by Erin Embly
After a moment, she ushered us to follow her down the tunnel to the right. But just as I moved to take a step, the soft laughter echoed towards me from the left.
I turned to the sound and drew my gun, figuring it wouldn’t hurt to check on the matter of just how corporeal my visions were. Just because they flitted in and out of existence at the drop of a hat and no one else could see them didn’t necessarily mean they couldn’t bleed.
But I saw nothing there. It was only the laughter again, and it made me feel like I was walking into a trap. Whatever was making that laughter knew I was here, and it didn’t care enough to do anything to stop me.
“What is it?” Adrian asked.
“I hear it again.” I lowered my gun. “Let’s keep moving.”
A few minutes later, Miriam stopped at a hole in the wall, crumbling bricks surrounding a dark void where once there might have been a door.
She turned to me with a small wave. “You first.”
I moved forward and shined my light into the void, which revealed another ladder of rungs leading down.
“Be careful,” Miriam said softly as I stepped over the crumbled bricks. “This is as far as I got. They could be just down there.”
With a scowl, I turned off the light on my phone and put it away. I didn’t want to announce my presence to anyone who might be waiting at the bottom.
As quietly as I could, I felt for the rungs, fingers gripping the wet, rusted metal as I lowered myself into the darkness.
After a few steps down, my sense of up and down twisted into a confused state as if I were underwater. I closed my eyes to try to help my brain process the darkness, a tiny signal that I was in control of it, even though I wasn’t.
I only opened them again when the toe of my boot hit something solid.
A soft light glowed from behind me as I planted my feet on dry ground. It was comforting for an instant, before I remembered that this far underground, light had to mean people.
Pulling out my gun again, I moved through the narrow tunnel towards the light. After a quick bend, it opened up to an enormous cavern, and I stopped at the entrance to scope it out.
At first glance, it almost looked like an old zoo. Or a prison. Cages lined the edges of the space, metal bars intertwining around empty cells.
But when I looked up, I recognized the same stone pattern on the domed ceiling that graced nearly every Metro station in DC. Another glance around and I recognized old structures that might have once held station maps next to stone benches in the middle of the cavern.
This used to be a train platform. I didn’t know there were any stations that had been permanently closed, and I wondered just how long this place had been sitting here, hidden, before Soma or whoever his rival was had decided to turn it into a dungeon.
A faint cry caught my attention, and I craned my neck to peer further into the space. My fingers squeezed the handle of my gun harder than I would have liked when I saw what had made the noise.
It was a child, strapped up on what looked like some kind of torture device, shirtless and shining with sweat. Squinting, my heart sank as I recognized his face.
Brady, I thought, remembering the smiling picture his mother had shown me what felt like ages ago. My jaw clenched as I struggled to make sense of why anyone would do this to someone so small and innocent.
I wanted to run out there right now and help him down, carry him away from all this and back to his family. But a rough hand on my wrist brought me back to reality. I turned to see Adrian behind me, forehead creasing as he moved his hand over my fingers, which were still gripping the handle of my weapon way too tightly.
He shook his head and I softened my grip, putting the gun away. Yet another reason I preferred to use blades—they worked just fine no matter how angry I got.
I peered out again, attempting to assess the situation. It couldn’t just be Brady alone on this empty platform.
Sure enough, now that I was seeing slightly less red I could make out the figures of a few people milling around him. They looked human, which meant they were probably vampires.
“I see three bloodsuckers,” I whispered to Adrian, “and one kid. The others are probably close.” He nodded, and I cocked my head as I looked behind him. “Where’s Miriam?”
“Tapped out,” he said. “She’s not cleared for field work; just getting her to do the recon was a stretch.”
I frowned. Not cleared for field work, my ass. If Miriam was working for the Guardians, she must have more field training than Adrian. But he wouldn’t know that. Nor, I supposed, would her official employers.
“Okay,” I said. But I was already pissed that this secrecy bullshit had cost me a team member when we were outnumbered by vampires. “Got any more of your vamp stunner things?”
Adrian shook his head. “I was only issued one.”
I sighed as he stepped around me to peer out at the station platform for himself.
After a few moments, he turned back around. “I only see two. We should try to get closer without them noticing. We might be able to sneak the kid out without a fight.”
I put my hand out to stop him before he could step out into the light. “Fine, but if they see us—you shoot as soon as you get a clear shot.” Adrian had good aim, better than mine in circumstances like this, and I needed to know he wouldn’t leave me hanging again.
He paused for a second and then nodded, hopefully realizing that in this scenario, our lives were unquestionably on the line.
Drawing his weapon and holding it low, he stepped out slowly and I followed. The lights were mostly mounted up on the walls, so the shadows all along the empty cells provided us decent cover.
That was, until we reached a cell that wasn’t empty. I stopped in my tracks as soon as I saw it, reaching out to touch Adrian’s shoulder so he would stop too.
Two small bodies lay along the cell’s floor, with another sitting upright against the back wall. One child was standing, hands curled around the bars, her fierce eyes locked on mine.
I put my finger to my lips, and she gave me a nod, then turned around and sat down. My head spun as my brain registered the significance of the number of children in there. Four. Five counting Brady.
Dirk had told me eight kids had gone missing under the same suspect circumstances, which meant there were three that should be here and weren’t. Three children gone—three mad murder-spree incidents.
I dug my fingernails into my palm, wishing that I could have been wrong about the connection just this once.
As Adrian and I crept up to the occupied cell, the children on the ground looked up at us while the one that had been standing made some sort of hand signal at them.
They were dirty and disheveled, unsurprisingly, but at a glance they at least looked well fed and hydrated. That shouldn’t be too surprising either, considering they were being held captive by vampires, who would want them plump and juicy. The thought made all the fruit juice in my stomach threaten to come back up.
Adrian fingered the lock on the cell door as I swallowed.
“Can you pick it?” I whispered, eyebrows lifting.
He nodded, then held out his hand to me. I reached into a pocket and pulled out my portable lock pick set, glad I’d brought it with me even if I hadn’t been able to poke around in Soma’s crypt. Unless this was Soma’s crypt . . . I shivered at the thought.
I wanted to ask Adrian why such a law-abiding officer like him had learned to pick locks, but now wasn’t the time.
Instead, I said, “You handle this; I’m going for the kid.”
I could tell from the look in his eyes he didn’t like that plan, but he nodded anyway and went to work on the lock.
I continued to creep forward through the shadows, making my way closer to Brady. If I could position myself close enough, it still might be possible to wait for the right moment and get him out without alerting any of the vampires. But if not, then at least I would pose a distraction that would help Adrian sneak the o
ther kids away.
As I crept forward, I counted only two vampires around Brady, like Adrian had said. Where had the third one gone? Once I got close enough, I moved from the shadows and crouched down behind an old bench near the center of the platform.
One of the vampires was brushing Brady’s hair back while the other smeared his bare arms with something liquid. Like they were preparing a sacrifice.
The poor boy looked terrified, his face scrunched up in an expression that told me he would be sobbing if he had the energy to do so.
When the vampires were done, they moved away from Brady. And as they turned around, I noticed something strange on both of their necks. Narrowing my eyes, I realized I was looking at scarring—two identical scars. These vampires looked like someone had slashed their throats and then stitched them back together crudely. Were they even vampires at all, or zombies?
Or vampire zombies, I thought with another shiver. Not that I had any idea how that would work.
They stood guard with their backs to Brady, as if they knew someone like me was just lying in wait. Damn. If they weren’t going to move, I wasn’t going to be able to sneak the kid out without a fight.
I craned my neck back to check on Adrian, not wanting to attack without backup if I didn’t have to. He was still working on the lock, as far as I could tell. I couldn’t see him too clearly from here.
I pulled out my gun and leveled it against the stone of the bench I was hiding behind, figuring my best chance would be to stun one of the vampires while I still had the element of surprise. Then at least I wouldn’t be outnumbered. But to pull it off, I’d have to shoot him directly in the heart, and at around thirty feet away my aim was just not that reliable.
I’d had a lot of training, yes, but no one could be amazing at everything.
My heart pounding, I did my best to line up the shot. My target wasn’t moving, which made it a little easier. But my hands were shaking, and after all the blood I’d lost earlier and the sleep I’d missed out on last night, steadying them seemed impossible.
Exhale and relax, I told myself. With my lungs emptied and my arms as steady as I could manage, I tensed my index finger to squeeze the trigger.
Footsteps echoing through the cavernous space made me stop.
I inhaled slowly, finger loosening. If I’d had a chance, it was gone now that the third vampire was back.
I grimaced when I saw who that third vampire was.
Gary. Or Reginald. Or whatever the fuck his name was. The same vampire I’d seen pouring blood into the clay statue’s bowl the night before.
Judging by the knife in his hand and the way he was making a beeline for Brady, he was after more blood for the same purpose right now.
Screw it, I thought. I wasn’t going to sit here and let that kid get cut open, no matter how bad my tactical disadvantage.
I let out my breath again and squeezed the trigger.
The vampire closest to me jerked back, a spray of blood scattering out behind him and partially misting Brady with red. Time stopped as I locked my eyes on his chest, almost disbelieving that I’d actually hit his heart. My aim was always better when I wasn’t thinking about it.
When he went down and stayed down, I swung my weapon around to see if my luck would be miraculous enough to let me get two this way.
The other guard vampire was already rushing towards me, so I emptied my magazine into him hoping for the best. None of my rounds hit the sweet spot.
I dropped the gun and reached for the sturdy blade at my thigh, then stepped to the side and swung without thinking, amazed yet again when it slid through the vampire’s neck like butter.
That’s not how that’s supposed to work. I should have at least felt more resistance from all the bone and muscle and connective tissue that made the neck one of the hardest parts of any humanoid body to cut through.
But his head toppled off his shoulders and bounced on the bench, leaving a trail of blood on the cracked stone floor as it eased into a roll and then finally stopped, right at Gary’s feet.
The vampire’s body slunk to the ground like jelly as Gary stared at me, mouth agape.
“Birdie?” he asked, then shook his head in distaste and turned his back to me, bringing his knife to Brady’s arm.
I almost paused, shocked that he would be so unafraid of me after watching me take out the two vampires next to him. But I didn’t have time to wonder what he was thinking.
I stepped up on the bench and leapt over it, rushing at Gary. Something tackled me from the right, knocking me to the ground before I could make it.
Blood dripped onto my face as my attacker loomed over me, from the gunshot wound I’d made not even minutes before. Damn, he’d healed fast.
But he was weak from the injury, and the agony at the back of my head told me it might be bleeding from hitting the ground. The vampire’s extended fangs and glazed-over eyes seemed to corroborate that assumption. He didn’t even bother to hold me down as he went for my throat, all teeth and snarls and hunger.
I brought my knee up into his gut and shoved him off me, only to see Adrian finally running towards the fight with his gun drawn.
“Get the kid,” I shouted as I gripped my blade and struggled to pin my attacker down like he should have done with me.
I didn’t have much leverage, but he didn’t have much sense at the moment, so it wasn’t as difficult as it should have been to position my knife over his throat and slice down.
Just like with the other vampire, the blade went through his neck—through the grotesque scar—like butter. His head didn’t roll away with a satisfying flare, but my knife ground against the stone floor. I’d severed it completely. It was so easy I was almost tempted to pinch myself.
I stood up. The world spun as I tried to focus on my surroundings. Yep, I’d definitely hit my head. A gunshot sounded nearby, shocking me back to something resembling clarity.
But if Adrian had tried to take out Gary, he had missed. The extravagantly dressed vampire was still hovering over Brady, blood dripping down the boy’s arm and into a chalice like the one I’d worn at the strip club.
Motherfucker.
I must have growled audibly, because Gary snapped his head back at me and went pale—paler than he already was, which was an amazing feat.
After dipping his head down to look at the chalice full of blood, he pulled it away from Brady’s arm, covered it with his hand, and bolted.
I almost lurched to run after him, but Brady was still bleeding, and I couldn’t leave him like that.
“Hey,” I said breathlessly as I ran up to the scared boy. “It’s gonna be okay.”
I tried to force a smile as I tore off a strip of fabric from the bottom of my shirt, then wrapped it tightly around the cut on his arm. He just stared at me blankly, disconnected, still breathing heavily. I didn’t blame him.
“Come on,” I said, undoing the straps keeping him in place. “I’m taking you home.”
But before I could pick him up, someone grabbed me from behind and tried to sink their teeth into my neck.
Not again. I thrust my elbow backwards into my attacker’s gut. It made enough of an impact that I managed to turn around to face him—the same vampire I’d just beheaded.
My brain struggled to process what was happening even as my body instinctively reached for my knife and took his head off again. It was just as easy as the first time, but this time the head fell off the shoulders and rolled away on the ground like it had with the first vampire.
I stood there frozen for a moment, staring at the body, wondering yet again if I was dreaming. The only way to kill a vampire is to decapitate or burn. This was what I’d always been taught, what I’d found to be true in practice—what everyone knew.
And yet, just now, it hadn’t worked. I’d left the severed head still next to the neck on the ground, and it had reattached itself. The memory of how the scars had looked on these vampires’ necks flashed in my mind, and I wondered if both of them ha
d been decapitated before by someone else.
The idea created a deep pain in my chest, even before my mind could make sense of the implications.
If only I had picked up Simeon’s head and put it back on his body, then maybe—
I stopped myself, feeling the heat of the emotion start to overwhelm my consciousness as blood rushed to my face and my eyes stung.
Now was not the time for whatever this was.
I had a scared, bleeding kid to get to safety, along with all the others Adrian had let out of the cage, and—
Where the fuck had Adrian gone, anyway?
He’d been running up to help me, last I’d seen. And then I’d heard the gunshot.
A quick glance around showed me nothing, so I turned back to Brady and held out my hand as the heat of guilt and sorrow inside me turned into a sinking feeling of dread. “Can you walk?” I asked the boy.
He nodded and took my hand, stepping forward on shaky legs.
I started to lead him back the way I’d come, only to hear grunting noises coming from behind the same bench I’d used for cover.
Damn it. I leaned down to get close to Brady, pointing over to the tunnel I’d come from. “Do you see that shadowy hole in the wall?” I whispered. He nodded again. “Good. Go run over there and wait for me, and I’ll take you home.”
He didn’t exactly run, but he at least started making his way over there, freeing me to see what was going on behind the bench.
When I stepped around it, I saw Adrian on the ground, grappling with a vampire that was even bigger than he was. A vampire with a gunshot wound in his shoulder. Adrian had missed the heart. And with a blink, I realized they weren’t so much grappling anymore. Adrian was already caught in a headlock, the veins on his forearms jutting out as he struggled against the other man’s grip.
He made eye contact with me briefly and then passed out, his arms going limp. The vampire lifted his head as his fangs came out, and my heart stopped.
The blade I’d just used for so much beheading dropped out of my hand, clattering on the stone floor with a loud echo and making the vampire look up at me.
