“We have company coming,” one of them said.
Joseph’s shoulders went back as he gave a brisk nod. “Escort Killean to his chamber.”
Joseph’s abrupt change in demeanor piqued Killean’s curiosity, but he had no choice; in this, he had to obey.
“I can find the chamber myself,” Killean assured him.
He didn’t look back at Simone as he turned away; he couldn’t stand to see what his words had caused her to think of him. If he somehow succeeded in getting her out of this mess, they’d both hate him by the time it was over.
Good.She’s a hunter; I don’t care if she never speaks to me again.
It was one of the rare times in his life that he’d lied to himself.
Chapter Six
Aside from thehall where the hunters stayed, the corridor where he slept, Joseph’s office, and the large communal bathroom with showers that the Savages took him to after returning from the hunt last night, Killean knew little about this place. He decided to spend the next day trying to learn more about their location and the exits from it.
He made sure to look merely curious while he explored as he discovered cameras hidden in some of the lights of every hallway. They would expect him to explore and learn; if they had a problem with it, they would stop him, but so far they’d left him alone.
His exploration also helped him keep his distance from Simone. Still, he couldn’t rid himself of the incessant pull he felt to go to her and get her out of here. But he’d discovered no way to do that yet.
Returning to the bathroom, he discovered another circular room near it. The hair on his nape rose as he gazed inside the room. He saw no instruments of torture, but the drains in the concrete floor didn’t bode well for those brought here.
Turning away, he padded down the hall and back toward the corridor where he slept before branching off down another hall. This new hallway ran along the backside of Joseph’s office and housed more closed doors with numbers beside them.
Though he already suspected more bedrooms lay beyond, he had to confirm his suspicion before moving on. He didn’t glance at the camera as he turned the knob and poked his head inside one of the rooms.
The room beyond was identical to his except no clothes littered the concrete floor, and the bed was neatly made. The rooms along his hall were almost all full, but he’d only seen enough Savages in this place to account for the occupancy of those rooms. Most of the ones along this hall were probably empty and waiting for their time to be filled.
Gazing down the long hall, Killean calculated twice as many rooms were lining it as the one where he slept. This place could house a hundred and fifty Savages comfortably; more if they doubled up in the rooms. And this may only be one of many bunkers or shelters or whatever this place was that Joseph had.
What is going on here?What are they preparing for?
The end of the world.
He almost snorted at the melodramatic thought, but the cold certainty Joseph and his followers might be readying themselves for such a thing stopped him. The path Joseph was taking was one that could destroy everything vampires and hunters had spent thousands of years trying to protect. Joseph’s course of creating so many Savages and decimating the hunters could alert the humans to their existence, which might result in total anarchy.
Shit.It was such an inadequate word to describe the dread churning in his gut.
Killean closed the door and continued down the hall. Toward the end of the corridor, the space between four of the rooms grew larger. Killean tried the knobs but discovered them locked. Stepping back, he gazed at the identical doors as understanding dawned.
These four doors housed larger bedrooms, one of which was most certainly Joseph’s. At least one of the other rooms had to be occupied by the guest Joseph greeted the other night. Killean didn’t know if the other two rooms were empty but locked to keep out Savages looking to upgrade, or if other prominent figures in Joseph’s army slept behind them.
Killean resisted kicking the doors in to learn more; that would only earn him a detour from his explorations. Turning away, he strode to the end of the hall and turned left; it was the only option given to him.
He stepped into the doorway of another circular, concrete room, but this one was twice the size of the empty room and Joseph’s office. About twenty feet separated him from a metal shelf set in front of some see-through plastic sections about waist-high off the ground.
The setup looked familiar to him, and it took him a minute to realize the plastic and shelf were part of a human serving area. He’d seen cafeterias resembling this over the years, but without servers behind the plastic dividers ladling out food, and no people pushing their trays down the metal ramp, he hadn’t immediately placed what it was.
Also, when he’d seen places such as this before, there were tables in the room where the humans ate, but aside from the serving area, the room was only empty space and concrete floor. His steps didn’t make any noise as he glided across the room to explore beyond the serving area.
When he stepped around the serving area and walked past some cutting tables, he discovered a metal stove and a large, double refrigerator. He opened the fridge and found it empty. Still, if this room was here, then it had a purpose and it wasn’t to feed Savages. Whatever this place was, it seemed humans originally built it and not vampires.
Bombshelter. It had to be. But not one built in the fifties and sixties when fear of nuclear war was at its highest, and even vamps were concerned about what the imbecilic humans would do next. Vampires could survive many things, but they had no idea what nuclear fallout would do to them. If vampires did survive, it wouldn’t be pleasant, and it would wipe out most of their food supply.
No, this shelter was newer than those uncertain days, or at least it was more recently updated than the heyday of the Cold War.
And then he realized the Savagescouldhave recently had this place constructed to serve as an emergency shelter if it became necessary. They would require a food supply if they locked themselves in here, and they would have to keep that food alive by giving it nourishment. Keeping humans alive in here would be difficult, as some of the Savages would give in and kill some of their supply; he also suspected those Savages would be slaughtered in return.
