I was responsible for enough evil already.
And now that she was on the island, since I couldn"t allow her to leave-at least for the time being-I swore that I would do my best to shield her from her surroundings.
The truth was, I wasn"t so much afraid of Derek Novak as I was of breaking his daughter.
Chapter 24: Ben.
I"d been injected with something shortly after Stellan pulled me back into the submarine and I"d woken up in this dark dungeon. I"d lost track of how much time had pa.s.sed since then.
I looked around the prison at the other cells, all crammed with humans. I was the only one to have been given my own cell.
My eyes fell on Kristal and Jake behind the gate across the corridor from me. Jake was lying on the floor in the corner, Kristal huddled up next to him, trying to get some sleep. The vampires who had come in to leave us water and bread had refused to answer any questions.
I just hope that Rose is somewhere better than this.
"Kristal!" I hissed through the bars. "Kristal."
A few humans stirred and looked up at me. But Kristal remained lying still. One of the humans nudged her, bringing her to consciousness.
She rubbed her eyes wearily. Terror set in again on her face after her reprieve. She crawled over to the bars and stared at me. "Has anything happened since I fell asleep?"
I shook my head. Her whole body was shivering. It was freezing down in these dungeons and they hadn"t given us enough blankets.
She gripped the bars tighter, leaning her head against them. Tears spilled down her cheeks.
"What are they going to do with us, Ben?"
I"d already explained to both of them that our kidnappers were vampires. They"d had a hard time getting used to that idea-and I was sure Jake still thought I was a raving lunatic. They"d never been exposed to any supernatural creatures before, so I couldn"t have expected a different reaction from them.
Jake suspected that maybe we"d been taken for ransom because of their wealthy father.
"If these people really are...v-vampires," Kristal continued, "what would they want with us?"
The answer would have been too troubling for her to hear in her already weakened state, so I just shrugged. She, however, wasn"t going to accept that for an answer.
"Is it our blood that they want?"
I breathed out, unsure of whether to answer.
She read my silence and clasped a palm over her mouth, trembling more than ever.
"Kristal," I whispered. "Look at me."
She raised her bloodshot eyes to mine.
"What"s that at the back of your cell?" I asked, pointing at something I"d spotted piled up on the floor.
She turned around and crawled toward it, trying not to wake her cell mates who were blocking her path.
"It"s just a pile of chains," she murmured.
"Can you throw them to me?"
She picked the chains and crawled back over to the bars. Gathering them in one hand, she reached through the bars and swung them toward me. I managed to catch them before they clattered to the floor.
There was a padlock fixed to one of the metal joints, but no sign of the key. This appeared to be the kind of padlock that locked without a key by pushing it until it clicked.
I sat for the next few hours leaning against the bars, waiting with bated breath for the dungeon door opening. A vampire was due to come in at any time now to bring us our daily food and water.
Perhaps it was just my nerves playing tricks on me, but the vampire seemed to come in much later that day. Eventually, the door unlatched and heavy footsteps approached.
A vampire pushed along a trolley, pa.s.sing out water jugs and bread. I tried to keep my breathing steady as he stopped outside my cell. He bent down low, pushing the water and bread through my bars. He stood up and before he could continue, I reached through the bars and slipped the chain around his neck.
He gasped in shock and let go of the trolley. I yanked the chain back with all the strength my weak, dehydrated body could muster and pressed against the padlock. It clicked as he thrashed about.
His razor-sharp claws caught my cheek, ripping open a gash. I ducked down and removed the cl.u.s.ter of keys attached to his belt.
The whole gate shook from his struggling. I didn"t have long. I fumbled with the keys until I"d found the one to open my gate. Then I rushed over to Kristal"s cell and unlocked it, freeing all the humans who were inside it along with Jake. I did the same with every other cell along that corridor.
"Follow me," I hissed once they"d all bundled out. "Don"t make a sound."
I had no idea where I was taking them. For all I knew, I could have been leading us all to our deaths. But something told me that if we didn"t try to escape at the first opportunity that came our way, we"d regret it.
"Wait here," I whispered, as we approached the dungeon"s exit. I peered around the door to see that it led to a staircase leading upward. There was n.o.body in sight. "Okay, follow me."
I paused again once I reached the top of the stairs. We were now in some kind of kitchen-metal tables lined the room and in the corner stood jugs filled with a red liquid. Human blood.
Kristal"s trembling hand gripped my own.
"What is this place?" she gasped.
I held a finger to my lips. I walked along the edge of the room to the nearest exit.
The door was ajar. As I peeked through the crack, my breath hitched. Two vampires stood talking to each other in the center of a large dark hall.
I gestured urgently at the humans behind me to hide underneath the tables. I needed them out of the way while I figured out the best way to escape. With hindsight, I should have let them out of their cells only once I"d found a way out. It would have been less noticeable in case a vampire went down to the dungeon. But it was too late now for regrets.
Hiding under the tables wouldn"t do much good if they came in. I knew the vampires would smell our blood, but I hoped that it would be masked at least somewhat by the jugs of blood already sitting on the table in the corner of that room.
Once everyone had hidden themselves, I walked back to the dungeon door and pushed it closed as noiselessly as I could.
I walked to the door at the other end of the kitchen. Opening the door, I found myself looking around another high-ceilinged hall. This one was empty.
I crossed the hall and reached the other side, hiding in the shadows of the doorway. The next room appeared to be some kind of library. Bookshelves lined the walls and there was a round table in the center with tall piles of books.
I had just about reached the other side of the room when someone spoke.
"Can I help?"
Behind one of the large piles of books, a tall thin woman stood up. She had long black hair and cold grey eyes.
"Oh," she said, scowling at me.
I rushed out of the door and into the next hall, only to find the same woman standing there, blocking my path.
This is a witch.
She reached up and gripped my ear, tugging me down to her level. As her fingers touched my skin, a burning sensation rushed through me.
I had to bite my lip to not shout out in pain.
"Where do you think you"re going? Stellan!" she shouted, her voice echoing around the room. "Stellan, come here this instant."
No.
The ginger vampire who had pulled me through the hatch came rushing into the hall. His mouth dropped open when he saw me.
"What?" he gasped.
"Looks like you need to tighten up on security," she said.
Stellan"s eyes darkened and he gripped me by the neck, dragging me back through the hallways. I struggled against him, but he kneed me in the gut, winding me. His hold was far too strong for a mere mortal to escape from.
He dragged me back into the kitchen and as soon as we entered, Kristal came rushing out of her hiding place.
"No! Ben!"
"No!" I yelled, pushing her back.
It was too late. She"d just given the game away.
Stellan"s voice boomed through the kitchen as he called for backup.
Five vampires ran into the kitchen and began pulling out humans from under the table. A sixth vampire came running into the room with chains. They lined the humans up against the wall and tied them up.
The witch entered the room behind me, eyeing Kristal, who had tears streaming down her face.
"Hm. Interesting," the witch said softly.
She grabbed Kristal by the hair and forced her to the floor.
"I say we teach this young Novak a lesson," she said. "Seeing that he might be with us for quite a while, if he plans to make attempting escape a habit, it will become very tiresome indeed."
The vampires stopped what they were doing and looked over at us, Stellan"s grip on me unrelenting.
The witch withdrew a dagger from her cloak and held it against Kristal"s neck.
"No!" I yelled, managing to break free from Stellan, only to have three vampires throw themselves at me to hold me down. Stellan lifted my head to face Kristal"s trembling form. Jake shouted and struggled against his chains.
"Watch," Stellan grunted, holding my head in position.
With one sharp motion, the witch drove the dagger into Kristal"s chest. Her scream was stifled as she choked on her own blood. Both my and Jake"s yells echoed around the kitchen as she bled to death in front of us.
"Now," the witch said, letting go of Kristal"s hair. "Let this be a lesson to all of you. Stellan. Have your men collect her blood."
Chapter 25: Rose.
I was woken the next morning by another knock at my door.
What is it this time?
I found myself looking at Caleb"s harp. I supposed he"d thought it would give me something to do while I was alone in my room for hours. I felt grateful for the gesture. Then my eyes settled on the floor beside the instrument. A tray full of food. Not oatmeal. Real breakfast food. I pulled the harp into my bedroom. Then I returned to scoop up the tray and put it on my bedside table, and began to eat hungrily. French toast had never tasted so good to me in all my life. I gobbled everything up in less than five minutes.
I wonder where on earth Frieda-Caleb-even got this food? I witnessed for myself how bare the kitchen was.
Once I"d finished, I took a shower and got dressed.
I headed up the stairs toward Caleb"s room. I knocked on the door and waited. He answered it after a couple of minutes, appearing at the door fully dressed, no trace of the scars from the previous night left visible.
"I, uh. I wondered if you"d mind taking me for a walk? Outside, I mean. I haven"t had any proper exercise in days."
He stared down at me, a flicker of discomfort showing across his face, followed by indecision. I thought he was about to say no, but then he nodded.
"All right," he said. "Wait here."
He returned a few seconds later wearing shoes and holding a scarf in his hands.
I eyed the scarf as he stepped out of the room and shut the door behind him.
"I didn"t know vampires needed..."
He handed it to me before I finished my sentence. "For you. It"s freezing out there."