat it. “Oh! How silly of me to forget about that. I wish I had something for you, but unfortunately I do not.”
“It’s quite all right. I’ll be fine until I get home.” I smiled at her and turned my attention to the woman Luke and I had just saved. “Clamora?”
Her head snapped up and she looked at me with hollow eyes. The plate in front of her sat empty as well as the glass that had been filled with water. “You shouldn’t have come to get me.” Clamora’s normally gentle voice was harsh and her eyes were angry.
I felt like I had been slapped. “What do you mean?”
“You have no idea, do you?” Her eyes snapped toward Luke and her voice was accusing.
“Have no idea about what, Mother?” Luke demanded.
“The only way the u da yv la dv could escape . . . how they would be able to leave their world.” She spoke softly.
“I have no idea; they never told me any of that. What is it?” Luke looked worried now, and his voice was suddenly pleading.
“They needed someone of great power to enter their world while she was carrying the one who would save hers.” Her eyes looked at me. They shimmered and swam in a bed of tears.
My breath whooshed out of my lungs. “I’m not, though. I’m not carrying anyone, or anything!” I thought about it. There was every possibility that I could be, though. Panic rose within me.
“Are you sure?” Clamora demanded.
“I . . . I . . . ” I stammered. “I don’t know . . . ” I finally whispered.
“Well, there’s one quick way to know for sure,” Mrs. Summer offered.
“How?” I stared at her, waiting for her to tell me.
“Let me feel your stomach.” She smiled softly and walked toward me, hands outstretched.
I took a deep breath and stood up. Mrs. Summer’s hands were warm against my stomach as she rubbed it lightly. Shivers spread over my body as she continued to touch me. Hums came from her throat, and I stared down at her head. Sometimes when she did certain things, she made me think of a shaman more than a half-blood. Her body stopped moving abruptly and she went completely still. Without her saying a single word, I knew. I knew what everyone in the room had been fearing was now true.
We were no longer going to be chasing shadows; we were going to be hunting them, all because I was carrying Sebastian’s child.
Chasing Shadows Page 32
