Slay Alive

Chapter 26

twenty-six

Cade and I hold hands and brace for impact, but after five minutes of nothing happening, I lean over the edge of the Cradle to see what the hell is going on.

“Oh, you’ve got to be shitting me.”

“What? What is it?” Cade asks.

“Well first of all, this ‘Cradle’ is ten feet deep, tops. Come on,” I tell him before I hop down into the hole. It was hard to tell how deep it was when there was no light but with the Orb of Thespia lighting the way I can see exactly what we’re working with. Which is a whole lot of nothing.

“There’s not one ancient vampire down here,” I complain to Cade when he lands beside me. “I have half a mind to write a complaint.”

“Lot smaller than the stories made it out to be,” he says, looking around the hole. The Cradle isn’t so much a hole as it is a tunnel. A really long tunnel.

“Where the hell does this go?” I hold the orb up and start walking down the tunnel in front of us. There’s tunnels all around us but they’re smaller, no bigger than enough for Cade or I to walk single file. But this tunnel is serving main character vibes. It’s as wide as it is tall and I see what looks like shelves carved into the walls. The tunnel is weirdly dirty for being a supposedly abandoned and spooky place. Something has been living here.

I step over trash and discarded weapons as I walk closer to the wall and bring the orb forward to get a better look. My stomach twists when I see claw marks. Torn fabric and discarded clothing lie mingled with bones inside of the shelves. For as dirty and dank as it is, there’s something I’m not seeing much of. Dust and cobwebs. It might be dirty but considering it’s an underground tunnel, it feels well occupied.

Something’s been feeding here. Sleeping here.

And it’s not shelves I’m looking at.

“I think these are catacombs. Like little Ascendent microtels?”

“Dunno what a microtel is, love.”

“Like a sleeping cubby hole?”

“Okay, well, that’s exactly what they are. Some of the older vamps stay in places like this. They swear it’s our natural state but I’m not one for a dirt nap. I like comfort.”

I nod in understanding. “You do have a really cute place.”

“Cute? It’s not cute.” Cade makes a face at me. “I’m practically a villain. If anything it’s a lair , love.”

“Tomato, potato.” I wave the orb but jerk back when I realize I’m flashing a mini sun at my boyfriend. Cade hisses and covers his face. “Sorry, sorry. I, uh, where does this go? From the looks of the tracks here, Rhia wasn’t wrong. It’s just the Ascendents took the service entrance instead of going up top.”

Cade cranes his neck to look down the tunnel while I keep a safe distance away with my death orb. “I don’t know. This place has enough stories to keep the curious at bay. No one’s been down here in centuries. Your guess is as good as mine. You think that map the witch gave you might help us?”

“It can’t hurt.” I pull out the map and let out a whistle. “You’re right. There’s more here now.” Dark ink has filled in the places I thought were blank. A legend is on the side with a first level and second level key. From where we’re standing, I can see a dozen tunnels fanning out in different directions. I hand Cade the map. “Here, I’ll keep the light from burning you. Take the map. Where does that go?”

Cade turns the map and looks it over for a second before he laughs and shakes his head. “Oh, now this is rich. Couldn’t have scripted it better if I tried.”

“Where’s it go? Please don’t say somewhere awful. Being down here is already gross enough.”

“The Umbra Cathedral.”

I know that place well. After all, I’ve been married there dozens and dozens of times.

“That's vampire church,” I say.

“That’s one way to think about the most sacred and influential location in vampiric society,” Cade says and I nod knowingly. What else would anyone call it? “It’s also where the masquerade is being held.”

My mouth drops open and I nearly drop the Orb of Thespia. “Oh shit, that’s not good. I don’t know what the Ascendents’ plan is but it’s not fucking good if they’re going there.” I run back to the Cradle’s opening and look up at the sky. I can’t see the moon yet. We have time.

“We have plenty of time. We can get there before the eclipse. We can still pull this off.”

Cade pockets the map and turns to look into the shadowy tunnel in front of us. “Right then. Off we go. Ladies first.”

“Always such a gentleman.”

“Only for you, love.”

We run in silence. I don’t want to but I’m not going to be the motormouth that gets us killed. Besides, running with a sunlight orb isn’t easy. I almost drop the thing a dozen times which is not cool for our whole ‘save the world’ angle. I end up shoving the orb under my shirt and that works out pretty well. It's bright enough to shine through my sweater and give us some light but not burn Cade. The longer we run the more I try to keep track of time but it’s useless. The tunnel doesn’t turn or deviate. It keeps going straight, sometimes going lower and other times the pitch of the dirt beneath our feet changes and angles up. I think an hour passes with us sprinting down the dirt tunnel until up ahead of us I see a faint light. It looks like a rectangle. Definitely a door.

“What’s that?” I whisper.

Cade slows down and then puts an arm out in front of me when we step up to the door. Now that we’re close enough I can see I was right about what I was looking at. It’s a dark wood door with a moon etched into it and below that there’s a massive brass doorknob. The doorknob should be covered in dust but like the vamp microtels, it’s not. It gleams in the light of the orb like someone’s been polishing the damn thing. It’s definitely been in use all right.

“I’m guessing we’ve reached the end of the line. I want you to stay behind me. Whatever might be up there waiting for us is dangerous.”

“Cade, I can handle this. Rhia said this was both of our destinies.”

“Destiny or not, I’m not letting it get a shot at you first thing. Any beasties that want you have to go through me.”

“Gods. Why are you so fucking perfect?” I kiss him. I can’t help it.

“I’m thinking because we were made for each other.” We hold each other, bodies pressed close, Cade’s head lowered to rest his forehead on my head. When I breathe in so does he. I know if Cade had a heart that could beat it’d be in sync with mine.

That moment begs me to stay where I am but that’s not our story. Not mine. I give him one last squeeze before I take a step back and nod at the door in front of us.

“Lead the way.”

Cade reaches forward and pushes the door open.