“Of course they’re dead,” I say. I think I still have vampire dust in my hair.
“I don’t know,” Marco says. “Something is up, and it must be important if we’re all standing here talking about seeing the same thing just now.”
Van rolls out of bed. “Fine. There’s no point arguing. Let’s go check.”
I lead the way through the woods behind the Society mansion to the hatch hidden in the ground. The door to the little building is the way we left it and there are no signs of life. I keep glancing around, waiting for a flock of ravens to arrive, but everything is quiet and dark.
“The moon’s about to set. Let’s check this out and get out of here,” Van says.
Each of the guys is still healing. They all said they had their strength back, but there are still lines on their skin where Underwood sliced them open and they are all winded from the short trek through the woods.
The light in the hallway is still on. It throws enough light into the horrible room for us to see by. We climb down the stairs and fan out in the small room, careful to avoid the bloodless body of Porter Allbright.
Angus sees me looking at my father’s body and wraps his arm around me. “We probably should do something about him,” he says.
I nod, unable to think of anything to say. My father wasn’t a good person, but nobody deserves to be left like this.
Our shoes leave prints in the dust on the floor.
Marco runs a hand through the pile of powder in one of the coffins and lets it sift through his fingers. “Well, the vampires are still here,” he says.
“Looks like it,” Angus says.
Marco walks a line from the coffins to the beam and back. “The blood.”
“What?” Van asks.
Marco points to the trough and the empty groove in the stone floor that channeled the blood to the two coffins. “The blood? Where did all the blood go?”
“You’re right. This place was covered in blood when we left,” I say.
“Here.” Angus gets down on his knees and leans close to the floor. “You can see grooves where the blood moved the dust. I think it went under there.”
We all get down on the floor. Sure enough, there’s definitely marks in the layer of dust that make it seem like the blood flowed across the room and under the stone wall.
“Why would it do that?” I ask. “What’s on the other side of the wall?”
Angus presses his ear to the stone.
Van shakes his head. “Ang, those stones are at least a foot thick.”
“Shh,” Angus says, waving him off. “There’s something moving in there.”
We all listen for a moment. The room is completely silent. And then the sound of scratching fills the air. It’s like nails on a chalkboard. It stops and then a low whine seeps through the spaces under the wall, echoing all around us.
“Was that a dog?” I ask.
“Or maybe a wolf?” Van says.
“No. It can’t be?” Angus says, horrified.
“Tobias?!” Marco bangs on the wall. “Tobias? Are you in there?”
The wall is solid. Angus runs up the stairs and comes back a minute later. “There’s no way to get to that side of the wall.”
Van pulls his clothes off and throws them aside. “Get out of the way.”
Van shifts and charges at the stone wall. He crashes into it, shaking the entire room and cracking the mortar between several of the stones. He backs up and charges again, but he still can’t get through. Marco shifts and joins him and the two of them break through on the first try.
The space on the other side of the wall is totally dark. Angus grabs the knife from the table and holds it at the ready. I look around for the wooden branch, feeling much more confident in that, considering this place was full of vampires only a few hours ago.
As soon as I touch the wood I feel a surge of power inside me. It’s like the stick is some kind of magic wand. I don’t want to let it go.
Van and Marco throw their clothes back on and we all peer into the hole.
The room on the other side of the wall is dark and feels like a cave. The light from this side spills in and reveals a single stone coffin set on an angle, diagonal to the wall. A fluffy black cat sits on the coffin’s lid. The cat doesn’t budge, it just sits there watching us.
Meow.
Van rushes in and shoves the cat off the coffin. The cat hisses and paws at Van, but he just carries on and pushes the stone lid off the top. Inside the box is a pile of white fur.
“Oh my god. Tobias?” Van reaches into the box and lifts the emaciated wolf from inside. He cradles his brother in his arms. The white wolf filthy and his fur is matted and he’s practically skin and bones.
Chapter Twenty-One
JOELY
Back at the house, Tobias is in very bad shape. Van was able to coax him back into his human form, but he’s got no strength and he isn’t eating. We’ve pieced together the fact that Underwood kept Tobias in a suspended state, the way he did his own sons.
Tobias said that once Underwood was able to get his son’s blood back from the dire wolves who stole it, he was going to bring Tobias back to be their slave, like old times. Only now, he’d be unable to break free and would be doomed to live forever in chains.
It’s hard to get much out of Tobias since he’s so weak, and Van is so patient and with every passing second it’s obvious his wolf is healing him. I just wish it would hurry up and make him whole.
Tobias laughs softly. It’s like it takes all of his energy. “He had a serious revenge fantasy.”
Seeing Tobias looking so thin is jarring. He’s Van’s twin,
