The City Beneath

by Melody Johnson

  “Who are you?” I whispered.

  The man pulled away from the healed wounds at my neck and sat on his haunches in front of me. He licked his lips as he regarded my expression. “You may call me Dominic. I am the Master Vampire of New York City.”

  “Vampire,” I said numbly.

  Dominic smiled, and my blood glistened in the crevices of his teeth and gums. “The bite marks on the victims were from an animal attack, but not from an animal anyone will be able to identify.” He sighed. “Thanks to you, I’ll have to take care of that, as well.”

  I shook my head in denial, but I knew I couldn’t deny everything I’d just witnessed. I felt the smooth, unmarked skin of my neck with my fingertips. “Unbelievable.”

  A low, rattling hiss suddenly vibrated from around us. Dominic crouched over me as if shielding my body from whatever was approaching. “Jillian will be here shortly with her guard to arrange the scene, but the rebels are already regenerating. We must return to my coven. Now.”

  Dominic reached for me, but I scuttled backward, gaping. “I’m not going anywhere with you,” I snapped.

  The fire escape was only a few yards away. If I could reach the edge of the roof, I would only need to climb one story down and break into an apartment window. Maybe I could—

  Dominic bowled into me and smashed me flat on my back. His hand cradled the back of my head, protecting my skull from bouncing against the brick roof. I winced from the impact nonetheless, my back aching. The line of his body pressed against every inch of mine.

  “I don’t think you understand your current position, Cassidy,” Dominic breathed harshly. “I have allowed you to live. Since you are a night blood, I will even protect you, but until you are a vampire, you are still food. Food that I want to fuck, but food nonetheless. And everyone, including myself, is very, very hungry. Do you understand?”

  The fire escape was only a few feet above my head. If I could just wriggle one arm free and reach up, maybe I could leverage—

  Dominic pressed me deeper into the brick with the force of his body, crushing the air from my lungs. “From this moment forward, your will is not your own. Your will is mine, and you are coming with me, Cassidy.”

  My body suddenly longed for his command. I fought against it, but the pull was amazing and unavoidable. “This is insane,” I ground through my teeth.

  “Cassidy DiRocco, look into my eyes.”

  My eyes searched for his, so I shut them before they could meet his gaze. “Just leave me alone!” I screamed, terrified of my own body nearly more than I was terrified of him.

  Dominic growled in frustration. I could feel his chest vibrate against mine. “Open your eyes, Cassidy. We don’t have time for hysterics.”

  My eyes peeled open against my will and met his beautiful icy gaze. “No!”

  “Cease struggling and shouting,” he hissed.

  I instantly stilled, my gaze caught and helpless against the lure of his eyes. “Shit,” I whispered.

  Dominic grazed his fingertips over my brow with a feathery touch. His hand was trembling slightly. I eased away from his touch carefully, so the movement wouldn’t be considered struggling but would still separate me from his fingers.

  His eyes widened. “You can still reason around my command after you meet my gaze,” he murmured. “Extraordinary.”

  Before I could whisper something scathing, Dominic pulled me roughly away from the brick rooftop, gathered me tightly against his body, and crouched on one knee. I knew what he was doing, having experienced it twice before, but nothing, not even prior experience, could have prepared me for the rush of wind and the boundlessness of his strength as he launched like a soaring missile across the city with me in his arms.

  Chapter 3

  The coven, as Dominic referred to it, was technically the many vampires under his rule, but the word also referred to their home. For New York City vampires, the coven was a labyrinth of corridors, tunnels, and rooms carved from the city’s sewers and subways. An entire city of bloodthirsty predators existed beneath our own city, and, according to Dominic, no one knew.

  “Of course no one knows of our existence,” he’d assured me once I was secure inside a cage located in what was apparently Dominic’s bedroom, none of which was reassuring in the least. “We are but fictional nightmares in movies and literature.”

  I scoffed, unable to comprehend that not one person, not one government agency, had discovered them before me. The look he returned was chilling. He was certain no one knew of their existence because, as Master of New York, his very purpose was ensuring their secrecy—which I had obviously, and now repeatedly, threatened.

  The cage he’d locked me in contained a bed and flushing toilet. Dominic had flown over the city blocks at blurred speed, dove into the subway system through a secluded sidewalk grate, navigated through its depths, and deposited me inside the cage without delay. My only consolation was that he hadn’t locked himself inside with me.

  “I won’t tell anyone about you or your coven. Please, just let me go,” I whispered, already planning the hook to my article. “The City Beneath: Vampires Bite in the Big Apple.” I still couldn’t scream, and I worried how long his command would remain in effect.

  Dominic smiled his frightening, fanged, predator smile. “You lie beautifully, Cassidy. The strong acceleration of your heart is delicious.” He drew one finger down the squared edge of a metal bar, and a sizzle of smoke drifted from his fingertip. “You’ll be safe here while I’m gone. The cage is made of silver, so no one can penetrate these bars without the keys, not even me.”

  I blinked. “While you’re gone?”

  “Pining for me already, Cassidy?”

  I stared at him, nonplussed.

  His smile widened. “I must check on Jillian’s handiwork at the scene, but I will return shortly.”

  “Why are you doing this?” I whispered. “Why did they kill innocent bystanders just to get to me?”

  “I’m not doing any of this,” Dominic said, no longer smiling. “And no one was killed trying to get to you. Whether or not you were present, my vampires would have hunted last night and slaughtered whomever they chose. They were hungry and prefer to hunt in that manner. Their lack of discretion is a note of contention between many in my coven and myself, but if I survive the Leveling, my coven will once again hunt in secret. Until I regain my full power, however, their hunts will continue and likely escalate in violence and notoriety.” Dominic stepped closer to the cage. “I’m not a party to their hunts, Cassidy. I’m trying to contain them.”

  I shook my head. “Why do you care if humans are slaughtered?”

  “I care because hunts that are not contained bring unnecessary and unwanted attention to our existence. We have survived this long in the city because of our anonymity.” Dominic sighed deeply, as if this conversation was a topic he was weary of defending. “Speaking of which, I must help Jillian tend to the scene. There are uncountable victims and witnesses we need to address.”

  I stepped forward, intrigued despite myself. “How do you ‘address’ something like this? How can you possibly find and convince hundreds of people who witnessed tonight’s slaughter that they didn’t see anything?”

  “I know who witnessed tonight’s attack and I know the friends and family they told and I know where they live the way you know your heart is beating and your valves are pumping and your blood is carrying oxygen to your muscles.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It seems to me that such human bodily functions are a constant and time-consuming activity that would consume your life. They are a matter of life and death, yet do you consider them a priority?”

  “Of course not. Bodily functions occur without conscious thought.”

  Dominic smiled.

  I blinked. “That’s ridiculous. How can you just know those things without conscious thought?”

  “Let me explain it this way. Imagine if every bodily function depended upon conscious thought, a
nd you had the capability to control your body and still function throughout your daily life.”

  “That would be impossible.”

  Dominic smiled. “Imagine if you could not only control your own body and thoughts, but others’ bodies and thoughts, as well. Imagine an entire city’s worth of thoughts, feelings, wants, desires, wills, and memories as your own and having to focus to separate everyone else’s mind from your own. That is how my mind feels. Some people’s minds simply slip into mine, and I need to actually push against them to keep them out. Others’ thoughts are more difficult to control.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “But you can only control my actions. You can’t control my thoughts at all.”

  “No, I can’t.”

  “Why?”

  “I thought at first that my powers were severely diminished or your mind was very strong or a combination of both, but I was wrong. Vampires simply can’t control night bloods like we can humans.”

  “But I’m human,” I said.

  Dominic’s smile widened. “We will continue this conversation when I return. I promise.”

  “But I—”

  He was already gone. I was talking to the darkness.

  The moment he left, the confining grip his mind had exerted on my will disappeared. I took a deep, gratifying breath, reveling in free will. The moment passed quickly, and panic constricted my throat in a stronger, more deadly hold than even his will. Before I could consider the ramifications, I screamed and pounded against the bars of my cage. This isn’t happening, I thought, even as I shouted for help and bruised the sides of my fists against the metal bars in desperation. I am not being held captive within a locked cage by a vampire in a secret tunnel system that no one knows exists below the city and where no one will ever find me. I rattled the cage door desperately.

  “Help! Someone, please, I’m underground! Can anyone hear me? I—”

  In the surrounding darkness, pairs of glowing blue, green, and purple eyes stared at me. I couldn’t decipher the outlines of their bodies in the pitch-blackness, but if the looks on their faces were any indication, they could see me just fine. Some of them wore expressions pinched with hunger. One had exceptionally purple eyes—almost a shade of plum—shining with the same luminosity as the blues, greens, and violets. All of them were flanking the cage and stalking closer.

  I jerked away from the cage’s edge and stood in the center where, I hoped, none of the creatures could reach me. I tried to think of them as vampires. Although they were pale and fanged, they certainly weren’t romantic or hauntingly lovely. They were gaunt, stoic animals. The only way I’d willingly approach one was if it ordered me with its eyes, like Dominic; even then, I’d be screaming inside.

  “How many years has it been since Lysander caught and kept one?” a vampire hissed. He had a severe widow’s peak highlighted by hair slicked back into a ponytail. He was one of the few with hair that looked brown—maybe even dirty blond in the light—as opposed to black.

  “The Solstice is approaching,” the plum-eyed vampire growled. “Maybe he needs the extra strength.”

  “He didn’t need the extra strength for his last Leveling.”

  “No one has ever challenged him as Master.”

  “She smells”—a third vampire, the nearest to the cage, released the same rattling hiss I recognized from Dominic and from the vampires who had attacked earlier tonight—“like lightning. Burning. Electric.”

  His murmured words were hissed between rattling growls. He was so close that I could see a slight vertical scar between his upper lip and nostril, like he’d endured cleft-lip surgery as a child. I stared at that scar, and a slow realization settled in my bones, a realization that should have been obvious but was impossible to accept. These creatures had been born human.

  “She’s not ours to enjoy,” a fourth growled, but it didn’t sound very convinced. It crept closer as it reprimanded the others, its nose and mouth transforming into the muzzle I’d witnessed from Dominic.

  The cleft-lipped vampire was inches from the bars. “Kaden said that her blood crackled on his tongue.”

  I fought not to cringe away to the opposite side of the cage. More vampires were closing in from behind.

  “Kaden has returned to the coven? How did he regenerate that quickly?” the dirty-blond vampire asked. He looked excited by the prospect of Kaden’s regeneration.

  “Kaden healed within minutes of Lysander tearing his aorta,” the plum-eyed vampire answered tightly. “We should intervene, Sevris. Lysander will need more allies against Kaden.”

  Sevris grinned, releasing a dangerous, satisfied growl. “Lysander can take care of himself, and if he can’t, then he shouldn’t be Master.”

  “I don’t want to live in a coven with Kaden as Master.”

  “Then you should leave before the Solstice.”

  The cleft-lipped vampire bared his fangs. “Kaden said that her blood spread heat down his throat, like rum.”

  “You don’t remember what rum tastes like,” the fourth vampire hissed, his muzzle now fully extended.

  “Oh Neil,” the cleft-lipped vampire murmured. “We would if we tasted her.”

  Neil lunged for me. I screamed, anticipating that his strength and momentum would break through the metal bars. He would tear through the cage and then tear out my throat. The vampire hit the bars of the cage in a full body slam, desperate to reach me, to taste and kill me, but instead of the bars breaking like I’d expected, they sank deep into his flesh and began to smoke and sizzle.

  I stared in disbelief as Neil’s forearms and left cheek melted around the bars. The smoke was like steam as the bars boiled his skin, but it smelled sickeningly foul. Neil shrieked. He tried to jerk away from the cage, but his skin had suctioned in around each bar, like a hot knife through butter, lodging the bars deep in his flesh.

  After a few attempts, he finally tore himself from the cage. The melted tissue slopped away from each bar with a wet pop. He staggered back, staring in stunned horror at the gaping, blistering wounds on his arms. Like Neil, I couldn’t look away, especially from the one wound he couldn’t see. The blisters on his cheek were so deep, I could see his cheekbone and teeth through the exposed, raw wound. I tried to breathe deeply against the pitch of my stomach, but the nauseating smell of burnt flesh was thick in the air around me. I pursed my lips against a gag.

  A deep, throaty female laugh echoed down the corridor. “Rafe, darling, you know better than to tease our newest vampires.”

  Rafe, the cleft-lipped vampire, ducked his head, his expression almost sheepish—if an eerily iridescent-eyed, seven-foot-tall, fanged creature could look sheepish. The woman was my height, not an inch over five-two. Rioting, curly blond hair bounced down her back to the curve of her waist. Her eyes were an icy blue, similar to Dominic’s, and her fangs seemed extra-long in her petite mouth; she had a slight overbite to accommodate them. She strode up to Rafe, the tight cut of her leather pants hugging the lithe curves of her hips with each step.

  Rafe grinned as she approached despite the warning in her gaze.

  The woman hissed, and Rafe lost the grin. He dropped to both knees, clasped his hands behind his back, and dipped his head in a dramatic show of contrition. On his knees, he was mere inches shorter than the woman was, standing. The woman rolled her eyes. She leaned over him, sliced a thin cut over his neck with a fang, and walked past him to Neil. Once her back was to him, Rafe looked up at me, extended his jaw into a muzzle, and rubbed his tongue slowly over one fang.

  I shifted my gaze from Rafe, who was playing head games with everyone, to the woman in leather, who was half-reprimanding and half-comforting Neil, and finally to the rest of them, who had momentarily reined in their blood-thirst. The vampires might have seemed like rabid savages while they hunted on the streets, but an obvious order was established here in the coven.

  The woman growled a deep, vibrating noise from the center of her chest, and the males all took a collective step back from the cage, c
reating a semicircle around me. Once the men had cleared some space, the woman stepped up to the cage and smiled. She was better at smiling than Dominic. Even with her fangs, her expression seemed genuine, but the rest of the vampires—who had seemed bloodthirsty, ruthless, and crazed—had obeyed her every command immediately and without question despite her being diminutive and female. I glanced between the smiling woman and the pack of ravenous creatures behind her and shivered. Who was more dangerous: the pack or the leader they ceded to?

  “I apologize for the commotion. Dominic will return shortly.” The woman’s voice was soft and airy.

  I nodded. “And who are you?”

  “You may call me Jillian. I am the Master’s Second.”

  Dominic had worded his introduction in the same manner, introducing me with his first name and rank, but the vampires had referred to Dominic as Lysander. I glanced at the semicircle of vampires around Jillian and pursed my lips. I wondered if Jillian had another name, too.

  “Something to say, love?” Jillian asked, her voice growling slightly on the endearment.

  I shook my head.

  She took a step closer. “I could extract the thought from your mind if I wanted to.”

  “You could try,” I whispered. I slid my eyes to the side, so they were no longer gazing into hers. Looking away felt wrong and weak, but if she was anything like Dominic, I knew what was coming.

  Jillian was now inches from the cage. “Cassidy, did you have something to say? What were you thinking just a moment ago?”

  Her pull on my mind and will was strong—painfully strong—and it only worsened the more times she spoke my name, but her strength was nothing compared to Dominic’s unendurable power. He could whip my mind into cream with just a glance.