Maybe one day I’ll be able to stun him in return with the depth of my deepest feelings…
Wavering on his feet, Ambrose looks a little out of it as he tries to get his bearings.
“Are you alright?” I whisper and place my hand on his shoulder to help steady him.
“Yeeessss,” Ambrose hisses then he sharply shakes his head. Looking at me, his crimson eyes shine with a sharp clarity I haven’t seen before. “Mother, that was…. that was amazing.”
The dancing must have truly done him good. His color overall looks a little improved. His skin isn’t nearly as pale and there’s some color in his lips.
Giving his shoulder a gentle pat, I withdraw my hand and resist the urge to shake out the ache.
“We must do that again,” Ambrose gushes.
“Of course.” I smile at him. “Anytime.”
Ambrose beams a smile full of fangs back at me. “Really?”
When I dip my head, his shoulders straighten with purpose. “Well then…”
After glancing quickly around the broom closet, he tips his head to the side, listening closely.
Figuring I should do the same, I close my eyes and focus on what my senses tell me.
I can detect several heartbeats spread throughout the bowling alley. Some steady and normal… and others sluggish and weak.
Frowning, I wonder if the weak heartbeats belong to humans that are dying.
Pushing harder, I try to sense the presence or emotions of other vampires but come up empty.
I feared this might happen.
While I can sense Asher and our children with ease, I believe it’s only because of the blood we share.
Not being able to pinpoint the location of Nikolaos or his children is going to make things infinitely more difficult for me.
Head straightening, Ambrose tugs out his sleeves and brushes dust off his coat. “I do believe my distraction will best serve us just outside this closet.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask him how he knows that, but we’ve already wasted too much time.
“Wish me luck, Mother,” he singsongs before yanking the door open.
Arms coming up, he performs a dramatic twirl, dancing out of the closet. “Where is my soulmarked? I can smell her. Bring her to me!”
The door slams shut, leaving me alone in the small, dusty closet.
“What the fuck?” I hear someone shout in surprise.
“Where did he come from?” someone else asks.
“I think it was the closet…”
“Where is she? Where is my jasmine and honey?” Ambrose demands on the other side of the door.
“I don’t know what you’re fucking talking about, you stupid freak. Get out of my way.”
Afraid I’m about to be discovered, I pick a heartbeat and focus on it.
Taking a step forward, time slips away, and I snap into place in a different room.
The room is narrow and long, like a hallway, and there are several mechanical devices taking up most of the space.
I must be behind the lanes.
A few pins are scattered about, forgotten, and there’s a small pile of bodies near the door.
They’re storing their dead here…
I thought Asher said they weren’t killing people? They were enthralling them or something?
Sensing a heartbeat coming from the pile, I carefully move around the things that reset the pins.
Dumped without care, the bodies are twisted together, their limbs intertwined. There’s no way to distinguish one from another by scent. All their smells have blended together, forming a pungent perfume of blood, rot, and shit.
Some of these bodies have been here for a long time.
Their flesh decomposing in the advanced stages of decay.
So they have been killing people, they’ve just been leaving them here because they’re disgusting beasts.
My stomach twists.
This is going to suck.
Bringing up the image Asher showed me from his memories—an image of a young woman with black hair and blue eyes—I swallow down my revulsion and pick up the top body, moving it to the side.
Thankfully it died sometime recently and its skin and limbs are intact.
After checking it’s slack, motionless face, I reach down and grab the next body.
Forcing myself to forget that they’re people. People that most likely have friends and family that care about them…
They’re bodies.
Simply dead bodies.
That are soiling my hands.
The pile appeared small when I first approached it, but I wasn’t taking in account how badly they are twisted together. I have to move four bodies before I finally reach the heartbeat thumping in my ears.
The last two nearly falling apart in my hands.
Eyes closed, the human I find appears to be sleeping. Undisturbed until I lift away the mangled woman on top of him.
Then his eyes pop open, focusing on me.
“Angel…” he gurgles, and lifts one arm up, his dirty fingers reaching for me. “Save me.”
Tiling my head to the side, I wonder why he was left alive. It couldn’t have been a mistake. Surely the vampires would have heard his heartbeat…
Leaning in too close to examine him, the human manages to touch me. His dirty fingers latch onto the front of my dress in desperation, tugging me closer.