Lana turned and shrugged. “It’s a trap. We know.”
“And you’re going in anyway? Are you all as crazy as Bennett?”
“Sometimes you need to spring the trap to root it out. Calloway might be in there, or maybe not. But we need to root out those that would follow in his plan.”
Voice heavy, Vann added, “And any that would stand with Tromos, should we fail to end him.”
Adair nodded and backed into the shadows. She dropped to the bench and waited for the troops to invade. They were a force. Slicing, shredding, they moved through the vampires as they raided the house, cleaning up Calloway’s mess. And, like Bennett, they didn’t hinge their decisions on whether or not they succeeded. Failure wasn’t an option. How different from a vampire, that would sooner run and hide than risk their immortality.
Watching, she waited. Not patiently, just waited. Her knee rattled, her jaw clenched, and she knew she dug the notch between her eyebrows deeper. And the last film of raw daylight finally faded.
As evening took over, she rose from the bow. The hunters had busted in like a SWAT team, the scent of vampire blood heavy on the air. Trap or not, the hunters didn’t seem slowed by the numbers and shadows set starkly against them, thus proving again that vampire immortality didn’t extend past a run-in with demon hunters, no matter their skill or the foolproofness of their plan.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a familiar face sticking to the shadows and ducking into the boathouse. Smirking, Adair moved into the dusky light, strolling confidently like a hunter on the prowl, hair from her lava-red wig sticking out from her hood, presumably Quinn to maintain her apparent hostage status. She had another two hours until Blayk’s daily check in.
Startling as she wiggled the rusted key to unlock the boathouse, the vampire about leaped out of her wedge sandals as she scented Adair approaching. The woman from the club. Still slutty, still reeking of Calloway, Milan’s sneer turned into a playful grin. As if that covered her fear. Pulse pounding through her carotids, breath coming fast, she placed her hands on her hips and leaned against the wall casually. “Look what the cat dragged in. Regretting which side you chose?”
Kicking down the boathouse door, Adair shoved the other woman inside. Milan stumbled over her impractical heels. “Pardon?”
Flipping her beachy-curled hair out of her face as she rose back to her mile-high heels and adjusted her matching red leather purse, the vampire was… annoying. “Outnumbered. Outmatched. When Tromos awakens, do you really want to be flattened under his boot?”
“Okay, we can play this game. Or you can save us both the time and point me to Calloway. As you’re clearly either on your way to join him, or running to save your own skin.” Adair looked her up and down. “Judging by the outfit, I’d say the latter.”
“You can’t have him back.”
Stepping up, Adair stood disgustingly close to the annoying bitch. A solid four inches shorter, the woman glared up.
Adair leaned down to whisper, her mouth a breath away. “Calloway will drop you as fast as he did Sonra, and you know what happened to her.”
Eyes darting side to side, the slut muttered, “At least he’ll avenge me like he did her.”
“Call it what you like. It makes him feel bigger to pretend he does any of this out of love. For Sonra, for me. But Calloway doesn’t understand the concept. When he rules this realm, do you really think he’ll pickyouto stand by his side? The coward that hid from the fight, waiting for him to claim you once it was safe for your little preciousness to come out to play?” Doubt radiating off the poor thing, Adair pushed on, “Tell me, in the last few hundred years, has he figured out how to make a woman feel respected? Or to send you straight to heaven with his touch? Or does he still hold his sexist beliefs and think women should leave the toilet seat up?”
Milan’s gaze dropped, her jaw pushing forward as she doubted.
“I mean, seriously. Can’t we all just close the toilet seat lid out of respect for each other? No one wants to see inside the toilet when brushing their teeth.”
Honey eyes rising and suddenly watery clear, Milan growled, “I know what you’re trying to do. It won’t work.”
“If you think our plan revolved around you giving up Calloway’s location, you’re a bigger fool than I thought. But as I have found you running away with your tail between your legs, I thought it worth asking. I will find him and I will finish him, as I should have done centuries ago. Right now, the man I love is fighting forallof us. But I won’t stand by and watch him risk himself alone. Last chance. Tell me where Calloway is, or I’ll see if you can survive a knife to the jugular like he did.”
Speech rapid as she scooted away, she squealed and pulled her purse tighter against her. “Calloway trusts me alone with his secrets. He’s been studying the entrance for years; he has every turn inside the labyrinth memorized. He will wait until Bennett is at death’s door and sweep in from behind. The final challenge isn’t meant to be won, only to awaken. And when Calloway meets Tromos, he will guide him to the surface where they will set fire to this earth.”
Urgency building, imagining Bennett already struggling, fighting a fight he wouldn’t win, Adair slammed her fist into Milan’s smug face and grabbed her purse as she hit the ground.
***
Teetering on the ledge, his shoulders aching as he strained to hang on, Bennett’s vision came into focus in the midnight blackness of the cave. Gripping his fingertips into the slick granite, he heaved himself up and over the edge, collapsing flat on his back. Letting out a groan, he rubbed his hands over his face. Gauntlet was right. What kind of monster built this absurdity?
After the first pit he’d fallen into, he’d crawled back far enough to holler to Ryan to bring more rope for a fun day of fricking spelunking. He’d tried to clear the path however he could for the team to follow.
Moving through the cavern, an amber glow like waning streetlights lit the way, as the darkness had otherwise become so thick that not even a vampire would have been able to make out the path.
The ledge narrowed to no thicker than a thumb. Pinning himself to the wall, he edged along the flimsy outcrop, one slip away from an infinite fall.
A whiff of rotting vampire struck him as the wind coursed through the pit. Okay, not infinite. And he wasn’t the first one in here. Calloway must have convinced a few idiots to try the fool’s errand before realizing he needed a… whatever Bennett was.
At long fucking last, he felt an opening in the wall and hooked into an arched hallway. The ground steady for a moment, he stretched his neck and took a swig of blood from his water bottle. After a few hundred meters, the path widened and he entered another poorly lit, echoing, ominous cavern, this one offering a new challenge.
