Drew approaches one and bends to pull the rusted metal door up. Several jumpsuit-clad slaves get on without a word, but I hesitate. Drew smiles at me, prompting a soft warmth to spread through my cheeks, and offers an encouraging nod. As I did with the front door of the boardinghouse, I move without letting myself reconsider. But I step lightly and hold my breath, as if this will lessen the weight I’m adding.
While even more workers pile in, Drew shifts around me, brushing my skin again, and the muscles in his arms flex as he pulls the door down. reaching forward to press a button. And then we’re moving, down, down, down into the earth’s belly. All the busy sounds coming from the machine room fade away. The cage shakes and rattles. After one particularly alarming shudder, I gasp and grab for Drew. My fingers wrap around his arm in a death grip, and he grunts in pain.
“Shit, sorry,” I mutter, letting him go. Stupid vampire strength.
He glances down at me and shakes his head. “Don’t apologize. You’re just… a bit stronger than me. It’s okay,” he assures me. I force myself to stand still as the elevator continues on. Gears moan and grind all around. Someone coughs into the stillness.
Then everything stops. Silence falls upon us like a layer of dust.
“Are you ready?” Drew whispers yet again, nudging me with a narrow hip. Never has someone touched me so casually. Not even Gabriela, who was the mother of my soul.
Just behind us, I hear Nina’s teeth grind together.
Her mounting agitation is nothing compared to my own. I remind myself that I looked directly at the King of New Ve with bright, lavender eyes—this should be nothing compared to the terror of that moment. My hand itches to reach for the sword, but no one else has. I bite my lip almost to the point of drawing blood. “Ready,” I say again. I see Drew’s amused smile in my peripheral vision, but I don’t look at him.
Another worker, burly in stature, his hair shaved down to stubble, steps forward and pulls the door up.
It slides open with a mournful screech.
Lightbulbs gleam on both sides of the tunnel. One gives an ominous flicker.
The end of it—if there is one—is swallowed by darkness, even to my Lavender eyes. The silence seems to be a presence all its own. I remain frozen while the other workers in the elevator shuffle off without hesitation, their pulses steady and even. Everything about the humans’ behavior says they’ve done this hundreds of times before. Their lack of fear comforts me.
“Hey, new girl!” Nina calls from up ahead. I turn toward her and she points at a human hovering nearby. “Didn’t you hear Bill’s assignments? You’re with Lucas—he’s got the walkie talkie. Take the south tunnel and clear it out. Drew will stay close in case you run into any issues, and we’ll all meet up at the next crosspost.”
Drew nudges me with his elbow and I look at him. “It’s going to be fine, Charlie. Remember, you’re a badass vampire!”
He wastes no more time coddling me and jogs over to his own partner, a girl sporting a shaved head and tattoo sleeves on both arms. When our gazes meet, she gives me a chin-up gesture, then turns away before I can reciprocate. Drew slings his arm around her shoulders, which she immediately shoves off, and the two of them head into the darkness.
Chewing the inside of my cheek, I glance at the boy coming toward me. He looks around my age—maybe a bit younger—and not too thrilled to be stuck with the new girl. Once he’s close enough, I try to give him a friendly smile. “Hi. I’m Charlie,” I say.
“Lucas,” he says back with a smile that seems equally forced. His dishwater blond hair is tousled, as if he just rolled out of bed, and his round cheeks are flushed with color. A human, through and through.
“Are you new, too?” I ask as we walk along the empty ramp. I hear the faint sound of trickling water, echoing from farther ahead.
The boy shrugs. There’s a sword against his spine, like all the others, but he’s holding something else in his hands. A tool, of sorts, which ends in a triangular shape with several long teeth. “I guess,” he answers. “I’ve been working this sector a little over a month.”
“Why were you assigned here?” I ask without thinking. Lucas stops walking, staring at me, and I immediately wish I could take it back. The last thing I want is to make an enemy in these tunnels. “Shit, I’m sorry. That’s not okay to ask, is it? Please forget I said anything.”
After a moment, the boy’s gaze drops to the dirty, damp metal under our feet. “It’s fine,” he mutters. “My family lived outside. Beyond the walls. We were found by one of the king’s supply runners, who killed my dad on the spot, and he brought us back here. Sold all of us at the Sunday auction. I haven’t seen my little sister since the vampire who bought her took Lizzie away.”
Remorse fills my throat, making it impossible to speak. Not for the first time, I wonder if I could have done more as a royal vampire. Could I have used my influence on the king to make life more bearable for the slaves living beneath his thumb?
Eventually I say, my voice sad and quiet, “I’m sorry you had to go through all of that. I can’t imagine how horrible it must’ve been.”
Lucas blinks at me. “You actually mean that, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” I say with a short laugh. “I guess so.”
He scratches the back of his neck. “Okay. Well, thanks.”
“Hey, there should be some perks to getting stuck with the Lavender,” I say suddenly, hoping to ease the tension between us. As we walk deeper underground, my mind fills with the memory of a new slave that once arrived at the mansion. She, too, had been from beyond the wall, and living as such had meant she knew almost nothing about my kind besides rumors and folklore. I’m not sure it would’ve helped her, anyway, once she caught Henry’s eye. I found her body in my garden just a few days afterwards. “Is there anything you’d like to know about… about vampires?”
Lucas is silent for a moment. But he’s a human, and they’re more curious than any other species I’ve met. In less than a minute he blurts, “Is it true that wooden stakes don’t work?”
I smile at his wide eyes. “Yes, that one is true. Holy water and garlic don’t phase us, either. But we’re highly photosensitive—our skin blisters within minutes of sunlight touching it. We also dislike salt, since it causes a rash if we’re exposed to enough of it. Makes swimming in the ocean just a little unpleasant.” I pause to think, pursing my lips. “Oh, even though we have venom, vampirism cannot be contracted. All you’ll catch from a vampire bite—although it’s really rare to catch anything—is Rabies or HIV. Another fun fact, I guess, is that we can’t digest meat.”
“You can’t digest meat?” the boy repeats, a note of incredulity in his voice. I just shrug, not sure what to say. But Lucas is warming to the subject now, and in the next breath he asks, “How do you become a vampire? If you’re not born as one?”
My nose wrinkles. “Oh. Turning. It’s a gross process… not to mention dangerous. The vampire must allow the other to drain most of their blood, and it’s difficult for anyone to stop drinking from a vampire, considering how addictive it is. For humans, I mean. If a vampire drinks too much blood from our own kind, we go insane.”