“Here!” Gage eases me down into a seat, then kneels in front of me and reaches for the safety straps.
I need to think about this more. What if this is a mistake or some sort of trick? I try to stand.
Gage keeps a grip on my thigh and drags a seatbelt across me. “You’ll see!” he yells over the engine noise as we lift from the ground. He fastens the belts, then places a headset over my ears.
I stare past him at the garden as it fades beneath us.
The fountain.
Melody’s monument.
Juno and Druin hidden inside.
The sensation behind my ribs going from pulling to constricting. I close my eyes and focus on my heartbeat, on my blood, on Valen.
I feel him. I feel him as if he’s silently yelling at me, fear in his eyes as he tries to warn me. My heart sinks. Worry. So much worry. It’s choking me. He’s screaming my name.
I gasp in a breath and open my eyes to find Gage staring down at me, a triumphant smile on his lips.
10
We land in what looks like a relatively empty field. There are some areas of cracked concrete with dead weeds poking through and a few low metal silos painted with military camouflage. Otherwise, the entire place is barren.
When I’d peeked out of the helicopter despite my motion sickness, all I saw was a few strips of forest and fields. Until we passed over a town. Nothing big. Just a smaller, rural village sprouting up in a valley with a river running through it.
On any given day, people would be moving about, smoke rising from chimneys—activity. When we flew over, there was nothing. No movement. No humans. It felt like looking down at a cemetery. My gorge rose, though I don’t know if it was truly from motion sickness or the knowledge that the humans in that town may have been wiped out—and that Valen may be responsible.
If I had to guess, I’d say we’re still somewhere in rural Virginia. The flight to get here was half an hour at most, all of it filled with dread. I can still sense worry, like an undercurrent of dark, cold water. Is it mine or Valen’s?
The engine noise dies, the rotor turning slowly until it stops.
Silence.
“What is this?” I yank off my headset and ask the soldier who’d helped me into the helicopter.
He doesn’t answer. Then I notice the halo emblem on his fatigues. The Saints. I instinctively press a hand to my stomach. Right where one of the Saints tried to gut me.Didgut me.
God, this was a mistake. I have to get out of here. I should’ve listened to Valen, to my own instincts.
The ground shakes, and I grip my safety belt.
“Our base of operations is necessarily underground.” Gage pulls off his headset and stands between me and the open helicopter door. “The remaining military, such as it is, operates from here. We also have a smattering of government officials embedded with us, though most of it is Pentagon brass.”
As we sink, a metal roof slides overhead, closing us in.
Underground again.
I stare around into the dark as unseen machinery whines, sinking us deeper and deeper into the earth. The bright sun fades, the final rays of it erased once the ceiling is fully closed. Only the scant lights of the helicopter offer any illumination, the air scented with dankness and the thick smell of machinery grease.
“We were prepared for doomsday, just not this specific vampire one.” Gage reaches for my safety belt.
I flinch back.
“Sorry.” He drops a knee in front of me. “I know you’ve been through a lot.” He holds his hands toward me, palms out. “I’ll go slow. You can trust me, Georgia. You know that, right?”
“You’re with the Saints.”
His face is in shadow now. “Yes.”
