Thank God it was still sunlight.As long as they could get up into the sunlight, the vampyre wouldn't be able to attack them. But there was nothing stopping him from tracking themfrom below. A vamp’s sense of smell was that incredible when blood was involved. If the vamp had a way of contacting the Nethertons, then it was only a matter of time before they had company again.
Thankfully, Kit spotted the rungs of a ladder. He set Gentry down onto her feet, aghast when he looked at her and saw just how much blood had gotten on his clothes and soaked her shirt to her skin.
"Your backpack," he said. "Do you have extra clothes?"
Gentry nodded and then set the flashlight down and went quickly to work, taking a single shirt and wiping their faces and their arms as best she could. Thankfully, he was wearing black. The gray blouse Gentry had been wearing looked like something out of a bloody horror movie. He found a T-shirt and shorts, which he then threw at the girl.
"Put them on," he said quickly, and then he turned his back to her, thankful that this section of the underground looked to be relatively uninhabited, save a woman that was rocking and singing to herself about a quarter-mile away, her voice echoing in an eerie harmony around them.
Meanwhile, Kit pointed the flashlight down the corridor, praying that he wouldn't see the same vampyre who attacked them sprinting at them once more.
“What about the bloody ones?" Gentry asked, still sounding dazed.
"Leave them here," he said, then halfway dragged her to the ladder. "Climb up." The command came out harsher than he wanted it to. Then again, her reactions were slower, more childlike, the opposite of the clever, quick woman he’d grown accustomed to. She had to be in shock.
He’d be nicer once they were safe.
Gentry went up the ladder without complaint, and Kit felt a modicum of relief when she removed the manhole cover.Sunlight beamed down, warming his sweaty face. They were safe for now. They wound up exiting right next to a bakery, and the scents of freshly baked bread and the eyes of nosy customers greeted them.
Gentry kept her head down as Kit stood up and kicked the manhole back over, sealing the entrance to Hell. The stares didn’t die down as Kit was stone-faced and Gentry had tears streaming down her cheeks. Kit grabbed Gentry's hand and dragged her to a corner, positioning her so that her beautiful, tear-stained face didn’t face the street.
Kit’s mind raced. He didn’t have magic. They were definitely being tracked. "I don't suppose you have any ideas about where we could go next?" he asked her, hoping desperately for the woman who’d taken control last night.
Gentry's grip on his hand tightened for a moment and then she shook her head, her eyes glassy. Kit didn't need words to understand what she meant. Her world had been flipped upside down by learning that her father hadn't betrayed her. It must’ve been devastating to have all those carefully concocted plans blown into a million pieces.
Kit unslung her backpack and gave it to her. “We need to get you somewhere,” he said, “they’ll send others.” He omitted the strong possibility of a vampyre mirroring their movements underground. The poor girl had enough to deal with. “Do you still have my phone?”
She handed him the burner and he quickly navigated to the banking app. Once again, the account balance made his mouth go dry. He should’ve believed her about being rich. But Kit paused that thought and focused on their shitty situation at hand.
They weren’t safe in Skadra any longer. At least, not until they found showers and washed every drop of blood from Gentry’sfather off.You need to find Visha too,he reminded himself. She also needed him, but he knew exactly where she was.
An idea hit, albeit a physically difficult one to execute with his magic gone. He checked his mobile wallet, was pleased to see her card was hooked up.
They were going to need a vehicle, one capable of off-roading on the mountains.
twenty
Gentry
Excerpt from Gentry’s research notes:
3rd notebook — page 300
Dangerous War Remnants around Skadra
Because the War took place in a wasteland with flat terrain and no cloud cover for brooms, the witches had to get clever and expand their ways of locomotion — booby traps, invisible cloaks, creating sandstorms asa distraction, and even marching armies of charmed, wooden soldiers. It was a whirlwind of innovation.
But also abysmal record-keeping. This creates a unique problem for Skadra with its surrounding desert. They don’t know where their own traps are, despite the war being close to two hundred years ago. It makes a hike a dangerous proposition, and the covens on the outskirts skilled at detecting its traps.
Conclusion — Dad is in Skadra, not the outskirts. He’s nervous enough without potentially stepping on a landmine. End this line of research.
Gentry walked upwards on the rocky, prickly terrain, panting and thoroughly unhappy with herself. The physical labor should’ve helped her clear her thoughts,maybeit did, but her mind played the nightmare nonstop. Blood gushing from her dad’s stomach and through her hands, each of his breaths growing more labored until he took his last. The words of love he’d gifted her with, his remorse for what he’d done.
She stumbled and struggled against the rock formation as she followed Kit to ‘safety’. She hadn’t had the energy to ask questions. Her brain stalled on Maxwell Greenbriar and all her misguided hatred and his horrific death.
She hadn't done enough to help him through it, hadn't said the things that would have eased his passing—all simply because she hadn’t been prepared for the possibility that her father hadn’t sold her out. Had she really been so blinded with hate that she'd forgotten all the bedtime stories, instructions on how to run a con, jokes, and most of all, the fact that at the end of the day, he'd never let his addiction get in the way of what she needed?
Her mother had always seemed so skeptical about her story. Was this why? A woman who had divorced him, who'd barely had contact with him in years, had a better opinion of him than his own daughter. Guilt and nausea gnawed at Gentry’s stomach.
