I jerked awake, hissing and baring my fangs, the nightmare ebbing away into reality. I’d been dreaming, for the first time since I’d become a vampire, about dark tunnels and twisting corridors and something terrible lurking within them, stalking me. I remembered the cold fear, sensing the unknown evil drawing closer, and then a blinding flare of pain as the creature finally pounced, though I never saw its face. It was enough to wake me up, and upon reflection, I thought it was very strange. How did the dead dream, exactly? I’d have to ask Kanin about that.
Kanin. Rising, I grabbed my sword and hurried to his office, hoping I would see his calm, efficient form sitting behind the desk with a stack of documents, as always.
The office was empty. Nor was there any note on the desk, telling me my assignments for the night. I prowled the halls, peering into every room, every corner I might’ve overlooked. Nothing. No sign of him anywhere. He was truly gone.
For a moment, I wondered if he had left on purpose, if last night, he’d had no intention of coming back. Had he gotten tired of his stubborn, moody, impossible student and decided it was time to be free of her? I shook my head. No, Kanin wasn’t like that. He was cold, unsympathetic, jaded and sometimes scary as hell, but he was not a liar. If he wasn’t here, then he was out there, somewhere. Was he hurt? Captured?
Dead?
Stop that, I told myself. Just because Kanin wasn’t in the hospital was no reason to panic. Maybe he was in the tunnels, setting up traps or alarms. Or maybe he was somewhere in the hospital still, in a room I hadn’t checked or…
Wait. There was one more place I could look.
At the bottom of the stairs, the red metal door groaned and swung open reluctantly as I pushed on it, revealing a long corridor. I caught a glimpse of a broken security camera mounted above the red door and another at the end of the hall. As I slipped into the hallway, the door groaned shut behind me, closing with a bang and plunging the narrow space into darkness.
My new vampire sight let me see even in pitch-blackness, however, and I made my way to the end of the hall, where another door was set firmly into the wall. It was stainless steel, barred from the outside and heavy enough to stop a train. It didn’t have a normal handle or doorknob but a wheel set in the very center, rusty with age.
What were they keeping back here? I wondered, turning the wheel to the right. It spun reluctantly, then with a faint hiss, the door swung outward.
Past the frame, I stepped into yet another dark, claustrophobic hallway. Only this time, large windows ran along the wall, looking into isolated rooms. Though some of the windows were smashed and broken, the glass was extremely thick, and more than a few were still intact. I looked closer, and a chill skittered down my spine.
Thick steel bars ran vertically across the windows, like cages. The doors on the rooms were the same thick, heavy metal, and they all locked from the outside. Within each room, the walls were white and crumbling, but I saw gouges in the tile, as if something had clawed at it, all the way down to the metal beneath.
“What the hell is this place?” I whispered.
My voice slithered into the room, unnaturally loud in the silence. The darkness seemed to reach for me, trying to draw me in. I could smell blood and pain and death, worked into the very walls, seeping from the cracks in the floor. Movement flickered at the corners of my eyes, faces peering out of the glass, ghostly images of things not there.
My skin crawled. Whatever had happened here, whatever secrets lay beyond those doors, it was something I didn’t want to uncover.
There was a thump on the stairwell, soft footsteps padding into the corridor.
I shivered with relief. “Kanin,” I called, striding up to the thick metal door. It was halfway shut, and I pushed it open. “Where the hell have you been?”
And the vampire with the terrible smile grinned down at me.
*
“HELLO, LOVE,” THE VAMPIRE PURRED, smiling as I backed away, drawing my blade as he eased into the room. “What a surprise to run into you again. Some little birdie has been lying to me.”
I kept my blade between me and the vampire, circling with him as he prowled the edges of the room. His eyes weren’t on me, however, but rather staring blankly at the walls and glass windows lining the hall. “What are you doing here?” I growled, trying to control my fear. “How did you find this place?”
“Ahhhh…” the vampire breathed, the air rasping through a windpipe that hadn’t been used in years. “That is a fine question, little bird.” He reached out and put one pale claw against the glass, pressing his cheek against it. I noticed a splash of old, dry blood on his neck, as if something had slashed at him recently. “Did you know these walls will talk to you? If you ask them. They’ll tell you their secrets, though sometimes you have to beat it out of them, yes. Sometimes it was necessary.” He straightened and turned to me, his eyes empty black holes in his smiling face. “Where’s Kanin?” he asked in a patient, understanding voice. “Tell me now, and save me the trouble of pulling off your fingers.”
“He’s not here,” I said. The vampire didn’t look surprised.
“Not back yet then? I must’ve hit him harder than I thought. Very well, we can wait for him. I have all the time in the world.”
“What did you do to him?” I snarled.