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“Naeemah.”
“Child.”
She came from an ancient family of shapeshifters who served as bodyguards. Months ago Hugh had hired her to guard me, though not out of the goodness of his heart. He had begun to suspect that there was something off about me, but Roland sent him on another assignment, so he instructed her to watch over me and keep me alive until he could come back and pick up where he’d left off. My aunt had chosen that particular time to waltz into town. Without Naeemah’s help, I would’ve been dead.
I turned to Curran. “We have to get her out.”
He grabbed the bars and let go. “Silver. I need the saws.”
“We’re short on time,” Jim said.
“I’m not moving until she’s out,” I said.
Jim gave me a hard look.
“She said she wants her out,” Andrea told him. “Don’t give her any crap.”
“Take your time,” Ghastek said. His vampires moved to cover the way we had come. “Nobody should starve to death in a cell.”
Jim pulled out the saws and he and Curran began slicing through the bars. Metal screeched.
Naeemah watched me with feverish eyes.
“What are you doing here? Did Hugh put you here?”
“Yes. For helping you,” she said. “And for my son.”
“What happened to your son?”
“He refused a job for d’Ambray. I’m a lesson he wants to teach my children.”
I added one more item to my “Reasons to Kill Hugh” list. It was getting long.
One cell bar hit the floor.
A vampire shot into the passageway. Ghastek’s ancients moved like the two blades of a pair of scissors. Two coordinated slices of their talons and the invader’s head rolled to the floor.
I hadn’t realized how tired I was while I was moving. I was standing still now and the exhaustion was trying to pull me to the ground. And once I landed, I would stay there.
The second bar dropped down. One more and the gap would be wide enough for her to get out.
The avalanche of vampiric minds was getting closer.
Third bar. Naeemah squeezed through the opening.
“We need to run now,” Ghastek said, his voice very calm.
“Which way?” Curran asked.
“This way.” Naeemah ran down the hallway. “I know the way out.”
“Do you trust her?” Jim asked.
“Yes!” I ran after her, stumbling.
We dashed across the room. Behind us the door shuddered—the undead were trying to break through. My legs decided this would be an awesome time to stop supporting my weight. Curran grabbed my arm, steadying me.
A dark hole gaped in the wall in front of us. Naeemah dove into it. The wererats followed her.
A vampire fell from the ceiling, cutting off Nasrin and Christopher. The healer reared back and slapped the undead upside the head, ramming it against the cell on the left. The vampire’s skull broke like an egg dropped on the pavement. I turned to Curran. “What is she . . . ?”
“Iranian lion.” He pointed at the hole. “Go!”
I reached the hole and looked down. All I could see was a shaft leading down at a sharp angle. Here goes nothing. I jumped in legs first and slid down on my ass, rolling through complete darkness. My butt hit something wet. I smelled algae. My hands slid over slime. I hurtled down through the tunnel. If there was a concrete floor waiting for me below, I’d make a lovely splat.
Light flared ahead. I planted my boots into the bottom of the tunnel, but the slick, algae-coated stone offered no resistance. If this had been a movie, this would be the part where I was supposed to yank a knife out and dig it into the stone to slow myself down. Except I’d break my nonexistent knife, hurt my arm, and still end up as a wet human pancake.
The tunnel ended. I went airborne for two terrifying seconds and plunged down into warm water. Yay, survival. I kicked up to the surface and swam away from the hole in the ceiling.
A huge room spread before me. Above, an ornate yellow ceiling, beautiful and gilded, soared in elegant arches, as if someone had opened a portal in time and Renaissance glamour spilled out. The golden swirls glowed, bright enough to bathe the entire chamber in soothing light. An enormous dusty chandelier hung from the circular recess in the ceiling, like a collection of crystals suspended from the roof of a cave. The remnants of red curtains sagged on both sides of me. Beyond them the room widened, its bottom flooded with emerald-green water. Plants covered the water’s surface. Cream and ivory lotuses, the tips of their petals touched with pink, floated next to larger bright yellow lotus blossoms. Star-shaped lilies bloomed among wide leaves, some lavender, some scarlet, some with petals of light orange darkening to copper-red near the center. Ten feet above the water a balcony, cushioned in greenery, dripped vermilion and moss-green vines.
What the hell?
Curran swam up next to me.
“Are you seeing this?” I asked.
“Yep.”
“So I’m not hallucinating?”
“Nope.”
“Think if we crawl on that balcony, those plants will eat us?”
“If they try, I’ll eat them first.”
Naeemah climbed up the side wall and jumped onto the balcony, disappearing behind the plant growth. Thomas and Robert followed.
“We’re in the Orpheum Theater,” Ghastek said behind me.
“You’ve been here?” I asked.
“No, but I’ve seen the photographs, when I studied for my trip to Mishmar. This is Slosburg Hall, one of Omaha’s historic buildings. It was among the structures Roland had bought.”
I swam through the water. It was so warm and I was so tired.
“Are you okay?” Curran asked.
“If I pass out face down in this water, will you fish me out?”
“Will you promise to call me Your Majesty?”
“Hell no.”
“Then I’ll have to think about it.”
Ghastek and his trio of vampires swam past us. This water would never end. The place was getting hazy, and I knew I’d run myself dry. My body had nothing left.
My fingers touched the wall. I gripped the gouge in the stone, trying to pull myself up, and then Curran put his hand under my foot and lifted me up, out of the water. I climbed the wall, grabbed Robert’s hand, and made it onto the ledge. The balcony rose in terraces, each terrace filled with soil. Here and there, the tops of red chairs poked through the moist ground. Flowers filled the terraces: roses, tulips, poppies, daisies, and odd but strikingly beautiful blossoms that looked like a cluster of inverted tulips hanging in an umbrella arrangement from a single purplish stem. Breathtaking . . . A strange serenity came over me.
