I couldn’t imagine they wanted to unleash a Screamer. It seemed ridiculously extreme.
“Wake up?” Naomi balked. “Of course not! As the Strigoi feeds, we are bound to it fiercely. It is one of only a few ways to keep a strong vampire immobile. It’s called a Vassalage, as we are its servants until the binding is broken and the blood is drained.”
“Well”—I cleared my throat—“the one bound to you was well on its way to becoming corporeal.”
A small gasp came from behind me. “That is very dangerous indeed. I have only seen one Strigoi come to life and it was a truly horrid sight. They eat a living thing from the inside out to gain a new life, but it’s only a temporary one. Once it inhabits a vampire’s body, it cannot feed properly, so it will eventually die as the host body dries out. But its instinct is to tear others apart in its frenzy to stay alive. It is very strong and almost impossible to defeat.”
“That sounds perfect,” I muttered as I continued to claw my way through the dirt tube. “I pray it didn’t have enough blood to come to life. That would be one too many things to worry about right now.”
19
The tunnel turned uphill abruptly. We climbed up the incline to yet another trapdoor. This place was a maze of secret hatches. This had to be the end of my underground road, because I was done. More than finished. It was time to emerge and make contact with Rourke. He would be in a borderline frenzy right now. I hoped all the boys had made progress on the outside. It would be nice to have some good news.
“Okay, we’re here. What do I do now?” I asked the ghosts.
“Enter.”
“You must go up.”
“You will find it there.”
“What is it exactly?” I grumbled. “The last time you said it, it was a half-formed Screamer.” I glanced down at Naomi. We were in such a small space it was difficult to see her. “Do you have any idea where we are?”
“By the scent and magic, I’d say we are beneath the Reliquary.”
“We’re under a church?” I lifted my nose and inhaled around the edges of the door. I caught a trace of candle wax and lots of dust, along with the buzz of magic. “Why do vamps have a chapel on the grounds?”
“Yes, the Reliquary,” a ghost voice filtered in my ear.
“It is the key.”
“Must break the barrier.”
“Non,” Naomi answered. “Not a chapel, but a shrine. It is where we hold our most scared objects. It is said to be cursed and all vampires stay well away from it. The magic here is old. My bones ache with it even now.”
Naomi was right. The magic had begun to filter into my skin, but didn’t threaten me directly. The floor above us hummed with it. “Do you think this is where the ward is fueled?” I asked. “It feels strong enough.”
“Yes.” A ghostly response hit my ear first.
“The barrier begins here.”
“I do not know,” Naomi confessed. “But it would make some sense. Vampires do not venture to this place. It is said that Vlad’s possessions still carry his essence and any who touch them will go insane.”
“Vlad, huh?” He had been a powerful Vampire King long ago, but had been dead for centuries. There could be only one great ruler of vampires at a time, and Eudoxia was the supreme Queen now. “If your Queen fueled that rumor, she was smart. Now nobody comes near her ward or her priceless artifacts on threat of possession.” From what I knew about strong wards, they were almost always grounded to something solid—the more powerful that something was, the longer it held and the harder it was to break.
I placed one finger tentatively on the underside of the trapdoor.
Energy tingled into the tip, but it wasn’t anything major. Maybe threats of curses had managed to keep this place untouched. “This door doesn’t feel spelled,” I told Naomi. “Kind of like the mausoleum you were just in. They must have put up a perimeter spell around the outside but didn’t bother to include the inside. I’m going to push it open and see what I can find. If all looks good, follow me.”
“Okay,” she said. “But be careful. Even if there is no curse, I have heard that some of the relics have … a presence. Or it is said.”
“I don’t know much about your vampire history, but a roomful of Vlad the Impaler’s trinkets is a little on the Dracula side, but if he was your King, it makes some sense his things would hold residual power. I’m not planning on touching anything I don’t have to, so don’t worry.”