Behind me, the scrabble of bones spun me around. The beam of my flashlight caught the edge of the ram’s skull as it pulled itself onto its three functional legs.
Pointing the beam at the animated skeleton, I swept the area until I found both knives and retrieved them. Not that they’d done me much good. I mean . . . how did you kill something that was both dead and had no proper flesh or muscle?
“Head shots,” I said. “I’ll take your horns and cut off your head if you come any closer.”
The beastly skeleton bobbled to the side and then started off down a dark tunnel, dragging one set of its fingernails along the cement sidewall with a steady scratching, the cloven hooves making a rather fine clopping noise. The leg I’d broken seemed to have fixed itself.
Then it snapped its fingers at me, crooking one of them in the universal come-hither motion. Now it wanted me to follow?
Dripping water, the smell of mold and rot, and my skin was itching with the need to move. It was apparent that the ram wasn’t the least bit concerned whether I would follow.
There was no other way than the tunnel it had gone down. Awesome, just how I’d hoped my night would go.
I started after it, keeping both the light and my knife at eye level. I didn’t like how quiet this was, how . . . seemingly safe. I mean, sure, I was trapped in an underground crypt, but where was the flooding water? The hordes of spiders? Or even a more aggressive skeleton? None of it made sense.
“Where are you leading me?” I called out into the darkness, and the scratching of the fingers on the wall stopped.
I stopped too. I had no wish to snuggle up to some sheepish skeleton dude.
A light bobbed up ahead of me, and I pinned myself to the wall, pulling the shadows around me as I slowed my breathing.
“I know you are here, Shade. I can smell you, and more than that, I can smell the blood on your face.”
Smell.
Vampire or shifter? He’d gone for the blood so . . .
“Vampire,” I called out, “you want to dance?”
“No, I do not. I am far too old to play these games.” The light bobbled closer, and an old man bent at the waist with long white hair and a beard came into view. He didn’t look like much of a threat, but a vampire was a vampire, was a vampire.
“You can get out past me, but you must answer a riddle first. My master Theo has decreed this is the way.” He slowed until he was about fifteen feet away, give or take a few inches.
“A riddle,” I deadpanned.
“That is the cost of escaping this crypt. My master has asked me to protect the secret exit, and while I’m not sure he even remembers putting me down here with my familiar, I am very much still bound by those rules.” He groaned a little as he lowered himself to the ground.
This was ridiculous.
I put my knife away and sprinted past him. I didn’t have time for riddles.
My foot lined up with him, and then I was flat on my face with a hand wrapped tightly around my ankle. “You get one warning,” he said with his raspy voice. “One only, and then I can kill you. Let me tell you, the taste of true blood would be a blessing after all these years alone, feasting on rats.”
Once more, I was sucking wind hard, trying to find my breath. Before I could consider getting to my feet, I was thrown backward down the hall, my flashlight bouncing off the wall and blinking out.
“Are you ready for the riddle?” the vampire asked.
“My friends are in danger. I don’t have time for a riddle!” I yelled at him as I got to my feet. The only pinprick of light was from his lantern, which cast a sickly glow over him and the area closest to his seat.
“Then you must answer quickly. Besides, there is a time limit on the riddle itself. One minute.”
One minute? He had to be kidding.
Sweet baby jeebus, what I wouldn’t give to have Gregory with me right then. Or Orin. They both had a logical side that allowed them to think about things in ways I couldn’t.
“And you’ll let me go. Pass right by when I give you the right answer?”
“Yes, of course. Those are the rules here. Much as I hate them,” he grumbled, fumbling around with his clothing. I blinked at the glimmer of something small and metallic. Like a pen.
What the hell did a vampire need a pen for down in a crypt? Hopefully that wasn’t the riddle, because I had no damn idea.
“What is that?”
He held his light up and clutched at the item. “It’s mine.”
“What is it?” I asked again.
“Mine,” he growled. “Now the riddle.”
Interesting.
The old vampire cleared his throat. “The more you take, the more you leave behind.” He paused and drew a sucking breath through his teeth. “What am I?”
My mind took an immediate left turn and blanked out. The more you take . . . the more you leave?
“How many times can I answer?” I asked.
“As many as you like in the minute,” he said, and then he laughed. “You Shades are not smart enough even for an easy riddle like this one. I am hungry, though, so it will be my pleasure to tell you when you fail.”
Balls, he might be right on the not smart enough to answer this riddle portion. So I just started throwing words out rapid-fire style. “Trees, rocks, time, love, hate, breathing—”
“No to all of them.”
I wracked my brain. “Knowledge. Books.”
“Still no.”
The more you take. I paced the small space.
“You have fifteen seconds left.”
My feet stilled. My feet.
The answer was right there on the tip of my brain. I could feel it. I was not a dumbass like Shaw. I was smarter than the average Shade. I had to be. Steps. I took another one toward him. “Footsteps.”
He sucked in a sharp breath. “Correct. Damn you.”
I shouldn’t have been so damn happy, but I was. I adjusted my bag on my back and broke into a jog. “Adios, mi amigo.”
“I think . . . not. My hunger is too much, and while I will be punished, I cannot let you go.” He lunged for me, but this time I was ready for it. I went straight up, straddling the narrow hall like I’d straddled the bus seats what seemed like a lifetime ago. Two days? Had it only been two days since the Culling Trials had ended?
He slammed into the wall headfirst, and I leaped forward, snatching up his lantern as I went. A part of me wanted to grab for his metal precious, but I left it alone.
A screeching roar echoed through the tunnel, and I sprinted, barely slowing to take the turns that wove me through the underground of the graveyard. Slowly, slowly the tunnel narrowed even as it rose.
Behind me was the clatter of the ram’s feet on the stones and the snarling hiss of what I could only assume was a starving vampire.
I took another turn, crouching for the low ceiling, and hit a dead end. “Are you serious?” I hissed. The wall in front of me was solid stone. I tried to stand, and my head brushed nothing but dirt that rained down around me in a pattering of stones and dust.
I blinked and put a hand over my head, clawing at the dirt. More fell. Everything here was loose.
“Shit.” Up it was then, the only way out.
I put the lantern down, grabbed both knives, and began to dig at the ground above my head. More and more fell, but the sound of my newfound friends was also drawing closer.