Snakes In The Grass

23

"I thought the house was built after slavery was abolished?"

"No. A law was passed in the late 1700s that make it a legal requirement to register your slave annually, but slavery wasn't abolished in the States until 1865. You said there was a steel door too?"

I nodded and led him to the door. He nodded to himself as we stepped into the tunnel. There were cracks of light breaking through, illuminating the room. It was more daunting in the daylight though. Croft turned and shut the door behind us, nodding to himself again when he saw the fabric.

"I was right. It was a stationmaster's house. This was a quilt once upon a time," he said, "They used quilts to tell others what places were safe, when to change clothes, and directions to go. They probably smuggled people in and out of this tunnel, which is also undocumented on any of our records. These could go anywhere."

I cocked my head to the side and looked at him bluntly. I pressed my finger against my nose and pushed it.

"Nerd alert," I mocked and he gave me a glare but let it go. "So. Do we explore these or what?"

Croft sighed. "It's a delicate situation. We don't want to tip anyone off that could make things worse for us."

I nodded and walked towards one of the tunnels but Croft gripped my shoulder.

"You aren't armed. And you're exhausted. We will check this out later when we have numbers that we can trust. We don't know what we are walking into down here," he said. I nodded and rubbed my head.

"I can tell you one thing."

"What's that?"

"The wards don't work down here," I said with a slight groan.

"How do you know?"

"Any time I'm out of the wards I get a horrible headache. Something to do with being Shadow-kissed," I explained and he nodded.

"That is an even bigger problem."

"You already said that," I pointed out and he shook his head.

"No. Cosmic. We don't know how many tunnels there are, or where they go. They could be used to create a large-scale attack on Court and nobody would know. And the Strigoi would have the advantage because they have been using these caves for God knows how long."

I bit my thumbnail. "And now I'm more anxious than I already was."

Croft rubbed the back of his head, looking less of the calm and collected man and more frazzled. I blew out and breath and headed back into the house, sighing as I climbed the stairs and the headache receded. My phone chirped as I climbed higher and I checked it.

"Dimitri was able to get Briar in quickly," I said in relief.

"Yeah, doctors don't usually let infants sit in the waiting room with a cough like that," Croft said. I clicked my tongue and looked at him.

"Coffee? I know that I probably kept you up."

"No thank you. But, you, on the other hand, do need sleep."

I shook my head. "I won't be able to sleep until they're home. Or knowing what's under my house."

"I'll have someone come by at dusk and place warding inside the house. At least then we can make sure they can't get in that way."

I nodded and gave him a mute smile. "Thanks, Croft."

"Kid, at this point, I think it's time you started calling me Hans."

I smirked at him. "But I've gotten so used to calling you Croft," I chirped. Croft laughed and sighed.

"I'll take you up on that cup of coffee."