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Jonas immediately swung around. “What’s wrong?”
“The ghosts,” I somehow said, in between huge gulps of air. It didn’t ease the need to be violently ill, given the air was as foul as the images flooding my mind.
He frowned. “Are they projecting?”
“And how.” I pressed a hand against the wall, but it was slick and cold, despite the blood that oozed warmly across my fingertips . . .
It was all I could do not to jerk my hand away. It wasn’t real, it was memory. Their memory, not mine. And memories couldn’t hurt me.
But the ghosts could. If their anger got strong enough, if the energy they were creating got fierce enough, they could very easily tear me—tear us both—apart.
“You need to get out of here,” I said abruptly.
“Not until we’re sure—”
“Now,” I said, cutting him off. “Before they decide to do more than simply flood my mind with images.”
“But why would the ghosts . . .” He stopped, and understanding dawned in his eyes. “We did this to them.”
“Yes,” I said. “You did. And your presence in this place, where what is left of them rests, is very unwelcome. Retreat while you can, shifter; I’ll continue on alone.”
“That may not be wise—”
“What other choice have we got?” Another wave of anger and imagery flooded my mind and made me shudder. “Contact Nuri once you get back to the surface. If this is the bunker I found, then she will have to appease these ghosts before any of you are able to deal with the vampires.”
He hesitated, then nodded and resolutely moved toward the stairwell. I waited to see if the ghosts followed, but they seemed content to remain here, where death had found them.
I am not shifter, I said. I am what you were—déchet. I’m sorry you were murdered in a manner such as this, but I do not deserve to bear the brunt of your bitterness.
Their anger, if anything, increased. My surviving when they hadn’t was not a point in my favor, apparently.
I swore softly and called to the shadows within me, letting them wrap around my body and make me one with the darkness rather than flesh. It didn’t ease the force of their empathic attack, but it at least allowed me to move with greater speed through the place.
I flowed down through the levels quickly and silently, finding no hint of vampires or, indeed, anything or anyone else. Just a lot more bones and ghosts. Thousands had to have died there in an effort to hold that place; no wonder the war had gone ill for humanity after its fall.
Two more levels down, I found the vampires.
There were only eight of them in this section, and they were curled up on the floor in what looked like an old storeroom. Scattered around their sleeping bodies was not only the debris of the dead, but boxes and furniture remnants from the base itself.
I didn’t stop; I didn’t dare. Not when doing so risked one of them sensing my presence and raising the alarm. Besides, I needed to discover whether this was the place the false rift had deposited me.
Nuri and Jonas could uncover whatever else might be here. If this was the base of operations for whatever they were doing to the children—and the newness of the lab I’d found certainly seemed to indicate that was the case—then surely there’d be files to find, at the very least.
I moved down to the next level and quickly explored it. The metal walls of the corridor and rooms became slick and rusty, reminding me of the ones I’d seen beyond the room that had held the false rift. My heart began to race a little faster; this might be it.
I moved cautiously through another doorway, and encountered a sea of unmoving flesh. Vampires, at least two score of them. I hesitated, but really had no choice but to keep exploring. Just because there were more vampires here didn’t mean I was in the right place.
But the next level down, I found both the corridor and laboratory I’d seen earlier. Relief spun through me, but it was mixed with trepidation. I’d already had to fight for my life in this place once; I had no desire for a repeat session.
Even so, I hesitated at the T intersection, looking toward the room that held the false rift, tempted to go check if it was still there. But there’d been far too many vampires clustered in the rooms leading off the corridor, and the thick sensation of them certainly hadn’t eased any since then.
In the end, caution won out. I spun and retreated, as fast as I could. My task here was done. Everything else was now up to Nuri and Jonas.
When I’d reached the upper levels and had finally moved beyond the fury of the ghosts, I regained flesh form and ran up the final few flights of stairs until I reached the fissured room. Jonas wasn’t here, but I could hear him moving around above. I slung my rifle over my shoulder, then leapt up and gripped the edges of the fissure. A heartbeat later, hands grabbed mine and I was swung up onto the roof.
“Well?” he immediately said. “Is this the place or not?”
