“When was the last time you bit Jack?” Peter asked me, and I shook my head.
“I don’t know,” I managed when the pain subsided a bit. “What does it matter?”
“That pain you’re feeling, do you think that could be Jack?”
“What?” I looked up at Peter.
“Maybe you can use it to track Jack.” He put his arm around my waist. “Come on.” He stood up, pulling me with him.
“The pain?” I held my stomach. “That’s coming from Jack? He’s feeling that much pain?”
“Don’t think about it.” Peter put his hands on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes. “If you wanna find Jack, you need to focus on him. You can tell where he’s coming from.”
“How?” I asked.
“Think about him. Not the pain, him.”
I closed my eyes and thought of Jack. The pain jolted through me again, and Peter squeezed my shoulders, keeping me here, in the moment. I thought of Jack, his smile, his laugh, and the tether that kept us connected… and then there it was. I could feel it – him – pulling me.
“I don’t know where he is, but I can take us there,” I opened my eyes. “We have to go.”
“I’ll drive.”
As we ran out the door, I promised Matilda we’d come back for her as soon as we could. I sat in the passenger seat of the Lamborghini, holding my stomach to keep from throwing up, and I told Peter where to turn. I couldn’t tell him directly where to go – it was just a pull in a certain direction.
We were almost there when I realized we were going to the tunnels where Peter, Mae, and Daisy had stayed. Jack had been taken underground.
“Do you know what he’s doing there?” I asked Peter as he pulled up next to the bridge.
“No,” he shook his head. “There shouldn’t be anybody here at all. If Leif has been staying with your mother… The tunnel should be empty.”
The pull and pain got stronger when we reached the tunnels, and I ran down them as fast as my legs would carry me. Peter called for me to slow down, to wait for him, but I couldn’t. I knew how much pain Jack was in, and I had to get to him.
Before I reached the cavern where Peter had been staying, I could hear Jack’s screams echoing through the sewers. My skin crawled, and adrenaline pulsed through me. Something else, the animal part of me, started taking over, blocking out the way Jack felt. It even blotted out my connection to him, but I didn’t care. I needed to be strong to help him.
I peered around the entrance of the cavern to see what I was up against, and it made my blood run cold. Thomas, Samantha, and Dane – the vampire hunters – had ransacked the cavern too. All of Peter and Mae’s things had been flipped over and torn apart.
Samantha had cut open Mae’s mattress, and she dug through it. Dane stood at the edge of the cliff, holding a chain in his hands. The chain had been looped through an old pulley system in the ceiling, and Jack hung from the other end of it, right over the edge of the cliff. His hands were bound with chains, and he had blood all over his body. His head hung down, and his body was limp.
Thomas stood off to the side of him, leaning on a walking cane. Or at first I thought it was a walking cane. Then I realized it was a long metal poker, and the end on the ground still glowed orange. They’d set fire to Leif’s books, and the smoke from it stung the air.
“So, you’re still saying that you don’t know where the child is?” Thomas asked. He picked up the poker, twirling it in his hand like a baton.
“No, I’ve already told you she’s dead,” Jack said, and Dane yanked on the chain, making Jack bounce up and down. He grimaced, and his shoulders had already been popped from their sockets. His wrists looked like they’d been crushed, and blood seeped down his arms.
“We need to find the child,” Thomas said firmly. “I don’t think you understand how serious I am.”
“No, I do… I just…” Jack closed his eyes and winced. “I can’t help you.”
Thomas held the poker over the flame from the books, waiting until the end was glowing bright yellow, and he took it out. He stepped toward Jack, raising the poker, and I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Stop!” I shouted and ran inside.
“Alice.” Jack looked at me, and his eyes were wide and terrified.
“Well, well.” Thomas grinned and twirled the hot poker again. “Maybe she can tell us something.”
“No!” Jack shouted. “She doesn’t know anything! Leave her alone!” He struggled against the chains, bucking so hard at them that it had to cause excruciating pain. “Alice! Get out of here!”
“Do you have the child?” Samantha asked. She stood up from her task of butchering the mattress, still holding the knife in her hand, and stepped towards me.
“No,” I said. “But I know where she is.”
“Alice!” Jack yelled. “No, don’t listen to her! She doesn’t know anything! The child is dead!”
“Oh, be quiet.” Thomas sounded bored. While looking at me, he jabbed the burning poker backwards, right into Jack’s abdomen, and he twisted it.
“Stop it!” I yelled. “Stop it or I won’t tell you where she’s at!”
“Tell us where she is, or we’ll kill him,” Thomas countered.
“I don’t think she knows anything,” Samantha sniffed. She stepped closer to me, cocking her head and breathing me in. “I think she’s lying.”