Chapter Twenty-One
~The Pursuit~
They ran. Hard.
Laura gripped Logan’s chest with all her strength. She was on his back, clinging for dear life. Logan was following Rafael, who was urging them on. Vampires were fast, Laura knew, but Rafael was even faster.
They stormed down into pure darkness. Laura couldn’t see past the black, but still her eyes were open wide, still straining to see. Her hair blew backwards as Logan ran on, and she struggled to catch breath against the wind in her face.
She could hear the vibrations behind them. They were getting louder. Whatever was making them was getting closer.
“Quickly, quickly!” Rafael yelled. Logan doubled his speed.
They sped through long corridors, down twisting tunnels, and into long paths. Laura gasped, trying to gulp down the air that streamed by her, but it was very difficult.
Suddenly the path they were on widened, and unfolded into an open space. The moon’s rays streamed in from a hollow in the distant ceiling, allowing Laura to see her surroundings. They ran on a single path that jutted out from the rock. A long, dark abyss lay on either side of them. One wrong move, one misstep, and they’d be hurtling down. But Logan was steadfast, and kept on undeterred at the same speed as before.
Ahead of them, Laura realized with alarm, was a large gap in the path. A place where the ancient rock had long since fallen away. She watched, stunned, as Rafael raced towards it and leapt into the air. He rose, higher than she would have ever thought possible, and landed deftly on the other side.
“Faster!” he yelled from the other side. “Go faster!”
For a second, Logan faltered, but quickly regained his step. Laura realized with horror that they would have to jump the gap as well.
Logan ran towards it, and sprang into the air. For a split second, Laura felt weightless – a feather rising on a cool wind. And then they started to go down. They were falling, down towards the other end. But they were coming short.
Laura screamed, and buried her head against Logan’s back while locking her fingers tighter. They slammed the edge hard, and the impact broke her grip. She lost her hold, and was knocked off Logan. She was falling.
Desperately, she grabbed at something, anything. Anything that might save her. Her hand caught cloth, and she jerked to a stop, nearly dislocating her shoulder from the impact.
For half a second, she just dangled there, amazed that she caught on. Then she looked up, and realized she had hold of Logan’s leg. His foot, more precisely. Her heart was beating out of her chest. She didn’t dare look down.
Summoning all her strength, she reached up with her other hand, securing it around his calf. But her arms were exhausted, and she nearly lost the hold again. She felt Logan move, and looked up to see him also hanging halfway off the cliff’s edge. He was struggling to get up.
Suddenly Rafael appeared above them. “Hold on,” he told her, and grabbed Logan’s arm to pull him up. Logan grunted as his bare torso scraped over the hard rock. Laura held on for dear life. Then Rafael’s hand came over the edge, gripping her forearm, and pulled her up.
She collapsed onto the icy rock floor. She was breathing hard. Her head spun from the adrenaline she felt. She peeked up, back the way they came – and saw her pursuers for the first time.
They were still in the distance, just now entering the open cavern, but they were gaining fast. A horde of vampires at least fifty deep moved in unison towards her like a giant wave. The moonlight reflected sharply off their skin; they were a pale army in the night.
“Come on!” Rafael roared, and Laura felt herself being picked up. Logan was carrying her. They headed to the end of the path, where a wide opening led deeper into darkness. As soon as they were through, Rafael activated a mechanism, and a giant boulder slammed down behind them, locking them in. There was no light for Laura to see.
Logan could see, though. “What is this?” he demanded angrily. “You have brought us to a dead end! There is no exit!” Laura felt his body quiver with rage.
There came no reply. Laura heard shuffling, and then the agonizing sound of rock scraping against rock.
“Help me,” Rafael said gruffly. Logan put Laura down. She felt him move away from her, towards Rafael’s voice. She couldn’t see what they were doing, but the scarping grew louder, momentarily. Then Laura felt a gust of wind across her face.
“A way out,” Rafael said. As the words left his mouth, a thunderous crash sounded against the boulder. The vampires were already on the other side – and they were trying to break down the entrance! Another crash, and Laura saw thin beams of light stream in around the edges. They were destroying the border!
“They’re here,” Rafael said stiffly. “You go. I will stay, to buy you time.”
“They will overwhelm you!” Logan exclaimed.
“Boy, I have more tricks up my sleeve than you may believe.” Another thunderous crash, and the whole cave they were in trembled. “Go now! You will find an enormous maze. There is only one way out. Take the crossings left, left, right. Every time. Miss but one and your path will lead deeper into the ground, and there will be no escape. Hurry!” Another crash, another massive vibration. “They will break in soon. The barricade won’t keep for long. GO!”
Laura felt herself being picked up again, then felt the wind against her skin. They had left Rafael behind. The last sound Laura heard was that agonizing scrape of rock against rock.
They ran. Logan ran for his life; for both their lives. They ran down curving pathways with hard angles. Left, left, right. They ran ahead, far ahead. Left, left, right. The sounds behind them lessened. Their pursuers were being left behind. Left, left, right. Logan ran for everything he had, and Laura clung onto his back with a grip she would never release. Left, left, right. She couldn’t see anything in the dark, but she trusted Logan. Left, left, right. She could feel his heart beating against her chest. Left, left, right. On and on they ran, until the sounds in the distance became an inaudible hum, and then disappeared altogether. Only then did Logan slow pace.
“I think,” he said finally, “that we got away.” A flood of relief greater than anything Laura had experienced before came over her.
“We’re safe?”
“I think so.” He set her down and took her hand. “Come, we should be out of this labyrinth soon.”
Laura followed him – and gripped his hand tightly. She couldn’t help but smile. She hoped he wouldn’t notice.
Logan led her straight down the path, then turned left. They walked further, and took another left turn. Further still, for a stretch of time that seemed to last hours, and finally took a right – and Laura walked right into Logan’s back.
“No…” he stammered. “No, no, no, no!”
“What is it?” Laura asked cautiously. She couldn’t see anything in the dark.
Logan started breathing heavily, like a cornered animal. With no word, he picked her up again and ran down the path, until Laura saw a dim, distant light source far away. As they got closer, Laura realize they had come to an enclosure.
A single ray of light streamed into the middle of the circular room. A round rock slab stood at the center, and the light shone onto it. There were symbols carved on it, the same as the ones outside, in both scripts, and they gleamed in a brilliant turquoise against the light. Laura looked around her. The walls were smooth glass rock, the same as the wall underneath the entrance to this entire dungeon had been. And the light shone from a long, narrow chamber that was cut into the rock above them.
Laura looked around again, growing alarmed. The walls were smooth; there were no cuts or partitions in them. The only way out of this chamber was… the way they had come.
“A dead end,” Logan said slowly.
“What? No!” It couldn’t be. Not after everything they’d gone through. Not after everything they’d done. Everything he’d done. For her.
“I must… have missed a turn,” he said. And he slammed his fist against the wall, hard enough that Laura winced. “Dammit!” he roared in anger.
“We… we can go back,” Laura said. “We can retrace our steps.”
“No.” Logan shook his head sadly. “You might not hear them coming, but I do. If we go back, there is only death.”