Dark Secret

'The sound of the picks on the rocks had to be the trigger,' Rafael said in disgust at himself. 'If we had not disturbed the scene, the trap would not have been sprung.' He moved away from Vikirnoff to give them both fighting room.

It was a disturbing thing to see the dead rise up to defend the very creature that had brutally murdered them. It seemed so wrong, so obscene, that Rafael actually winced when he gathered his power into a ball of energy and sent it careening into the midst of the skeleton army. The explosion rocked the mines, cracked rotten timbers, splintered beams overhead, and sent dirt and rocks falling on the dead.

Vikirnoff and Rafael hurried away from the avalanche of debris. The three remaining skeletons that had not been caught in the force of the explosion rushed the hunters, brandishing their pickaxes. Their bones clacked and scraped in a gruesome manner and their mouths widened into a horrible gape. All the while the eyes stared straight ahead, pitiless holes in the empty skulls. Lights sprang up along the walls, lanterns swinging as if set in motion by an unseen hand. A wind rushed through the tunnels, awakening the guardians of the undead.

'Not good,' Rafael murmured.

A terrible wailing came from somewhere just ahead of them, the sound swelling in volume until it was a symphony of screams. Dark shadows slipped through the cracks in the rock and dirt forming the walls of the tunnels. Vikirnoff turned to face the skeletons and Rafael took up a position at his back, facing the shadows. The Carpathians waited, back to back, for the attack.

It came in a rush of wind and bones. Dark shadows crept over the beams and rock, wailing loudly as they came with outstretched arms and clawed fingers, grasping for the hunters. Rafael answered with a burst of shattering white-hot light. The shadows screamed in fear and horror, retreating from the brilliance into the deeper recesses of the mine.

Vikirnoff smashed several lanterns over the heads of the skeletons, dousing them with flames. The pickaxes lay harmlessly in the dirt, but the burning bones continued forward, determined to kill the hunters. 'Mist,' he ordered.

Rafael shifted simultaneously with Vikirnoff so that the skeletons rushed past into the brilliant light. The bones disintegrated, exploding into splintered fragments. The flames flickered and died. There was another eerie silence.

The hunters moved further through the tunnel, proceeding with caution, shifting back to Carpathian form in order to utilize all of their senses. Rafael reached out with every sense he had, gathering information, allowing his brain to assimilate every smell and sound that came back to him. 'We are running out of time. If we do not find him soon, we will have no choice but to seek rest and we cannot do so in these mines. It is his lair and it is well guarded.'

'He is counting on that fact. All he has to do is keep us from finding his resting place until the sun is high,' Vikirnoff agreed. 'I have never fought a vampire with such safeguards.'

'He has had centuries to perfect his skills.' Rafael turned his head, listening to the rustles coming from behind them. 'Do you hear that?'

'The skeletons are trying to re-form for another attack.'

They were in a maze of tunnels and for a moment remained motionless, trying to get a feel for Kirja's resting place. 'He is also very good at leaving no trace of his existence,' Rafael added. He indicated the fungus growing on the walls of one of the tunnels. 'That would be my best guess. That fungus is not growing anywhere else and I would venture it is another safeguard.'

Vikirnoff peered closely at the strange warted growth. 'I do not like the look of this, and there are millions of centipedes covering the floor. The timbers are rotted almost completely through. I say we do not touch anything as we go down this tunnel.'

Rafael took one look at the carpet of centipedes. He swore in the ancient language. 'Kirja is well aware we are close. I can feel him now. He cannot hide his hatred of me. He takes my hunting him far too personally.'

Vikirnoff raised his eyebrow. 'I cannot imagine why.'

Rafael flashed a brief grin. 'He knows my aversion to centipedes. A childish thing, but of course he would use it.'

The eyebrow rose higher. 'We are of the earth. How could a creature such as a centipede bother one such as you? You have dominion over such things.'

'I had four brothers, Vikirnoff,' Rafael pointed out. His form shimmered, became transparent, and shifted to that of a very small bat.

Vikirnoff followed suit, but not before he glanced back toward the tunnel where the bones were making frantic scratching noises as they tried to re-form to carry out their master's orders. We will have to watch our backs.

Only if we do not get to him. Once he is gone, all of his servants will cease to exist. I say we move fast. Watch that fungus near the entrance to this shaft on your right. There is something strange about it. Rafael used the bat's radar to calculate the distance to the plant, but it kept changing, as if the plant moved.

Something struck at the bat hard, clipping a wing and knocking it to the ground. The centipedes immediately began to feast. Vikirnoff shifted one wing, reaching down to drag the small bat from the grasp of the greedy insects. Bite marks covered the body and small patches of blood seeped from various wounds.

Rafael shook off the clinging centipedes, flapping his wings to gain height. Thanks. Now we know what that fungus is. It has teeth.

Probably poison.

I felt it go in. Burns like hell. He is close. Go to the right, Vikirnoff. Watch yourself. The fungus is everywhere. There is a pocket of gas here.

He is behind that mass of boulders. I feel him. The centipedes are frantic to get at us and the fungus is snapping teeth like mad dogs. He has to be inside the chamber.

Rafael. I am trying to tell you gas is seeping out into this tunnel and filling it.

A trick. He is up to his old tricks. He loved to play with fire.

I do not want to get cooked. Vikirnoff was adamant about it.

It is time to let him work for us. I have an idea. Go back to the tunnel entrance. Rafael followed Vikirnoff and shifted back to Carpathian form just out of reach of the fungus and centipedes.

'What is the plan?' Vikirnoff asked.

Rafael gestured toward the heavy boulders guarding the entrance to the chamber at the end of the tunnel. 'That is.'

Soon, clones of the two hunters stood near the chamber entrance, centipedes swarming up their bodies and fungus striking viciously while Rafael directed the clones to unweave the complicated safeguards the vampire had erected around his lair.

As the clones worked, Rafael removed the remaining poisons from his body. The process went more slowly than normal; Rafael fed most of his power into the illusions he'd created. He had to make them real enough to generate body heat. 'If we are lucky, Kirja will believe those clones really are us and if he does, he'll try to kill us by igniting the gas. We will not risk triggering another one of his traps and it will leave us free to unravel the safeguards.'

'I hope he hurries because I can hear the skeletons heading this way,' Vikirnoff said grimly. 'I would recommend we levitate to keep away from his warriors, but he would have thought of that.' He didn't say what they both knew. Time was running out on them. The sun was climbing higher outside the mine and both of them would soon be hit with the terrible lethargy of their species. They could not go to rest in the mine with Kirja so close. It would be far too dangerous.

'I cannot sustain the illusion and make it realistic and work the safeguards. You will have to unravel the guards. Stay well back from the entrance,' Rafael cautioned.

Vikirnoff began the complicated procedure of unlocking the spell guarding the vampire's lair. Behind them the clack and rattle of bones grew louder. The floor rustled with dark, malevolent insects, and the shadows wailed at them, held off only by the white-hot light Rafael continued to maintain.

The explosion came without warning, rocking the entire mine. The trapped vampire had ignited the pocket of gas. A red-orange fireball roared down the length of the tunnel, incinerating everything in its path. It blew out everything inside the long tunnel, killing the carnivorous plants and searing the carpet of centipedes, leaving the