“If we do that, they’ll attack instantly,” David pointed out, fidgety and nervous.
Butch nodded his agreement. “Considering we have no idea how many are in the caves, it would be a dangerous move.” Not that Butch sounded particularly moved by the prospect of danger. In fact, he never seemed to be moved by anything, always appeared deceptively calm, collected, and laidback.
“We’ll have to take our chances.” Evan’s tone was practically lifeless. “It’s the only way we can retrieve Cristiano’s vampires.”
When the squad turned questioning gazes mine and Sam’s way, I said, “I’m not comfortable with the idea of invading their home, but I think Evan’s right.”
Sam nodded. “We have no other option at this point.” She turned to the heavily muscled Pagori who was currently tying back his brown shoulder-length hair. Stuart did the same with his own blond curls. “Reuben, I need you to use your gift on Chico, David, and Salem.” With a single touch to their shoulders, Reuben’s gift of power augmentation had made Chico’s poisonous thorns, David’s psionic boom, and Salem’s psychic punch all fatal. “Don’t move quietly – give them plenty of warning that we’re approaching the door so that they aren’t alarmed. If they still don’t open up, we’ll have to let ourselves in.”
Making no attempts to conceal our presence, we covered the distance to the entrance of the caves. The door was camouflaged to look like part of the mountain in order to fool any humans, but a vampire’s enhanced eyesight could easily spot it. When there was still no reaction to our presence, I projected a lightning bolt powerful enough to completely shatter the door. Fanning away floating dirt, I looked to see a downward channel about eight feet deep.
“Not even the noise of someone breaking in has gained a reaction from them.” Cristiano shook his head, incredulous.
“Damien, Reuben – I want both of you to wait here and keep watch,” I told them. “If you see any movement at all out here, you contact me straight away.” They both nodded obediently and took on an alert, aggressive stance. Satisfied, I turned back to the entrance in time to see that Evan had taken the lead and jumped down the channel. He was obviously feeling shitty enough to be careless with his own safety.
Sam looked at me. We shouldn’t have let him come. His head’s not in a good place right now.
I’ll talk to him. I swiftly descended only to find myself at the entrance of a tunnel. Evan was waiting there impatiently. At least he hadn’t set off on his own. I held his gaze. “Evan, you need to get your shit together.”
His eyes flared with anger. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not, and this isn’t the time to talk about it. But I swear if you act careless and put Sam and my squad in danger, I’ll teleport your ass out of here. Got it?”
He gave me a curt nod and returned his attention to our surroundings. Although it was dark, my vampire night vision allowed me to see the junction further down the extremely long tunnel. Signalling for the others to follow, I moved aside to give them room. One by one, they descended the channel. Before I could give any further directions, Evan began walking, clearly intending to take the lead. Sam and I exchanged an exasperated look but let him be.
We flanked him as he slowly led us through the tunnel. There was no one at all around. No sounds other than our own footsteps. “They have to know we’re here,” I said to Sam.
“It doesn’t make any sense that they wouldn’t care.” As she repeatedly clenched her hands, as if eager to attack a threat we couldn’t see, tiny sprinkles of silvery-blue energy dripped from her fingers, peppering the air like fairy dust. Now that she was a hybrid and much stronger, she didn’t have to absorb the surrounding energy anymore; it came to her, filled her, waiting for direction. Silvery-blue glimmers of it played around the surface of her body.
We continued down the tunnel, stopping only when we reached the junction. There were no sounds coming from any direction. Sam indicated for Evan to keep moving forward, and we again followed closely behind him. Then I was gagging as a foul stench crept up on me. I wasn’t the only one balking.
“It’s like rotten fish.” Sam’s words were muffled by her sleeve as she used it to cover her mouth and nose.
“Jesus,” exclaimed Chico, coughing along with the others. “What is that?”
Evan suddenly held up his arm, gaining everyone’s attention. “Do you guys hear that?”
I did. A voice…but it wasn’t speaking. It was…moaning?
“Do you think they’re all hurt? It would explain why no one’s come.”
Evan’s theory was a decent one, made sense…yet, my gut said no. Every instinct I had told me to get out of there and to get out of there now. I could sense that Sam’s anxiety equalled my own. Good, maybe that meant I could talk the crazy bitch out of going any further. Sam never allowed fear to hold her back, she used it as fuel. While that was admirable, it drove me fucking insane because I wanted her safe. Sure she was strong, but she wasn’t invincible.
I grabbed her arm, bringing us both to a halt. “We need to leave. This is beyond weird now and has entered the realm of too damn dangerous. We’re putting ourselves and everyone here at risk by staying.” I expected a snarl or a snort from her, but she instead nodded.
“You’re right. This is”
A long, drawn-out moan pierced the silence. Every single one of us froze in position. A few seconds later, there was another moan; it was filled with pain, hopelessness, and misery. Technically, such a sound should have made me want to run to that person’s rescue.
It didn’t.
Instead, it made my blood turn to ice. Then there was another sound: scuffling. Someone was coming, but their footsteps were so sluggish that their feet were dragging against the ground as they moved.
I wasn’t sure what I expected to see when that person finally rounded the head of the junction, but it wasn’t the sight before me. The shirtless vampire was so gaunt, skeletal, and emaciated that it was revolting. His glowing red eyes looked like they had been sucked inward and much of his hair had fallen out. His ribcage was visible, his shoulder blades were sticking out, and he had a greyish, translucent complexion. Basically, he looked like a skeleton with a layer of skin stretched over it. And there was only one thing that made a vampire look like that.
This really wasn’t good. “Evan, don’t go any closer.”
But either my brother was feeling suicidal or he had no idea just how dangerous a starving vampire could be, because he was actually approaching the Pagori. What I wanted to do was order everyone to hold hands and then teleport us all out of there, but I couldn’t reach Evan to grab him and there was simply no way I was leaving him behind.
“All of you slowly retreat,” I said without moving my gaze from the starving vampire. “We need to get the fuck out of here. Don’t take your eyes off him. And whatever you do, unless he leaps at you, don’t run.” They each followed my commands instantly, except for Evan. He was instead continuing to move forward. “Evan, what the fuck?”
“He’s starving, Jared, he needs blood, get over here.”
Clearly Evan had never been near a starving vampire before. I had. “Yes, he’s starving. That makes him dangerous. He’ll attack you.”
“Attack me? Look at him, he’s practically falling to pieces – he doesn’t have the strength to take me on.”
That was where my brother was wrong. “You’d be surprised just how strong and fast a vampire can be when it’s desperate. Right now, he’s desperate. So move your stubborn ass away from him!” I thought he’d keep ignoring me, but instead Evan sighed and took a step backwards. That was when the vampire lunged at him. He knocked Evan to the ground, his mouth latching onto his throat and gulping down his blood so strongly it was sickeningly audible.