Daniel bared his teeth, his expression a little psychotic. “That’s different. Blood is life.”
“You have an interesting outlook.” I followed the others toward the building. “Blood carries way more pathogens than a piece of rusty metal.”
And at least with tetanus you could get a shot to prevent it. You couldn’t say the same with the diseases caught from somebody else’s bodily fluids.
“We’re vampires. Blood doesn’t affect us.”
“Neither does tetanus, apparently.”
Daniel bared his teeth at me again and quickened his place as Liam looked back with a tiny smirk that said he knew what I was doing.
“I’m just trying to understand,” I protested.
“Have you stayed in an abandoned building like this before?” Eric asked, taking an interest in the conversation.
I nodded. “Several times.”
I didn’t mention the safe houses I’d set up in abandoned buildings similar to this one throughout the city and surrounding areas. If I ever had to go on the run, it was better less people knew my habits.
At Daniel’s surprise, I shrugged. “Sometimes I get caught out and need a place to rest.”
I’d also bedded down in the occasional drainage pipe to escape the sun’s rays.
Eric and Daniel stared at me in a way that made me suspect they felt sorry for me. They shouldn’t. I was quite proud of the way I’d survived.
“We should split up from here,” Liam instructed, glancing upwards. “Eric and Daniel, start on the roof and work your way down.”
Daniel’s nod was serious as he lumbered toward the wall. He broke into a run, reaching the wall and jumping up before catching a hand hold. After that, he scaled it with little effort.
Eric paused beside me. “Daniel dislikes the idea of tetanus because many of his comrades perished from it before humans realized the cause.”
Eric raced after his fellow enforcer, scaling the wall as gracefully and silently as Daniel had.
“Silence from here on out,” Liam cautioned before disappearing into the dark maw of the building. Shadows swirled as Alches padded after him, leaving me behind.
“Yes, who wouldn’t want to investigate a creepy, abandoned building where a possibly insane, ultra-powerful vampire might be hiding out?” I mocked silently. “How do you get yourself into these sorts of predicaments, Aileen?”
I shook my head and followed Liam into the building, careful to make as little noise as possible.
Wind blew through the broken windows, creating a moaning sound.
There was a hushed somberness that almost felt like the world had been placed on pause. I would understand if visitors considered this place haunted. It would be easy to let your imagination run away with you. To hear and see things that weren’t there. I wondered if a ghost hunting show had ever done an episode on this place.
The first few rooms we passed were empty of human or vampire presence. They contained piles of debris and trash that I wasn’t certain belonged to the former occupants.
Certainly, the broken beer bottles were more recent. The pile of rubble was a product of decay from portions of the ceiling collapsing.
Like the exterior, the walls inside were covered in more graffiti, the magnitude and complexity of some of the designs were stunning.
We passed into what might have been the main area at the front of the building, before time had brought down its roof, exposing the cement blocks of the walls to the elements. I took a peek through some of the doors leading off the area, finding rooms a little less trashed than the ones we’d passed. Some still contained metal cabinets and machinery. All of which were also covered in graffiti.
Liam tapped me on the shoulder and nodded to a doorway ahead. I followed him into another section of the building, neither of us speaking. While we weren’t making undue noise, we also weren’t trying to be silent.
If the ancient was here, he would know of our presence no matter how carefully we moved. Better to act naturally than try to sneak up on him.
We entered another room with raised rectangles that looked uncomfortably like cement coffins marching down either side.
Liam came to an abrupt stop, his body unnaturally still.
