Chapter Thirty-Six

 

ELEIRA

 

I creep after Phillip, his cold hand clasped around my warm one like a lifeline.

He’s forbidden me from speaking. He’s taken us deeper and deeper into the earth, where he said we were closing in on our escape route. The one that takes us through the den of The Convicted.

After we travel down for what seems an age, we reach an enormous iron gate. There are torches lit around it. Phillip holds a finger to his lips to signal for silence and points for me to stay. Then he approaches it on his own.

No sooner does he come within five feet of it than the low, horrible moan of a Convicted comes from the other side. I can barely stop from crying out in pain as I clasp my hand over my ears. The first moan is followed by a second, then a third, and suddenly, all three Convicted appear on the other side, hands stretching out through the bars, grasping for Phillip.

He jumps back to me. Needless to say, we can’t take that route. So he leads me another way, telling me there are a variety of other passages we can try.

He doesn’t sound exactly certain when he admits that. So it doesn’t do wonders for my confidence.

Suddenly, he stops. I’m so absorbed in my thoughts that I bump into him.

“What happened?” I whisper, before remembering myself and clamping a hand over my mouth.

“I think…” he says slowly. “I think we’re being followed.”

“What!”

“Shh!”

“By whom?”

“I’m not sure,” he tells me. “It couldn’t be another Convicted. They’re all on the other side.”

“A vampire?” I breathe.

“If it were, I don’t think we’d have gotten this far. We need to be more careful.”

I mutter something about that being close to impossible after how careful we’ve already been.

“Just keep your ears open,” Phillip snaps, and we continue on.

Yeah, like that would help, I think. You’re the one with preternatural hearing.

We keep on through the darkness. The raw smell of the earth surrounds me. It’s dank and heavy and oppressive.

After Phillip’s warning I can’t help but feel on edge. Even though I’ve got a vampire companion, I’m frightened of what might be after us.

We reach a small tunnel. “We’ll have to go through,” Phillip says. “Careful, I know you can’t see. You need to crawl.”

“Okay,” I nod. I feel the shape of the entrance with my hands. Its top is only halfway up to my waist. Otherwise it’s barely wider than my shoulders. “Are we close? What’s on the other side?”

The anticipation is killing me.

“The den,” Phillip tells me. “Come on.”

I swallow my fear, drop to my knees, and crawl in.

My body scrapes against the rock. There’s a tiny stream of water running along the ground. My hands splash in it and get dirty.

Far ahead I see a dim blue light. My breath catches, and my heart begins beating with hope. Phillip moves faster, and it’s such a relief to be able to finally see the outline of his body and know that he is, in fact, there in front of me.

But as we keep going, I find there is no opening. There is no source of light.

Suddenly, I remember what I was told about the transformation. The eyes are the first to change.

I let on a tiny cry of alarm. Phillip jerks his head back. “What?”

“I think… I think I can see you.” I blink, and he becomes clearer to me in the black. “Oh yes. I definitely see you.”

“The transformation,” he murmurs.

I swallow. “What’s going to happen to me?”

“For now? That is it. But we need to move faster. Raul wants you to be clear out of The Haven when it begins.”

“Why?”

Phillip doesn’t answer. Instead, he turns and continues to crawl.

“I said, why?” I exclaim.

“I don’t want to fill your head with worries,” he mutters. “Not now.”

“Oh yeah, as if I don’t have any of those right now,” I fire back.

“Exactly,” he says. “Why add to the mix? Let’s focus on getting out of here safely. Although I will tell you this. It’s going to be a lot easier for us to get through now that you can see.”

 

***

 

We emerge into a narrow opening running between two tall cliffs. Looking up, I think I can see parts of the top of the cave. But it could just be my imagination. We still have a long way to go.

“We’re here,” Phillip says.

“Where? In the den?” I shiver. “That means any of The Convicted can just find us.”

“Not if we take the proper precautions.”

“Like what?”

“Staying quiet.” He gives me a keen look. “Not asking too many questions. Following my lead.”

“All right, all right, jeez,” I mutter. “I get the point.”

He flashes a rare grin. “But I do have a good feeling about this.”

“Do you?”

“Yes. Let’s go.”

We continue sneaking through the underground. I’d hoped my vision would continue to improve in the night, but it seems stuck.

Still, some improvement is better than none.

We go on and on until the cave starts to expand on either side of us. It grows into a subterranean valley the size of a football stadium. We walk through it until we reach another opening.

The path dips down. Up ahead, there’s an enormous cavern. Jagged rock makes up the cliff faces on either side.

Phillip motions for me to stop. “There,” he points. “Do you see that gap, up on the far wall?”

My eyes search the rock. I pick out the tiniest flyspeck of light, at the very top of the distant surface. It’s very, very high.

“What about it?” I ask.

“That’s our ticket out.”

“But… that’s impossible. How to do we reach it? We’d have to scale the wall!” I gulp. “I’m no rock climber.”

“You cling to my back, and I’ll carry you,” he says. He takes a deep breath. “But as soon as we enter the lower valley, every Convicted will know we’re here.”

“Where are they now?” I whisper.

He closes his eyes and concentrates. Then he opens them again. “I can’t feel them,” he admits. “But that doesn’t mean they won’t come fast.”

“If that’s the way out, why don’t they just take it? Why don’t they just escape?”

“More wards,” Phillip explains. “Cast specifically for The Convicted. They don’t know the passage exists.”

“Then… who’s it for? Is this how all vampires get out of The Haven?”

“No.” Phillip sounds irritated. I think he’s just as much on edge as I am. “We’re only taking this way because you’re still human. At least — in part. And this is a secret route, known only to a select few.”

“You and your brothers,” I guess.

“Amongst others of our royalty.” He turns his back to me. “Climb on.”

I wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his torso. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“So do I,” he mutters.

“That’s not exactly reassuring.”

“Wasn’t meant to be.” He grunts and repositions me on his back. “Ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be. Yeah.”

“Then let’s do it.”

A rush of air whistles by my ears as Phillip races forward. My hair flies back. The speed he moves with is astonishing, even frightening. Everything becomes a blur. I feel like I’m strapped to the back of a motorcycle going 300 miles an hour down a narrow street.

Suddenly something slams into me, and I’m thrown right off. I fly back through the air and hit the ground hard. Pain explodes all over my body, from my legs to my hips to my back.

Phillip jerks to a stop. “No!” he gasps.

I groan in agony. I don’t think anything is broken, but I’m definitely going to be tender.

He runs back to me. “Are you all right?” he presses.

“I… I think so,” I mutter. I push myself up and bring a hand to my head. There are stars in my vision. I try to steady myself…

That’s when I notice a long, nasty scrape along my forearm.

Alarm rips through me. Blood! The Convicted, they’re going to be drawn to it.

Just then, that awful moaning sound comes from the deeper reaches of the cave behind us.

“No, no, no!” Phillip curses, as I slam my hands over my ears. Their moans are echoed by my own, both from the pain in my head and the pain in my body.

“Hurry, hurry,” he says, lifting me up. “We have to run!”

I hobble upright and cling on to him. But my muscles feel weak, and my body still is in shock. I don’t think I’ll be able to hold on properly.

I don’t get time to make any other decision, because right then a red-jacketed monster emerges from a far opening.

Phillip grabs my hands and forces them around his neck. We take off again, but right at the point where I flew off last time, he stops.

I look back. The moaning Convicted is coming at us, eyes glazed over, fangs gleaming, claws extended.

“The ward must be leaking through from above ground,” Phillip says. “That’s what threw you off me. It’s like an invisible wall.”

“What!” I exclaim. The deprived vampire zombie is getting closer. From other parts of the cavern, I hear his friends.

“I don’t know where to go!” Phillip exclaims. He sets me down. He faces the first Convicted. “I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”

“What do you want me to do?” Panic is streaming through me and taking over all my thoughts. “Phillip!”

“Find a way through,” he tells me. He points to either side. “The ward above ground extends horizontally like a solid wall. I did not think the magic was strong enough to reach all the way down here. But,” he grunts, “it has. Yet it can’t be at full strength! You need to search it for an opening, a gap, somewhere you can push through.”

My heart starts pounding even faster. He wants me to find a way through an invisible wall?

“Go!” he exclaims. “Do it, do it now!”

And then he takes off for the nearest Convicted. I turn away immediately. I don’t need to see more gore, more bloodshed.

Sounds of the fight reach my ears. I do my best to ignore it. From the distance, the moans still come. They do something to my brain, making it feel like it’s being pressed together by a vice, but the effect is less than before.

Because the transformation has started?

I don’t have time to consider. I run forward, fighting through the pain of my injuries, and stick my hands out to feel the wall. It’s like a barrier of solid air, like a force field.

I go from side to side, desperately searching. My hands seek any weak point. But all they find is that impenetrable, smooth surface.

It feels like glass beneath my palms. I marvel that something like this is actually possible.

A scream comes from behind me. My head snaps back. I see Phillip with his hands on his knees, breathing hard.

He’s leaning over the fallen body of a Convicted. The monster’s heart is lying on the ground, just inches away.

I have the unquenchable urge to vomit. My stomach dry-heaves. Thank Heavens there’s no food in it, or else I’d make a mess all over the floor.

There’s a sound beyond him. A group of three more Convicted appear.

“Hurry!” Phillip screams.

I turn back and continue my task. But no matter where I push, no matter how I press, there’s no give. Not a crack, not a gap, not an opening.

Nothing!

My breathing quickens. Panic and fear and the imminent sense of failure consume me. Desperately I run this way then that, feeling at the invisible wall with my hands.

There’s no way, I think. There’s no way through!

I chance a glance back. The horde of three is getting closer. Phillip picks up the heart and chucks it at them.

Immediately, they clamor for it, hungry and thirsting for blood. They start to fight amongst themselves, scratching and clawing and pushing one another out of the way.

“Anything?” Phillip yells.

“No!” I exclaim. Darkness starts to well in from the corners of my vision. It’s the darkness of despair. How can this be happening? We’re so close, we’ve almost made it. I can see our escape just ahead of us.

Phillip runs to me. “I can’t fight all three,” he says. He looks back the way we came. “Our only chance now is if we make a run for it. The Convicted are consumed in their battle for the heart. I’m sure it’s only a temporary distraction. When they realize again that they have two victims in easy vicinity it’ll all be over.”

“What about The Hunt?” I say. “If we go back —”

“I’m not leading you back to The Haven. We’ll look for another way out.”

My eyes go to the gap in the cliff so close to us. “There is no other way out.” My anguish threatens to sink me. I feel like I’m on the verge of hysteria, facing certain death. “You said it yourself; this is the secret route.”

“Yes, but —” Suddenly, he cuts off. He looks up.

“Raul!” he exclaims.

“What?” Then I look at the opening, and, sure enough, I see his familiar male form.

“What’s he doing here?”

“He’s come for us!”

Raul is at the opening. He hangs onto the edge of the cliff and drops down. His body flows through the air like an Olympic diver’s. I gasp, but he lands softly enough.

As soon as he’s there, he urges us forward. “Come on, what are you doing? Hurry!”

“The ward is up!” Phillip yells. “Eleira can’t get through!”

I feel so helpless, so utterly useless, so frighteningly dependent.

“No!” Raul runs to us. My stupid heart skips a beat when he gets close.

He passes through the wall as if it doesn’t exist. Which, for him, it doesn’t. He clasps his brother by the arms, then he turns to me. There’s a split-second hesitation, and then he embraces me tightly.

“I’m so glad you’re alive,” he whispers in my ear.

He is?

“Why do you smell like smoke?” I ask.

“Long story.” He lets go and looks at the three Convicted. “Are there more?”

“Not yet,” Phillip says.

Raul nods. “You help Eleira. I’ll take care of them.”

And then, without waiting for our consent, he launches himself right at the pack.

Phillip looks from me to his brother. “He wants me to help, but I can’t sense the ward…” he begins.

“I know.” A sinking feeling rises in my gut. It’s all on me.

“But maybe I can help.” He hooks an arm under my shoulder and lifts me off my feet. “Put your hand out,” he tells me. “I’ll run back and forth and you can look for an opening that way. If any of The Convicted get through Raul, I can outrun them.”

“What about —”

Raul. I want to say, but then his roar rocks the cave. I look and see him standing in the middle of three mangled bodies.

All The Convicted are dead.

He races to us. “More are coming,” he says. “I can hear them.”

Phillip nods. “So can I.”

“How did you do that?” I blurt out. “How did you kill them so fast?”

Raul grunts. “They’re weak.” His eyes look haunted. I want him to extrapolate on that, but I know he won’t.

Then he realizes something. “You can see them?” he asks, a note of alarm in his voice.

“Her transformation has begun,” Phillip explains.

“Then the ward shouldn’t be stopping her!” Raul says. “Right?”

“It will while she’s partially human,” Phillip says.

Raul slams a fist into his open hand in frustration.

A chorus of low, distant moans sounds from the far, distant reaches behind us.

We all whip around.

“They’re almost here,” Phillip says.

“How many are there?” I gasp.

Raul looks at his brother. “Dozens,” he says. He looks at me. “And I won’t be able to fight all of them off.”