I frowned at that transition, then looked ahead when a deep, echo-y clank rumbled around us.Jared had turned the handle on a heavy-looking door and pulled it open.He and Nora entered.Christian and I followed and—
My brain stuttered as it processed the gaping chamber in front of us.
The space was amassive, hollowed-out cylinder of reinforced steel and concrete.Curved walls rose high above us and plunged down into the shadows below.Our metal platform extended out over that void, and I felt off-balance as every sound—the scrape of footsteps, the creak of the opening door, a metallic clang that might have come from the ancient ventilation system—bounced back at us in distorted echoes.
“This is a missile silo.”
I didn’t realize I said those words out loud until Nora and Jared both looked back at me.
“Yes,” Nora said, sounding as if she was explaining something simple to a child.“That’s why the vampires built their compound here.”
I ignored the lofty arch to her eyebrows.“Yeah.I just thought that…” Actually, I’d never really thought about all the stone and rock that surrounded us in the compound.Every time I’d ended up down there, my focus had been on other things.Things like surviving.“Never mind.I just didn’t know what a missile silo looked like.”
“Typically,” Jared said, “there is enough room for a missile.”
Christian snorted beside me.
Had Jared just made a joke?I wasn’t sure but I narrowed my eyes on him anyway.Then I channeled my inner robot and, in an excellent impersonation of both Jared and a concrete pillar, I said, “Noted.”
Christian outright laughed this time.A small grin erased Nora’s condescension.And was that a hint of annoyance in Jared’s eyes?I decided the answer was yes and counted that as a win for me.
Jared continued on, following the catwalk along the wall.We were about midway down in the silo—or up, depending on your perspective.Christian turned off the light on his phone.We could see now thanks to the soft glow of small, rectangular panels attached at intervals to the walls.
“Why build the tunnels and chambers when you have this?”I asked.Dynamiting through earth and stone was a hell of a lot more difficult than building rooms into an empty space.
“Vampires did not trust the silo would remain forgotten by humans,” Jared said.“Arcuro ordered the compound built.He used it as a way to punish individuals who disappointed him.”
Disappointed him.Yeah, it had never been a good idea to get on Arcuro’s bad side.
The catwalk ended at another heavy metal door.Jared opened it with all the strength it would take to move a cardboard box, and we entered another corridor.Unlike the previous one, the glow from the wall lights pushed away the darkness.It also looked more silo-like with a tiled, once-white floor, gray walls, and thick power conduits which snaked along the ceiling.
We passed through one more door before we reached our destination, a large room that had most likely been an office or command center.Now it looked like some weird personal museum.
I didn’t know what to make of it.Didn’t know what to make ofJared.Most of the room’s consoles and equipment had been stripped away, leaving behind gouges in the laminate floor and holes with hopefully not live wires in the wall.The only relic that remained was a set of off-center computer monitors.They were on, rotating through grainy views of the land above us.The decoy house was difficult to make out, and it looked much farther away than I’d expected.
My attention didn’t linger on the monitors.Jared had far more interesting things displayed on an eclectic collection of surfaces.Like the square side table that held a small metal device screwed into a block of wood—a telegraph machine maybe—and an extremely old typewriter perched in the center of a bar-height table.
My gaze swept across other items—a huge, antique radio, a record player with a massive and slightly dented horn, an old rifle with wood worn smooth from actual use.
“You fight in the Civil War?”I joked.It was a legit question though.The rifle was old enough.Jaredwas old enough.
“In a way,” he replied.He motioned to a couch clustered with a pair of leather chairs.“Sit.”
No one moved.We were still taking in the room, even Nora.When I caught her gaze and raised my eyebrows, she responded with a very human shrug.
“I’m as surprised as you are.”
She moved toward the sitting area first.I followed, sidestepping a metal ladder that was bolted to the floor.It rose straight up and through a circular opening in the ceiling.Did Jared’s weird collection continue up there?Curiosity urged me to climb the rungs and take a peek, but I needed to get myself together and focus on more important things.
As soon as I sat on the couch, I realized I should have chosen a chair.Blake’s gaze was locked on the seat beside me.I could already feel the cushions dip with his weight, causing me to lean toward the heat of his body.He’d rest his arm along the back of the couch.I’d glare at it and then at him, pretending to be annoyed by his proximity.He’d grin and remain right there beside me.
“Sit there.”Nora pushed Christian toward me.He stumbled and half sat, half fell onto the couch beside me.
I threw a what-the-hell look at Nora.She just took a seat in one of the oversized chairs, crossed one leg over the other, and managed to look completely put together in her borrowed silk robe.
Jared took the other chair and rested an elbow on its leather-upholstered arm.That left one golden-eyed werewolf standing and one empty space next to Christian.Blake didn’t make a move to sit.No surprise there.
Christian shifted, causing the couch to dip and me to lean his way.He smelled great, like sun-warmed sandalwood.He was calm, steady, and so human it made me give him a smile.
