“Not if we destroy them first,” she said with a sneer. “And we wouldn’t be very good guardians if we ignored the biggest threat our home has, would we?”
She had a point there. I held up my hands in surrender. “This isn’t my town. I’m not a member of your pack or of the G—group of vampires, so I know I have no say in any of this. It’s just if the pack wasn’t around, who would I have brought all those humans to last night to watch over? If you hadn’t been there, they could have fallen prey to other humans. Instead, you kept them safe. I’d hate for the locals to lose your protection.”
Viktoria stood and took another chocolate. “I’ll talk with my Alpha. We’ll see what he says.” She turned and left me wondering if I’d screwed up the delicate balance here by opening my mouth. Damn it.
I went out the back of the Bloody Ruin, into the side street, and quickly ducked behind the dumpster. When I got to the end of the tunnel, I listened at the door and then checked my mind for blips. I didn’t want anyone, Renfield or vamp, to see me coming out of the super-secret tunnel. I waved my bag holding the ring in front of the door and it slid open. I stepped out, went to the large, metal screeching door, and opened it just enough to slip out. I hated that the damn door told anyone interested where I was.
The hall was quiet. I couldn’t hear heartbeats like the vamps could, but I could hear footsteps, and I didn’t hear any of those. Stopping at the door to the basement, I tucked the pastry box and book under my arm and looked for a way in. Nothing. The door was almost impossible to see, but I’d gone through it twice in dreams.
The San Francisco nocturne had release points in the walls beside hidden doors. You had to know where to touch, but when you did, a door popped open. I sniffed around the faint outline of the door, looking for a spot fingers had touched, but couldn’t find it. I was standing directly in front of the door, on tiptoe, running my fingertips through the grime above the door when I heard a quiet snick.
Stepping back, I saw that the door was now ajar. How had I done that? Then I remembered Vlad’s ring in my crossbody bag. Like the secret tunnel, this, too, must have been keyed to it.
I pulled the door open and stared into pitch-black. Taking my phone out of my bag, I hit the flashlight and found the stairs I’d seen in my dreams. The railing was gone, but the wooden steps remained, though one was missing halfway down.
Stepping over the hole, I tried to keep my focus on the sketchy staircase, but the creepy graffiti on the walls was distracting, as was the stench of rotting things. When I reached the bottom step without falling through rotted boards, I considered it a win.
I wanted to put the box and book down, but there was no way I was putting food down in here. A thin cardboard box wasn’t enough protection against a century of filth and disease.
How odd. The smell of vampire was fresh, not like a vampire once came down here. It was more like a vampire regularly visited this place. The vamp smell was getting muddled with dead rats, insects, and an overwhelming stench of mold, though. I didn’t see standing water, but it smelled as though the basement had been flooded at some point.
I turned down the hall toward the tub room, book and chocolates still under my arm, trying to ignore the prickling at the back of my neck. Was something down here with me?
What I focused on was the wolf—if they indeed had imprisoned one. She had been hidden down a hall past the tub room.
When I passed the first open door to a cell-like room, I paused to shine my light inside and jumped. A woman was standing beside a bed. Her hair was a snarled mess around her sallow face. The stained shift she wore hung on her emaciated body. She turned, her eyes sunken, her gaze hot. She curled a lip, snarling as she moved toward me.
Megy!
She paused, tilting her head, the sneer turning into a leer as she looked me up and down. She said something, but it didn’t sound like Hungarian. Shit! I didn’t know how to say Go! in any other languages.
Holding up a hand, I pushed with my necromancy. She stumbled back a step and then moved toward me again, her mouth gaping, broken, blackened teeth glistening. I pushed again, but she didn’t pause.
Lashing out like a snake, she bit my jaw, her broken teeth digging in. Curling her arms around my neck, she held me close, trying to rip the flesh from my bones. The stink was repugnant. What she was doing stung, but the smell was far worse.
“What are we up to?”
I jumped again and spun, finding Vlad in the light from my phone. “Jeez, dude. A little warning would be nice.”
“You’re the one lurking outside my door. I heard a heartbeat and came to investigate. The question is, what are you doing down here?”
“Oh. Uh.” The ghost was still trying to eat my face. It was horribly distracting. “Nothing much. Just sightseeing.”
“I see,” he said, moving my hand so the flashlight was aimed at our feet and not his face. “Instead of walking around in the fresh air and sunshine of Budapest, you found a hidden door and went for a tour of a reeking basement filled with vermin. Yes?”
I nodded, which proved awkward with the scary woman hanging off my jaw. “Yep. I like visiting those off-the-beaten-path places.”
“I see.” He glanced around and then back at me. “And are you enjoying this new experience, having your face gnawed upon?”
My hand dropped, the flashlight mostly illuminating the side of my leg now. “You can see her?”
He nodded. “That one belongs here. Cannibalism seems to be her thing.”
“Do you know what language she speaks?”
“Romanian. Why?” he asked.
“I need to get her off my face, but I don’t speak Romanian. How do I say go away?”
