“I don’t like it,” I grumble. “It’s leaving too much to chance.”
“You going in alone is leaving too much to chance,” she counters, serious again. “No more wasting time, Dagan. We are going into The Crypts together. There is no way in hell I’m just staying back while you have all the fun.”
“Fun,” I mutter, turning and facing the fortress. “Fine. Have it your way, Beth.”
I start marching in the direction of the coven. As Beth catches up, I see the satisfied look upon her face.
I wonder how long it will last.
We approach the invisible line. I feel the presence of other vampires hiding in the sand. I shoot Beth a knowing look, and then take the first step over the boundary.
Immediately, an army of at least fifty vampires leap up from the earth, claws and fangs bared and ready to attack.
I raise my arms over my head, nodding for Beth to do the same.
“Easy, men,” I tell them. I’ve trained each of these vampires at some point or other over the years. “You know who I am.”
“Yes, we do.” The closest to us smiles. “And we’ve very recently been given orders to secure you and bring you directly to the King, no questions asked.” He smiles a rictus smile. “How fortunate you came back on our watch. We are all in for a very big reward tonight!”
The other vampires give a solid cheer. It’s obvious they’ve been promised Ancient blood. He grabs me by the arm. I jerk out of his grasp.
“Careful,” I warn. “Don’t you go forgetting the hierarchy. I could kill you on the spot.”
“I don’t think our King would be pleased with you if you did.” He smiles sweetly. He tosses a velvet sack at me. I know the kind. The inside is coated with silver.
“Put that on,” he barks. “Quickly now, over your head.”
My anger threatens to take full control of me at his tone of disrespect. I throw the bag back in his face.
“Make me,” I growl. “I won’t cause any trouble, but if you force me to wear that, there will be blood.”
He laughs. “There are fifty of us, Dagan. And only one of you.” He sneers at Beth. “You think some female vampire as weak as she is will aid you in any way against all of us?”
With a start, I realize how weak Beth’s strength seems. Her eyes go to mine, and I catch a secretive gleam in them.
She must have cloaked herself shortly after I agreed to allow her to come without me noticing.
“I am not putting that vile sack on,” I say. “You take me to the King as is, and if I cause any trouble, you are free to fight. But if you force me to wear it now, I will definitely fight, and in the end, only one will remain standing.”
I lock eyes with him, making him absolutely sure that I am serious.
After a few tense moments he backs down.
I guess he’s not so confident when directly facing a vampire who is his superior.
“The girl comes with me,” I announce, making good use of my temporary advantage.
“The King said only you,” the upstart vampire begins.
“You let me deal with Logan,” I growl. “You want to do your job? Then get to it, and lead the way!”
He grunts, takes a few steps back, motions at the other vampires, and starts walking.
Beth and I are flanked by the rest of the guard.
“Quite a welcome,” she notes under her breath.
“Would have gone smoother without you,” I say.
She punches me in the ribs. I grin.
We go all the way to the entrance doors of the fortress before suddenly turning down a side path.
“You’re not to be seen by the coven vampires until Logan says his piece,” their leader explains.
My lips thin in a frown, but I do not say anything.
We go around the outside of the grand facade. I glance up at the sky. It is nearing dawn.
We don’t have too much time to get inside.
He stops at an unremarkable partition in the wall. “Through here,” he tells me, and presses a stone slab that shifts easily under the pressure.
We are presented with a dark, wide, very tall tunnel.
Beth quirks an eyebrow at me. I give a small shrug. I did not know of this secret path.
Soon we are inside and marching underground. We walk for a long time in silence, until I decide to ask, “Why did Logan request to see me?”
The guard sniffs. “You think I question the orders of my King, or ask for his motivations?”
“Just wanted to see what you knew,” I reply.
We lapse back into silence and continue the walk.
Beth is looking around wide-eyed, trying to take everything in. Obviously, there’s not much to see in the tunnel, but I think she is trying to remember the exact way we’re going to get a feel for the layout of the place.
Finally, we’re presented with an unmarked door. “Through here,” the vampire barks. “The King will be made aware of your arrival.”
A sense of trepidation takes me as I push open the entrance.
“Huh.” I stop short before entering. This way leads to Beatrice’s underground chambers, the place where she conducted those vile experiments and where Riyu and I killed her creatures.
“Go on,” the vampire says. I step through, Beth close on my heels.
The door slams shut, and when I turn around, it is blended perfectly with the rock.
I give it a light push, testing it, but it doesn’t give. I grab a piece of jagged surface and try to pull it back. It doesn’t give.
“Well,” I say. “Here we are.” I glance at Beth. “Welcome to Beatrice’s experimentation rooms.”
Beth’s eyebrows go up. “She was here?”
“She basically lived here, in secret, when she wasn’t with Logan,” I say. I walk out toward the row of cells carved into the rock. “Nobody but her was ever allowed down here. Unfortunately for us, it looks like the place has been wiped clean.”
“Why did they bring us here?” she crosses her arms, suppressing a shiver. “The Currents feel… odd. They feel odd down here, Dagan, almost as if they are poisoned from within. There’s a taint in the air.” She walks to my side. “I don’t trust this place.”
“Were the Currents like that the whole time we were in The Crypts?”
“No,” she says. “Only once we stepped in here.”
“Then it’s no coincidence we were brought here,” I say. “Come on, let’s go see—”
I cut off when I hear the sound of very slow, very precise clapping come from around the corner.
I turn toward it and find Logan standing in the middle of the floor, leaning against some sort of grotesque-statue.
I’ve never laid eyes on it before.
It is two times his height and looks like the carcass of a gargoyle that’s been eroded by acid rain. The creature is frozen forever in a position of agony, skin and muscles melting under the downpour.
One look at it is enough to tell me that it is the pure embodiment of evil.
Logan pushes off. I hold an arm out behind me to tell Beth not to come any closer, not to let herself be seen.
Thankfully, for once, she complies without putting up a fight.
“Dagan, Dagan, Dagan,” Logan begins. “How it warms my heart to see you back in your coven, safe and unharmed.”
I narrow my eyes in suspicion and don’t say a word. Logan’s own eyes are absolutely clear—I do not see a speck of the miasma in them.
That throws me off guard.
“And I feel…” Logan sniffs the air, “…that you’ve brought a friend. Come out from hiding, little girl. Let me have a look at you.”
Cautiously, Beth steps out from around the corner. I wait for the obvious spark of recognition to come into his eyes.
But as he looks her over… it never comes.
“My, aren’t you a pretty one,” he says. “Where did you find her, Dagan? No matter. She is a much better sidekick for you than Riyu.”
He turns his back to both of us and regards the horrible statue. My instincts scream that something is terribly wrong.
I cannot put my finger on what it is.
“By the way, Dagan,” Logan says. “I must congratulate you on your great success. I’ll be honest—at the start, I doubted you had the gall to do it. I assumed you had turned soft. But—” he runs a hand over the creature’s outstretched arm, “—I am very glad that you were able to prove me wrong.”