The House of Vampire

Chapter 4

The armoire smelled something funky, but Shi had already darted up inside, nose to the ground. Chandre had to crawl to move in the tunnel, but she managed to follow him up for what seemed like an eternity. Sometimes he'd dart forward, leaving her alone in the darkness, and then he'd reappear, startling her with another lick or kiss of encouragement.

She reached a door, finally, and opened it after picking the ancient lock. Shi moved cautiously inside, and she followed. Once again, they were in another trap, but this time she had no room to wiggle around in—she was stuck in the tunnel. Shi yelped as the spikes came at him and backed up, his tail smacking her face. Chandre scuttled backwards, but a spike pressed against her boot.

Yelping, she rolled onto her back and shoved at the ceiling, looking for an escape route. Banging on the metal sides, she gasped as a panel opened and she was tipped inside. Shi howled after her, but the panel banged closed.

"Shi!" she screamed.

It was a short fall onto hard stone. Grunting as her back hit first, she scrambled to her feet, staring about her in the dark expanse of—wherever she had landed.

There was a yelp and something landed on top of her, knocking her back to the ground, all teeth and claws and fur. "Shi!" she yelled again, throwing her arms up to shield her face as Shi growled furiously. He paused at her voice and snarled, but stopped moving.

Chandre froze as a tongue ran along her arm, sliding along the tears in her jacket. Licking her blood. Fear ran up and down her spine and she struggled to control it—he could kill her and not even know it until later.

"Shi—Change, dammit!" she shouted.

With a moan, Shi Changed back into human, naked and on top of her, his face inches from hers. His mouth was bloody, and she almost retched.

"Where are we?" he panted, and looked around carefully.

Chains hung down from the stone walls, and if she hadn't known that they had fallen less than a story she would have thought that they were in the basement. There looked to be no door aside from the hole in the wall, and they both knew where that led.

"Dungeon?" He answered his own question, and rolled off her, sitting on the cold floor. "What the hell?"

Chandre stood up, nursing her arm, and went in search of a way out. There was no door she could see—only stone walls. There was very little light at all in the room, so little that she was having a hard time seeing, and knew that Shi probably couldn't see anything at all. He bumped into her, hand groping blindly to grip her shoulder, sticking close.

Her arm throbbed in pain, but she rummaged through her pants pocket, coming up with a glow stick. Snapping it and shaking, she smiled as red light illuminated the room.

It was a dungeon, two people long and one person wide. There were no doors, no visible exit. Shi investigated the entire length of the cell, touching everything and sniffing what he didn't touch, until he stalked back to where she stood.

"Nothing I could find." He stood close enough that they touched, and took her arm, examining it carefully. "Kiddo, I—"

"It's all right." She removed herself from his grasp. "I'm fine."

"It needs stitches."

"I heal quick, remember?"

He growled, and stopped as she shifted, looking nervous. "What?"

Chandre stood completely still, and closed her eyes. An acrid coppery taste filled the back of her throat, like blood, only drier, snapping like electricity—it was magic. And it was getting closer.

Shi hadn't found any booby traps in the cell either, but if there really was a vampire . . . she had thought that they couldn't shift through doorways, but since she didn't see anything beyond a few stains on the walls, then perhaps the bones of other victims had been carted out somehow.

"What if the vampire isn't the only creature in this place?" Chandre asked, opening her eyes. Shi had watched her patiently, standing close while she thought.

His eyebrows shot up. "What if? Then we're pretty much screwed. What did you bring?"

"My daggers. My sword. Your gun."

"That's it."

"That's it. Unless you want to include yourself in the inventory."

He swore. "What were you thinking? We brought two backpacks full of stuff."

She had left them back in the bedroom. "Nothing else works against a vampire—"

"But if there's something else—"

"My sword and your bullets can handle it. Besides, I have matches too."

He gave a bark of laughter. "Yeah, so we can burn the house down."

"And a baggie of salt."

He looked more interested. "Enough to make a circle?"

"A small circle."

"Anything else you wish to tell me?"

"Some chalk."

He stared at her. "Then why didn't you list it when I asked you?"

She smirked, just to piss him off. "Chalk don't kill a vampire."

He growled, and stalked away. She felt the thing coming towards them shift, pause, and start forwards. Perhaps it had only sensed one of them, since they had been standing so close together? It wasn't as painful as being near that vampire had been, but then maybe the vampire could mask its power? This didn't feel like it, though. This was newer, fresh magic tainted with old blood—

Shi fell to his knees with a groan, and she whirled. His back rippled, and bones popped and snapped, but there was nothing attacking him. He was Changing. Again. And he could have warned her first.

Stepping close to him, she unsheathed her sword, and watched as something slithered through a hole in the wall that just . . . appeared. At her side, Shi growled, and the creature stepped back, hissing.

It was pale and naked—hair fell about its shoulders, almost covering its blood-red eyes and red stained teeth, and its claws were long and yellow. Once it had been human. Now . . . now, it was something else.