They walked down the tunnel, at a steady pace for nearly half an hour. Ahead of them, the tunnel opened into what appeared to be a large open area. Faint blue light glowed through the opening.
Katie sucked in determined breath, preparing herself for anything imaginable, and boldly stepped through the mouth of the tunnel. She abruptly stopped, standing gape-mouthed on yet another wide ramp. It was nearly identical to the first one. Shock rippled through her body.
Honeycomb
Katie thought she had been prepared for anything. Nothing could have prepared her for the eerie scene in front of her. She blinked in shock, and bumped into Jared. They both gazed across the massive cavern in fascination.
The tunnel entrance opened about twenty feet above the cavern floor. The ledge she stood on was about four feet wide. The smooth walkway hugged the wall to the right of them, sloping down to meet the floor of the cave.
There was no sign of mites or watchers. The lack of both creatures made Katie increasingly uneasy. The eerie silence contained in the vast underground chamber seemed to grow louder.
At least three stories tall and easily the size of five soccer fields the area looked like a deserted underground ballroom, a ballroom that nature might have created while sunk in a fit of boredom. The combined light from all the glow moss remained a steady brightness as a gentle flow of air swept around the huge area. Large, sweeping designs, similar to what she saw on the ramps, covered the floor. The flat surface was dirty and covered with small rocks, but it was entirely smooth as if buffered by human hands.
The ceiling was neither smooth, nor rough. The rocky dome was oddly empty of stalactites, appearing slightly pitted with matching swirls and patterns. The room’s odd appearance dispelled any hint of the large cave being a work of nature.
No, whatever the place was, the gigantic area wasn't a naturally formed cavern.
The left wall was solid rock. The wall opposite of where they stood had a dozen openings of various sizes. She was too far away to be certain, but several of the openings looked like they might have pillars on either side of them. She took it all in with a single glance.
The remaining wall was another story.
Her gaze locked onto the cavern wall to the right of them. The unnatural work of art held her spell-bound.
The entire wall was a honeycomb of openings. The random holes ranged from a hand-span in width to four feet wide. A few of the openings glowed with a soft internal light. Others appeared to be sealed with some type of chunky clay.
Small creatures ran along the base of the wall. The swiftly scuttling bodies were the only thing that moved within the vast chamber. The color of the little creatures reminded Katie of an oval shaped skrivett. The odd little animals were only about a foot high. Their smooth beige-colored skin looked pearly, somewhat waxy.
The nearer Katie and the others got to the base of the honeycombed wall she understood why the little animals looked familiar. They were mites, only a different variety. They had four small, jointed legs and no stingers. They did have two very odd looking antenna with teeny-tiny like digits wiggling around. The tiny digits looked almost like the red cilia on stalks of markles, only much smaller. The long appendages moved constantly, either patting the surface in front of them or waving the antenna through the air. The funny little appendages were a cross between arms and antenna.
The little mites didn’t seem to notice the teenagers who were a good forty feet away and closing fast on their position. The little creatures kept working, randomly running here or there, never stopping and resting.
Katie tried looking into one of the holes lining the walls. From a distance, it didn’t look like the holes went through the wall. They were actually tube-shaped with a bottom. Each one reminded her of vials in a lab, except these were laid cross-ways and stacked on top of each other.
Several of the mites worked at the wall. They scuttled around, sealing up two round openings with a thick mud like mixture. They worked at a fast pace, nearly faster than a mundane's eyes could follow. One mite placed a blob of mud on the wall with its funny little arms, while a second patted the blob in place. A third mite, with narrow gray swirls crossing its back, rubbed the tip of its antenna across the muddy rim, leaving black streaks in the mud. The mites seemed to be mixing some kind of black fibrous substance in the mud. Then the process started all over again.
Whatever. She really didn't care what they were up to, because the little mites working along the wall didn't appear to be dangerous.
The dozen mites surrounding the unmoving bodies held her attention for much longer.
To Katie's horror, several of the sick-colored creatures were extracting a black silky fiber from the tips of their odd antennas. Using the fine strands of black silk, the mites worked together at a furious pace, wrapping Nick and Emily in spider-like cocoons.
Sarah and Mitch were nowhere in sight.
Katie searched for some sign of her brother, but without linking with him, she couldn't find him. Inhaling, she hunted for his scent amid the dozens of unique ones floating on the steady swirl of wind.
A long, furious growl rolled through the cavern.
The tiny hair on Katie’s neck stood on end and every instinct she possessed screamed for her to run. The intense growl sounded low, muted like the rumble of distant thunder.
At the sound, everyone instantly stopped moving. The sound demanded attention, promising bloodshed and pain.
Mint wrapped sticks wouldn't help them against whatever made that horrid noise. The guttural growl flowed around them, growing louder and angrier by the second. Not simply angry, fury encased the sound.
Jared squeezed Katie's hand. His head slowly swiveled, searching every point around them for the source of the growl. But sounds within the odd cavern seemed to be swallowed by its emptiness.
Katie followed Jared's gaze around the large room, but the noise had to be coming from the honeycomb in front of them. She automatically leaned closer to Jared as the sound deepened with a sharp snarl, increasing the growing fury of the creature.
From the ferocity of the growl, the beast was not a creature they wanted to fight, but the teens had nowhere to run. Even if they could reach safety, they wouldn't leave the others behind.
Somehow, the fury within the growl intensified, growing louder and harsher. Almost like the animal had been in a doped-up daze and suddenly woke-up.
“Thud!”
Katie squealed at the bone jarring thud, jumping like she'd been shot.
Jared shoved his body in front of hers, shielding her. Directly in front of them, from behind the wall, the thud sounded again. Mud crumbled here and there, grit bounced down the wall. Something was trapped in the honeycomb and it wanted out.
The clay covering one of the holes burst apart and chunks of hard, gray mud went flying. A slender human hand grasped the edge of the tube. The delicate hand was quickly followed by a pale-blonde head.
A very furious Sarah yanked her way out of the hole.
The black silk cocoon, which had been wrapped around her body like a shroud, fell away, sliding to the ground in shredded pieces. Sarah glanced at Katie. Her normally cool blue eyes looked wild, completely filled with a feral gleam that demanded retribution of someone or something. They seemed to be oddly dilated, like those of an elf.
She extended her claws halfway out. Blood streaked hair flew everywhere, increasing the half-crazed look on Sarah’s face.
Katie stopped breathing and hastily took another step backward, because trusting Sarah right at that moment was really hard.
Sarah snarled in anger. Fangs flashed, fully extended and deadly. Her face contorted in fury, and her eyes turned ice-cold, flaring with determination. Semi-white claws snapped into full extension. The three-inch bear-like claws appeared bigger than Katie remembered.
Sarah turned away from Katie, toward the small contingent of mites.
The small creatures hurried back and forth, running around picking up chunks of clay
scattered across the floor.
The exile wasted no time. Sarah tore into the little creatures with a silent, yet bloodcurdling vengeance, flinging and shredding the small bodies right and left.
Katie slid closer to Jared. Releasing her pent-up fear, she gave a huge shuddering sigh of relief that Sarah wasn’t shredding them to pieces. She trembled again, leaning against Jared's warmth. She had forgotten how frightening Sarah could be.
“So had I. I don't envy Nick, not one bit,” Jared said, giving her a quick hug before the four of them hurried forward, swinging their sticks at the little creatures.
Sarah reached Nick and Emily before Katie did. The young woman batted the last mite away and sunk to her knees beside Nick, quickly slicing the silk cocoon off him. She grabbed the thin, black stinger sticking out of his arm, and ripped it out. Pulling his heavy body toward her, she carefully laid his chest across her thighs, removing two more stingers sticking out of his back. She wrapped her arms around Nick, leaning her head against his. Her deep growl never ceased, slowly echoing across the vast chamber.
Katie hoped the threatening sound didn't bring any nasties to investigate. The way her luck was running, Sarah would port out of the cavern with Nick and leave them behind to deal with whatever cropped up.
Katie silently snarled at her harsh thoughts. She knew Sarah wouldn't abandon them. But she also knew Sarah had too many lives riding on her secrets. There would be no quick rescue, not from Sarah. The young woman didn't dare reveal who she was, especially now with shapeshifters counted among their cabin mates.
Katie tried not to look toward Sarah. She didn't want to intrude on a very private moment, but she couldn't stop the concern she felt. She watched Sarah shiver, clutching Nick tightly against her body. Understanding dawned on Katie.
Sarah had been more afraid for Nick than angry.
Nick was such an idiot. If they lived through this, Katie was going to tell him how big an idiot she thought he was.
While Sarah worked on Nick, Jared did the same for Emily. The young vampire only had one stinger.
A partially filled hole along the honeycomb wall caught Katie's attention and she headed that way.
“Katie,” Jared said in a hiss. Fear for her flashed through their bond. His wide eyes found hers and he half stood to follow her, leaving Emily's lower half shrouded in black thread.
Eyes bright with concern, his fear thumped in her head.
“Sorry, I forgot. Beth and Brianna are with me. I think Mitch is in that tube,” Katie said, feeling relieved when he sent her a soft okay and a gentle surge of understanding.
He wasn’t happy, but at least he understood. And thankfully, he wasn’t insisting on wrapping her in cotton.
Beth reached the partially filled hole before Brianna or Katie did. Her multi-colored hair swung against her back as she frantically ripped chunks of mud out of the hole. The half-built mud lid was two inches thick and already growing hard as rock. Fine, black strands poked-out of the crumbled edge, appearing stiff as wire.
Beth cleared the hole by the time Katie reached her. Together, Katie and Beth reached into the black hole and pulled Mitch out. Brianna grabbed his feet. They grunted at his weight, dragging him to where the others were checking Nick and Emily.
The fine silk cocoon completely covered Mitch. He looked like a black-wrapped mummy.
No matter how hard Katie tried, she couldn’t get her claws to extend farther than half an inch, not that her claws mattered.
Beth beat her to the punch. The shifter extended lethal claws, slender and as long as Sarah's. She rapidly slashed the silk in lightning quick moves. She moved so quickly, Katie feared the girl would slash Mitch to pieces, but Katie didn't see any red streaks of blood. His tight shirt and loose shorts were another story. Tiny slit marks appeared here and there.
The cocoon fell away from Mitch's body. The wait felt like forever. In reality, pulling him out of the tube and cutting him out of the shroud took less than a minute.
Katie reached for the stinger, but once again, Beth was a step ahead of her, yanking the single black stinger out of his body.
Katie sighed in relief and reached toward Mitch.
A guttural growl, deep and menacing stopped her in her tracks. Her hand hovered inches from her twin's shoulder. She looked up at the source of the growl.
Beth glared at her, amber eyes glowing. The shifter pulled Mitch's much larger body into her arms, appearing to shield him. Her upper and lower canines lengthened, and she flashed them at Katie in warning. “Mine,” Beth snarled.
Katie's eyes narrowed. She might feel a debt of gratitude toward the shifter, but the girl was totally mental. Mitch couldn't stand shifters. He'd had screaming nightmares about them when he was younger. He'd have a field day with the girl’s obvious infatuation, but that didn't help matters at the moment.
“No, he's my twin,” Katie snarled back at the girl, baring her own lengthened fangs.
Beth blinked and the glow in her eyes dimmed a bit, swallowing convulsively, she quickly nodded her head. “Sorry, so sorry. I, um, sometimes shifters get a bit possessive after a hunt. That's all.”
Katie nodded in understanding. Most Sídhí races had some really weird quirks.
_____________
Jared didn't waste any time. He wanted his mate above ground. If he never saw the inside of another cave, he'd be a happy camper. No pun intended.
“I’ll carry Mitch.” He glanced at the unmoving bodies of his sister and cousin. “I think Katie and Beth can carry Emily.” He made a big show of grimacing as he glanced between Sarah and Brianna, nodding toward the large body of his older cousin. “Can you two manage him?”
Sarah's ice-queen expression never twitched as she chuckled in his head, mentally speaking only to him and Katie. “Please, don't quit high school and become an actor.” Sarah smoothed Nick's hair back, seeming to ignore everyone.
Jared dropped his head to Katie's cheek, hiding his grin as he kissed her. “Mia Cara, call out if you need help.”
“It's so tempting to port all of us to safety,” Sarah said wistfully, eyeing the various tunnels leading away from the large chamber.
“And put every valley at risk for invasion by the Dark Lords?” Jared asked. Shock touched his words. He looked down at Katie, fighting the urge to look at Sarah. He didn't want to tip Beth and Brianna off that the three of them were having a private conversation.
“Tempting is not the same as actually doing it,” Sarah said, glancing at the two shifters. “Any other time and I'd make those two disappear. Then you two would be the only ones to see me port all of us to safety.”
Jared nodded his head in understanding. Shock and a slight edge of Katie’s fear crept into him through the lifeBond.
“Disappear? I agree, that's a really bad idea,” Katie said, tightening her hold on Jared's arm.
“Katie,” Sarah said, sighing with more frustration than Jared had ever heard from the cool-headed exile, “when are you going to stop thinking the worst?”
“Um, well, I know you're capable of killing. You'd do it in a heartbeat to protect your valley or Nick,” Katie said, a stubborn tilt to her chin.
Sarah mentally chuckled, but this time the sound held no humor and sent a shiver of warning up Jared's back. “Very true, but I've never killed anyone who wasn't proven guilty by deed or tested guilty by synth crystal. When I said disappear, I meant stick them in a secured valley only my people have access to.”
“That's a great idea,” Katie said, grinning. She must've realized she looked silly grinning at nothing, because she turned into Jared's arms. Wrapping her arms around him, she snuggled into his embrace.
He grinned down at the top of her head then glanced at the two shifters, making sure Beth and Brianna still had their heads together, quietly talking as they knelt beside Mitch's sprawled body.
“Normally, I'd agree,” Sarah said. “You two are the only ones I've ever hesitated over when taking someone into protective custody, but un
fortunately if Beth disappears, it would cause massive problems. We've had spies in Haven Valley for hundreds of years. Beth became Alpha Prime of Haven Valley at the tender age of thirteen, calling a halt to a really nasty brewing civil war. Trust me if that young woman disappears her entire valley will descend on Dragon Valley armed to the teeth and ready for battle. The majority are rabidly loyal to her.”
Beth stood up, hovering over Mitch. “If everyone agrees, let's get out of here.”
“I totally agree,” Katie said, leaving Jared's side she knelt beside Emily, slipping her hands under the girl's lax arms.
Jared nodded his agreement, heading toward his charge. Settling Mitch's dead weight over his shoulder, he grunted. The young halfling was a walking mountain of pure muscle. The boy needed to go on a diet and stop building more muscle. Jared laughed at his thoughts. He couldn't imagine the human garbage disposal eating nothing but salads for the remainder of the camp. That was so not happening, not when Katie’s twin ate enough for three people.
Thankfully, what Mitch's high metabolism didn't burn off his Sídhí genetics did.
Not that all Sídhí were that lucky. Jared's cousin, Frank, bounced from three hundred to two-fifty every year or so. The one time he hit four hundred his mate refused to cook or bake any kind of carb laden food, sticking him on some kind of carb-less mundane diet. The man had howled like a wounded werewolf.
Jared was only ten feet away when he heard Sarah's growl. He turned as quick as his heavy burden allowed, searching the empty cavern for more mites, but he didn’t see any movement in the cavern.
What now?
“I caught Clarisse’s scent,” Sarah snapped as she glanced toward the honeycomb of mud-sealed tubes.
Everyone groaned. They had forgotten about the red haired troublemaker. There were hundreds of little tubes. She could be in any one of them. He snapped his teeth together in frustration. Even if they found her, how could they carry her?
“All of you get out of here. I’ll find her and get her out,” Sarah said, her normally smooth features wrinkled in frustration.
Vampire's Forbidden Territory (Sídhí Summer Camp Series #2) Page 9