Page 36

S omething had changed again. My head throbbed from dehydration as consciousness returned, the scent of coppery blood still lingering from émilie’s last visit.

I didn’t remember much of it. Alistair had been there, though. The burning anger in my veins at the sight of him had protected me a little from the pain that came with her presence – though not enough to prevent me from crying out as she sliced at the delicate skin of my inner thigh. Presumably I’d passed out, but now there was a sound in the bunker with me that hadn’t been there before. I was so engrossed in listening to the unfamiliar noise that it took me a full minute to notice my arms were strangely free.

“Erin?” A voice spoke from my right, and I flinched, the thin scabs on my stomach cracking at the sudden movement. His voice was too familiar to be true.

“Adam?” I croaked. I couldn’t believe it. “What are you doing here?”

“Trust me, it was not a part of my cunning plan,” he drawled through the darkness .

“You’re not the most successful of rescue parties, I’ll admit,” I laughed, surprised I still could. “Did you unlock my chains?” I asked, flexing my wrists to test their movement.

“I picked the lock, yes. It was simpler than I’d expected, what with my improved sense of hearing in this dank, isolated little hole.” He sounded at ease, though I knew he couldn’t be.

“Thanks,” I sighed. “I think the sensation is coming back to my arms.” I paused, rotating my stiff shoulders. I didn’t dare try to sit up yet. “What happened?”

“Where to begin?” I could almost sense him raising an eyebrow at me in the dark. “You disappeared, Erin. It was only ever a matter of time before we came for you – Nick would have it no other way. Tom, too. You know this.”

“Did you work out it was Alistair, or—” I started.

“This past day or so, I have learned a great deal about Nick’s history. I confess, much of it I wish I had not had to hear – or wheedle out of him.” His usual light drawl had vanished. “Alistair was a part of that, yes.”

The darkness between us felt heavier. For Adam to speak about Alistair’s part in Nicholas’s life like that… There must have been some truth in the picture Alistair had painted. I pressed my palm flat against the cold concrete floor, anchoring myself.

“How did you figure out it was him?” I demanded, some strength returning to my voice. “Tell me everything, from the start.”

Adam took a deep breath and began to weave Nicholas’s story. I shifted, trying to find a position that didn’t pull at my wounds as he spoke of fortune-tellers and young vampires at the turn of the century… Of prisoners and the horrors of war – some of which I already knew. But the torture and the fear, I hadn’t been expecting.

He didn’t go into detail about the experiments Nicholas and Alistair had been subjected to, and I imagined Nicholas had been reluctant to share much. I struggled to comprehend what he’d endured, the determination it must have taken to survive. But Adam’s words had the ring of truth to them – his story made sense of the things I knew of Alistair so far, and I believed Nicholas’s conviction that his friend had been dead.

I took a moment to let everything he’d said sink in. “How did you end up in here with me?”

Adam shifted in the darkness. “Tom worked out they must be holding you here, and the others and I agreed we should investigate. Of course, I had not intended to storm to your rescue and find myself, well, captured.”

Relief flooded through me like adrenaline, and I tensed at the pain it caused my injured body. “So, the others are here?”

“Yes. I spoke to Tom minutes before they caught me – but don’t excite yourself, I seem to have lost my phone since then,” Adam said shortly. “How are you , Erin? I cannot tell how badly you’re hurt in this blasted darkness, but I felt your wrists as I picked the cuffs. Is that the extent of it?”

“So bad you can tell in the dark, huh?” I coughed, my throat raw and dry. “émilie prefers shallow cuts and…” I searched for the word. “I think the term is flaying?”

There was a sharp intake of breath.

“The woman is a monster.” He made a sound of disgust. “ Though perhaps we should be grateful she hasn’t indulged her inclination toward poison. I shall be very interested to see what Nicholas does to the vampire upstart when he sees what she has done to you.”

“Is he coming?” I asked, trying not to let hope seep into my tone.

Adam chuckled. “If Nicholas were the one here, captured, wouldn’t you be on your way?”

I flushed in the dark.

“The sun was close to rising when they caught me, so it might be something of a wait, but he’ll be here. I have faith that between him and Isabel, we will make it out alive.”

“How long have I been gone?” I choked out.

“Not quite two days now.”

I nodded, though he couldn’t see me.

“How is he?” I knew Adam would answer me honestly.

“Both furious and utterly lost,” Adam answered. “When we found the empty house, I believe something broke in him. One might have thought half his soul had been ripped away.”

I nodded again to myself. I’d had so much time to think about him while I’d been here, my perspective had shifted entirely. I wanted to ask more, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the words out loud. Somehow, I knew he was doing about as well with my absence as I was with his. Adam said nothing more on the subject, and I left it at that.

“How much can you move?” I asked after a moment’s pause.

“I am quite unrestrained, though this shelter remains my prison. ”

“I’m going to try to sit up: bear with me.” Taking a deep breath and holding it, I braced myself for the pain of bending my abdomen. I was no longer bleeding, but the air on my raw skin was enough to bring tears to my eyes. In one fast movement, I pulled myself up and swung my legs around, feeling for the floor in the darkness with my feet.

“Erin—” Adam started as I cried out.

“Just – give me – a minute,” I panted. It wasn’t quite the white-hot flashing pain of earlier, but it was enough. “So much for – the restorative – bloody – power of – meditation.” My heart pounded with the effort, but I managed to steady myself.

“Excuse me?” I could hear the amusement in his voice as he worked at the chains that bound my ankles together. I didn’t remember émilie fastening those on – but I’d been here longer than I’d thought. There must have been some time missing from my memory.

“Let’s just say sitting and starving in the dark is overrated, as hobbies go.” I took a few deep breaths, letting my pulse find its way back to normal. “Thought I’d try to coax my brain into healing me faster, but my body pretty much told me to fuck off.”

“I see. And are you quite sure you can walk with these removed?”

I sighed. “I’ll manage. You might have to help me.” Admitting I needed help wasn’t exactly a forte of mine, and for a moment my heart filled with an ache for Jonathan – the only person I’d never minded admitting my weaknesses to. I immediately felt guilty that I’d not spared a thought for him since they’d captured me .

“Help or no help, my dear, I don’t know that we’re able to get out of here. There are at least three chains holding the door closed, by my estimation.” He sounded resigned to the matter.

“Didn’t you say you spoke to Tom a few minutes ago?”

“Minutes to you, perhaps. You have been unconscious a good while. I’m not sure what could have happened to him, actually.”

His voice tightened, the usual polish falling away. It must still be daylight, and Alistair and émilie were presumably indoors, sleeping – so what could have kept Tom from coming to find us?

“Shit. Okay, well let’s focus on what we can do,” I said, pushing the worry aside. “We’ve got to get out of here. Help me look for something we can use.”

Trying not to bend at the waist, I got to the floor and swept my hands around, carefully. I could hear Adam doing the same, but my fingers met with nothing other than concrete and dirt.

“Would this do?” Adam’s voice came from my left, accompanied by a faint jangling.

“émilie’s tools!” I exclaimed, instantly regretting raising my voice and dropping to a whisper. “Is the box open?”

“No, but it feels like the padlock has a dial.”

“Can you unlock it?”

“Perhaps if I could see it?” There was a scraping sound, and my eyes watered as Adam pushed his back against the door and the thinnest chink of light appeared – apparently émilie hadn’t pushed the bolt across in her hurry to get indoors.

Adam held the box up to the light, angling it so he could look at it. The brightness stung my eyes after so long in the dark, and I turned my face away.

“Anything?” I asked after a minute or two, unable to bring myself to look back towards the light.

“I think—” Something clicked. “Ah, success.”

I dragged myself across the concrete floor, keeping my torso rigid. Each pull of my arms sent tremors through my flayed skin, but it was better than trying to crawl. The few feet might as well have been miles.

“What’s in it? She’s not stupid enough to leave a key, and all I’ve seen are—”

“Blades. Scalpels. A… screwdriver? Useful should we need a weapon upon her return, but of little use to us in opening the door. The hinges are on the other side,” he explained before I could ask.

The hope that had sparked momentarily died down again. I thought fast.

“Can we push it open any further?” I nodded my head towards the chink of light, knowing Adam could see me better than I could see him.

“Maybe two inches at the most.”

I nodded. “Okay. If you come around to my right, I’m going to try to get my wrist through the door; I think it might fit. If I can grab one of the chains—”

“You can pull the padlock through,” Adam finished, already moving out of the way. “It may be worth a try. Your hands are rather smaller than mine.”

I steeled myself, twisting my body, my arm at an awkward angle. Pain seared through my torso. Fresh blood trickled down my side where the movement had reopened my wounds, but I gritted my teeth and kept going, determined this plan would work. “Three, two—”

Adam pushed, and the gap widened enough for my hand. I could hardly bend my wrist, but my fingers brushed the cold metal of one of the chains.

“A bit further…”

Adam was panting with the strain of pushing at the heavy door, but my index finger caught in a link and I tugged it through.

“You can let go,” I said, the light shrinking again before I’d finished speaking.

Bit by bit, we pulled the chain through the opening. It was a slow process – the chain had been looped and crossed over repeatedly, a huge metal knot for us to untangle, but eventually the first padlock caught in the gap, and we pulled it through. Adam made quick work of it and began again with the next chain.

Four times, we repeated the process. My arm quickly grew sore and bruised from repeated attempts where the door slammed on my wrist – but it kept me distracted from other pains, and the gnawing worry that something was going to go wrong.

As we pulled at the final lock, a sound from outside the shelter caught my attention, and I shushed Adam, who dropped the chain with a clatter. By unspoken agreement, we retreated deeper into the shelter, each of us with one of émilie’s blades in hand.