Midnight's Kiss(12)

She wasn’t going to think about Julian anymore, or how he might respond to Justine’s ultimatum. As heir to the Light Fae demesne, she knew better than to hope he might act out of some kind of sentimentality. He was the Nightkind King. Even if he had any lingering feelings for her, other than anger, he couldn’t afford to give in to kidnappers’ demands.

Damn, the lock was a stiff son of a bitch. She could feel the ends of her makeshift lock pick catching on the interior mechanism, but the hairpin was made out of soft, cheap metal. She had already bent it out of shape, and it kept trying to bend further. And the darkness was so absolute, it was starting to get to her.

Since she was rescuing herself, she didn’t need to worry so much about conserving the flashlight’s batteries. Flipping the switch, she took a moment to survey her cell. It was rough and bare, except for a cheap-looking, collapsible cot with a thin foam mattress, and a folded, green wool army blanket. There was also what looked to be a hole in the floor in one corner. Was that some kind of primitive latrine?

Grimacing, she turned back to the door, took the end of the flashlight between her teeth and worked carefully at the lock.

There it was. She felt it catch through her fingers. The mechanism gave way to the gentle pressure she exerted, and the lock turned. Halle-fucking-lujah.

Blowing out a heartfelt sigh, she kissed the pieces of her lucky hairpin and tucked them with the second hairpin, in the pocket of her pants. Then she collected the jug of water and packet of food. She might be miles from anywhere and facing a stiff hike, and she would need to eat and drink soon.

Stepping out of the cell, she ran the flashlight’s thin beam of light around the immediate area. As she did so, she realized there was more than one cell. With a sense of dread, she counted a total of four barred doors, although she was relieved to see the other cells were empty, their doors standing open. Two of the cells had thick manacles chained to the walls. To her left, the roughly hewn tunnel simply ended a few feet beyond the small cellblock.

These four cells were the end destination. But why carve them so deeply into the earth that not even a hint of light penetrated? What kind of creatures had Justine held captive down here?

Vampyres. She trapped Vampyres.

Shuddering, Melly turned her back on the cells and started down the tunnel. The going was a bit trickier than she had anticipated. The rocky floor felt rough and uneven under her thin-soled flats, and she had to keep the flashlight trained on the ground so she could see where to put her feet. She couldn’t afford to add a sprained ankle to her other injuries.

After leaving the cellblock, she quickly reached the end of the tunnel, where she found another barred door that opened into another corridor. Like the other empty cells, this door was unlocked, propped open with a fist-sized rock.

Choosing to go left or right in the new corridor had no meaning to her, so she shrugged and went right. As she ran into a fork in the hulking rock, she chose right again, and soon her tunnel intersected yet another corridor.

This time she decided to stay with the tunnel she was already in. Disturbed at how large the tunnel system appeared to be, she kept count of her choices — two rights and across — in case she reached another dead end and needed to backtrack.

After going so long where the only sounds she heard were the ones she made, her sensitive ears picked up a distant… something.

What was that? It sounded like a shuffling, or a scraping sound. Cocking her head, she tried to identify it, but she couldn’t imagine what would make such a noise.

The sound seemed to grow louder as she went, or maybe she drew closer to it. It was definitely shuffling. Or scraping. Or both?

And there was light up ahead. To be sure, she turned off her flashlight and saw that the darkness up ahead was broken by some kind of illumination that seemed to flicker. As her eyes adjusted, she moved forward cautiously. At the same time, a whiff of air stirred down the tunnel, bringing with it a stench that made her grimace. It smelled like garbage, or meat that had gone bad.

The flickering light up ahead grew stronger, and after a few more steps, her tunnel ended at a massive, cave-like room.

The light came from several torches, set into old, iron sconces.

The shuffling, scraping sounds came from a mass of creatures that were crouched in the middle of the cave. They were… they were…

For a moment her mind refused to process what she was seeing. Her heart knew better, though, and it kicked into an accelerated rhythm.

The crouching creatures were human shaped and dressed in filthy-looking, ragged clothes. As she sucked in a breath of the stinking air, a few of the creatures lifted their heads to look at her. Their eyes flashed red in the torchlight, and their mouths were dark with what looked like blood.