“Were you going to dig your way through the solid rock at your back if you were spotted?” Aria demanded.
Max grinned at her as he folded his arms over his chest. “But we weren’t spotted, and if I recall, you’re the one who almost gave away your position by nearly dropping bark on their heads.”
Aria scowled at him but refrained from commenting.
“Really?” William asked, unable to keep the disbelief from his voice.
“Sabine was there,” Aria muttered. “I should have better anticipated my reaction to being so near her. I won’t underestimate it again.”
Daniel stepped away from them to examine the small room they’d entered. Beams ran across the ceiling, not more than three inches separating them as they kept the earth above them from caving in. The beams were at least a foot wide and thick; the wood they’d used to create the ceiling looked to be a good six inches thick. He spotted a small vent in the side of the wall and itched to trace its pathway to the earth above, to see how they had created the ventilation system.
He’d designed a concept extremely similar to this one when they’d still been rebels hiding from vampires. At the time, the caves were being raided, and though they were taking out vampires in those raids, they were also losing fighters. No one would think to look for them under the earth.
With the war and the events that had transpired after Aria and Braith had gotten together, he’d never had a chance to start the underground buildings, but these rebels had. He would have loved to watch the building process take place. He enjoyed being on The Council, keeping the peace and working with the vampires for that peace, but he missed building and his designs. He still sketched often, but it wasn’t the same as seeing his sketches come to life before him as they once had. When all of this was over, if he survived, he would make time to design and build more often, to enjoy doing something he loved so dearly once again.
“Who came up with the plans for this?” he inquired.
“You did,” Aria replied, drawing his attention away from the thick walls.
“They found your designs within one of the caves and used them,” William expounded when Daniel frowned questioningly at his sister. “Your plans are the foundation for all of the safe houses.”
“They used my designs?” he said in awe as his gaze ran over the beams again and the pipes he now saw running in between them. “Do they have functioning plumbing and a water supply?”
“They do. The water is piped in from the nearby lake,” William replied.
Daniel’s chest swelled with pride. “They did a great job here.”
“You’re a talented man,” Aria said.
He didn’t deny it; there was no reason to. He felt Xavier’s eyes on him and turned to meet the man’s steady, inquisitive gaze.
“Did you learn anything about Sabine?” Tempest asked.
“She’s arrogant,” Aria said as she exited the entry room and started to make her way down the hall. The walls brushed against her arms as she walked. “It will be her downfall.”
Daniel continued to study the structure around him, taking more note of the detail and care the rebels had taken to fortify it. There was no sign of bending or bowing in the wood used in the construction. Great effort had gone into making sure this underground fortress stayed sturdy and strong. He knew the calculations and supplies he’d made and listed in his design in order to keep the walls and ceiling this solid, and they had followed them perfectly.
Aria came to an abrupt halt at the end of the hall, causing him to crash into her back as his attention was still on the ceiling. Her shoulders became rigid, as if she were preparing for a blow, before she opened the door and stepped into the room. He followed behind her to discover nearly fifty humans gathered within.
“They weren’t here before?” he whispered to her when he guessed at what had caused her to tense. She was trying to cover it up, but he had read Atticus’s journals too and suspected she was battling her vampire instincts to kill with every passing second. Having so many humans in one place wouldn’t help her.
“No,” she replied crisply.
Xavier muscled his way forward to stand beside her. “I will ask them to leave.”
“No, they are safe here. We need as many of them safe as we can get. Otherwise they could become like the humans we saw earlier.”
“What humans?” William inquired.
“We will fill everyone in at once,” Aria told him and gestured toward a table in the center of the main room.