Chapter Eight
“We’re almost there,” Charlie said.
“I have to feed,” Jack told her.
“I think it’s better if we get belowground as soon as we can.” She was desperate to see Dylan. “We have some humans below who offer their blood. I hate doing it, but they’re willing.” She felt like the lowest form of life feeding on people who, while they had a choice, still believed they were obligated to keep the vampires protecting them well nourished. “And we supplement their blood with animal blood. They’ll be able to provide for you until we can hunt.”
Jack nodded as, through the trees, a house materialized. It wasn’t until they were closer that he realized it was a lighthouse. Most of the house’s white paint had chipped away to reveal the rotting wood beneath. Glass remained in only a few windows, and the front porch looked like a mouse could bring it down. The pine leaning against the brick chimney blocked some of the lighthouse tower at the end of the structure.
“Has anyone ever climbed into the lighthouse to look for land?” he inquired.
“Well, I’ll be, do you mean you can climb up to the top of that thing? Shit, you do learn something new every day. And I bet you can see far and wide from up there. My goodness, do you think boats can also see the structure from the sea?” she inquired without missing a beat.
Okay, ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer, but he still shot her a look. She smirked at him.
“Come on; it’s this way,” Charlie said and tried not to laugh when Jack continued to glower at her.
Jack followed her through the woods behind the house. “How far down are the cliffs?”
“In some areas, they’re a hundred to a hundred fifty feet; in others, they’re ten or twenty. They’re at least a hundred feet high here.”
Charlie led him over to a clump of dirt protruding from the ground and bent to grasp something. Jack didn’t know what she was doing until a door rose from the earth.
“Root cellar,” she said at his questioning look.
She led the way down the rickety stairs and stepped to the side at the bottom. She waited for Jack to join her before she climbed back up, grabbed the rope tied to the handle inside the door, and pulled it closed.
She knew, from having seen the outside of it, no one would see the root cellar there after the door closed. Over the years, the debris on top of the door had broken down and stuck to it until the door blended into the earth.
With the door closed, complete darkness descended over the cellar. The enhanced vision that came with being a vampire did nothing for her as no light pierced these gloomy depths. Placing her hand against the cold, rock wall, she felt her way over the rough stones and down the stairs. She struggled not to sneeze as the potent scent of mildew and earth tickled her nostrils.
At the bottom of the stairs, she heard Jack’s breaths but not in time to stop herself from walking into him. “Sorry,” she muttered.
She didn’t step away fast enough to stop her body from reacting to his nearness. The whisper of his breath against her ear made her breasts tingle. No! It’s stupid to get involved with anyone on this island, and you stopped being a moron ten years ago.
She liked to believe that was true, but she couldn’t deny her fingers itched to stroke his cheek. Unable to stop herself, her fingers touched her lips before she yanked her hand away. She could clearly recall the taste of him, didn’t think she’d ever forget it, but she was not going to let it happen again.
Her body protested the resolution, and before it could betray her by drawing him against her and screwing his brains out, she edged further away from him. It would be so easy to lose herself to him in the shadows.
Her heart pounded more rapidly, and her mouth went dry. It had been years since anyone sexually touched her, and no one had ever made her body come alive like Jack had with a simple kiss.
Bad idea, Charlie. Keep it together and keep your pants on.
That was easier said than done as she could feel the heat emanating from him as she edged further away and dipped into her shoulder bag to pull out the small flashlight she kept there. She turned it on and directed it at Jack; she hoped illuminating him would take away some of his enticement. It didn’t work.
The light emphasized the amber and green of his hazel eyes. He was rather handsome…
Charlie started to step away, but his fingers enclosed on her wrist and he pulled her closer. She restrained herself from leaning closer to nuzzle his neck and kiss him. What was it about this guy?
Yeah, he was good looking, but she’d seen better looking men over the years. Mal was handsome too, but she’d never felt any attraction to the vampire who saved her life. She tried to step away from Jack, but he pulled her back toward him.
“There are shelves behind you,” he said when her lips clamped together and displeasure exuded from her.
“Oh… ah, yeah,” she muttered, kicking herself in the ass for forgetting about the shelves lining the side wall.
Though she’d been annoyed with him, Jack couldn’t stop his fingers from running over her wrist. Her lavender scent intensified on the air, and he knew it meant she was becoming aroused again. His gaze fell to her breasts covered by the baggy, black shirt she wore, a shirt he now recognized as having belonged to a security guard, as well as her black boots.
When she tugged on her wrist, he released it.
Charlie turned away from him and walked across the room to the rickety, wooden shelf set against the back wall. She rested her hand over a rock to the right of it; it looked no different than any of the numerous others lining the walls. Except with this rock, when she pressed down, a click sounded and the shelf creaked open an inch. Charlie pulled it further open to reveal the tunnel beyond.
Jack walked over to examine the opening, which was only about three feet wide and five and a half feet high. “Mal created this?”
“Yes,” Charlie said. “He found the root cellar during his hunt and hid in here while he worked to dig his way to freedom. Of course, the shelf and hidden hinge came later, and he hadn’t known he was on an island at the time. He believed, if he stayed underground long enough, he would avoid them and get away.”
“Of course,” Jack murmured. “How long has he been on this island?”
“Fifteen years.”
“Shit,” Jack hissed through his teeth. Running a hand through his hair, he tugged at the ends of it while he processed her words. No way would he remain trapped here for fifteen years; he’d set fire to this island before he ever allowed that to happen.
“Yeah,” Charlie muttered as she stared at the tunnel leading into the earth. Living underground had kept her alive these past three years, but she hated it. “Come on.”
She stepped into the tunnel and waited for Jack to join her before pulling the shelf closed. She walked fifteen feet into the tunnel and stopped when she encountered the string running across the ground. There were a series of ten of them over the next one hundred feet in case someone missed the first ones.
Unless someone knew they were there, they would never see them, even if they were shining a light directly at them. Mal was a genius when it came to this stuff. He’d have been dead years ago if he wasn’t.
“In the unlikely event someone finds the root cellar and discovers how to open the secret entrance, Mal set up an alarm system,” she said as she grasped the string and gave it one sharp tug, paused a second, gave it three more tugs, paused two seconds, and gave it one final tug. Now they would know she was coming, what tunnel she was in as each tunnel had its own distinctive bell, and they wouldn’t fear she was the enemy. “All the tunnels have similar setups.”
“Pretty elaborate,” Jack commented.
“It has to be,” Charlie replied. “There are too many trying to kill us, and we haven’t survived by being careless. If you walk where I do, you’ll avoid the traps and should be fine.”
“Should be?”
Charlie grinned at him. “Yes. Just don’t get carel
ess.”
She didn’t have to tell him twice. Anyone who could build a small town below the earth was not someone he was going to underestimate.
Jack’s shoulders nearly brushed the sides of the tunnel as they walked through it. Mal had spent fifteen years below the earth; fifteen years of digging tunnels and setting traps and alarms. Jack could only imagine what a vampire could accomplish in that time, especially as he took in more survivors, but the idea of being the vampire who did it, made him shudder.
How was Mal still sane? Was he still sane? Charlie had spent more time beneath ground than Jack could have tolerated, but how had Mal not flown over the cuckoo’s nest by now?
Gazing at the walls around him, Jack had his answer. This project, and saving others, had kept Mal from going crazy. Or at least Jack assumed Mal wasn’t Ted Bundy level insane yet.
Jack would have lost his freaking mind down here. Would he be spending the next fifteen years of his life down here too?
No, he’d rather die trying to fight his way off this island than live down here for more than a month. He would find Mike and Doug, and they would come up with a plan to destroy every motherfucker involved in their capture before fleeing this place. Just because the vampires and humans down here hadn’t come up with an escape plan yet, didn’t mean there wasn’t one.
Jack studied the terrain as he carefully followed Charlie. In certain places, the floor and walls became solid rock that stretched for hundreds of feet before becoming dirt again. How much time had it taken to break through this terrain?
For a human, it would have taken years and probably some dynamite. For a vamp, Jack didn’t know but probably a couple of weeks, maybe a month. But then, if he had nothing else to do, Jack would have also occupied himself by carving through the rock to establish a safe hiding place. And then, with years of boredom facing him, he would have kept on carving, which is what Mal had done.
His gaze fell on Charlie as she walked with confidence through the tunnels. When he found Mike and Doug, he would make sure to get her off this island too. He couldn’t leave her behind to rot down here.
“Almost there,” Charlie mumbled.
And then she was stepping into a cavern. Jack followed her into the open space about a hundred feet in diameter. He braced himself as the eyes of seven others swung toward him. Five of them sat around a small fire while two others washed clothes in a bucket. There were four women and three men.
They were all paler than normal, but they looked relatively normal for people who survived underground. Jack didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but if he discovered them sitting in the corner while picking at their skin, he wouldn’t have been surprised.
As a turned vamp, he may not be able to smell a killer vampire like the purebreds could, but he could differentiate a human from a vampire as like always knew like. The olive-skinned man with black hair and black eyes sitting by the fire was a vampire, and Jack assumed it was Mal.
“Hey,” Charlie greeted, and they all nodded at her, but their eyes remained on Jack. “Everyone, this is Jack. Jack, this is Darlene, Sheila, Valerie, Lucia, Chase, Gio, and Miguel.”
Miguel was the vampire Jack assumed was Mal. Then, the shadows in the tunnel on the other side of the cavern shifted, and a tall, thin man with a hawkish nose and dark brown hair emerged from the shadows.
Mal. Jack didn’t know how he knew this was the vamp who changed Charlie, but the second he saw him, he was confident of it. Intelligence radiated from Mal’s deep brown eyes as he surveyed Jack.
He sensed Mal’s power; this vamp was older and stronger than him, yet Jack had the sudden impulse to beat Mal to a bloody pulp. Mal’s blood ran through Charlie. She wouldn’t be here if Mal hadn’t saved her, but Jack couldn’t control the unexpected jealousy flooding him while he gazed at the man.
Then, a smaller shadow stepped out from behind Mal, drawing Jack’s attention to the boy who broke into a grin before racing across the cavern at them.
“Mom!” he yelled as Charlie ran toward him.
“Dylan!” Charlie caught him when he threw himself into her arms.
Chapter Nine
Charlie wrapped her arms around Dylan and closed her eyes while she clung to his slender body. She’d refused to let her fear get the best of her since encountering Jack in the pit. She’d refused to think about the possibility she might never see him again, but now all that fear was catching up with her.
She was hugging him too tight, but he didn’t protest as he held on to her for more time than he usually would have. She was gone longer than normal, and though he would never admit it, he was afraid for her.
At nine years old, he believed himself too much of a man to show when he was scared, but she felt it in the shaking hands pressed against her back and the tremor that ran through his body before he suppressed it. Charlie crushed him more firmly against her and gulped down the lump in her throat.
He’d been trapped down here for the past three years, with far too little time in the sun and nothing that other children his age enjoyed. He could be a little shy, but before coming here, he had friends and played soccer and baseball. It was all taken from him, and after three years of living beneath the earth, with a group of adults and vampires, she was sure there would be lasting effects after they were free.
Since coming here, she’d continued to try and keep his education going, but her lack of educational tools limited things. There was only so much math someone could do with no paper and pen, never mind without calculators or computers. And with no books, there was little he could read. She wrote stories in the dirt for him to read, but it wasn’t the same.
Before coming here, she’d labored to give him a good life. She’d aspired to provide him with a far better childhood than hers and failed. Her childhood lacked love and was cruel, but at least she’d seen the sun.
Unlike her childhood, Dylan was loved and cherished beyond measure, but he was missing out on so much of his life. She would give anything and do whatever it took to free him from this island.
Jack glanced between Charlie and her son as he hid his astonishment over the revelation she had a child. Dylan was human; changing him into a vampire at his age would be cruel. Purebred vampire babies aged until they reached maturity; turned, human children never aged again.
Was he really her son or had she adopted him?
Then Dylan lifted his head from Charlie’s shoulder and his one blue eye, and one green eye landed on Jack. Those eyes were nearly identical in color to his mother’s and just as piercing, except that direct stare was more unnerving from a child. His tousled brown hair framed a face rounder than Charlie’s; Dylan had her eyes and hair, but his features were someone else’s.
Where is his father? Is he still alive? Is he waiting for them to come home? Jack’s nails bit into his palms as he tried to bury his jealousy over the possibility.
“Who’s he?” Dylan asked.
“Manners,” Charlie reminded him.
Color flushed Dylan’s cheeks, but his body remained stiff against hers as he surveyed Jack.
“This is Jack.” Charlie turned her head toward Jack. “And this is my son, Dylan.”
Jack glanced from Charlie to Dylan and back again. The gleam in Charlie’s eyes told him he better proceed cautiously. With the brood Liam and Sera created, he’d been around plenty of children over the years.
He’d never seen himself being surrounded by a big family when he was human. As an only child, he had little experience with babies until his best friend decided to try repopulating the earth with vampires.
But the Byrne kids had grown up with him, they were used to him, and after changing their diapers and watching their antics, he was used to them. He had no idea how to approach a child he didn’t know.
Treat him like you’d treat a Byrne. But he didn’t think Charlie would appreciate it if he tossed Dylan into a lake or told him to fuck off. So instead, Jack tried for polite. “Nice to meet you.”
And he
sounded like a moron when he went for polite, something Dylan seemed to agree with as he looked anything but impressed.
“Where did you find him?” Dylan asked Charlie.
“He fell into the pit,” she said and lifted her head to look at Mal as he approached. “We also encountered a couple of Savages. The hunt has started early.”
Mal’s eyebrows shot up at this revelation. “That’s never happened before.”
“There’s been a change in their routine. Some of the prisoners escaped. Jack was one of them.”
Loud gasps filled the cavern, and then those gathered within rose to approach them. Miguel had a noticeable limp as he came closer. Sheila handed him a stick, and he took it to use as a cane. As a child in Mexico, when Miguel broke his leg it healed wrong; being turned into a vampire a hundred years ago hadn’t fixed it.
He was still fast enough to avoid the initial rush of slaughter during his hunt, but not fast enough that he ventured above often. Mal and Charlie were okay with that as they didn’t want him getting killed.
“An escape?” Miguel asked. “Someone got off the island?”
“No,” Charlie said, and she sensed the disappointment washing off the others.
“We escaped our cages,” Jack said.
“Who’s we?” Mal asked.
Jack explained to him how he, Mike, and Doug, along with some others, were taken from a bar and placed in the cages. He told them how they broke out and were separated after fleeing the barn.
“So their world has been turned upside down,” Mal murmured. “This could be our chance.”
“What difference will this make?” Chase asked.
“I don’t know yet.” Mal walked over to stand by the fire. Clasping his hands behind his back, his head bowed as he studied the flames. “But in fifteen years, nothing like this has ever happened. The organizers will be distracted and scrambling. There must be something we can do to take advantage of that.”
“Mal,” Charlie said, but his gaze remained riveted on the flames. “Mal, does Jack smell?”
Unforeseen: The Vampire Awakenings, Book 9 Page 6