Hexbound (The Dark Elite 2)

“Well,” Paul said, “I’m not crazy about having vamps between us and wherever we’re going, but I like the idea of being in the tunnels for as short a time as possible. Besides, if we have trouble on the way in, we can always take the long way back.”

“Good enough for me,” Jason said.

And so it was decided. One by one, Jamie and Jill in the lead, we ducked into the hole in the wall. We emerged, just as Detroit had promised, into a janitor’s closet. All nine of us stuffed into a tiny, dark room among push brooms, mops, and buckets on wheels.

“Would you like some light?” I whispered.

“Let’s keep it dark,” I heard Jill say. “At least until we figure out if anyone is out there. Michael—you wanna fill us in?”

“On it,” Michael said. I heard shuffling, probably as he squeezed through to get to a wall.

“Echoes of business,” he finally said. “Busy. Always walking, moving. Faster. Faster. The world spins, and the feet keep moving.” He paused. “That’s all I got.”

“Hmm. Doesn’t tell us much about whether the vamps are out there,” Detroit said.

“No, it doesn’t,” Jason agreed. “But we’ve got to get out there regardless.”

I heard shuffling; then a glow lit the room from something in Detroit’s hand. It was the locket she’d worn, now open in her palm. She swiveled it until it projected a complicated map onto one of the closet’s walls.

We oooohed and aaaahed at the sight.

“Gadgets are my gig,” Detroit matter-of-factly explained. “Now, when we open the door, we’re going right. We stay straight until the corridor ends; then we take a left. Halfway down that corridor there’s an emergency stairwell. I’ve got to pop the sensor on the door, and then we’re in. We take the stairs all the way down, and we’re back in the tunnels. Everyone got it?”

“We’ve got it,” Paul said. “Let’s do this.” He cracked open the door and peeked through it, light slicing through the darkness.

“Clear,” he said, and one by one we slipped into the Pedway.

It looked exactly like you’d expect a pedestrian walkway to look. This part of the corridor was wide and made of concrete, and the floor was made of chips of stone and tile stuck into concrete. Not much to look at, but it would certainly keep you out of the snow.

We all run-walked through the corridor toward our next turn until Paul, panicked expression on his face, motioned us back against the wall. My heart suddenly pounding, we flattened against it.

I blew out a nervous breath, my ears straining to hear whatever had triggered Paul’s concern, but heard nothing. The hallway was silent except for the hum of the fluorescent lights above us.

And then the voice behind us.

“Well, well, well. What have we here?”

Slowly, I turned around. There were three of them—a tall and dark-haired boy stood in the front; two girls stood behind him. All three wore gray and black clothes in complicated layers over bodies that were supermodel—or maybe just anorexically—thin. By the look of them, I would have guessed they were about my age. But then I got a look at their eyes—dark, dilated, and definitely not young. Better yet, none of them looked happy to see us, and they were positioned between us and the janitor’s closet. Our escape route.

“Vampires,” Jason murmured. He glanced back at me. “Be ready,” he said and then stepped forward. Paul stepped behind him. I reached out and grabbed Scout’s hand. She squeezed back.

“You’re out late, aren’t you?” asked the vampire in front. He had a low, heavy accent, and when he talked I could see the tips of his fangs.

One of the girls behind him hissed like a cat, her fangs gleaming in the overhead lights. She took a half step forward. I pushed back against the wall a little more, my muscles suddenly straining to run. It was like my body knew they were bad—and wanted to get away from them as quickly as possible.

“We’re on our way out of your territory,” Jason said. “All we ask is safe passage for a few hundred yards.” He hitched a thumb over his shoulder. “We only want to go as far as the next corridor. Just to the stairwell, then we’re out of your way.”

The vampires spread out, forming a line—and now a total barrier to the closet.

“Safe passage is expensive,” said the one in front. “You want to dance with the devil, you have to be prepared to pay the price.” The female who’d hissed stepped toward him, then draped herself along his side like a languid cat, one hand on his shoulder, the other across his stomach. She made a low growl. There was something very disturbing about watching these kids play at being monsters.... It didn’t help that they actually were monsters.

The other girl pulled a wicked-looking knife from her knee-length gray vest. Its blade gleamed in the overhead lights. She licked her lips.

I guess blood was the price they wanted us to pay.

“We pay the price every day,” Jason said darkly. “You know who we are?”

The boy in front scanned each of us in turn, his dark eyes judging and evaluating.

“I know,” he agreed after a moment. “But your sacrifice doesn’t pay the fee. This is my land. My territory.” He slapped a hand to his chest. “If we let you move through our land, the thieves begin asking questions of us. And we don’t like questions.”

I couldn’t help it. The words were out of my mouth before I could stop myself. “The thieves?” I asked. Scout called my name in warning, but it was too late. All their eyes—dark and dilated—were fixed on me. The boy in front tilted his head and let his gaze slip up and down my body.

Gooseflesh lifted on my arms. Scout squeezed my hand harder and moved incrementally closer, like she could protect me just by being nearer.

“Your magic is young,” he said. “Untested.” He sounded intrigued by the idea, maybe by the possibility that someday, someone would test it. That thought wasn’t exactly comforting.

I may not have been thrilled to have his attention, but I wasn’t going to cower. Vampire or not, he wasn’t going to bully me. “It’s been tested enough,” I assured him. “Who are the thieves?”

He blinked slowly, like a drowsy tiger. “I believe you call them ‘Reapers.’ We refer to them as the thieves of life.”

I almost pointed out that he and his crew were vampires. I wasn’t sure how they could drink blood without a little thieving of their own.