The cavern, I saw, was something out of The Lost Boys...filled with old and new furniture, haphazardly arranged, tapestries and paintings on the walls, statues and trinkets. Most of it looked old, and some of it even looked valuable. Mostly, the room looked like a big hangout.
“It’s a sort of safe house,” said Allison. I knew she could read deeper into what she was seeing than I could; feel deeper, too. “It’s where vampires go when on the run, or when they are new.”
“A training facility,” I said.
“Something like that. But it’s also more. There are old vampires who dominate here. Powerful vampires. They kill here, too. They plot and plan and kill and train.”
“A sort of supernatural headquarters,” I said.
“Yes,” said Allison faintly. She was scanning the room, searching for what we had yet to find.
“Can you hear anything?” I asked.
Allison shook her head. “I can only see...and feel.”
“Do you see my sister?”
“Not yet, Sam.”
I was still seeing what Allison saw, as she swooped through the room. “Can they see you?” I asked.
I sensed Allison almost smile...then again, it was hard to smile when you were holding a severed finger. “No, Sam. They are unaware of our snooping.”
“You’re a good sidekick to have around,” I said.
“Partner,” she said.
“We’ll see,” I said.
“There!” said Allison suddenly. I saw it, too. Three figures emerged into the room. Detective Hanner, my sister and Fang.
My sister was blindfolded, and plastic ties held her hands together. She was sobbing and stumbling as Hanner pulled her along.
They were met by someone I had seen before.
Someone I had fought before.
Someone—or something—that had nearly killed me, if not for Kingsley’s help.
It was, quite possibly, the oldest vampire in the world. The same vampire who had kidnapped a boy he had thought was my son, a vampire I had fought under the Mission Inn Dome.
It was Dominique.
“Okay,” I said, reaching out and touching Allison’s arm. “I’ve seen enough.”
Chapter Thirty-six
I was pacing.
The finger was back in the napkin and on ice in Allison’s freezer, although she didn’t seem too thrilled about that.
“Because there’s a severed finger with my green peas, Sam. You wouldn’t be too thrilled either,” she said defensively.
But I wasn’t paying her much attention. My thoughts were focused on the caverns beneath the Los Angeles River. Most importantly, on how to get my sister and my rat bastard of an ex-husband out alive.
“And Fang,” said Allison suddenly.
I paused and looked at her. “What?”
“It’s there in your thoughts, Sam, although you haven’t acknowledged it. You also want to get Fang out. To save him.”
“I...” But I didn’t know what to say. So, I closed my mouth.
“He’s one of them, Sam. A kidnapper and a killer.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, either, except that I didn’t share Allison’s convictions. I knew Fang, perhaps better than anyone. He was not a psychopathic killer.
As I thought those words, I picked up Allison’s thought: Once a killer, Sam, always a killer.
I shook my head and ran my hands through my hair and thought about what I had to do. They took my sister. They took my ex-husband. My God, they cut off his finger. They were going to kill him, I was sure of it. They were going to kill me, too. The evil bitch inside me was getting impatient, growing weary of my resistance. Well, fuck her. And fuck them, too.
Poor Mary Lou. She hadn’t asked for any of this. She had been heading out to get, what, tacos for the family? And that piece of shit Hanner had been waiting for her? Waiting because Sanchez had reported my activities to her. Sanchez was a good cop who had been compelled to do a traitorous thing. My guess was that he wouldn’t remember calling her.
“It’s a trap, Samantha,” said Allison. “It’s been a trap all along.”
I didn’t say anything, but kept pacing. I knew that, of course.
“Sam, when I was in those caverns, I sensed something else, something that I think you might not have picked up on, something that occurred when Fang, Hanner and your sister appeared.”
I stopped in front of my friend, who, only now, was getting some of the color back to her cheeks since dealing with the finger. “What?” I asked.
“They’re getting rid of you for another reason.”
“What reason?”
She swallowed, looked at me. “I mean, they are going to try to get rid of you.”
“I know what you meant, dammit. What’s the other reason?”
“It’s Fang,” she said. “They sense great potential in him. Great potential to kill. I felt it from Hanner and the other vampire.”
“You can read other vampires?”
“Only immortals can’t read each other, Sam. I’m not immortal and I’m growing stronger, thanks to you.”
“You’re doing a lot more than remote viewing,” I pointed out.
“I think of it as remote sensing.” She shrugged. “It’s a growing ability.”
Like me, Allison’s abilities seemed to be progressing rapidly. Unlike me, her abilities were tied to my drinking of her blood.
“Not just blood,” she corrected. “Blood isn’t the only source of my power. I’m developing my abilities in other ways now.”
“Witchcraft,” I said.
“Of course,” she said.
“Fine,” I said. “What about the other vampires? What else is going on?”
“Like I said, Sam. They sense great potential in him.”
“Potential to do what?”
“To kill, to supply and perhaps someday to lead. Mostly, they sense in him a willingness to go along with the program.”
“To give himself up to them,” I said. Or, put another way, to allow himself to be controlled, possessed and perhaps taken over by the evil within him, too.
“Yes, Sam, except for one problem, which is where you come in.”
I stopped pacing and stood before her. I was surprised to discover that my heart had suddenly started beating faster than normal. Hell, faster than it had in some time.
“What are you getting at?” I asked.
“His love for you,” said Allison. “It’s posing a problem, a hindrance.”