by Stead, Nick
I also found it curious that the entrance to that upper passage had been designed in such a way that the bars of my cage would intersect the middle of it, so that my allies could join me if they wished. Then again, he couldn’t have been sure that I’d be trapped alone with Hannah. One of the vampires could have easily lost control first. Maybe it wasn’t all about me and he merely wanted whoever was suffering the effects of the injection up there. If that was the case, maybe he wanted me to go up and witness their suffering. He’d either get the satisfaction of things playing out as he’d hoped and it being me who was the one to suffer personally, or he’d still get to punish me through tormenting my friends as consolation. Or maybe he’d never really expected the two vampires to survive this far.
My head started to ache again from trying to fathom what game David was playing in this particular room, and I had to wonder if I was even thinking along the right lines or if there was something I was missing. None of those possibilities seemed satisfactory enough as concrete explanations for what was going on – there were too many variables for the way things could have played out which would surely have had to be accounted for when designing that chamber. And the planning that had gone into it couldn’t have come from David alone. He’d never been that intelligent to come up with so many different scenarios and find solutions to them, so he must have had a considerable amount of help from greater minds than he.
“Now, if one of you would be so kind as to smash the lights for me,” Gwyn said, interrupting my train of thought. “Then I can accompany our young werewolf and see he makes it through safely. If you want my company that is, Nick.”
“Why, what’s up there?” I asked, fixing my eyes on his.
“Again, the plans were kind of vague on this section. I don’t know if the Slayers had already become wise to my presence or not but from here on out I only really got to see the layout of the place, with little to no notes on what exactly was going into the remaining passages or chambers. But whatever it is, makes sense for you to have some back-up, no?”
“How much further do we have to go?”
“We’re not far off reaching the end now. But I should warn you, I saw nothing of how to get out of that final chamber. I mean, we are being held by your enemies. Why would they provide a handy escape route for you to just waltz on out of after beating the final challenge?”
“I’ll come up with you as well, if you’d like,” Zee said.
“And I,” Lady Sarah added. “If we are expecting an attack, I will also lend my aid.”
I shook my head. “No. Not all of you. There’s no way Selina can get up there, let alone Amy. Even if Varin can somehow climb up or leap high enough, it’s too dangerous for her – she could easily slip off and fall to her death. They’re going to have to take the passage at ground level, and I’d rather at least one of you vampires went with them. No offence, Selina, but it seems you’re all but powerless without the tools of your craft, and your familiar probably can’t fight with Amy on his back, or at least not without risk of her falling off.”
Selina dipped her head slightly. “None taken. You are correct in your assumptions.”
“You forget our ability to shapeshift,” Lady Sarah said. “As bats we can carry them up in our claws.”
I considered that for a moment. “Even so, I think the lower passage is most likely the safest.”
“Then I will go with our sisters,” Lady Sarah answered.
That didn’t surprise me. “Yeah, makes most sense. I’m trusting you two to keep Amy safe. Swear to me you’ll see her through the rest of this place safely if I don’t make it.”
“We will guard her with our lives,” Selina said solemnly.
“Thank you. Give me a moment to talk to her before we do this.”
My companions retreated a little to give some semblance of privacy, though in reality the vampires would easily hear every word. Varin moved in closer, probably at the silent command of his mistress, and Amy spoke for the first time since I’d slaughtered Hannah.
“She was my friend. Why did you have to kill her?”
I couldn’t meet her eyes, my gaze fixed firmly on the floor. “Now you know why I had to leave.”
“I don’t understand.”
I did look up then. “I’m cursed, Amy. When the werewolf bit me that night, something changed in me, something more than just the ability to turn into a wolf myself. A part of me craves human meat, and when I come across someone weak and badly injured like Hannah was, I can’t control myself.”
“Even if it was me? Or Mum?”
I hesitated. “Even if it was you or Mum.”
Part of me hated having to admit that to her. If she hadn’t started to see me as a monster already, she surely did then. I was just grateful I wasn’t having to face the full force of her emotions for as long as she remained under Zee’s spell. I also still wanted answers as to how she knew Hannah and why they would both be imprisoned in David’s sick game, but I didn’t want to get into it just then. Those questions would wait a little longer, if I lived long enough to ask them.
My sister seemed to be beyond words then, so I said “Go with Selina and Lady Sarah now. They’ll take care of you till we’re able to meet back up again.”
“It’s not like I have a choice.”
“You’re safer with them, trust me. I don’t know what I’m about to get into, but I’m sure my path will be much harder than yours. If we don’t see each other again… I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything.”
She still didn’t seem to know what to say and she refused to look at me as Varin backed off. She was probably starting to blame me for everything that had happened since I’d first been bitten, and who could fault her? Sure, I could have argued that I was as much a victim as all the poor souls I’d dragged into death’s embrace, that I’d never wanted to hurt friends or family, or that I’d never wanted her to have to deal with any of this. That was partly why I’d left home in the first place, to try and prevent any further damage to my family that might arise from my curse. But in the end it was because of me that she’d suffered, and was suffering still. And there was nothing I could do to atone for that.
Some part of me still mourned the human life I’d been forced to leave behind. Seeing my sister again only heightened that sense of loss, her presence serving as a cruel reminder for everything I’d had to sacrifice to protect my surviving loved ones. I was all too aware this might be the last time I ever saw her, and I couldn’t tear my gaze away. Knowing she was going in the presence of two powerful beings was only a small comfort, part of me loath to leave her side again. But for as long as the serum I’d been injected with remained in my system and kept me weak, I was forced to accept I wouldn’t be much help to her anyway, unless the transformation could beat its effects. And short of transforming, there was little I could do while I was stuck behind bars. There was nothing else for it but to climb up to the passageway I had easy access to and just hope I would be able to reunite with Amy at the end of it.
I had a sense of Zee moving towards one of the lights. “Are you ready?”
With a heavy heart, I finally looked away from Amy and over at him. “Yeah. Let me climb up first. It’ll be easier if I can see what I’m doing.”
Hannah’s blood had all but dried on my skin. I was able to grip the stone fairly well as I wrapped my fingers round the two handholds nearest my head, and placed my feet on the lowest two.
My ascent was a fairly easy one, despite the injection I’d been given. I made it to the top without slipping and pulled myself up into the darkness of the passage. One solitary light shone faintly up ahead, but I couldn’t see much of what we might be about to walk into.
“Okay,” I shouted down. “I’m up. Can’t see much though.”
“We’re coming,” Zee called back.
I crouched in the entrance to the passage and looked back down, watching as the pirate broke the light nearest to him. The shadows came rushing in the moment the bulb
smashed.
Across the room, another light was snuffed out by Lady Sarah, and another by Selina. Zee dealt with the fourth, plunging the chamber into almost complete blackness. Just one light remained, weak against the shadows closing in. It was the one flickering in the cell I’d been trapped in, standing brave vigil over Hannah’s grisly remains. The vampires had no option but to break that with telekinesis, and seconds later the bulb exploded as though crushed by an invisible fist. Blackness enveloped us, and Gwyn was free once again.
CHAPTER TWENTY–TWO
Danger Below
Unseen in the blackness, Gwyn rose up to the passage set into the top of the wall. He drew level with me and with the aid of the light further down the tunnel, I again had the sense of something moving in the shadows. But I still couldn’t make out what exactly his spirit form was.
The knocker remained in spirit form, seemingly enjoying his freedom while it lasted. He was probably all too aware of the light up ahead and the fact that he would soon be trapped in his human skin once more.
Then there came the sound of great wings flapping, and I guessed Zee had also taken flight, marking him as one of the vampires with the power to shapeshift. I imagined a giant vampire bat – like the one Lady Sarah could become – flitting through the air, carrying his sword and his clothes in his claws as he sought to climb high enough to reach the passage. It wasn’t long before I could feel the air buffeted from his wings, his dark form appearing beside me.
Shadows melded together and the outline of him changed from bat to man, and even though I couldn’t really see much in the darkness, I turned away while he dressed to give him some added privacy. I might have long since lost any inhibitions I’d had around being naked in public, but I doubted the vampires were as comfortable with their own nudity, since they still chose to wear clothes even centuries after losing their humanity. So I looked away out of respect for my friend, indifferent to it all though I was.
Moments later, Zee stepped up beside me with his sword drawn, ready for another fight. He also had Gwyn’s clothes in his offhand, so the knocker could dress when the light forced him back into physical form. I nodded to him and we made our way along the tunnel, pausing briefly when we reached the electric flames. Zee dropped Gwyn’s clothes and we took a couple of steps forward, our backs to the spirit as he sacrificed his freedom for his human form yet again.
“C’mere, pants,” came his voice from behind us.
Something about the way he said it made me laugh, though the word ‘pants’ seemed out of place and I couldn’t help but ask “Pants; are you American now?”
“Well it sounds better than c’mere trousers.”
“I suppose.”
Gwyn finished dressing and we carried on down the passage, wary of the trouble we felt we were walking into. But the tunnel didn’t seem any different to all the others we’d been in, though just beyond the first set of lights this one bore the words Level Five. I felt a kind of a thrill at those words. This had to be the final level. Gwyn had said we weren’t far off the end, and five seemed like a good number.
My sense of impending doom grew stronger. Any moment now, something was bound to attack us, or a new challenge was likely to present itself. But all was quiet. We were able to tread without setting off any traps, or without the sudden appearance of more enemies to fight through, despite my fears. My thoughts turned to the creature whose presence dominated the entire dungeon and who was surely the last enemy David would pit us against in the final chamber. The being who we’d briefly encountered and could sense so strongly, and yet still knew so little about.
“If you’ve really been down here the entire time the Slayers have been working on this dungeon, you must have seen the creature they’ve imprisoned with us for the final fight,” I said to Gwyn. “All we know so far is it’s big and it seems to inspire terror in everything around it. Can you tell us anything that might help when we have to face this thing?”
“I have. It’s a demon.”
I’d already suspected it could be demonic, if not some new kind of undead, from the moment I’d first sensed that dread presence. But I still felt a fresh stab of fear with the confirmation of the thing’s Hellish origins. Lady Sarah hadn’t really told me anything about demons but as creatures from another realm, they were bound to be powerful. I wondered if we even had a sliver of hope of beating it or whether it would be truly unstoppable. Then again, if the Slayers had once hunted demons that suggested they had to be vulnerable to something earthly for the humans to wield against them. It was just a question of whether we had the means to slay one or not.
“You must be mistaken,” Zee said. “The demons were driven back to Hell when the Slayers came to power – everyone knows that.”
“Not all of them. There’s still a few brave enough to venture up here. There’s even still a few cases of possession in the human world, not that you old vampires would know that, being the technophobes you are. The internet, matey; I’m telling you, it’s one of mankind’s greatest inventions. Gotta give ’em credit for that one.”
Zee looked doubtful.
“Say it is a demon,” I said. “I’m guessing there’s different types of them, just as there’s plenty of different kinds of us undead. Do you know what type of demon we’re going to be facing?”
“Do I look like a demon encyclopaedia to you? It was demonic, that’s all I know.”
“Great. Do any of us know anything about demons, like any general strengths or weaknesses?”
“Humans have plenty to say on that, but I can’t say I’ve had many dealings with the denizens of Hell,” Gwyn said. “Who knows what really works and what doesn’t?”
“Nor have I,” Zee answered. “They were already all but gone from the Earth when I became a vampire.”
A glass window like the one looking into Lady Sarah’s chamber loomed ahead, distracting us from the conversation. We fell quiet and approached it with caution, the other two no doubt thinking the same as me – that it must be linked somehow to the trap we’d been anticipating. The last thing I’d expected was to find myself looking down at the passage Lady Sarah, Selina and Varin with Amy still on his back had ventured through. They’d evidently been moving as slowly and cautiously as we had, for they were only just visible from the edge of the window, walking towards where we watched from above.
“Gwyn, any ideas why David would give us a window into the other passage?”
“Nope. Well, nothing concrete – like I said, the plans for this last part of the dungeon were kind of vague. But, much as I hate to say it, it can’t be for anything good.”
“You think they’re about to be attacked?”
“Could be.”
“Can we break through, so we can help them?”
“We can try, but I doubt it’s going to be that easy, somehow. I wouldn’t transform yet though. You’re going to need all the energy you can spare if you want to make it out of here alive.”
“I know, but that’s my sister down there. If David is about to spring something on them, I have to do whatever it takes to save her.”
“And we will find a way, my friend,” Zee said. “But Gwyn is right – if we try to break through as we are and the window holds, I doubt your added lupine strength will make any difference. The Slayers obviously put a lot of thought into this place; they probably found some way to reinforce any barriers they don’t want us to tear down through sheer brute strength.”
“Okay, okay. On three then?”
We threw ourselves at the window but as predicted, it held fast, even with Zee’s supernatural strength which was currently far greater than both me and Gwyn combined. After a couple more attempts with not so much as a hairline fracture forming in the glass, Zee tried using his telekinetic powers instead. That proved no more effective than his physical strength and we were forced to admit defeat.
The passage must have been sound-proofed, our companions not once looking up as they walked by. It occurred to me that
they might not even be able to see us – it could be the kind of one way glass used in police stations, or something similar. Either that or they just hadn’t noticed the window above them.
“I guess we have no choice but to carry on and hope we find some other way into that passage then,” I said, after a moment’s rest. “It’s either that or turn back. Could you carry me down, Zee?”
“Don’t worry, chummer,” Gwyn answered. “Both these passages should lead to the same chamber, so we ought to be able to get into the lower tunnel from there, if we don’t meet those four in the chamber itself.”
“We should pick up the pace. If they are about to be attacked, I’d rather be there to fight with them than stuck watching from up here.”
Gwyn nodded but Zee was quiet, his attention apparently elsewhere.
“Eyeing up the Wilton sisters there, Captain?” the knocker asked, following the vampire’s gaze.
“My heart forever belongs to Lady Charlotte, but a man has needs. And it’s been a while. You can’t deny they’re both beauties.”
“I wouldn’t know.” Gwyn’s eyes slid to mine, a cheeky smile on his face. “The last werewolf though – who’d have thought he’d be so damn cute?”
Irritation crept into Zee’s voice. “You can still recognise beauty, even if you’re attracted to men.”
“Okay, yes, I can see they’d be pleasing on the eye if I was into women. But by that token, you should be able to appreciate the good looks of our young wolf.”
“I am stood right here and able to hear you both, you know,” I growled. “Zee, I’m pretty sure those two are more trouble than they’re worth. And sorry to disappoint you, Gwyn, but I’m not into guys. I’m not sure I even feel any lust for women anymore, not in that way anyway. Plus I’m technically still physically underage.”
