Her hands were on fire as they latched onto shrubs and rocks. Her leg muscles burned. Galen had offered to carry her branch-weapon, and she was grateful. He had offered to carry her, but she was pretty sure he was joking. Pretty sure.
She did her best to take deep breaths quietly so he wouldn’t hear how winded she was. The skin on her knees was shredded from scraping on the earth. Sweat dripped from her forehead; her clothes stuck to her moist skin. She longed for a splash of that cold river water.
Galen moved up the hill with little effort, using the branch as a walking stick. Every few minutes he would stop and check out the cave entrances, lifting his hand, signaling for her to be still as he listened. “We’re really announcing ourselves,” he whispered.
She kept climbing and struggled for air. “Keep going,” she managed to say between breaths.
“Do you need help?” He reached out his hand for her, but she grabbed onto the next shrub and pushed herself upward with her legs. Sweat rolled down her brow and into her eyes. She tried to wipe them with the front of her shirt, but the fibers were sweat-soaked and covered with dirt. It made her eyes sting.
They reached a deep, slanted ledge, to the side of the cave openings. Jo pointed to the one she’d been taken to. They made their way to it. Galen squatted by the opening and Jo knelt beside him. His nose crinkled and he waved his hand in front of his face. The stink of old blood and dirty flesh, a foul, sour odor, drifted out of the cave. Jo nodded her head, squishing up her mouth. It was familiar and she hated it.
“Hear anything?” She mouthed. But his answer wasn’t necessary. A muffled voice came from inside the tunnel. Jo took her branch from his hand. They looked at each other.
“Stay here,” Galen mouthed and pointed to the ground at Jo’s feet.
Jo shook her head. He pursed his lips. She ignored him, jumped up and walked into the cave, keeping her hand on the cold cavern wall. She stepped as soundlessly as she could. Fear blocked the pain from her blisters. She gripped her branch with a clammy, damaged hand. Galen walked close beside her, his arm bumping against hers. Voices were getting louder. Jon’s cold voice and Morgan’s guttural reply were muffled back in the darkness. She thought she heard Mike. Her heart pounded. There was no firelight this time. Her friends were trapped and sightless. She prayed all three were there—alive.
Suddenly, Galen was behind her. His arm came around the front of her and he clenched her, branch and all. His hand was over her mouth. He walked her backwards out of the cave and back onto the ledge. Startled, then puzzled, she didn’t struggle or fuss at him, worried that the creatures would hear them. He must have a reason for this action. When they were off to the side of the entrance, he let go of her, but tapped his finger against his lips. Jo glared at him and lifted her hands in a demand for an explanation.
Galen grabbed her by her shoulders, moving her far to the right of the opening, past the smaller crevice. He pushed her down behind a thicket of shrubs and dropped to his knees beside her. “Listen,” he whispered. She leaned in. “It’s too dangerous to take them on in there. We can’t see anything. I have a plan. I’m going to draw them out. When they come after me, you get your friends.”
Jo’s brow furrowed as she pictured the scenario. “That’s two against one.”
“It’ll be fine, Jo.”
Her lips scrunched up. She shook her head. “That’s suicide. You’ve seen them—they’re fast and strong.” But she glanced at the muscles in his arms and remembered what he had done at the orange building.
One side of his mouth rose. “I’ll be fine.” His hands grasped the end of his T-shirt. Jo’s mouth gaped when he pulled the shirt off over his head. At the first glimpse of his bare flesh, her eyes darted away. He gripped her forearm. She looked back. He was rubbing the shirt up and down her arm.
“Wha—?” She tried to pull away, but he held onto her.
“You smell too human,” he whispered. Jo lifted her eyebrows at his words. Her eyes were wide, staring at him. He switched to her other arm. As he rubbed the soft T-shirt on her skin, she noticed the effect the moonlight had on his shoulders, making them look smooth and polished. It poured onto his chest, like lucent milk, spilling down his abdomen where muscles rippled in moonlit waves. There was something at the top of his chest and on his side—some kind of drawing. It shimmered, metallic blue, where the light touched it. Before she could get a better look at it, he slipped his shirt back on.
“Ok, sit tight,” he instructed her. “As soon as it’s clear, get in there.” He twisted away from her, still on his knees.
The scythe flashed before her. And so did the possibility she might not see him again, that one or both of them might not make it through the night. The sacrifice he was making for them dawned on her. She clutched his hand though it hurt to do it. He turned his head.
Without hesitation, she pulled him closer, rose on her knees, and wrapped her arms around his neck. She hugged him and rubbed his back. His warm, hard chest pressed against her. Past his dark hair, the night sky waned.
Jo closed her eyes, taking in the moment—his scent, his strength, his hands skimming over her waist, pressing onto her back, his arms flexed against her as he held her tightly.
She opened her eyes and slipped her hands to the top of his shoulders. She pushed him back. He loosened his embrace. His moonstruck eyes, like frosted glass, cut into her heart. His hand moved up to pull a wisp of hair from her eye and his fingers glided down the side of her face.
“You really are a brave girl,” he whispered.
She glanced at his mouth and the soft, black locks dangling down his forehead. She couldn’t remember why she had been so upset with him.
“Ready?” The look in his eyes left her wordless. She gulped and nodded. He produced a faint smile.
He let go of her and crept back to the cave. Jo tried not to dwell on that last moment with him though it was imprinted on her mind.
“Hey! Anybody home?” He shouted into the cave opening. His voice split the quiet like a knife, bounced off the walls, and echoed back out. He put two fingers in his mouth, let out a shrill, piercing whistle, and hopped away from the entrance.
Jo’s body tensed. Her eyes were wide like saucers, waiting and watching. She blinked and the vampires were at the mouth of the cave. First, Jon. Morgan appeared behind him holding the scythe.
“Hey, fellas, looking for me?” Galen had already headed down the hill.
His head dropped below the slanted horizon. Morgan flew after him, but Jon hesitated. Jo shrunk down and stiffened, keeping her eye on him from behind the leaves of the shrub. Her whole body quaked. Galen whistled and taunted the creatures.
Jon leapt into the trees and disappeared.
Jo waited a moment to make sure they were gone. Galen’s whistling and shouts were getting fainter. Her heart raced and fear squirmed in her gut. She took a breath, jumped up and ran into the cave. She kept her hand on the side of the wall to guide her and jogged down the tunnel, dragging her branch behind her. “Mike?” “Dove?”
“Jo!” Mike’s voice came back.
Jo’s heart hammered in her chest. Her skin burned with feverish anxiety.
“Jo!” Dove yelled.
Jo headed in the direction of the disembodied voices, worried why her friends weren’t moving towards her. After a few steps, she ran into the side of Mike’s body sitting a chair. “Mike.” Her hands found his shoulders.
“Jo, thank God. Where’re the others?”
“Drew, Ben, and April are at the chalet.”
“And Galen?”
“He’s distracting the vampires.”
“Dove, Lary, where are you?”
“Here, Jo,” Dove answered excitedly. She was very close.
“Over here,” Lary answered in a voice that couldn’t disguise his pain. Chains rattled. He was farther away.
“Is everyone Ok?” She asked.
“I think so,” Mike answered. “Except for Lary.”
“I’m fine,” Lary croaked.
“Jo, are you Ok? How’d you get away?” Mike asked.
“How’d you find Galen?” Dove asked her.
“Guys, I’ll tell you everything later, but we’ve got to get out of here.”
In the pitch blackness, she ran her hands from Mike’s shoulder, down his arm as it curved back behind him. Her fingers met the ropes tying his wrists together and skimmed over the coarse fibers. Somehow the rope twisted around the back legs of the chair and upwards again. She dug her fingers between the ropes and pulled and yanked, causing him to squirm and groan. “I’m sorry.” She left him and scooted through the dirt over to Dove.
She pulled Dove's ropes, tried to push them over her hands, fought with them, but they wouldn't budge. The minutes were being sucked away, like air from her lungs. Her gut was wrung like a dishrag. She thought of Galen. They had to hurry and get out of here. God, please! Anxiety boiled over. “Damn! I can’t get these ropes off!” Kneeling in the dark by Dove, she pounded her fists on the ground. Her eyes were moist with tears, but she couldn’t see anyway. Her hands throbbed.
“Jo,” Mike’s voice was calm, “it’s Ok. Keep trying.”
“Don’t get upset, Jo,” Dove consoled her.
Dang ropes! Dang chair! She grabbed a leg of the chair and shook it. Her hand burned. The leg wobbled. An idea flashed and she jumped up. “Dove, I’m going to lay this chair down backwards. Ok?” She didn’t wait for an answer and pulled the back of Dove’s chair downwards.
“Uhhh!”
Jo lowered her friend’s back onto the ground. She pushed against the chair until she turned it over on its side. Dove grunted. “Sorry.” She got to her feet, bent over and groped for the back leg of the chair. She lifted a foot and stomped on it. The wood cracked. She did it again. Old and weathered, it snapped off. The ropes loosened. Dove was free.
“Good job!” Dove congratulated her.
As her friend struggled to get up out of the dirt, Jo’s heart flooded with relief. She wiped the sweat off her forehead. “Help me with Mike.”
Jo crawled back to Mike with Dove holding on to her shirt. Together they pulled his chair back, lowered him to the ground and pushed him over. Jo smashed her boot against the chair leg until it broke. Mike moaned in pain. “Man, that hurt,” he said in the dark, over the soft sounds of unraveling ropes.
“Let’s get Lary,” Jo said.
“Lary?” Dove called out, but this time he didn’t answer. “Lary!”
Jo moved in the direction his voice had come from earlier. She put her hands out in front of her, feeling her way through the inky air.
“Lary!” Dove cried.
“Would this help.” The voice was cold. Emotionless. A spark of light flashed in the blackness.
Jo froze. Her stomach knotted.
Inside a small radius of yellow light, a dark figure was leaning against the cave wall holding a lit match. The person’s head was down, the face hidden under a drape of black hair. The head lifted slowly, revealing the glacier-blue glow of Jon’s eyes.
Dove and Mike gasped. Jo’s heart thudded.
Jon bent down and picked up a lantern at his feet. Before the match went out, he lit the lantern and a harsh white light illuminated the cave. In front of him, Lary’s body hung by his wrists from chains anchored in the cavern wall. His arms were spread wide and cuffed to the chains. He was unconscious. His cross was gone.
Jon set the lantern down. He lowered his head to Lary’s wounds, visible through gaping holes in his tattered shirt. The cuts were brownish-red and oozing fluid that glistened with the light. A red tongue rolled out from his lips and he licked the blood and fluid, slurping it into his mouth.
Jo cringed. Dove groaned and turned her head away. Jon eyed the trio and grinned. Then he locked his gaze on Jo and the smile fell from his face. He moved towards her. Mike stepped in front of the girls.
“Really?” Jon scoffed. In a second, he was in Mike’s face. He pushed him aside, flinging him against the opposite cave wall. Mike crumpled to the ground and lay lifeless.
“Mike!” Dove screamed and ran to his side.
Jo started to go too, but Jon grabbed her forearm. “Not you.”
Jo mashed her lips together and curled her sore, stiff hands into fists. She ripped her arm from his hand and glowered at the creature, shaking more with anger than fear.
His eyes shrunk to glassy, blue slits. “Where’s Red?”
Jo moved her head, slowly, back and forth. She was relieved to see—out of the edge of her eye—that Mike was sitting up. “Where’s Galen?”
Jon shrugged his shoulders. “How did you get away?”
She hunched her shoulders. “How’d you get back in here?”
The vampire scowled. “Smart-mouth.”
Jo gazed back, unnerved.
“Galen.” He spat out the name. “So damn clever—but you haven’t figured it out, have you?” He rubbed his chin with bony fingers.
His gaze crept over Jo, just like before, but this time his eyes were not inquisitive. They exuded something more lascivious. She was disgusted by the lechery in them. He walked forward, grinning as if he were possessed, sliding his tongue over his yellow-stained teeth.
Jo’s eyes darted to her branch lying in front of Mike’s feet, then up to Mike’s eyes.
“I’m disappointed about Red,” Jon said, coming so close to Jo that the stink of his body crinkled her nose.
“Then you’re really going to be unhappy about Reece.”
His chest expanded and deflated in an angry huff. He thrust his hand towards Jo. She flinched.
Mike made a grab for the branch.
Jon grasped the back of Jo’s neck. “Drop it! Or I’ll kill her.”
Jo put her hands up to stop him from getting any closer, pressing them against his cold, undead flesh. She winced from the pain and pressure on her neck.
Mike froze. He straightened and let the branch fall back into the dirt. “Leave her alone!”
While the vampire gripped her neck with one hand, he ran his other hand through Jo’s tangled golden hair. There was nothing but lust in his fluorescent eyes.
Mike shifted his on his feet. “I said leave her alone!”
“Shut up!” Jon pulled her face closer to his. Jo pushed as hard as she could against his chest, but her effort was useless. His sharp fingernails sunk into the skin on the back of her neck. His foul breath sickened her. Horrified as his desiccated lips moved towards hers, she tried to turn her head away, but the more she did, the more his nails dug in. She cringed and whimpered.
Mike and Dove moved forward.
“Stay where you are or I’ll snap her neck!” Jon gazed hard at Jo. “You’ve been a pain in my ass,” he hissed at her. A warm trickle of blood rolled down her back. The vampire drew in a deep breath, fluttering his eyelids, making visible the reddish brush of color on them. He flicked a gnarled tongue out over his bottom lip.
He pressed his head against hers forcing her it to bend to the side. Jo cringed as his dry lips grazed the crook of her bare neck. She expected his teeth to sink into her flesh and braced for it, but he was just kissing her skin, dragging his dark, dirty hair over her chest.
“Stop,” she pleaded.
“Get away from her!” Mike shouted.
“Please stop!” Dove cried.
Jon pulled his head back and forced his gaze into Jo’s. She tried to look away, but the phosphorescence of his eyes compelled her. He snarled. “Where’s your galen now?” He whispered harshly.
“He’s coming.” Jo’s voice trembled.
“I don’t think so. I’m guessing he’s ash by now. First, sliced up into pieces and then set ablaze.” A leer crept over his lips.
“Get away from me!” Jo pushed, but he tightened his hand on her neck again. She cried out.
“Get away? How ‘bout if I get in?” He circled his other arm around her waist. He forced her backwards, up against the scraggy cavern wall. Jo screamed as he pressed his body against hers. Fear drown
ed her breath.
“I wouldn’t do that.” A deep voice heralded from the darkness of the tunnel.
Relief rushed through Jo; air flooded her lungs.
Jon jerked his hands from her and backed away. “What the hell?”
“Wrong.” Galen said, emerging from the tunnel.
“Morgan!” Jon yelled, peering into the corridor behind Galen.
“Uh, he’s sorta dead,” Galen said glibly, stepping into the lantern light. He swiped his arms with his hands, as if he’d just finished up a day’s work, and smiled a cheeky smile.
Jon’s eyes filled with fury. His mouth opened wide and fangs busted out of his gums. He snarled like a wild animal. He grabbed Dove. She screamed, convulsing to escape his grip.
“No!” Jo shouted, panic-stricken.
Galen leapt toward them. Jon pushed Dove into him with such force they flew back against the cave wall. Galen’s arms wrapped Dove inside them and he shielded her from being smashed against the wall, taking the force of the collision.
Mike grabbed for Jo’s branch, but Jon was there in a second, sending him sprawling into the dirt. Jo dove for it, but Jon grabbed her wrist. He jerked his hand away and yelped. Smoke coiled into the air, rising off the flesh of his hand. He shook it in a frenzy of rage, hissing, glaring at Jo with eyes blazing. Jo glanced at her wrist, at April’s bracelet. She snatched up the branch and lunged at the creature, pointing the stick at his heart. He deflected it with his other hand. It hit him in the side and pierced his flesh. He shrieked and slapped the branch out of Jo’s hands so hard a sharp pain shot through her wrists. In a flash, he was down the tunnel. Jo turned just in time to see the dust, kicked up in his exit, swirling in the murky air.
Chapter 32