Asylum (Causal Enchantment #2)(47)
The second link on my wrist began flashing brilliantly. More fresh blood. The third one went off immediately after. A lot of fresh blood. All thoughts of this crime scene vanished, driven out by fear of what lay ahead. I ran to the others.
“Where to now?” Mage asked, faint red lines still marring her almond-shaped eyes.
“This way. Quick,” I ordered.
We followed the pull of the links for thirteen blocks, ending up in another alley, in front of a gray steel door, where the scent of blood infused the air. My tongue curled, the coppery taste filling my mouth. I turned to see five sets of eager eyes. “Whatever is behind this door could be hard to handle,” I warned.
Fiona and Amelie clasped hands. “We’re ready this time,” Amelie said with stoic conviction.
Caden reached out to grasp the handle. “It’s locked.” With a nod to me, he swung his long leg at the door. It caved in with a loud creak, the frame twisting so badly that the door simply fell over. We stepped down a set of stairs and into a dank concrete hallway. The weak fluorescent bulbs shook violently with each beat of the music pounding in the underground club ahead. They illuminated four large, mangled male bodies sprawled on the dirty concrete, their freshly spilled blood splattered along the walls like abstract art. Their size identified them as the bouncers. The mutants had carved through them effortlessly.
“Keep moving!” I shouted, grabbing hold of Fiona and leading the way to a second set of doors at the end of the hall. I looked over my shoulder to find the rest following, struggling but somehow bypassing the bloodied bodies, Caden with steely eyes and a hand hooked around his sister’s arm.
Swallowing the lump forming in my throat, I listened intently at the doors. I heard no screams, no moans, just hammering music. What would we find on the other side, a mass killing ground? These late-night parties held hundreds, if not thousands of young people. Thousands of fast-beating hearts pumping fresh, warm blood through millions of veins—could the mutants control themselves?
I squeezed the metal door handle. The door popped open, the previously muffled music now exploding through the crack as I peered inside—at a sea of moving, gyrating bodies. I breathed a sigh of relief. No mass killing here. Yet. It was a late-night rave in the giant, low-ceilinged basement of a building, complete with a smoke machine, kaleidoscopic light show, and a dense crowd of wasted revelers. The perfect plucking ground for a hungry vampire.
The six of us quickly slipped through the entrance. Bishop closed the door behind him, bending the door frame to jam it so no one could exit through that doorway and find the bouncers’ bodies. I spent a few moments scanning the crowd for our repulsive targets but soon realized it would be impossible to find them while standing here, even with our abilities.
“We need to split up,” Caden yelled, echoing my thoughts.
Mage gestured to Bishop and Fiona and pointed to the right. Caden and Amelie followed me as I headed along the left perimeter.
“See? We are going clubbing after all!” Amelie chirped as we wove through the edge of the crowd. I couldn’t help but smile.
The place reeked of sweat, booze, and vomit but no one seemed to care; all were too engrossed in bumping and turning into each other. As a human teenager growing up in nineteenth-century France, my nights had consisted of reading books by kerosene lamp and the occasional ball or late evening picnic—nothing like this. I’d quite happily kept Evangeline away from this scene, not wanting her exposed to deadly drugs. Ironic, really, given all the other deadly things she was now exposed to, thanks to me.
A young girl of no more than seventeen, dressed in a tight, microscopic white dress, suddenly flew out of the crowd to throw her arms around Caden. “You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes on!” she shouted, her voice slurred.
Caden smiled politely while gently extricating himself from her arms. “I’m flattered, but I already have someone.”
Unwilling to take no for an answer, the girl leapt at him. I think she tried to lay a kiss on his mouth but, in her drunken state, missed and buried her face in his shoulder instead. A tiny hand reached out and grabbed a handful of the girl’s long, straight brown hair. “He said he’s taken. Back off!” Amelie yelled. With a flick of her delicate wrist, she sent the girl flying backward into the crowd; she took several revelers down like dominoes as she plowed into them.
“Come on!” I grabbed them both and pulled them ahead of me, hoping to get away before a fight broke out. Only ten feet away, we passed a group of young men leaning against the wall, and I sensed their despicable intentions as their eyes appraised Amelie and me. I recognized their type immediately—they would lure a woman into a quiet location to have their way with her. Normally, I’d respond by batting my eyes—I enjoyed baiting my meal. But not tonight. Tonight I needed to deal with five other vile creatures, and it wasn’t for pleasure. It was for survival.
Amelie read their lewd intentions as well and, unfortunately, she wasn’t as focused. Lunging at one of the men, she easily pinned him up against the wall and bared her teeth in a snarl. Caden yanked her off before she could take a chunk out of the guy’s neck; before anyone could see her eyes morph.
“Amelie!” I barked, pushing her forward. “We don’t have time for this! I’ll put you on a leash if you don’t behave.”
“Sorry,” she muttered with a sheepish smile, her irises quickly reverting to their girlish green. We continued along the perimeter of the room, Caden now with one hand firmly locked on his feisty sister’s shoulder.