Dangerous Creatures (Book 3, Pure Series)

by Catherine Mesick

"I'm sorry, Katie," I heard a voice say.

  I turned to see Terrance lying on the cave floor just beyond the pool of water. There was a small box with two buttons in his hand, and suddenly I understood the significance of the half-empty box I had seen back at his hideout—Terrance had rigged the entire cave with C-4.

  He pressed one of the buttons on the box, and I heard a roar tear through the cave chamber. An explosion shook the entire cave, and the Hunter was knocked off his feet. Rubble rained down from above, and I turned my head, trying to protect my eyes.

  A second explosion rocked the cave, and the slab I was lying on fell on its side, throwing me to the hard stone floor. I tried to get up through all the shaking, but my chains held fast to the stone slab.

  There was yet another explosion, and a piece of the ceiling broke off and landed across my stone slab, hemming me in.

  After that, there was silence.

  Suddenly, the heavy stone that lay across me was lifted off me, and I could see the Hunter raising the big slab of ceiling high and then throwing it to the side.

  He then reached down and easily righted the slab I was chained to, and soon I was back in my former position. Neither my stone slab, nor my chains had been damaged.

  The air around me was full of dust and debris, but as far as I could see, the cave chamber was largely intact. Sections of the ceiling and parts of the carved walls had fallen in, but the island of rock and its pool—and the part of the ceiling that supported the shaft—were undamaged. And the Hunter's wife still stared straight ahead, completely untouched, and the silver lights still hung suspended in the air of the chamber, shining softly.

  I looked over to the spot where I had last seen Terrance, and it was now completely covered in rubble. Terrance had been buried.

  The Hunter, seemingly unruffled, resumed his place at my side, and gently brushed the hair from my eyes. Then he reached for the emerald around his neck and took it off. He held it over my heart and began to whisper something I couldn't quite hear.

  The silver light that hung in the air over the Hunter's wife began to wind gracefully once more, and I felt a strange sensation come over me. Everything in my body seemed to freeze, and my breathing slowed involuntarily.

  I felt strangely light-headed then, and I seemed to feel myself floating.

  Suddenly, there was a rush of air, and something hurtled past me. I heard the Hunter give a strangled cry, and I seemed to come back to myself. I looked up to see the Hunter standing with his hands empty—someone had snatched the emerald away from him.

  In the next instant, the Hunter blurred and vanished from my side.

  As soon as he had disappeared, someone sprang down the shaft and landed on the rocky island between me and the Hunter's wife.

  "William!" I cried. "William, you're alive!"

  He hurried over to me and pressed on the mirrored spots on the cuffs at my wrists. They sprang open at a touch.

  "Sachiko's got the emerald," William said. "She'll lead him on a chase. It should be long enough for us to get you out of here."

  "The Hunter's got the Star of Morning," I said as I jumped off the stone slab. "This whole cave is a trap, and the sword is the key."

  I looked over the stone floor and spotted a rectangular slot lined with mirrors between the two stone slabs.

  "The sword goes in here," I said. "We have to get the Hunter up onto this island and insert the key. That will turn on the trap and start the weapon. The Hunter will be incinerated. He got free the first time this trap was triggered. We can't let that happen again."

  "Katie, we—"

  "William, I can't run from this," I said. "We have to end this tonight."

  William looked at me for a long moment. Then he nodded once.

  "We'll have to go after Sachiko," he said.

  He took my hand, and the two of us jumped off the island. We had just started toward the tunnel when we were forced to stop short.

  The Hunter was emerging from the tunnel, and once again, he was carrying the emerald.

  William rushed toward him, but the Hunter hit him squarely in the chest and sent him flying into the back wall of the cave. Before I could react, William came surging back at the Hunter, and the Hunter sent him flying once again. Then he grabbed me by the throat and lifted me off the ground.

  I kicked at him then—but I wasn't trying to free myself. Instead, I aimed my feet at the scabbard at his side and tried to dislodge the sword. As the Hunter jumped over the water to the rocky island, I managed to upend the scabbard and tip the sword out of it. The sword fell into the water with a light splash and disappeared.

  The Hunter dragged me onto the stone slab and was reaching for the chains once again when William hit him from the side, and the two of them rolled onto the floor. I quickly jumped off the slab and began to search the thick, murky water for the sword.

  My hand had just closed around the hilt, when my hair was grabbed from behind, and my head was pulled painfully backward. The Hunter wrenched the sword from my grasp and threw it off into the shadows.

  William rushed at the Hunter again, and as he did so, the Hunter swung around, taking me with him. I struck my head against the stone slab and fell limply into a daze in the Hunter's grasp. He let me fall and then grabbed William and smashed his head against the stone slab, too. The stone cracked, and the Hunter grabbed William's wrists and clamped the chains around them.

  I could feel blood trickling down my face, but I got up and jumped across the water. I searched frantically in the shadows for the sword, but I couldn't find it. Then a quick flurry of motion caught my attention, and I looked back toward the island. Suddenly I could see where the sword was.

  At that moment the Hunter caught me up with me, and I didn't struggle in his grasp.

  "I'll go with you," I said. "I'll go with you back to the island."

  I looked over at William where he lay, shackled to the stone slab.

  William looked back at me.

  I walked with the Hunter all the way back to the island, and then the two of us jumped over the water. As my feet landed, I fell to the ground as if I had collapsed.

  Then I rolled quickly to William's stone slab.

  "The chains, William!" I cried.

  I reached for his wrists and freed them. In the same instant, William clamped the chains on the Hunter, and Sachiko jumped out from behind the stone slab on which the Hunter's wife rested.

  In her hands she held the Star of Morning.

  Sachiko drove the sword home, and then the three of us jumped off the island. An instant later the waters surrounding the island rose up as a blast of pure energy surged down the shaft.

  Then the entire world turned to light and fire.

  Chapter 30.

  William and I made it to the tunnel just in time, and Sachiko, who was even quicker, was already ahead of us. I had just a glimpse of the fiery blaze that raged in the cave chamber before a door slid down from the ceiling with sudden and deliberate force, and sealed us off from the chamber.

  I lay on the ground, stunned by the sudden darkness and silence. The tunnel was so quiet that it was almost as if nothing had happened at all. If I hadn't seen the fire myself, I would have had no idea what was going on on the other side of the door.

  There was a flurry of sound behind us, and I turned my head toward it, even though I couldn't see a thing.

  "That was Sebastian," Sachiko said. "I suppose I should go after him, but I'm really just too tired."

  A few moments later, the door slid away silently, and I could see a soft glow coming from the cave chamber. The fire appeared to be completely gone, and there was no sound coming from the main chamber at all—it was as still as if it were empty.

  "I suppose we'd better go and look," Sachiko said.

  Before either William or I could reply, her figure blurred, and she disappeared into the next room. We both got up and followed her.

  We found Sachiko standing on the stone island, surveying the damage to the cham
ber. Oddly enough, the chamber didn't seem to have sustained any damage—or at least it hadn't sustained any extra damage. Parts of the ceiling and walls had caved in—but that had happened as a result of the C-4 explosions. The energy surge from the weapon had come and gone without leaving any trace that it had been there. Gone, too, was the Hunter—the stone slab and its chains were empty.

  The silver lights that had hung in the air were also gone. The only light in the chamber came from the glow that surrounded the Hunter's wife. She lay, as she had before, completely undisturbed—as though nothing had happened in the chamber at all.

  "Do you think the Hunter's really gone?" I asked.

  "I'd say he is," Sachiko said. "There's nothing left of him. Not even ash."

  "What about the silver lights?" I asked. "The ones that were floating here in the cave. Were they were burned up, too?"

  "No," Sachiko said. "I think they just went home. Fire hurts flesh not spirit."

  There was a low groan then that seemed to come from the rubble on the other side of the room.

  "Terrance!" I said, but both William and Sachiko got there before I could even move.

  The two of them began to throw rocks and chunks of the wall to the side, and very soon they had uncovered Terrance. His eyes were closed, and he was covered in dried blood—he clearly hadn't been conscious when he'd made the sound that had attracted our attention.

  William and Sachiko continued to clear away debris, and soon they were lifting Terrance free of the rubble.

  "We'd better get him to a hospital," Sachiko said. "I've got a car not too far from here."

  William and Sachiko both took a turn carrying Terrance, and soon the four of us had made our way down the tunnel and up the rope into the open air.

  We hurried through the night with William and Sachiko speeding us along, and we were soon standing next to Sachiko's silver car, which gleamed dully in the starlight.

  "It's a good thing I left this car at the airport," Sachiko said, as she settled Terrance into the tiny backseat. "When my flight was delayed because of mechanical problems, I had another form of transportation available."

  "Those weren't mechanical problems," I said. I squeezed into the backseat carefully beside Terrance. "That was Sebastian. He sabotaged our flight, too."

  "I had a feeling it was deliberate," Sachiko said. She shut the door on us, and then she and William climbed into the front.

  Within moments, we were tearing across the flat terrain of the Siberian plain, and even though Sachiko's car wasn't made for off-road driving, she still somehow managed to make the ride smooth and avoid jolting Terrance.

  As we continued on, I looked over at him. Luckily, he hadn't been burned by the fire. But his breathing was shallow, and an unhealthy grayness had crept into his skin—he had clearly bled a great deal. I didn't like the look of him.

  Sachiko drove on across the largely featureless landscape, and eventually, I felt a slight bump. After that the ride became even smoother—we had finally reached a paved road.

  Sachiko drove even faster then, and she turned on the car's GPS, which sometimes had trouble keeping up with her. Eventually, the GPS guided us to the nearest hospital, and we pulled into the emergency bay and rushed in with Terrance.

  Luckily, we all spoke Russian, and we had no trouble getting across the information that Terrance had been involved in a cave-in. He was quickly whisked away to the operating room with multiple broken bones and internal bleeding, and the rest of us were left to wait.

  As we sat in the hospital's cafeteria, and I drank some hot tea, I could see William and Sachiko clearly for the first time that night. Neither one of them looked very good. They were paler than usual, and they had deep cuts and bruises that I knew should have healed by now—their wounds remained angry and red and stubbornly swollen.

  Both of them had refused treatment, of course.

  I brushed William's cheek gently. "Are you going to be okay?"

  "I'll be fine," he said. He glanced over at Sachiko, who gave me a tired smile. "We both will be. But a fight with a vampire like the Hunter isn't an ordinary fight. He has—had—unbelievable power. It's a good thing the fight ended when it did. I don't think we could have lasted much longer."

  After about a half an hour, the three of us moved to a nearby waiting room, and despite my anxiety, I fell into a deep sleep, born of exhaustion. By the time I awoke, dawn had come and gone, and the morning was well along. It was not long after that that a doctor came to us and informed us that Terrance had pulled through his operation successfully—but it would still be some time before we could see him.

  The doctor departed, and Sachiko rose from her chair.

  "Looks like this is my cue to leave," she said.

  I looked up at her. "You really have to go now?"

  "Terrance is out of danger," she said. "You're out of danger. The Hunter's gone. It's time for me to get back home."

  "But you helped to save Terrance's life," I said. "He'll want to see you. He'll want to thank you."

  She shook her head. "It's better this way."

  I stood. "Sachiko, I don't know how to—"

  "I know," she said. "You don't need to say anything. I did what I wanted to do. I always do."

  "Thanks," William said. "For everything."

  Sachiko smiled at him. Then she smiled at me.

  "Try to stay out of trouble, ghost girl."

  In the next moment, she vanished from the room.

  A few hours later, a nurse came to us and told us that Terrance was now awake, and she would take us to see him.

  I rose from my seat.

  "You go on ahead," William said.

  I glanced back at him. "You're not coming?"

  "No."

  "But like I told Sachiko," I said, "you helped to save his life. He'll want to see you."

  "Katie, I'm a—" He glanced at the nurse. "I just don't want to upset him. You go on alone."

  "You're sure?" I said.

  "Yes," William replied. "Take as long as you need. I'll be waiting right here."

  I followed the nurse down the hall to an elevator, and we took it up to the third floor. Then she led me to a door that was slightly ajar and knocked on it.

  I heard Terrance call, "Come in," and then the nurse pushed the door open a little further and smiled at me encouragingly. I went into the room.

  Terrance was lying down, and I was shocked by how tired and weak he looked. But he smiled when he saw me.

  "You made it out," he said.

  "So did you," I replied.

  "I suppose I have you to thank for that?"

  "And William and Sachiko," I said. "Actually, it was more them than me."

  "I saw the girl—Sachiko, was it?" Terrance said. "Fighting with the skinny vampire in the tunnel. If she hadn't been keeping him busy, I never would have been able to get through."

  He paused. "What happened to the Hunter?"

  "The weapon worked on him," I said. "We used the Star of Morning. It called down the stars just like it was supposed to. Actually, it's kind of a miracle that we all weren't burned up."

  Terrance shook his head. "Not really. The tomb was designed to seal itself off once it was activated. There's no point in building a weapon that kills off everybody who's using it, too. The chamber was lined with that special rock for a reason—it was designed to keep all of the energy in and concentrate it, and it was designed to keep outsiders from getting hurt. It was meant to trap one vampire, not blow up half the countryside."

  "So that rubble that fell on you actually protected you," I said.

  "Something for which I will be eternally grateful," Terrance said. "And I'm also grateful you guys pulled me out."

  He paused once more.

  "Sorry I almost got you killed again."

  "You did what you had to do," I said. "And I think the distraction probably helped. You certainly threw the Hunter off balance. Who knows what would have happened if you hadn't done that?"

&nbs
p; There was a soft knock on the door, and the nurse who had shown me in looked into the room.

  "You have another visitor," she said to Terrance in heavily accented English. "Shall I allow him to come in?"

  "Yes, please," Terrance said.

  I turned, expecting to see that William had changed his mind and had come up to see us, but instead, I saw someone else—someone I had not expected at all. The man standing at the door was tall, handsome, and silver-haired.

  Terrance smiled. "Hey, Maksim."

  Maksim Neverov walked into the room and came to stand at the foot of Terrance's bed. As he did so, he threw a startled glance at me. But he soon recovered his composure, and he smiled at both of us.

  "It's good to see you, Terrance, Katie."

  "What are you doing here?" I asked.

  For a moment all I could think of was the staked vampire I had seen in Maksim's basement, and I almost called for a security guard. But Terrance seemed to be genuinely happy to see Maksim, so I decided not to do anything about his presence just yet. Perhaps I could get Maksim out of the room without upsetting Terrance.

  "What am I doing here?" Maksim sounded amused rather than offended. "I must confess I was actually quite surprised to see you here, Katie. But then again, I've learned a few things lately that make your presence here understandable—perhaps even inevitable."

  "Maksim's okay, Katie," Terrance said. "It must be a little weird for you to see Irina's grandfather here. But he's okay—really."

  "I take it you two know each other?" I said.

  Maksim smiled. "Our acquaintance is not one of great length. But we know enough to trust each other."

  "Should I tell her?" Terrance asked.

  Maksim gave me an appraising look. "Yes, I think that would be for the best."

  "Tell me what?" I said.

  "Maksim's a member of the Order," Terrance replied.

  I was stunned. "You're a member of the Order of the Hawthorne?"

  Maksim waved a self-deprecating hand. "A former member. I'm retired now."

  "So that's why you were in the cave at the Old Grove," I said. "That's why you have a vampire in your basement. You weren't running the operation. You were trying to stop it."