“Are you ready for this?” he asked her.
Jerusa’s heart skipped a beat. She couldn’t answer him. Ming opened the front door and a blast of artic air rushed in, zapping her energy and plunging her back into the icy waters of reality. One of the black SUVs waited for them under the stone canopy, idling in a plume of its own exhaust.
Ming motioned for them to go. Taos opened the door and allowed Jerusa inside first. The warmth in the cab restored a bit of her strength, but it could not dispel the claustrophobic trepidation gnawing at her. Taos slid in beside her and Ming and Ralgar sandwiched them in close together. Taos reached for her hand. She allowed him to take it, but it felt awkward. Confusing feelings bubbled up and she forced them back down. She didn’t have time to think about this right now and she was a bit irritated that Taos chose this moment to be tender to her. Maybe he figured this would be his last chance, which disturbed Jerusa more than his uncharacteristic show of kindness.
Ming told the driver to go and he pushed the SUV into the blowing snow without question. They drove in silence for twenty minutes through the white-cloaked trees before turning up a thin trail that seemed no more than a footpath. The branches of the close trees clanged and screeched along the side of the SUV. The driver pushed on, never slowing until they broke into a tiny opening.
Ming and Ralgar opened their doors allowing the harsh, biting wind to envelope them. They stepped out into the blowing snow and motioned for Taos and Jerusa to follow. They trudged through knee-deep drifts and though Jerusa was well-dressed for the cold it somehow still found its way in through the layers and down into her bones.
The predawn sky was the color of a deep bruise. The sun would be up soon. Jerusa wondered just how close to the light they could come before it started breaking down their cells. A terrible thought caught her and she stopped mid-step. What if there was no test? What if Ming and Ralgar had brought them out here to kill them, maybe bind them in some way and leave them for the sun?
Sebastian had warned her to escape from the Hunters the first chance she got. Should she run now?
That wouldn’t work. There was no guarantee that she could find shelter from the sun. And even if she did, she didn’t know the terrain—didn’t even know what country they were in. The Hunters would have her before the next sunrise.
They marched on, Ming in the lead, Ralgar bringing up the rear. In the middle of the opening Ming halted them.
“Here we are.” She bent down, digging in the snow until she uncovered a square metal hatch, buried a foot down. She placed her hands upon two large turning locks set into the hatch door, but she didn’t release them. “Beneath the ground is a series of tunnels. There are several other doors like this one, scattered throughout the forest. Do not be tempted to open them unless you want a face full of sunlight.”
“What are we supposed to do down there?” Jerusa asked.
“You asked to be Hunters,” Ming said with a smug look. “So, hunt.”
“There are savages down there?”
Ming didn’t answer, but it was clear from the sadist glint in her eyes that the answer was yes. Jerusa wanted to ask how many savages were down there, but she knew Ming wouldn’t answer.
“If you survive until nightfall,” Ming said, “we will fish you out and see how well you have done.” Her eyes hardened. “If you try to escape at any time, we will take your mother and the boy and pitch them down into this pit. Do you understand?”
Jerusa’s throat was too dry to speak, so she just nodded.
“Good. Now, blood witch, let’s see what your spirits can do for you.” Ming started to open the hatch door, but Taos stopped her.
“Hold on. Are we to go in unarmed? Even great, skilled Hunters such as the Crimson Storm don’t go into battle without weapons in hand.”
Ming eyed him with a crocodile’s stare. “My mind is the only weapon I need, but if you must have something.”
She nodded to Ralgar. He removed his sheathed skewer from beneath his coat and tossed his skewer to Jerusa. She caught it, amazed at the weightlessness of the weapon.
“I only have one,” Ralgar said to Taos. “You will have to rely on those tiny flames you can conjure and your mindless, brute strength. I doubt either will save you. My advice is to kill the girl and take the skewer from her. Or wait until she dies, then try and retrieve it. With it you may stand a chance, but whichever path you choose, I don’t suspect we will see each other again.”
Taos stood tall. The rest of them seemed diminished in his presence. That haughty, machismo grin spread across his face and this time Jerusa didn’t mind it so much. “Oh, we’ll see each other again. My face will be the last thing you see before I drive my fist into your chest and crush your wretched little heart with my bare hand.”
“Enough,” Ming said before Ralgar could answer. “Approach the door.”
Jerusa and Taos stepped down into the hole in the snow just on the outside of the hatch door. Ming turned the locks—one clockwise, the other counter—and the sound of heavy pistons, sliding free, groaned up through the ground. Ming wrenched the door up and immediately Jerusa was hit with the stench of rot. Not the normal scent of decay, but of dead flesh too long in the cold. And wafting behind that was the subtle scent of savages.
Jerusa had just enough time to glance down into the darkened pit, feel the fear well up into her throat, before Ralgar kicked her hard in the back and sent her tumbling over the edge.
It was too dark to judge the distance from the hatch door to the ground below. The fall seemed to take forever, long enough for Jerusa to gain her bearings and land cat-like on her feet, yet as she was in the midst of her decent she heard Taos curse Ralgar and jump in after her. He landed awkwardly beside her, a half a moment later. The hatchway door slammed shut above them, the clang echoing off of the tunnel walls in all directions like metallic thunder.
Jerusa was disoriented by the noise and darkness. The silence that followed seemed even more heavy and intense than the closing door, as if she had suddenly gone deaf. She turned side to side unable to get a feel for where she was at. She clutched the closed skewer in her hand while pressing her back hard into Taos. The irrational fear of letting go of him drowned her senses. He was her tether to this world and if she lost her grip on him she would tumble down into this bottomless pit forever.
Jerusa searched the skewer’s handle, feeling out every detail, searching for a way to extend the points. It crossed her mind that Ralgar had given her an empty handle to use, but she soon found what she was looking for. She twisted the handle and the two spear points shot out with a quick metallic hiss.
She turned the skewer over and over like some large, dangerous baton. It felt awkward in her hands. She had the speed and strength to use it, but that wasn’t the real issue. It was a killing tool and she wasn’t a killer, even if she sometimes wished she was.
Light flooded around her and, for a moment, Jerusa thought that Ming and Ralgar had rigged the hatchway door to open on the sunrise. But this light didn’t come from the sun. It came from the mob of vampire ghosts crowding the underground corridors.
Though their auras burned bright, the darkness quickly gobbled up the light, leaving Jerusa with not much of an advantage over the savages lurking in the corridors. But she would take what she could get.
Alicia and Foster appeared next to Jerusa. Neither one looked at her, but instead, shuffled off through the crowd of ghosts. They moved in and out, pointing this way and that, speaking in that silent way they had. Before long they had the crowd of ghosts scattering off through the tunnels in a systematic search pattern.
“Come on,” Taos said. “We need to move. I don’t think it’s a good idea to stay here much longer.”
“Hold on. Something is happening.” Jerusa reached out and took Taos by the hand. A small gasp escaped him as his eyes were opened to the army of ghosts surrounding them.
He looked about in awe. “What are they doing?”
She watched as several of the first ghosts to leave returned, spoke a quick word to Alicia then left again, passing through the stone walls. “I think Alicia has them doing a little recon for us. They’re mapping out the area for us.”
“I didn’t know ghosts did that sort of thing.”
“Neither did I.”
Alicia and Foster conferred for a moment, then the ghost girl, so out of place in her glowing prom dress in this labyrinth of old stone tunnels, held up four fingers.
“Four,” Jerusa repeated. “There are four savages in here?”
Alicia nodded.
“Where are they?” Taos asked.
Alicia motioned for them to follow her, but stopped when the ghost with the piebald eyes whispered something in her ear. Maybe it was a trick of the light—so many different auras playing off of each other—or maybe it was just Jerusa’s imagination, but she could have sworn that Alicia’s face drained of all color. The ghost girl looked back at them and Jerusa’s heart missed a beat. She knew that look well. Nothing good ever came when Alicia had that look.
Alicia motioned for the other ghosts to continue on their mission. She approached Jerusa and took her hand. Taos still held her other hand and he clenched it tight, as though he felt Alicia’s energy flowing through Jerusa and into him.
“What is it?”
Alicia held her free hand high over her head, squared her shoulders and puffed out her chest. Over the years, dealing with spirits unable to speak, Jerusa had developed a certain understanding for their wordless gestures. No ghost had ever been closer to her than Alicia, so when she made this little act, Jerusa knew right away who she was describing.
“Thad.” The name escaped Jerusa’s mouth in a saddened groan. “Thad is down here with us?”
Alicia nodded.
“Is he dead?”
She shook her head.
Jerusa didn’t want to ask the next question, but she needed to know. “Is he one of the savages?”
Time crawled to a stop as she awaited Alicia’s answer. Centuries unwound between each beat of her raging heart. Galaxies burst into life only to burn out like the coals of a dowsed fire.
Alicia shook her head, but trepidation swam in her eyes. Thad was alive, unharmed for now, but there were four savages loose in these tunnels and unless they found him first…well, she didn’t want to think about that outcome.
“You know what to do,” Jerusa said to Alicia.
Jerusa pulled her hand out of Taos’s. He gripped her fingers tight, unwilling to release her, but he allowed her hand to slip from his and offered only a small groan of disapproval.
She grabbed the skewer in both hands and held it out before her. It felt too light, too flimsy to be a weapon, but she supposed it would get the job done. All she needed to do was pin the savages down and let Taos burn them. How hard could that be? She twisted the handle the way she had witnessed Ralgar doing it and four prongs snapped open on each of the long, slender points.
“Let’s go get Thad.” She glanced back at Taos. “Follow me.”
Alicia and Foster started down the tunnel, occasionally sweeping to the side to converse with the other spirits. Jerusa could sense that the sun was up over the horizon, but down here light was a distant dream. Her vampiric eyes were able to glean a little bit of her surroundings and the light from the ghosts helped as well. Still, there were too many corners, too many crevices, too many places for a savage to lie in wait.
The ghosts scoured the labyrinth like an industrious swarm of ants. A calm assurance washed over her. They would not let her walk into an ambush. She tightened her grip on the skewer and a surge of power rushed up her arms, filling her with a warm intoxicating excitement. She had never felt more right, more in her element.
Alicia and Foster took off running. Jerusa darted after them.
They passed through the black tunnels, turning this way and that. Jerusa didn’t bother marking where she was at or where she was going. The darkness seemed to gobble up the sounds of her footsteps. The air was cold enough to turn her breath into white plumes. Though she couldn’t hear Taos behind her, she assumed he was close on her heels. She was tempted to check over her shoulder, but the predator’s instinct within said to keep her eyes forward.
It was a good thing that she listened, because just as she turned the next corner a flood of ghosts pressed through the walls, waving their hands and pointing ahead in warning. Alicia and Foster parted, their backs vanishing through the solid stone walls, giving Jerusa a clear view of what was rushing to meet her.
The savage came at her faster than a striking serpent. As quick as her reflexes had become, Jerusa barely had time to register the beast’s blood-filled eyes and snarling teeth as he lunged at her.
Jerusa cried out in shock, thrust the skewer forward and caught the savage in the shoulder. His momentum drove her back, the rear point of the skewer gouged into the stone floor and caught in a mortar joint. She fell on her back and the savage flew over her head like a pole-vaulter. The savage came off of the skewer and flew like a missile right into Taos.
The savage let out a garbled snarl, its powerful jaws snapping like a bear-trap. Taos caught the beast by the throat with one hand while hammering at its face with the other. The savage swiped at Taos with its long, broken fingernails, drawing blood.
Taos clenched his teeth, bent his knees and with one powerful thrust, drove the savage’s head upward into the ceiling. A terrible crunching noise echoed through the tunnels and dark trails of blood splattered down onto Taos. The savage continued to claw at Taos in blind swipes that made their mark just as often as not. With a growl of anger, Taos smashed the savage, first into the wall on his left and then again on the wall to his right. He spun in a tight circle, tossing the broken body of the savage down the black tunnel.
Jerusa leapt to her feet. She rushed to Taos’s side. The scratches on his face and neck were already healed. The only evidence of his wounds was a few drops of blood on his collar. Jerusa checked him over anyway.
“Were you bitten?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“Can a savage infect you by scratching you?”
“I don’t think so. Maybe if their fingers are bleeding. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.” He winked at her. When she shoved him backward, he said, “I told you that I’m fine. If it infected me, we’d know by now.”
He was right. The night Kole had bitten Jerusa she felt the venom start to work immediately. Even if Taos was strong enough to delay the change, he’d still feel it burrowing down into his cells.
The spirits moved about her in an agitated swarm. Alicia motioned for Jerusa, pointing down the hall. Jerusa didn’t need to ask what had stirred up the ghosts. She could hear it. The sound of its tattered breathing echoed from wall to wall. The scrape of its body dragging across the stone floor sent the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.
Taos turned at the same time she did. He reached out to try and force her behind him, but she would have none of that. Her days of playing damsel in distress were over. She forced his arm away, using the skewer to make her point and stepped up beside him.
“It isn’t dead.”
A small orb of fire burst to life between Taos’s palms, its tiny light almost blinding after being in the darkness of the tunnels. “Then let’s change that,” he said with a smile so pure Jerusa couldn’t help but join in.
It felt strange to smile in such a situation, but she couldn’t help it. Was she frightened? Yes. Was she concerned for Thad? Absolutely. Yet, all the same, she was excited in a way she had never been before. Even when she had helped hunt Kole she hadn’t felt this degree of contentment.
They moved toward the ghastly sounds. She held her breath. They inched forward, yet the noise seemed to ever evade them. Jerusa began to doubt her senses. She turned, walking backward for fear the noise was actually coming from behind. Occasionally a spirit would dart through the walls, on its way to search out other parts of the
labyrinth and it was all Jerusa could do to keep from screaming at them to stop startling her.
“There it is,” Taos said.
Jerusa turned to look. They hadn’t moved fifteen feet from where they had battled the savage, yet it seemed to her as though they had covered a mile in search for it. The creature remained just beyond the circle of light, a deep black shadow swimming in a slightly less black lake. When it finally entered the light a gasp of horror escaped Jerusa.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The savage groped the stones of the floor, using the mortar joints to pull itself along. Its legs, twisted and lifeless, trailed behind its torso leaving twin smears of dark, polluted blood. It wore no shoes and one foot was turned around backward. Its left arm looked to have a few too many elbows, and a bone protruded through the skin near the wrist, but the creature continued to flip the useless appendage up in an attempt to pull itself along.
Worst of all, however, was the savage’s head.
Its skull looked like a pumpkin that had been dropped from a high ledge. Its scalp was peeled away and was lying in tatters around its ears. The beast’s mouth continued to snap, even though its jaw was broken. The misaligned teeth ground together and the noise made Jerusa feel as though her soul was trapped in that busted maw.
Still the savaged inched forward with mindless determination, unaware of—or perhaps unconcerned with—its devastating injuries. Jerusa’s skin crawled as though she was looking down on a very large insect. It was all she could do not to turn and run down the dark tunnel screaming. She wondered if she would ever get used to seeing savages. Would the squeamish nausea they induced in her ever subside or would she just have to learn to live with it? It wasn’t the macabre, sometimes gory, form they took. She had been looking at ghosts and the ghastly way they had died, all her life. No, it was something subliminal. Even the tiniest molecules within her could sense the unnaturalness of the savages.
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