30. Maria
Chapter thirty
Maria
Adrenaline floods my bloodstream, and my hands shake. Rage battles with fear for supremacy. “Where are we going?”
The low mountain we race toward looks like the rest of the Arizona desert—dry, dead scrub brush, a few surviving yuccas, and other types of shriveled cactus plants.
Except a red light blinks in the distance.
“Kartchner Caverns is a series of interconnected caves. Each of the large ones has its own name.” Chris pauses, wrangling the steering wheel, which fights his grip as we drive over the rocky, washed-out road.
“Someone is carrying Zinnia to the Pirate’s Den.
Willow located the thinnest spot in the cavern’s ceiling near it.
She has ears inside the cavern and is tracking Zinnia’s movements. ”
For a moment, he focuses on keeping the tires on the knife-edge ridges, avoiding the mini-canyons created by flash floods, kinda like driving on the rails of an old railroad track. He goes as fast as he can before hitting another rocky bump.
I’m bouncing around in my seat, gripping the door handle with one hand and the seat harness with the other. “Chris—”
“Please, no more questions. I don’t want to wind up in a ditch.”
He’s right, I can’t distract him, so I activate my implant and select Willow. I’m still getting accustomed to using the comm to talk with someone other than Chris, but I now know how to isolate a call and subvocalize. “Willow, do you have an update?”
“The vampire who has Zinnia is moving deeper into the Pirate’s Den. We’ve got a stronger signal. She’s alive. We’re following her through the crystal and thermal imaging.”
Relief and confusion floods my chest. “Explain.”
“Her body heat—we have technology. We’re tracking her body heat, along with the Lux crystal.”
I sigh. If her body is still warm, she’s alive. “Is Tig all right?”
“She’s going to be fine. I’m conferencing her in.”
“Yes?” Tig slurs. It sounds like she’s still having a hard time speaking.
“Hey, Tig, it’s Willow and Maria with an update. How’s the jaw?”
“Healing. Slowly. Van…bumpy.”
“Got it—then let me brief Maria while you rest your jaw. Half of the special response team under Zeke and Colin blasted through the main doors. The other half is in the van following you.”
“Along with me,” Tig mumbles.
“The vamps who were near the main cavern’s entrance have surrendered without resistance.
From what we’ve learned, they split into opposing camps.
The ones who surrendered backed the original deal.
The others who moved deeper into the cavern’s many chambers want to use Zinnia as leverage.
They are chasing the vamp who has her. Our geologists found an escape hole, and the engineers are trying to enlarge the opening without caving in the Pirate’s Den ceiling. ”
“Tell them to hurry.” I want to shout the words, but restrain myself. “My daughter’s life is in danger.”
“We know. Our crew is doing its best. How soon will you get here?”
“Give me a second, Willow.” I glance over at Chris. The blinking red light on the hill still feels too far away. “Can you drive any faster?”
“Not without the risk of hitting a large rock or sliding off the road into a culvert. Be patient, Sunshine.”
Easier said than done.
“How soon?” Willow asks again. “We’ve almost drilled through.”
“I don’t know. Neither does Chris.”
We turn a corner, and the road goes almost straight up the hill.
Chris floors the accelerator. We hit the top, dip down with a bump, and start climbing again.
The uphill tilt and gravity press me against my seat while the truck bounces over the rocks, jarring us side to side.
The rough ride knocks the breath out of me, and the only thing holding me in place is the seatbelt harness.
Just beyond a pile of boulders are bright floodlights. “Willow, do you see our headlights? We’re almost there.”
“Good. We figure you and Chris should go in first. We’ll put the special response team behind you. Zinnia might get frightened and run away if she sees people she doesn’t know come after her.”
“Agreed.” I turn to Chris. “We’re going in first.”
He nods, still focused on driving the truck toward the tents.
“Did Tig’s crew catch up with you?” Willow asks.
I look at the rearview video screen. “Yeah. The van isn’t far behind. I wish Tig could go in with us. Zinnia knows Tig.”
Tig grumbles.
“Say again?”
“I’ll try…but jaw’s in bad shape.” She mumbles something unintelligible.
“What?”
“Bone takes…longer to heal.”
I cringe. I can’t imagine the pain she’s in.
Chris brings us to a screeching halt beside a tent. A circle of floodlights focuses on where people work. They’ve drilled a hole and are using shovels to widen the opening. Two men pick up a large, tubelike structure and thread it into the hole.
Willow runs over to our truck and opens Chris’s door. “The cavern’s ceiling isn’t stable. They’re installing a flexible conduit three feet in diameter. That should keep the hole from collapsing. You can crawl in one at a time.”
“I’ll go first,” Chris says.
“No, you won’t.” I glare at him. “I will.”
“I’m better with an assault rifle than you are—are you confident you wouldn’t hit Zinnia accidentally if you had to take out the vampire holding her?”
I growl but concede the point.
Crawling through the conduit, I tap Chris’s foot as I follow him. Living in the silo, I’ve never been claustrophobic. But this is different. The rigid plastic presses against my body. My mind screams at me to back up and get out.
Zinnia. Zinnia. Zinnia.
I repeat her name over and over, clenching my jaw, moving on my hands and knees as I inch forward.
Chris drops from the plastic tunnel. His feet hit the rock with a thump. Suddenly, I’m blinded by the fire of a lit torch.
“You, stop.” He aims his assault rifle at a man, whom I can’t quite make out yet. “Let her go. Now.”
“Daddy Christopher!” Zinnia squeals.
The sound of her voice cuts right through my heart. She’s okay. Now all I have to do is get her out of here.
I grab the edge of the tunnel opening and pull myself out, dropping to my feet, and see someone I never thought I’d see again.
Lehm.
I freeze, shock rooting me in place.
The man holding Zinnia in one arm and the lit torch in the other hand is Lehm.
My missing and presumed-dead husband…who’s now a vampire?
Chris aims at Lehm’s head. “I said, let her go.”
“No, Chris.” I break from my frozen state and tackle him, pushing away the barrel of his rifle. A stream of bullets hit the cavern wall.
“Maria, what the hell?” Chris shouts.
“You don’t understand,” I say, though I barely understand myself. “That’s Lehm.” I scramble to my feet and turn toward my dead husband.
His eyes are wide. “Maria?”
I race to the two of them and wrap my arms around them, tears streaming down my face. “Zinnia. Lehm. What happened?”
“Papa Lehm protected me from the bad vampires.”
And from the sound of feet slapping rock, those vampires aren’t far behind.
“Get th-them out of here.” Tig points at the opening she just dropped from. Her voice is still slurred from the bullet wound.
Chris and Tig stand guard, ready to blast the approaching horde, and I lift Zinnia into the plastic tunnel. “Crawl fast, baby girl.”
I help Lehm into the tunnel and turn in time to see Chris take a bullet to the shoulder.
The same shoulder that took lots of damage two months ago.
I pivot away from the tunnel, grab his assault rifle, and drag Chris behind a rock outcropping in the cavern wall.
Tig dives for cover on the other side of the Pirate’s Den.
“Silver?” I ask Chris.
With his jaw clenched, he nods, and uses a knife to dig it out of the protective mesh that stopped it from piercing his skin. The impact must have smarted something terrible.
Goosebumps run up my arm. I’ve only now noticed how cold and humid it is in the cavern and peek out from around the rock hiding us. A bullet whizzes over my head. I return fire, a rapid burst, then drop back next to Chris, gripping the velvety-smooth rock.
More gunshots come my way.
I fire again to keep them at bay. “I swear, I’m going to kill every cavern vampire for what they did to my husband and daughter.”
Chris cringes when I say husband.
“Hey,” Tig shouts. She motions to the other side of the wall outcropping. While I’ve been grumbling, more renegades sneaked up on us. “Less talking.”
I pop out and start shooting. A rapid burst of ammunition. Chris was right—knowing how to shoot an arrow gives me an advantage, even with a strange type of gun that’s hard to control. The three go down, and the others turn tail and run.
Now that the firefight has stopped, the special response team slides out one at a time from the conduit, hang by their fingertips, and drop to the ground. Once they’re all down, they give chase.
“Time to go,” Tig mumbles.
Chris tries to jump and climb back into the conduit. His arm is weak from the bullet impact, and he can’t get a good grip to pull himself up. So Tig and I use our shoulders to lift him in.
Then up I go with a boost from Tig. This tunnel could use a ladder and handholds along the inside. The rigid plastic shakes when Tig pulls herself in and crawls behind me. I hurry my pace, wanting out of the narrow confines so I can see my baby girl again.
When I emerge outdoors, Willow motions me to the tent. “Zinnia and, uh, her father? They’re in the tent.”
I grab Chris’s hand—the uninjured side—and rush to the tent’s flap, pulling him along.
He digs in his heels and stops. “You go ahead. I’ll catch up later.”
“Nope.” I turn to Willow. “You got any packaged vampire blood?”
A small first-aid area has been set up, and Willow tosses me a white pouch with a red cross.
I hand it to Chris. “Drink this.”
After he does, I grip his good arm and tug him into the tent. I don’t know how we’re going to handle this latest development, but I love Chris and he’s part of our family now.
“Mommy!”
“Baby girl.” I hug Zinnia so tight I’m afraid I’ll break her ribs. “Are you thirsty? Hungry? Did they hurt you—”
“She’ll be just fine.” Lehm’s voice. A voice I thought I’d never hear again. I’m still processing that he’s here. “I wouldn’t let them hurt her. And the woman out there—”
“Willow.”
“She gave Zinnia some water. Our baby girl drank it all down, and ate this, too.” He holds up a wrapper.
I read the label. It’s some kind of nutrition snack bar.
Satisfied that her immediate needs have been seen to, I ease onto one of the empty chairs with Zinnia cuddled in my lap. Relief washes through me. I have my baby girl back.
But Lehm’s looking uncertain. “A man, Dr. Clarke, examined her. I watched him. He said she’d be fine and to call him if she needs anything.”
Chris has been oddly silent until now, and suddenly holds out his hand. “I’m Chris Atherton.”
“Lehm Davis,” Zinnia’s father says, as they shake.
“Uh, I’m sorry I screwed your wife.”
“Christopher Matthew Anderson!” I shout. “Little ears.”
Zinnia giggles. I don’t think she knows what it means—even so, Chris didn’t have to be so blunt.
Lehm shrugs. “We’ll talk about it later. Right now, can you take Zinnia to your ark? She’s told me all about it—and about you. She needs a good meal and fresh clothes.”
“We’ll all go,” I say.
“Um, I don’t know how the folks out there will feel about you taking me with you.”
Tig steps into the tent, also sucking on one of those vampire blood bags marked with a red cross. “They’ll think it’s just fine. I’ll stay here and clean up this mess.”
“But your jaw,” I say. “You should rest.”
“It’s halfway to healing. I’ll be fine.”
I stroke Zinnia’s dirty braids. The first order of business after a hot meal is a bath. Which reminds me: “What will happen to the renegades who betrayed the deal?”
“I’ll sort it. My team will question them and figure out who reneged on the deal.”
“But what if they lie?”
Tig laughs. “Of course they’ll lie. But my team will take a statement from each renegade.
And from the enslaved mortals. The inconsistencies will allow us to winnow out the true perps.
If it’s still unclear after that, I’ll haul the council here to hold trials, and they can decide what to do.
In the meantime, doctors are on their way to care for the mortals, and we’ll set up a commissary tent to feed them. ”
“The ones who kidnapped Zinnia”—I kiss my baby girl’s head—“what will happen to them?”
“Up to the vampire council. You have the right to make a statement at any trial involving the kidnapping.” Tig pauses. “Take your daughter home, Maria.”
I nod and carry Zinnia out of the tent. I don’t think I’ll ever let go of her, and I have no desire to see the kidnappers again. My lust for revenge has dwindled. I grab a few regular clone pouches from a supply table outside the tent and toss them to the guys.
“Chris, please drive. Lehm, come with us. We’re going home.”