As Masha pulled into the warehouse parking lot she glanced at the clock on the dash again. Over forty-five minutes late. She hated to leave Davrosh and the others waiting like this but the sight of Shannon on the ground, desperate and helpless, had nearly broken her. As ashamed as she was to have caved in to sentiment and interfered where she knew she shouldn't, she was even more ashamed of the intense internal debate it had taken her before doing so. She was becoming hardened, and though she probably should have spent some time examining why, she had to set aside her existential crisis for the time being. The hard truth was she didn't have time for any of it right now, Shannon's grief or her own remorse. She pushed her feelings away and got out of the car.
The dark silence of the warehouse hadn't set off any alarm bells on its own, and Masha had been too lost in her own head to think about properly checking the area. But the second the car door closed Masha knew something was very wrong. The building wasn't the only still thing; the breezeless night held an unnatural emptiness. Every living thing in the building's radius had fled, as far as Masha could tell. The building itself felt like a hole in the world, as if it did not exist but was merely a painting, an illusion of some sort. Her friends should have been waiting for her inside but she couldn't feel anything coming from the structure. She quieted herself and reached out with her senses, she should have at least been able to feel Davrosh regardless of where he was, but there was nothing, just a menacing hush where things should be. She knew she should probably leave, this was the way stupid humans in horror films died, but there was no telling if Davrosh and the others were inside, if they were in trouble, or if they needed her help. She braced herself and headed towards the entrance.
Shannon opened the duffel to find a dozen or so chilled bags of whole blood. Most of the labels were marked with large "O"s but two had "A"s on them. He briefly wondered if they tasted differently before fishing out an "O" and handing it to Jared, who sat on the edge of the bed staring at the dark hotel carpeting. He hadn't said a word, not in the ambulance, or while Shannon was trying to convince the doctors he was just stunned and needed to go back to the hotel to rest, or in the car on the drive back. He just kept staring, his blue eyes almost unblinking. It was scaring the hell out of Shannon. What if Masha had intervened too late? What if there wasn't enough of Jared to come back?
"You need to drink that," he said to Jared, trying to sound as firm and sure of himself as possible under the circumstances. "She said you need to drink most of these. You'd better get started." Jared shifted his gaze to the cool pouch but made no move to open or consume it. Shannon rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. He felt like he had aged ten years in the last hour. "Jay, please..."
He knelt in front of Jared, taking his younger brother's hands while he tried not to let his voice shake. "I called Mom. I told her you were okay, that you'd just been stunned by the fall." Jared finally looked at Shannon for the first time since arriving at the hotel, but his face was flat and unreadable. Shannon did not find it reassuring. "Don't make me have lied to her." Shannon pleaded.
Jared didn't respond further, didn't seem to really understand anything that was going on at all. Shannon took the bag back from him and examined it, trying to figure out the best way to get at its contents before opening the long tube at the end. He gave the bag a squeeze and a tiny amount flowed out. It wasn't much but maybe it would be enough to get Jared's appetite started. "Hey look," he told him, sounding a bit like a parent trying to get his toddler to eat some mashed peas. "It's got its own straw. It's like a big vampire Capri Sun. You liked those when we were kids. Remember Jenny Margolis's birthday party?" They had been eleven and twelve years old and had started a food fight by squirting the drink packets at each other. In the end, once the other kids had joined in, there was birthday cake and melted ice cream everywhere, and their mother was called to come pick them up and take them home immediately. They never were invited over again, but they regretted nothing. It had been hilarious. He took the tube and placed it in Jared's mouth, giving it a little squeeze. When Jared finally started drinking Shannon was so relieved he almost cried.
The minute Masha opened the door impressions rushed in on her, flooding her senses, most of them profoundly bad. The abrupt change told her she had just broken a magical seal and she wondered who had left it. There was a possibility that it had been erected by one of the hexen Davrosh always traveled with, to protect whoever was inside. It was equally possible that it was hiding an ambush. She tried to make sense of the tangle of scents and impressions that deluged her, there were traces of fear and anger but it was mostly overrun with the cloying scent of Moroi blood and the feeling of death. She reached out further. With a start, she realized she was not alone. Her senses were overwhelmed and the presences were muted, but she could tell there were others inside.
Carefully she advanced through the cavernous darkness. Her stomach grew sick as her eyes adjusted, lighting on a dark tangle of figures in the center of the wide concrete floor. A few more cautious steps forward left her surveying what was left of Riva and Metz, a pair of Moroi that she had worked with many times in her years with the Underground. Of course they had died together, inches apart, Riva probably trying with his last breath to touch the other vampire one final time. Both their heads had been removed and placed at their feet, leaving no doubt that the killer knew who and what they were dealing with. Masha was pretty sure they wanted whoever found them to know that too. She couldn't help but wonder when it had happened. Had they been waiting for her to show, waiting for reinforcements that never came? Had her decision to stop to help the brothers who had so unexpectedly tugged at her heart cost her friends their lives?
She pushed the thoughts away, knowing there was no time to indulge in self-recrimination. Masha stilled herself to listen for the others that she now knew were there. She tried to pinpoint the impressions but they stayed just out of her reach, as if her senses were so swamped she couldn't sort it out further. After a long moment, she caught the tiniest scurrying noise, so small it could be a rat, coming from behind a door. As she moved closer to it the cloying scent of spilled vampiric blood grew stronger again. Steeling herself, she pulled it open.
Her knees nearly gave out when she found what waited inside. Davrosh. Masha had been afraid it would be him. Her progenitor, mentor, and protector for the last four decades lay in a bloody heap over several crates, his pale skin luminescent against the warehouse's darkness. She rolled him onto his back on the floor to better assess the damage. A quick examination told her he needed blood and a lot of it, but he was still alive. While she contemplated the second blood bank robbery of her night she realized there were other scents in the small room, something Davrosh's spilled blood had covered up. Her brain flashed through the scene again, Riva and Metz lying on the large warehouse floor, no one else in sight, Davrosh left behind, bloodied, incapacitated but alive and with no other signs of a struggle. He had been protecting something, masking it with his body and blood, she was sure of it. The other presences felt stronger in this room too, not just Davrosh. Masha tore open the crates but found only machine parts inside, useless hunks of metal in protective packaging. She realized she was reacting in a sort of blind panic, desperate to undo what she was increasingly sure was her own fault. She had tried to remedy one past error just to pile on another, possibly worse one. She quieted herself again, hoping for another audible clue. The scratching came again, louder this time, directly beneath her. Shoving the crates aside, she discovered a small hatch in the floor which she flung open without hesitation. Four amber eyes stared back at her from the darkness. She understood now what had gone wrong.
Shannon stepped back out of the bathroom, tossing the damp towel next to the bed where Jared was still sleeping. Once he had gotten him to start drinking it had been all Shannon could do to keep the bags coming fast enough. After finishing as many as Masha had instructed, Jared had laid down without a word and gone straight off to sleep. At least Shannon assumed it was sleep. He really didn't seem to be breathing. Taking his phone in hand, Shannon settled into the adjoining bed and set about trying to put out the fires this whole mess had started.
Without a phone or money at the hospital (they'd been in the middle of a damn show after all), he had been hard pressed to get away but had fortunately found a young woman who recognized them and was eager to help. She hadn't seemed too put off by Jared's silence. She had simply driven them back to their hotel, where Shannon gathered his and Jared's things, and then helped him find this little dive motel where, with any luck, no one would find them anytime soon. He had kept her name and number, he was going to have to do something nice to thank her once everything settled down, but right now his focus was on Jared.
Once they had checked in and he got Jared to drink, the phone calls and lying began. So much of it, he was sure he hadn't kept the story straight and sooner or later someone was going to bust it wide open, but for now, at least. they had some peace and quiet. Hopefully, it would last long enough for Jared to pull out of whatever sort of mending stage he was going through now. The sooner that happened the better. He needed to talk to Jared again. He had never felt so alone.
As he checked his phone, he found most of the waiting messages were simply notes of concern and support. He began texting back those who couldn't wait. Yes, Jared was fine. Banged up, bruised and sore and needing rest but he would fine in a few days. They were just avoiding the media circus, please don't be concerned, etc. Unsurprisingly some people were pretty pissed that they had gone into hiding. There were demands for phone calls to be returned immediately but Shannon had no idea what he would even say. He was sure there was going to be some sort of official inquiry to face and he had no idea how he was going to deal with any of that. He needed Jared to wake up. He needed Masha to come back. He needed help and he had no idea where it would be coming from.
Shannon sat the phone down and flipped on the small motel room television. He was equal parts wired and exhausted, but as the adrenaline crash took hold, his eyes started to droop and he began to find the sleep he so desperately craved. As he felt his breathing slow and his limbs grow heavy, the movie changed from the old Bond film he had turned on to "The Lost Boys". He threw his pillow at the TV so hard it sent it crashing to the ground.
Deep in the small hidden cellar, Masha looked at the small still form of a young woman who lay unconscious at the feet of the pair of adolescent girls clutching each other in the darkness. She bent down to examine her more closely, taking in her light brown hair and delicate features, but she did not recognize her. There were three other people that she did know, that should have been at the meeting that weren't here, and she could sense no one else in the warehouse. She would have to do a sweep of the building to be sure, but more immediately she needed to secure the survivors.
She wasn't sure how they ended up with the sisters. Whispers wasn't supposed to have had any of his so called shipments coming in before next week, and his people were the only ones operating in this area that she was aware of. Of course anyone that could have answered that question for her was either unconscious, dead or missing. The girls would be no help, and it was likely whoever had wreaked all this havoc would be back. She told the girls to stay put and closed the door, replacing the camouflaging crates just in case she was interrupted. She left one empty and dragged it back out to the main warehouse floor, where she sadly stowed Riva and Metz's remains. She then loaded the crate into the cargo area of the SUV and laid out a tarp she could put Davrosh on. Once they were all loaded and covered, she quickly she went back inside to sweep the building. As she suspected, she found no one. She cleaned up the traces of Moroi blood as best she could under the circumstances and turned her attention back to to the mysterious cellar and its occupants.
Entering the underground hiding place she again examined the mysterious woman. There was no reason she could determine for her lack of consciousness, but as hard as she tried she could not wake her. With a sigh of frustration she scooped her up, intending to load her into the truck along with the others, but when she lifted her something fell from her hand and shattered on the floor. The air in the small space seemed to shimmer briefly, then coalesce and fall like a curtain cut loose from its hangings. Alarmed, she realized she had broken whatever protection spell had been hiding the three girls. She had found Davrosh's missing hexe. And now that they were exposed, she could feel Whispers's goons, lurking very close by. She had to get everyone out of there before they started feeling her back.
Barely swallowing her panic she hurried the girls up the stairs. They followed mutely, arms tangled around each other the entire way. She quickly loaded everyone into the truck, lying the young hexe down on the back seat next to the shaking sisters. Just as she closed the rear gate one of the girls let out an ethereal shriek so powerful it almost knocked the wind from her. Turning quickly, Masha spotted four figures emerging from the woods lining the edge of the warehouse lot. The terror in the girls' faces and the speed at which the figures moved told her all she needed to know. She bolted into the driver's seat and sped away as quickly as she could go, leaving the advancing forces with nothing but a spray of gravel.
Somewhere just before dawn, Shannon rolled over in bed to find Jared standing a foot away from the motel room door, staring at it, still as death. With a groan, Shannon sat up in the bed.
"Jay, you have got to stop doing this spooky ass shit, I can't take much more."
"Sorry.," he responded without turning away. It was the first word Jared had spoken since the fall. "I don't know what I'm doing."
Shannon wasn't sure if he meant he didn't know why he was staring at the door or he was just generally confused, but it didn't matter to him. His brother was talking again. "Do you need anything? There's some more blood left. I put it in the mini-fridge." There was no further response. Shannon stayed on the bed, watching as Jared turned his head from side to side as if he saw something much more profound than just an ugly yellow security door. After about ten minutes of this, Shannon grabbed his pillow and began stretching himself back out on the lumpy bed, settling in for what he assumed would be a long watch. He was back up in an instant when Jared abruptly jumped back from the door.
"What the hell? What's..." he was interrupted by a forceful pounding on the opposite side of the door. He was about to say something else when Jared was suddenly on top of him, clamping his hand over his mouth and staring wildly into his eyes.
"Little pig, little pig....." The singsonging voice on the other side of the door was low and dripping with menace. Shannon tried to wiggle out from under his brother but Jared had him pinned too firmly. Jared looked down at him and shook his head.
"Oh come come now, little pig, I know you're in there. Smelled you all the way from the road." Whatever was on the other side of the door made a lewd sucking noise. Someone else laughed. With a shudder, Shannon wondered which one of them was supposed to be the pig.
Whoever was on the other side of the door began pounding again. "Aw, piggy is scared. Come on little pig, let me in. I'll be good. I promise." This was followed by more laughs. Shannon desperately tried to free himself from Jared; being pinned and helpless was just making him feel more afraid, but Jared just pushed him further into the mattress. The mysterious visitors moved to the window, tapping loudly, making Shannon feel like a goldfish trapped in a tiny bowl. He was acutely aware there was nowhere to escape to, the only exits were the ones their menacing visitors already had covered. All he could do was hope whoever it was got bored and went away. The preternatural terror on Jared's face told him that, if they ever got inside, whatever was waiting on the other side of that door was not something they were going to be able to fight their way through.
"Open the fucking door!!!" Something large and solid connected with the metal so forcefully that Shannon could feel the bed shake. Jesus Christ, what was out there? What if it battered the door open? It certainly sounded capable. "Fucking piece of shit Moroi, one of you has my toys, and I'm not going to stand for any fucking THIEVERY!" The voice had reached an unnatural timbre, somewhere between a growl and a scream. The surge of terror Shannon felt at the sound seemed pulled up from a place of buried instinct. A few more impacts on the door punctuated the aggressive declaration. Moroi. They wanted Jared. They probably had no idea he was only just born, knew probably less than they did about whatever the hell was going on.
"Come on little pig," the voice on the other side of the door had changed timbre again, approximating what it probably thought was a soothing, reassuring tone. It missed the mark completely. "If you help me out I promise I'll let you and your little snack go. I know you don't have my girls in there. I just want them back, that's all. Just a little info, something so I can find what's already mine."
Shannon could hear pacing outside as they waited for a response. Jared removed his hand from over Shannon's' mouth but put his finger to his lips to tell him to stay silent. Moving with a sinewy grace Shannon was sure he hadn't possessed yesterday, Jared stepped off of the bed and crept to the window. He looked through the crack in the curtains for a minute then signaled back to Shannon with three fingers. Suddenly the visitor on the other side of the door gave out a roar of frustration that caused Jared to do another backward jump. He began pounding on the window, shouting in a language that Shannon couldn't identify. He was certain they would breach the room at any minute and he couldn't find anything more menacing to hold them off with than a cell phone or a pillow. Then the pounding and shouting stopped and everything went silent.
The brothers stayed in place, too afraid to move, listening to the quiet early morning noises of the hotel. When nothing else seemed to be happening, Jared finally checked the window crack again.
"Gone," he reported. "There's no one out there."
"What the hell? Where did they go?" Shannon got up from the bed and went to check the window himself. Outside the motel, the oil spotted parking lot was empty save for a few cars and an elderly pickup truck. The sun was rising just behind an overflowing dumpster. There was no sign anyone was out there or had been there in hours. He turned around to see Jared sitting on the edge of the bed, head in hands.
"Shan, what happened to me?