As the sun continued to set, we swooped through the entrance.
The birds landed gently, miraculously not running into each other despite our close quarters. Bravi slid from her redbill, and I followed in a clunky movement. I looked around with a frown, wondering if this musty tunnel would really suit our purposes. The birds hopped farther into the tunnel. The non-feathered members of our group followed. The redbills seemed oddly chipper. It was a strange look on a man-eating bird of prey.
Bravi caught my curious look at our avian friends.
“You’ll see,” she said.
Suddenly, the tunnel opened up. The mineshaft had been shored up, expanded, and turned into a large central chamber. I craned my neck and realized the chamber connected to a series of other tunnels with cloth-draped doors. Ventilation shafts presumably led outdoors. I spotted a pile of wood in an old makeshift fire pit placed below one of the shafts to allow the smoke to escape. This place had already been prepared for habitation.
The furniture was obviously foraged, most of it mismatched. Some looked like it had been abandoned before reaching its current home. Even the mattresses, which looked dirty and stained. Well, maybe beggars couldn’t be choosers, but I might bunk down on the ground instead.
“We’ve stayed here before,” Dorian said as he gestured for us to gather. His voice made heat crawl onto my face. It sounded strong and reliable, despite the circumstances. “We won’t be bothered here.”
“You’re sure?” Gina asked.
I couldn’t blame her skepticism. Zach was literally on one leg at this point. Judging from the fresh blood on the dressing, it seemed the hurried retreat had torn at least one of his stitches.
“Yes. This mountain is abandoned and often inaccessible due to the treacherous conditions. There are quite a few hard-to-reach redbill colonies here, which should mask our auras. We believe the Bureau doesn’t bother to hunt down redbills in this area.”
“They wouldn’t know to look in caves,” Bryce announced suddenly. He tapped his chin, rubbing it in thought. “I’ve certainly never heard of a redbill in a cave. It’s just speculation, but I don’t think the Bureau scanners can penetrate rock when it’s particularly dense. Which means we shouldn’t linger near the entrance.”
“Interesting,” Dorian muttered. His eyes glittered.
It was a face I’d seen before when he first learned about human technologies. I hoped we would soon have time alone to talk about everything that had happened.
“You’ve managed to develop technology that goes through stone?” he asked.
“Some stone,” Bryce corrected.
I glanced at our gathered group. An odd bunch, to be sure. The vampires that had decided to come with us were the unsettling twins Myndra and Sabal, Gavril, Oleah, Hart, and the one with the thin lips and eerily pale blue eyes who reminded me of a sleazy businessman. Behind this group, I could see three elderly vampires hunched against the cold, a woman cradling a baby inside her dusty dark blue cloak, two adolescent girls, and the older male vampire who had gone scouting with Lex that morning. Arlonne, her dark curly hair standing wild, stood the farthest from the humans. She had yet to speak a single word to any of us.
Bryce and Dorian wrapped up their conversation. Good, because I was officially in strategy mode. We needed to figure out this hiding situation.
“Dorian, what about the cold?” I asked him. The tunnels were drafty, despite sheltering us from the snowy wind, and a sharp chill pervaded the room. He frowned thoughtfully but didn’t look at me. If I wasn’t mistaken, he was deliberately trying not to. I resisted thinking of how handsome I found him even when he refused to look at me. Just when I thought I was making progress.
“We’ll stay close to one another,” he said evenly. “And we’ll find some fuel for the fire.” There was absolutely no invitation in his voice, which did not go unnoticed.
“I doubt you lot are much comfort from the cold,” Bryce said, with a wry smile at me. He meant well, but it was a not-so-gentle reminder that everyone knew about the mess between Dorian and me.
I shrugged, letting the comment roll off me. There were bigger things to worry about than my personal embarrassment.
We were all shaken after the flight. When Bravi and Sike began to move, I followed to see how I could help prepare the space. I helped Gina with Zach, pulling him onto a dusty couch so he could rest.
“These peaks are so high they’ve got snow even though it’s summer,” Zach said in delirious disgust. “We might starve, but at least we’ll be able to find some melted run-off or be able to gather some snow for drinking water.”
“If Kane was here, he’d say it’s your turn to starve,” Bravi said. The corners of her lips turned up with sardonic amusement.
The joke fell flat. Although I could see the humor of the thought, it served as a reminder of what we’d lost. For the vampires, I imagined, even more so.
Rhome stood several feet away from us, but I could see his distraught face. He stared at the tunnel we’d come through as if expecting his family to walk in any minute. Dorian clapped a hand on his shoulder. I glanced the other way for a moment as they spoke, trying not to listen in on their quiet conversation. Zach had come with me, but Rhome’s family had chosen another path. Poor Rhome. He was understandably upset.
“I shouldn’t have let them go,” Rhome muttered. “I shouldn’t have let her take the children into the Immortal Plane.”
“Kreya knows the Immortal Plane is dangerous,” Dorian whispered. “But it was her decision. You did your best, short of attacking her. And I know you wouldn’t want Detra and Carwin to see that.”
“We could go there,” Rhome suggested. “Get them to come back now that we’re hidden again.”
Dorian’s gaze grew stony and severe. “Rhome, we wouldn’t even know where to start looking.”
“It’s my fault,” Rhome said and shuddered. “I’m worried they won’t be able to find me if Kreya has a change of heart and goes back to the Canyonlands.”
The image of Kreya grabbing her children, snarling at Rhome as she fled, was burned into my mind. I wasn’t sure she was coming back anytime soon.
Feeling guilty, I broke away from their conversation to help Gina re-stitch Zach’s wound and put on fresh bandages.
Nightfall arrived, and everyone was exhausted. As we prepared for sleep, I went to check on my brother again after helping everyone settle. The wound itself wasn’t bad, but it was still worryingly swollen and nasty, despite our care with iodine and keeping the dressings clean. I worried we might need to find a hospital and said as much to Zach.
“Don’t worry,” he said with a wave of his hand. “You remember what I was like after that redbill mission last year when it tore up my whole back? This is a piece of cake.”
“If you develop an infection or fever, we’ll have to take you to a hospital,” I said sternly. Gina had gone somewhere. We were alone for a moment, for the first time in this harrowing adventure.
“This sucks,” he said with a barked laugh. “Two days ago, everything was great. We’d just finished a groundbreaking step toward a vampire and human alliance, even if all the vampires had gone a little frosty. We had our teammates on our side. You and Gina and I were heading home. Now… well, at least we’ve got the vampires.”