31
Over two hours had passed since the rock had blocked the temple. It was clear by now that it wouldn’t just open out of the blue and let Helena, Nyavolski, Alex, and Viktor out.
Time wasn’t on their side. Night had wrapped its claws around the mountain, and though the air was still warm, it was spring – soon, Amelia’s jacket wouldn’t be enough to keep out the chill of the wind.
“What are we going to do?” she asked again.
Zacharia had spent the last half hour almost still, gazing either at the stars or at the vast mountain. His blue eyes focused on Amelia. He took off his leather jacket and offered it to her. “Put this on.”
“I’m okay.” She didn’t want to leave him in just his shirt.
“Put it on.”
Amelia frowned at his tone but accepted the jacket. She had more pressing matters to deal with than arguing with another man who thought he knew what was best for her. The piece of clothing reached almost to her knees, but its warmth was comforting.
However, Zacharia’s next words made her freeze.
“In the next few hours, you don’t ask unnecessary questions, you don’t contradict me, and you do exactly as I say.
Got it?” She lifted her chin, but he continued, “I don’t know why they were locked in there, but they’re not being let out willingly. We’ll have to get them out.”
Her lips pursed, but Amelia also wanted them out, so she nodded.
“All right,” Zacharia said. “We’ll need to find another way inside. The combination we tried isn’t working, so the main entrance is a no-go.”
“There was an opening in the cave’s ceiling…”
“I know. We need to find it.” Zacharia circled the rock and moved through the wide field, Amelia close behind. The meadow was about the size of a football field and sloped slightly. They scanned it twice but found no opening to the temple.
“It has to be here somewhere. Why can’t we see it?” Amelia asked.
“I suppose it’s protected by a spell blending in with the surroundings.
Nothing as elaborate as the magic around the Hospital, I hope.
” Zacharia squinted. “Those spells aren’t perfect.
The problem is, we’re surrounded by green fields and without sunlight…
it’s going to be tough. But we’ll find it. We just need to search inch by inch.”
Amelia wasn’t sure she understood. “Isn’t there a risk we’ll fall through it if we find it by accident?”
“Possibly. But, hey, at least we’ll have found it,” Zacharia said, resuming his search.
This time, Amelia’s steps were more cautious, half-expecting the ground beneath her to give way.
After some time, Zacharia halted. “It’s here.
” He knelt by a patch of grass, tracing his palm over it.
Then he was up again, moving a few feet away.
He tore up some grass and returned, releasing it on the spot.
Nothing happened. Next, he picked up a pebble and dropped it into the same place.
A few seconds passed. “All right. The pebble fell through.”
“Here?” Amelia frowned at the normal patch of grass, which seemed no different to her eyes than the rest of their surroundings. This was the supposed entrance? “How can you tell?”
“I heard the pebble fall inside the temple.”
“I didn’t hear a thing.” Her palms landed on her sides. “But I have a feeling Vlas Beduin might have.”
“Might have. That’s why I’m going down first. If I give you a signal, you follow. If not, you run back to the cars as fast as you can. The key for the one I was driving is in the jacket pocket. Get to the nearest village and call Constantine. Wait for me to contact you… eventually.”
God. She didn’t like the plan.
Zacharia crouched down and extended his legs, feeling for the ground with his boots.
“Wait, Zacharia! What will you do if that vampire is down there?”
“I’ll ask him why he’s holding our friends hostage and politely tell him to let them go.” The hybrid’s tone was as casual as if he were asking to cut in line at a supermarket.
Beads of sweat formed on Amelia’s forehead despite the chilly wind. “You think it will be that easy? They probably figured out we took the genetic material…”
“I don’t think so. If they had, they’d have kept us, too.” Zacharia faced her. “Wait for my signal.”
“What is the signal?” She shivered at the thought of being alone on the mountain at night.
“I don’t know exactly, but you’ll see a shift in the enchanted field – a change in colour or some blurriness. You’ll know, believe me.”
Amelia stepped forward. “And if I don’t?”
He vanished into the hole.
“Zacharia!” Amelia knelt by the spot where he’d been standing. Nothing happened for a moment, but then, for a split second, the moon seemed to shine a little brighter on that specific patch of grass. Was that the signal?
Even if it wasn’t, she wasn’t waiting. She sat down and tried the grass with her feet, just as Zacharia had done. What if she couldn’t find the opening?
Then the heel of her boot vanished beneath the grass. She lifted her leg, and her heel reappeared as if from thin air. Relieved, she found her foot still intact.
The field flickered again.
Amelia sank both boots into the invisible hole with caution, followed by her entire legs. She flipped onto her stomach and pushed herself in, losing her footing and falling – right into Zacharia’s arms.
He lowered her down. “I thought you’d given up.”
“No. It was just strange…” She glanced around. They were at the beginning of the tunnel. The creepy rock formations loomed on either side, and the train tracks ran through the middle. “How did you signal me?”
“My phone’s flashlight,” he said, leading her deeper into the tunnel.
“From above, it was like you were playing with the moon…”
Zacharia gestured for her to be silent and pulled her behind a massive stalagmite. “The train’s coming. Don’t move.”
She held her breath, waiting for the wagons. When the train passed by, male voices mixed with the clatter of the rails. They were talking to each other, but Amelia didn’t comprehend the language.
After the train’s noises disappeared along the tunnel, Zacharia moved. “We have to go.”
“Do you understand the language?” Amelia whispered.
“ Gadani. One of the supposed dead languages. I know a bit. The woman who raised me tried to teach us.”
“What were they saying?”
“They mentioned something happening soon. I don’t know what, but they were heading towards it.”
“Wasn’t the train going up?”
“Yes, but I can detect the scent of our companions coming from down below. Let’s go…”
They moved along the rails, heading deeper into the tunnel. Amelia kept her eyes locked on Zacharia’s back. If the formations on the walls had been eerie before, now every vaguely human shape threatened to scare her out of her mind. The play of light and shadow was cruel to her imagination.
Breathing was harder compared to last time, as if the air was thickening around them. When the tunnel narrowed so much that Zacharia had to crouch to pass, Amelia’s throat tightened.
He stopped and turned to her, sharp stalactites framing his head. “I want you to calm down. Stop thinking,” he ordered.
She nodded and continued. Her not thinking lasted all of three seconds. The harder she tried not to, the more visions of frenzied vampires and walking mummies crowded her mind.
Okay, if she couldn’t not think, at least she could choose which thoughts to focus on.
She decided to focus on Mikhail. He was also stuck in some claustrophobic space, suffocating in the dark. Prokaliya was buried under a thick layer of ice – how depressing must that be? Her knees wobbled.
To avoid scenarios of suffocation, she conjured up a memory she kept locked away for emergencies.
Well, emergencies seemed to be frequent lately, but still…
That night with Mikhail. She’d wanted him from the moment they’d met, but had convinced herself nothing could ever happen between them.
She’d lied to him, claiming her desire for him was born from insecurity.
But there had always been a raw, undeniable attraction. Then and now.
She revisited the day of his arrest in her mind, imagining how it could have ended if he hadn’t been taken away. Her fantasies left her cheeks flushed and her heart racing.
Zacharia glanced over his shoulder. “Feeling better?”
Amelia had a hunch he knew . Whatever. It wasn’t a crime to have dirty thoughts.
They reached the end of the tunnel with the three halls. Zacharia gestured for her to wait. “I hear voices.”
She couldn’t make out a thing.
Zacharia crept to the end of the tunnel and peeked out.
“They carried a sarcophagus from one hall to another,” he whispered.
“I can’t hear any other voices. There must be another room connected to the hall.
I can smell lycanthropes, but I’m not sure which hall it’s coming from.
” He pointed to a space between two stalagmites that jutted up from the floor like pillars.
“Hide here. I’ll check the halls quickly to see where we need to go, then come back for you. Got it?”
She curled up between the two deposits. The stalagmites offered cover, concealing her in the darkness.
Amelia’s eyes darted to the cell, and she froze.
A massive rock hung from the ceiling like a knife poised to drop at any moment.
If it broke loose, it would crush her skull.
But why, of all times, would it fall right now?
She forced herself to inhale. Zacharia would be back soon. There was no reason to panic…
She tilted her head towards the sound of rolling pebbles in the tunnel. Lifting herself to take a glance from behind the stalagmite, she found the tunnel empty. She exhaled, hoping to release some tension, and knelt back down.
Her legs gave out. Someone was beside her.
She swivelled and almost collided with a pale face inches from hers.
Toppling back, she landed on her butt, never breaking eye contact with the stranger.
His pale skin and gaunt frame resembled the vampire who had greeted them in the temple, but he was not Vlas Beduin.
Kneeling beside her, he inspected her with unsettling curiosity.
In the dim light, he was more like a mummy than a vampire.
What if he really is a mummy that’s crawled out of a sarcophagus?
He said something in that strange language she’d heard before – a question, maybe?
It didn’t sound threatening. Perhaps she had no reason to fear him. Maybe he was benevolent?
What was she supposed to say? Where was Zacharia?
Before she could decide what to do, the vampire wrapped his hands around her waist and slung her over his shoulder, nearly knocking her unconscious in the process.
Not benevolent, then.
She didn’t scream for help, for Zacharia, because that would reveal she wasn’t alone.
So she held back, eyes wide as the vampire entered one of the halls and continued straight through a labyrinth of tunnels.
They veered left at one intersection, then right at another, and kept going and going until Amelia was lost. She’d never remember all these turns!
She could only hope Zacharia was following or would pick up her scent…
Her scent! The Beduin vampires shouldn’t detect it, but if any of them were from a different species with a supernatural sense of smell, they’d know the new Oracle was snooping around. And if that information reached Mikhail in prison before she could explain…
Why hadn’t she just stayed put at the Hospital like an obedient woman, waiting for Mikhail’s return?
Obedient woman? Had she just thought that? And how could she think of herself as his woman when he’d never talked about anything beyond lusting after her? And besides, once she stole his ring, any hope of them growing into something would evaporate. She’d be nothing but his enemy.
A light slap on her butt yanked her out of her thoughts. The vampire muttered in his strange language. Was it her imagination, or was his bony hand resting a bit too comfortably there?
The ground beneath the vampire’s feet inclined upwards, and her breathing eased. Was that a drum? Could there be an exit nearby?
She wanted to cheer when she spotted an actual exit at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps the vampire was setting her free? Maybe he’d already released the others a safe distance away and was bringing her to them?
They emerged under a star-lit sky, on a field illuminated by a bonfire blazing in the middle. Around it, at least forty pale, gaunt vampires sat on the grass, some drinking from wooden cups, while others danced to the wild rhythm of a massive drum.
Nyavolski, Helena, Viktor, and Alex were bound to a wooden pillar sticking out from the ground. Their wrists and ankles were tied, and a thick rope looped around their waists. Beside them was an open sarcophagus, though Amelia couldn’t see if it held a mummy.
Before she could make eye contact with any of them, the vampire dropped her to the ground, his gaze unnervingly affectionate.
“Shogjankotrunaastaakitno,” he said. At least, that was what it sounded like.
She straightened herself. “I want to talk to someone who speaks Bulgarian or English! As a last resort – German.”
The vampire smiled and pinched her cheek.