The Black Tide (Outcast 3)

No. Wait for me to get there.

Will do.

The ear-mic buzzed and then Jonas said, “We're ten minutes out.”

I pressed the receiver. “Cat and Bear have found the entrance. I'll send them over to guide you once you arrive.”

“No need—you swallowed a tracker, remember?”

I hadn't remembered, but maybe that was because I was just so used to it being the ghosts and me against the world. It was a rather weird—but also very gratifying—realization that that was no longer the case. Not only would Raela join our little family once all this mess was over, but very possibly Jonas—if things worked out between us.

I rather thought they would. Or at least I hoped they would.

“Right,” I said. “See you soon.”

As I continued down the hill, fat blobs of rain began to splatter around me. I glanced up. While there were still patches of blue, a thick strip of heavy gray hung directly above this section of the city. I was about to get drowned.

I broke into a run in an effort to beat the oncoming storm, but just as I hit the bottom of the hill, the clouds opened up and the rain pelted down. I was soaked through in an instant.

It's dry in the outlet tunnel, Cat said helpfully.

And warm, Bear added.

That’s really not helping right now. My voice was dry and their giggles ran through my mind, bright and happy.

I stepped off the road and followed the sense of their energy through the scrub. Up ahead, visible through the smattering of trees, was another cliff face, though this one was semicircular in shape. Drifts of rubble and dirt appeared, and the nearby trees bore the scars of that long-ago landslip. But there was a clearly defined—and very wide—path weaving its way through it all. I eventually reached the base of that cliff and a clearing that was a sort of forecourt to the sewerage entrance.

There were indeed bones here—mounds and mounds of them. Some had simply been discarded into drifting piles, but most had been used to form effigies of the vampires’ food sources. The one representing humanity stood on the left side of the road in the center of the clearing, and it was definitely the biggest, but on the right side there were numerous other piles that vaguely resembled various animals. There were also bloodied bits of flesh and internal organs in various states of decay scattered around the base of each of these, which were undoubtedly offerings to ensure more success in hunting. I had no idea if those organs were human or animal, just as I had no real idea where this city was in relation to the nearest human population or even Central. But it was possible that—like the nest that lay in the sewerage remains near Central—these vamps were using their sick and dying as an additional protein source. They tended not to be overly fussy about things like that.

The sewer outlet itself was a big, semicircular opening in the middle of the scarred and pitted cliff face. There were remnants of red brick in amongst the cleared pile of rubble on the left edge of it, and a couple of fingers of black metal that might have been the original entrance’s grate to the right.

I continued to follow the well-defined path and did my best to ignore the stench rolling out of the opening ahead. Neither the wind nor the pelting rain did anything to alleviate the almost thick solidity of it, and it was everything I could do to ignore the growing urge to just turn around and run.

It was an urge that rose more from knowing what awaited inside that sewer than the smell.

I stopped just inside the entrance. Water ran from my clothes in a dozen different rivers, but even though I was wet right through, there was no chance of being cold.

Bear was right. This place was warm.

That was extremely unusual for vampire nests, as they tended to prefer a cooler clime. The heat—along with that odd vibration I'd felt near the rift—all but confirmed there was more than just a nest here.

I stripped off and wrung out as much water from my clothes as I could, but getting back into them was damned unpleasant. I shifted from one foot to the other, my i

mpatience growing. Time was something we didn't have a whole lot of right now; if Jonas didn't get here soon, I was going on without him.

Just as well I'm here then, isn't it? His thoughts slipped easily into my mind, his mental tones warm and amused.

I swung around and saw him striding toward me. There were at least a dozen men and women behind him, all of them well armed and bearing heavy backpacks. They were all also wearing wet-weather gear, so they were a whole lot drier than me.

Thanks for the warning, guys, I grumbled to my ghosts.

Sorry, they both said at the same time, we were watching the tunnel, not the clearing.

Which, considering it was the direction any danger would come from, was perfectly reasonable. “There's something other than a nest of vamps in this place,” I said, as Jonas and his people came to a halt.

All of them were regarding the sewer entrance and the smell wafting out of it with varying degrees of horror and distaste—even Jonas, who knew exactly what to expect within the stinking tunnels of this place.

“My guess is it's a generator,” Jonas said.