What he didn’t know, and what she would never tell him, was that there was no object at all.
That it was a message. Inscribed in the stone. A message just for her:
He would never understand what that meant. And she would never tell him.
Now, she was pleased. Let him think that there was a missing object.
“Yes,” she lied, “I did find an object. And I destroyed it with my bare hands. Just like I would destroy you, if you were man enough to open these bars and give me the chance,” she spat back, defiant.
At first, he scowled, but then he broke into a grin, wider and wider.
“You do not disappoint,” he said. “Well, at least I tried. Now it’s on to the good part. It’s going to be fun watching you die slowly and painfully. In fact, I’m going to make sure that I have a front row seat.”
Caitlin suddenly heard another cheer, this one louder, and felt the entire room shake. She wondered again what it could be, and where she was.
“You still have no idea where you are, do you?” he asked. “No, I can tell that you don’t. You are one hundred feet beneath the earth, in the basement of the Roman Coliseum. Above us, the stadium is in use. By the grand vampire council. There are thousands of us up there, watching the games.
Watching the brutal fights between vampire and human, between human and human, and between vampire and vampire. These fights offer us brutality beyond what we could ever hope to see elsewhere. It is one of our favorite spectator sports.”
He got so close to the cell that she could smell his bad breath.
“And do you know who’s going to be next in the show?” he asked.
He laughed aloud.
“Did you ever think you’d die here, of all places?”
Kyle turned to go, but before he did, he stopped and faced her.
“By the way,” he said, “a present for you.”
He threw something between the bars, and it landed on the floor of her cell.
Caitlin looked down at it: it looked like a small, silver necklace. It looked like
“As the boy died, he called out for you. He seemed to really like you. Too bad you weren’t there to protect him,” Kyle said with a snort, then turned and stomped away.
Caitlin stopped breathing as she bent down and picked up the necklace. She looked closer, hoping beyond hoping that it wasn’t really hers.
But it was. The one she had given to Jade.
There was no way that Kyle could possibly have this, unless it was true. Unless he had really killed Jade.
Caitlin felt a grief unlike any she’d ever known. She curled into a ball in the center of the floor, and broke down and sobbed. Her cries rose up, louder and louder, and mingled with the sound of the distant roar.
Caitlin stood in silver shackles, before the entrance to the Coliseum. She’d been dragged there by two vampire guards, who’d shackled her in her cell by her hands and her feet, and led her up the stone stairs, down a ramp, and to this place. Now that she’d reached the upper levels, traveled down the ramp, and was really here, looking out, the view was awe-inspiring. And terrifying.
She had once gone to a baseball game, and she remembered the feeling of walking down the tunnel and first entering the bleachers, when the whole stadium opened up and thousands of eyes were upon her. This felt like that. But bigger. It was the biggest and most intimidating thing she had ever seen.
Before her was laid out the Roman coliseum, a massive arena, made entirely of stone. The stone was crumbling and deteriorated, and it had clearly been thousands of years since its heyday. But this vampire coven had somehow managed to bring it back to life. They didn’t seem to care that they sat in crumbling bleachers. And they’d managed to cover up the crumbling floor with a floor of their own, turning this ancient relic into a functioning Coliseum once again.
Tens of thousands of malevolent vampire sat in the bleachers, looking down, cheering. Caitlin was surprised to see how deep the floor of the Coliseum actually went, sinking hundreds of feet beneath the earth, in a maze of tunnels and traps and compartments. The floor they put over it was covered in dirt and dust, which rose up in clouds in the sunlight. The two vampire guards prodded her forward, dragging her down the entranceway, and out onto the main floor.
A huge roar rose up, as Caitlin appeared out in the open. The sun beat down on her, and she squinted at the glare, trying to get her bearings.
The guards unlocked her shackles and gave her another hard shove, and she went flying into the stadium, rolling onto the ground.
Another roar erupted from the crowd.
Caitlin got to her feet and looked around, her eyes slowly adjusting to the bright light. She was standing alone, thousands of evil-looking vampires looking down at her, shaking their fists. She scanned the bleachers and saw, up high, in a special box, stood Kyle. Beside him stood the Grand Council, old, decrepit looking vampires in black robes and hoods.
The one in the center stepped forward and raised his hands, and the crowd quieted.
“My fellow vampires,” he said, pausing dramatically. “Let the games begin!”
Another huge roar shook the Coliseum.
Caitlin heard a clang, then another, and looked down to see that the guards had thrown some weapons at her feet. She picked up a shield, a sword and a spear, which she shoved into her belt. She was dressed in a canvas tunic, crude and simple and rough against her skin.
She couldn’t believe this was all happening. These sick vampires truly intended to kill her slowly.
Somehow, they had managed to revive the cruel gladiator sport that people here had once enjoyed thousands of years ago. Weak, tired, confused, she felt a sense of despair, and wondered how she would ever survive.
Before Caitlin had a chance to take hold of her weapons, there came charging at her a dozen huge, muscle- bound warriors, all clad in full armor, all wielding fierce weaponry.
Caitlin could sense, as they approach, that they were humans. Still, they looked like formidable warriors, battle-scarred, and it looked like they had done this many times before. And survived.
They sprinted right for her, screaming with a battle cry, clearly wanting blood.
Caitlin focused, centered herself. She tried to remember all the things Aiden had taught her, all the techniques on Pollepel. She tried to breathe, to find the peace in the center of the storm.
She waited, a disciplined warrior. As they came within feet of her, she suddenly leapt into the air, way up high, did a somersault above their heads, and landed agilely behind them. She swung back around her as she did, and chopped off three of their heads.
The others kept running, falling into the dust, knocking each other over.
The crowd roared in surprise and delight.
The remaining warriors turned and faced her, indignant. They charged again.
This time, she stood and fought. She parried with them, blow for blow.
They were strong, and when one of their swords came down on her shield, she felt it reverberate throughout her entire body.
But she fought back valiantly. After all, she was quicker and faster than all of them. She was still a vampire.
Despite appearances, it was a mismatch. They were humans, and they fell like humans. Probably just a first attempt by the Grand Council to warm her up, to see if she could handle the first wave of warriors. She got slashed and bruised, but nothing serious enough to bring her down.
Within minutes, the dozen warriors were but a heap of bodies around her.
