Three rows of stone pedestals extended from the front to the back of the room. Track lighting circled the base of each pedestal, providing the only illumination in the room. What the hell did these people have against electricity? Honestly. Or maybe Ze German was blind, and he didn’t need light to see.
Rowan was standing in the middle of the room, turning around slowly, eyes examining each item, one at a time. There was a jeweled amulet, a leather-bound book with a latch, metal spikes, a few daggers, and other things further back that I couldn’t distinguish.
“Well, Mr. Underwood,” Ze German said. “What do you think?”
“Wait, how do you know his name?” I demanded.
Ze German tapped his nose. “I know a lot of things.”
We stood quietly for a moment while Rowan approached a few of the items and examined them without touching them.
“Well?” Ze German said, clearly growing impatient. “See anything you like?”
As he finished his sentence, the dark walls around us quavered. I startled and glanced around. Everything seemed normal, except for my thundering heart. Claustrophobia was getting the best of me, it seemed.
Rowan turned to me, an expression of despair on his face. “Do any of them… speak to you?” He glanced down toward my cuffs, which were still hidden under my jacket.
I gave a small shrug. I’d been trying to pick up something the moment we walked in the house, but I’d sensed nothing at all—not even the bit I’d picked up from Ze German back at the bar. Something was not right. If there was magic here, someone was going through great lengths to conceal it.
Rowan walked closer and stood a mere pace away from me.
“C’mon, Charlie.” He took my hands, staring deeply into my eyes. The chill of my fingers almost matched his.
I wanted to make him happy and tell him I felt something, but the truth was that all the items felt… dead. I was trying to figure out how to break the news to him when Disha’s desperate voice echoed down the narrow hall.
“Guys, get out of there. It’s a trap!”
As frayed as my nerves were, it took me but a nanosecond to react, grabbing Rowan’s hand and pulling him back the way we’d come.
We’d only taken two steps when a wall materialized in front of us, blocking our path. Reacting with instincts I didn’t know I’d acquired, I pushed my free hand against the wall and used one of the spells we’d learned from Bridget and her brother. The pulse of magic hit the wall straight but sent us flying backward, dumping us on our asses.
Before I’d even had time to blink, Rowan jumped to his feet. Moving in a blur, he glanced around, eyes darting in every direction.
“Where the hell did he go? What is this?”
I rose slowly, surveying our surroundings. All the pedestals were gone, and we stood in a cube-shaped, empty space built from bare cinder blocks on all six sides.
No doors. No windows.
“What the hell?” I twirled, gaping at our prison. “We’re… trapped.”
Duh! Not like Rowan needed a play-by-play.
When I finished twirling, I found him trembling with rage, his fists clenched and fangs unsheathed. He was staring fixedly at one of the walls as if he intended to melt it by shooting laser beams out of his eyes.
“Rowan,” I whispered, fear wrapping around my heart, images of the night he bit me swimming in front of me. This was no time to lose control. “Calm down.”
He shook himself and, for an instant, I thought he would heed my advice, but instead he let out a growl and ran at the wall. He crashed against it, smashing into the cinder block, the sound of stone against stone reverberating through the cramped space. Chunks of concrete broke and exploded outward. I covered my face as fist-size pieces whizzed in my direction.
A growl of anguish filled my ears. Coughing and waving my hands to disperse the dust that floated in front of me, I caught sight of Rowan, his fingers flexed into claws as he dug through packed, black dirt, his arms moving at a prodigious speed, trying to free us from what appeared to be a tomb.
Maybe this was the fee Ze German spoke of. We would pay with our lives.
Chapter Seventeen
WINTER BREAK
LATE DECEMBER
“Rowan, stop!” I put my hands over my face as he flung dirt my way. He’d been digging like mad for several minutes and had made no progress. He’d also thrown himself into a full-blown vampire fit and if I didn’t tread carefully, we could have a serious situation on our hands.
Tentatively, I put my hand on the rock hard muscle of his shoulders to get his attention. “Rowan.”
He whirled, panting. Dirt clung to every inch of him but his eyes, which regarded me as if he didn’t quite remember who I was. His lip curled back, revealing his very sharp fangs as he stepped forward.
It took me right back to his room the night he bit me, the pleasure and pain. But this time, no one would be busting in to break it up. Rowan might take it too far and turn me into a vampire. That or drain me dry and end it all.
That couldn’t happen—not when we needed to figure out how to get the hell out of this mess.
“Rowan, it’s me.” I stepped back, quickly bumping into the far wall. The concrete space didn’t give me much room to move around, making me wonder if it really was a tomb. One I could very possibly die in if Rowan didn’t get himself in check.
He growled and took another step forward. His impressive physique seemed more imposing than ever, like he could easily tear me apart right now if he wanted to. His frame towered over me as the dirty-encrusted claws turned in my direction.
I readied my cuffs since it seemed talking wasn’t getting us anywhere. Yet, when I tried to draw magic from them, nothing happened. This room seemed to have a powerful blocking spell on it as well.
Rowan advanced, a low growl rolling from his throat. His eyes were obsidian shards.
Icy fingers of panic ran up and down my spine as I squared off against him. There was nowhere to run and no magic that could keep him at bay.
“Rowan, you need to calm down. What did Professor Answorth teach you? Use your training.”
This stopped him, and he seemed to hear me. Breathing slowly, his eyes regained their focus and his tense body posture relaxed.
Suddenly, there was a splashing sound as something poured down from above. Liquid splashed my shoulders and dripped into my hair. Shocked, I held up my hands as something red and sticky soaked my clothes and skin.
Rowan’s pupils dilated into huge, dark pits as his nostrils flared, taking in the unmistakable metallic scent that filled the room.
Blood.
My gag reflex kicked it. My hands swatted at my face, fingers twitching in a desperate spell in hopes of vanishing the blood. It stayed put. Ze German, or whoever, had just stepped up his game.
Shit. Someone really did want me dead.
Rowan dove forward and crashed into me.
We flew back, bashing into the far wall. My back hit concrete first, then my skull followed with an awful thump. Stars flashed across my vision as my brain jarred against my cranium, but there was no time to recover because claws dug into my arm and yanked me up as easily as if I were a rag doll.
Rowan held me aloft, then yanked me toward his gaping mouth.
I kicked out hard, my knees slamming into his chest. A blow like that would have doubled normal Rowan over, but crazed-vampire Rowan barely flinched. He tossed me aside in anger and let out another fearsome roar.
Pain erupted down my spine, and my thinking grew foggy. I was dead. Done for.
Suddenly, something heavy materialized right beside me. Blinking through the blood that dripped in my eyes, I spotted the item and grabbed on. It was a formidable-looking sword, sharp enough to take on a vampire.
Someone wanted us to fight it out in here. I had no doubt Ze German was out there watching it all like some deranged voyuer who brought magicals over just to pit them against each other until one of them killed the other.
Anger blossomed in my gut.
Not today, you bastard.
Rowan came at me again, oblivious of the lethal sword in my hand. I dove sideways, sending him crashing into the wall, and wheeled back, bringing the sword’s hilt down on his head.
There was an awful crack as the metal struck his forehead. Then Rowan slumped to the ground.
What?! I stared from his head to the sword. How had that happened? A blow like that shouldn’t have taken him out so easily.
A lump started to form between his eyes.
Oh no! Had I killed him?
An explosion rocked the room. Dirt and concrete shards pelted me. I dropped the sword and curled into a ball, protecting my head as debris threatened to bury me alive.
“Charlie?” Disha’s terrified voice called.
“Disha!” I batted away concrete dust, coughing. When I looked up, my friend peered in from a sizable hole in the wall.
“Oh, my God, you’re alive. I thought for sure…” Her words died away, but we both knew what she meant. She shined a magical spotlight into the room and gasped. “All that blood! Are you wounded?”
“I’m fine. Someone thought I wanted to be Carrie on prom night,” I said, wiping my face with the only clean part of my sleeve, trying to scrub away the blood.
“Who?” Disha asked, horrified.
“Stephen King? The novel where they dump blood on the girl? You know what, never mind. Help me with Rowan.” I knelt down to dig him out from the rubble.
Luckily, the section Disha had broken through was the same one Rowan had partially demolished so it had been mostly dirt that hit us. Still, Rowan had already been injured and the falling chunks of concrete couldn’t have helped.
My cuffs hummed with magic once again. Disha must’ve broken the blocking spell when she blasted the wall.
Conjuring a dim light to my cuffs, I levitated Rowan and sent him through the hole, then climbed out after him into the dark hallway. Once out, I set him down on the floor.
“Check him for injuries,” I told Disha as I prepared to defend us against another attack. “I had to bash him on the head to stop him from trying to eat me. He went out like a light.”
She stooped down, running a hand over his body as her fingers wove some spell I didn’t yet know. “He seems okay. What happened?”
“What happened was someone set us up. They even teleported a river of blood onto my head to ensure Rowan would try to kill me. And they gave me a sword to defend myself so I would kill him.”
“A sword?” Disha’s eyes went big as she conjured a charm to clean the blood from my body.
“I didn’t stab him if that’s what you’re thinking.” I pointed to the goose egg forming on his forehead. “Not sure how the sword was able to take out a vampire like that. Maybe it had wards on it. Someone really wants him dead.”
“Oh, God. Who would do this?” Disha stared around the dark corridor.
At the question, we exchanged a glance. We knew someone who openly wanted Rowan dead, but would he go this far? This was some elaborate ruse.
Disha swayed and put a hand on the floor to steady herself as if she was too weak to stand. Now that I could see her better, I realized that my friend had cuts all over her body and her clothes were torn as if she’d been through something equally horrible.
“Are you okay? Is Ze German still here?” I asked, casting a protective barrier around us, one of Bridget and Bobby’s tricks, just in case.
“I don’t think so. As soon as you guys went in and didn’t come out, I tried to follow, but that… that dog thing attacked me.” She lifted up her arm to show a shredded sleeve and bloody skin beneath. “He wrecked my favorite Giorgio Armani!”
“You should probably be worried about rabies, but, yeah, sorry about that.” From inside our protective bubble, I created a brighter witch light and cast it out.
What the hell?! The building around us had completely changed.
The surroundings no longer resembled a fancy mansion. Now, it was clear that we were in an abandoned warehouse, dusty and ancient. Long hallways stretched off on either side, covered in old graffiti and smelling of mold and decay. The beachy knick-knacks and paintings were replaced by cobwebs and trash.
“It was all an illusion spell,” Disha said. “It crumbled as soon as I punched that hole in the wall.”
“A trap. Lord, we were so stupid.” I glanced around, still taking it all in. How had we not seen? Or rather, we had seen, but Rowan had been too hell-bent on getting his precious artifact to listen.
“There was another illusion as well,” Disha said quietly. When I glanced back at her, she snaked one trembling finger out and pointed to a shape in the corner. I aimed my light in that direction.
Behind a broken crate, a foot came into view. Then a leg, hairy but human. It took me a moment to process that what I was seeing was a naked man, slumped against the wall, his eyes open and unblinking.
I jumped back, bashing into Disha who trembled like a leaf.
“The dog wasn’t a… dog. He was a werewolf.” She swallowed hard.
“Is he… dead?”
She nodded. “I thought I was killing an animal, Charlie. I thought...” Her cold hands clung to my arm and didn’t let go.
“We need to get out of here,” I said, casting my gaze around.
“What about him?” Disha’s stare didn’t stray from the dead man in the corner. “Should we… tell someone?”
I forced myself to look at his face, his dark hair and heavy eyebrows. He was in his mid-twenties, strong and rugged-looking with a strong chin and crooked nose that had probably been broken a few times. He was no one I recognized. Thick chest hair covered up the charred mark that spread from one of his nipples to his waist. Disha sure had blasted him, but he’d attacked first, nearly shredding her to bits. I had no doubt that if she’d been any less talented a witch, she would be the one slumped in a corner right now.
I straightened my shoulders and took a deep breath. “He was a bad guy. He deserved everything he got. We leave him here and we don’t tell anyone.”
Disha made a low moaning sound in her throat but didn’t argue.
Grabbing her hand, I used my magic to keep Rowan levitated and tethered to me. Together, the three of us crept through the abandoned warehouse, dark hallway after dark hallway.
We didn’t see or hear anyone on our way out, only spiders and the occasional scamper of rats. I had a feeling that once his partner had been killed and the tomb breached, Ze German, or whoever he was, probably took off.
He’d underestimated us. Most people did.
Once outside in the moonlight, I took one last glance at the towering building that had once looked so fancy. Three stories of broken glass windows peered back at me. In one, I spotted movement.
Someone had indeed been watching us but took a step out of view as soon as I spotted him. I couldn’t be sure who it was, but then again, who else wore a bowler hat that ugly?
Suddenly, it was all starting to make sense.
Disha looked up too, shivering from shock or cold. I’d have to make sure we were all okay before transporting us back to school. But first things first, I needed to put distance between us and the building.
“Who was that?” she asked as I hurried her away.
I glanced over my shoulder, but all the windows were now empty.
“It seems our suspicions were right. I just saw Sebastian Mink.”
But why was Mink going to such crazy lengths to kill a fledgling vampire? And how could we stay safe knowing how badly he wanted us dead?
Chapter Eighteen
WINTER BREAK
LATE DECEMBER
“Rowan.” I gave him a little slap. He deserved worse than that, but I was able to control myself.
His eyes opened. They were bloodshot and without any spark. Dead.
I pulled away, taking a few steps back. We were in his room. I’d laid him on the bed but hadn’t dared try to wake him until I had washed all the bl
ood away while Disha stood watch out in the hall. She was still outside the door, hugging herself, her eyes lost in a moment she didn’t seem to be able to leave behind.
I turned my attention back to Rowan. One crisis at a time. “You’re in your room,” I said in a matter-of-fact tone.
His gaze darted around, still a little wild, maybe at the brink of more violence. I backed away to the door, laying a hand on the knob.
“We’ll talk tomorrow,” I said. “Once you’ve calmed down.”
I shut the door and sent Disha to bed, but I stayed there, listening to every sound from Rowan’s room, waiting for the door or window to burst open, ready to face a rabid vampire once more. I was grateful it was Christmas break and there weren’t many students on campus.
He stayed in his room all night—the only sound coming from behind his closed door, the squeak of the small refrigerator where he kept his blood supply.
When the sun rose, I finally went back to my room and, after telling Trey’s urn how lucky we were to still be alive, fell into a fitful sleep.
After a few hours, my eyes just wouldn’t stay closed. So, unable to follow through with my plan of sleeping until noon, I got up and went to the cafeteria where I found a tired Disha already nursing a cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin, both vastly untouched. She had circles under her eyes and looked like she hadn’t slept one drop.
I sat across from her, feeling as crappy as she looked.
“That was a stupid, stupid thing we did, Charlie,” she said after a couple of minutes of silence.
I sighed. “I know.”
“We could have died. All three of us.”
“I know.”
“Because of Rowan’s… obsession.”
“I know.”
“Is that all you can say?” she asked, sounding more serious than I’d ever heard her. No nicknames or cute banter this time.
I shook my head, staring down at my hands as they rested on the table.
Supernatural Academy: Sophomore Witch Page 13
