Chapter 51
Chapter Fifty-One
JADEON
I was ready to face Orpheus.
Marching through Belshazzar’s, I headed straight for the lift. I was going to get Catherine and Alex out. Scanning the club’s many guests, I ignored their stares.
Marcus approached me. “He’s expecting you.”
“Is he now?” I said dryly.
Marcus pushed the elevator button, and we stepped inside. We headed into the heart of Belshazzar’s.
“We better be going toward Alex,” I said.
“Sure.”
The lift jerked to a stop and the doors opened.
I followed Marcus down the dark corridor, studying his every move and memorizing every twist and turn that we took.
Stopping abruptly, my chaperone opened a door to our right and quickly entered.
The door was left open in wait for me to follow.
Peering into the empty room, cautious and ready for trouble, Marcus moved swiftly toward the far wall, waiting at yet another doorway.
A girl’s sobs echoed from within the next room.
I scanned her thoughts to see if it were Catherine. Marcus’s bearing was intent as he gestured for me to follow. Despite my better judgment warning me otherwise, I stepped forward into the center of the room, cautioned by his dark eyes.
The trapdoor flew open beneath me.
I hurtled through it, grappling to slow my momentum. My shoulder banged against one of the shaft walls and bounced me against the sides, thwarting my ability to rise. Plummeting and battling with gravity, my head struck the hard stone. With a loud thud, I hit the ground.
Gradually, afraid of what I might feel, I ran my hands down my torso and back up to my head, reassured to still be in once piece, though bruised and in pain. I scrambled to my feet, looking down at my bloody hands and again checking myself. My blood clotted and my wounds healed.
It took my breath away to see my body respond so quickly to the violence and trauma, even now . . .
I studied my surroundings. The ground was dry, but this was part of the sewage system to judge by the reeking odor. Three corridors led off in different directions.
A noise startled me.
They descended upon me without a moment’s pause, a dozen vampires hungry for blood. They pinned me down, shoving ferociously. The pain was unbearable.
Catherine!
Their fangs sank into my flesh.
They swarmed like bees in the dark, stealing me from the world I had so desperately clung to. No final words, no tender farewell. Only the cruel certainty I would never again chase the moonlight, never again surrender to the velvet seduction of the night.
Alex would never make it alone.
And Catherine would remain lost to me. After being so very close to finding her, it hurt like hell. My thoughts spiraled into the abyss. Ingrid . . .
Ingrid faded like a dream at dawn that was never real. Fear braided with dread, disorientation and confusion crashing in all at once.
Their moans of pleasure resounded. Dizziness came in waves, the blood loss draining my strength until consciousness lost its hold.