Turning the light off, Saxon slid it into his pocket to keep it safe and pushed rocks out of his way as he pulled himself through the gap. Rocks clattered and bounced off each other as he wiggled his way to the other side; if there was anyone over there, they knew he was coming, but he couldn’t do anything about the noise.
When he finally broke free of the small tunnel, he pulled himself out and slid down the other side. Removing the flashlight, he turned it on and shone it around the shaft. The air on this side was a little clearer but not much. However, he could see more of the empty tunnel leading deeper into the Savage’s nest. After all the noise of the collapse, the silence filling the tunnel was unnatural.
Climbing back up the pile, he went back through the gap and returned to the others. He found Declan waiting for him at the bottom of the rubble while Lucien leaned against the wall a few feet away.
“We can get through to the rest of the tunnel,” he told them. “I didn’t see anything over there, but who knows how many Savages could be over there.”
“Let’s go,” Lucien said.
Declan rested his hand on Lucien’s arm when he started toward the mound of debris. “Are you up for this?”
Lucien scowled at him. “What are we going to do, stay here and wait for the others to rescue us? I’m no damsel in distress.”
“You would be pretty ugly in a dress,” Declan said. “And no, the others probably think we’re dead.”
He didn’t say what Saxon knew they were all thinking—was Ronan dead?
“We can wait until you’ve healed some more,” Declan said after a few seconds.
“That will only give those things time to regroup, and we have to get out of here before the sun sets,” Lucien said.
Saxon agreed but kept his mouth shut. If Lucien wasn’t up for the journey, then they would wait until he was.
“Let’s go,” Lucien said.
* * *
Saxon kept the flashlight tucked into his pocket as they made their way through the tunnel. With no light in the smoke-clogged passageway, he refused to turn the beam on as it would alert anyone nearby to their presence.
Keeping his hand on the wall, he let it guide him while he walked. Behind him, the only sound he heard from Declan and Lucien was their occasional exhalations. Lucien walked between them so they could offer him more protection should something come at them. The stench of blood and burnt flesh permeated the air, and in the beginning, they came across a few dead bodies, but the tunnel was clearer through here.
Behind him, small bangs and rattles sounded as parts of the tunnel continued to crumble. A distant boom rocked the shaft, and the ground lurched beneath his feet as he staggered to the side.
“What the…?” Lucien’s question trailed off as he must have realized what it was.
“They blew the other exit door,” Declan said.
“Hopefully they didn’t block our way out,” Saxon said.
He would not die in this place, or worse, be captured and turned into one of these bastards. His hand tightened on his crossbow as his thoughts turned to Elyse. She’d already endured so much because of Savages; he refused to become one. He would die first.
A rattle to his left caused him to turn in that direction. The air was cleaner here, but no light penetrated this deep into the tunnel, so it was impossible for him to see. He reached for the flashlight and gripped it in his fingers as he waited to hear anything more.
The tunnel remained silent, but he got the sensation something was standing before him, watching him. He felt it hovering before his face, scented the rot of a Savage, but then, the whole place smelled like rotten Savage.
Warm breath tickled his cheek, and though he couldn’t see it, he knew the thing was nearly nose to nose with him. And it was no normal Savage, it would have attacked by now if it was, but this thing was toying with him.
Saxon kept his fingers steady as he clicked on the flashlight. He’d expected to find something standing before him, but there was nothing there. He flashed the beam over the tunnel as he tried to get his heart rate under control. The revelation that nothing stood before him did little to ease his body’s impulse to fight something.
“What is it?” Lucien asked.
“There was something….” His voice trailed off. He’d never had a big imagination, never been one to exaggerate or lose control of his emotions, but did he imagine it? He touched his cheek where he’d felt the breath; he hadn’t imagined that.
Then where was it?
He shone the flashlight around the tunnel again; there was a lot less smoke and dust here, but the light only revealed ten feet in either direction. The hair on his nape rose, and with a sinking sensation in his stomach, he tipped his head back and lifted the light to the ceiling.
He didn’t know what he expected to find there, but he discovered nothing.
Anger churned in his stomach as he pulled the light away from the ceiling and focused on the tunnel once more. He had not imagined it. Something was playing with them, but where had it gone?
Chapter Forty-Seven
“Saxon?” Declan asked.
“There’s something here,” he stated. “And it’s fucking with us.”
“Let it keep fucking with us,” Lucien said. “If it’s too scared to reveal itself, then it’s not a problem. Now let’s get out of here.”
Saxon didn’t agree with Lucien’s assessment; whatever lurked in the shadows had put every one of his predatory instincts on high alert. However, they couldn’t stay here until it returned.
He turned the light off but kept it in hand as he started down the cavern again. Something brushed past him, and his hand shot out to grasp whatever it was as he turned on the flashlight. His hand came up with only air, but the light caught a flash of black before it vanished.
Where had it gone? He flashed the light over the tunnel, but it revealed no side tunnels where the thing could hide. He rechecked the ceiling and found nothing there. Whatever it was, it was the fastest thing he’d ever encountered.
“Shit,” Lucien said and stepped after it.
Declan halted him before he could chase it. “That’s what it wants. Saxon, keep going.”
Saxon flashed the light toward Declan; in the beam, his eyes were nearly black, which was the color they became when something took him over. His skin was paler than normal, and his lips were clamped so tightly together they’d turned white. Declan read into things far more than any of them, and he suspected that what Declan sensed here had rattled him.
This time, Saxon kept the light on as he continued forward. A shift in the air alerted him something was there again, and he spun to face it. The fist flashed out of the darkness a split second before his head shot back. Stars burst before his eyes as his head hit the wall and his skull caved in.
His hand flew to his head as he fired the crossbow, but the thing was already gone. “Son of a….”
He felt along the broken bone at the back of his skull. The blood spilling from his broken nose pooled in his lap before he shoved himself to his feet. A wave of dizziness assailed him, and he almost went over as he swayed unsteadily.
“It hits like a Mac truck,” he muttered.
And then, from out of nowhere, the thing leapt onto Lucien. A noise unlike anything he’d ever heard filled the tunnel as the thing brought Lucien down beneath it. Saxon lunged for it while Declan fired his crossbow. It jumped off Lucien as the bolt sliced through the air, and Saxon turned in time to avoid taking it to his shoulder.
Declan’s horrified eyes met his. “I’m—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish apologizing before the thing was on top of him. From Lucien’s position on the ground, he lunged for Declan and caught his ankle before the monster could drag him into the shadows.
Saxon jumped over Lucien and ran at the thing still holding his friend. Lowering his shoulder, he barreled into the creature as it released Declan and spun toward him. Bony hands enclosed on his upper arms. The skeletal fingers felt like they should
be fragile, but there was a surprising amount of strength in them as they lifted him.
He half expected this thing to treat him like a wishbone and tear his arms from him as it hissed. It was shorter and weighed less than him, but it easily lifted him until his head brushed the ceiling. A pair of white blue eyes, the same color a hunter’s eyes turned when they became a vampire and were enraged, shone from under its hood.
He recalled Killean’s description of the thing he encountered when he was living with the Savage’s and knew this had to be it. Well, maybe not the same one as Killean said the one he encountered stood over seven feet tall, but what was it? Despite being only feet away from it, Saxon couldn’t make out any other details of the beast holding him as the black cloak it wore shielded its face and body.
Lifting his legs, Saxon planted them on the thing’s chest and shoved back. The creature’s grasp slipped as he worked on freeing himself.
“Will not escape me,” a voice hissed, and he realized it was coming from the creature.
Killean thought the creature he encountered might be an ancient hunter turned vampire. But that whispered voice made Saxon realize Killean was wrong. This thing sounded like hundreds of snakes slithering over top of each other; nothing should sound like that, and nothing should be this strong.
Instead of tearing him apart, the hands clamped down and pinned his arms against his sides. Its face remained mostly in the shadows of its hood, but two massive fangs glinted in the light. He’d never seen fangs like them on a vampire before as they were hooked like a rattlesnake’s fangs.
What the fuck?
Diving forward, Lucien slammed into the creature’s legs and wrapped his arms around its knees. He yanked it forward to try to pull the thing off its feet; while at the same time, Declan landed a one-two combination to its gut.
The creature didn’t grunt from the impact, but its eyes flickered to Declan before focusing on Saxon again. Was this thing the reason Elyse had been imprisoned and tortured? Saxon suspected it was, and that suspicion made his blood boil.
This thing was behind all the torture she endured. This thing was the reason her father was cut to pieces by the woman he loved and why Elyse received those pieces on her doorstep. This thing was behind the increase in Savages and the hell they’d been through recently.
Elyse’s blood fueled his strength as he pulled one of his feet off the thing’s chest and kicked it in the chin. The blow snapped the creature’s head back. Saxon kicked it again and again, as a bellow worked its way up to his chest and broke free.
The creature yanked on one of his arms, tearing it from the socket and pulling on it until Saxon believed it was going to tear the limb from his body. The white blue of its eyes turned to a blazing, vivid red as it glowered at him.
That didn’t happen to turned hunters. His heart thundered in his chest as adrenaline coursed through his body. This thing was stronger than him, but he would do whatever it took to return to Elyse.
He kicked the creature again as Lucien plunged a stake into its thigh, and Declan aimed one at its heart. The monster pulled back its hand and backhanded Declan so hard it lifted him off his feet and flung him into the wall.
Declan collapsed onto the ground and shook his head as if trying to clear it. The creature grabbed at Lucien, but he rolled out of the way and came up on the other side where he plunged another stake into the back of the creature’s thigh.
With the thing only holding onto him with one hand and distracted by Lucien, Saxon pulled a stake free. The monster was turning back toward him when he swung the stake forward and plunged it into the bastard’s eye.
An eerie howl erupted through the tunnel as the creature swung him out and smashed him off the side of the tunnel. Stars burst before Saxon’s eyes; a ringing went off in his head as he hit the ground with a thud. A hand gripped the collar of his shirt and plucked him off the ground like he weighed no more than a feather.
Before this thing could bash him against the side of the tunnel again, Declan and Lucien tackled it around the waist and brought it down beneath them. When it released him, Saxon bounced across the ground and hit the side of the tunnel.
Staggering to his feet, Saxon rushed back toward them as the creature seized Declan’s throat and lifted him off the ground to hold him over its head. Blood spilled from the sides of Declan’s throat as it dug its fingers into his flesh. Declan beat at the hand holding him while Lucien lifted a stake over his head.
Before he could plunge the stake into the creature’s chest, the thing slapped him aside. As he was falling, Lucien released the stake and Saxon caught it with his good hand before it hit the ground. Spinning it in his hand, Saxon straightened it out and plunged it into the creature’s heart.
A few heartbeats passed in which the creature remained standing before him with its fangs bared. Saxon was beginning to think the stake was useless against this monstrosity, but then it released a hellish scream.
Except it wasn’t quite a scream; no, this was far different than anything he ever heard before as the hissing shriek of death echoed off the walls and rebounded through the tunnel.
This was the sound of evil dying. The hair on Saxon’s nape rose as he realized this wasn’t just the shriek of something dying—this thing was calling out to others.
Declan succeeded in tearing himself free of the creature’s grasp and scrambled away as its hands flailed at the air before clawing at the stake. Falling back, it hit the ground and flopped up and down before finally going still.
Saxon didn’t dare breathe as he stared at the motionless creature. The tunnel was so hushed that he heard a bead of his sweat hit the floor. He wiped away the sweat on his forehead before creeping closer to the thing.
He was half convinced it was going to attack him again when he knelt next to it, but it remained immobile with its head turned away. Lucien and Declan crept closer and bent at the thing’s side. It didn’t move, and as he studied it, he saw its chest wasn’t rising. For all he knew, this thing didn’t require air, so not breathing might not be an indication of death.
He grasped the hood of its cloak and pulled it back to reveal its face. As white as a sheet of paper, the thing had no color to it; even its lips were ashen. Hairless, its head was smooth, and its ears were tucked so close to its head that at first, he assumed it was earless.
Its features were humanish, but something about it reminded him of a reptile; maybe because the thing was so damn smooth.
Declan grasped the cloak and pulled it open to reveal the thing’s smooth body. It was as white and hairless on its body as it was on its head. Its bones stuck out against its flesh. The flaccid penis lying limply against its thigh was the most normal looking thing about it.
“What is this thing?” Lucien asked.
Neither of them replied as Declan rolled it over and tugged the cloak aside. Every bone was evident against the thing’s skin, but that wasn’t what made Saxon’s eyes widen.
No, that was the red and black color swirling down the length of its spine and branching out in small capillaries that threaded through its skin before vanishing beneath its flesh. He kept waiting for the red to pulse and beat like a heart, but it remained as still as the creature before them.
Something about its spine reminded him of a movie he’d seen where aliens invaded Earth and took over humans by fastening onto their back, digging into their spine, and gaining control of their host. Except this thing’s spine was no outside monster; it was a part of this thing’s being.
And then he recalled the red and black color that had swirled through his flesh. Though it was a lot different, there was something strangely similar about the two things.
“We have to get out of here,” Saxon said. “I got the impression it was calling others while it died.”
“You think there are more of these things?” Lucien asked.
“Yes, and I think they’re coming. Killean said the one he saw stood over six feet tall, this one’s not even six feet.”<
br />
“We’re taking it with us,” Declan said.
Bending, he scooped the creature up and hefted it over his shoulder. Saxon retrieved the flashlight and turned it off again before leading the way through the tunnel. His mind remained on the creature in Declan’s arms while he walked.
What was it?
Even as he asked the question, he had a sinking suspicion he already knew.
Chapter Forty-Eight
The stench of blood and burnt meat filled his nose before they turned the corner in the tunnel and discovered the bodies of the Savages scattered there. The exit door was open, and the sun’s rays spilled inside to touch on some of the corpses. Two of them had flames devouring their skin as the sun burned them.
At the end of the tunnel, a metal ladder was bolted to the wall. As he edged closer, Saxon craned his head to see anyone above, but all he saw was a patch of blue sky and the open metal door. Unlike the one they’d blown off, this door remained intact, and what looked like a steering wheel was attached to the inside. He assumed the wheel was what they used to open and close the heavy metal door.
“Stay here,” he said to the others.
He stepped over the bodies as he cautiously approached the exit. He couldn’t make it this far only to have a bolt fired through his heart by one of his own. But then, his side might have been taken down by the Savages and no one remained above.
Grasping the ladder, he pulled himself up as swiftly as he could with one arm while the other dangled uselessly at his side. When he got to the top, he poked his head cautiously out to peer over the foot-high, concrete wall. He found himself in the middle of a small field with a stream only fifty feet away. On the other side of the creek was more woods.
Blood splattered the snow and pooled beneath the bodies scattered across the field. Some of them were smoldering or engulfed by flames. Others remained unaffected by the daylight, and he knew those fallen were from their side.
Turning in the hole, he spotted Nathan and some others inspecting the bodies as they gathered their fallen while making their way across the field. When Saxon climbed up another rung, he drew the attention of a hunter who grasped Nathan’s arm and pointed at him.
Bound by Passion: The Alliance Series, Book 4 Page 26