Vampires of Maze (Part Two) (Beautiful Immortals Series Two Book 2) Read online

  “It sounds like you’re falling for her,” Rea said.

  “Get the fuck out of here,” Calix said. “She’s got a nice little arse but I ain’t into no witch. She really isn’t my bag.”

  “It’s a shame that not everyone feels like that,” Rea said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Calix asked.

  “I think Trent is quite taken with the witch.”

  I couldn’t help but notice the bitterness and resentment in Rea’s voice. A part of me wanted to turn on my heels and face her. I wanted to tell her I wasn’t interested in Trent. But I knew there was little point and I doubted that I would ever convince Rea of my true ambitions in this world. So I stayed facing front and continued to eavesdrop on the conversation.

  “What? You think Trent wants to slip Julia a length?” Calix asked, almost sniggering at the thought.

  “I wouldn’t have put it like that myself,” Rea said, “but yes, I think Trent likes her.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Calix pressed her.

  “I discovered them together last night,” Rea explained.

  “What? You caught Julia and Trent having some pump-pump action?” Calix gasped.

  Rea started to sound exasperated. “I don’t know why I bother talking to you, Calix. No, I didn’t catch them having sex, if that’s what you mean, but I definitely found them holding each other.”

  “What were they holding?” Calix asked. “Were they both naked, then?”

  “They were holding each other – embracing – you idiot! And no, they weren’t naked,” Rea said. “But Trent had changed in her arms. He no longer looked human, but half wolf.”

  I heard Calix sigh. “Well don’t go getting your knickers in a twist about it. Like you say, it wasn’t like you caught Trent giving her one.”

  “But don’t you see that it’s worse than that?”

  “You’ve lost me,” Calix said.

  “Why wasn’t Julia scared of Trent when she saw him as a wolf?” Rea asked Calix.

  Even though I walked ahead of them, it was as if I could hear Rea’s mind working overtime as if she was trying to work out some kind of riddle or puzzle. “Most young women of her age would’ve been scared of him, let alone embrace him – let him hold her. Unless…”

  “Unless what?” Calix asked.

  “Unless the witch has been intimate with a werewolf before,” Rea said.

  “But that would’ve been forbidden, right?” Calix said.

  “Yes, it would’ve…” Rea started.

  Before I had the chance to hear what it was Rea was going to say, Trent suddenly stopped beside me. He gestured with his hand for us to get down. A truck similar in shape and size to the one we had seen before came across the field at speed.

  “You don’t have to get down,” I told him and the others as they crouched close to the ground. “They can’t see us.”

  Slowly, one by one, Trent and the others got back to their feet. From behind the swirling wall of snow I’d created all about us, we watched the truck as it headed toward the human farm that was now only ten or so metres away from us. The truck sped along a road that led up to the front of what looked like a giant hangar. Just like the road on the other side of the fence, I could see track marks snaking back and forth along it in both directions. It told me that many trucks had passed to and from the human farm despite the snow and freezing cold weather.

  Concealed behind the snow, we watched the truck come to a stop outside the giant hangar. The truck looked very much like the kind of vehicle that farm animals – cattle – would have been conveyed to and from the market or the slaughter house. Between the wooden slats that lined each side of the rear of the truck, I could see hands sticking out. To my horror, these hands waved to and fro, from side to side. They opened and closed as if clutching at the air. And I knew then that it was humans packed tight in the back of the truck. No sooner had the truck stopped, the cab doors were thrown open and two people climbed out. They wore long, black cloaks with hoods pulled up over their heads. The cloaks were fastened at the waist with a belt. From a distance these figures looked very much like monks. The only difference was that about their waists hung a long silver sword.

  As the two hooded figures went to the back of the truck, a deafening screech of a sound filled the night. The two giant doors set into the front of the hangar were slowly being dragged open by several more hooded figures. From a distance, I could see that their hands and the flesh that covered them was as white as the snow that fell all about us.

  Once the hangar doors had been opened I heard a new sound. A sound that froze my blood. It was the desperate sound of crying and sobbing. From behind the wall of swirling snow, I stood next to my companions and watched as the hooded figures started to drag and pull humans from the back of the truck. These people looked gaunt and emaciated. Their skin was stretched tight against their brittle bones. Some of these humans were naked and they shivered uncontrollably in the churning snow. Or perhaps it wasn’t the cold that made them tremble from head to toe, but fear. The humans were linked together by chains fastened about their bony ankles. But to my revulsion and disgust, I could see that these humans weren’t just men and women, but children, too. Their pale faces were haunted by fear, with dark eyes that were hollow and sunken. Some of the children cried out for their mothers and fathers who I suspected they had been separated from. I felt a knot of anger unravel inside of me, casting free wild and loose tendrils of magic throughout my being. I made fists with my hands as my hair began to billow back from off my shoulders. But I knew I had to draw that magic back in. I couldn’t let it out just yet, however great the temptation was. I knew that even from the other side of the field, I could crush those hooded figures’ skulls and set the humans free. But to do so would have raised the alarm and although I might have saved the humans who had been led from the truck, I suspected there were a lot more of them being held prisoner inside the hangar – the human farm. I hadn’t come to save a few, I’d come to save all of them.

  So feeling somewhat helpless, I watched with my friends as the humans were pushed, kicked, and shoved into line, then led into the hangar. As I watched, I noticed that the fresh white snow covering the ground before the hangar was stained pink with blood. It ran in thick crimson streams from the gap left by the open hangar doors.

  “What the fuck?” Calix gasped.

  I wasn’t surprised that even Calix was shocked and disgusted by what we had all just witnessed.

  I glanced at Rush and he stood stony faced and numb-looking as he watched the line of beaten and emaciated humans being led into the hangar. All of us looked traumatised with shock and horror. There was no disguising it.

  “And you really believe that you can negotiate with these animals?” Rea said. And even though she hadn’t turned to face me, I knew exactly who she was talking to.

  “What other option do we have?” I asked.

  “I can think of one,” Calix said, cocking the shotgun he had taken from his back.

  And however tempting it would have been to release my own anger and frustration at the vampires, I knew deep down that it wasn’t the answer. I couldn’t let my anger and frustration get the better of me like it had once before. It was because of that lack of control that so many like the humans now being led into the hangar had been made to suffer.

  Chapter Nine

  “The magic will only get us as far as the hangar doors,” I whispered in Trent’s direction. “Once inside, it will fade and the best hope of concealment will be to speaking to the shadows.”

  “We’ve come this far we can’t back out now,” Trent said.

  Sounding incensed, Rea cried, “Is it just me, or did the witch just say she was going to speak to the freaking shadows! But I thought… you know what, I can see it really doesn’t matter what I think. I give up! Let’s just do everything the witch tells us to do!”

  “Maybe Rea is right. I think we should at least think about this…” Rush put in.
But before he’d had a chance to finish, Trent had started off in the direction of the hangar.

  Even though I was used to magic, the sensation of being able to walk closer to the hangar without being seen by the vampires who were unloading the last of the humans from the truck was still very strange. In some ways it was kind of exhilarating. And despite me telling my companions that they could not be seen, they still crouched forward, attempting to make themselves as small as possible as we made our way toward the hangar doors.

  We huddled together against the wall just feet away from the wide opening at the front of the hangar. I looked up and could see the chimney towering high above us. The constant stream of thick, black smoke continued to fill the night sky with its sickly stench. The vampires, with their hoods pulled over their faces, passed within just feet of us as they led the last of the manacled humans inside. To them we were nothing more than part of the blizzard that continued to fall. Just before the doors were pulled closed, we crept into the hangar. At once the dome that protected us burst like a bubble, sending a puff of snowflakes up into the air where they instantly melted away. Once again, we were left unprotected and vulnerable as the vampires would now be able to see us. But despite Rea’s frustrations, I wasted no time in leading my friends into the nearest shadows. Crouching low, we hid behind a pile of wooden crates which had been stacked in one corner. If the smell of burning flesh had been overpowering outside, it was almost suffocating in the hangar.

  From our hiding place, I could hear the shrill cries of women, children, and men. The sound was so chilling that I had to fight the urge to cover my ears and scream myself. The continuous sound of weeping, pleading, and begging was nightmarish and a sound I knew I would never forget however long my journey through this layer would last me.

  “What now?” Morten asked.

  I glanced sideways at him. He sat against the crates, spindly knees drawn up beneath his pointed chin. His milky white eyes were wide with fear and terror. He looked exactly how I felt inside. Without saying a word, Trent knelt up and peered over the top of the nearest crate. I watched the colour begin to drain from his face and his blue eyes turn black. He opened his mouth as if to say something but nothing came out – it was as if words failed him. One by one, we peered over the tops of the crates. At once, I wished I hadn’t. There were some things in life that one wishes they had never seen because the memory would poison your mind and soul for eternity. What I had seen on the other side of the crate, I knew however much I tried to forget, my memories and nightmares would be haunted forevermore.

  The humans we had seen being led from the truck had now been lined up against the opposite wall from where we were hidden. The humans who had been wearing clothes had now been stripped naked by the waiting vampires. The vampires no longer had their hoods up. Apart from the fact that their skin was so very pale, they really didn’t look so very different from the human prisoners. We watched in dazed horror as the humans were led toward a row of metal hooks that lay close to the ground. The humans were forced to lay down next to them. Those who refused or pleaded to be set free were kicked and punched into submission by the vampires. The humans were far too ill and weak to put up any kind of real resistance.

  The chains that were secured about the humans’ ankles were fastened to the hooks by the vampires. When ten or more of the humans had been secured, one of the vampires began to yank on a long metal chain that hung from a set of pulleys set into the roof of the hangar. With each pull on the chains, the humans were slowly but surely raised high up into the air. They hung upside down, their heads back and arms trailing, fingers pointing down toward the ground. Each of the humans was so skinny and scrawny that their ribcages and hip bones jutted out from beneath the thin flesh that covered them. As the vampire continued to pull on the chains and pulleys, the hanging humans began to sway back and forth like fleshy pendulums. When each of the humans was hanging upside down and some way above the ground, the vampires drew their swords. Seeing this, some of the dangling humans began to twist and turn and flay their arms about. But their last acts of resistance were pointless and their cries for mercy fell on deaf ears.

  With their swords drawn, the vampires approached the hanging humans and cut open their throats. Just like cattle at a genuine abattoir, the humans began to bleed violently from their throats and shower the floor and the walls of the hangar with sticky red blood. Some of the humans made gargling sounds in the back of their throats as they bled out. I couldn’t bear to watch any more. I buried my head in my hands and dropped once more behind the crates. However hard I tried to erase those nightmarish images from my mind, I couldn’t. I wished I hadn’t seen what I had. And just like Calix had drawn his gun outside, the temptation to spring from my hiding place and crush the vampires with my magic was overwhelming. But I knew I couldn’t. Yes, I might kill the vampires here in this hangar but when word got back that they had been killed by magic, any hope or chance of negotiating a truce and finding peace would be something close to zero. So for now, I had to literally sit on my hands as they twitched and throbbed with magic beneath me. I had to summon up all of my strength to force the energy back inside me and not release it upon the vampires. But with each passing moment, I knew I was going to find it increasingly harder and harder to convince my companions, especially Rea, that there was some redeeming qualities to be found within the vampires. It was going to get harder and harder for me to keep justifying the notion that the vampires could be reasoned with. After the barbarism I had just witnessed, even I was now beginning to doubt the truce and peace I hoped could be found. But I had to push such doubts away – bury them deep inside of me – because I knew in my heart that not all vampires were evil and cruel. I knew I only had to find one – find one vampire I could make a connection with. One vampire who would listen to me – work with me to find peace.

  “I don’t know if I can just sit here and do nothing,” Calix said, slouching beside me. “Those fucking freaks are now hacking lumps of flesh off those…”

  “I don’t want to know,” I whispered, placing my hands over my ears.

  “You need to know,” someone said in my ear. But this time it wasn’t Calix who had spoken, but Rea. “You need to take a good, long look at what these animals are doing. You need to understand what we’re dealing with. You need to take your head out of the goddamn clouds…”

  “Okay, enough already!” Trent said. “Let’s cut Julia some slack.”

  “I think we’ve cut Julia enough slack already,” Rea said, anger simmering in her voice. “When is she going to take her head out of her arse and face reality? When is she going to realise that these vampires can’t be reasoned with?”

  I wanted to scream at her, but didn’t for fear of being overheard by the vampires. “We have to try.”

  “Are you blind?” Rea hissed in my ear. “Didn’t you see what the rest of us just saw?”

  I turned to face her. “Of course I saw what happened – what those vampires did – I will never forget it. But we mustn’t allow our anger and emotions to take over, because if we do we’ll start making mistakes. That’s when we will throw away any chance we have of finding peace.”

  “I’m sick of hearing that word,” Rea said, infuriated. “There isn’t going to be any peace, Julia. Not until every one of those vampires are dead.”

  I looked into her eyes, and although I could see anger, I could see something else, too. I could see fear and it was this that was now controlling her words and actions. “And how do you plan on killing all the vampires?” I asked her.

  “Like this,” she said, drawing her guns.

  “No, don’t do that,” Trent said.

  But he was too late. We all were. In a flash of movement, Rea had leapt onto the crates and was unleashing her guns upon the vampires.

  Chapter Ten

  Whether the rest of my companions thought Rea’s actions were right or not, they wasted no time in leaping to her defence. In what took less than a fleeting sec
ond, Trent, Rush, and Calix had bounded onto the crates, weapons drawn, and were unleashing an onslaught of bullets at the vampires. The hangar lit up in a frenzied burst of flashing bright light and clouds of gun smoke. Standing, I peered over the nearest crate. Trent, Rush, Rea, and Calix all stood, arms locked out front, guns in hands, bullets screaming from them and into the vampires. If the sound and flash of gunfire wasn’t disorientating enough, an alarm began to wail overhead. I knew that it wouldn’t be long before we were joined in the hangar by many more vampires now that one of them had raised the alarm.

  From where I stood behind the crates, I watched as several of the vampires’ heads disintegrated into nothing more than a jelly-like mush as my friends emptied their guns into them. The vampires were hit with such force, their headless bodies flew back through the air and crashed into the walls on the opposite side of the hangar. But some of them were quicker and they sprang away, pulling up their hoods and drawing their swords. They shot through the air and climbed the walls. I watched in horror as they began to scamper like giant scorpions into the shadows that shrouded the ceiling above our heads. My friends aimed their guns upwards and fired blindly into the gloom. And then, just like rain, the vampires began to drop out of the darkness, wielding their razor-sharp swords. In one swift and precise movement, Calix had reloaded the shotgun he’d brought with him from the crypt. He pointed upwards, emptying the chamber in an explosion of light and smoke. The vampire, which had been dropping like a stone onto him, was thrown suddenly backwards, leaving behind a shower of red and grey brain matter. It splashed the upturned faces of my friends. But none of them seemed deterred by this. Each of their faces were little more than a grim mask of anger and hate. With the corner of her upper lip rolled back in a snarl, Rea blasted her guns over and over again at the vampires who were now raining down on us. One of the vampires sprung forward, claws outstretched. As the vampire sunk his claws into Rush’s shoulders, Rush forced the barrel of one of his guns into the creature’s gawping mouth. Rush wasted no time in pulling on the trigger. The back of the vampire’s head exploded outwards, spattering those who came behind it in a black sticky jam-like substance.