Almost Midnight (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3.5)(84)

“So what are we going to try to do?”

“Some light would be nice. Then I’ll see if I can help our friend here.”

“Okay,” she said. “What’s the chant?”

Miranda let her brain work. “How about … out with dark, in with bright, together we ask for blessed light.”

Tabitha repeated it and then said, “Sounds good.”

Miranda started the chant and gave her half-sister’s hand a squeeze. Tabitha joined in. They said it once, twice, then three times.

“It’s not working,” Tabitha said.

“Maybe we’re doing something wrong.” Miranda tried to remember everything the twins had said about blood spells.

“Maybe we’re not meditating right,” Miranda said. “Are you practicing visualization?”

“Yes,” Tabitha said.

“What are you visualizing?” Miranda asked.

“A flashlight,” her half-sister said.

“Oh, I was going with a candle.”

“Why a candle?” Tabitha asked. “This is the twenty-first century.”

“Because it felt … Never mind, you’re right. Let’s try it again.”

Just before they started the chant again, a moan escaped. Tabitha jumped closer to the Miranda. “I hate this.”

“Come on,” Miranda said. “We’re wasting time.”

They tried again, repeating the spell twice. Three times. Four. Right before she was about to give up, the smell of the herbs grew stronger as if someone knew their spell was being tested.

Tabitha moaned. “It’s not—”

“Don’t stop!” Miranda said and clutched her sister’s hand tighter. Then all of a sudden the sound of something thudding to the ground sounded. When it did, the pungent smell grew ten times stronger.

“What was that?” Tabitha asked, her hold still tight on Miranda’s hand.

“Maybe a flashlight?” Miranda got on her hands and knees. Feeling her way and moving slowly.

“If it was a flashlight why wasn’t it lit?”

“Maybe the powers that be thought the least we could do was to turn it on. Come on, let’s see if we can find it.”

She heard her sister scrambling around. Tabitha’s sigh echoed in the sheer darkness. “Someone has strengthened the black spell. Do you smell that?”

“Yeah, but I still think we succeeded at this one.” Miranda’s words seemed to be swallowed up by the murkiness.

“It probably wasn’t a flashlight,” Tabitha whined.

Miranda knew she was being an optimist, but sometimes that’s all one had. “You don’t know that. Keep looking.”

“Hey,” Tabitha said. “I think … You were right!”

A circular light beamed on the ceiling.

“We did it.” The sensation of power filled Miranda’s chest, even when she knew this might be all they got.

Tabitha shifted the light. Miranda followed the beam. “There are tunnels,” her sister said. “Maybe there’s a way out.”

“Yeah,” Miranda said, and continued to watch as her sister slowly shifted the light. The circular beam stopped on a young man—dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He lay so still that Miranda worried he was dead. That the intake of air they’d heard had been his last.

Finally, his chest shifted ever so slightly. “He’s alive,” Miranda said.

Both Miranda and Tabitha stood up.

“I know.” Tabitha backed away. Miranda edged closer. With each step, the smell of blood got stronger. And this time, it wasn’t her blood.

“Shine it on his face,” Miranda said, and when she took another step, the orb of light slipped up above the neck of their fellow prisoner. She squinted at the individual—at his forehead—something all supernaturals did to identity another species.

The pattern finally emerged.

“He’s vampire.” Tabitha caught Miranda by the arm and tugged her backward. “He’s probably one of them. Don’t get close to him. He … he might attack.”

“If he was one of them, why would they have locked him up?” Miranda tugged the flashlight from Tabitha’s hand and shifted it down his torso. There on his light blue shirt was a big bloodstain. His shirt looked ripped. Had he been stabbed or was he shot?

“Look, he’s been hurt,” Miranda said and looked back at her sister. “He’s not one of them.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s nice. Even if he’s not one of them, he’s probably hungry and if he wakes up … he … he’ll want blood. I say let’s take our light, follow the tunnel, and get as far from him as possible. Maybe we can even find our way out.” She took the flashlight back and pointed in the opposite direction.

Miranda’s gaze stayed on the dark spot where the nearly dead vampire lay. With the beam of light, even not pointed at him, she could still see the shape. She heard him moan again, a little louder, as if he was somehow aware of the light.

“Don’t get too close. He’ll smell your blood,” Tabitha bit out. “And you know what he’ll do.”

Tabitha’s warning had merit. Miranda had heard horror stories of others killed trying to help stray and injured vampires. And yet what if that was Della, or Burnett, or any one of the vampires at Shadow Falls? What if someone let them die?