All Things Devour

four

As far as mysterious ghost creatures trapped behind ancient iron doors went, Sonya thought the one before her was perfectly normal.

He was taller than her and stronger in build, but not overly so, his body lean and his long-fingered hands far prettier than they had any right being. She couldn’t guess the color of his hair, but she could see it was dark and finely textured, falling about his ears and brow, his face framed by solid angles and a raised brow. Dirt and dust covered him from head to toe, his dated clothes faded and drab and splattered by something black across his graying shirt.

“Who are you? W-what—?” Sonya licked her lips and wished her voice wouldn’t shake. “What is this place?”

“A prison,” the man replied without emotion, shrugging. Sonya gawked. “Well, what did you think it was when you wandered in here? A luxury hotel?”

Flustered by his nonchalance, Sonya sputtered, “I—I didn’t wander in. I—was part of an expedition come to survey a site of some prospective relics.”

“I don’t think I’d be considered a relic just yet, but I’m getting there. Hopefully.” The man gave his shirt a tug, shaking the fabric to rid it of the dust. He did the same to his trousers while Sonya watched in confused silence. He had a deep voice, lyrical and pleasing, and she could not place his accent for the life of her. “Oh, where are my manners? My name is Anton Morvell. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” He held a closed fist over his heart in greeting.

“What are you doing down here? Are you one of the locals?”

“A local? No, I’ve done a bit of work here and there in the region, but I’m not from the area. As for what I’m doing down here, it’s a prison , woman-who-has-yet-to-give-her-name. I wasn’t exactly on holiday.”

Sonya felt herself losing what little sense she’d retained after the day’s trying events, and the stranger’s— Anton’s —baffling behavior didn’t help matters. He spoke almost flippantly, as if Sonya hadn’t just discovered him behind a giant rock like a big, pale spider. “I…I don’t understand.”

“I’m beginning to see that.” Anton cupped his chin in thought, studying her—and suddenly he strode closer, Sonya gasping in surprise as she backed up until she bumped into a wall. He was several inches taller than her, stronger, all lean muscles and long, graceful limbs. “Don’t fret. I won’t harm you.”

Sonya didn’t feel entirely assuaged by that sentiment. She assumed a lot of serial killers probably said the same thing.

When he got within an arm’s reach, she noted his eyes had a peculiar quality to them, colorless and oddly diffused as if he had cataracts, but his lashes were thick and enviable. His skin was dry, his mouth pale and bloodless. “Tell me, sweet girl—.”

“Sonya. My name is Sonya.”

“ Sonya . Tell me, who gave you that nasty little nip on your neck?”

She reached up to cover the wound on instinct. “I—I don’t know. I—it must sound mad, but this is all mad, and I—.” She gathered herself, mastering her nerves. “I can’t fully explain what happened. We were at the site, and it was dark, and we went to find our professor after we—. After we pulled a skull from the brush we couldn’t explain. And there were…people there. One of them, a man, attacked me.” Sonya swallowed. “It’s not as if he took the time for introductions.”

He blinked, lashes fluttering, but otherwise held himself still. “No, I suppose not.”

“What…what was he?” Her eyes passed over the man in front of her, because for all that he seemed a fairly average person, there was something to him—something about the way he held himself, the knowing gleam in his gaze, the happy indifference of his actions—that Sonya couldn’t explain. He smelled of the earth, of those deep, dark places where few could tread, but also a strange sort of spice, an indefinable aroma one might catch a whiff of while they passed through a foreign bazaar. “What are you ?”

He grinned and tipped his head. “In the parlance, I think you’d call me a vampire.”

Preposterous. Because it had to be preposterous; Sonya was a woman of science and logic, always open to new findings discovered in the field, but she’d never encountered verified, empirical evidence of vampires . No one had. The mere thought of it—.

Wet, off-white bone gleaming beneath the crisp torchlight. Their fingers felt along the odd, elongated teeth—.

Unbidden, Sonya’s hand went to the man’s face, and Anton relented to her inspection by opening his mouth and quirking a brow. She pulled on his lip with her thumb and widened her eyes at what she found. Like the weird skull they’d recovered from the weeds, Anton had fangs. They curved from his pale gums, the lateral incisor and premolar on either side also delicately pointed with the lower canines and molars enlarged and sharp as knives. It was the mouth of a predator made to bite and tear flesh.

Sonya released him, at a loss for what to say. There had to be a reasonable explanation for it. There had to be.

Anton shut his mouth with a slight click. “If your curiosity is sated for the moment, it would be best if we left this place.”

Sonya blinked, still in a state of shock. “You know the way out?”

“Of course I know the way out. I might even show you where it is.” He said this with an airy, teasing voice—or at least Sonya thought he was teasing. She was never quite sure with men, and she doubted it’d be much different with vampires. “Yes, I guess it’s only fair. You did release me, after all.”

He held out his lovely hand, which Sonya eyed in suspicion for more than one moment before setting her own in it. His fingers curled about hers, surprisingly warm beneath the dirt, nimble and gentle though the grip was strong, and he gave her a firm squeeze.

They approached the tunnel, and Anton paused, his back blocking the way. “You’re going to want to close your eyes.”

Sonya took a breath to question him but then did as he said, if only because she wanted to leave that place as soon as possible. She shut her eyelids, and they walked again. Sonya felt liquid ripple under her boots, and her leg brushed by something solid and warm. Anton stumbled when Sonya’s hand holding the phone faltered, and he knocked over something that clattered like wood on the stones.

“Don’t drop your lovely light contraption, dear. I might be a vampire, but I’m not quite a bat.”

“What did you do to them?” Sonya asked, her voice strained. She remembered the pursuing footsteps and the sudden, violent snarling. She also remembered how suddenly it’d been cut short.

“Oh, they’ll be able to pull themselves together eventually. I assume. To be honest, I don’t care at the moment, and you shouldn’t either.”

They left the tunnel, and Sonya opened her eyes as they returned to the stairs. “How long have you been down here?”

“That depends on the date.”

“It’s August.” She wasn’t sure of the day.

“And the year?”

“2021.”

He came to a sudden halt, the motion so abrupt Sonya ran into his back, and Anton steadied her with a hand on her shoulder.

“As the humans reckon it, that’d be…ah, gods’ teeth.”

She couldn’t see his face, and when she moved the light, his expression had blanked again. “What is it? How long have you been here?”

“Long enough. Come, this way.”

They fled at a pace much faster than the one Sonya had used in finding Anton, and soon she was out of breath and flagging, led on only by the grip on her sweating hand. “Did—did vampires make this place?”

“Many years ago, yes. With some help.”

“What did they make it for? A prison, you said, but why ?” The massive structure seemed to stretch into the earth for miles, a busy warren of great halls and steps and iron, all of it bare and grossly functional. The mystery of it ate at her.

“It’s a good place to make people disappear in.”

“Are there others here?”

“Yes—and I doubt they’ll appreciate being woken. Quiet now, we’re almost there.”

Woken? That implied they were asleep, and not in a way that sounded natural to Sonya. What kind of people were they? Other vampires? And what had they done to warrant being disappeared in this miserable tomb?

They continued through a passage where rushing water flooded the floor and swelled over their ankles, Anton taking little notice of it even as Sonya shivered. When the water crossed their knees and Sonya could barely stop her teeth from chattering, she spoke. “I thought vampires couldn’t cross running water.”

Anton hummed. “Some, maybe.”

“Some?”

“Cannot some humans swim while others can’t? Some humans are allergic to bees. Some humans are frightened of heights.”

“Oh. You’re saying there are different—weaknesses? Different faults? That’s—fascinating. I never considered that.”

“A thousand roads lead men forever to Rome.”

Before them waited a blank stretch of root-infested dirt and stone, the water now waist-high. Anton released her to raise both of his hands to the rock’s face—and again, Sonya felt the sensation of something intangible brush against her, a warm pressure that seemed to balloon with the outward thrust of the self-confessed vampire’s palms. Then, the wall vanished in a mystifying whirl of dust and mist—and frigid saltwater rushed in, Sonya gasping as the current dragged her under.

The phone was swept from her hand.

Anton plucked her from the water with startling ease and set her on the rocks, Sonya coughing on the awful taste of brine. A broad hand swept across her face, pulling back her disheveled hair.

“There we are,” he said with a satisfied smirk, and Sonya blinked more than once in disbelief. They were outside, sheltered in a shallow outcrop, faced with the roiling, iron-gray waters of the firth she’d admired before with no sign of the prison’s entrance at their backs. She jumped to her woozy feet and ran through the sodden sand to the cliff, patting her hands over the sheer, flat expanse. It didn’t yield under her persistent prodding.

“How did you do that? It’s completely solid.” she marveled. “That’s impossible.”

“If you insist on debating the realm of viability with me, it’s going to be a very long night.” Anton squinted, face turned to the water. “Or I should say day. The dawn is almost here.”

The rain had abated to a slow, feeble drizzle, and the clouds had broken apart like a torn blanket, revealing the stars above. Sonya couldn’t tell the hour, but she decided to take the man at his word. It occurred to her she had no clue how long she’d been underground, no clue if it had only been hours or more.

“My friends,” she said aloud. “My friends, I—. They don’t know where I am. They might need help. I have to go look for them.”

Anton turned from the waves lapping at the rocks, and Sonya thought he looked ethereal under the moon, with his strange eyes silver like starlight and his damp hair speckled in salt and sand. She hadn’t noticed it in the dark with thick dust smeared across his body, but he was rather handsome. “That wouldn’t be a wise choice, sweet girl.”

“Why not? They could be hurt, or worried. Or lost.”

“I…do not believe they’re alive. Not if the scenario you presented is correct.”

It would have been kinder to strike her, because Sonya’s knees suddenly felt weak, and she had to sit on the rocks again, her neck stinging. She couldn’t breathe. “But I survived. I didn’t see them. You don’t know that! They must—!”

The water sloshed about his ankles as Anton came to stand in front of her, pausing with uncertainty before clasping her hands in his own. “Sonya. We may not know each other yet, but I hope you can understand I would not lie in this instance. Not over something so cruel. Your friends are dead.”

Her throat constricted. “Why would they do this?” she asked in a choked whisper. “Why us?”

“Because for the draugar , for the vampires, anonymity is more important than anything else. Much more important than a few human lives.”

“I have to look for them.” She looked into his face, desperate. I have to try.”

“If you do so, I will not be with you.” Anton’s hands slid from hers. “I want to help you, sweet Sonya, but it is a risk to go back there. If the ones who sent the guards are still near, they will not hesitate to be rid of you. Or of me.”

Sonya’s eyes burned as she thought of Sahar, Callum, Kirstie, and Dr. Rangel, not wanting to believe they’d been hurt—or worse, killed —but what other conclusion was she to draw? What had the man said? “ I’ll make certain the humans disappear without comment. ” She remembered that now. Sonya held logic to her heart like a vise, and as Occam’s razor often proved, the simplest explanation was usually correct.

Of course, Occam’s razor for vampires is also that they simply do not exist.

They’d killed her classmates. Vampires had. Because they’d stumbled upon something they shouldn’t have.

Anton placed his hands on hers again, his touch firm, coaxing. For all that she wished to find the others, Sonya didn’t want Anton to abandon her yet, not when there might be vampires out there who wanted to finish the job.

“There is much you do not know. Much I have not explained,” he whispered, sighing. “Come. We need to find shelter before first light.”