“Step closer to me. I’m far from cold.” Something in Britt’s voice made her shine the light on him, and her jaw dropped in shock. She had to be crazy, she told herself, but she knew she wasn’t. His body mass had increased again. With the aid of the flashlight illuminating him, he unbuckled his belt and slid the hook into the very last hole.
“Holy crap! You’re at least a foot taller now. And your muscles are bulging!” she told him.
He shoved his shoulders back, stretched them out. The cotton of his T-shirt was stretched to the point of tearing at the armpits.
A knot tightened in Jess’s throat. She didn’t feel anything happening to her body. If she’d been given any extra abilities, what the hell were they? “I don’t understand this. I’ve gone from vampire with super abilities to human with a little clairvoyance. Meanwhile, your body is changing into a fighting machine.”
“I’m sure your abilities will announce themselves when you need them.”
“Let’s hope you’re right.”
They started walking again. The ground sloped down now, and the descent made the added weight of the weaponry put a strain on her back and legs. How far down into the earth would they have to travel?
When the ground suddenly rumbled around them, she halted and pressed one hand against the wall. The reverberations continued for several seconds.
“We must be near a subway line,” Britt said, waiting behind her.
The sound passed quickly, and they moved on. Except for the regular rumble of subways, the underground remained deathly quiet. Finding these vampires seemed to be taking forever, and she began to experience a growing sense of futility and anger. They had to find these vampires and soon!
‘We’re almost there.” It took her a moment to realize Britt’s voice echoed inside her head.
“What are you doing inside my head? And how do you know we’re almost there. I can’t see anything,” she whispered aloud.
“Your own emotions are blocking your ability to see,” he responded, again in her head.
“Yeah, well all of these emotions are new to me. I’m usually much calmer and more kick-ass.” Wait, had she replied to him without opening her mouth? Cool. “Being able to communicate this way will be a definite tactical advantage,” she projected.
She felt his nod! She wasn’t even looking at him, but she was attuned to his every movement.
She had a skill! That had to be good, didn’t it?
Suddenly, as if she’d relaxed and let the world open up to her, she heard chanting ahead of them. Low, resonant voices repeating the same odd words over and over. She looked at Britt, flashing the light just below his chin so she could see his expression. Yeah, they both recognized the language, but it wasn’t Mayan. It was the ancient vampire language. A language Sampson had uncovered and Jess had used on one or two occasions. Both she and Britt knew the ancient words held more power than either of them dared to contemplate. Sampson had only scratched the surface in learning how the words and phrases impacted vampires.
She also knew the words could inundate or give unpredictable abilities to vampires in unskilled hands. Jess had the feeling these vampires knew exactly what effect the words would have. In fact, she suspected they were the original vampires who’d practiced these rites, which meant the language probably wasn’t dead after all. Damn, these vampires still spoke the language. Still used it. Advantage bad vamps? What if they had words that could counteract anything she could throw at them.
When Britt came up behind her and touched her shoulders, she knew his intent. Moral support. He was sensing all of her thoughts, and now that she’d cleared her head, she knew his, as well. Her breath caught when she experienced the overpowering depth of his longing for her and his regret that they’d been unable to make love before this battle.
Tears burgeoned and her throat suddenly felt raw. It was hard to swallow.
“This is it, baby. The fight of our lives and it’ll be all or nothing.”
Because she was in his mind, she knew he’d said that because he wanted her to focus on being strong. He didn’t want her distracted by feelings for him. That made her long for him even more.
Slumping back against the wall, she propped the heavy weapons against the stone behind her for a quick reprieve. Her breathing was labored, and she had a cramp in her lower back. With her vampire strength gone, she felt fatigued in a way she’d forgotten.
Warm lips brushed the top of her head, and Britt’s hands found space enough between weaponry to wrap around her waist to pull her upright. “Wish we had more time,” he murmured in a low, rough voice.
Her heartbeat edged up a few notches. Adrenaline tightened her chest. “Me too.” She turned to him. Their lips touched, just barely. She wanted to taste him, but now wasn’t the time.
“Jess?”
“Yes?” She edged along the wall toward the unknown with him close behind her.
“Try to stay alive. I have plans for you involving that extra deep hot tub in your penthouse and lots of those scented bubbles you use.”
Her body flushed all over again. “You sure know how to raise the stakes for a gal,” she said, not daring to stop again. Not daring to hope they’d live to celebrate in any way, let alone in a hot tub full of her favorite raspberry scented bubbles
Nor did she dare to think of his muscled body covered in those fluffy bubbles. The thought that if everything went fubar tonight it might never happen was just too much to consider.
A sudden, high-pitched scream instantly snapped her back to reality. She forged on, forgot about the weight she was carrying.
The tunnel took a sharp turn ahead where light leaked into the darkness from the left. An opening into the cavern they’d seen in their visions.
‘Zeke, if you can hear me from wherever you are,” she thought, “I need to find out what my skills are going to be and soon.’
The dead air inside the tunnel suddenly picked up. A tiny whirlwind caught her hair and whipped it around her face. She brushed her hair out of the way and for a desperate minute she thought she was going to learn her ability, but the whirlwind died and disappeared and she felt nothing.
“I’ll go in first,” Britt said.
“I guess that’s probably what your massive body structure is designed for.” Jess pressed herself against the rock wall again. One of her weapons scraped against the stone and the chanting stopped.
They both froze.
“Damn it! So much for the element of surprise,” Jess whispered.
“We never had an element of surprise. They’ve always known we were here.”
Jess hiked up the heaviest rifle on her shoulder. Fatigued muscles weren’t a great way to start a battle.
Britt craned his neck and stole a quick glance around the corner. “Looks like there’s no way we can circle around to another entrance. This appears to be the only way in.”
“Great. Just love being trapped underground in a dank cave. How many vamps are there?”
“Not as many as I’d have guessed. Maybe twenty. But brace yourself, Jess. James and Terry are there. And Sampson.”
“Holy hell.” She blew out a ragged breath. “They must’ve waited until we left to nab them. But how did they get into the safe room?” When Britt just shook his head at her question, she asked, “Did you see Sephina?”
“No. Just Sampson.”
She couldn’t imagine Terry, even in vampire form, leaving Sephina behind, but hopefully she had. She didn’t want to worry about the child in the middle of a bloody battle. There was no need to wonder why they had taken Sampson. A sudden blinding image of Mayan humans being led to the sacrificial bowl was enough of an explanation for her.
Britt must’ve picked up on the images running in her head because he gasped when she saw a vampire slash a victim’s vein open then hold the human up and drink from him like he was an animal skin filled with wine. The images were horrifying, even to a vampire—no, an ex-vampire—like her.
“Don’t wo
rry. We aren’t going to allow that to happen to Sampson,” he said.
She stole a quick look into the cavern and jerked her head back. “I certainly hope not because I’ll soon be joining Sampson as the only other human in the room.” She hesitated. “Other than you—maybe.” The jury was still out on his status.
“They’re baiting you, Jess. There’s more to this ceremony than the paste and blood. Has to be. Otherwise they would have stolen the paste and gone back to Europe.”
Jess looked again. Her heart twisted. Both James and Terry were participating in the preparations. Their faces were marked with blood and their eyes were vast and blank like they were under the influence.
“Let’s get this over with,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Don’t forget that hot tub,” he said and ran into the room with a gun in each hand. Jess followed.
Sampson sat on the ground not far from a ceremonial altar. Nearby, the ceramic jar containing the paste held a position on a pedestal of its own, as well as several other ceramic bowls stained and reeking of old blood.
Rifles at the ready, Jess’s forearm muscles screamed at the weight of an assault rifle in each hand. She couldn’t hold them like this for long. She quickly scoped out her surroundings. The cavern, possibly created as a subway tunnel, had been abandoned decades ago. Oil lamps burned from holders in the rock walls. Scents permeated the air. Besides the stench of blood, there were odors of herbs, cacao and vanilla. A mixing bowl held the herbs near the paste. Archaeologist’s thought cacao represented blood at these games, but she knew that in reality, the blood was mixed with the cacao. It not only represented blood, it was blood.
Only a handful of vampires waited in the four corners of the room. Each one wore a ceremonial headdress that looked as ancient as the rituals themselves. Old vampires desperate to regain their status. Instinctually she knew they’d been the Lords of the Mayans who’d been driven back to the underworld by Zeke and his brother.
Jess shuddered. Thanks to Zeke’s memories, she knew the purpose of the vessel nearest the humans. The statue of a squat little man in traditional garb consisting of a large vase on his head. The vase that held the most symbolic of ritualistic beverages—pure, freshly drained blood.
And intuitively she knew the kind of power vampires would garner from the mixture of the ingredients near Sampson. His pallid features and unfocused gaze proved they’d had enough time to prepare him for the ritual. His pupils were huge and unfocused, and she suspected he’d already reached a state of anemia. As she moved further into the room, pungent incense grew stronger, clouded the room and made her feel slightly wobbly.
Two rows of stadium seating faced an inside courtyard with carved stone wheels on each side of the arena. All part of the ritual and all newly created with pressure treated lumber and modern tools, by the looks of things.
“Jess, get out of here,” Sampson shouted. For the first time she could see he was chained to the floor. As if they were of no consequence, the vampires ignored her and Britt and continued their chanting and their preparations. Not a single one tried to attack even though weapons were aimed at them. She glanced at Britt standing beside her, his chest heaving from the effects of adrenaline pumping through his veins. She could feel the rush herself.
“They must have a death wish,” she said in a feeble attempt at humor.
Though totally focused on their enemies, Britt allowed a quick grin. His expression made her heart skip a beat. She raised one semi automatic weapon, aimed and fired a round into one group of vampires.
They screamed, but didn’t fight back. Their bodies simply burst into dust that rose on the air and hung there like a bank of thunderclouds. Normally, the molecules would float briefly then fall to the ground, but not this time. The sight of the dust, dark and ominous, hanging over them gave Jess a unpleasant feeling.
Britt simultaneously fired into a group in the opposite corner. The same thing happened. The vampires disintegrated, but their molecules hung in the air.
The barrage of gunfire continued until all of the vampires were gone, except Terry and James who’d been cowering behind Sampson. Problem was, they had sharp, black knives in their hands and they were way too close to Sampson to get to him before they decided to use them.
With the vampires evaporated into molecules, the room appeared empty, but still sensing trouble, Jess backed up to Britt. They stood back to back, monitoring their surroundings. Protecting themselves from attack.
“Wasn’t that too easy? Britt said. “These vampires should be formidable. How could we just waltz in here and wipe them out?”
“Doesn’t make sense.” A thick, syrupy feeling weighted her down. Made her feel like the floor had become unsteady—or was that her? It was just exhaustion, she told herself. She’d used all of her ammo, and she tossed her guns to the ground and heaved a sigh of relief at losing the added weight. “Got any bullets left?”
“Nope. I still have my stakes, though.” He grabbed one off his belt and held it at ear level so she could see it out peripherally.
Suddenly chanting started again. “Where’s that coming from?” Jess ground out.
They turned in a circle but saw no other vampires. She slapped her hands over her ears while the noise continued to rise in volume. Music, along with thick, spicy incense, made her feel nauseated.
“Where is that racket coming from? We killed all of the vampires, didn’t we?” Britt yelled above the noise.
Sampson watched them, a look of horror on his face.
“Hell, I thought so. But there’s another problem. Shouldn’t Sampson look a little happier now that he’s been rescued?” Jess looked around the room again and something strange buzzed in her ear. Like a voice on hyperdrive—above her level of hearing, maybe? “Something’s not right here, Britt.”
“Got that right, babe,” he said.
As if someone had blown out all the candles at once, the room darkened. Only one source of light illuminated the center of the cavern. It pulsed and changed from blue to purple. The black, vibrating clouds hanging in the corners began to move, to circle the perimeter of the arena with Britt and Jess inside. The dust started to swirl like a category five hurricane forming over an ocean. And she and Britt were in the eye of the storm.
Wind speed ruffed up sand and debris from the floor. Pebbles swirled in the near-blinding mix.
“Watch those rocks,” Britt said. “They could make painful projectiles.”
Jess thought about the weird breeze that had whipped up in the tunnel a few minutes earlier. Was that her gift? Had she somehow made it happen without being aware of doing it? Britt had abilities, and now that they’d been unified to work together as Hunapu, surely she had something worthwhile to offer. She raised one hand and stretched her fingers wide. She put her hand into the stream of the debris and pushed against the wind. It stopped instantly and all the debris dropped to the ground in a clatter.
Might have been reason to celebrate if that action hadn’t allowed them both to see the reality of what was happening. They’d been seeing what the vampires wanted them to see.
But now the fog had been lifted and the show was over. They were surrounded by vampires. Vampires with red eyes like no vampires she’d seen before.
“Oh great! Where’d these bastards come from?” Britt muttered. They were surrounded.
A towering, highly decorated vampire stepped through the throng. Other vampires quickly moved aside to allow him passage. Dark skinned with black hair and gleaming white fangs, he eyed them angrily. His broad shoulders were muscled and sinewy. An elaborate headdress, flourished with colorful red and yellow feathers, that obviously elevated him from the rest of the vamps. Gold bands on his arms and ankles were covered in symbols Jess didn’t recognize.
One thing she did know—instantly. He was the eldest. Now she understood why Britt’s body had been increasing in size. He needed that size to fight a vampire this big.
“Jess Vandermire, we’ve been waiti
ng for you,” the vampire said. When he spoke she could see some sort of spine had been driven through his tongue. Both of his earlobes were freshly pierced with thorns, and blood dripped onto his shoulders. A golden twined rope hung around his neck. In one hand he carried a bowl with sheets of paper splattered with blood. In the other, he held a dish filled with incense. Its pungent, compelling scent had probably caused them to hallucinate and see vampires who weren’t really there.
“James and Terry promised me you’d come. Their acceptance into our sacred society depends on what happens here tonight.” The vampire’s voice vibrated through her pleasurably, taking over her will. She clamped her teeth together in a bid against his power over her which he shouldn’t even have if she wasn’t a vampire any more.
James and Terry still stood behind Sampson, and the obsidian blades in their hands looked extremely sharp. She didn’t want to think about what was going to happen next. By the look of drugged resignation on Sampson’s face, neither did he.
“You were the one who brought the paste to our attention, vampire hunter, and your blood will bring us forward into this century. You have strength and skills vampires can only dream about. We will absorb your power and your abilities, and with your offering, we will become even more enlightened. With your sacrifice, our rite will open the portal to the otherworld. We’ll commune with our ancestor, the strongest and most devout of us. He will show us ways to use the ancient language that have been forgotten, and he will partake in the ritual. If we succeed we will enable him to return to this world. The most ancient one, Ah Puch. The dark lord of us all.
Cold shivers racked Jess’s body. Was it fear? Or was she being affected by the incense as much as Britt was? She blinked hard. Her vision was clear, and her thinking seemed logical. Jess frowned and glanced back at Britt. He was no longer behind her. She spotted him at the edge of the arena. His eyes were glazed over, and he was being held by several vampires. Their black fingernails had sliced the skin of his arms, and blood ran down his flesh in fresh, bright red rivulets that set her heart racing.
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