Dangerous Creatures (Book 3, Pure Series) (16 page)

              "What is it?" I asked.

              "It's a lighter. If you feel like you really need to see something, just flick it on."

              I fumbled with the lighter for a second and then switched it on. A tiny flame sprang to life, and I could just see Anton's pale face hovering in the darkness before me. Everything else was black—but it was a relief to be able to see something.

              "Why do you carry a lighter?" I asked.

              "Why not?" Anton replied.

              He took my hand once again, and we continued on into the cave. I held the lighter up like a tiny torch, and from time to time, I glimpsed pieces of the cave—a wall, a low, sloping ceiling, an outcropping of rock.

              "What are we looking for exactly?" I asked.

              "Anything that doesn't look quite right," Anton replied. "And by 'we' I mean me. No offense, but I really doubt you're going to spot anything. By the way, you may want to put that lighter away somewhere secure. In the event—however unlikely—that we get separated, that lighter might be the only thing that would allow you to get out of here. You don't want to drop it or let it burn out."

              "Oh, right," I said. I extinguished the lighter and slipped it into my pocket. I was plunged into darkness once more as Anton and I continued on.

              "Do you see anything that looks out of place?" I asked, dropping my voice to a whisper.

              "Not yet," Anton said. "But I can hear something a little odd up ahead. There's a column of wind rushing up from somewhere below. I think there must be an open chamber nearby."

              "I know there's quite a big open chamber in here," I said. "It's large and round and there are flat rocks in it. I saw Gleb Mstislav and his son Timofei in there once."

              "I know the chamber you mean," Anton said. "We passed through it a little while ago. That's not what we're looking for. And isn't it funny how people start whispering when they go into a dark place?"

              "Was I whispering?" I asked.

              "Yes," Anton said, and I thought I could hear a smile in his voice. "I think it's an unconscious reaction. You automatically want to be quieter in the darkness, because as an ordinary human, you can't see predators, but they can still see you."

              I turned my head toward Anton's voice. I was sure he was smiling now.

              "Come along now," Anton said.

              We hurried on through the darkness, and soon, I sensed the space around me growing tighter.

              "Let's stop here," Anton said.

              He released my hand, and when he spoke again, it was from below me, as if he were kneeling down to look at something.

              "This is more like it," he said.

              "Can I ask you question?" I said.

              "Certainly."

              "You said earlier that you'd noticed some funny things going on around here. I assume by 'here' you mean Elspeth's Grove."

              "Yes."

              "How long have you been here?" I asked.

              "Not long. Not long at all, in fact. Only a few hours."

              "Then how did you—"

              "When I said I noticed funny things," Anton said, "I noticed them in the reports we've been receiving."

              "Reports?" I said. "About Elspeth's Grove?"

              "Yes. We have an agent here who's been keeping us updated on what's going on. Your town has been of interest to the community in Russia for some time. And before you get all puffed up with pride, we're not primarily interested in you—although we do have to keep something of an eye on you due to your special status. But circumstances being what they are—we're in the midst of a crisis—we're less interested in you at the moment."

              "That's good," I said. "I'm happy you aren't so interested in me."

              "Please don't interrupt," Anton said. "As I was saying, we aren't primarily interested in you. We're really more interested in this cave—and some of your citizens who also seem to be interested in this cave. Our agent has been keeping us apprised of developments."

              "Your agent?" I said. "Like a vampire FBI agent?"

              "Perhaps 'agent' is the wrong word," Anton said. I could hear that he was standing again. "'Agent' sounds a little too official, and our arrangements tend to be a little more ad hoc, shall we say? To make a long story short, we needed information on what was going on in this town, and a vampire happened to be here already. So we worked something out."

              "This agent," I said. "Is it William?"

              "No. That bonehead doesn't know anything," Anton replied. "Now you should probably take my hand again. We're getting close to what we're looking for."

              Anton led me on.

              "Are you sure William isn't the agent?" I said. "He said he was in contact with you."

              "He was," Anton said. "But he wanted to get information, not give it. And seriously, enough with William already. I'm the one who's here. We should be talking about me."

              He stopped suddenly. "You know, I think I've found it."

              "You've found the open chamber?" I asked.

              "Not exactly," Anton said. "But I've found something even better. This settles it. I am officially amazing."

              I could hear that Anton was kneeling again. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

              "You should switch on that lighter," he said. "You'll want to see this."

              I flicked on the lighter. I found myself standing just a few feet from a solid wall of stone. Anton was crouching down on the cave floor in front of it.

              "Your discovery is a wall of rock?" I said. "Isn't this place full of them?"

              Anton rose. He smiled at me, and then he put his hand out. It disappeared into the rock without any resistance.

              "My discovery," Anton said, "is an illusion."

              He pulled his hand back. "You should try it yourself. But don't get too close just yet."

              I put my hand up to the wall, not quite believing what I had just seen, and instead of encountering rock, my hand found only empty air. As I watched, my hand vanished just as Anton's had.

              I quickly pulled it back.

              "You're impressed, aren't you?" Anton said. "I can tell you're impressed."

              I glanced around the cave. The wall in front of me looked just as solid as the rest of the cave walls.

              "I guess I am impressed," I said. "How did you know?"

              "I already mentioned the air currents," Anton said. "And I knew that quite a few people had been in and out of this cave, and no one seemed to have found anything out of the ordinary, even though some of them—such as yourself—sensed that something was going on here. So that said to me that there must be an element of disguise here. All I had to do was follow the air currents."

              Anton kneeled again. "If you put your hand here, you can feel the air."

              I kneeled beside him. I could indeed feel the air.

              "So, what's behind there?" I asked.

              Anton straightened up. "I don't know. I guess we're about to find out."

              I stood up, too, and Anton held up a hand.

              "You'd better wait here and let me check this out. I don't want you going into anything blind."

              As I watched, Anton disappeared behind the wall.

              "Oh!" he exclaimed from the other side.

              "What? Anton, what is it?" I said.

              "Stay right where you are. I'm coming back through now."

              Anton reappeared. "Okay. So, on the other side of this illusory wall is a really big drop. A really big one. There's a narrow, hollowed-out tunnel that leads straight down. So you can come with me deeper into the cave if you want, but it's also fine if you want to stay here."

              "I want to go," I said. "I want to see what's down there."

              "All right," Anton said. "Hold on to that lighter and try not to be nervous."

              He took my hand, and we stepped through the wall together. I found myself standing on a small ledge that overlooked a dark, empty space. A metal cable extended from the cave ceiling down into the darkness.

              There was very little space for me to place my feet, and panic surged through me as I felt myself slipping.

              "Take it easy," Anton said. "Here, come over here."

              He pulled me along the ledge to a spot that was a little wider.

              "Wow," I said. "Anyone who stumbled on this would probably be in a lot of trouble."

              "I think that was the idea," Anton said. "Are you ready to head down?"

              I took a deep breath. "Yes."

              "Better put out the light," Anton said.

              I switched off the lighter, and I felt Anton's arm slip around me.

              "Wait," I said in the darkness. "How are we heading down? You're not just going to jump, are you?"

              "No, not exactly," Anton said. "We're going to take the cable."

              Any reply I might have made was lost at that moment, as Anton jumped off the ledge, and we began to fall.

              I closed my eyes and clung to Anton.

              We seemed to fall forever, and just when I thought I couldn't take it any longer, we came to an abrupt stop. But I could still feel my feet dangling in the air.

              "We're just a few inches from the bottom," Anton said into my ear. "I didn't want you to have too jarring a landing. All you have to do is drop down the rest of the way."

              Anton loosened his grip on me, and my feet slid down to the cave floor. I took a few shaky steps forward. I was extremely relieved to be on solid ground again.

              I switched on the lighter, but I couldn't see very far. Everything around me was black—I couldn't even see Anton.

              "Anton? Where are we?"

              His voice came out of the darkness. "If you will lend me that flame of yours, I believe I can shed a little light on the subject."

              I switched off the lighter again and held it out, and I felt it being lifted out of my hand.

              I stood, surrounded by darkness, and I strained to hear any sounds of movement.

              "Anton," I said, "what are you doing?"

              "Just a moment, my sweet. I will reveal all."

              I saw a spark spring up in the darkness, and I turned toward it. The spark held and grew brighter and larger. It began to expand until I was looking at a ball of fire. The fire then shot up on a diagonal, leaving a blazing trail. The fire went on and on, zigzagging around me and lighting up the entire area.

              I spun around. I was standing in a vast chamber that was now lit by ledge upon ledge of flame. In between the tiers of fire were a seemingly endless array of long, wooden boxes that were attached to the cave wall and stacked horizontally.

              The boxes had an unpleasantly familiar look.

              Anton came over to stand beside me. "So this is what they've been up to."

              "Are those coffins?" I asked.

              "Yes," Anton replied.

              I began to feel cold all over. "And what's inside them?"

              "Vampires."

Chapter 13.

"This is bad," Anton said softly, as he looked up at the coffins all around us. The tiers stretched up beyond the lines of fire into the darkness above. "This is much worse than we thought."

              "What's been going on exactly?" I asked. "Have people been bringing vampires down into this cave?"

              "No," Anton said. "The vampires were already here. Someone was digging down to get to them."

              I was startled. "So Branden was right?"

              "Branden?"

              "He's a friend of mine. He said there were mobsters digging in this cave. He thought maybe they were after treasure or something like that."

              "No, no mobsters," Anton said. "Although there was a group of humans running a moonshine ring out of this cave. It was really just small-time stuff, and they were shut down pretty quickly. I think they were happy to get shut down, too. I'm sure they experienced some odd things in this cave. The rumors are that they believed the cave was haunted."

              "So, if it wasn't mobsters, who did all this?" I asked.

              "Wouldn't we like to know? We believe there are vampires running this operation and that they have help from a local human source—not mobsters, though. We've known for a while that something has been going on here—and we thought that treasure might be a possibility, too."

              Anton smiled at me in the flickering light. "Vampires can be funny about gold and silver and jewels. You wouldn't think that we'd care very much about shiny things. But they still hold an irresistible allure for some."

              "And so there's a cache of vampires down here, instead of a cache of treasure," I said.

              "Well, actually, I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't some treasure around here after all. You see, the presence of all these vampires at this depth most likely indicates that this is what's known as a 'royal tomb.' That means it was created in the time of the Werdulac by the Sìdh to inter their defeated enemies. These vampires were probably placed here many centuries ago, long before Europeans moved into this area."

              "This isn't—"

              "The tomb of the Werdulac? No. He wouldn't be in a place this easy to get to—and even this wasn't that easy. This excavation took many years."

              "So a 'royal tomb' is a tomb that's full of the Werdulac's followers?" I said.

              "Yes," Anton replied. "And like I said, there's probably a bunch of their stuff down here, too—weapons, jewelry, all kinds of whatnots."

              I shivered as I looked around. "We're not going to wake them, are we?"

              "No. Under normal circumstances these vampires are as good as deceased. And these coffins have other protections on them to keep any special cases in. What concerns me is that someone with the right knowledge and resources could just possibly wake them up. I think that was the purpose of this excavation."

              "So what does that mean for GM?" I asked. "Do you think she's down here somewhere?"

              "No," Anton said. "That doesn't seem very likely now that I know what's going on here. She must be at the other place. But since we're here, we'd better have a quick look around—see what we can confirm. Let's see what's back here."

              I followed Anton into the shadows, away from the flames that illuminated the coffins, and he stopped at a narrow tunnel.

              "You may want to take this again."

              Anton handed me the lighter and then took my hand and led me into the tunnel. It slanted sharply downward, and the closeness of the walls was oppressive.

              As we continued on, the tunnel abruptly opened wider, and I flicked on the lighter. We were standing in a small, round chamber full of stone chests. The lids of many of the chests had been flung aside, and the contents were spilling out onto the floor. There was gold and jewelry as Anton had said there might be, and I could also see daggers, swords, and other weapons. There were also quite a few objects that I couldn't put a name to.

              "Vampire magic," Anton said, holding up what looked like a cube with a jeweled dart in it. "An art practiced by very few. And more closely akin to voodoo."

              "Meaning what?" I asked.

              "That objects like these," Anton said, waving the cube, "can have a terrifying effect on the superstitious and no effect at all on a more rational person. A vampire waves his hand over something like this and tells a credulous person he's cursed or cured—and if he believes it, he is."

              "Then vampire magic is fake?" I asked.

              "Most of the time," Anton replied. "But I wouldn't be surprised if a few of the objects down here didn't actually have real power."

              Anton tossed the cube into the chest and looked around. "As I suspected, this cave has been ransacked—probably by other vampire scavengers not related to the ones officially running this operation. And that answers a few questions for me."

              "Like what?" I asked.

              "First of all, it tells me that this stuff is largely worth stealing due to its antiquity. And that means my guess was right about this being a royal tomb."

              "Then everything in here really is from the reign of the Werdulac?" I said.

              "Yes," Anton replied.

              "Does that mean that the fight these vampires died in occurred here?"

              "Probably not. Everything was moved here to be hidden."

              "Hidden from the Werdulac?" I said. "Just in case he were to come back?"

              "Exactly," Anton said.

              "So the vampires and the human source who excavated all this are working for the Werdulac?" I asked.

              "That would be my guess," Anton replied.

              "And you don't know who the vampires are?"

              "No," Anton said. "Like I said, we haven't been able to catch them at it. And I think I know why now."

              "Why?"

              Anton smiled. "I'll tell you if I'm right."

              "What about the humans helping them?"

              Anton's smile grew broader. "There, I actually believe we have a lead. I have a theory that the human helpers are a local prominent family known as the Neverovs—the father and son, at least. The elder Neverov has been seen coming in and out of this cave quite often. As have a number of high school kids—but I think they aren't up to much. The younger Neverov hasn't been observed entering the cave yet, but I believe there's a reason for that—I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't at least one other entrance to this cave set at quite some distance from here."

              Anton glanced at me. "You don't seem to be too shocked to hear about the Neverovs. I'm disappointed—I'd hoped to create a bigger sensation with that news."

              "It's just that I suspected Maksim Neverov might be up to something," I replied. "And I also found out that he's been keeping a vampire in the freezer in his basement."

              Anton's eyebrows rose. "So you're the one who gets to deliver the big sensation. Color me truly surprised. How did you find out about the freezer thing?"

              "I saw it myself," I said.

              "That would do it," Anton replied. "That's something that I'll have to look into. And I'd like to explore this setup here a little more, too—maybe find that other entrance. But we've got somewhere else to go right now."

              He held out his hand. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

              I took Anton's hand and flicked off the lighter. Then he led me back up through the tunnel and into the main chamber.

              "We're going to have to take the cable to get back up to the surface," Anton said. "So the trip up won't be quite as speedy as the trip down was. Gravity, you know."

              I stood for a moment, looking up at the flames that wound all through the coffins.

              "Should we shut off the lights before we go?" I asked.

              Anton glanced around. "I don't think so. It's not like we have to pay the utilities on the place."

              "It's kind of funny that someone would set things up this way," I said.

              "Yeah, well, humans have got to see," Anton replied. "And there are humans in on this as well as vampires."

              I persisted. "Yes, but the flames go past each and every coffin. It seems unnecessarily elaborate. And it also looks like there are wires going into every coffin."

              Anton shrugged. "I don't know why humans do half the things they do."

              "And the flames have continued to climb since we went into the tunnel," I said. "When you first started the fire, it only climbed half way up, and a lot of the space above was dark. But it's lit up as far as I can see now."

              "Oh, yeah," Anton said. "Fascinating. Now let's get going. We—"

              He stopped. "Do you hear a ringing sound?"

              I listened. "No."

              "I wonder what—"

              Anton's voice was drowned out by a low explosion from above.

              "That's not good," he said. "We'd better get to that cable."

              Anton grabbed me and flew toward the cable. We began to ascend quickly, but even Anton's speed was not enough.

              There was another low explosion from above and then another and another. The explosions were getting closer.

              "Hang on as tight as you can," Anton said.

              A moment later there was an explosion just above us, and rubble began to rain down on our heads. I shut my eyes tightly against the falling rock and debris, and I ducked my head so I could breathe without inhaling any of the dust.

              I felt Anton's grip on me tighten, and then there was a violent explosion next to us that slammed us both against the rock wall.

              There was another explosion below us, and I suddenly found that I was trapped—everything was cold and hard and dark, and I was pinned painfully against a jagged rock. I tried to breathe, but my lungs were full of dust, and I couldn't see a thing. I tried to move, but my arms and legs were trapped.

              Panic welled up within me.

              I continued to struggle, and then I felt something close to me shift. The air around me suddenly felt clearer, and I drew in a deep breath. My panic began to subside.

              "You all right?" asked a voice in the darkness.

              "Anton?" I said. "Where are you?"

              "I'm right here," he said.

              "I seem to be entirely surrounded by rocks," I said. "But I think I'm okay."

              "I think I'm one of those rocks," Anton said. "Luckily, I believe my body took the brunt of the impact."

              Something near me shifted again, and I felt the pressure on me begin to ease even more.

              "Are we trapped?" I asked. I heard another explosion distantly beneath us.

              "That's actually a good question," Anton replied. "But I've got you, you've got me, and I've still got a hold on the cable. So, I'd say we've got a chance."

              There was yet another shift near me, and I found that I could move my arms and legs again.

              "Okay, I think I'm going to need both of my hands again," Anton said. "So if you could put your arms around my neck, I'll see if I can get us out of here."

              I did as Anton asked, and we both moved suddenly as he pulled. Rocks shifted around us, and rubble began to rain down on us once again.

              "You should probably keep your head down," Anton said.

              Slowly, laboriously, we moved up through the collapsed tunnel, and Anton had to stop periodically to shift rocks out of the way. But soon he seemed to figure something out, and our speed began to increase. We moved upward through darkness, through rock, and eventually, we broke through to open air. Anton pulled us both out the rest of the way, and we climbed out onto a pile of rubble.

              I sat back against the jagged rock, deeply relieved to be out of the heavy crush of the tunnel.

              "I have to admit," Anton said, "that I didn't see that coming."

              We were completely surrounded by darkness, and I felt the rocks underneath me shift dangerously.

              "I guess we're still on the other side of the fake wall?" I said.

              "Yeah," Anton said. "We'd better move. Carefully now."

              He took my hand and we moved gingerly over the top of the collapsed tunnel. Soon I felt a smooth surface under my feet, and I figured that we had reached the slim ledge that I had seen before.