He wanted to find her again, ask her questions and see if she really might be like him, a superhuman. But he had blown it. In his panic, he had threatened her with her life if she ever disturbed him again. He wanted to smack himself for being so shortsighted. If it was remotely possible she was a hybrid human like him and the other eleven here, she would need them sooner or later. Surviving in the outside world alone was not a life for anyone. But neither was imprisonment in the underground city of Vida.

He rolled over in bed, still baffled by April. How had she survived the nightly rampages of crazed, zombified vampires? No, there had to be some reasonable explanation for her survival. Maybe there was another human habitat nearby. Maybe. Regardless of the reason, he was going to find out. He would rest first, then seek out the girl in the dead city above to ask her those very questions.

Elijah relaxed in the room’s silence. Nothing but the hum of the air conditioner filled the emptiness that hovered over him so many nights. He couldn’t think about the thousands of pounds of dirt above his head. He tried not to think about the hungry, crazed mouths that snapped their jaws at him every time he ascended into the city. Their deteriorating and rotting faces were emblazoned in his mind for all of eternity, never to be forgotten. How could he forget? The epidemic had taken everything with it. All his family, all his friends, all gone in no time at all. He’d put many of them down himself and had waited impatiently for the virus to come and consume him, too. When that didn’t happen and the change did not come, he’d been left confused, riddled with despair and regret.

The only reason he was even here and alive in this underground prison sanctuary was because he had been working as an usher for a show at the Wynn. He had passed by the casino in the middle of the chaos in the hopes of grabbing any familiar faces before fleeing the city forever. Instead, he had found his former boss waving him down and begging him to follow. The executives had a safe place for those who were uninfected.

Curious, he had filed in behind everyone else, walking down long corridors and halls with endless twists and turns. He had been in awe that the electricity still worked down there, where the air was so cold and the smell of paint and cement clung to the walls and pipes. All the way down through specially built tunnels, stairs and reinforced door after door, he had finally found himself in the underground city of Vida. It was breathtaking how big it was. Stores and stores of food and necessities in warehouse-like room after room, each filled to the ceiling. Large greenhouses with artificial lights surrounded the main eating area, making it seem as though they were just a stone’s throw away from the natural greenery of the outside world.

Yet it was a desert and death outside, and the artificial emerald green of the vegetation being raised and cared for here looked false and out of place to him. He was used to the sand, dirt, rocks and desert shrubs surrounding Las Vegas.

It wasn’t until the doors were locked behind them—once everyone was processed, pictures taken, names recorded and blood tests taken to ensure that no one was infected—that he had realize he was trapped. No one could leave. No one else was let in. The infected were taken elsewhere, where they were probably exterminated right before they turned. It was something he had never dug into too deeply.

This sanctuary was vast, but not vast enough to keep him from feeling the suffocating panic that had settled into his chest and made him make a mad dash back the way he had come, only to find the doors sealed and guarded with armed men dressed in black uniforms and machine guns aimed at his heart. He had backed away, knowing he was weaponless himself and in no position to take down the armed men. Memorizing every exit, hallway and tunnel in the place, he knew he’d escape one day, somehow. He had to. This was no way to live. It was a tomb, a fortified suspension of life.

When the time had come to do Katrina’s bidding outside the underground, he had earned her trust and had made his worth obvious as a leader, a warrior, a fighter. It had been a blessing in its own right. The time spent down below, trapped in the unrelenting underground, had taken its toll on him. Agoraphobia seemed to have taken hold of everyone and no one dared wander too far from the boundaries of Vida. Not even Elijah. The furthest he had made it was the Palms Casino, where he had taken up residence when he could. He had the chance to run now, but had never taken the first step to do so. What had kept him there, so frozen, so afraid?

Chapter Thirteen

Down the Rabbit Hole

April

NOW, TO SNEAK away to the underground. But how to accomplish such a feat? That’s what I wanted to know. Rye wasn’t making it easy. He appeared suspicious every time I headed near the door or attempted to leave the vampire hive without him or Miranda. Was he on to me already? Probably so, since I had hastily dropped Jeremy off with him and had left without inviting him out whenever I went map hunting with Miranda and a few times before and after that. I suspected that he had interrogated her about our activities that day, but she was true to her word and had said nothing.

I hated leaving him in the dark about it all, but I couldn’t let him ruin my plans to check out the underground city before I even got there. No. I would put up with him as long as I had to and get down there. I would get to the bottom of this rumor. But I had to do it without him holding me back. So he remained in the dark about it.

For now, I waited. I waited as the days went by painstakingly slow, waiting for the right moment. I dropped by the hive almost every day, and every day Rye was there, waiting for me and making sure he knew everywhere I went. I had to find a way to sneak away. I hated leaving Jeremy at home with my mother, who remained locked up in the storage room. But it was looking like I was going to have to do that to get enough time to investigate the casino.

So that’s what I did. I invited Miranda to come stay with Jeremy for me while Helen remained locked up. For once I felt hope, the promise of something more in the heart of the city of Las Vegas.

~~~~~

I WATCHED JEREMY wave to me from the entrance of the bunker before he ducked back inside with Miranda and locked the door. Gripping the steering wheel tightly, I sat for a moment, twisting my hands around the rippled plastic, feeling the sweat building up on my palms. I could do this, right? I rarely felt so much doubt. I had to do this. I needed to. It felt like a compulsion so deep within to follow the road to the underground city to find the other humans.

Yet here I was, frozen in the driver’s seat of my Jeep, waiting for a push from some outside force to make me go. A push that would never come. I was still surprised that Miranda had not offered to go with me. She had given me a knowing look when I had left, telling her I needed to blow off steam and go for a nice scavenging through the city by myself. She never probed further, letting me go without even a word of warning. It was easy with her. She knew I didn’t want to elaborate and left it at that.

I let out my breath slowly, giving myself a pep talk and willing my foot to press on the gas. The car moved out slowly, as if it knew what to do by itself. I accelerated down the road and onto the highway, relieved that I was moving. The first step is the hardest, I thought as the asphalt sped by faster and faster. I was determined, and I knew that it was not going to be easy.

There were miles, literally miles of tunnels under the Wynn, under Las Vegas, actually. I couldn’t tell exactly where they all ended up, but I suspected that at the end of one of them was a door that led farther and deeper into the ground. I was hoping there were not going to be too many feral vampires lurking about, especially since I was calculating that the human clan had probably already cleared them out of that particular casino. Still, every night was an invitation to the ferals to come inside and have a look around. New real estate. Maybe even the scent of human blood lured them in, who knew?

I gulped, hoping the humans were not aggressive. What if they were? They could kill me on site if they really wanted to. Then my brother and mother would be none the wiser of my fate, would they? Whatever happened to April? Who knows? For once I was more afraid of the unknown than the feral vampires themselves.

I shook the morbid thoughts from my head. It was grinding on my nerves, which I definitely didn’t need, especially at this moment, when my doubt was at its greatest. My drive to the Wynn had gone quickly. I was almost dreading reaching the doors. I pulled into the garage where there was an entrance near the underground labyrinth that would soon be my mission to explore. It was relatively deserted, except for some stray cars and litter scattered into the corners of the concrete walls, propelled there by the rough winds of springtime. If any city should be called windy city, it should have been Vegas. It was never-ending here. Always kicking up dust and debris all over the place, flaring up my allergies. It was relentless. It was one reason I had wanted to leave this God-forsaken town after I turned eighteen.

It sure didn’t look like I was ever going to be able to leave now. Where would I even go? Would it be any different from this ghost-town of a wasteland? It was highly doubtful.

Parking the car, I glanced around, watching for movement from the garage and the building itself. The windows of the hotel were one-way mirrors, reflecting back the multitude of floors of the garage. I strapped on the loose weapons I had brought on the passenger side of my car. Flashlights strewn across my chest along with a bandoleer of knives, which sat snug across my shirt. I chose two short katanas, easy to carry for they joined together into a short staff. I was hoping it would be enough to deal with ferals and humans alike. It was small enough to carry, but long enough to cause some serious damage further than an arm’s reach. I secured them and then slipped on a flashlight headband to light my way and keep my hands free, smoothing back my hair under it. My long, black tresses were in a tight, low ponytail today. I thought I looked like a Christmas tree. But it was all in the name of vision.

I hoped I wasn’t as noticeable to the humans with the lights. At least I had a quick shut off button in case I heard anyone. Slipping a loop of thin rope onto a clasp on my belt, I closed the door and stared at the double doors down a cement bridge that connected the garage to the building. I hoped the building was not rigged with traps. That would majorly suck.

It’s now or never, I thought.

I puffed out my breath, rounding my cheeks like a chipmunk as I tried to control it. Who knew what was in there? Whatever it was, I was about to find out. I headed to the doors and peeked at their exterior. They looked undisturbed, and I prayed they were unlocked. A slow shove on the thick, tinted glass responded with a slight whoosh as the doors swung open and my intrusion sucked the air in like a vacuum. It was air tight and smelled of mustiness and old things. I took one last breath of the fresh breeze outside and slipped into the dusty darkness.

It was slow going, even though I had memorized the map. It had been difficult to read, being that it included all sorts of information on pipes and walls that looked all so unfamiliar to me. I was not an architect, and it had cost me. I had resorted to hand drawing myself a map of the labyrinth below after familiarizing myself with the ground-floor layout of the casino. I reached the stairs rather quickly and descended down into the main floor, keeping my ears on alert for any noise.

Dust floated across my beams of light, clogging up the rays and making the visibility short. I cursed as I made my way along the walls, dodging upturned chairs and garbage littering the dirty carpet. It looked like some flood waters had made it into this area; the floor felt gritty and was caked with drying mud. For the most part, it had dried in scattered puddles, leaving the floor incredibly messy but undisturbed. That meant no ferals had treaded on this mud at all. I took it as a good sign but did not let up my guard.

It didn’t take too long before I made it past two dealer pits and dozens of slot machines and began to notice the familiar raunchy odor that had permeated my nostrils many times. I readied my katanas, hoping to find the lurking ferals before they found me. I snorted, knowing full well I was lit up like the apple in Times Square, a perfect shining beacon to pinpoint my spot.

Before long, I could hear it coming. One scrawny straggler, inching its way toward me like a tiger focused on prey. I must have looked incredibly savory, for it ignored the beaming lights blinding its searing red eyes and headed right toward me. For a half-starved beast, it was incredibly fast, its body looking bony and malnourished. A growl snarled through its withered lips, exposing rotting teeth and fangs. I took a quick step back before arching my sword right across its neck, sending its head tumbling and spraying ink-black blood across the cracked, muddy floor. Its body was left to twitch its last moments away near my feet. I dodged the puddle it had created near me and crept farther down the walls of the silent casino.

One down, how many more to go?

Another rounded the corner and stumbled toward me. This one was also withered but not as badly as the first one. Its wild red eyes glared hungrily, wanting nothing more than to rip into me. Its lips curled back, fangs glinting in the light of my flashlights. I let it scurry toward me before swiping one of the katanas across its body, watching as it sliced through easily, sending a spray of blood straight up and out, smacking into the roof and leaving a dripping splatter above me. It tumbled to the floor but continued to creep along the floor with its legs and one good arm. It reached out to me, fingers desperately curling in and out to grasp my clothes. I chopped the arm off and swung my sword one more time to decapitate the creature. I dodged the drips and was already past the body as it finally stopped writhing on the filthy carpet.

That was easy enough.

The trek through the darkness wasn’t as nerve-wracking as I would’ve thought. I’d done this too many times to feel the fear penetrate any longer. It was still there though, checked into a hidden crevice in my mind and ready to pounce out if needed. But it was no longer my master, and I was no longer a slave to it. It wasn’t the vampires that scared me; there were much more frightening things lurking in the darkness. Like humans. I hoped I could get in and out as fast as possible, only observing what I would find. If they were friendly, so be it. If not, well, I would deal with that as it came.