by Greg Howard
He swallowed a mouthful of dank air. “Are you okay?”
She brushed her soft crinkled fingers over his cheek and shook her head. “You shouldn’t have come here. You should have listened to me.”
Her tone was thick with disapproval, and all Cooper could think was how this was not the time for her to reprimand him for finally being a good grandson.
He raised his head, and the world spun around him. “Can you get on to me later? We have to get you out of here.”
“Lie back.” Lillie Mae pushed him back down by his shoulders. “You took a terrible tumble down those stairs. But I don’t think anything’s broken.”
Cooper’s back ached, and his head throbbed. He surveyed his grandmother’s prison as the room finally slowed its spin. A steep wooden staircase with several missing steps anchored the corner of the dimly lit room. Earthen walls framed a smooth dirt-packed floor, twenty feet wide and thirty feet deep. Carved into the earth on the back wall was a four-foot wide tunnel, pitch black beyond the entrance. Candles positioned around the perimeter of the floor provided some meager lighting. It was more like a dungeon than a typical cellar. And God only knew where that tunnel led. At least he didn’t see any sign of Blue. Cooper wondered if the spirit waited for him at the top of those broken stairs.
He looked to his left and focused on the surreal image of a woman lying deathly still on a cot just four feet away. He’d never seen her before. She was old, though not as old as Lillie Mae. Her skin was so pale she looked like she’d been beaten down with a sack of flour. A thick patchwork quilt covered the lower half of her body. With eyes closed, her chest barely moved at all. A long tube taped to the inside of her arm ran red and up to a plastic bag resting near her waist. The bag was half full of dark liquid he assumed was blood.
He glanced up at his grandmother. “Who is that?”
Lillie Mae turned toward the ghostly patient and smiled. “Charlotte.”
He decided to forgo the next question since Lillie Mae offered no further information. “What’s wrong with her?”
Lillie Mae sighed and looked down, a stray tear trickling out of the corner of her eye. “She’s dying.”
“Dying?” God. There was that word again.
Lillie Mae nodded and wiped her cheek with the tips or her fingers. “She’s been drained of blood for so long, little by little her whole life. Her poor body can’t take it anymore.”
Everything she said produced a dozen more questions for Cooper. He pushed them aside and eased up on his elbows. “Those… men. Did they hurt you?”
Lillie Mae folded a damp rag in the lap of her soiled floral-print housedress. She reached up absently to the bandage on her neck. Cooper’s stomach twisted into a knot of rage. That sick bastard had bitten her.
She shook her head. “I’m fine now. When Stephen came for me, he stared at your picture on the mantel for a long time. That’s when I knew what they really wanted. I convinced him to let me collect some of my things and called you from my bedroom.”
A familiar pang of guilt settled in Cooper’s gut. Lillie Mae had been abducted by freaking vampires while he was out drowning himself in a sea of vodka and go-go boys. She gave a quick shake of her head again. Dammit. She’d probably heard his thoughts.
“Stephen desecrated the good book with his own bloodied finger.” Lillie Mae placed her cold hand on Cooper’s cheek. “Why didn’t you listen to me, son?”
Cooper cupped her hand as if it would break in two with too much pressure. He didn’t regret his decision to defy her wishes for a second.
Lillie Mae dropped her hand in her lap. “He didn’t force me to come here. I came willingly. I had no choice when he told me that Charlotte was alive and here at Warfield. I had no idea. After all these years…” She stared off, swallowing back errant sobs.
Cooper placed a hand on her knee. “You had no idea of what?”
She looked back at him. “It doesn’t matter now.” She dismissed the subject with the wave of her hand. “I never wanted you involved in any of this. I tried to protect you from it. Tried to shield you from this world.”
Lillie Mae patted his hand once and then stood, her creaking bones announcing every move. She teetered over to the second cot, stood at the end of it, and looked down at the woman.
“They used Charlotte to lure me here, and then used me to lure you.” Quivers of regret shook her thin voice. She looked over at him. “The veil of protection I placed on you when you were a child allows for free will. They know that now.”
Cooper didn’t know how to respond. Nothing she said made any sense. A veil of protection? He sat up slowly and slid his legs over the side of the cot.
Lillie Mae tried to stop him, but he waved her off. “I’m okay. I’ve got to find us a way out of here.” Cooper stood, shaky at first. He fished around in his pants pocket for his phone and came up empty.
He sighed. “Dammit.” It was in the pocket of his coat on the floor of the kitchen house above them. With Blue. Terrific. The situation just got better and better. Cooper walked over to the staircase. Several steps were missing, and the ones left didn’t appear very sturdy.
He looked back at Lillie Mae and gave her a forced smile of false hope. “I think we can make it to the top, if we’re careful.”
She shook her head and another tear trickled down her cheek. “You don’t understand, sweetheart. It’s too late.”
“It’s not too late.” Cooper grabbed the railing along the staircase and inspected its sturdiness with a firm shake. The boards jostled around. Not very promising. He looked back at Lillie Mae and plastered on an artificial smile. “We have plenty of time to get out before the sun goes down.”
Lillie Mae looked down at Charlotte. “I can’t leave Charlotte here. I won’t. I left her once, and God will never forgive me for it. I can’t abandon her again.”
Cooper looked from Lillie Mae to Charlotte and back, his mind a mess of throbbing pain and confusion. She’d veered into the land of nonsense again. He’d witnessed it before. Clear as a bell one minute and nearly incoherent the next.
He walked over and put a hand on her arm, keeping his voice steady. “We’ll go and get help, and then we’ll come back for her, I promise. She doesn’t look like she should be moved anyway.”
Lillie Mae covered his hand with both of hers and squeezed, something she always did when she really wanted his attention. “Didn’t you hear me, son? It’s too late.”
The clarity in her gray eyes startled him. Cooper swallowed hard and willed the impatient tone from his voice. “We have several hours of daylight left. We’ll be okay. Now, let’s go.” He put his arm around her shoulder and nudged her toward the stairs. She wouldn’t budge.
“You don’t understand.” The words slipped from her lips in a strained whisper, dragging down the corners of her mouth. “I couldn’t wake you.”
A sliver of panic caught in Cooper’s throat. “Wait. How long was I out?”
Lillie Mae’s eyes pooled with tears. “Hours.”
Chapter Fifteen
Cooper stood just inside the opening of the tunnel and peered into the darkness. Sour air drifted from its depths, singeing his nostrils with the smell of death. He didn’t know where the passage led, but he knew in his gut it was not their path to freedom. He had no sense of time, though if he’d been out for hours as Lillie Mae said, the sun would set soon, if it hadn’t already. He had to get Lillie Mae out of there before Alexander and Stephen returned.
Cooper backed out of the tunnel and crossed the room, glancing over at Lillie Mae and her mysterious patient as he passed. A flicker of candlelight glistened in Lillie Mae’s eyes as she nursed the woman on the cot, both sweet and a bit unsettling. Her touch was so gentle, so familial, the way his mother used to nurse him when he was a kid home sick from school. The doting, the tender touches, the eyes full of love and concern, Lillie Mae gave all of it to a complete stranger. Charlotte. The woman never once responded or even opened her eyes. The rise and fall
of her chest was nearly imperceptible.
Cooper stopped in front of the unstable staircase from which he’d made his less than graceful entrance and peered up. Running his hands over the rotted boards, he applied pressure cautiously to see if it would hold. He glanced over his shoulder at Lillie Mae. She’d said she wouldn’t leave without Charlotte, but he would throw her over his shoulder and carry her out kicking and screaming if he had to. They would send the police back for the woman.
Lillie Mae looked up and flashed him a reproachful glare. He quickly diverted his attention back to the staircase, wondering if she had been peeking around in his head like that his whole life. Scary thought. He went back to formulating a plan. He could probably get himself up onto the lowest remaining step. If he pulled the empty cot over, Lillie Mae could stand on it, and he could pull her up. He didn’t know if the stairs would hold up under their combined weight, but he had to try.
Heavy footsteps plodded overhead on the floor of the kitchen house. Cooper looked back at Lillie Mae and raised his index finger to his lips. Her eyes grew wide as she nodded. Easing around to the side of the staircase, Cooper picked up a loose board—one of the steps he’d taken out during his fall. Gripping it with both hands, he stepped back into the shadows. He took a deep, silent breath, readjusted his grip on the board, and raised it over his right shoulder, ready to strike whoever or whatever the hell came down those stairs.
The footsteps above moved toward the cellar door. A moment of silence passed before a heavy boot landed on the first step. The wood structure creaked in protest. Black boots eased down onto the third step. The board could not withstand the weight and snapped in two. A jumble of arms, legs, and curses spilled down the remaining steps, taking a few more out along the way. A man landed on his stomach with a hard thud at the foot of the stairs.
Cooper couldn’t tell which one of Lillie Mae’s captors it was and didn’t care. He stepped out of the shadows and brought the board down hard on the back of a man’s head. The rotted wood cracked and split into pieces upon impact.
The intruder rolled over onto his back. “Son of a goddamned bitch!”
Cooper’s heart sank. “Randy?”
Randy sat up, rubbing the back of his head. “Jesus H. Christ, Cooper! What the fuck?”
Cooper sighed and helped Randy to his feet. He was out of his police uniform, looking oddly casual in a red flannel shirt and leather bomber jacket. Faded jeans hugged every bulging curve of his lower half.
“Sorry.” Cooper ran his fingers through the hair on the back of Randy’s head, pushing it clear of the scalp. No blood. “How the hell was I supposed to know it was you?”
Randy slapped red clay off his legs and ass. When he looked up, he stared at Lillie Mae standing at the foot of Charlotte’s cot. His eyes lit up.
He hurried over to her with Cooper close behind. “Oh thank God, Aunt Mae.” But when he looked down at Charlotte, creases of confusion formed on his dirt-smudged face. “What the…” He walked around to the side of the bed, leaned down, and put two fingers to the side of her neck. “This woman barely has a pulse. Who is she?” He looked up at Cooper but didn’t wait for an answer. “We have to get them both to a hospital right now.”
Cooper nodded over his shoulder at the stairs. “You may have just destroyed our only exit.”
Randy scanned the room with narrowed eyes. “What the hell is this place?” He looked toward the tunnel opening.
“That’s not the way out,” Cooper said, resting his hands on his hips. “Trust me.”
Lillie Mae stood behind Randy and touched his shoulder. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
Randy stripped off his leather jacket and draped it carefully around her shoulders. He ran fingers over her face and limbs. “Are you hurt, Aunt Mae?” Taking her by the arm, he led her over to the empty cot and helped her sit. She murmured some unintelligible explanation of her appearance. Touching her hair. Smoothing the wrinkles from her dress. Her eyes grew cloudy. She was fading again.
Cooper stepped up to him, fueled by a combination of panic and relief that Randy had inserted himself into the dangerous situation. “What the hell are you doing here? How did you find me?” He hadn’t meant to sound reproachful, but it spilled out before he could stop it.
Randy turned and frowned at Cooper. “I told you to stay put.”
Heat flooded Cooper’s face. He never liked being told what to do or scolded when he invariably did the exact opposite.
“And what am I doing here?” Randy poked a finger in the center of Cooper’s chest. “Looking for you, that’s what. I’ve been calling you all day. I went back to Phipps House, but you weren’t there. I figured your stubborn ass would come here even though I already told you I would check it out. Your damn car is parked right out front, and your coat is up there on the floor by the cellar door, Sherlock.” Randy shook his head and went over to Charlotte’s cot. He ran his thumb and index finger over the tubing that led from a needle taped against her arm to the bag full of blood. “I don’t think we should move her. We need to call EMTs.”
Cooper gave a curt nod, his cheeks tingling from the lingering sting of Randy’s admonishment. “Good luck getting cell service down here.” He sat down beside Lillie Mae and put his arm around her, rubbing her shoulders. She fidgeted with her hands, growing agitated.
Randy shoved a hand in the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out a phone. He stared at the screen. “Shit. You’re right. No bars.”
Lillie Mae reached over and clutched Cooper’s forearm, her eyes clear as crystal again. “Cooper. Please. They’ll be here soon. You have to go.”
Cooper patted her hand. “I’m not leaving you. We’re going home. Together.”
Randy stepped in front of them. “Who’s coming? Does she mean the people who brought her here?”
Before Cooper could explain, Charlotte’s eyes shot open, searching and full of terror. Her chest heaved, drawing in a desperate gasp of air. Lillie Mae tried to stand but required Cooper and Randy’s assistance getting to her feet. They helped her over to Charlotte’s cot and sat her down on the edge.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Lillie Mae whispered through her tears. “I’m here. I won’t leave you again. I promise.”
Her mouth agape, Charlotte’s eyes froze in place, and her body fell eerily still. A final whisper of breath slipped from her mouth. Lillie Mae stared down at her, tears spilling down her cheeks. She laid her head on Charlotte’s stomach, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Randy touched his fingers to Charlotte’s wrist and glanced over his shoulder. He shook his head at Cooper.
Lillie Mae?” Cooper put his hand on her back as gently as he could. “I’m sorry. She’s gone now, and we have to go. We have to get you to a hospital.”
He put his arms around her and pulled her to her feet, the slight weight of her frame melting into him. Randy took the other side, draping her arm around his neck. She hung between them like a scarecrow as they eased her over to the stairs.
Cooper nodded to a spot against the dirt wall. “Let’s sit her down. We’ll get you up there, and then I can lift her up to you.”
Randy’s brow crinkled, and he shook his head. “I hope that thing holds.”
They lowered Lillie Mae to the ground, and Cooper looked back at still body of the mysterious old woman on the cot, wondering whom they were leaving behind. A frigid gust of air billowed out of the tunnel and passed over the candle flames. They danced and flickered in wild patterns around the room. Cooper’s pulse quickened, and his throat tightened as a toxic presence closed in on them.
“Come on,” Randy said behind him. “Help me up.”
Cooper couldn’t tear his eyes away from the tunnel, Lillie Mae’s earlier words solidifying in his mind. He repeated them under his breath. “It’s too late.”
Chapter Sixteen
Alexander Montgomery emerged from the tunnel as if he’d materialized right out of the shadows, his black attire accentuating his already menacing pre
sence. Leather pants stretched over his muscled thighs, and a crewneck tee hugged every curve of his torso. His heavy boots raised a cloud of danger in the dirt floor. The unnerving glimmer of his impossibly green eyes exposed the malignity lurking just underneath his carefully constructed image of seductive aggression. He locked eyes with Cooper, and his lips parted slightly, exposing the tiniest glimpse of his fangs. If Cooper hadn’t been looking for it, he might have missed it.
“Leaving so soon?” Alexander’s voice traveled around the room with a low and steady rumble that almost sounded like a growl. Stephen Parker appeared out of the shadows and sidled up to him.
Randy took a step forward, staring at the pair with suspicious disdain, as if their coiffed hipster appearance offended his masculine sensibilities. “Are these the perps that took Lillie Mae?”
Alexander smiled widely, his gaze drifting down the length of Randy’s body and back up again. Cooper wished to God Randy hadn’t drawn Alexander’s unwelcomed attention.
The Anakim expanded his chest and widened his stance. “I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting you, my friend. I am sure I would have remembered.”
Randy huffed. “Friend? Pleasure? I am the fucking deputy chief of police. In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re standing in the middle of a dirt dungeon with one dead body and a kidnapped woman.”
Lillie Mae mumbled something unintelligible behind them. Cooper glanced back at her and then whispered over to Randy. “Be careful. They’re not what they seem.”
Alexander moved half the length of the room and stopped at the foot of Charlotte’s cot. He glanced down at the body and back up, as if the dead woman was of no consequence to him. “Lillie Mae came of her own free will, as I am sure she will attest. No one kidnapped her.” He waved a hand over Charlotte’s lifeless body. “How could a mother resist rushing to the bedside of her dying child?”
