Darkness Bred (15 page)

With Saul at his shoulder, Sean scrambled to the top of the next rise only to face a rough and muddy downhill stretch. Fortunately he was too surefooted to slip. “You’ve really made a mess of things this time,” he told Elin—wherever she was and that couldn’t be far. “Who gave you the silly stick? Sally? Did the pair of you think it would be any defense against what we’re facing? Get behind us and stay there.” It puzzled him that there was no sign of that stick at the moment.

“Look,” Saul said suddenly and lowered his voice. “Just up ahead. That rock’s moving. The wand. It’s the wand doing it.”

Quite a large rock heaved loose of the mountainside under the unlikely leverage of their familiar floating stick. The boulder tipped slowly forward, rolled sideways, and slid onto the pathway.

“Why did you do that, Elin?” Sean said. “I can tell it’s you with the stick.”
Which should have snapped off the instant she tried to use it.

“Better not insult the wand,” Saul said, laughing unexpectedly. “They have personalities, or so I understand. You could get yourself punished.”

Less than amused, Sean stalked toward the fallen rock, and Elin, or where she must be, the wand held high.

“Get behind us,” he told her, his jaws aching with the effort of not losing his temper. “Do it now. We’ve got—”

The wand disappeared—into the ground.

Squabbling voices wafted from the place where the boulder had been dislodged. The babble grew louder, the babble and argumentative yelling.

Saul hauled Sean behind a row of rocks and they threw themselves to the ground. “Elin’s probably down there,” he said.

“We’ll see,” Saul responded although he didn’t sound calm. “Be grateful she’s invisible.”

Like a flock of gray birds, figures resembling a retreating army clambered from the earth, falling over each other, climbing on those who fell to keep going, and yelling all the time. Most of them wore gray leggings and tunics and a head covering that looked like a medieval chain mail cowl with a fencing face mask.

Among these, and there were many of them, a ragtag melee of various creatures rushed along, some willingly, some dragged.

The whole streaming band scrambled and leaped their way toward the beach until they passed out of Sean and Saul’s sight.

“I could feel something different going on here,” Saul said. “Some change. I told you as much.”

“Looks like rats abandoning the ship to me,” Sean allowed. “I couldn’t even tell what most of them were, other than the ones in uniform or whatever it was.”

Falling silent, Sean stood and went to the spot where the wand had slipped from sight and the exodus erupted. He reached the hidden rim of a large hole.

Hardly daring to breathe, he knelt and looked over the edge. A few feet of rough-hewn lava rock angled away from him before he saw a step, and the shadow of a second. Beyond that, everything was dark.

He stood up and looked around. “I’ve changed my mind. We’ll have to go back.”

His eyes met Saul’s.

The vampire gave an eloquent shrug, and raised his arms. “Nothing’s changed, my friend. We don’t know where she is. Leave and she might come with us. Leave and she might already be poking around inside that hole and on the way to hell—alone.”

A
t last the rushing horde of yelling riffraff were all gone, scuttling through the hole Elin had found. Little did they know they’d had invisible help getting out of the mountain.

She breathed more easily.

Unbelievable. Neither Sean nor Saul had considered that the wand might also be capable of invisibility. She felt it at her side, occasionally tapping against her. Bless Sally for her wonderful gift. Just its presence gave her confidence. Elin hoped the wand would be useful if she got into even more trouble—she also hoped Tarhazian wouldn’t find out and punish Sally.

It would be a disaster for Tarhazian to know Elin and Sally were close conspirators.

Mmmm, she loved the feel of her sinuous Skillywidden body winding along. But then, her Elin body could be supple in all the right ways, too—if she wanted it to be.

Until Sean and Saul passed her, Elin huddled at the side of the long flight of rough, downward-sloping stairs she had uncovered. She wanted to throw herself at Sean and feel safe in his arms. But this was no time or place for wimps who couldn’t stick to their plans.

Both men kept their voices very low but Elin heard them clearly. She was almost certain that even now she could communicate with Sean. But it suited her to have him think she was guilty only of hearing him and not doing what he wanted, rather than also deliberately not talking to him.

Doing what he wanted? He did still have things to learn about her.

She slunk along behind the men. Sean had to be uncomfortable in Saul’s heavy, wet coat but he kept it on and the hood up. He looked so much better naked.

Later she could expect him to blame her for his discomfort because he’d shifted back to try and talk to her.

If she were talking to him, she’d say he should use his head not his heart and return to his hound. Conversation with him at present was out of the question. He would only spend valuable time trying to persuade her into something he decided was safer for her.

Saul stopped walking and held up a hand. “This looks like the first inhabited cavern.” He edged forward and leaned into a space that had been invisible to Elin.

“Empty,” Saul said, bracing his hands on either side of an opening he had to crouch to enter.

“Who’s usually here?” Sean said, dropping to his haunches and staring past Saul. “Is that some sort of altar? On the far side. The top looks fluorescent.”

Elin peeked inside.
Too bad there isn’t a supply of The Veil hanging around with some extra green I can use. Who knows how many monsters I may need to get rid of in here?

“Yes. An altar. The group that was here fashioned themselves after the original Templars.” Saul went into the cavern. He called back, “They sacrifice whatever they can get their filthy hands on. Like deadly scavengers. They are a banished band of Austrian Verbols. They began as members of the renegade Embran tribe and continue to manifest in many forms as the Embran do, but they cannot return to the center of the earth, where the kingdom of their ancestors flourishes again now.”

“And The One wanted all these creatures here? Nothing seems too low for him to gather in. He really is desperately searching for something,” Sean said. “But even these have deserted his mountain.”

“Or been sent away because he decided they weren’t of any use to him.” Saul peered into the semidarkness. “They haven’t been gone long. They must have been in the middle of a sacrifice when they left. See, the blood on the altar and the floor? It still looks wet. And there’s enough of it to float a boat. God knows how many deaths have happened here.”

“Do you think they would just leave?” Sean said.

“Not all of them. Look over there, on the left.”

“Rags,” Sean said, following Sean inside.

Elin skittered in behind. At least she could feel Sean’s aura, his strength, and be near him.
Please don’t let him leave me after this.
Her stomach squeezed painfully at the thought.

Saul pulled the black rags aside, or tried to. They were attached to the neck of a colorless man with a completely bald head. Death had already filmed his wide open eyes and a gaping gash across his neck from ear to ear showed how he had died. Saul grunted. “They are more easily killed than either your kind or mine.”

Werehounds and vampires did not usually die from a wound.

“He’s not the only one here,” Sean said. He stooped to peer through another opening. “There must be more than a dozen bodies in here.” He entered this new cavern.

“We’d better get on with it,” Saul said. “Let’s see if we can find out what The One’s up to and get the hell out of here.”

“Yeah.” Sean’s voice echoed back. “Throats cut. Every one of them. But no blood. Can you explain that?”

“Verbols don’t bleed,” Saul said. “Neither do they breathe. It’s air that can kill them if it enters their bodies. The wounds on their necks let air past their nose and mouth shields. It got inside them and they died.”

“How do they survive at all?” Sean sounded increasingly curious. “Are we likely to encounter more of them?”

Saul appeared to be searching for something. “They suck out entrails,” he said. “I told you they can assume many forms so we could encounter them anywhere here if some escaped this slaughter and disguised themselves. There must have been some of them with the bunch who ran out of the tunnel before we came in. What I’d really like to know is what or who they were sacrificing before so many of them went on their final trip.”

The men backed out of the cavern and continued down with the steps growing narrower before they got even rougher and began to climb steeply upward.

Elin stayed near and breathed a little faster when they turned a corner and the tunnel lightened.

The hacked-out walls glistened wet and fluorescent yellow. They gave off light that washed a dull glow over the tunnel. Elin swallowed harder. She didn’t like it in here, and from the silence of the two men ahead, it didn’t seem they were thrilled with their surroundings either.

Sean checked behind him repeatedly and she knew he was convinced she was there—and worried out of his mind because he might have no control over what happened to her.

“Stay with me,” he whispered, looking past her, searching. “But don’t…stay right here and wait.”

They had arrived at another hollowed-out cave where more creatures were heaped up and very dead. These differed from the other group in that they had large feet and ears, but Saul told Sean they were simply more Verbols who took a slightly different form from the first batch.

Elin remained in Sean’s footsteps on the way into the cave, and when he climbed out again.

“Saul.” Sean pulled the vampire to face him. “We have no definite plans. We want to learn the reason why The One is causing us trouble on Whidbey and stop him. But we haven’t discussed how we will fight him if it comes to that. Or how we will respond if we’re attacked and seriously outnumbered.”

“If you can think of a way to answer those questions, I’m all ears.”

Sean shook his head slowly. “In other words we keep going and hope we’ll know what to do if we have to do it?”

“That’s about how I see it,” Saul said. He raised a hand. “There is more I know. Details I saw no point in mentioning unless we actually got here. We must be ready for the worst, Sean. That creature up there thinks he sees a way to get what he wants. He works on it day and night. But his body is alive and must be fed. It’s worse than you can imagine.”

“I doubt it,” Sean said, stopping, obviously waiting for Saul to tell him everything.

Trembling, Elin crouched against the slimy wall again.

Saul stepped backward to stand beside Sean. “You can’t persuade The One of anything or get any sense out of him. I’d say he was mad but I don’t think he is. But he’s vicious. With his bare hands he tears open living bodies and eats…He eats the organs.”

“From any creature?” Sean asked.

“Humans,” Saul said. “He was careful I didn’t see any prisoners, but chains and manacles hung from the walls. I believe he chains his captives to the wall where they can watch when he feeds.

“The mountain spews thick vapor sometimes, not like an eruption, it just bubbles up from a hole inside the cave, and subsides again. He catches parts of it and works with it, screaming all the time that he’s being tricked. And he talks about making his enemies suffer and about his Bloodstone. His Bloodstone is almost perfect, or so he says, and nothing will escape it when he’s finished. His aim is to have the stone respond to his desires, to change the will of those he wants to serve him. It will, or so he believes, serve two purposes: to bring others under his control, or to kill them if they resist.

“He wants to have a big Bloodstone, but when he tries to form more than small amounts of what he takes from the crater, it crumbles once it’s dry. Little metal pots of red, steaming vapor are stacked up and he keeps filling more from the vent. One at a time is what he keeps muttering and he says it’s too slow. But he also says he’ll get his island in the end. At first all I could think was that he’d already got it so I didn’t understand.”

Sean stared at Saul and said, “He means Whidbey, not this island. There’s something there he wants or needs. I’d put my money on need.” He looked upward, then around as if he was searching for Elin. “Why haven’t you tried to interfere with his plans before?”

“I waited. That’s my way. I prefer to see what develops and to be certain how I will deal with a problem. Until meeting Aldo, and then being involved with you, I was still collecting information and making decisions.

“Now is the time. You are the key I needed, and whatever you decide, I’ll do,” Saul said.

Elin could hardly believe she had just heard a vampire cede authority to another species.

“We find him,” Sean said. “Before he finds a way to go after everyone on Whidbey.”

They kept climbing. After three more caverns of the dead, Saul and Sean stopped checking. They went upward silently and swiftly. Elin paused every few steps and looked back nervously. A scream echoed and it wasn’t far enough away for Elin’s comfort.

The men halted.

“Is that The One in a rage?” Sean said. “Or is it one of his victims?”

The next scream rose to a roar, then a strangled gurgle. The sickening noise ended abruptly but loud and ragged breathing whirled around the tunnel like a tornado.

Sean carried on more slowly, looking past each bend before continuing. When he motioned for Saul to wait, Elin zipped around both of them. They might think she was useless, but sometimes the small and insignificant could accomplish amazing feats—like pushing crazy men into their own bubbling craters.

The man she loved might want to get to the bottom of a mystery, but if she could get rid of the cause of the mystery, the mystery would go away and they could get on with their lives.

Elin shuddered. A delicious, sensual shudder. She could just be with Sean and keep teaching him her wiles.

Disgraceful, Elin. Behave yourself. This is life or death here.

There it was, in the middle of a large cave, the steaming crater. But it was much smaller than she had expected, perhaps a foot and a half in diameter. She lifted her upper lip in a silent hiss. Quite big enough for a man to fall into. Including the stooped, man-shaped creature gasping against a wall where he tore at empty air. His frustration over his experiments must have swelled into his great screams.

Elin realized Sean and Saul were still hanging back, deciding on their next move. She needed to work quickly to have any hope of averting what could be a disaster for the three of them.

A sound stopped her. Every nerve on alert, she stepped backward. Two people slumped against the wall, pinned there by manacles. They were conscious and pulled against their restraints with ineffectual tugs that suggested they had all but given up hope. A man and a woman and both young. They looked alike and she wondered if they were brother and sister.

The One staggered to the center of the area around the small crater. The sounds he made resembled death rattles but Elin didn’t fool herself she could be that lucky.

This monster railed aloud against what he considered injustice against him. He twisted his body and shook his fists heavenward. “They think they’ve got the best of me,” he shouted suddenly and clearly, rearing up and bellowing. “All they’ve done is ensure their end will be horrific.” He stared at his captives and Elin respected the stony expressions they kept on their faces.

He spun in her direction, cloaked in flowing scarlet that swung free from his shoulders in many layers. His head and face, completely exposed, lacked hair or distinct features.

Trying to be brave, Elin sat on her haunches and waited, and stared, looking for the means and opportunity to upset this crazed thing. As she watched, he continued to throw himself from rocky wall to rocky wall, but something changed.

His face melted into shapelessness and re-formed several times. He was a shapeshifter.

Back and forth he morphed.

And Elin continued to wait for her opportunity. She sensed movement behind her and had to hang on to her concentration.

Their unwilling host stopped moving. He stared at his captives from the one eye he possessed in that second and took a key from his robes.

A long, heavy swath of white hair appeared on his skull and he stroked it with one hand, the delicate fingers of which were encrusted with rings, each one set with a glittering gem.

“Leave them alone.” Sean’s voice cut through Elin and she felt her heart drop. “Move away.”

The One grew still again before he turned slowly toward Sean, who stood where Elin could see him. He moved and she gasped. So fast Elin couldn’t actually see the man, Sean wrenched the chains that held the captives free of the wall. “Go,” he told the couple. “Run. You’ll be given instructions.”

That must have meant that Saul would tell them how to get out and probably to hide when they did.

“Stop,” The One shouted. “I need them. Don’t you understand, I have to…” His voice faded away. The scarlet robe lost some of its flamboyance and hung in subdued folds. All form left the man’s face except for two holes that showed a dark gleaming deep inside. His eyes, Elin assumed.