Rule 9 Academy Series Boxset: Books 3-5 Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy (Rule 9 Academy Box Sets (3 Book Series) 2)

by Elizabeth Rain

  Terrified whimpers emitted from the hidden room. Cautiously, Elise entered, the rest of us behind her.

  A whirring sound reached my ears a millisecond before Nicholas reached in front of me, his hand a blur as his fist beamed blue and his magic sent the slim blade winging through the air towards my forehead sideways to embed itself in the wall mere inches from my head. My eyes widened and adjusted.

  The attacker was a human male, middle-aged and frightened. He stood blocking the huddle of humanity that hid against the wall behind him, whimpering in terror.

  “Jada. It’s me Elise…”

  “Vampire! They are vampires!” Screeched a woman, the sound high and shivery. A sudden shuffle of feet and bodies told me their terror was escalating in her presence.

  I stepped forward. “But we are not. Elise and Emerald are not like the others. They haven’t changed—” I started.

  “—but they will, they all did.” The man finished, brandishing his next knife.

  “No, they won’t,” I promised. I hoped.

  “We aren’t here to hurt anyone, we are here to find out what happened, to see if we can reverse it…”

  “You can’t fix it. They’ve all gone over.” He glanced at Elise and Emerald, frowning. “How come you haven’t?” he asked, confused.

  “Because we didn’t take the same poison.” Emerald said, stepping forward. “But we need to find one of the other vampires. We have a scientist in the other dimension. He thinks he can find a cure. But we need a sample…”

  The man’s mouth firmed. Behind him the other humans shuffled. There were at least twenty of them huddled on the floor. I looked around the room and realized the signs of a lengthy habitation were present. I wrinkled my nose. If the scattered dishes and piled food rations and water supply didn’t clue me in, the stench did. I wondered what they were using for a bathroom.

  “Well, you won’t find that here. All you did was open the door so they could get in.”

  Elise smiled. “There is nobody here but you.”

  “Your wrong. They’re just sleeping. Have you looked outside? Its daylight, isn’t it?”

  That he wasn’t sure was further evidence of the time they’d been hiding beneath the ground.

  He continued, “A lot of them left. They couldn’t get to us, though for days they tried. Whatever has happened, it’s affected their memories. And a good thing, too. None of them that were aware of it before could remember the code. Not even Jorta, and he was the one that gave the key to Marta in the first place.” He indicated a small wizened woman, sitting with her old arms wrapped around a child of about ten, sitting off to one side. “But there are a few vampires that remain. They sleep during the day and wander the castle at night, determined to get in. So far, the room has held and we have enough food and water for a while… but eventually it will run out.”

  Elise jolted at the mention of her husband’s name, her eyes misting at the unexpected memories that swamped her. Emerald clutched her mother’s hand.

  “We need to go Momma. We should try to find them while they sleep.”

  Elise nodded at her daughter and backed towards the door. “We’ll reseal the door. Be careful. I plan to be back, to let you out as soon as possible.”

  The guard didn’t look hopeful. “Some of us have been sneaking out during the day. Replenishing our supplies with whatever we can find that hasn’t been destroyed. That isn’t much.”

  Outside in the corridor we watched as Elise retraced the pattern and the hidden wall slid back into place, sealing them back in.

  I stared back up the stairwell, at the trickle of light that came down from above. But we weren’t heading that way. We still didn’t have what we’d come for.

  Elise growled, “Come on, let’s get what we need and get out of here while it’s still light.”

  Without a word, the rest of us followed her deeper into the winding passages that comprised the basement corridors beneath the castle.

  CHAPTER NINE

  We wound deeper beneath the castle, the damp mustiness of the crumbling mortar making my throat scratchy and sore. As before, many of the doors were locked. Nicholas used a fine bit of sorcery and could trip the tumblers in most of them so we could look inside. Again, empty.

  We were just beginning to think the guard had been wrong. They were all gone, having fled the castle in search of easier pickings. We had grown complacent and that was a mistake.

  Elise hesitated, her slim fingers resting on the door as she whispered. “This goes to the archives room. It is sealed better than most, because it holds important historical records which don’t respond well to dampness and mold.” She turned the handle, seeming a bit surprised when it turned readily in her hands.

  We all screamed when it was suddenly wrenched out of her hands and yanked inward, the rush of warm air hitting us full force in the face as we jumped back. None of us were quick enough as something slammed into us, sending us scattering like a rack of bowling pins tumbling into the corridor. Nicholas recovered quicker than the rest of us, on his feet in an instant. Blue fire danced off the ends of his fingertips as he faced our attackers. Beside him I tried to recover my senses, my dragon screaming in alarm. The long claws and armor of my scaled arms made it difficult to grasp my blade effectively. I held her back. There was no place in the narrow corridors for a half ton dragon to maneuver.

  Elise hissed, jamming her daughter behind her, fingers tipped with razored nails and sharp teeth winking between her lips.

  It was difficult to see who was more surprised. Us; or the three crazed vamps that stood in the open doorway staring at us. Here was our opportunity to take a sample, and we were unprepared.

  They didn’t give us time to think about it. They charged us all at once, lips peeled back to reveal fangs the size of our thumbs and oozing thick drool, anticipating a meal.

  Nicholas hit the leader in the chest with a basketball-sized fireball, the blue flames licking over the tattered tunic of what had once been a fine waistcoat. He ignored them and kept coming, reaching out to snag hold of Elise before she could get out of the way. Immediately his eyes lit up and his scream changed to a snarling need as he drew her in. That she was also a vampire seemed to have little effect on his desire to feed on whatever he had at hand. I jumped in, ducking beneath the swinging arm of the second and coming up in time to slash at the arm that held her, my knife cutting deep. It was enough to make him let go—and turn his attention on me. Despite the evil looking wound, he headed in my direction, his nose twitching, and I knew he had my scent. “Sweet…” he moaned, the sound garbled and barely audible.

  I crouched on the balls of my feet and hesitated, waiting for him to come in close and try to take me down. Magic shivered along the knife and fire erupted at the tip in anticipation. The neck, I had to go for a full on decapitation or be his next gourmet meal.

  Behind me, a vamp had got hold of Emerald. He held her by her throat; the claws sinking deep as she dangled a good foot off the ground in front of him. But Emerald had a warrior’s heart. Even as her mother and Nicholas fought the third vamp and struggled in her direction, Emerald was using her own knife and claws to reach any part of the growling vamp as he opened his mouth wide in anticipation and brought her in closer.

  I had problems of my own though, as the first vampire hit me full force, sending me reeling back into the wall and knocking every ounce of breath from my body. I gagged and choked, trying to breathe as he loomed over me. My knife had tumbled away, skittering along the hard passageway beyond my reach.

  I looked up into chattering teeth as they came in for the kill and said to hell with it. I called my dragon, feeling the fetid stench of his breath on my neck as thick scales raced to cover me in bronze armor and my mouth opened wide, stretching and reforming into my other self.

  Before I could finish the change, a loud peeling sound came from the courtyard above and everything froze. As if someone had rung the dinner bell the vampire’s turned towards the noise,
noses lifted and clawed hands shaking. As if pulled by an invisible cord, the vamp holding Emerald dropped her. The others followed and we watched in astonishment as they took off down the corridor and then the stairs leading up two at a time in a screeching scramble to get to the source of that call.

  Elise and Emerald both let out an agonizing scream and plastered their fists over their ears, eyes streaming at the sound. My dragon was fading and I was returning to my human counterpart, but I was in no shape to do anything else. Nicholas stepped forward as both girls continued to howl, his fingers tracing a pattern in the air. He suddenly snapped his fingers next to each one, a shiver of sparks settling over each girl. Immediately they calmed, though they continued to shake. When they removed their hands, they came away bloody.

  Together we stared up the stairs. Whatever was up there, we weren’t ready for.

  Several long moments passed as we tried to process what had happened. But one thing was certain. We’d just missed our opportunity to take a sample.

  “Dammit.” I growled, “Now what?”

  Elise and Emerald visibly relaxed, blinking as if just waking up from a lengthy sleep. Emerald spoke up. “It’s gone, whatever it was…”

  Elise shook her head. “It hurt so bad. I couldn’t do anything but scream at the agony…” She glanced at Nick.

  “Thank you, whatever you did muted it just enough…”

  Nick gave a terse nod. “What now? We have nothing to take back to Jerry. He needs that blood sample so we can determine what it was they ingested.”

  I jerked. “What did you say?”

  He scowled at me. “We don’t have the blood sample…”

  I waved my hand dismissively in his direction and his expression darkened further.

  “No, not that… ingested. Ate… what did they eat?”

  “That’s right. The blood bank. Think, Momma. It was gradual. Not everyone got sick right away… it took time. We don’t eat every day.”

  Elise caught up to her thinking. “We need to visit the blood bank. It’s down along these same corridors. Maybe we can’t take a blood sample from the vampires, but at least we can see about grabbing a sample from what they were eating. It’s something at least, right?”

  It wasn’t what we’d come for. Regardless of the source of the malady, we needed the samples to allow Jerry to examine and maybe see how it was affecting them and making them insane like it was.

  But she was right, it was more than we had. “Right then, lead on.”

  The blood bank was only a sixty-second walk around the next bend. The door resided at the end of a corridor in the deepest and coolest reach of the basement. The door in question was frosty cool to the touch as Elise, using the key about her neck we hadn’t been aware she was wearing, opened the door.

  We were more cautious this time, entering one at a time and to the side to avoid any flying missiles or vampires, whichever came first. But nothing happened. Several of the 8 cabinets inside hung open and empty. A few were closed. But the room wasn’t unoccupied. Huddled in the corner was a solitary human. He shivered and shook, shaking from the cold and the terror of seeing the door open and two vamps enter the room.

  “Please, make it quick.” He cried, glassy eyed with shock.

  Nicholas bent down in front of him, compassion stealing over his face. “We will not hurt you old man.” Carefully he removed his jacket and shoved the frail arms in the sleeves, buttoning the coat in front to keep him warm.

  Unlike the room the other humans had hidden themselves in, this one had nothing in it to sustain human life. No water, nor food. The upended blood bags, the precious dark liquid pooling on the floor told the story. His face bore the traces of his attempt to stay alive, consuming the contents of the bags for the liquid inside them. How he’d kept it down was a mystery.

  I removed the small satchel of supplies Jerry had given me and went to work. I opened several of the cabinets and began removing bags. I carefully took samples from any I could, labeling them with the marker and returning them to the hard case he’d provided to keep the glass vials safe.

  “I’ve got all I need for now.” I looked at the old man who was sucking on a water bottle like it was his mother’s milk and chewing voraciously at a piece of dried jerky with what few teeth he had left. I nodded at him, catching Elise’s eye.

  “What about him? He can’t stay here. He’ll starve… or turn into a vampire for real if he ingests anymore of the contents in this room.” I joked, lamely.

  Nobody laughed.

  Elise spoke up, “We return him to the room with the others on our way out. There’s food and water there.” She turned to the elderly human. “How did you get in here anyhow? And how come nobody else has?”

  With trembling hands, he held up a key. It was filthy and smeared with blood and who knew what else. “There are only two keys to the room. Jorta gave me this one before he turned. I was told to gather supplies and lock myself inside. He must have known what was in here was the source of what was changing them. He wanted to make sure no one else could get in—not even him.”

  Lips a thin line, she held her hand out and he gave her the key. She hesitated and then handed it to me. I pocketed the filthy piece of metal with a grimace.

  “Come on, let’s get him out of here.” Nicholas bent down and picked him up like he was a child. Elise took a step towards the door and we followed when we realized that Emerald wasn’t with us.

  We looked back in time to see Emerald opening the furthest cabinet.

  “What are you doing?” Elise asked in alarm.

  “We drank it Momma, remember? And we didn’t get sick. We’ll have Mr. Waverly look at it first, but I don’t think what’s in our bags is tainted. We’re going to need to eat soon, and what we take is rare…”

  Elise nodded. “Pack it then and let’s get out of here.”

  We dropped the old man back at the room with the other humans and locked them back, heading topside with an eye to whatever might be waiting.

  But it was as deserted as it had been before. Whatever had called the vampires from below was gone.

  We left the cover of the tunnel and traveled through the forest that led to the wide open plain without incident. Which is why we should have worried.

  The coast was clear when we started for the stand of forest where Jordan’s Spine lay.

  It didn’t stay that way. We were only halfway across when we heard the ear-splitting screech of a Juggat less than a half mile behind us. They’d caught our scent. We picked up our pace, moving into a dead run. Juggats were fast for their size, and in an even contest a vampire might win. We would not.

  The gap was down to less than a football field by the time we hit the large outcropping of cliffs and the narrow band where the secondary forest began. Juggat’s didn’t like the woods. They were too big for it. But on the scent of fresh meat? A few trees would only slow them a little. We needed a place to hide where they couldn’t follow.

  Up ahead of us Elise glanced back and screamed, “This way!” she made a sharp turn to the right, away from the woods and along the narrow band of cliff face that trapped us like fish in a barrel.

  “Are you nuts?” Nicholas screamed, following her anyway. I agreed, but had no breath left to tell her she’d probably just killed us all.

  And then she vanished, Emerald right behind her. Nicholas was ahead of me and I watched as he followed, not hesitating as he angled his tall frame into the slit in the cliffs and kept going. The earth vibrated behind me and I had no opportunity for second guesses. I scooted in after him even as a wicked tongue licked the air next to my ear. I moved faster. One swipe of that razored protrusion and I’d be paralyzed and laid out like a feast for the hungry lizard.

  Within the space of several yards the narrow opening expanded until we found ourselves in a dark passage with inches to spare on either side of us. We fit. The Juggat screamed its frustration on the outside of the rocky cliff face, livid with rage over the loss of its prey
.

  Another fifty yards in we stepped into the dry open space of a good-sized cavern. Elise and Emerald were already there, facing us as we emerged. I didn’t need a light to see the panicked green glow in Emerald’s eyes.

  That was when we realized we were not the only ones hiding in the cave.

  The crying reached us first, and the futile efforts of an unseen voice trying to hush it up. Together we turned to face the back of the cave.

  Huddled in the back along the wall, staring at us with huge glowing amber eyes, was a family of Demon wolves. The male stood in front, knees bent, yellowed teeth pulled back in a snarl, trying to look imposing as he waited for us to attack.

  Peeking out from behind him was a female, his mate I presumed, and a Were pup of maybe three. He clung to his mother; little furry face wet with tears. I’d always been of the mind that Demon Wolves had faces only a mother could love, but I had to admit, he was cute.

  Elise took a step back and held up her hands. “Whoa. Calm down. We aren’t here to hurt you. We’re hiding from the Juggat’s, same as you I imagine.” If we expected them to relax and invite us in, it didn’t happen. They continued to stare at Emerald and Elise in particular, not letting their guard down an inch. Exhausted, and sensing no threat from the family of wolves, we all found a sizable flat rock and took a seat.

  Beyond the walls, we could still hear the Juggat dragon as she clawed and pulled at the rocks, trying to dig her way in. We were trapped here whether the Demon wolves liked it or not until the she-dragon lost interest and left. That might take a while.

  I turned to face the family. They looked desperate and hungry, and I wondered how long they’d been hiding in the caves. Unlike many caverns, this one was bone dry. On impulse, I dragged my pack off my back and removed my water bottle. I uncapped the lid and took a small drink, my eyes following the suddenly attentive gaze of the male. He growled at me. Talk about friendly.

  I capped it and considered. “Are you thirsty?” He didn’t answer, but his eyes hadn’t left the water bottle. I hefted it in the air until I had his attention, and then I rolled it underhanded in his direction. It came to rest against his big hairy toe. His eyes finally left mine and he picked up the bottle and sniffed it, wrinkling his nose into a snarl. Cautiously, he uncapped it and sniffed the contents before he tipped it back and took a swallow. Still eying us all, he backpedaled to his family and handed the bottle to his mate. She took a healthy pull and then a second before passing it to her child, who grabbed it with pudgy fingers, desperate for a drink. When they rolled my bottle back to me it was empty and missing the cap.