DraculaVille - New York - Book One (25 page)

“What’s going on?” Talia clung to Drake. She had to shout over the cacophony of screams and the stampede from the assembled flock.

“There’s fighting. Vampires attacking vampires. They’re coming this way,” Drake said. He searched the shadows at the edges of the massive cavern. “It has to be Carlotta.”

“We have to get out of here.” She clutched his arms. A tiny flare of hope surged in her chest.

“Where?”

Ella stood facing the mayhem, mouth gaping. Talia broke from Drake and grabbed her shoulders. “Ella, we’re being attacked. How do we get out of here?”

“I don’t, I can’t…” Her gaze flew to Maron.

“Please, help us Ella. You’re my
Servator
. You must help me protect my love so we can be joined.” She tugged on the woman’s sleeve. “Please, it’s your duty.”

The young vampire blinked several times, hesitating. Fresh screams rent the air, and she took a couple steps backward. “Okay, okay. Follow me. I know the entrance to a passage that leads down to the next level.” She turned to the rear of the dais and ran down stairs to a rocky ledge along the cavern wall.

“Come on,” Talia said, pulling Drake by the hand.

She ran across the uneven stone path, wobbling on her tall heels. Drake kept a hand under her elbow and steadied her. Ella ran a hand along the rocky wall as she headed to the left. She stopped after about fifty feet and stomped a foot on the ground. A thudding echo resounded.

“This is it.” She bent and grabbed an iron ring embedded in a heavy wooden square and leaned back. A trap door in the ground opened, and a dim glow peeked out of the opening. “Come on. Follow me.”

Talia climbed down steps carved into the rock. Drake lowered the door once they were through.

They hurried along a passageway until they came to the round area with the vampire elder’s door in the far wall. The vampire guard was missing, but Gosen’s key hung on the hook beside the door.

“The guards must have gone to help with the fighting.” Talia went to the door. “We have to set him free.”

“What are you talking about?” Ella asked, glancing between them. “Who?”

“You elder, Gosen. Maron has him chained up in here.” She pointed to the door.

The female vampire staggered back. “No. Our elder? He should be treated with the utmost respect. That’s impossible.”

“That may be what you were told, but the truth is, Maron has had him chained in there for the past seven years.”

Ella gazed at the door, shaking her head back and forth. “No. No. No. That’s too horrible to believe. Elders are sacred.”

“Well, Maron obviously doesn’t believe that.” Talia strode to the hook, removed the key and shoved it into the door lock.

The aperture creaked open and they rushed inside. Drake slammed the door behind them.

“Gosen?” Talia took a few steps into the shadowy room. A bed of dying embers in the stone fireplace coated the room in flickering red mixed with the yellow glow from a couple oil lanterns. Her gaze could barely penetrate the darkness in distant corners. “Elder Gosen?”

A clang of chains indicated his presence, in the seating area. He appeared, trailing his chain after him. His vampire eyes burned a hot amber, questioning their intrusion.

“Who is it and what do you want?”

“It’s us, Talia and Drake.”

His brow smoothed as he came into the lantern light at a work table. “Ah, Talia my dear. I would have thought you would be quite dead by now.” He chuckled. He’d changed out of his dapper suit into dark red and black robes that swished on the stone floor. He looked more like a vampire now.

“Not quite.” She grinned. “We came to set you free.”

A range of emotions swept over his face. “I am most pleased, of course. Who is this lovely vampire accompanying you?” His gaze swept over her bridesmaid.

Ella’s hands fluttered as she grasped them in front of her.

“This is Ella. She was
Servator
at the ceremony, but someone attacked the flock so she helped us escape.” She rested a hand on the woman’s shoulder.

Gosen strode to the pretty vampire female and gazed at her. He touched his fingertips to her lips. “Such a lovely girl. I haven’t seen a female in…years.”

Ella sucked in a breath. Her eyes focused solely on the elder. “Elder Gosen,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry you’ve been dishonored in this horrible manner.”

“How do we free you?” Talia asked, breaking into their intense regard. Geeze, was this
armantor
at first sight or something? “Hurry. We don’t have much time. Remember, there’s a huge fight upstairs. Maron will want us dead if he finds us.”

“That key.” Gosen backed from Ella. He pointed to the skeleton key in Talia’s hand. “It’s the one that unlocks the metal band around my ankle as well as the door.”

Talia knelt down and lifted the hem of Gosen’s robe. An iron shackle encircled his right ankle with a protruding lock. She inserted the key and turned it to the right until it clicked and the clasp fell open. She looked up. Gosen’s eyes burned with a strange fire, and one side of his lips quirked upward in a scary half-smile.

“Thank you,” he murmured. “I owe you a great debt for freeing me. And vampires never forget a debt.”

Ella grabbed his arm. “I can’t believe Maron had you chained here. Is that true? Or was it someone else?”

“Yes. It’s very true, my dear.” Gosen trailed a finger down her cheek. “You are so innocent. Maron hid the truth from the flock so he could maintain control.”

“Binding an elder is so, so, unforgivable. I can’t stand the thought of what has been done.” Ella slapped her hands to her cheeks. “Please let me help you, Elder Gosen. I’ll do whatever you need.” She took his hand in hers and raised it to her mouth, pressing a fervent kiss to his knuckles.

“We must travel outside the area of Maron’s control and find another flock,” Gosen said as he strode across the room and stuffed scrolls and two books in a canvas bag. “I must preserve these items at all cost. They are the last of their kind.”

“I’ll help.” Ella rushed to his side.

“Now we must hurry. Maron will come here as soon as he is able. He will want to make sure I am still secure. Without me to validate the flock, he would lose his power.” He handed the young vampire another bag and four more of the crumbly leather bound tomes. He handed a lantern to Drake and kept one for himself. “Where we are going, the paths are not lit. You must be very careful.”

Talia shared a worried glance with Drake. She followed Gosen through the door. The elder turned left, hurrying down a side tunnel carved from solid rock.

Above, echoes of screams and thuds descended into the lower level. She let out a deep breath. The fight in the great hall continued. She hoped it kept Maron and his goons busy so they had time to escape.

She held Drake’s hand and squinted through the dimly lit passage where light bulbs dangled from the ceiling every fifty feet or so. Without the lanterns, they would pass through patches of blackness, making the uneven ground more treacherous. Gosen and Ella led, grasping their precious bags like they contained gold.

“This is creepy,” Talia whispered to Drake.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.” He squeezed her hand.

“Do you think we’re going to get out of this mess?”

He pressed his lips together and gave her a sideways look. “Yes.”

She couldn’t tell if he really believed that or if he said it to keep her going. It didn’t matter in the end, but it was nice to hear, even if he lied.

She couldn’t tell how long they traveled. Judging the distance was difficult in the dark. She glanced at her watch. Four a.m. Damn. Soon her vampire companions would have to sleep. Did they have time to escape Maron’s maze and reach safety?

The elder stopped and glanced over his shoulder. “We can go up to the basement level here.” He pointed to a dead end ahead. Metal steps attached to the rock wall led upward.

Drake raised his lantern. A dark square opening topped the stairs. Talia shivered. She hated the dark, especially going into a strange area where anything could pop out at her. Like an angry vampire, for instance.

Gosen climbed first and then Ella. Drake nodded for Talia to precede him. She gripped the stairway’s cold rail and hitched up her long dress. She wished she could escape dressed as something other than Morticia, dragging her long black train behind her. But given her present company, it seemed appropriate in a bizarre sort of way.

Cool air fanned her cheeks as she reached the top of the steps. Dim structures loomed in the darkness of what appeared to be a long forgotten basement storage area. Crates made of wood gone gray were stacked beside the opening. Tiny glowing eyes peered at her for a second then disappeared as the creature scurried into a crack in the wood.

Drake came through the opening and held high his lantern. “What is this place?”

The elder scanned the darkness. “The cellar of an old department store. It was closed off when they built a new store on top of the foundation. There’s an entrance to the street nearby, but we have to go through a couple more basements to reach it.”

“I’ve never been here before,” Ella said in a low voice. Her amber eyes glowed against her pale skin in the yellow flare of Gosen’s lantern. “How do you know about this place?”

“I know many places beneath the streets. Vampires have lived here for as long as the city has existed. Our kind thrives in dark forgotten places.” His gaze held a faraway look, and his lips curved in the hint of a smile.

“Can they find us here?” Drake asked.

“Maron knows these paths, if that is what you ask,” the elder said, frowning. “Many of his people may, as well.”

“We need to hurry then.” Drake motioned for Gosen to lead.

His pace slowed as he led them among scattered debris on the pitted wooden floor. Old mannequin faces stared at her with dead eyes from various angles. Skeletal shapes of clothing racks poked boney protrusions at her. Squeaks and rustling whispered around her, and she draped her long train over one arm. She didn’t need a nasty rat crawling up her dress.

Talia’s stiletto heel sank into a rotten hole. Drake supported her until she pulled free. “Damn it. I can’t believe I’m ruining another pair of nine hundred dollar shoes.”

He chuckled. “I should think the fear of dying would take your mind off of that.”

She snorted. “Thanks for reminding me.”

“This way,” Gosen hissed. He pushed aside a massive wooden crate with one hand like it was cardboard and revealed an iron studded door.

“Help me,” he said to Drake, handing his lantern and book bag to Ella.

Drake gave Talia his lantern. The two men positioned themselves on either side of a rusted wheel at the center of the door, and gripped its outer ring. They strained and grimaced in an effort to spin it. At first, it didn’t budge. After a grating creak, it inched around then broke free of its rusty prison of age. After several rotations, a loud shriek of metal hinges announced the door’s movement.

The elder pushed and Drake pulled until they created an opening large enough to pass through. Drake entered the unknown after the other two vampires and held his lantern before him. He reached back for Talia’s hand and pulled her along.

“Where are we now?” she asked, straining to discern shapes in the darkness.

Gosen headed across the floor, kicking dust-caked metal pans out of his path. “This building was once a bakery. Now, it’s a new store, and this basement is forgotten. I believe it was a tattoo parlor at the time I was locked away.”

The dust cloud he created stung Talia’s nostrils. She sneezed and fanned the air in front of her. Apparently dust didn’t bother vampires. Jerks.

“Shhh, listen.” Ella hand up a hand.

She couldn’t hear anything except the pitter patter of rat feet. She scanned the floor, but the scurrying sounds clung to distant shadowy edges.

“What do you think?” Drake asked Gosen.

“They’re coming.” The older vampire stared into the darkness behind them. “Quickly, help me move this rack.”

Talia’s heart thumped. Icy fear gripped her spine. There would be no lovely
armantor
ceremony this time. The elder might survive because Maron needed him. But the rest of them would go down in the fiery rage of Maron’s fury.

“Hurry.” She wrung her hands as Drake and Gosen hauled on tall, heavy shelves set against a brick wall.

“Push it over,” Drake yelled. “Talia and Ella, get out of the way.”

The two women rushed to the side with the lanterns and bags. The men strained their muscles, finally toppling the massive oak baker’s rack to the floor. It crashed with a deafening splinter of wood and clatter of pans.

Gosen grabbed the metal ring in the door and pulled. He heaved with all his might. Drake joined him. The door released with a loud crack, and the two vampires stumbled backward.

“Come on, though here,” the elder yelled, taking a lantern and one of the bags from Ella.

“They’re getting closer.” The young vampire’s voice trembled.

Shouts and running feet slapped the wooden floor of the old department store cellar. Her hand shook as she grabbed Drake’s. “Hurry, they’re almost on us.”

Streetlights flickered through the grime of high basement windows in cinderblock walls. Only an old pile of coal in one corner, gray with dust and dirt, occupied the otherwise bare space.

The door to this room appeared modern. Gosen pulled a cinderblock loose on one side of the door. He stuck his hand in the gaping hole. He fumbled for a second then he produced a key. He inserted it in the lock, and this door opened easily.

The next basement had clean, neat piles of plastic totes stacked against one wall and some old exercise equipment, treadmills, stationary bikes and steppers stored under clear plastic sheets. Gosen flipped a light switch beside the exit door, and bluish-green florescent light bathed the room.

“Where does this door lead?” Drake asked as the elder tugged on the aluminum handle.

“To an apartment building laundry room. We can go up the elevator and reach the street from there.” He grimaced. “This door is supposed to be unlocked.”

“We’re stuck?” Talia planted her hands on her hips. The tingling adrenalin coursing her body sank like a rock to the pit of her stomach.