Taos seemed to share her thoughts because he shuddered in disgust. “That was a little too close. I hope your aim is a bit better next time.”
Jerusa’s legs went weak at the thought that not only did there have to be a next time, but two more times after that. Maybe more depending…
No. She would not allow herself to even consider that ending.
“He caught me off guard,” she said. Her voice trembled and sounded strange in the close, echoing tunnels. “It won’t happen again.” She pointed to the savage. “You’re one to talk, though. You almost bashed his brains out. We really don’t want these things exploding down here.”
“Won’t happen again.”
Taos juggled the orb of fire back and forth, increasing its size with each pass. The savage looked up at the fire and one of its eyes drooped out of the socket, down onto its cheek. It hissed at the growing flames, but continued toward them. Taos caught the fire in one hand and with a thrust of his arm sent it hurtling toward the savage.
The creature ignited like a piece of dry kindling. It let out an ear-splitting howl, yet continued to claw its way toward them. Taos increased the fire. Jerusa hadn’t realized just how cold she was until she felt the heat baking her face. The savage turned over onto his back. His twisted, blackening form swiped at the flames with its good arm. It snapped its jaw one last time before falling still. Soon the savage disintegrated into a pile of ash, bones and all.
Taos reined back his fire, keeping a small orb bouncing between his hands for light. Deep shadows crept back into the tunnels, casting themselves about in impassioned dances.
“Alicia,” Jerusa called out. The ghost appeared before her. “Take us to Thad.” Alicia nodded and motioned for her to follow.
They passed through the tunnels at a slower pace this time. The other ghosts, led by Foster, continued to pass through the walls before and behind them as they searched for and kept track of the other three savages. Jerusa watched the shadows, clutching the skewer so tight that her knuckles bleached white and the intricate metal handle groaned in objection.
The tunnels all looked the same. There was no way to distinguish where they were or how far they had traveled from the drop off point. Had it not been for Alicia and the other ghosts Jerusa was sure they would have just walked around in circles, until the savages hunted them down.
A loud click erupted from somewhere inside the walls. Jerusa jumped back just in time to keep from being smashed by a heavy, iron portcullis dropping from the ceiling. It crashed into the floor with a bone-jarring crash, its teeth slipping into sheaths formed into the stone floor.
Alicia stood on the other side of the portcullis. She crossed her arms and shook her head, upset that she hadn’t noticed the trap before it had been sprung. She pointed to Jerusa and Taos, asking without words if the pair of vampires could lift the portcullis.
Jerusa grabbed the latticed iron and pushed up as hard as she could. The portcullis didn’t even wiggle. Taos extinguished the flame in his hands, casting them back into blinding darkness. He stepped up beside her and took hold of the portcullis. They pushed together, but this was a trap built by vampires, not humans and they knew just what to do to keep the portcullis in place.
“I could try and melt it,” Taos said.
“No,” Jerusa said. “It will take too long. We need to keep moving.” She turned to Alicia. “Can you find another way to Thad?”
Alicia nodded yes, but Jerusa could tell from the look on the ghost’s face that the situation had grown worse. There were three savages remaining. It was feasible that with the ghosts’ help she and Taos could evade them until sundown. But not with Thad thrown into the mix. Though Alicia couldn’t express her plan to them, Jerusa believed that she had been leading them to Thad in a way that would minimize their contact with the savages. That way was blocked to them now.
Taos started to ignite another fire, but Jerusa stopped him. “No. It’ll just draw attention to us. The ghosts will tell us if we’re near any savages.”
Taos didn’t seem too convinced, but he agreed.
Alicia led them down too many similar corridors to keep track of. Silence surrounded them, seeping into their bones like the wretched cold. They moved at a crawling pace that grated on Jerusa’s nerves. She wanted to scream and go running at top speed. At this rate, Thad would be an old man when they found him.
They came to a long, narrow passage with a low ceiling. Jerusa stood with her hands on the walls, peering into the void with uncertainty. The area was so strait that not only would they have to go in single file, but they would have to slide in sideways and make the whole journey that way. It was a tight fit for Jerusa, but Taos stood a good chance of getting stuck.
“Are you sure about this?” Jerusa asked Alicia. The ghost shrugged her shoulders. “Isn’t there another way?”
Alicia pointed down an adjacent tunnel then tapped her wrist as though she was wearing a watch. There was another way, probably several, but this was the fastest.
Jerusa sighed. She checked the tunnel again. “Are you all right with this?” she asked Taos.
“Not really,” he said. “If it was up to me, I’d let the mortal fend for himself.” Even in the darkness she could see a flicker of the old Taos burning in his icy blue eyes. “But it’s not up to me and I go where you go.”
It wasn’t the best answer, but it was good enough for now.
“All right, let’s get this over with.” To Alicia she said, “Keep the others on guard. I don’t want anything sneaking up on us.” Alicia nodded and Foster darted off to conduct the other ghosts.
Jerusa slid into the narrow opening and instantly regretted it. There was no room to turn her body, except for her head. Though she wasn’t sure how it was possible, it seemed even darker in here than it did in the other tunnels. She reached out with her hand expecting any moment to find a wall blocking their path. She tested each step, sure the floor would drop off.
Alicia appeared before Jerusa, her aura giving a tiny bit of light. The other ghosts moved in and out of the walls ahead of them searching for any trouble. Despite this small comfort, Jerusa still felt as though the walls were drawing in on her. Shufah had told her stories of the Stewards’ cruel lust for torture, of burying vampires alive or sealing them up in pits, to sit in darkness for centuries, until the Stone Cloak overtook them.
She forced these thoughts from her mind before they struck a chord of madness in her.
Jerusa glanced back on Taos and discovered she didn’t have it so bad after all. For poor Taos the walls really were closing in. He was pinched in between the walls so that if he wanted to move he had to suck in his chest and stomach just to get enough space to make it another step. Jerusa was short so the ceiling didn’t pose a problem for her, but Taos had to crane his neck sideways with his ear pressed against the stone.
Would there ever be a time that Jerusa wasn’t causing her friends some kind of discomfort?
One of the ghosts came rushing by, headed in the opposite direction. Jerusa couldn’t tell which one it was because it was half in and half out of the wall. Before she could turn her head to question Alicia two more ghosts ran by.
Alicia stood still, her shoulders squared so that they disappeared into the stone walls. She held one hand back motioning for Jerusa to wait. Moments later a large group of ghosts came barreling towards them, flying in and out of the walls like a flock of frightened birds.
“What’s wrong?” Taos asked. “Why are we stopped?”
“I don’t know. Something ahead of us has the ghosts scared.”
“What do ghosts have to be afraid of?”
Jerusa had an idea, but it was too complicated to explain to Taos just now. Her suspicions were confirmed when another group of ghosts passed through the wall behind her and into the other before her, and following them was a pack of dark, not fully formed, shadows.
Alicia turned just in time to see the last of the savage spirits pass between her and Jerusa. She cr
ossed her arms and shook her head. She apparently found the vampire ghosts’ fear of the savage spirits just as absurd as Taos did.
“Can you and Foster chase them off,” Jerusa asked. “We need the others to keep watch for us.”
Alicia nodded, then went off in pursuit of the savage spirits.
Taos squeezed in closer to her without her noticing and when he tapped her on the shoulder she nearly jumped out of her skin.
“I don’t know what you are seeing,” he said in a whisper. “But we need to keep moving. If I have to stay in this coffin much longer, I’m going to freak out.”
She resumed scooting down the narrow tunnel. Without the ghosts’ auras the darkness was even more oppressive. Its suffocating weight pressed down upon her like the crushing pressures of the ocean bottom.
A growl cracked the silence, freezing Jerusa and Taos in place.
It had been so sharp and quick that at first she couldn’t tell if it had been real or in her head. The growl came again, longer, more menacing this time and there was no denying that it was real.
“Oh, this is just wonderful,” Taos said and the fear in his voice was more unsettling than the growls. “Move! Move now!”
Another growl echoed down the tunnel, but Jerusa couldn’t tell where it was coming from. One time it sounded like it was coming from behind them, the next from in front. They continued to inch forward, but they hadn’t made it very far before a pair of growls sounded at the same time, one from before and one from behind. There was a rolling pitch that came through the growl and Jerusa had the strangest feeling that the savages knew they were there and were talking to each other about their trapped prey.
The savages grunted as they pressed their bodies into the narrow tunnel. She couldn’t bring the skewer up, couldn’t even square her shoulders. Taos couldn’t conjure a fire in these close quarters without the danger of the flames turning against their master. They were done for. No room to fight, no place to flee.
Jerusa pressed back against Taos. Her hand found his and he gently squeezed it. She wished that she hadn’t sent Alicia off to chase away those demonic savage spirits. There was nothing Alicia could do to save them, but Jerusa wanted her to be here when she died. Though she knew it was irrational, she feared that her soul would be lost without Alicia to guide her across the void.
The savages were almost upon them. Their bodies scraped against the stone walls. They grunted and panted as they forced their way in further, they screeched when they became lodged. The echoes crashed in upon them making it impossible to tell just how far away they were.
Jerusa wanted to apologize to Taos for bringing him into this. It felt as though she always needed to apologize for something. She knew it was stupid. Her friends didn’t blame her for anything. Yet, the guilt was there all the same.
She held tight to Taos’s hand, wanted to bring it up to her face, but there was no room. She wished she had just a bit more space. Just enough to reach up and kiss Taos once before they died. She had spent the last six months trapped in a triangle of confusion, her emotions switching rapidly between Taos, Thad and Silvanus.
“I don’t want to die like this,” she said. “Not like this. I don’t want the Stewards to win. I don’t want to leave my mom alone with them.”
Taos jerked his hand away from hers and brought both hands up as close to his chest as he could. He pushed against the wall with all his strength. His grunts became growls, his growls became screams. The savages called out, excited by the noise and the sound of their approach quickened.
Taos continued his assault on the wall, undaunted by the savages. He thrashed side to side, as much as he could, but nothing happened. Jerusa peered down her side of the tunnel and nearly cried out with shock. A savage crept out of the inky blackness.
The savage’s withered lips pulled back in an excited grin. He snapped at her as though he was close enough to sink his venomous teeth into her flesh. He pushed hard, scraping his skin away on the stone and leaving smears of dark blood.
A scream of terror rose into Jerusa’s throat, but died when she felt the stone wall give way.
The wall only moved a half an inch, but the fact that it moved at all left her thunderstruck. Taos released some pressure and the blocks in the wall fell back into place. He pushed again and this time the wall moved an inch.
Jerusa dropped the skewer and pressed her hands to the wall. The weapon fell to the floor with a loud clank, the sharp ends retracted and it vanished in the murk at her feet. This brought an almost debilitating sense of vulnerability and she had to remind herself that the skewer was useless to her in this confined space.
Jerusa waited, timing her movements with Taos. When he pushed again, she threw all her strength in with him. The wall moved a few inches this time, concaving and raining broken mortar down upon them. A sense of hope rushed through her, leaving her jittery and dizzy. It was all she could do to not shove again right away. If they were going to do this, they would have to do it together.
She didn’t know if the savages on either side of them understood just what was happening, whether they realized their prey was unarmed and making a valiant effort to escape or if they smelled their fear as she sometimes did with mortals. Either way, they called to each other, as if goading the other to hurry. The one closest to Jerusa shoved forward with a hard lurch and came within grasping reach of her.
The savage’s vile, festering fingers clawed at her shoulder, but it could come no further. In its lust for her flesh, it had wedged its shoulders against the narrow walls. It screamed with unholy anger and began thrashing so hard that its raggedy shirt tore away and the skin on its shoulders soon followed. Like a trapped beast gnawing at its own leg, it was only a matter of time before it freed itself.
Taos and Jerusa continued pushing the wall. A section of blocks had slid back, yet the wall didn’t seem ready to collapse for them. Taos let out an angry growl and kicked at something. Jerusa couldn’t see past him, but she suspected that the other savage had come a little too close for comfort. He never ceased his assault on the wall, however and soon they had gained about six inches of room.
Jerusa’s savage lurched forward, his bloody shoulders sliding along the stone and made it close enough to grasp her throat. She tried to kick at him, like Taos had, but she couldn’t plant a solid hit. The savage pressed closer and she had to throw up her hand to keep him from getting to her. They had each other by the throat, each trying to tear out the other’s trachea.
The savage moved into the wider space she and Taos had made. He squared his shoulders and reached around with his other hand. He hooked a claw-like hand around the back of her neck and tried his best to draw her into his open mouth. Jerusa kept her other hand on the wall, pushing against the blocks. Taos was having trouble staving off his own attacker, causing him and Jerusa to fall out of synch.
Jerusa’s strength outmatched the savage’s, but her one arm couldn’t fend off his two, for very much longer. She tried to keep her arm straight, but the savage’s fierce thrashing jarred her hard enough to clank her teeth together. Jerusa couldn’t take this much longer. The wall gave more with every push. If only she could get all of her strength into one good shove.
The savage pulled on her and this time she allowed her arm to go limp. The savage fell forward and just as he lunged for her throat, she lurched forward and smashed his face with her forehead. The darkness exploded with white-hot bursts of light and the ground beneath her rippled like a storm-tossed sea, but the savage’s hands left her and he stumbled backward.
Jerusa turned, though she was no longer sure she was facing the right direction, pressed both hands against the wall and pushed with everything that she had.
Everything seemed to be in flux. The sound of stone scraping against stone rang out, followed by the sensation of falling. A blast of pain filled her lower half. Instinctively she tried to climb to her feet, but found that her legs were pinned beneath a pile of large stones. Taos was next to her, face d
own and still.
The pair of savages looked down on them from the hole in the wall.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The savages spilled from the hole in the wall, croaking in what sounded like horrific elation. They came at Jerusa with deadly speed. Though the darkness was near perfect, she could still see their froth-covered teeth glistening as if filled with unholy light.
Jerusa snatched the first of the savages by the throat and using his own momentum, tossed him over her head and into the black emptiness. She tried to bring her hands down to fend off the second savage, but he was too fast. He grasped her wrists and lunged, biting at her throat.
His fetid teeth came within a fraction of an inch from her before Taos caught him in the side of the head with a thundering blow. The savage rolled several times, regained his balance and scuttled off into the darkness like a spider. Jerusa couldn’t see either savage but she knew they hadn’t gone far.
Taos kindled a small orb of fire. The heat washed over Jerusa, but when the light hit the ceiling her blood turned to ice. The pair of savages crept along the ceiling and was almost directly above them.
“Taos,” Jerusa screamed, pointing at the ceiling. A heavy terror filled her at the sight of the savages crawling along the ceiling, using a series of metal brackets that at one time had held some piece of machinery above the floor.
Taos tossed the orb of fire at the pair of savages but missed. The savages leapt to either side and the fire exploded against the stone. Sparks rained down upon Jerusa.
The savages came rushing in again. Taos jumped to his feet, another orb of fire hovering over his left hand. He thrust it before him in an attempt to drive the savages back, but their hunger outweighed their fear of the flames. They parted, circled around him, then as if on some cue that only they could hear, the two savages came at him. Taos’s fire extinguished and the sound of the struggle drifted off down one of the adjacent tunnels.
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