Vampires 101 (Twilight Hunters Book 1) A Vampire Romance (16 page)

After about fifteen minutes of walking, the tunnel came to a dead end. There was nothing but a wall in front of me.

Ok, so now what?

My main purpose for traipsing into the tunnels in the first place had been to find Shadow. Given that I couldn’t go any further, I had to conclude that she’d gone in a different direction. Finally reality hit me like a ton of bricks. Finding Shadow in these tunnels might be impossible. They branched into dozens directions. Just in the distance I’d already come, the tunnel had forked several different times. There was no telling which one Shadow had taken.

And now I was at a dead end.

Just as I was ready to turn around and backtrack the way I’d come, I heard a grinding sound coming from behind the wall.

But that was impossible.

Even if there were something beyond the wall, it would be nearly impossible to hear it. The wall was solid concrete.

I heard the sound again, this time even louder.

I reached out to place my hand against the wall and nearly lost my footing. My entire hand and arm disappeared into the concrete. It took a moment for what was happening to actually sink in. In that instant I wasn’t sure if I were dreaming, or if what was happening was real.

I pulled my arm out of the wall and stared at it for the longest time. Getting brave, I stuck my arm through the wall again. It just felt like I was putting my arm through air. There was nothing solid to the wall at all.

Damn! Where was that ghost when I needed him?

It would have been easy to send Chaz through the wall to see what was up, but he was off in ghost land somewhere. I didn’t have much choice but to put my head through the wall and look myself.

I could feel my face scrunching into a mask of revulsion, even before I leaned into the wall. It was an involuntary reaction, brought about by the idea of sticking my head into a wall of concrete. Just the thought of pushing my head through a concrete wall was enough to make me flinch. If it suddenly turned solid, the pain that would ensue would be excruciating.

After a few seconds went by and I still felt no pain, I opened my eyes. My first thought was that Sean Taft wasn’t loony after all. On the other side of the wall, the tunnel was massive. There were tracks for some kind of rail transport. A narrow road ran beside the tracks.

I still wasn’t sure how there could be a wall, that wasn’t really a wall, but I stepped through it anyway. It had to be some kind of hologram to fool people into thinking the tunnel ended.

The tunnel was lit with soft - indirect lighting that reminded me of some kind of starship. The lighting was there, but you couldn’t really see the source.

Flipping off my flashlight, I started exploring - continuing in the same general direction. I came across several smaller tunnels that led off the main one. Though I was tempted to explore them, I knew it would be way too easy to get lost down here.

By estimating the distance and direction I’d been walking, I figured that I was now somewhere near the mountains, east of Pine View. To the south would be the university. If I kept going east, the tunnel would eventually lead me directly beneath the mountains, which is what it appeared to do.

There was a continuous humming sound coming from somewhere, but I couldn’t tell where. I got used to the noise fairly quickly, but when I heard a strange hissing sound, I froze. Whatever was hissing sounded as if it was alive, not mechanical like the humming noise.

Standing completely still, I listened but didn’t hear it again. I was just beginning to think I’d imagined it when an arm reached out and pulled me out of the main tunnel.

There was a hand placed tightly over my mouth to prevent me from screaming. “Don’t scream,” he hissed. Right away I recognized Riley’s voice.

After removing his hand from my mouth, he spoke in hushed tones. “It was foolish to come down here alone.”

He had a point, but I wasn’t about to admit it, and I wasn’t prepared to stand there and argue with him when I had no idea what was down in these tunnels with us.

“Follow me,” he said. It was not a request. All of the sudden I became absolutely sure that he would shoot me where I stood, if I didn’t do as he said.

The smaller passage was more like a large hall. It was constructed of some kind of flat gray metal, but it seemed to be lit the same way as the large tunnel. I couldn’t see a lighting source. There were a number of doors, but they were all closed, so there was no way to tell what was behind them.

We were moving fast. I was nearly out of breath by the time Riley pulled me into a room and shut the door behind us. It seemed to be some kind of maintenance room, not like anything I’d ever seen before. Everything was way too technical and clean to resemble a janitor’s closet, but there were buckets, as well as bottles that I assumed to be various chemicals. I also saw floor buffers and other types of machines. They looked to have computers built into them.

Riley pointed to a small - white ladder that led to a hatch in the ceiling. “Hurry! We don’t’ have much time.”

Although I hadn’t heard any alarms going off, I had no doubt that by now someone was aware of our presence.

I started up the ladder, but paused when I heard Riley’s voice. “You’ll want to plug your nose before you open the hatch,” he advised.

Ok then.

I didn’t really doubt that Riley knew what he was talking about, but trying to balance myself on the ladder, and open the door, while plugging my nose at the same time, was just slightly beyond my coordination ability. As soon as I pushed open the hatch, I wished I’d listened to him.

An invisible cloud of putrid odor hit me, instantly making me gag.

Riley was already on the ladder behind me. “Let’s go,” he urged.

“Are you crazy? What is up here?” It was too dark to see, and I wasn’t about to try and reach the flashlight I’d stuck in my back pocket.

“It’s the sewer. Just keep moving.”

“Ew Yuk! I’m not climbing into a sewer.”

“Well about thirty seconds from now you’re not going to want to be down here. I promise you that,” he grumbled.

Without any warning, I felt his hand on my ass and I was being flung up through the hatch’s opening. I landed unceremoniously on my side in some water and slime. “Oh so gross!” I yelled.

Riley wasn’t paying me any attention. He was too busy shutting the hatch. There was no time to recover from my fall before Riley grabbed my arm and drug me to my feet. He switched on a flashlight.

I had to run to keep up, but he wasn’t about to slow down or let go of my arm. We’d gone about a hundred yards before we came upon another ladder. This time he led the way, but was still pulling me behind him.

A moment later we were outside and in the fresh air. Letting go of my arm, he replaced the manhole cover and stepped out of the street. I followed.

With it being so dark, and me being so exhausted, I wasn’t quite sure where I was at first. Then I saw the rocket play set. I knew that the only place in Pine View there was a play set like that was East Ridge Park. Dad used to take me to East Ridge to play all the time.

It took a few minutes, but finally my breathing returned to normal and I looked over at Riley. “What the hell is going on? Were you following me?”

“I was,” he admitted. “I knew you were going to end up getting yourself into trouble.”

Rolling my eyes, I said, “I wasn’t in any trouble. Now look at me … I’m a mess.”

“If you’d stayed down there any longer … you would have been.” Without further explanation, he pulled out his phone.

“I have her with me,” Riley told the person on the other end. “Send someone up to East Ridge to get her.” He ended the call, and cast angry eyes in my direction.

“You have no idea just how stupid that was,” he snarled.

“What is this all about Riley?” I asked again.

“I knew there was more going on than you led me to believe.” He went on with the tongue lashing, without bothering to answer my question.

A taxi pulled up before I had a chance to demand an answer. Riley gently placed a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll talk tomorrow. Right now we both need to get cleaned up, and we need some rest,” he added.

“I found some dead animals in the tunnels under the cemetery. I think there might have been a human body also,” I informed him.

“I know. I saw it when I was following you. I also found the other remains you were checking out. They’ve already been reported.” Riley had his hand on my arm and was gently nudging me to the taxi.

I slid into the backseat, and was surprised when he didn’t follow. Instead he leaned inside and gave the driver the address to my apartment.

“But my car,” I protested.

“The police have already had your car towed, but if you are a good little hell brat, I might have it returned in the morning.” Without giving me a chance to utter another word, he shut the door and the taxi pulled away.

I wanted to scream - kick, and throw a big fit. I hated it when men tried to take control.

My anger simmered.

I knew I should be grateful to him for saving my ass, though I wasn’t exactly sure from what. It was being brushed off like a child that really pissed me off. The least he could have done was give me some kind of explanation. Now I was going to be up all night trying to piece it all together.

* * *

I was mistaken in my belief that the mystery of the tunnels would keep me awake all night. It is amazing how small things, such as a hot shower and a soft bed, become luxuries when you are exhausted. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell into a deep - dreamless sleep.

In the wee hours before sunrise, something woke me. At first I was too afraid to open my eyes. Memories of the nocturnal visits I received during my childhood came flooding back to me. I was sure that if I opened my eyes, I would see nothing but fleeting shadows.

I had always been able to sense their presence, but I could never quite focus on them. My entire body would be paralyzed. I could blink and move my eyes from side to side, but never my head. No matter how much willpower I put into moving, it was impossible to even so much as lift a pinky.

The room would fill with a painfully bright light, and then the shadows would begin poking and prodding at my body. The experience was never really painful, just uncomfortable and frightening.

In the morning it would all seem so unreal - like a dream. As I grew older, I started brushing the experiences off as just weird dreams, but that was only during the light of day. While it was actually happening, I was terrified. It was so real.

Unlike the night terrors of my childhood, this time there were no bright lights, only the absolute certainty that I was not alone. There was someone watching me from the darkness.

Gripping the blankets in my hands, I slowly opened my eyes. He was standing next to my bed, staring down at me. At first all I could see was an inky shadow within the dark, and the ethereal light in his eyes.

“You scared me to death,’ I gasped.

Damian chuckled. “You looked so peaceful, I was hesitant to wake you.”

I was immensely relieved that it was Damian and not the shadows, but I was also confused. How had he gotten into my apartment? Before going to bed, I’d made sure my apartment was locked up tighter than Fort Knox.

Then I remembered some of what I’d witnessed him do, and was no longer so surprised that he’d managed to get into a locked apartment.

“Where were you tonight?” I asked. “Riley had to save me. Well … at least I think he did.”

I felt the side of the bed give against his weight as he sat next to me. “I was close,” he said, reaching out to take my hand in his.

Just to have him near was like having a talisman against anything and everything that was bad. When I was with Damian, I felt like nothing could hurt me.

“I found some really weird stuff.” My words were cut off by his kiss. Instinctively my arms wrapped around his neck and I pulled him into me. His kiss was so demanding - so hungry; I found myself being swept away by the pure intensity of it. 

Then his mouth was on my neck - his lips softly caressing my skin until I was seized with a desire so strong that my body shuddered with the sheer force of it.

“We don’t have much time,” he whispered.

Before I could ask him what he meant, his lips again claimed mine. When the kiss was over, he pulled back just far enough that he could look into my eyes. “I want you Cassie … but there’s something you should know first.”

I was on fire. In that instant nothing mattered but feeling his hands on my body - feeling him take me to that place of complete release that I had craved for so long.

I shook my head. “I don’t want to know. All I want is for you to make love to me.”

The heat in his gaze burst into an inferno of passion. He pulled the blankets away and I felt his hand lifting the material of my T-shirt until my breasts were exposed to his heated gaze.

Damian paused long enough to feast his eyes, but then his mouth found my erect nipples - he began suckling and biting until I was completely lost in the sensation. Arching my back, I forced him to take more of my fleshy mound into his mouth.