I heard a giggle. Amanda, her phone camera trained on me, came from outside the door.
"You're so pathetic," she said. "Oh no, the big bad spawn is turning into a demon!" She held her hands up and opened her mouth in mock horror. "Please save me!" A nasty grin curled her lips. "Guess what, moron? Even you can't break diamond fiber."
"Must be hard being you," I croaked. "Your life obviously sucks so bad you have to torture someone who can't fight back to feel good about yourself." I forced a grin and glanced at the bird nest she called hair. "Maybe if you owned a hairbrush you could get a date."
Her fist lashed out. My head rocked sideways and fireworks exploded behind my eyes. "Shut up. Shut up! I'll make you sorry you ever opened your mouth."
"Your breath is already making me sorry," I said.
All the air exploded from my lungs as she pounded a fist into my stomach. I opened my eyes and would have shouted had any breath remained in my chest. I saw her face an inch from mine. Her breath smelled of fresh blood. Her eyes gleamed bright with menace and anger. Pissing her off had probably been a bad idea.
"Amanda, what the hell are you doing?" said a familiar voice. "Maximus isn't going to be happy with you beating on his pet spawn."
The guard whirled, hands crooked like claws. Her yellowed fingernails lengthened by an inch. She panted and seemed on the verge of attacking the newcomer.
"Get a hold of yourself," said the voice again.
I knew that voice. It wasn't Felicia, though. My mind was too wrapped up in the drama of the moment to run a database search and make a match.
Amanda lowered her hands and growled. "I should suck you dry and blame his bruises on you."
"Yeah, right. As if I was strong enough to hurt a spawn." The owner of the voice stepped around the angry vampire and my jaw went slack.
Katie?
The vampire turned and saw my shocked expression. She laughed. "Guess I punched him too hard." She glanced at the tray of food in Katie's hand. "If he tries to get inside your head, let me know so I can clock him in the face again."
Katie stuck her tongue out at the vampire's back as Amanda turned and left the room, slamming the door shut behind her. Loud music sprang up from somewhere outside the door. Amanda shouted in fury, her voice fading down the hall as she demanded the instigator turn it off.
"What in the hell—no, how in the hell did you get here?" So many words, mostly curses sprang to my head, I had trouble speaking. "Are you effin' crazy?" Somehow, I remembered to whisper my questions, though Amanda probably couldn't hear them over the music. I remembered I was in my underwear with adult diapers beneath, and felt a hot blush creep from my head to my toes.
Tears pooled in my former crush's eyes. Her pretty green eyes. I couldn't believe how much I'd wanted this girl, back when I'd been a hopeless nerd. And then I'd met Elyssa. Katie had stumbled into my world—the Overworld—when she'd come to my house just as hellhounds had attacked. This was far more than stumbling in, however. Had Katie decided to become a vampire?
"Oh, Justin, I can't believe what they've done to you." She kissed my forehead. "I've got to get you out of here." Her eyes wandered across my scantily clothed body.
"Water?" I asked, too thirsty to worry about such trivial things as clothes any longer.
Her eyes brightened, and she nodded, bringing out a bottle of water with a flexible straw. I gulped so fast, I choked and broke into a violent coughing fit. Katie pulled out a phone and looked at it.
"Justin, just keep calm. In a few hours, I'm going to break you out of here."
I gave her a crazy look. "You?" I checked her eyes again to be sure they weren't vampire red. "Are you here to join Maximus's vampire army?"
She shook her head. "No, absolutely not. Something terrible happened, though."
Chewing on a chunk of cheese she put to my mouth, I raised my eyebrows to prompt her to continue.
"I tried to call you. I texted you and left messages, but you never replied."
"Yeah, I was in southern Colombia. No reception."
"I can't even being to understand how or why you ended up down here. I have so many questions." She glanced over her shoulder. Took a deep breath. "Ever since you vanished, I tried to find out where you went and if you were okay. I got ahold of Shelton and your dad talked to me and told me you were fine. Anyway, since you were gone, I started hanging out with Nyte and Ash."
"You hung out with them? As in friends?"
She nodded. "I was lonely. You were gone, and things at school could never be the same after running from those hellhounds, and almost dying and—well, Annie and Jenny would never understand, even if I could tell them."
The demonic hunger in me twisted my insides. My eyes closed. When they reopened, I saw Katie's delicious aura hovering around her. No! I squeezed my eyes shut and slammed the door on the ravenous feeling. With some effort, I picked up the trail of the conversation again. "Please tell me you didn't talk to Ash and Nyte about the Overworld."
She shook her head. "No. In fact, Ash and I started hanging out more. He's really smart, and cute without all that nasty Goth makeup."
I let out a sigh of relief. "Thank god you didn't tell them anything."
"I didn't, but someone else did. Right after Coach Burgundy and Brad and all those others were killed—" she shuddered. "It was so horrible. Then the huge garbage truck slammed into the police car you were in, and everything happened so fast. You and Elyssa vanished and Ash and Nyte were worried sick about you."
I felt terrible. Not that I'd had much of a chance to call anyone and let them know I was okay, but I knew exactly what it was like to have someone you care about vanish from your life. "Are they okay?"
A fresh tear sparkled in her eye. "These new people showed up at school. I didn't trust them one bit after knowing what you told me about vampire recruiters. They held after-school club meetings, supposedly about finding your true self and the meaning of life, or some crap like that. Ash and Nyte went to one, thinking it would be a big joke. Somewhere along the way, they found out these people were vampires recruiting for Maximus."
My heart sank. Apparently, my attempt at stamping out Maximus's recruiters from my high school hadn't paid off. "Please tell me you stopped them from going."
"At first they laughed about it. Then one of the vampires grew out his fangs and punched a hole through a desk. Most of the people there were like Ash and Nyte—you know, the ones Nathan and his goons call nerds and losers. The ones who want a miracle to make them look cool."
"Oh, god." A sick feeling ballooned in my stomach. "What happened?"
"The vampire told them there was a serum they could take, but it was in limited supply. He took them all on a tour of the Grotto and then down to Colombia."
"And you came with them."
Katie grasped one of my hands and shook her head. Amanda's yelling echoed down the hall. The raucous music still hadn't stopped.
"I let them go, Justin." She sobbed. "I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen. And the worst part is—" she hiccupped and wiped at the tears rolling down her cheeks. "I really like Ash. We sort of went out on a date. He told me I shouldn't settle for a weakling like him. He told me that when he came back, he'd be super strong and immortal. And then he'd be worthy of dating me."
I groaned. "I know, I know." She leaned down and whispered. "Then the strangest thing ever happened. Mr. Turpin, the English teacher, came to me and offered me a chance to save them. He said he could get me to Colombia, but that I'd have to spy on Maximus for him all while pretending to be one of his recruits."
"Son of a bitch!" I wormed against my restraints.
"His real name is really weird. Underborn, or something like that." She looked over her shoulder and turned back to me. "He has other people here working for him too."
"You can't trust him," I said. "The man is an assassin." Underborn wouldn't stick out his own neck to rescue anyone. He obviously intended for Katie to be one of his sacrificial lambs should anything go wrong.
The music in the hall switched from pop to Beethoven's Fifth. Katie's eyes widened. "I don't have much more time."
"Is Felicia helping you?"
She quirked an eyebrow. "Who?"
"A vampire—likes to dress geek chic."
Katie shook her head. "No. Another girl is helping me. She's a magician." Her lip curved up at the corner. "She's the one making the music."
"How many of you are there?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. Underborn said he couldn't tell me everything."
I growled. "Don't trust him. Get out while you can. Besides, you can't free me from these straps—not unless you have some of Maximus's blood."
"I'm not leaving you." Her eyes went hard and resolute. "I'll need you to talk Ash and Nyte out of this idiocy, too."
This was spiraling out of control. Scratch that. Events had already spiraled out of control. I wanted to grab Katie by the shoulders and give her a stern look. "I'm not giving you an option, Katie. Go now. Don't look back." My stomach growled again. I refused to feed on Katie. I needed her strong and healthy, and able to get the hell out of this place.
She touched my cheek and smoothed my oily, unwashed hair back from my face. "You didn't leave me when the hellhounds came. You could have tossed me away and left me. But you didn't. You saved my life, and now I'm going to save yours."
The music abruptly ended. Katie jerked and tugged on the hamster water bottle until the thin bracket holding it onto the table bent, lowering the tube an inch—just enough for me to suck from it. She kissed my forehead and smiled. "I'll be back soon."