I had no choice, but to find the entrance outside. Opening the curtains a hair, I squinted under the sun’s glare. To my luck, there wasn’t any wire in sight. The workmen hadn’t finished the bottom floor yet.
I slipped open the window and popped out the screen. Taking one last reprieve in the shadows, I counted to ten, then darted outside.
Even in the shade, the sun’s rays pelted down on my skin, heating it to unbearable levels. I ran over with lightning speed to the cliff were I’d hid with Sam and Phil at the party. There wasn’t an entrance. Hoping no one would notice, I hopped down to the jagged rocks below, searching all over, finding nothing.
“Where is it?”
Smoke began to waft from under my shirt, using my hood as a chimney. After another minute, I couldn’t see or handle the pain anymore. Flames burst from my shoulders. I dove under the waves and rushed to the ocean floor, ripping off my extra clothes.
Fish and other sea life scurried out of my way, almost as if they’d sensed I was a killer. I didn’t care. Like an idiot, I’d believed Scarlett. She’d only wanted to see me burn to my death, ridding her of vampires once again. She didn’t care about Phil either.
Angry, I slammed my head against the rocks behind me over and over. I was stuck here until the sunset. Something gave way and an avalanche of stones tumbled over, covering me from head to toe. I dug myself out, finding a tunnel with stairs at the end leading toward the house. The secret entrance.
Scrambling, I swam through and remerged in a dank tunnel. The angry surf swirled and ebbed around my feet, as if enraged I didn’t perish in its inky blackness. I took the steps by twos, anxious to get out of the claustrophobic tunnel.
It ended at an iron door. I leaned my ear to the door and listened. An unhuman noise filled my ears, of keening and whimpering.
I laced my fingers on the rusty ring and pulled. The door slowly creaked open, marring grooves in the stone floor. Fear and hate rolled over me in thick waves. Something had been captured, or should I say someone—and it wasn’t just one person.
I stepped inside. The door slid shut behind me with a hiss, disguising itself in the dingy wall. I felt the edges for a handle, something to pry it open, finding nothing. I was trapped.
The howls and empty moans gripped me. I sniffed, not smelling humans. Wading around boxes and other junk, I emerged around a corner to another dark room. Cages lined the walls. Cages filled with ravenous vampires. They all turned to me in a jarring roar, putting arms and faces up against the bars.
“Who are you?” the closest one said.
“Let us go!” another hissed.
“Why are you free?”
“Where’d you come from?”
Was this the tombs? I sucked in a breath, scanning the group for Sam’s face. Most of the faces I didn’t recognize, but mixed within were some I did. The vamp tramps from school pushed aside the closest vampires and threw themselves at the bars.
“Julia.” Felicity stepped forward, the vamp tramp who’d spilled coke all over me in the cafeteria. “Where’d you come from?”
“Felicity?” The irony that I had the upper hand in this situation for once was incredible. Even so I couldn’t stop my voice from shaking.
“We were promised immortality from that bitch if we did what she wanted, and then she locked us up. Let us out,” Vivi begged. Even as a vampire, she still had that whiney shrill.
“From who? Katie?”
They all laughed. “No, stupid. Rachel.”
My brow lifted. Rachel? Rachel wasn’t running the show. “What did she want you to do?”
Lexi glared at me, eyeing me up and down. “Just tell Katie to get her ass down here.”
“Yeah,” Vivi chimed in.
“Face it. We’re nothing but lab rats,” a man said wistfully. He sat on the floor, playing with a bloodied dead rat. “Experiments and the like. We’re dispensable.”
I swallowed hard. Had they already discovered the sterilizing venom? Random and mass sires weren’t allowed, at least that’s what I’d understood.
Footsteps down the hall rose the hackles on my neck. I ducked behind a box just as someone cleared the corner.
“There! There!” a female hysterically called out. “She’s there!”
“Quiet,” a man barked.
Keys rattled and the group frenzied, begging to be let out, begging for food.
“She was here!” the girl shrilled. “The one they call Julia! She’s behind that box.”
“Julia?” the man asked.
I rolled on the balls of my feet, prepared to pounce, and looked for a weapon.
No she’s not. She lies! I thought good and hard.
There was a series of grunts and groans, and someone fell onto the floor.
“Shut-up!” Felicity called out.
“But I saw her!”
“Yeah, right,” Vivi said.
Yeah, I thought. Man, could this work to my advantage.
“Do you want to be staked?” The group responded in a moan. “Otherwise, be quiet! Now I need numbers 25 and 33.”
“That’s Bob,” Hysterical Girl said from the floor.
“Pick someone else,” Bob answered. He’d been the one playing with the rat.
“It’s your turn,” the man demanded. “Now get up!”
Electricity crackled in the air.
“No!” Bob said.
A screech from the doors opening filled the hall, then several sets of boots filed past.
“No!” he shrieked. “I don’t want to!”
“Pull him out!” the man’s voice was hard.
“No!” he begged again. “Fine. Do it!”
A vibrating shriek followed another fizz of electricity, then the crackle of a fire. Silence mixed with the acrid odor filled the air.
“Anyone else want to argue with me?” the man tapped his boot against the cement floor. No one spoke. “That’s what I thought. Now where’s 25?”
“I’m here,” a timid female said.
There was a shuffle of keys, opening and closing of cages, and then it was silent.
I peeked around the corner. All the vamps stood flush along the walls, wide-eyed and silent.
“We saved you,” Lexi whispered, “now get us out of here.”
“You’ll need to get the keys first.” Vivi poked her hand out of the bars and pointed down the hall. “That guy Slide has them.”
Slide? Great. My glare softened toward them, unsure if I should give them any hope.
“You better come back,” Felicity warned.
She had some nerve after how she used to treat me. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Felicity charged the bars. “You’ll get us out, that’s what you’ll do!”
I skittered away from the cages and disappeared around the corner. The threats subsided as I walked down the hall.
The gravity of the situation hit harder. If they treated their own sires with such disrespect, what were they doing to Phil? Whatever the plan, Alora and company had hid this from me and Nicholas, and the elevators were the only way to escape. Getting there unseen and swiping an elevator key was going to be a challenge.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Twisting and turning down the maze of halls, I sloshed in wet sneakers looking for a way to the main room. A blanket of fear stopped me. Turning down the darkened hall on my right, I noted a hidden doorway.
“Sam?” I whispered.
I tiptoed toward the source and turned the corner. In the dark, two figures sat in the far corners of the room, chained to the wall. I rushed toward the closest one to me, to the one suffering the most.
The figure sat up and snapped his teeth, narrowly missing my leg. I screeched and jumped backward, falling on my butt. My stomach fell. It wasn’t Phil at all, but Cain who sat chained before me. He began to laugh maniacally. “You’re all wet.”
Yeah, Sherlock. I didn’t have time to explain myself.
“What are you doing here?” I breathed, surprised to see him
captive. “Where’s Sam?”
“Sam?” he drawled. “Oh, Samantha. What a brilliant student she was. Who knows?”
Smelling the lie, my insides clenched.
“Tell me,” I said through my teeth.
“Why don’t you ask Alora?” The corner of his lip quirked upward.
My control burst. I grabbed his neck and shoved him against the wall. “Tell me.”
His eyes sparkled in humor. “You like this, don’t you?”
“Considering you’ve been nothing but a pain in my ass, I’d say yes,” I growled under my breath. “I’d love to see you get what you deserve, but I don’t have time to gloat.”
“You’ll be joining us soon enough,” the woman to the right warned.
Rachel. I dropped Cain and spun around. Her hate billowed out, adding to the tension in the room.
I exhaled hard. Were they supposed to be a distraction? A trap? I worked to regain my focus. They wouldn’t use my emotions get the best of me.
“Where’s Sam?”
Cain chuckled again. “So innocent. So trusting. I’m surprised you’ve been allowed this far into the web.”
I scanned the floor for a piece of wood. If he wouldn’t answer me outright, I’d motivate him the best way I knew how.
“My little seer has crossed to the dark side, but I hate to disappoint you. Wood was never allowed in my house for a reason.” He leaned his head backward and stared blankly at the ceiling. His rage fluttered around me, filling me with hate. All I could think about was Phil and Sam.
“They’re probably dead,” Cain said flatly.
“Shut-up.” I pinched my eyes shut, hoping to close my thoughts to them. He knew something, and I needed answers.
Leaning forward, Cain moved closer. The chains binding him rattled. “Evil is never born alone. It always has a twin.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
His eyes found me for a moment, then he smiled. “You’re born of darkness. Someone else will be born of light. Yin and yang. There’s always a balance.”
I squinted at him in confusion. Did he mean another seer?
“Yes,” he whispered. “You’ll have a seer too, someone you don’t suspect, maybe someone you already know. They’ll find you. They’ll trick you. And you’ll go down like I did.” He laughed—a biting cruel sound. “A new prophesy has begun.”
I shook my head as jealousy roared inside me. Being the seer was my job. Why would another need to be born? I wasn’t bad. I was here to stop Alora. Cain laughed, and I grabbed his shirt again, lifting him off the ground. “How do you know this?”
“That’s why you need me. Let me go free, and I’ll tell you everything.”
I wrinkled my nose at the lie. “No! You’ll tell me now!”
He smirked. “And give you my only bargaining chip?”
“That’s not what you should be worried about,” Rachel whisper-yelled.
I dropped Cain once again. Things were getting out of hand, and time was slipping for Sam and Phil.
“Let us out and we’ll protect you,” Rachel said. “We know things. Together, we can stop her.”
“She has a talisman,” I said quickly. “That’s impossible.”
“Not impossible.” Rachel smiled.
“I won’t kill my boyfriend, if that’s what you’re inferring.”
Cain laughed.
“Why is that so funny?” I asked.
“He is not on your side,” he said.
“And you are?”
Rachel clenched her jaw. “You’re our Queen. Of course we’re on your side. We’re bound to you.”
“Bound to me?” I laughed. “Alora is bound to me, too, and look what she’s doing.” My eyes found Cain. He was watching me curiously. “And you’re okay with that?”
Resentment billowed from him. “I have no choice.”
I glared at him. If he hated Alora so much, he’d never be okay with me leading either.
“You can’t do it alone,” Rachel said softly. “If you leave us, then all the secrets will die with us.”
“Shhh…” Cain glared at her.
Secrets? What secrets? My glance ping-ponged between them, and I wished I could read minds. One thing was for sure, Cain would rather die than serve me. He and Alora suffered from the same power crazed disease.
“It’s my right!” he barked.
“Quiet!” Stepping backward, I peered down the empty hall and listened. No one came. “What secrets?”
Neither spoke.
I glowered at both of them. “Then I guess it doesn’t matter if you die. Neither of you have ever been loyal to me. As far as I’m concerned you’re no different than Alora.”
“You can’t do it alone and you know it,” Rachel warned.
“Oh yeah? Watch me!” I stormed from the room.
“You’ll regret this,” Cain warned, but I was done. When I finally ripped the power from Alora and took over, I’d get a new faction of vampires. Ones that were loyal to me and weren’t smart enough to revolt. Nicholas was right. My training was going to come in handy.
After a few wrong turns, I finally popped out in the main room filled with glass cubicles. Nicholas worked in the last cubicle with a welding mask perched on the top of his head. Slide stood next to him.
Confused, I watched them make venom weapons together. What the heck was the truth? Nicholas hadn’t lied about anything really, especially the vigilante cause. How could his mother tell him one thing, then do another, especially when he was so close to the situation? Had Rachel and Cain been the problem? He didn’t even know they were being held captive.
Behind Nicholas’ head, pictures of faces covered the walls lumped into differing color groups. My picture was at the top, along with Katie, Alora, and Nicholas. Rachel and Cain were off to the side. I scanned the rest of the rooms. Other vamps from the past were sitting in front of computer screens, but Alora wasn’t anywhere in sight. Neither was Katie.
The silver doors leading to my escape, though, beckoned at me from my left. I could just disappear inside, and pretend I knew nothing. Oh, who was I kidding? I couldn’t stop my thoughts from projectile vomiting all over everyone. I needed a talisman of my own, and a chance to start over. Alora couldn’t be in charge, not when I didn’t trust her.
The doors breezed open next to me, and I ducked out of sight. The heavy-set lady from the kitchen stepped out. Fear sweetened the air, and I fisted my hands to keep from springing toward her.
She pushed a cart with several silver domes on top, like the ones hotels used for room service. Blood service, from what I could smell. I withheld my urge to take her down and sprinted for the elevator instead, pressing my body against the wall of the car to hide myself.
Just as the doors began to close, I heard Phil cry out. I thrust my palm in between the doors. They popped open.
“Julia?” Nicholas stepped away from the blood cart, then appeared at my side. “What are you doing here?”
I tried to step out of the elevator, but he pinned me in and pressed the CLOSE button.
“No.” I thrust my hands between the doors to stop them.
Another shriek lit the air.
Nicholas turned to me with a sheepish smile. “We should go, really.”
“No!” I pushed against him, and bolted from the elevator toward Phil’s voice at the end of the room.
“Stop her!” Nicholas yelled.
The ravenous group of vamps lifted their curious heads from the trays of blood, unmoved. I sprinted past and slammed myself into the door at the end of the room. It flew open.
Alora swiveled around and gasped. “What are you doing here?”
Phil lay strapped to a chair, sweaty and listless. Bite marks covered his neck and shoulder, yet he wasn’t changing.
“I’m cool, Parker,” he mumbled.
I ran in front of him, throwing my hands wide to shield him. “Get away from him!”
Katie stepped out from a nearby office, leading in number
25 on a chain. A cuff circled her neck, leaving the skin underneath charred and red.
The girl, completely opposite of the demure girl I’d witnessed before, snapped her teeth and hissed, “Let me at him.”
Behind them, Green Eyes and Mr. Steroids held long metal poles with prongs on the end.
I sucked in a breath.
“Show Julia what happens when you argue with me,” Katie directed to her goons.
They marched forward, switching on the poles. The tell-tale current arced across the tops—the electric noise I’d heard earlier. They laughed when my eyes rounded.
“Stop!” Nicholas bellowed. “That’s unnecessary.”
The goons glared at him, and stopped reluctantly.
I sighed in relief and turned to unbind Phil from the chair. The metal pinning him in couldn’t be broken—venom laced.
“Get her out of here,” Alora demanded.
Nicholas’ hands cinched around my waist, but I pulled away from his grip. “No!”
“You shouldn’t watch this.”
“Whatever they’re doing, it’s over. They have his blood. I’m not leaving him here.”
“Julia, don’t fight me,” Nicholas said quietly. “Let’s go.”
“It’s okay,” Phil whispered. “I can handle it.”
Phil’s lie almost put me into a rage.
“No.” I looked between the two of them, yanking on the chains. “Let him go. Now!”
A crackle from the poles made both Phil and I jump.
I covered him with my wet body. The electricity would have a field day with me. I glared at Alora. “What do you want?”
Alora smirked. “He knows what he needs to do. I think he’s enjoying this, actually.”
Rachel laughed.
“They want to know where Sam is,” he said behind me.
“She’s free?”
“She got away,” he breathed.
Relief filled me. “Nicholas,” I begged. “Please.”
“Maybe we need to torture someone else instead,” Rachel suggested, staring at me.
“No,” Nicholas said firmly. “Give me the keys, Mom.”
“Son,” she said softly, walking up to him. She stroked his arm. “Sometimes we have to hurt the ones we love, especially if it’s for the greater good.”
“Is that what you told Dad?” Nicholas said with a sneer.
Blood Wars: Book 4 (The Talisman Series) Page 23