As Vicky led him through a series of twisting tunnels, Nathan kept expecting the Minotaur to step out and block them from continuing through the labyrinth.

“Do you know the mole people?” he hissed at her.

“Shh,” she shushed him.

The bouncing beam of his flashlight illuminated the cracked concrete walls. A few of the walls had tree roots tearing through them as they sought to reclaim the land they’d lost. The whole place reeked of damp earth, animal feces, and the feral aroma of rats.

Beyond that, he also detected the stale scent of standing water. The air grew chillier the farther they progressed, but Vicky had warned him it would be cold, and they’d prepared themselves with winter coats and layers.

They’d initially entered this underground maze through a pipe over the harbor, but he had no idea where they were now. “What is this place, and where are we?”

“Boston had sewers in use before seventeen hundred,” she whispered. “Of course things have changed a lot over the years. Tunnels have been torn out, blocked off, built over, or simply forgotten. These are some of the forgotten tunnels.”

“So you don’t know the mole people, you know the sewer people,” he muttered.

Vicky spun and planted herself before him. In the dim beam of her penlight, her eyes were luminescent, but the ferociousness in them stopped him abruptly.

“Not sewer people,” she hissed. “When you meet them, be nice or so help me, I’ll bite you. They deserve respect.”

It was an empty threat, she didn’t dare taste his blood as she knew she would only crave more of it and it would deepen her need to be with him, but it caused his hands to raise.

“I’ll be nice to whoever’s ahead,” he promised.

“Good.”

Turning away, Vicky continued through the maze of drainage and sewage tunnels. Most had been empty for so long there was no concern of finding waste outside of that from the animals surviving down here too.

“Why didn’t you tell Ronan about these people?” he asked.

“Because I figured no one would find them. It never occurred to me Joseph might go below ground to hunt his prey.”

“Is that what you think he’s doing?”

“I hope not,” she muttered. “The people here probably don’t know about him, but it’s time to ask, and they should be warned that they could be at risk.”

They traversed at least another mile before a pinprick of light came into view ahead. Vicky clicked off her flashlight, and he did the same. The light grew brighter the further they walked, and the acrid scent of smoke began tickling his nostrils.

Stopping outside a blanket hanging over the circular opening of a drainage pipe, Vicky rapped her knuckles on the wall outside the “door.”

“Who is it?” a gruff voice inquired.

“It’s Vicky.”

The blanket yanked back to reveal a face so creased with wrinkles it resembled a Shar Pei, but warm blue eyes twinkled when they landed on Vicky, and Sister June’s smile exposed the gap between her front teeth. With her coarse gray hair tumbling around her stooped shoulders, Sister June looked like a wizened old crone stirring her cauldron, but she was one of the kindest souls Vicky had ever encountered.

“Victoria,” Sister greeted. “It’s been too long.”

Sister clasped Vicky’s hand in both of hers. Vicky almost yanked her hand away, not because she didn’t want Sister touching her, but because she didn’t feel she deserved the kind touch of anyone since her time in the warehouse. Sister wouldn’t know that and would only think Vicky had changed or was being cruel.

She squeezed Sister June’s hand as she smiled back. “It has.”

“We thought you’d forgotten us,” Sister said.

“Never.”

Sister June studied Vicky with her too shrewd eyes. “What happened?”

“Nothing good, but I’m okay.”

Sister patted her hand and released it as if she suddenly understood Vicky didn’t like being touched anymore. “One way or another, dear, we always make it okay. It’s how we survive after all.” Her gaze traveled beyond Victoria, and she gave a low whistle. “Who is this tall drink of water?”

“Careful, Sister June, you’re giving away your age,” Vicky teased.

“I’d never!” she replied with a wink and a hand on her chest.

“This is Nathan,” Vicky introduced, “and we’re hoping you can help us with something. I also wanted to make sure you’re safe.”

“No one is going to bother us down here, and if they do, I’ll take them down. If we can help, we will. Come on in.”

Nathan had no idea what to make of any of this as he gazed from the wizened old woman to Vicky and back again. Sister June wore baggy, faded pants and an overlarge, torn sweater. He couldn’t begin to guess at her age. Her eyes were that of a twenty-year-old, her face that of a centurion.

There was also something off about the woman. When Sister June turned and walked away, she did so with the grace of a vampire. He’d never seen one so old before, but he knew that’s what she was.

Nathan pushed through the blanket to enter a large, concrete chamber as Vicky climbed down three steps to the room. He kept his shock hidden when he spotted six children sitting next to each other on a ledge across the room.

“Hey, Vicky,” some of the older children greeted with a wave.

“Vicky!” two of the younger girls squealed.

They jumped down and ran across the room to hug her. Vicky forced herself not to cringe while she hugged them back. Would the human children be so enthusiastic to greet her if they knew she’d drained one of their kind dry?

She winced inwardly at the reminder of the sin darkening her soul. Tears burned her eyes, but instead of slipping from the children’s grasp, she held them closer.

“Where have you been?” April asked as she surveyed Vicky with round brown eyes.

Those eyes tugged at Vicky’s heartstrings and caused guilt to rear its ugly head. Sure, part of her time away was because of her status as a living blood bag for vampires, but she’d spent far more time free of her captivity than she’d spent in it.

Like her inability to return home to her family, she hadn’t felt worthy of coming here and seeing these kids. She hadn’t felt worthy of much, and she still wasn’t sure she was, but she wouldn’t avoid them again. They had so little in life already; she refused to be another disappointment to them.

“I was detained by something,” she replied, “but I’ll be around again more.”

“Good.” April squeezed her.

Nathan studied Vicky as she released the children. He’d seen the subtle stiffening in her body when the girls embraced her before she’d hugged them back. There was also a flicker of apprehension on her face when Sister June took her hand. The warm way they greeted her told him Vicky once openly accepted their touch, but something changed that about her, and he suspected it was her imprisonment.

“Hey, rug rats,” Vicky greeted the rest of the children with a smile and a wave.

Nathan returned his attention to the children. All of them wore sweaters and pants that looked relatively new and were in excellent condition. Open books sat on the laps of most of the kids, but the tomes were forgotten while the children focused on the new arrivals.

Twelve mattresses, piled with clean blankets and linens, lay on the floor. Beside each bed sat a crate; when Nathan glanced inside one, he spotted clothes, shoes, and a book stashed neatly within. On the righthand side of the chamber, food was stocked all the way to the ceiling along with bottles of water, a couple of buckets of water, and half a cord of firewood.

The left-hand side of the chamber held shelves lined with books. More books were next to the shelves; they stretched from the floor to the ten-foot-tall ceiling. Many were textbooks, most of which were shiny and in pristine condition, some were classic literature, and the rest were books for children’s enjoyment.

Maps hung on the wall, a globe sat in the corner, and Nathan realized Sister June was educating the children the best she could in this technology-driven world.

On the other side of the room, a brick chimney rose from the ground and flames crackled within. The smoke rising from the fire was directed down the tunnel opening on the other side of the room, but enough heat remained in the chamber to make sweat bead across Nathan’s brow.

“What is this place?” he asked.

“You didn’t tell him about Duncan and me?” Sister June asked Vicky.

“That’s your story to tell,” Vicky replied.

“This is a place for lost children,” Sister June said to him. “And it has been for many years.”

“We’re like the Lost Boys,” a small girl with brown pigtails said. Her smile revealed her missing front tooth. She couldn’t be any older than seven or eight. “Except there’s no Peter Pan, and we do grow old.”

The giggle she released melted Nathan’s heart. He briefly contemplated gathering all these children and taking them from here, but take them where? The hunters wouldn’t accept them. Take them to the state and put into foster care? There was a reason they weren’t already there.

They had no bruises, he saw no bite marks, they all had healthy color in their cheeks, and some leaned toward pudgy. There was plenty of water, food, and warmth for them here. Their education was lacking, but was it any different than the one the women at the stronghold received?

He couldn’t judge this way of life when his wasn’t all that different.

“How did you find this place?” Nathan asked Vicky.

“I was at a rave one night in the tunnels where we first entered,” she said.

“You youngsters are so strange,” Sister June muttered. “Partying in places where most wouldn’t dare to venture.”

“That’s why we were partying there, the danger of it all,” Vicky said to Nathan in her best creepy movie voice. “It’s a rush for those who have no idea about the real horrors in this world, but I’m always up for a good time and beer.”

“Of course you are,” Nathan murmured, and she winked at him.

“So anyway, I was at this rave and that little shit”—Vicky pointed at Elmo who was sitting close to the chimney. Elmo gave her the finger before tossing another log onto the fire—“stole my clutch.”

“Serves you right for bringing a clutch”—Elmo rolled his eyes—“to a party in the sewers.”

“It was stylish,” Vicky said to Nathan, “and it matched my outfit.”

“Then you absolutely couldn’t leave it at home,” Nathan replied dryly as he got a glimpse of the woman Victoria had been before her captivity. He suspected some of the glib act she displayed now was more of a constant back then. She’d described herself as self-centered, but she’d been open enough to become a part of the lives of those here.

“I know!” Vicky agreed, finding it so easy to slip into her almost airheaded, party-girl persona. “So, Elmo stole my clutch, and I chased him here. My boots were absolutely ruined during it. They were Prada,” Vicky explained to Nathan and placed her hand over her heart. “I was devastated.”

“I’m sure,” he said.

“Serves you right for wearing high-heeled boots in the sewers,” Elmo replied.

This time, Vicky gave him the finger. Elmo’s youthful face split into a grin. He was only thirteen, but the wisdom in his blue eyes was that of a man far older. His shaggy brown hair framed a face already becoming handsome. One day, women would chase him all over the place, and Vicky would make sure he saw that day.

“I followed him all the way here where I met Sister June and discovered a world far different than our own,” Vicky explained to Nathan.

“I see,” he said.

Vicky turned from Nathan and back to Sister. “Can we talk somewhere privately?”

“Of course,” Sister replied. “We’ll go down the smoke hole.”