Dangerous Creatures (Book 3, Pure Series) (34 page)

              "I will," she said. "This will just take a bit longer than it usually does. What happened to—her?"

              "She's transfixed by a mirror at the moment," I said. "But I don't know how long it will last."

              Sachiko frowned. "A mirror?"

              "It's a little complicated," I said. "But the short version is that a Sìdh prince promised me that I would have the lights of the Sìdh in a mirror if I needed them. And it turned out that I needed them."

              Sachiko made an effort and sat forward. "So mirrors can be used as weapons against vampires after all. Who knew? Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to lock those old ones up."

              Her eyes darted to the stake with the flame in its handle. "Did you think of that?"

              "Yes," I said.

              "That's a good idea."

              Sachiko placed both hands on the floor in front of her and began to climb to her feet.

              I reached out to help her up. "Are you sure you're ready to stand yet?"

              "I'm sure," Sachiko said. "Besides, we'd better find William and get out of here. Like you said, we don't know how long the queen will stay entranced."

              "You still think William's in here?" I said. "Even after the queen?"

              "I know he is now," Sachiko said. "Because of the queen. You heard what she said—she expected you to come here. She left William here as a trap to catch you when she realized that the ghost girl was attacking."

              Sachiko took a few steps forward. "Follow me. And try to be strong. William's going to be in bad shape."

              "I thought you said the ghost girl wasn't real," I said.

              "She isn't. Something else happened here tonight. Now, come on."

              Sachiko led me through the darkness to a small marble structure that sat at the far end of the room. It was similar in appearance to a chapel in a cathedral, and it had several tiny windows and a wooden door.

              I peered in through one of the windows. "I don't see him in there."

              "You wouldn't necessarily be able to see him that way," Sachiko said, as she tried the door. "It's locked. Stand back. I'm going to have to break it down."

              I took a few steps back, and Sachiko kicked a sizeable hole in the door. Then she hooked her hand inside the hole and pulled the door off its hinges.

              Sachiko threw the door to the side. "I didn't want to risk hitting William with it."

              We went inside the chapel, and I could see several rows of wooden chairs and a short aisle that led up to an altar. I quickly ran up to the altar, expecting to find William lying behind it. But the space behind the altar was empty.

              I looked around the chapel frantically, but the space was small, and there were few places to hide a body. William was not in the chapel.

              "Sachiko, where is he?" I said.

              "Come and look at this," Sachiko replied. She was examining a large metal square on the floor that had two thick metal rings embedded into it.

              "Do you remember how I said this was a special tomb?" she asked.

              "Yes."

              "Well, the floor of this tomb is strongly built," she replied. "For reasons which we don't need to go into right now. But it can withstand a lot, and these metal rings weren't here originally. I think William was chained here. Right on this spot."

              Sachiko looked up. "And there's another door back here."

              She went up to the door and tried it. The door swung open easily.

              "The lock's broken," she said.

              "So William's free now?"

              "Maybe." Sachiko pulled me out of the chapel, and then she stood looking out into the darkness.

              "He's still in here. He must be," she said softly. "The queen left this chamber open on purpose. It was a trap for you."

              Sachiko turned in a circle, surveying the whole room. "I searched this entire chamber before I turned the lights on. I didn't see William or the queen. I figured they both had to have been in the chapel. There's nowhere else."

              She froze suddenly. "What was the first thing the queen did when you saw her?"

              "She slammed the doors shut and threw the bolt across them," I said. "But I didn't actually see that."

              "What did she do next?"

              "She perched on one of the tombs," I said.

              "Which one?"

              "The one closest to the door."

              Sachiko grabbed me by the hand. "The queen was taunting you. That's where she put William. And that's where she hid herself. He's in the tomb."

              Sachiko took off across the chamber suddenly, and we stopped in front of the tomb closest to the door.

              "You probably don't want to see what's inside," she said. "Stand back and let me get William out."

              Sachiko heaved the stone slab with its effigy off the top of the tomb. The heavy lid crashed to the ground and cracked in half. Sachiko peered inside.

              "He's not here," she said in surprise.

              She continued on around the room in a flurry, tipping the lids off the tombs and looking inside. Eventually she came to the very last one.

              "That's funny," she said. "The lid is already partially off this one."

              Sachiko pushed the lid off the rest of the way and peered inside.

              "William isn't in here," she said. "But I think I know what's happened now."

              I hurried toward her. "What is it? What's happened?"

              "I think William's escaped," Sachiko said. "You should see this."

              I joined Sachiko at the side of the tomb and peered inside cautiously. I was half-expecting to see the desiccated body of an ancient vampire queen, but all I could see was darkness.

              "It's empty," I said.

              "Not exactly," Sachiko replied. "There are stairs in there. And there are traces of blood—I can smell them. And I have a terrible feeling that that blood belongs to William. This must be a passageway to another part of the castle. This must be how William got out—and how the queen got in. I was wrong—she didn't hide him. He escaped, and she never even knew he was gone."

              "We have to go after him," I said, reaching for the lip of the tomb.

              "Wait just a minute," Sachiko said, placing a restraining hand on my shoulder. "It may not be safe to go after him."

              "You're crazy if you think I'm just going to leave him here," I said.

              "I mean it may not be safe for you to go after him. You should let me do it—alone."

              "You said he was bad," I said. "I'm not going to stay behind when he's in trouble."

              "When I said he was bad," Sachiko began, "I meant something a little different than what you may have imagined."

              "What's that supposed to mean?" I said.

              "You're probably picturing William pale and ill," Sachiko said. "Maybe not even feeling strong enough to walk under his own power. But the reality is different. William has been violent and raving—there's a reason he was chained up. The new vampire blood that is coursing through his body is at war with his basic physiology. The vampire strain is trying to change him, and the whole process is tearing him apart. The pain is driving him insane. It's much safer for me to go after him. I'll be able to handle him better if he's having one of his bad fits."

              "There's no way I'm staying here," I said.

              "Katie, just think about this," Sachiko said. "It's really not a good idea. What's the first thing William would do?"

              "You said yourself he escaped," I said. "He went to look for a way out."

              "No. He's not looking for a way out—at least not specifically. He's only looking for it as a means to an end. Katie, the first thing he would do is look for you. I only brought you here in the first place because I thought William would be restrained. Let me go after him by myself. I'll take him to the healer alone."

              "You can't talk me out of this," I said. "I love William, and he loves me. I'm not afraid."

              Sachiko looked at me for a long moment. "I can see your mind is made up. You can come with me. But stay behind me—and remember that William isn't himself right now. He may not actually realize where he is, or even who he is. All he knows is that he's looking for you—he may not remember why very clearly. And the pain he's in may make him do terrible things. If I tell you to run, I want you to run."

              "I understand," I said.

              Sachiko gave me another long look. "I wonder if you do."

              I looked over the lip of the tomb into the darkness then, trying to see the stairs Sachiko said were there, but I couldn't make out much of anything at all.

              "Can I take the torch with me?" I asked. "Or should I rely on you to lead me?"

              Sachiko glanced at my makeshift torch, and something about it suddenly caught her attention.

              "Move your hand down a little," she said.

              I did as she asked, and Sachiko stared at the stake for a moment.

              "What is it?" I asked.

              "I think I know who our phony ghost girl is—or at least who our phony ghost girl works for. And to answer your earlier question, I think you should take the torch with you. It's really better if you see what's in front of you. It also wouldn't hurt you to have a weapon."

              "I would never use this on William," I said.

              "That's what you say now," Sachiko said. "But you haven't seen William yet. Just keep it with you."

              Suddenly, Sachiko vaulted over the lip of the tomb and jumped down into it. I quickly peered over the lip after her, but she seemed to have disappeared.

              "Sachiko?"

              Her voice floated up to me. "Hand the torch down to me first."

              I leaned down over the lip of the tomb and lowered the makeshift torch into it. A small, white hand emerged from the darkness and reached up for it.

              I leaned down further, and Sachiko's small fingers closed carefully around the point of the stake.

              As I watched, the torch descended into the darkness, lighting up the interior of the tomb. Sachiko's face soon emerged, and as she lowered the torch further, I could see that she was standing on the top step of a flight of stairs. I could also see that there was a long drop from the lip of the tomb to the top of the stairs.

              Sachiko propped the torch against the wall of the tomb and held her arms out to me.

              "Jump and I'll catch you."

              I perched on the lip of the tomb, my legs dangling, and took a deep breath. Then I let myself slip off the edge—my heart was hammering as I fell through open air.

              But Sachiko was as good as her word, and I felt her hard, cold arms wrap around me. She set me down carefully, and I stumbled just a bit.

              "You all right?" Sachiko asked.

              "Yes," I said. "It's just that first step."

              "It's not so bad if you're a vampire," Sachiko said. "Come on. Let's see where this thing leads."

              I picked up my torch, and I followed Sachiko down the stairs. The torch only threw out enough light to illuminate a small area around me, so the way ahead was largely dark to me.

              "What's in front of us?" I whispered.

              "We're almost at the bottom of the stairs," Sachiko said. "And then there's another staircase."

              "Another one?" I said. "Aren't we already at the lowest level of the castle?"

              "It's not a staircase leading down," Sachiko said. "It's a spiral staircase that leads up. Careful now. There isn't much space once the steps end."

              Sure enough, the stairs came to an abrupt end, and I found myself facing a stone wall. There was a narrow aisle between the stairs and the wall, and Sachiko guided me along it until we came to a tall, narrow silo of stone. In the center of the silo was an iron staircase that spiraled upward into darkness. There was no railing on the staircase, and the stone walls of the silo fit tightly around it, forming an uncomfortably close space.

              "William went up that way?" I said.

              "It's the only way to go," Sachiko said. "The path from the stairs ends here." She leaned over and touched a step on the staircase and then rubbed her fingers together. "Besides, there's blood on the stairs."