A Wind of Change (A Shade of Vampire #17)(36)

After promising River I would try to get us down to the basement, I now had to figure out how.

I didn’t need to examine the lock again to know that I wouldn’t be able to break through it without damaging it. It was far too complicated a lock to pick.

No. We had to find a smarter way to do this.

River took a shower while I thought, and by the time she’d finished, I’d come up with a plan.

She stepped into the room, dressed in new clothes—a crisp white blouse and cotton pants.

“Any ideas?” she asked anxiously.

“Yes. We’re going to need to pay another visit to Jeramiah.”

She looked confused, but didn’t ask questions. Perhaps by now she trusted me enough.

We left the apartment and headed to Jeramiah’s place. When I knocked on the door, an ebony-skinned half-blood girl opened it.

“You’re here for Jeramiah?”

“Yes.”

She looked over her shoulder and called back into the apartment. “Baby, it’s Joseph and his new half-blood.”

Jeramiah approached the door. He had a smirk on his face. “We’re seeing a lot of each other today.”

“I won’t take up much of your time,” I said. “I’ve come to request a visit to the basement.”

“Why?”

“I know River can help me cope with one human. I want to see how I cope surrounded by crowds of them. If I do end up accompanying you on a hunt, I’ll need to be prepared for this.”

I was surprised by how easily he agreed. “Yes, that’s not a problem. But I will send someone to accompany you. You’re permitted half an hour only.”

Half an hour. I hoped that would be enough time. It would have to be.

Jeramiah called back into the apartment. “Lucretia.”

Lucretia—his new girlfriend, apparently—walked back to the door.

“What?”

“I want you to accompany Joseph and his girl down to the prison. I’ve given them permission to walk around there for thirty minutes. You don’t need to accompany them down. You can wait in the room upstairs if you prefer—just make sure they have returned after half an hour.”

“Okay,” she said, eyeing us. “I’ll be with you in a minute. I’d like to get something to do while I’m sitting there.”

Jeramiah disappeared back into the apartment, while River and I waited for Lucretia. She only kept us waiting a minute. She arrived holding a cosmetic bag and slipped out the door.

We descended the levels of the atrium and arrived in a familiar room, where the entrance to the basement was. She pulled out a key from her pocket and opened the lock, then pushed the door open. The smell of human blood was overwhelming. I reached for River’s hand and breathed in her scent. Together we descended the steps, leaving Lucretia at the top, where she sat down in one corner and began to file her nails.

Arriving in the first prison chamber, we began walking from cell to cell. The cells’ doors had windows, but they were fixed quite high up and River was too short to see through them. So I scanned all the windows first, and if I saw either a young man who fit the description of her friend, Hassan, or a girl who could have been her sister, I lifted River up to the window so that she could peek through.

We traveled from chamber to chamber, careful not to miss a single cell. When I had last been down here, I had been in more of a hurry, and although I’d run fast, I’d barely scratched the surface of the number of prisoners down here. After scanning six entire chambers with River, I was beginning to wonder whether half an hour would indeed be enough time. Especially because I felt the need to keep stopping and breathing in River’s scent in order to keep myself sane.

Finally, at the end of a row in the seventh chamber we passed by, River breathed, “That’s him. Hassan.” She was pointing to a young man curled up in a cot.

She banged on the window pane. Apparently he was fast asleep.

She banged more loudly. “Hassan! Wake up!”

The man stirred finally. His expression was that of utter shock as he gazed up at us through the window. He shot to his feet and hurried toward the door.

“River?” he gasped, his Middle Eastern accent thick. He pressed his hands against the glass. “Can you get me out of here? Please!”

River looked up at me. “Is there no way we could take him upstairs? We could hide him in your apartment.”

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t risk it. We still don’t know how we’re going to escape, and his life could be in more danger than if he just stayed here.”

Hassan’s body was trembling. “This place is a nightmare,” he said.

“We’re going to come back for you,” River said. “I promise.”

“When?” he asked desperately.

River looked up at me, then back at the young man. “I don’t know. But… as soon as possible.” She leaned closer against the glass. “Do you know where my sister is?”

He shook his head sadly. “I have no idea. I’m so sorry.”

River swallowed hard. “Okay. We’re going to have to keep looking for her. Just… try to keep yourself well. I promise I’ll come back as soon as I’m able to.”

He looked devastated as we left him and continued walking along the corridor.