I was vaguely aware of my surroundings. Without opening my eyes, I knew I’d made it into the catacombs and that nothing living was near me.
But then I tried to get up too fast, before I’d caught my breath and before my limbs had recovered enough to support my body.
This time my face hit the dirt along with the rest of me. Even as I struggled to regain consciousness my mind was slipping closer and closer to darkness.
TWENTY-ONE
I hate the transference, was my first thought as I opened my eyes and spit the acidic taste out of my mouth. I wiped the back of my hand across my lips before I raised my head and realized I had passed out. I really need to work on that, I thought.
My internal clock told me I’d been out for a good half hour.
Not good. Really not good. That meant I only had fifteen minutes at most before Volod arrived. So much for using the transference to get here faster.
I clenched my teeth together. How could I have let myself pass out? I’m a Drow warrior. Drow warriors don’t pass out.
Apparently this one did.
I pushed myself up to my hands and knees and glanced around the part of the catacombs I was in. I frowned. My photographic memory didn’t recognize whatever part of the catacombs I was in. I knew I hadn’t seen the coffin standing against the wall nearby, that was for sure. It was funny to think of a Vampire sleeping standing up. Wasn’t that just for Mummies?
At least I made it into the general vicinity of where I’d wanted to—I hoped. By the strong smells of graveyard dirt, must, and age, I knew that yes, I was in the right place. Not to mention all of the nooks and crannies and the coffins around me.
A rat was the only creature I sensed near me, nothing else. I was safe for now. no other living beings were around.
My eyes widened as a coffin in front of me started to open.
It was then that I remembered Vampires didn’t qualify as the living.
I had been about to get to my feet but I froze, still on my hands and knees next to the remnants of my supper.
Cold realization washed through me. I could have been in a roomful of Vampires and I wouldn’t have sensed anything living because I’d been paying attention to the wrong senses. Something about the transference had knocked a wire loose in my brain, apparently.
Every coffin around me could contain a Vampire. I could be in a nest of them for all I knew.
I froze as I heard a sound to my left. As a Vampire climbed out of the coffin, I wrapped myself in a glamour, but I was sure the Vampire would be able to smell the vomit.
If I hurried at least he wouldn’t see it. I whispered, “Avanna,” and the Elvin cleansing spell erased all traces from the dirt and from me.
The Vampire was a male, a tall one, dressed in a tux. Some of these Vamps appeared to be so pretentious it was almost funny. But there was not a single thing to laugh about in this whole ordeal.
When he was on his feet, the Vampire straightened the jacket of his tux, including the sleeves and then the wrists. His hair was parted slightly to the side and had a slight wave to it. He had the appearance of someone in his mid-thirties from the roaring twenties. I almost expected a female Vampire “flapper” to climb out of the coffin next to him.
When he was finished primping himself, the male paused. Sniffed the air. He frowned and wrinkled his nose like he smelled something really bad. He looked in my direction and scowled before he walked my way.
I rolled to the side away from him, then scrambled to my feet. The Vampire looked at the earth in the spot where I’d just cleaned up the mess. He paused a moment, then seemed to give a mental shrug and strode on through the catacombs.
Before I followed him, I dusted dirt from my leather pants, more from an absentminded action than from the need to get dust off me. I jogged after the Vampire who had disappeared around one of the corners.
The coffins in this part of the catacombs were old, covered in cobwebs and a thick layer of dust. Elaborate coffins were obviously for wealthier Vampires, where the plain wood ones likely housed those who’d had little money. Vampires apparently had a social structure even when it came to coffins.
There were more different types of coffins than I’d ever imagined, reflecting styles of the times throughout the ages. I thought of what I’d told Nadia about how Vampires came to sleep in coffins. Taking it to their graves had a whole new meaning when it came to humans being turned to Vampires.
I kept a good distance behind Mr. Roaring Twenties while taking inventory of where I was and what was around me. The earth sloped upward and I realized we were farther under the building than I had gone before.
The Vampire rounded a corner but I came to a stop. I sensed something strong, something powerful.
Now that I was focused on the undead, I sensed Volod. Not the Vampire himself, but his essence, his scent. I closed my eyes and reached out with my senses and my elements and found what I was looking for. A private chamber was behind a series of cubbyholes and twists and turns.
This chamber was larger than any of the other places in the catacombs. I peeked around the arch leading into the chamber and saw a polished black coffin in the center. It was simple yet elegant, and still masculine.
Volod’s coffin.
It was open, obviously because Volod wasn’t there. I walked over to it and almost touched the gleaming surface but drew my hand back before my fingers brushed it. The inside of the coffin was lined in white pillowed satin with red accents. Dark Elves mine not only metals but jewels, and the red accents were blood-red rubies.
How difficult would it be to come back after Volod had taken to his coffin, open it, and stake him?
No time for fantasies. I needed to do my recon, then get out to my team.
Mr. Roaring Twenties was gone, of course, but I followed his scent until I was in an area I recognized and was able to find my own way out.
After I exited the catacombs, I went to the set of locked double doors that I had been sure was a scientific research center when I’d been here before.
It was logical that the serum could be in the research center. In the meeting of Vampires that I’d witnessed, Volod had said about the contents of the box, “We will use them in whatever ways we deem necessary, from experimentation to threats.” Volod probably had Vampire scientists working on experiments already.
Again I peered through the clouded glass set into the doors, sent my air elemental magic through every nook and cranny, and closed my eyes. Using my air magic, I both sensed and saw with my mind the enormous room filled with scientific equipment. Fortunately I didn’t sense anything alive or undead.
I used my air magic to unlock the door and eased my way inside.
The research chamber was enough like the ones in the abandoned NORAD facility that it made my stomach churn. Something I never expected in a Vampire lair. Everything smelled like a hospital and looked sterile, normal, not like some medieval torture chamber that I’d expected Vampires to have. Actually, I’d never thought of Vampires having a research center to begin with. It made me wonder what they had used it for before now.
I kept my glamour tight around me, trusting in the fact that I couldn’t be seen.
In my mind I saw flashes of the Vampires last night. Their frenzy, their fervor. And then I remembered the two college students who’d been bitten, and their friends who had been brutalized or ripped apart.
Earlier, according to Captain Wysocki, the count was up to thirty-nine dead, fifteen injured, and five missing.
The thought of the Vampires and all of those deaths made me ill. I had to get the serum back along with the antiserum. Had to.
I looked in cabinets, drawers, anything that could be opened and closed. I didn’t think I’d find anything, but I had to make sure it wasn’t here. This was the place they’d be using or had been using, to experiment on both norms and paranorms.
The chamber was divided into two rooms. I went from one part of the research center into another when I turned the
corner. At the back of that room was a door.
The door drew me. There was something about it that made my heart pump faster, made me feel like I had found something. Something important.
It was just a door. Blond wood. Brushed silver hardware. Window with frosted glass. Nothing special.
But I knew something was there. What I was looking for was in there. I had never sensed the serum before, but I knew Volod had been in that room. There had to be a reason.
My senses focused totally on that door. Something important, yes. I paused at the door and listened. Silence. Everything was absolutely quiet.
I grasped the door handle, opened the door, and went inside.
The door slammed shut.
An alarm sounded.
My heart started pounding like mad.
Red fog rolled out from the doorway and around me.
The putrid rotten egg-smelling fog burned my lungs, burned my skin.
I started coughing so hard that my chest hurt.
Gas. I was being gassed. I’d walked into a trap.
Something about the gas stole everything from me. What kind of gas could do this to me?
My glamour faded away. I couldn’t hold onto my elements.
I tried to turn and run, but my legs wouldn’t work.
Every part of my body went limp. I collapsed onto the chamber’s sterile white floor.
Waves of panic made me feel like my heart would give out.
I struggled to remain conscious. I couldn’t pass out and let Volod find me. Had to get out of here. Had to.
My limbs gave out every time I tried to push myself to my feet.
Finally I lay on the floor, choking and gasping. Unable to use my limbs, move my body. I couldn’t use my elements.
It was as if everything had been taken from me and I’d been left an empty shell of a being.
My sense of hearing and my sight were dulled. I could smell nothing but the gas and taste it on my tongue. My fingertips were numb. And my sixth sense was muted. Almost gone.
Real fear, terror, vibrated throughout me before my body started to relax.
The alarm stopped and I heard the door open. And then I heard muffled sounds above my own coughing. I tried to look up to see what it was but the red fog made my impaired vision worse.
Shapes stood over me. Humanoid shapes. Then one crouched next to me and its face moved closer to mine, like in slow motion.
Volod.
The Master Vampire wasn’t wearing a gas mask, it was like the gas didn’t affect him at all.
His expression was amused and I didn’t have the strength to even wish I could punch him.
I just wanted to rest.
Sleep.
I needed sleep.
Volod said something that sounded like orders about a tank, but the words were wavy, bending in and out of shape.
Two other humanoid figures came from behind Volod. One grabbed me under the arms and the other stuck some kind of mask on my face. Then they put a small tank on my back that was connected to the mask.
I felt like I was suffocating. Like I couldn’t draw a full breath.
“A rebreather,” a muffled voice said close to my ear. “We had expected you sooner or later and prepared a little gift for you. We know that air which is not fresh will block that power source,” the voice said. “Any new air that comes in is filtered to have a minimal amount of oxygen in it—just enough to keep you here with us, but not enough to restore your power. No, there is no fresh air for you.
“By the way,” the voice added, “we have included a small amount of the gas in the rebreather which will continue to incapacitate you. The gas will ensure that you are kept in a conscious but weakened state and unable to use any of your powers.”
I felt so lightheaded, so limp, that I didn’t want to fight it anymore. Whoever was talking to me was telling the truth. The lack of fresh air and the small amount of gas I was breathing had stripped me of my control over the elements. My magic.
They carried me. I couldn’t see where, couldn’t tell what they were doing. But it did feel like we were going up and up and up. Maybe it was the gas, or maybe they were moving up into the pyramid.
Eventually we reached a door that they opened. I saw Volod following behind me and the two Vampires carrying me by my arms and legs. Through the glass of the rebreather mask, Volod looked like a norm’s version of the Devil or even the one-eyed Demon, Balor, from Underworld.
We entered a room and I heard sobs and groans. The Vampires held me upright even as my limbs wouldn’t hold my weight. I was forced up against something hard, like a wall. The rebreather tank dug into my back.
I was aware of something being put onto my head, above my gas mask. It appeared to be some kind of head cage. I screamed behind the gas mask. The head cage, which was hinged in the center, closed around my head. I heard what sounded like bolts being screwed until I felt a pointed end pressing against my temples and the base of my skull.
Something was latched onto the top of the head cage. I realized it was a chain as metal scratched against metal. I was lifted by the head, only slightly supported by a Vampire, and I was suspended over the floor. I could feel the pressure on my neck as it felt like it was being stretched to the breaking point. Was he going to just let me go and hang there?
No, please no, I begged in my mind. Then a Vampire put something under my feet. A small block of wood or stool, but it was barely enough to rest my feet on.
They cuffed my wrists and cuffed my elbows behind me, and shackled my ankles with heavy iron bands. They shackled my elbows to the ceiling as well.
I knew if I lost my balance, my shoulders would be pulled out of their sockets. Or if my head was tethered any tighter than my elbows or wrists, I would be done. My neck would break, being supported by nothing but the head cage.
My muscles didn’t want to hold me up then any more than they had before. But something told me I couldn’t relax, couldn’t let my muscles give way. I couldn’t lose that little bit of control I had. I was barely able to keep myself from swinging by the head cage.
One of the Vampires bent so that I couldn’t see him. He touched my waist with his cold hands and I wanted to shrink from him. Then my weapons belt wasn’t on my hips anymore. The familiar weight of it was gone.
Volod came close enough that I could see his smile that looked so, so evil through the glass in my face mask.
“Aren’t we lucky?” he said. “Out of all of the paranorm Trackers, we have you. You have just become a very favorite captive, though you will not be with us long.” Volod laughed and my stomach churned at the sound of it.
Lucky, I thought. So freaking lucky.
“Well, purple one. I’m sure you didn’t forget the fact that I said I would take care of anyone who followed me.” Volod patted me on the shoulder and I flinched. I hadn’t realized my entire body hurt so much or how sensitive my skin was, side effects of the gas. “Just two hours ago, I warned you. Yet here you are,” he said. “You can’t imagine the pleasure I will get from your coming fate.”
Lucky me.
It was like an endless half-conscious loop going through my head. Lucky me, lucky me, lucky me.
Volod took strands of my long hair and stroked them. “It would be interesting to turn you into a Vampire,” he said. “Such pretty blue hair and unusual skin. But alas, you made your choice. And you will have to live with it.” He released my hair. “Or rather, die with it.”
The cold chill that flowed through me only made the burning in my lungs and in my body worse.
“Remember that compression suit you put my brother in?” Even if he could hear me I didn’t have the strength to argue that I hadn’t been the one to do it. That as a matter of fact, I had been against it because Volod had the upper hand with the serum and the list of paranorm weaknesses. I knew we would only make him angrier by taking his brother captive, which was exactly what happened.
“The head cage,” he continued, “is like one of tho
se suits, in that it’s important that you don’t move. Otherwise there are very dire consequences.”
I choked on the gas-tainted rebreathed air and tried to keep from moving. I wasn’t sure why, but I was certain he was about to tell me.
Volod tapped me on the temple. “If you try to escape,” he said, “these spikes around the head cage have been cocked and will be triggered. The spikes will enter your skull. If anyone tries to help you escape, same problem for you. Without the cage spring mechanism being disengaged with a key, you are a dead Drow female.”
Horror seeped into my pores as he spoke and I started trembling hard enough that I was afraid I’d fall off my support. It took so much effort to keep myself still that my body ached from it.
Through the glass of the face mask I saw the evil of his smile. “That will be the end of this poor little Night Tracker. But please keep your balance. I’m truly hoping you don’t die this way. I have better plans. This is simply to keep you waiting until I am ready for you.”
I wanted to cry from the helpless, hopeless, desperate feelings he was instilling in me. Feelings I wasn’t used to, feelings I didn’t like. But this was beyond not liking something. This was heading toward terror. I’d never experienced true terror in my life.
The terror was not only for myself but for everyone whose lives were in danger who I couldn’t help now that I’d gotten myself caught.
Volod leaned close to me, so close I could feel his breath on my ear. “Looks like we’ve found another weakness for Nyx of the Dark Elves and Night Tracker.”
I wanted to struggle against my bonds and fight the Vampire scum, but he had stripped me of any ability I had to defend myself or others.
“Oh,” Volod said. “I am certain there are other Trackers somewhere around my compound. We will deal with them in an appropriate manner, just as we are going to deal with you.”
No. I closed my eyes. My team members could walk right into a trap if they weren’t warned. And how would I manage that?
“I will see you. Soon.” Volod patted my shoulder and I opened my eyes to see him smile broad enough to bare his fangs.
Volod moved and then he and the other two Vampires were gone from my line of sight.
Vampires Not Invited: A Night Tracker Novel Page 22
