‘What?’ Alan shrieked as he stumbled forward into the light to search for his erstwhile pet. ‘What did you do?’
I didn’t waste my breath answering him; with his vile creation out of the way, now it was his turn. I lifted my chin, met his eyes and smiled coldly, then dropped my dagger and withdrew a perfectly smooth, perfectly formed wooden stake from my backpack.
The penny finally dropped. ‘You’re no cat lady,’ Alan breathed.
I advanced towards him. ‘I am most definitely a cat lady, and very proud of it.’ I twirled the stake in one hand. ‘Curious, isn’t it? I could cut you all I like with that dagger and it wouldn’t kill you.’ I paused. ‘Unless I used it to cut off your head.’
I held up the stake. ‘But this little thing made out of oak has enough power to kill you on the spot. Technology isn’t always better.’ I glanced at the place where the monster had been standing. ‘Neither is magic always better.’
‘Wait!’ He held his hands up and staggered closer towards me. ‘Let me explain.’
A villain monologue. Oh goody. ‘Go on,’ I said.
He edged to his right, his red eyes trained on me. ‘It’s a complicated story. I brought you here for a reason.’ He continued to sidle away.
For some reason, he seemed to think I was very stupid. Or visually impaired. Or perhaps both. ‘Explain fast,’ I sighed. ‘My patience is wearing thin, Alan. Very thin indeed.’
He opened his mouth before spinning away and running out of the Wicker spell’s sphere of light. Idiot.
‘You won’t get away from me, Alan, no matter where you go.Run all you like – I will still track you down. This might be your domain but I’m in charge.’
‘No,’ he said from the darkness beyond. ‘You’re not.’ His voice sounded oddly sad.
I frowned. Taking the light with me, I strode forward – and then my mouth dropped. Oh.
Alan hadn’t run away. Darkness swirled beyond him and I was still unsure what lay inside it or how far the cavern extended. The cavern didn’t matter, though; what was important was Alan.
He wasn’t alone. Neither of us were.
My gaze travelled from the vampire to the slumped figure next to him who was chained to a large wooden pole that was set in the ground. A second pole next to him had another heavy set of metal chains with handcuffs attached to them.
‘This is Eric.’ Alan’s voice echoed emptily. He patted the motionless thrall on the head.
‘We’ve met,’ I said.
Alan’s eyebrows shot upwards. ‘Really? Rather annoying fellow, isn’t he?’
I folded my arms, still clutching the stake in one hand. ‘What the fuck is going on here?’
The vampire ran a hand through his hair and sighed. ‘I’m not a psychopath, Kit, and I’m not trying to get your blood or kill you for fun. This is honestly for the greater good.’ He gestured to his left. ‘Cast your light over there.’
My eyes narrowed.
‘It won’t hurt you to look.’ He gave a small smile. ‘I give you my word on that.’
Twitchy, but curious enough to do as he said, I reached for another pinch of the Wicker light spell and tossed it to my side, sending a cascade of light away from me. Then I blinked at thelong stone wall with a single entrance in its centre which was revealed. ‘What is that?’
‘The Night Maze,’ Alan whispered. ‘The bane of all vampires. The darkest corner of the Understream.’ He paused. ‘Our biggest nightmare.’
He was more of a fan of hyperbole than I’d realised. I glanced at his face – and then it occurred to me that perhaps he wasn’t exaggerating at all. ‘I need a little more information,’ I said.
‘I thought you might.’ He angled his face away from the wall as if he couldn’t bear to look at it. ‘The Night Maze has always been here. It was here before you, before me, before Coldstream itself. We don’t know how it came into existence, only that it exists. Several hardy souls have attempted to enter it over the centuries but only a few have ever returned. They were half-crazed and babbling about sinister whispers and dead-end turns and blood and gore and death.’
He sighed. ‘We mourned those who were lost and stayed away. Eventually we forgot the Night Maze was ever here. The Understream is vast and we did not need to come this way. But nothing stays forgotten or hidden forever.’
He met my eyes. ‘Inside those walls there is a maze and at the heart of the maze there is a monster. A real monster, not like me and not like the conjuration you so effectively dispatched moments ago. The monster in that maze cannot be stopped. It cannot be killed and it cannot be found unless it wants us to find it.’
I stared at him. ‘A monster? In there?’
