The door opens into a stairwell. I start to run down it based on the sheer fact that most people keep their prisoners in the basement. When we come to a door, I stop Seth and listen. I don't hear a thing, not even a heartbeat, so I move on. We do this for a couple floors, and now easily, at least 10 minutes have passed, and I'm growing angrier by the second. This was meant to be quick. They have probably already moved her by now.
We come to another door, and it reeks of Amara. I instantly rip it open and jump in. Adonis and I both let out a snarl when we find it empty. I turn and see a huge pool of blood on the wall next to the door, a bunch of shattered ceramic under it. That would be why this room reeks of her, and now they would know she was pregnant. It would have been foul tasting if they tried to drink her blood. Pregnancy hormones turn blood rancid tasting to vampires. It's the fetus's way of protecting its mother against an attack.
Her scent is so potent everywhere it's hard to get a distinct trail. I can tell she put up a fight. Someone else's blood is on the floor right outside a cage, and a different person's blood is in the cage. Then there's a trail of blood leading out the door, but her scent is too faint there for her to have left that way.
I hear bones crunching and see Seth shift into his wolf form, so his sense of smell is heightened. I do the same, noting another syringe on the floor a few feet before her scent fades. I sniff around, anxiously pawing at anything in my way, when I see a trap door. I shift back, opening the door and finding a set of stairs. Seth sees me and instantly follows. I can track her scent along with three others. We follow it as fast as we can, knowing they probably ran and would have made it a reasonable distance away by now. Bloodsuckers are fast.
We keep following until her scent just...stops. We shift back, and Seth lets out a growl as he throws me an empty bottle of anti-scent spray. No! I punch the wall, the stone cracking, and probably my hand too, but I couldn't care less. I shift into Adonis, hoping to pick something up in this form. I follow the tunnel, but it spits us out into a network of tunnels.
'Seth, go get all the warriors down here. We don't leave until every single tunnel is searched.' I mindlink him. His wolf gives a curt nod before he takes off in the other direction, back to the warehouse.
I sniff the entire area for any hint of a scent, but I get nothing. Feeling hopeless, I pick a random tunnel and run down it, all senses on alert. It goes on forever but eventually leads to a dead end. I run back, intending to pick another but find a few of my warriors, also in wolf form, sniffing around.
'Update?' I ask Luke via mindlink
'There were roughly a thousand vampires and a demon. When we tried to capture him, the demon did that spiriting away thing you guys do. But we at least kept two vampires alive. Queen Aylin spirited them away to the cells, saying she'll take care of them. I'd hate to be them,' he says, shuddering.
'Thank you, and thank you for coming down here. I already searched that tunnel. We need to mark the ones already searched.' I say
'No need to thank me, Alpha. And will do. I saw a can of spray paint upstairs somewhere.' he says, sauntering off, I assume to get the spray paint.
I go to carve an x in the dirt of the tunnel I already searched, then I realize he said, 'That spiriting away thing you guys do.' I didn't dwell on it for long. I didn't try to hide any of my portaling in my rage. I will have to make that announcement and officially come out to the pack sooner rather than later. It's at the bottom of my priority list, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We searched all throughout the night. I sent warriors home, portaling them myself when Azrael or Armaros wasn't available, and brought in fresh warriors. So far, none of these tunnels lead to anything except dead ends, woods, or more tunnel networks. We marked the ones that went to open woods and other networks with different colored spray paint so we could search the area after clearing this network.
I have no idea what time it is now or how many hours I've been searching when Armaros and Seth, who refused to leave as vehemently as I did, come up to me.
"We've been at this for over twelve hours. We all need to get some rest. The warriors will link you if they find anything, but you will be in no position to fight for her if you don't get some sleep," Armaros says. I note the pair of sweatpants in his arm.
I sigh inwardly, utterly defeated. How can I sleep when she and our child are still out there, enduring Selene knows what? But they're right; I'm exhausted. I shift back, my head hanging for the first time in my adult life, as I pull on the sweatpants. Seth claps me on the shoulder.
"We're gonna find her, brother. The pack will not rest until we do. Even if we don't, The Gods and Goddesses will intervene before they can make her do anything to destroy the world. They chose her for a reason," he says
I find that hard to believe, but that, along with these tunnels, is the only hope I have to go off of. I only nod, not speaking, before I grab him and portal us home into the living room. Armaros shows up a couple seconds later and eyes the syringe I threw on the coffee table in my haste to find them. Fuck, I almost forgot about that. It's only going to be helpful if I get her back.
'When. When we get her back. There is no other option,' Adonis says; again, I'm silent. He can hear my thoughts; there's no point in going down that road.
"That's the syringe they used to sedate her. Do you think your medical crew can find an antidote? I had my warriors pick up another one for my own team to work on," I ask him. He nods, picking it up.
"Yes, I'll take this to them now," he says before he disappears.
I walk up to our room, showering quickly. Then I grab the pillow that still smells of her, even though it's faint, and a blanket before heading to my office. I don't protest when her cat follows me and curls up on my chest as soon as I lay on the couch. I set an alarm for four hours, deciding I'll portal back as soon as I wake up and keep looking.