“So what?” I said. “They’re gone already? Where would they have taken them?”
“It’s possible they’ve drained them of their blood already and stored it somewhere else. Otherwise, the only other place I can think of they could’ve taken them is their lair in the supernatural realm. The other side of the gate.”
“Do we have time to search there?” Gavin asked.
“I don’t know,” Caleb replied.
“Let’s just try,” I said.
Since nobody objected, Caleb nodded. He led us out of the kitchen again and toward the entrance area. We darted into another chamber. Caleb bent down next to a carpet in the corner of the room and, pulling it aside, revealed another wooden door. He gripped the handle and attempted to pull it open. It was stuck fast. Caleb stepped aside, nodding toward Ibrahim. The warlock took the hint and stepped forward, casting a spell upon the door. That had no more effect than Caleb’s pulling.
“Some kind of charm has been cast over this. It’s locked fast,” Ibrahim said.
I bent down on the floor, placing my hands flat against the wood. “Why don’t we just try to burn it?” I muttered.
“You can try,” Ibrahim replied.
I was already beginning to summon the heat in my hands. “Stand back,” I said.
Fire burst from my palms and enveloped the door. I stood up, watching the flames closely. They seemed to be disintegrating the wood. The black witches hadn’t been very thoughtful in securing this door—I guessed they didn’t expect to have intruders.
Once it looked weak enough, Ibrahim extinguished the fire, then slammed his foot downward against it. Sure enough, it fell away from its hinges and crashed to the floor. We lost no time in hurrying down the steps and into the dark chamber below.
“There’s the gate,” Caleb said, pointing to a circular hole in the middle of the floor.
Caleb leapt through it first, followed by me and the rest. We hurtled through so fast I could barely keep my eyes open. By the time my vision came into focus again, we had landed in another dark room. We stood up quickly, brushing ourselves off, and followed Caleb up another flight of stairs, toward a door that, thankfully, hadn’t been charmed. Caleb was able to force it open himself. A dim orange streak of light fell upon us as we entered into some kind of large kitchen.
“Humans,” Caleb said. “I smell them now.”
The other vampires nodded in agreement, as did Micah.
“It’s coming from…” My grandfather took a step forward as he sniffed the air. He walked further into the room and stopped outside another trap door. “Down there?”
“Yes,” Kiev said suddenly. “I’ve been here before.”
Caleb took a few steps back, still sniffing the air. “I sense human blood upstairs, too.” He gripped my hand. “We need to split into two groups. Kiev and Micah, come with us upstairs. The rest of you, break into that dungeon. We’ll meet you back down here.”
Caleb ushered me onto his back. Since Ibrahim wasn’t coming with us, we couldn’t have me slowing Kiev and Caleb down even a little. They raced out of the kitchen with me and entered into a large hall next door. There was a flight of stairs in the center and we began racing up it.
“Why would they keep some humans separate?” I asked nervously.
“I don’t know,” Caleb said.
With each level that we climbed, I kept expecting that we would bump into someone. Finally, after what felt like the fifth level, Kiev and Caleb stopped climbing. They exchanged glances briefly and nodded.
We took a left and began jogging down a corridor lined with doors. I jumped at each creak of the floorboards as we hurried forward. Finally, we stopped short outside a door that was very different from all the others I had seen in this place so far. It was tinted red, and it had strange, intricate carvings etched into it—it looked like some ancient language.
Kiev’s breath hitched. “No. We can’t enter this room.”
I gaped at him. “What do you mean?”
“This is a spell room.”
Understanding sparked in Caleb’s eyes. “Kiev’s right. We can’t go in here.”
I wiggled off Caleb’s back and placed my ear against the door. Caleb’s hand closed tightly—almost painfully—around my arm. My voice caught in my throat as I heard whispering on the other side of the door.
“I can hear them,” I gasped. “We just need to—”
“Even if we managed to open the door and get those teens out of there,” Kiev said, “we wouldn’t be able to save them.”
“What?”
“They were doomed the moment they stepped inside.” Kiev gripped my arm and pulled me back along with Caleb. “A curse is placed upon black witches’ spell rooms. Any person who enters who isn’t a black witch won’t survive long.”
My head reeled. “But those humans—” They were so close. They were just a few feet away. Their terrified voices rang through my head. It seemed to have grown louder, as they’d likely heard us talking outside.
Caleb and Kiev backed away from the door, pulling me with them. “There’s nothing we can do for them, Rose,” Caleb said. “We just need to try to save whomever we can downstairs.”
Caleb guided me onto his back again. I clung to him, still in shock. Even as they began to hurry back down the corridor, I stared at the door. Those young men and women we were abandoning.