The vampire who spoke was a woman appearing to be in her fifties, accompanied by a man who seemed to be of a similar age. She had her chin lifted high, a few greasy-looking strands of her dark bluish hair falling around her lined, angular face. Her haughty gaze barely registered our human trio. The man next to her shifted.
“We should go too,” she insisted. “Today.”
“She’s right. The Immortal Plane is a better choice than staying among these traitors,” he said. He was tall and willowy in a way that made him look unbalanced, with skin so pale it seemed almost translucent. His short blond curls looked like they were being leached of color as they faded to gray.
Beside Dorian, Rhome shifted with a strained expression, no doubt thinking of Kreya and his children. Dread filled me. I couldn’t take another thing falling apart. Laini watched Rhome carefully from the corner of her eye, a stitch of worry in her furrowed brow.
“You can follow if you choose,” Dorian said evenly. “Though I believe you’ll be in more danger if you do. We are stronger together. Much stronger.” The shadows beneath his skin seemed more agitated than usual. He must have been afraid to lose more vampires, but I couldn’t see it on his face or in his body language. My heart ached for him.
“Why should we trust the humans?” asked a young vampire, a woman with long inky hair and skin only a few shades lighter. Someone moved from behind her. An identical woman. They looked even younger than me, though who knows how old they actually were. Their acidic green gazes did nothing to calm my suspicion that things were falling apart.
“Humans lie, Dorian. Isn’t that obvious to you by now?” the other added. They moved fluidly but not identically, complementing each other in distrustful sync. Their voices were high, almost mocking. I tried to repress my worry.
“Myndra and Sabal, I ask for your patience. You are welcome to join Oleah and Hart if you want to, but I know we would benefit greatly from your presence.” Dorian glanced toward the older couple. “I want to remind everyone that we know going back is dangerous.”
The older woman, Oleah I guessed, frowned with an offended air. A tense silence fell over the cavern.
I examined the remaining vampires, trying to determine where they fell in this argument. Leaning against a wall, the most massive vampire I’d ever seen stared stoically at the scene before him. His hard muscles were evident even beneath his tattered green cloak. He had a young face with a tightly set jaw, but his eyes were calm. He somehow looked less hostile than the other four strangers.
My gaze traveled to the stout woman next to him. She was the vampire missing an arm, I realized. A half-smile woven with both tension and amusement sat on her strong face. I wasn’t sure how she was reading the situation, which made me unsteady. With her copper skin, short brown curls, and dark eyes, she almost seemed human in this light. She shifted and leaned against the wall next to the hulking vampire, hanging back from the rest. At least they weren’t screaming openly about the evil of humans.
The last visible vampire sent a shiver down my spine. I couldn’t explain why. He stood farther back than the quiet woman and the tank… but he watched with the most amused, almost wolfish grin. I pegged him as forty-something, probably older than the woman missing an arm. Something about the way he held himself, the way his eerily pale blue eyes darted around, how his thin lips couldn’t quite cover what seemed to be too many teeth for a humanoid mouth, unsettled me. He reminded me of the used car salesman ads I sometimes caught on TV at home.
There were a few more vampires, but they gathered tightly in the shadows with indistinguishable faces.
“Why should we trust them?” Oleah asked, pointing in my direction.
“These humans risked their lives to support us. I truly believe they are trying to help our people. We have no evidence to the contrary,” Dorian said. He sounded exhausted in the face of their distrust. My uncle’s face came to mind. There were people I wasn’t sure deserved to be trusted.
Vampires fed on darkness. If Dorian had met my uncle in person, I wondered if he would have sensed something evil inside Uncle Alan. My stomach churned. I had some remnants of hope for my uncle even with the evidence of the extermination plans in my pocket, though that hope was dwindling.
I couldn’t blame the vampires for their distrust. Humans had betrayed them once. Why not again?
“We’ve sent Lex on a redbill to make sure they made it through safely,” Oleah said. Hart smirked to himself.
Dorian’s nostrils flared. Obviously, he wasn’t thrilled that they’d undermined him by sending someone out without consulting him, but he maintained his surface calm. “I wish you hadn’t done that,” he said. “Those who went through last night are probably already far from the tear by now. We shouldn’t separate, in case the humans find someone alone and attack or find us here. I’d hate to leave someone behind in an emergency.”
Oleah lost her prideful edge and deflated at his reasoning.
“We can’t trust the humans,” one of the twins said in a voice almost like a hiss.
I felt a flicker of impatience.
“Myndra, our alliance with the humans isn’t up for discussion. Our survival is at stake,” Dorian said impatiently. The conversation was beginning to fray his nerves. It was evident on his face. “The humans helped us escape yesterday. That’s the only reason we’re standing here now.”
“He’s right. The humans are trying to help,” another voice said. Sike appeared from behind Dorian. His eyes found mine immediately. “We know you are.”
I offered a grateful half-smile in response.
Dorian looked in my direction, and realization dawned on him. He cleared his throat and angled to face me. Every vampire turned to regard us with heavy stares. I would sooner fight a redbill barehanded than wish the gaze of several angry vampires on another person.
“Lyra,” Dorian called out and then smoothly gestured toward me, “is our ally. She was our initial contact, the first one to believe in us. She realized we had all been lied to, the soldiers and our kind. She took great risks to help us escape the Bureau’s trap.”
I stepped forward and tried to rally myself. Hard to do while fifteen vampires stared with barely masked suspicion. “Hello, everyone.” I smiled warmly, trying to project trustworthiness. “My name is…” I faltered. Usually, I would introduce myself as “First Lieutenant Lyra Sloane,” but that was no longer my title.
Someone snickered, making me shrivel inside, but I didn’t let it show on my face.
“My name is Lyra Sloane,” I managed, pushing past it. “I was a first lieutenant in the Occult Bureau until yesterday, when I discovered plans that the board had hidden from us. There wasn’t much time to act, but we successfully escaped. I hope to work with you all and move forward to fix this. I believe humans and vampires can work together,” I finished with another friendly smile. There. That hadn’t gone too badly.
Their faces remained guarded. Some, the twins and the older snobby woman, openly sneered at me. I held my ground, though I could feel nervous heat on my face under the needling stares.
“Yes, thank you,” Dorian said. His formal tone sent a wave of frustration through me. It was as if we were business colleagues. As if we hadn’t kissed yesterday, in front of everyone. “We appreciate your work.”