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"Why is it so high?" asked Lily, coming to stand next to me and looking up at Alastor. He jumped down into the depression we were standing in and cast a glance around the stone walls.
"It's basically a build-up of natural and human debris. Tells are formed by humans building one settlement after another on the same site. Over time, it builds up, and along with natural debris like sand and dirt building up, you get these tells rising up out of the ground."
Lily looked around. "So, these aren't the ruins of Sodom then?"
Alastor shook his head. "No, there's been lots of people living here right up to the Middle Bronze Age. Dr Taylor is currently working on a Neolithic section, but also a Bronze age gateway and gatehouse. He's determined to prove this place was the site of Sodom, but he's still an archaeologist, not a treasure hunter, and he's required to excavate meticulously."
"If Sodom was way before all this..." Lily looked down at the hard packed dirt under our feet. "The Sodom would actually be underneath everything." She looked up at me and then Alastor. "How are we expecting to find anything without a mechanical digger?"
Alastor grinned. "That's where Cole comes in handy. Look." He held out the tablet he was carrying, tilting the screen away from the glare of the sun so we could both see. I squinted at it, the image starting to make sense.
"You've scanned the tell," I said. "But don't humans have a way of doing that?"
Alastor nodded. "They do, but theirs won't reach this deep, and this is a different type of scan to theirs completely."
“Are those tunnels underneath us?" asked Lily.
Alastor nodded. "This scanner picks up supernatural activity, magical residue, that kind of thing."
"But there's supernaturals everywhere," argued Lily. "Dr Taylor said he'd seen hellions in the mountains."
"That's the point," I said. "These tunnels are showing supernatural energy which means they've either been created that way, or the hellions have found a way in. Probably both, looking at the strength and the energy levels."
Alastor frowned, but one side of his mouth turned up in a half smile, and my stomach jumped. "Sariel's right. If we can get into the tunnels, we can move directly under the city without Dr Taylor and his team ever suspecting a thing. I didn't think you'd be technologically minded enough to read a scan like this, Sariel.”
I shrugged. "I cannot admit to having a full working knowledge of human science or technology, but in my year on Earth I have definitely come to realise that not developing a working knowledge would leave me at a strategic disadvantage." I took hold of the other side of the tablet and bent my head over the tablet to look closer. "These tunnels... I cannot see an entrance near here. They are too far under the surface. How do you propose we reach them?"
Alastor leaned over too, and I stiffened at his nearness. He raised a finger, tracing just above the screen. "Look here… this one and this one, they extend south for miles. I want to travel south and extend the scan further. There may be an entrance we haven't found because we weren't looking far enough out."
"If that's so, we'd have to travel miles and miles underground to reach the location underneath where we are now," I said, turning my head to look at him. He turned at the same time, and I suddenly found my face a mere inch from his, his eyes dropping slowly from my eyes to my lips. I felt hypnotised as I watched the tip of his tongue snake out over his bottom lip, then a flash of white as his top teeth bit down into it. I looked up tofind him watching me, and my heart skipped as I stood there, captivated by the intensity of Alastor's gaze.
His closeness sent a surge of electricity through me, and I couldn't tear my eyes away from his. His breath mingled with mine, and I felt the pull of an undeniable attraction between us. I felt the brush of one of his fingers gently moving over the tablet screen and stroking across mine. The slightest warmth of his touch and it sent a shockwave of heat through my body. In that moment, all rational thoughts escaped me as I found myself leaning in, drawn to him like a moth to a flame.
Lily's voice cut through the charged silence, "Um... guys? If we're heading south, maybe we should get going?" There was a touch of amusement in her voice, and it snapped me out of whatever spell this man had on me. I quickly stepped back, feeling the heat rise to my cheeks as Alastor's gaze lingered a moment longer.
"We’re heading south then? Ok, great. Are we hiking or taking a car?" I asked, trying to regain my composure.
Alastor took a breath, then turned and gestured down the southern slope. "We need to head down that way, and there's a car on the way to pick us up. Now I've confirmed the lack of entrance up here, I think it's our best bet. There must be some reason for these long tunnels existing, and they certainly aren't natural."
I turned around and headed in the direction he'd pointed. "Well, then, the sooner we leave, the sooner we'll get there and see if your theory's correct."
I ploughed ahead down the side of the tell, determined to put a little distance between me and Alastor, but I couldn't shake the lingering sensation of Alastor's touch and the intensity of our momentary connection.
The warm breeze stirred my hair, cooling the flush that still tinted my cheeks. I focused on each step, the uneventerrain beneath my feet a welcome distraction from my swirling thoughts.
Lily caught up to me, her eyes twinkling mischievously. "Well, that was quite the moment back there, huh?" she teased, nudging me with her elbow.
I glanced back to see if Alastor had heard her, but thankfully he was twenty paces or so behind, coming down more carefully as he checked the tablet every few steps.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Lily," I muttered, continuing down the slope. The dirt was hard packed, but there was plenty of sand and loose gravel that made it easy to slip if one wasn't paying attention, and it also gave me a good excuse to keep my eyes on the ground, trying to ignore the fluttering in my stomach whenever I thought of Alastor.
By the time we reached the hard packed track at the bottom of the tell, the car that Alastor had summoned somehow was parked up and waiting for us. Another of the large black 4×4s that had come with the equipment, but the man standing by the car leaning against the bonnet and checking his phone was not one of the ones who’d I’d seen unpacking the equipment. I’d have noticed him.
Clearly hailing from this part of the world, this man stood well over six feet tall, with broad shoulders that tapered down into a slim waist. His head was shaved, and his beard was clipped close to his face, barely more than stubble. Dark, with silver touches that had me guessing his age at his mid-forties. Assuming he was human. With Concordia, you never knew, but I wasn’t getting any supernatural vibes off him.
Something about him wasn’t quite hitting right with me though, and I studied him carefully, trying to figure out what it was. His black suit and pristine white shirt just seemed a little too well made for a basic chauffeur. The black and white patterned scarf I’d seen worn by many people since I’d arrivedin Jordan draped effortlessly around his neck and shoulders, and designer black shades covered his eyes, but as he looked up from his phone, I could almost feel the intensity of his stare from beneath them. I shivered. This man reminded me of some kind of jungle cat; lithe, graceful, beautiful… and a powerful predator first and foremost. This was not a man to mess with.
I realised Lily and I had stopped at the edge of the road, but moments later, Alastor walked past us, nodding at the driver.
