A Gate of Night (A Shade of Vampire #6)(49)

I squirmed away from him, knowing that it was someone else who was holding me, not Xavier. Of course, there was little I could do to keep him from having what he wanted.

When our lips parted, I looked at him for a sign of whether or not he even took any pleasure in what he’d just done. He seemed so empty of emotion. “Take me to the humans.”

I tensed at the thought of what they wanted the humans for.

The Catacombs.

Out of breath, I didn’t have time to think it through. My immediate thought was to get to the Catacombs before the Elders could use the vampires there to devour the humans we were trying to protect. I sped to the caves, hoping to leave the Elder behind.

It took but seconds before the visiting Elder gripped the back of my head painfully. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

“Please, these humans… they’re our friends.”

“Friends?” White eyes turned red.

I doubted I’d ever been more terrified than I was at that moment. I stared up at Xavier, his handsome face distorted by veins coming out of his skin, as if his body was straining to contain the unwanted invasion of the dark force inside him.

“You make friends of these worms? They’re good for nothing but their blood.” He grabbed my wrists and squeezed tight. “Has your nature taught you nothing?”

I yelped when he pulled me against him before raising my wrist up. Claws popped out of Xavier’s fingers, cutting my wrist and letting blood flow.

Red eyes turned back to white. A smile crept into the corners of Xavier’s lips.

I could practically sense the Elder’s hunger. Since I’d become a vampire, I hadn’t known what it was like to be a prey being hunted by a predator—to be the morsel being craved. Nothing prepared me for when the Elder bit into my wrist and drank deep.

By the time he was done, I felt weak and in need of blood myself. I wondered then if it was actually possible to bleed a vampire dry.

The Elder threw my wrist aside, blood dripping from the corners of his mouth as he straightened to his full height. “Not as sweet as a human, but it will have to do for now.”

Screams began to fill the atmosphere. The sound was coming from the Catacombs. My heart dropped. The thought of suffering any more loss than we already had was tearing me apart.

“Please.”

I wasn’t given a moment to speak. Instead, I was yanked toward the sounds of death.

Chapter 29: Aiden

Claudia’s face twisted in horror when Yuri’s eyes turned a shade of blood before he began devouring the first girl he got a hold of.

“Get out of here! Now!” She pointed at Gavin, who, along with Zinnia, and Craig, one of the hunters, was already running toward a dark corridor inside the cave system. I didn’t bother to look around me.

I was never the kind of person who ran away. I preferred to stay and fight. Had it been just the vampires or the strange giant dogs that came with them, I would’ve stayed, but invisible monsters that took over the bodies of friends… I had no idea how to battle against something like that. The only recourse was escape. That way, we could figure out what to do.

I took one last look at Yuri, a man whom—even though he was hundreds of years older than me—was almost like a son. My heart fell when he held a young woman who’d grown up at the Catacombs and bled her dry. Claudia tried to pull him away from the girl, but with one blow, the blonde vampire was thrown several feet away from him.

I stepped forward to help the beautiful blonde only to have Gavin hold me back. “Aiden, there’s nothing we can do to help. All we can do right now is save ourselves.”

Despite my inclination to stay behind, Gavin was telling the truth. I would’ve been a fool to remain, so I ended up following Gavin into a series of tunnels I’d never even known existed at the Catacombs.

“Where are we going? Where are you taking us?”

Since I met her, Zinnia had never been the picture of sanity, but as Ian led us through narrow tunnels that led out of the Catacombs with only a flashlight to shed light before us, she was insufferable in her delusion that she was still in control.

“Shut her up,” Gavin seethed through gritted teeth.

“I demand to know where we’re going!”

“Be silent, Zinnia,” I reprimanded her. “If you want to come with us, then it’s in your best interest to keep those lips sealed.”

Gavin, who was ahead of the pack, stopped. He began moving the torch from one side to another, the light flickering with the motion.

Several unsavory curses flowed out of the lips of Craig. “What the hell is this? It’s a dead end.”

“Shut up,” was the only explanation any of us got from Gavin, who began feeling along one side of the wall. “This passage will lead us to the Port. From there, you guys can do whatever you want. Right now, just shut up.”

The screams behind us escalated right before several piercing howls echoed in the corridor behind us. Rabid monsters began barking, their growls getting louder and louder.

“They’re coming!” I announced. “Gavin, what’s going on?”

Gavin remained silent, feeling through the wall for a couple of seconds—more serene than any of us were.

I pulled my gun out. I looked at Zinnia and Craig, who began retrieving their own weapons. “We’re better off putting up a fight.”