Samantha Moon: First Eight Novels, Plus One Novella (167 page)

That drive hadn’t helped much.

The thinking soon turned to panic, and I didn’t accomplish anything other than nearly killing a half dozen other drivers as I whipped around them recklessly, aiming my screaming minivan to Beverly Hills, and to Allison’s place.

Now she was sitting at a table with a rolled-up napkin in front of her. A rolled-up napkin with bloodstains. Allison looked sick. She should have looked sick. There was, after all, a severed finger in front of her.

“This can’t be happening, Sam.”

I was pacing in front of her. I was alternately wringing my hands and shaking them, trying to come to terms with the fact that a rogue vampire possessed by a hellish demon currently had my sister...and Danny.

Danny. How the devil had
he
gotten in on this?

I didn’t know, but I had his finger and ring in a rolled-up napkin to prove it. And I’d had Hanner answering my sister’s cell phone to prove she had Mary Lou, too.

“Yes,” I said to Allison, who had, undoubtedly, been following my hectic train of thought. “This is happening.”

“
But I don’t understand, Sam. Why drag you out to...where is it? I’m seeing a tunnel system in your thoughts?”

“
It’s a cavern,” I said, “beneath the Los Angeles River.”

“
Where’s that?”

“
Not far from here,” I said. I had to Google Map it, too, being an Orange County girl myself. “It flows between Griffith Park and Glendale.”

“
You mean that big ditch.”

“
That big ditch was once a natural river, and had only within the past seventy-five years been controlled and cemented.”

“
And did you say
beneath
the river?”

“
Yes.”

“
What, exactly, is beneath the river?”

“
An old cave network and something that, I think, is a cavern, from the way Hanner described it.”

“
A cavern? Under the river?”

“
Under it or close to it, which is why I need you now.”

Allison, who was tuned into my mind and following my thoughts almost as fast as I could think them, said, “Oh, gross.”

“It’s the only way, Allison. I can’t lock onto my sister or Fang or even Danny. And even if I could, my range only goes so far.”

Her range was, of course, potentially global. In fact, there didn’t seem to be any limit to Allison’s ability to see distantly. Remote viewing, as it was called in psychic circles.

Earlier, after getting directions to the underground caverns beneath the Los Angeles River, I’d dashed back in the house, where I had found the newlyweds sitting and standing in the same position I had left them in, and snatched the finger and the napkin.

Now, it was sitting in front of Allison, who’d been staring down at it for the past ten minutes.

“Please, Allison. I need your help.”

The color had drained from her face instantly when she’s caught on what was inside the napkin. She’d been pale ever since. I was fairly certain she’d yet to look away from the wrapped package sitting before her. Finally, she nodded. “He went through a lot of pain, Sam.”

“I can imagine.”

“
But...” she trailed off, but I caught her psychic hit just as it occurred to her.

“
Jesus,” I said.

“
Yes, Sam. He’s involved with this somehow. Entangled. Not completely innocent.”

I shook my head and swore and cursed my ex-husband all over again. My stupid, stupid ex-husband. So stupid that he had lost a finger.

“He was trying to exact revenge,” said Allison.

“
Did you just say
exact revenge
?”

“
Yes. I know it sounds cheesy, but that’s the feeling I get. He was trying to get back at you, somehow. To stop you somehow. To control you somehow.”

“
And he teamed up with Hanner.”

“
Or she teamed up with him,” said Allison.

“
He made a deal with the devil,” I said. “Literally.”

Allison nodded and we both looked down at the wrapped finger. Yes, Danny had paid a heavy price for his stupidity—and his hate for me, but I didn’t have time to think about that now. I had to see what I was up against. I had to see—through Allison’s remote viewing—what the hell was going on.

“It’s time, Allison,” I said.

We both knew what that meant. She nodded, then slowly reached forward and began unrolling the greasy napkin. As she did so, she calmly got up, walked over to the nearby bathroom, and wretched for a half minute. She came back, wiping her mouth, gave me a weak smile, and then sat before the still-rolled up napkin.

She undid it completely...and, after taking a deep breath and visibly fighting the rising vomit at the back of her throat, took hold of the severed finger in both her hands.

Chapter Thirty-five

“
I see him,” said Allison.

I saw him, too, but I waited for her to make sense of what she was seeing, for her to focus, to hone in, to get a feel for the place. To, quite literally, slip inside.

More details came through.

In her thoughts, I saw Danny in a chair. No, a desk. Perhaps a high school desk, as he seemed to fit in it well enough. Both arms were lying across the flat surface of the desk. Both arms were secured with duct tape. Both hands hung over the lip of the desk. Blood dripped steadily from the gaping maw where his right pinkie had been. The wound itself looked badly infected...and old. How long Danny had been down there, I didn’t know. I realized I hadn’t heard from him in about a week. Nothing unusual about that. He saw the kids every other week. And sometimes, he even missed those dates. I’d gone as long as two or three weeks without hearing from the sleazy bastard.

Danny looked like hell, and my heart went out to him, despite everything. I forgot that he had turned on me...and that his current situation was, apparently, a direct result of him trying to hurt me.

As I watched him sobbing and shaking, I saw the chains around his bare ankles. The skin was bloody and raw and mostly peeled away. Dried blood pooled around his bare feet. For once, in a long time, the sight of blood did not trigger a hunger in me. The sight of Danny and his wounds, instead, triggered a deep sadness...

And anger.

Although I could see what Allison could see, she got a far better picture than I ever could: “I see a big room. Rock walls. Yes, a cavern. It appears natural, although some of it could have been chiseled. Danny is in the room, crying softly to himself. I can feel his fear, his pain, his self-hatred. He hates that he put himself into this mess, hates you even more for introducing him to this dark world. A part of him, a very small part of him, understands that this wasn’t your fault, that your attack seven years ago was unprovoked, that you, in fact, never asked for this. That small part of him is overshadowed by his fear and hatred for you, Sam. He feels abandoned and humiliated and angry.”

“Is he alone?” I asked.

“
Hold on...”

And now, Allison’s perspective widened further as she searched the room. She might as well have been an actual bat, swooping around the room. Her remote viewing ability was uncanny. Then again, I didn’t know much about any of this. Maybe her abilities were normal for one who allowed a vampire to feed from her. Maybe the newlyweds in Hanner’s home had such abilities, too.

Or not. I knew Allison had started out as psychic, and that my feeding upon her only made her more psychic. And, of course, she had been a witch down through the ages. And so had I.

But not in this life. No. And if my immortality held up, perhaps never again.

As Allison swooped mentally through the room, I followed her thoughts as best as I could, her path, as if I was swooping right there with her. It was thrilling and bizarre, but I didn’t think much of any of that. This was, after all, a recon mission. Meaning, we were here to gather information—anything that would help me save Mary Lou and, yes, Danny, and help get us all out alive.

“
There,” I said. I directed her thoughts toward a dark opening in the far wall.

Allison oriented on that and we swooped down through the cavern and into the opening and into yet another cavern, this one smaller, and this one occupied by more people.

I saw them through Allison’s perception. Unfortunately, this cavern was mostly dark...and Allison could not see through the dark. Or, perhaps, her distance sight could not see through the dark. But there were a few touches on the wall, and enough to see a handful of people I didn’t recognize.

The cavern, I saw, was something out of
The Lost Boys
...filled with old and new furniture, haphazardly arranged, tapestries and paintings on the walls, statues and trinkets. Most of it looked old, and some of it even looked valuable. Mostly, the room looked like a big hangout.

“
It’s a sort of safe house,” said Allison. I knew she could read deeper into what she was seeing than I could; feel deeper, too. “It’s where vampires go when on the run, or when they are new.”

“
A training facility,” I said.

“
Something like that. But it’s also more. There are old vampires who dominate here. Powerful vampires. They kill here, too. They plot and plan and kill and train.”

“
A sort of supernatural headquarters,” I said.

“
Yes,” said Allison faintly. She was scanning the room, searching for what we had yet to find.

“
Can you hear anything?” I asked.

Allison shook her head. “I can only see...and feel.”

“Do you see my sister?”

“
Not yet, Sam.”

I was still seeing what Allison saw, as she swooped through the room. “Can they see you?” I asked.

I sensed Allison almost smile...then again, it was hard to smile when you were holding a severed finger. “No, Sam. They are unaware of our snooping.”

“
You’re a good sidekick to have around,” I said.

“
Partner,” she said.

“
We’ll see,” I said.

“
There!” said Allison suddenly. I saw it, too. Three figures emerged into the room. Detective Hanner, my sister and Fang.

My sister was blindfolded, and plastic ties held her hands together. She was sobbing and stumbling as Hanner pulled her along.

They were met by someone I had seen before.

Someone I had fought before.

Someone—or something—that had nearly killed me, if not for Kingsley’s help.

It was, quite possibly, the oldest vampire in the world. The same vampire who had kidnapped a boy he had thought was my son, a vampire I had fought under the Mission Inn Dome.

It was Dominique.

“
Okay,” I said, reaching out and touching Allison’s arm. “I’ve seen enough.”

Chapter Thirty-six

I was pacing.

The finger was back in the napkin and on ice in Allison’s freezer, although she didn’t seem too thrilled about that.

“
Because there’s a severed finger with my green peas, Sam. You wouldn’t be too thrilled either,” she said defensively.

But I wasn’t paying her much attention. My thoughts were focused on the caverns beneath the Los Angeles River. Most importantly, on how to get my sister and my rat bastard of an ex-husband out alive.

“And Fang,” said Allison suddenly.

I paused and looked at her. “What?”

“It’s there in your thoughts, Sam, although you haven’t acknowledged it. You also want to get Fang out. To save him.”

“
I...” But I didn’t know what to say. So, I closed my mouth.

“
He’s one of them, Sam. A kidnapper and a killer.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, either, except that I didn’t share Allison’s convictions. I knew Fang, perhaps better than anyone. He was not a psychopathic killer.

As I thought those words, I picked up Allison’s thought:
Once a killer, Sam, always a killer.

I shook my head and ran my hands through my hair and thought about what I had to do. They took my sister. They took my ex-husband.
My God, they cut off his finger.
They were going to kill him, I was sure of it. They were going to kill me, too. The evil bitch inside me was getting impatient, growing weary of my resistance. Well, fuck her. And fuck them, too.

Poor Mary Lou. She hadn’t asked for any of this. She had been heading out to get, what, tacos for the family? And that piece of shit Hanner had been waiting for her? Waiting because Sanchez had reported my activities to her. Sanchez was a good cop who had been compelled to do a traitorous thing. My guess was that he wouldn’t remember calling her.