Thirteen
“!” Clint sprinted up as Jill walked out of the gym. The noise drew the attention of Kain and Gabriel who stood in the entrance of the building.
“Clint, what is it?” Jill asked, placing her hand on Clint’s back
“I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I screwed up. Sun's hell, there were four of them. I couldn't do anything.” Clint rambled off apology after apology as he spoke, each one more grief stricken than the last.
To the human world, Clint would look like he was still a kid. Due to his lack of experience, he still was in the lycan world as well.
Kain adopted him after he found him freezing and close to starving to death next to the body of his older brother.
Jill's stomach churned in knots as she tried to make out what Clint was trying to say. He had been put in charge of watching over Damien until she could finish talking to Kain and Gabriel, sending out a howling call if anything went wrong.
The fact he was here meant something was horribly wrong.
“Clint, why are you not with Damien? What happened?” Her voice slightly scared Clint as his eyes searched his father's for some sign of an upcoming repercussion.
“Jill, I'm sorry. They took him. I couldn't stop them. Rayes was there. For the likes of me he's more than a match. There were three others with him. I didn't recognize two of them but Jack Nantucket, the old farm hand was one of them. Gods, I’m so sorry.” Clint smacked his head with the heels of his hands.
He knew he messed up but Rayes was one of the vampire elite, he would have torn someone as inexperienced as Clint up in a minute.
Kain walked up to his adopted son, patting his back in an attempt to calm him.
Wide-eyed, Jill fell to her knees, her hands tensed in front of her as she let out a scream to the skies that became a half howl. Her fists met the cement hard enough to splinter it as she fell forward, her nose meeting the remains of the shattered concrete in front of her.
“Jillian, we will save him. I promise you.” Kain knelt in a shallow puddle of water next to her. “They waited. Damn them, they waited.”
“Bloodsuckers must have been scouting the house for weeks. For them to send Rayes, Lilith must have been beyond pissed at having to wait. Stubborn stuck-up brat.” Gabriel slammed his fist into his hand, his teeth ground tight together.
Jill growled as she struggled to get free of Kain’s hold on her.
Kain took Jill’s face in his hands, his thumb brushing the furious tears from her eyes. “We'll save him, sweetheart. I swear on Luna's name. We will get to him before they change him.”
Jill dropped her eyes. No one swore on either deities' name unless they knew their word wasn't going to be broken.
To do so would get them punished by the deity on whose name they swore. Jill knew this and immediately she felt guilty for even making her friend get to that point. Especially if it was Kain.
“They still have to get to the coven in the mountains. There's only one lycan I know capable of getting us in and out of that place without getting killed,” Gabriel spoke up. By the tone in his voice, he seemed hesitant to mention who he was talking about. “Lune can get us in but I don't know how bad things will be once he does. This whole thing is a damned suicide mission no matter how we shake our tail at it.”
“Whatever we have to do, Gabriel. We have to save him.” Kain replied, holding a now still Jill against his chest. She gripped his white t-shirt firmly, as if he were her only anchor to sanity.
****
Damien woke up to find himself unable to see. His mouth was gagged and his hands were bound behind his back.
A huge bump of the moving car made him hit his head against the lid of the trunk, disturbing an already upset condition and reminding him of what happened.
He'd gotten finished taking the trash and recyclables out for his father only to be ambushed. Then he was hit so hard it dazed him, making him black out. Now he was in the trunk of a car heading to only God knew where.
His heart pounded in his chest as he struggled to get the ropes around his wrists loose enough so he could try to reach his phone he felt in his back pocket, surprised it had been left.
The car jolted to a stop followed by the sound of the creaking of what he could only imagine was an automatic gate.
Damien had been hit so hard it kept him out cold the whole time. His breath stalled in his chest as time ran out for him to try and think of a way to get out of this mess.
When the trunk opened, he was yanked out and dropped on his feet with a thud.
“Glad you're awake. I would have hated to have to carry your worthless carcass all the way to the catacombs,” The speaker's voice was the same one who ordered him bound and gagged. “Get moving or I'll break your leg so I have an excuse to drag you.”
A hard shove forced Damien forward, stumbling.
The sound of crunching gravel gave way to the softness of what Damien realized could only be grass.
From the coolness of the breeze around him to the calling of the night birds, Damien could tell it was either the wee hours of the morning or late evening.
“Take him to the catacombs and lock him up. I'll go inform Lilith that we got her little pet.”
Great, Lilith again. Not looking forward to another encounter with her. Damien thought to himself, remembering his encounter with the vampire bitch in the science hall.
The terrain seemed pretty normal despite the elevation. The air was so thin Damien had trouble breathing as he tried to keep the pace his captors set. Then the terrain suddenly changed. They began descending into what felt like the ground.
Hopelessness set in the further he went. He wondered how Jill would be able to find him in whatever hell he was being dragged down into.
The air around Damien grew cold, musty and stagnant. The horrible smell of rot and decay filled his nostrils as he was led the catacombs his captors planned to lock him up.
Distracted by his thoughts, he tripped, landing him against the wall. They felt like brick or maybe stone. The surface cold and wet from the ground water seeping in through the cracks from all of the rain.
The feeling of the walls and the dankness of the air reminded Damien of the old mazes under the Vatican in Italy he'd read about in European History. He was pretty sure he never got thrown into a box and put into the cargo hold of a plane. Why were there walls like this under the ground?
“We're here.” A deep southern accent, Damien recognized as belonging to Jack Nantucket, a farm hand that worked on one of the cattle farms outside of the town. Jack had been one of the earliest cases of missing persons reported by his wife, Nancy.
Guess it was no longer a mystery as to what happened to him. The thought terrified Damien even more.
The bonds and blindfold were removed before he was shoved harshly forward.
A thick, wooden prison door resembling those in the English prisons during the Dark Ages was slammed in his face. He looked around the room to find an old, rickety bed covered with a dusty old mattress in the corner of the room.
The dripping of water and the musty smell nearly made him gag. It smelled so bad.
Except for the small rectangular opening in the door, there were no windows.
“Don't worry, you won't be here long.” Jack smiled a new twisted and demented smile, revealing two sharp fangs. From the look in his eyes, Damien couldn't help but feel like he wanted to eat him.
“Back off before you get your head ripped off, newborn,” The heavy accent from before returned making Jack back off. He opened the door, grabbing Damien's arm and yanking him out. “Lilith wants you in her chambers. You smell like dog so she'll probably make you get cleaned up and changed into new clothes before meeting her.”
****
Lune sat with Holt, Kain, Jill and Gabriel around a fire as he told them about the coven's mansion high in the hills.
On the outside of the mansion, it resembled an old English castle the noble class resided in. The whole structure consumed massive amounts of land. The interior was lined with elongated hallways and different sections where the nobles would be able to cavort with whomever they wished and not be disturbed.
Tall ramparts and a massive front lawn where the vampires could entertain social events to bolster their standing in the human world lie just in front of the house.
Lune began. “It's a horrible place. Beautiful only in elegant décor. That beauty is only outer walls deep. The outer perimeter is gated. The gate patrolled by hired human muscle during the day and werewolf and vampire slaves at night,” Lune took a drink of the water he’d brought with him to the meeting.
“Below the mansion are catacombs. At the end a prison resembling those of the ancient days in England and Romania. The only way in besides jumping the fence, is a single automated gate where guests have to buzz in. It's isolated so even if you got stuck there and howled for help, there wouldn't be any guarantee anyone would be able to get there in time. The high elevation makes it hard to breathe. Not too damaging to a vampire but to their servants, it’s harsh.”
“Where would Lilith keep Damien? She has a crush on him and has threatened to turn him. Is there any way for us to get to him before that happens?” Kain asked, his eyes closed and directed at the ground. His voice was strangely calm. A feature common to his character.
Lune sighed, leaning back against the log serving as a makeshift bench where Holt sat with Gabriel. “It would depend. Most vampires won't turn anyone during the day so that would be the best chance to get him back. The only problem is, she’s a jealous bitch with as little patience as a two year old. There's a chance she might skip turning him and kill him. Odds are she knows even if she turns him, there’s no guarantee he would be with her.”
Jill’s anger rose within her the more she thought about Damien being locked up. “Lune, please. Help us. You're the only one to ever get into that hellish place.” Jill clenched her fists so tightly, her nails began to draw blood.
“You truly love this man? Enough to risk the lives of your fellow lycans to get to him?” Lune replied.
“I do not ask for the sacrifice of those here. I’ll go alone. I love Damien more than anyone I've ever met. He's the only thing in this world I can't live without. For him, I would face the fangs of the dark god.” Her brilliant green eyes met Lune's.
Lune rose, smirking. “Good, because you may live to meet those fangs if you go through with this plan. It's nothing short of suicide. Not even I got out of there without a reminder of how utterly insane it is,” Lune revealed a jagged scar across his chest. “However, I will go with you. It has been centuries since I have seen any action. I just hope your love for this man is as strong as you say. You may have to be ready to be the one to end his life.”