We blurred across the open area at a full run, reaching the doors within seconds and putting our backs against the wall. Elyssa pressed slowly down on the outside door handle until it clicked open. It sounded like a cannon shot from where I stood, but the noise from the lively crowds at the bars across the road would hopefully camouflage it. We crept inside. Nightliss trotted between us and into the wide corridor ahead. Wooden pallets with furniture and other odds and ends leaned haphazardly against the walls giving us some cover in case someone came looking for the one with their favorite Snuggie on it.
Nightliss dashed ahead and vanished at the far end of the corridor. I wasn't sure how the little cat would tell us if something dangerous lurked around the next corner since neither of us spoke meowish, so I followed Elyssa's lead and kept low and quiet. We reached the propped-open doors of the next entryway without incident. We peeked around the corner. The first sentry Stacey had marked should be patrolling the nearby vicinity.
The interior of the compound was simple. The building was a large rectangle with a hallway that ran the perimeter on all three upper levels. The basement could be reached via the elevator from the front lobby, by a service elevator in the back hallway, or by the door that was halfway down this hallway on the right. The service elevator would be too noisy, so we needed to reach the basement door.
Nightliss sat and stared at the doorway, the tip of her tail twitching up and down. She looked to us and then waved her paw at the door to the basement and meowed.
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"I have no idea but I don't see any sentries," Elyssa said.
Nightliss hissed as Elyssa started down the hall. I grabbed her arm and brought her back. "Just wait a minute."
As if on cue, the basement door swung open and a vampire dressed in cargo shorts and a kickball T-shirt stomped into the hallway with a half-empty blood bag clenched in his hand. He punched the metal door and left a dent in it. Nightliss dashed between his legs and down the stairs. The vampire didn't seem to notice.
"Freaking assholes, leaving me here to guard," the vampire muttered as he stalked down the hall toward us. "You need to learn how to dress," he said in a whiney voice. "God, I hate Britney. I swear I'm gonna pee in her blood supply."
Elyssa and I crouched behind a pallet and waited until the disgruntled vampire disappeared around the corner at the other end of the hall.
We made our way down to the basement door and stepped onto the stairs. The corridor was so dark I could hardly see anything. I groped for Elyssa's arm and hit something a bit softer.
"What are you doing?" she whispered.
"I can't see."
"Are you kidding me? Adjust your eyes."
"My night vision kind of sucks." I hoped that whatever night vision had tried to turn on the night the moggy attacked me would work automatically because I didn't know how to manually turn it on.
She sighed. "You are such a newb." She grabbed my hand and led me down the stairs. It almost felt like old times.
We reached the bottom of the spiral staircase nearly two-hundred stairs later and peeked into the well-lit basement. Huge chandeliers hung grandly down the center of the ceiling with a disco ball hanging awkwardly from the bottom of the middle light fixture. Marble columns ran up the two-story walls and arched across the dome-like roof. Bunk beds and cots lined the sides in neat rows with a walkway splitting the cavernous room in half. It looked like a giant army barracks. Some areas had cubicle partitions, probably for privacy or silence.
Several leather sofas surrounded a huge plasma television screen at one end of the chamber. An Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and all the accoutrements for Guitar Hero were neatly tucked away on a svelte glass entertainment center. It was awesome. A girl who I recognized immediately as the geek chick was competing in a Dance Central dance-off versus two guys. Body Movin' from the Beastie Boys boomed from the huge sound system.
Vampires really know how to have a good time.
Elyssa caught me staring longingly at the entertainment center and pulled me down into a crouch just in time to hide from two more male vampires as they rounded a corner and walked past, animatedly discussing how to beat some game which involved catapulting birds at pigs.
We stayed low and dashed across the open space to the left side of the basement where a long cubicle-style divider hid a mess of electrical cords. Behind the divider and a few feet down was the door Nightliss had meowed about to Stacey. The little black cat looked at me with wide green eyes and extended a paw toward the door.
"I never realized cats were so smart," I said in a low whisper.
Elyssa ignored me and pulled out a penlight so she could study the arched doorway. The door was solid hardwood with hefty metal hinges. The lock looked old-fashioned—something a skeleton key might open. I felt incredibly relieved. Then I noticed two metal plates at the top and bottom of the door jamb. A conduit ran from the plates, along the gray marble wall, and up to the ceiling. I stifled a groan as my relief turned into a pang of worry.
"Magnetic," I whispered.
Elyssa nodded and studied the keypad to the left. She gave me a pointed look.
I pulled out the chalk, trying to keep the tremors from my hands. Everything hinged on me being able to hex this thing. I drew a circle around me and willed it shut by pressing my thumb against it. The air crackled, indicating I'd at least done that part right. I waited. After a few heart-pounding seconds, the pressure in my ears built to a point where I knew there had to be enough magic around me to do the job.
Staring at the keypad, I willed it to malfunction. Nothing happened.
"Fizzle," I said. Nothing again. "Poof." Still nothing.
Elyssa gave an exasperated sigh and examined the sturdy metal conduit. She pulled out a knife and pried at it.
I imagined all sorts of terrible things happening to that blasted keypad without anything actually happening. My hair felt like it was standing on end, probably from the magical energy hanging uselessly around me. Elyssa peeled the metal conduit away and stared at the thick wires inside it. I gave up my attempts and scrubbed out the chalk circle, giving the keypad one last dirty look and flipping it a bird.
"Just die already," I hissed through clenched teeth.
A thick blue bolt lanced from my middle finger and into the keypad. The keypad sparked and smoked. The magnetic latch went dead and the door click open a fraction, held in place by the old original latch. That would have been great except the electricity springing from my middle finger arced into one of the power strips on the floor. Loud pops and sizzles echoed across the room. The sound system boomed one last time and went silent. Light bulbs in the chandeliers exploded. Vampires yelped in surprise. The basement went black.
Chapter 33
My eyes automatically went into night mode this time, which was good because several angry vampires were shouting about how their perfect game of Dance Central had just been wrecked by whatever nitwit had overloaded the power breaker with their hairdryer again. I'd expected my night vision to be green like the goggles used by the military. Instead, everything had a bluish quality to it.
Elyssa whispered a string of curses and grabbed my hand. Nightliss scooted down the spiral staircase ahead of us. I was just swinging the door shut behind us when a hissing and spitting Nightliss dashed back up the staircase and scuttled through the closing door.
I flashed a confused look at Elyssa. "I wonder what got into her."
"Can you see?" she asked, her irises emitting a violet glow.
"Yes. Are my eyes glowing too?"
She rolled her glowing eyes. "Yes."
"Awesome."
"Will you take this seriously?"
"This is my way of trying not to crap my pants," I said. "I'm scared out of my wits."
She took my hand in both of hers and squeezed. "Everything will be okay."
I covered her hand with mine. For a moment, the world seemed to slow. My nerves calmed and it seemed like we might actually pull this thing off. I raised her hand to my lips and kissed it.
"Thanks."
She opened her mouth to say something then gave the door a startled look. "I think they're coming this way."
We jogged down the stairs. The rancid odor of rotting meat drifted into my nostrils. I hadn't noticed it right at first due to being scared out of my wits and all, but my nose notified me in no uncertain terms that something stank. Big time. I gagged.
"Good lord. You think they're putting dead bodies down here?" I shuddered. "I thought vampires didn't want to kill people." At least I knew why Nightliss hadn't stuck around. My upgraded senses added an extra dimension to the stink I really didn't appreciate. Especially since I'd heard all odors are particulate.
Elyssa whipped out a couple of bandanas and handed one to me so I could cover my nose. Women always seem to have the answers to life's little inconveniences hidden in their purses, or in this case, utility belt.
There was a faint scraping noise from below. Elyssa slowed and I followed her lead. We reached the bottom and peered through the arched door frame. The ceiling in the crypt was about ten to fifteen feet high. Marble coffins and niches lined the length of the corridor. The floor was rock in some places and dirt in others. The bandanas covered up the worst of the wretched smell but only barely.
I had hoped to find a simple room with my dad in it. From the look of things, this crypt wasn't going to make it easy. I had flashbacks to Indiana Jones and imagined finding cobweb covered skeletons and a huge rolling boulder trap. I would have gladly traded the foul odor for a boulder trap any day. Elyssa edged forward and went left to the end of the corridor. I followed and peeked around the corner. Several more coffin-lined corridors led off of the next one.
She grunted. "This place is a maze."
More scraping noises echoed off the walls but it was hard to tell where the sound was coming from. "Is that my dad?" I asked her.
"I don't know." Her forehead creased with worry. "Come on."
We went a few more steps. The odor seeped through the bandanas in a nauseating wave. I expected to find a pile of rotting victims at any moment. We wended our way through the maze of corridors and finally reached what seemed to be the center. The rocky walls retreated several feet to either side of a squat marble tomb in the middle. Further back, a light shined from within a stone building.
