The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection(58)

“Shh.” I held up my hand. “I heard something.”

I heard it again. I followed sound. I turned a few corners and found more cells. Finally, at the end of a hallway full of cells, I found the source of the noise.

“Oscar!” I rushed toward the door and realized then why he had never come for me. He hadn't been a traitor. “Why are you in here?”

Oscar tried to stand, wobbled, and then fell to his knees. He crawled to the bars and lifted himself to stand with the help of the bars. “They locked me up as soon as I left your room. I guess they figured I might be a problem.” He coughed and gave a little laugh. I looked closer at him. There were bite marks all over his neck and arms.

“They’ve been feeding on you?” I asked him.

He only nodded and turned his head away.

“Alice, let him out,” I told her.

Immediately, she had the key in the lock. I’m sure she had it ready before I even asked.

“Who is this?” Drew asked “Can we trust him?”

“Drew… look at him. Does he look like he is on Trevor’s side?”

Drew nodded. “Good point. Let’s go.”

As Oscar exited the cell, Drew grabbed him around the waist to help him walk.

“Oscar,” I looked him in the eye. “I know you’re hurting, but we are trying to get out of here, and I need you to be as strong as you can so that we can move quickly.”

He nodded and we ran again, not quite as fast as before, but hopefully quickly enough.

We ran until we reached a narrow door. Alice whipped out a key and opened it. “Down here is a tunnel. The tunnel is for Trevor, only. I only know about it because I’ve seen him use it. It comes out in a parking garage down the street from one of his night clubs. But there are exits along the way that are closer.”

Seriously? Wow.

“Alice.” I looked her in the eye. “You can’t stay here.”

She accepted my stare and our eyes locked. “I know. I’m coming with you.”

I felt like jumping for joy and decking her at the same time. She finally decided to leave Trevor, but only after she had ruined my trust. I couldn’t leave her though. She would die for letting us out. We had to repay her.

“Let’s go, then.”

I turned and lowered myself on the ladder Drew had already descended and had help Oscar climb down. Alice followed me, shutting the door and latching the top of the tunnel hatch over us, surrounding us in complete darkness.





THE VAMPIRE HUNTER’S DAUGHTER





PART VI





ARCADIA FALLS





It was so dark in the tunnels I was positive I was the only one who could see anything at all. For about ten minutes, we stumbled through the tunnel, hanging onto each other’s hands and bumping against one another.

“I can’t do this anymore.” I was at the head of the line, and I stopped so quickly it caused Alice, Drew and Oscar to bump into me and each other from behind.

Drew moved from the back to stand beside me. “Do what? We have to keep moving.”

“I just can’t walk in the dark like this anymore. Give me a second.” I flexed my hand a couple of times and after a few deep breaths, I managed to pull up a little flame, similar to a candle flame, in my palm. “There.”

In the glow of the small flame, I saw Drew grin. “Nice.”

“Now we can keep moving, but we have to be quick. If we linger too long, Trevor will figure things out and catch up to us. Once we get above ground, we can figure out where to go from there.”

Drew nodded but looked nervous, something I wasn't accustomed to seeing. I figured it boiled down to the fact he wasn’t used to being defenseless; he usually had his guns.

“You okay?” I asked him.

He nodded again. “Yeah. Let’s move.” He encircled Oscar’s waist to help him walk. “You doin’ okay?” he asked Oscar.

“Yes,” Oscar croaked out.

I turned to lead the way again, my little flame guiding the way. We had only been walking about five minutes when Alice cried out, “Oh!”

Every single one of us halted to a stop and turned.

“I totally forgot!” Alice said.

“What?” Drew and I demanded at the same time. I expected it to be something bad, like she forgot there was no exit or something.

“This!” She reached into the pocket of her jeans and extracted a cell phone.

“Oh, my god! Alice, I love you!” If my hand hadn’t been occupied by flame, I would have hugged her.

Oscar shook his head and croaked. “It probably won’t get a signal down here.”

Drew shrugged, “You’re right, but I’m still trying.”

It powered up and Drew turned it around for us to see. “He’s right, no bars. Let’s go.”

We moved on with renewed energy. We walked for what seemed like hours, until I saw a ladder that reached to the ceiling with another hatch, like the one we came down through.

“There!” I pointed.

We rushed for the ladder.

“I’m going first,” Drew told us, letting go of Oscar. He shimmied up the ladder quickly and lifted the hatch. We waited patiently while he went up and inspected.