“Duncan!” Vicky hissed. “Come back!”

Ahead of them, Duncan stopped and turned toward her.

“What is it?” Nathan pulled a handgun from the shoulder holster he put on before leaving the stronghold. He unhooked a crossbow from his side and touched the bolts tucked into one of his inner coat pockets. When he scented the air, he caught a hint of refuse on it.

The idea of beating and killing something flooded his system with adrenaline. Since learning about San Fran, he’d needed to unleash on something, and he might have his chance.

Then, his gaze landed on Vicky and his bloodlust eased as his instinct to protect her became greater than his one to unleash violence. Stepping closer to her, he turned to face the tunnel ahead of them as Duncan crept toward them. Brian nudged Abby behind him and toward Vicky.

This time, when Abby reached for her hand, Vicky took it. They held on for a second before releasing each other.

“Savages,” Vicky whispered as she removed a stake from an inner coat pocket and unhooked the crossbow from her side. Abby armed herself with two stakes.

Something clattered behind them. Logan and Asher both drew their weapons as muffled laughter followed the clatter. Asher turned his flashlight off as he crept into the shadows they already traversed.

Vicky kept her flashlight on and slid it into her pocket, the denim material muffled the glow, as the stench of decay became more potent. She had excellent night vision, but the idea of being plunged into the darkness unnerved her. Besides, the Savages’ vision was as good as hers; the dark wouldn’t hide them from their enemies.

The clacking of teeth from the tunnel ahead sounded more like one of those windup denture things than a living creature. Vicky knew a Savage was making that noise, but she couldn’t help picturing a lipless monster ahead of them, gnashing its teeth together while it chewed on hunks of decaying flesh.

She shuddered at the mental image as she aimed her crossbow at the tunnel ahead before turning to watch Asher fade deeper into the shadows behind them.

Nathan stepped closer to her, his chest pressing against hers as she stood with her back to the wall. They both kept their arms extended and their weapons aimed at whatever enemy came from either direction.

Through their layers of clothing and flesh, she could feel the steady beat of his heart. The reassuring rhythm of his pulse lulled her until the need to taste him struck her. Her head spun with the impulse; she almost swayed on her feet as hunger caused her fangs to lengthen. This was entirely the wrong time and place, but it took her another minute to get her craving under control.

So doomed, she thought as her fangs remained extended.

Muffled laughter pulled her attention to where Asher had vanished. Logan knelt on the concrete floor ten feet away from them with his crossbow aimed into the shadows as a woman cried out.

“Hey, man,” a drunken voice slurred from the dark.

“Shut up!” Asher commanded.

“Not cool,” the drunk said, and the woman laughed.

“Get out of here!” Asher hissed at them.

Then, from the shadows, two people staggered forward with Asher following behind. The humans came to an abrupt halt when they spotted the group gathered within. “What the…?”

The man never got the chance to finish his question as, from ahead of Duncan, a monster burst out of the tunnel. It may not be the hideous beast she’d imagined it to be, but Vicky had never seen a Savage who looked so… insane!

The saliva running down its chin mingled with the blood coating its lips to create a macabre, pink beard. Its teeth clacked, clacked, clacked as it spun toward Brian and Abby before lunging at Duncan who punched it in the temple, knocking it to the ground. It landed there with its appendages extended like a bug splattered on the windshield of a Mack truck.

Before any of them could react, another Savage leapt from the shadows, followed by another. Like spiders, the Savages tried to skitter up the tunnel walls before gravity won out and they fell to the floor only to bounce back to their feet. And like spiders escaping an egg sac, there seemed to be an endless parade of them. So far gone in their hunger, they were more like rabid animals than any rational being.

Shock held Vicky immobile for precious seconds before her survival instinct kicked in. She fired her crossbow at one while Nathan started shooting his gun. Some of the Savages shrieked as the bullets pierced their flesh, but only a couple of them dropped.

The human woman screamed and turned to flee as three Savages raced toward her. Logan staked one, and Asher kicked out the knee of another, but the third pounced on the woman’s back, slamming her onto the concrete.

The human male howled, and his hands flew up to the sides of his head. He tore out chunks of his hair as he staggered away from the vampire sitting on his girlfriend’s back.

“Fucker!” Nathan threw aside his empty gun.

“Help her!” Vicky shouted at him.

Everything in him protested the idea of leaving Vicky unprotected, but doing nothing went against who he was.

“Shit,” Nathan snarled, and breaking away from her, he shoved past the still howling man to race toward the Savage.

Another creature came at him from the side as they swarmed over the tunnel. The shouts and grunts of the others reverberated in the tunnel as they battled back the increasing horde.

The Savage sank its fangs into the woman’s throat as Nathan grabbed its shoulder and yanked it back. The vamp spun on him, jaws snapping and blood spraying from its lips. Nathan had never seen one so out of control before, but he didn’t hesitate before plunging his stake into the creature’s heart and shoving it aside.

One glance told him the woman was dead. Spinning back, horror filled him when he realized more Savages were flooding the tunnel, and Vicky was lost within the swarm. There had to be at least three dozen of them.

Maybe, if they’d been ordinary Savages, they could take them, but these things had no reason and no survival instinct, as he watched one charge head-on into the stake Logan held out. Starved to madness, nothing would stop these vampires from feeding.

“Vicky!” he shouted.

The swarm parted enough to reveal her with Brian, Abby, and Duncan. Firing their crossbows and guns, Asher and Logan fell in beside him as still more Savages filled the tunnel. Breaking away from his friends, Nathan ran toward Vicky as one of the creatures wrapped its hand around her forearm. The right uppercut she unleashed knocked the Savage’s head back.

With the monster’s throat exposed, Vicky lunged forward and sank her fangs into the neck of a beast that was once an ordinary woman. The blood filling her mouth tasted and felt like sludge as it slid down her throat. Rearing back, she ripped the woman’s jugular out.

She’d done some revolting things in her life, but this ranked up there with Duke. She spat out the flesh, but the rancid stench of the woman lingered in her nostrils even as the strength of the woman’s blood coursed through her. Adjusting her stake, Vicky plunged it into the Savage’s heart before tearing it out and kicking the woman away.

She’d prefer not to do that again, but she would if necessary. Using the back of her arm, she wiped the blood away from her mouth as Nathan arrived at her side. She glanced at him, expecting to see revulsion over what she’d done, but there was none as he grasped her arm and pulled her closer to him.

“What is wrong with these things?” Abby demanded as she kicked out the leg of a Savage running at her. Brian swung his fist into the vamp’s chest, tore its heart free, and tossed it aside.

Duncan bent down and gripped the legs of another Savage. The vamp squealed as Duncan lifted it off the ground and battered it against the tunnel wall. Bones shattered with a crack, and the vampire’s shrieks ended.

“Why are they so mindless?” Abby panted. “I thought Savages were smart, or at least controlled.”

“They are,” Brian replied.

“They were given enough blood to make it through the transition, but they’ve been starved since turning,” Vicky said. “They won’t have any reason again until they’ve glutted themselves on blood and death.”

The sadness in Vicky’s eyes tore at Nathan when she uttered her next words. “I’ve been there. I understand that hunger, but they’re farther gone than I was.”

“I’m getting you out of here,” Nathan vowed as they were pushed further back by more of the creatures.

“I know some of these people,” Duncan grunted as he snapped the leg of a Savage trying to tear the flesh from his arms. “They’re part of the last group we were going to see.”

“Joseph was building another army, and he was using these people to do it,” Vicky said.

“Joseph’s here,” Nathan growled. “He turned them loose on us.”

Vicky hadn’t been afraid of the Savages, but cold terror filled her when a steely glint came into Nathan’s eyes. She clasped his arm to keep him from plunging into the horde. It would be suicide to try fighting through that.

When his gaze swung back to her, the protests she’d been about to utter died on her tongue. Straightening her shoulders, she readied herself for a bigger battle. She would not let him do this alone.

“I’m coming with you,” she said.

Nathan glanced at Vicky and the Savages blocking their way. Alone, he’d attempt to carve his way through them, but he wouldn’t take Vicky with him. His need to get revenge on Joseph had fueled him for months, but now he realized that his love for her had become stronger. He didn’t know when it happened, but she had become the most important thing to him.

If something happened to her, it would push him into a pit of despair.

“Joseph’s not here!” Brian shouted.

A Savage leapt onto his shoulders and perched there like a gargoyle. Asher shot a bolt through the creature’s heart. It toppled forward and spasmed on the ground before going still.

“I’d sense Joseph if he were here,” Brian said. “This isn’t a big enough crowd to keep him hidden from me.”

“Fall back!” Nathan yelled.

Vicky cried out when a Savage seized her hair. A bellow erupted from Nathan before he realized he was going to shout. Grabbing the Savage’s wrist, he battered it against the wall and pulverizing bone until the monster released her.

Lifting the Savage over his head, Nathan brought it down across his knee, nearly breaking the vamp in two. He didn’t know where he found the strength to do such a thing, and he didn’t question it if it kept Vicky safe.

Another Savage leapt at him but changed its course in midair to go for Vicky. She ducked and swung her stake into the creature’s belly as Nathan gripped the back of the vamp’s head and shoved its face into the wall.

The shrieks of the other human who accidentally stumbled into this abruptly silenced, and the excited chatter of the Savages filled the air as they tore into the man with the frenzy of piranhas scenting blood in the water.

When more Savages emerged from the shadows, Nathan knew he didn’t have time to turn and face them. He slammed his hands against the wall, planting them on either side of Vicky’s head as the Savages crashed into his back, shoving him into her.

“Nathan!” Vicky screamed when he grunted. “No!”

Fury shook her to the core as one of the Savage’s reared back to sink its fangs into Nathan’s neck. She pulled her arm back and drove it into the monster’s mouth, knocking its teeth down its throat before it could bite Nathan.

Nathan swung his head back, battering the Savage’s chin and then reaching behind him with one hand. He snaked his arm around the vampire’s head and yanked it to the side before tossing the thrashing creature aside.

Turning, Nathan stepped into Vicky, keeping her secured against the wall with his back as another Savage lunged at him. When the vamp reared back to strike, Nathan plunged his stake into its throat at the same time he smashed his fist into the Savage’s chest. Breaking through flesh and bone, he grasped the creature’s pounding heart as it reeled away from him. The vamp’s heart remained in his hand when it fell backward.

“Go!” Brian shouted when the Savages pouncing on the man created an opening behind them. “Go!”

Nathan clutched Vicky’s hand and turned to follow Asher and Logan back the way they’d come. They raced into the darkness, leaving behind the chattering Savages, but drawing forth those who didn’t have a meal to occupy them.

“Keep running,” Nathan said to Vicky.

He nudged her forward before falling back to run with Brian as Brian pushed Abby ahead of him. Duncan surged past them, racing toward the front.

“Follow me,” Duncan commanded when he took the lead from Logan and Asher.

Their feet slapped against the concrete as the guttural cries of the Savages chasing them echoed over the walls. Duncan’s flashlight flicked on; he led them unerringly through the tunnels.

“The children!” Vicky gasped. “We have to get the children and Sister out of here!”

Duncan took such a sharp right that Asher skidded past the tunnel opening before regaining his footing and turning to pursue Duncan and Logan. They traversed so many twists and turns, Nathan had no idea where they were until they shoved past the blanket and into the home Sister and Duncan had created for the children.

Most of the children were sleeping, but the ones awake gawked at them when they burst into the room. “We have to go!” Duncan said brusquely.

“What?” Sister asked as she put down her book and rose with Elmo at her side.

“Go! We have to go now!” Duncan shouted.

The wildness of his eyes propelled them into action. When Elmo started filling a bag, Duncan pulled it away from him. “There’s no time.”

The color faded from Elmo’s face as some of the sleeping children stirred. Duncan bent and scooped one of the younger ones into his arm before turning to lift another. “You must be quiet,” he commanded when one questioned what was happening, and the other started crying. “We’re going to play a game, and only the ones who don’t speak can win.”

The crying child sniffled but held back his tears as the other little girl stopped speaking.

“How bad is it?” Sister June asked as she gazed beyond them to the blanket.

“Not bad at all,” Vicky said with a falsely upbeat smile.

“Okay, good,” Sister replied, and Vicky knew she understood death was coming for them.

Vicky turned to Elmo. “You’re not going to like this, but you have to let one of us carry you.”

“No way, I’m fast—”

“You’re not as fast as us,” Vicky said. “We’re older and stronger.”

When this was over, they’d have to change the children’s memories, but first, they had to get them out of here. Elmo opened his mouth to protest, but Sister stepped forward.

“Let Brian carry you,” Sister commanded in a tone that radiated her power of persuasion.

A blank look came into Elmo’s eyes, and he nodded. Brian lifted Elmo while Vicky picked up April and the others all gathered a child into their arms.

“This way,” Duncan said and led them into the smoke tunnel.

Behind them, a howl erupted as the Savage’s caught their scent again. The smoke would help cover their trail, but with only one other way out, the monsters would know where they’d gone.