I kneeled beside him. I could indeed feel the air.
"So, what's behind there?" I asked.
Anton straightened up. "I don't know. I guess we're about to find out."
I stood up, too, and Anton held up a hand.
"You'd better wait here and let me check this out. I don't want you going into anything blind."
As I watched, Anton disappeared behind the wall.
"Oh!" he exclaimed from the other side.
"What? Anton, what is it?" I said.
"Stay right where you are. I'm coming back through now."
Anton reappeared. "Okay. So, on the other side of this illusory wall is a really big drop. A really big one. There's a narrow, hollowed-out tunnel that leads straight down. So you can come with me deeper into the cave if you want, but it's also fine if you want to stay here."
"I want to go," I said. "I want to see what's down there."
"All right," Anton said. "Hold on to that lighter and try not to be nervous."
He took my hand, and we stepped through the wall together. I found myself standing on a small ledge that overlooked a dark, empty space. A metal cable extended from the cave ceiling down into the darkness.
There was very little space for me to place my feet, and panic surged through me as I felt myself slipping.
"Take it easy," Anton said. "Here, come over here."
He pulled me along the ledge to a spot that was a little wider.
"Wow," I said. "Anyone who stumbled on this would probably be in a lot of trouble."
"I think that was the idea," Anton said. "Are you ready to head down?"
I took a deep breath. "Yes."
"Better put out the light," Anton said.
I switched off the lighter, and I felt Anton's arm slip around me.
"Wait," I said in the darkness. "How are we heading down? You're not just going to jump, are you?"
"No, not exactly," Anton said. "We're going to take the cable."
Any reply I might have made was lost at that moment, as Anton jumped off the ledge, and we began to fall.
I closed my eyes and clung to Anton.
We seemed to fall forever, and just when I thought I couldn't take it any longer, we came to an abrupt stop. But I could still feel my feet dangling in the air.
"We're just a few inches from the bottom," Anton said into my ear. "I didn't want you to have too jarring a landing. All you have to do is drop down the rest of the way."
Anton loosened his grip on me, and my feet slid down to the cave floor. I took a few shaky steps forward. I was extremely relieved to be on solid ground again.
I switched on the lighter, but I couldn't see very far. Everything around me was black—I couldn't even see Anton.
"Anton? Where are we?"
His voice came out of the darkness. "If you will lend me that flame of yours, I believe I can shed a little light on the subject."
I switched off the lighter again and held it out, and I felt it being lifted out of my hand.
I stood, surrounded by darkness, and I strained to hear any sounds of movement.
"Anton," I said, "what are you doing?"
"Just a moment, my sweet. I will reveal all."
I saw a spark spring up in the darkness, and I turned toward it. The spark held and grew brighter and larger. It began to expand until I was looking at a ball of fire. The fire then shot up on a diagonal, leaving a blazing trail. The fire went on and on, zigzagging around me and lighting up the entire area.
I spun around. I was standing in a vast chamber that was now lit by ledge upon ledge of flame. In between the tiers of fire were a seemingly endless array of long, wooden boxes that were attached to the cave wall and stacked horizontally.
The boxes had an unpleasantly familiar look.
Anton came over to stand beside me. "So this is what they've been up to."
"Are those coffins?" I asked.
"Yes," Anton replied.
I began to feel cold all over. "And what's inside them?"
"Vampires."
Chapter 13.
"This is bad," Anton said softly, as he looked up at the coffins all around us. The tiers stretched up beyond the lines of fire into the darkness above. "This is much worse than we thought."
"What's been going on exactly?" I asked. "Have people been bringing vampires down into this cave?"
"No," Anton said. "The vampires were already here. Someone was digging down to get to them."
I was startled. "So Branden was right?"
"Branden?"
"He's a friend of mine. He said there were mobsters digging in this cave. He thought maybe they were after treasure or something like that."
"No, no mobsters," Anton said. "Although there was a group of humans running a moonshine ring out of this cave. It was really just small-time stuff, and they were shut down pretty quickly. I think they were happy to get shut down, too. I'm sure they experienced some odd things in this cave. The rumors are that they believed the cave was haunted."
"So, if it wasn't mobsters, who did all this?" I asked.
"Wouldn't we like to know? We believe there are vampires running this operation and that they have help from a local human source—not mobsters, though. We've known for a while that something has been going on here—and we thought that treasure might be a possibility, too."
Anton smiled at me in the flickering light. "Vampires can be funny about gold and silver and jewels. You wouldn't think that we'd care very much about shiny things. But they still hold an irresistible allure for some."
"And so there's a cache of vampires down here, instead of a cache of treasure," I said.
"Well, actually, I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't some treasure around here after all. You see, the presence of all these vampires at this depth most likely indicates that this is what's known as a 'royal tomb.' That means it was created in the time of the Werdulac by the Sìdh to inter their defeated enemies. These vampires were probably placed here many centuries ago, long before Europeans moved into this area."
"This isn't—"
"The tomb of the Werdulac? No. He wouldn't be in a place this easy to get to—and even this wasn't that easy. This excavation took many years."
"So a 'royal tomb' is a tomb that's full of the Werdulac's followers?" I said.
"Yes," Anton replied. "And like I said, there's probably a bunch of their stuff down here, too—weapons, jewelry, all kinds of whatnots."
I shivered as I looked around. "We're not going to wake them, are we?"
"No. Under normal circumstances these vampires are as good as deceased. And these coffins have other protections on them to keep any special cases in. What concerns me is that someone with the right knowledge and resources could just possibly wake them up. I think that was the purpose of this excavation."
"So what does that mean for GM?" I asked. "Do you think she's down here somewhere?"
"No," Anton said. "That doesn't seem very likely now that I know what's going on here. She must be at the other place. But since we're here, we'd better have a quick look around—see what we can confirm. Let's see what's back here."
I followed Anton into the shadows, away from the flames that illuminated the coffins, and he stopped at a narrow tunnel.
"You may want to take this again."
Anton handed me the lighter and then took my hand and led me into the tunnel. It slanted sharply downward, and the closeness of the walls was oppressive.
As we continued on, the tunnel abruptly opened wider, and I flicked on the lighter. We were standing in a small, round chamber full of stone chests. The lids of many of the chests had been flung aside, and the contents were spilling out onto the floor. There was gold and jewelry as Anton had said there might be, and I could also see daggers, swords, and other weapons. There were also quite a few objects that I couldn't put a name to.
"Vampire magic," Anton said, holding up what looked like a cube with a jeweled dart in it. "An art practiced by very few. And more clos
ely akin to voodoo."
"Meaning what?" I asked.
"That objects like these," Anton said, waving the cube, "can have a terrifying effect on the superstitious and no effect at all on a more rational person. A vampire waves his hand over something like this and tells a credulous person he's cursed or cured—and if he believes it, he is."
"Then vampire magic is fake?" I asked.
"Most of the time," Anton replied. "But I wouldn't be surprised if a few of the objects down here didn't actually have real power."
Anton tossed the cube into the chest and looked around. "As I suspected, this cave has been ransacked—probably by other vampire scavengers not related to the ones officially running this operation. And that answers a few questions for me."
"Like what?" I asked.
"First of all, it tells me that this stuff is largely worth stealing due to its antiquity. And that means my guess was right about this being a royal tomb."
"Then everything in here really is from the reign of the Werdulac?" I said.
"Yes," Anton replied.
"Does that mean that the fight these vampires died in occurred here?"
"Probably not. Everything was moved here to be hidden."
"Hidden from the Werdulac?" I said. "Just in case he were to come back?"
"Exactly," Anton said.
"So the vampires and the human source who excavated all this are working for the Werdulac?" I asked.
"That would be my guess," Anton replied.
"And you don't know who the vampires are?"
"No," Anton said. "Like I said, we haven't been able to catch them at it. And I think I know why now."
"Why?"
Anton smiled. "I'll tell you if I'm right."
"What about the humans helping them?"
Anton's smile grew broader. "There, I actually believe we have a lead. I have a theory that the human helpers are a local prominent family known as the Neverovs—the father and son, at least. The elder Neverov has been seen coming in and out of this cave quite often. As have a number of high school kids—but I think they aren't up to much. The younger Neverov hasn't been observed entering the cave yet, but I believe there's a reason for that—I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't at least one other entrance to this cave set at quite some distance from here."
Anton glanced at me. "You don't seem to be too shocked to hear about the Neverovs. I'm disappointed—I'd hoped to create a bigger sensation with that news."
"It's just that I suspected Maksim Neverov might be up to something," I replied. "And I also found out that he's been keeping a vampire in the freezer in his basement."
Anton's eyebrows rose. "So you're the one who gets to deliver the big sensation. Color me truly surprised. How did you find out about the freezer thing?"
"I saw it myself," I said.
"That would do it," Anton replied. "That's something that I'll have to look into. And I'd like to explore this setup here a little more, too—maybe find that other entrance. But we've got somewhere else to go right now."
He held out his hand. "Come on. Let's get out of here."
I took Anton's hand and flicked off the lighter. Then he led me back up through the tunnel and into the main chamber.
"We're going to have to take the cable to get back up to the surface," Anton said. "So the trip up won't be quite as speedy as the trip down was. Gravity, you know."
I stood for a moment, looking up at the flames that wound all through the coffins.
"Should we shut off the lights before we go?" I asked.
Anton glanced around. "I don't think so. It's not like we have to pay the utilities on the place."
"It's kind of funny that someone would set things up this way," I said.
"Yeah, well, humans have got to see," Anton replied. "And there are humans in on this as well as vampires."
I persisted. "Yes, but the flames go past each and every coffin. It seems unnecessarily elaborate. And it also looks like there are wires going into every coffin."
Anton shrugged. "I don't know why humans do half the things they do."
"And the flames have continued to climb since we went into the tunnel," I said. "When you first started the fire, it only climbed half way up, and a lot of the space above was dark. But it's lit up as far as I can see now."
"Oh, yeah," Anton said. "Fascinating. Now let's get going. We—"
He stopped. "Do you hear a ringing sound?"
I listened. "No."
"I wonder what—"
Anton's voice was drowned out by a low explosion from above.
"That's not good," he said. "We'd better get to that cable."
Anton grabbed me and flew toward the cable. We began to ascend quickly, but even Anton's speed was not enough.
There was another low explosion from above and then another and another. The explosions were getting closer.
"Hang on as tight as you can," Anton said.
A moment later there was an explosion just above us, and rubble began to rain down on our heads. I shut my eyes tightly against the falling rock and debris, and I ducked my head so I could breathe without inhaling any of the dust.
I felt Anton's grip on me tighten, and then there was a violent explosion next to us that slammed us both against the rock wall.
There was another explosion below us, and I suddenly found that I was trapped—everything was cold and hard and dark, and I was pinned painfully against a jagged rock. I tried to breathe, but my lungs were full of dust, and I couldn't see a thing. I tried to move, but my arms and legs were trapped.
Panic welled up within me.
I continued to struggle, and then I felt something close to me shift. The air around me suddenly felt clearer, and I drew in a deep breath. My panic began to subside.
"You all right?" asked a voice in the darkness.
"Anton?" I said. "Where are you?"
"I'm right here," he said.
"I seem to be entirely surrounded by rocks," I said. "But I think I'm okay."
"I think I'm one of those rocks," Anton said. "Luckily, I believe my body took the brunt of the impact."
Something near me shifted again, and I felt the pressure on me begin to ease even more.
"Are we trapped?" I asked. I heard another explosion distantly beneath us.
"That's actually a good question," Anton replied. "But I've got you, you've got me, and I've still got a hold on the cable. So, I'd say we've got a chance."
There was yet another shift near me, and I found that I could move my arms and legs again.
"Okay, I think I'm going to need both of my hands again," Anton said. "So if you could put your arms around my neck, I'll see if I can get us out of here."
I did as Anton asked, and we both moved suddenly as he pulled. Rocks shifted around us, and rubble began to rain down on us once again.
"You should probably keep your head down," Anton said.
Slowly, laboriously, we moved up through the collapsed tunnel, and Anton had to stop periodically to shift rocks out of the way. But soon he seemed to figure something out, and our speed began to increase. We moved upward through darkness, through rock, and eventually, we broke through to open air. Anton pulled us both out the rest of the way, and we climbed out onto a pile of rubble.
I sat back against the jagged rock, deeply relieved to be out of the heavy crush of the tunnel.
"I have to admit," Anton said, "that I didn't see that coming."
We were completely surrounded by darkness, and I felt the rocks underneath me shift dangerously.
"I guess we're still on the other side of the fake wall?" I said.
"Yeah," Anton said. "We'd better move. Carefully now."
He took my hand and we moved gingerly over the top of the collapsed tunnel. Soon I felt a smooth surface under my feet, and I figured that we had reached the slim ledge that I had seen before.
Anton paused. "Do you still have that lighter?"
I checked my pocket. "Yes." The little object had e
scaped the crush unscathed.
"Then you might want to see this," Anton said. "It's actually pretty amusing."
I flicked the lighter on. Anton was holding an old-fashioned alarm clock with bells on the top. It was blackened, and the face was badly cracked.
"That was the timer," Anton said. "As you have no doubt gathered by now, the whole place was rigged to blow up. Too bad I didn't notice that before I set the fires. So much for my sharp eyes."
He threw the alarm clock back onto the rocks, and then the two of us stepped through the fake wall. I put the lighter away, and we hurried on through the darkness.
I didn't truly breathe easily again until we finally stepped out into the night air, and I could see the trees of the Old Grove.
"Thanks for getting me out of there," I said.
"Well, technically I did get you in there in the first place," Anton said. "So it was really only right for me to get you out. I did kind of owe it to you."
"Who do you think set all that up?" I asked. "Why was that whole placed rigged to explode?"
"No idea," Anton said. "But we'd probably better get out of here. This may have attracted some attention, and we've still got work to do tonight."
He held out his hand. "Come on."
"Where are we going now?" I asked.
"To school. That's the other place where funny things are happening."
Soon we were flying through the night, and when we came to a stop, I looked around, puzzled. The building before us was undeniably a school, but it had clearly been abandoned. A lone light lit up the old high school that had closed years ago.
"That's not my school," I said.
"I never said we were going to your school," Anton said. "From what I understand this is known locally as the 'old school,' and there have been reports of unexplained lights at night and strange sounds. And right now, there's a faint melody in the air that's emerging from that building. Can you hear it?"
"No," I said. "But I did hear that the old school was haunted. You think GM is in there?"
"Now that we've ruled out the cave," Anton said, "I'm sure of it. We should proceed with caution, however. With any luck, this place won't explode, too."
We walked up to the abandoned building, and Anton tried the big double doors in the front.
Dangerous Creatures (Book 3, Pure Series) Page 15
