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“But who could know I would be coming here?” I questioned. “No one knew. I didn’t tell anyone, even Hattie didn’t know until I texted her from Cairo airport.”
West rounded on me. “Hattie knew where you were?”
I nodded. “Of course, I didn’t want her to worry when I didn’t show up at the villa.”
He frowned. “I rang her, and she swore she didn’t know where you’d gone, said she hadn’t heard from you.”
I ignored the tiny spark of doubt in my chest. “Yeah, well, I swore her to secrecy, West. She’s my cousin and my best friend. I doubt she’d be sending demons after me.”
“Mmm,” he hummed, not sounding convinced. “Anyway, regardless of how they got here, they are here and we need to get past them. We can figure out why later.” He reached into his bag and pulled out another pistol.“Here,” he said, holding it out to me. “Don’t point it at anything you don’t want to shoot, and keep your finger off the trigger unless you are literally about to pull it.”
I swallowed and took the gun from him, copying the way he held his, with my trigger finger along the side of the weapon.
“How do I turn the safety off, and how do I cock it?” I asked, trying to sound like I knew something about it.
“You don’t,” West replied. It’s a Glock, it has no safety. When you pull the trigger, it’ll catch about halfway, that’s the mechanism cocking the gun. Just remember, it’s harder to pull the trigger than you might think. Squeeze hard and aim for the heart if we encounter the hatay. Destroying the heart is the only way to kill them.”
“Squeeze hard, aim for the heart. Got it,” I said.
“And try not to shoot West,” Jack inserted.
“Why would I shoot West?” I enquired, confused.
“He’s insufferable, why wouldn’t you shoot him?” Jack teased. Wesley sniggered behind me, and even Zayn smiled.
West was silent and ignored his second-in-command completely, looking out into the tunnels. “Okay, we’re clear. Lady Victoria, how’s your eyesight out here?”
I frowned. “How’s my... Oh...” I had stuck my head out into the dark corridor, expecting to see nothing. Instead, what had been near blackness before when Zayn and Jack had turned their torches off was now clearly visible in a range of greys. I looked up at West in amazement. “I can see in the dark!”
He nodded. “Cat senses. Your hearing should improve too, among other things. That’s good then. We don’t need torches, so we should be able to move without drawing too much attention.”
“What about the others who didn’t get any... blood?” I was still a little uncomfortable talking about it, even though it didn’t seem to faze the men at all.
“We’ll be fine,” Jack assured me, coming up behind us. “When we awaken, our senses improve, so we should all have pretty good night vision already—enough to stop us from walking into walls anyway.”
“Right,” West began. “Zayn and I will lead. Lady Victoria, you come next with Wesley, and Davenport, you bring up the rear. Move as quietly as you can, but we are going to move with as much speed as possible, so keep up.” He directed this last part over in my direction, and for a moment I was going to retort back before I realised Wesley was standing behind me and West was looking straight at him. I grinned, remembering Wesley’s passage over the ruins the day before.
My smile faded. Was it the day before or was it two days ago? I had no idea how much time had passed down here. The constant darkness and flashbacks had left my time perception extremely disoriented, and I suddenly had the strongest urge to see the sun and feel its heat on my arms. I took a deep breath and followed West and Zayn out of the room, staying close behind them. Wesley followed me, and Jack came out behind us. He hung a little way back but smiled encouragingly at me when I turned to see where he was.
We continued that way for maybe half an hour, though I wasn’t sure, when West came to a stop. I came up behind him, laying my hand on his arm. He jerked back at me touch as if he’d been burned. The rejection stung, but I was too busy starting at the reason he’d stopped. A large dark stain on the floor.
“What is that?” I asked.
West crouched down and reached out to touch the stain with his finger, bringing a little of the substance to his nose. “Blood. Human blood.” He looked up at Zayn who frowned.
“It must be fairly recent for it still to be here…”
West nodded. “Yes, I was thinking the same. But these tunnels have been sealed for hundreds of years, it doesn’t make sense.” He stood back up and looked back at Wesley and Jack. “Keep your eyes open. If you see any more, point them out.”
We carried on through the tunnels, slightly slower as we kept looking out for more bloodstains. We found another four of varying sizes, though we didn’t stop for West to examine them. Eventually though, he did stop. He held his hand up and Zayn froze, so I followed suit. West turned back to us.
“Hatay up ahead,” he whispered, barely audible.
“How do you know?” I asked quietly, peering into the darkness.
“I can feel them. So can you. Close your eyes and reach out into the darkness, then listen.”
I did as he said, trying to listen to what was up ahead. I heard them first, that soft rustle, like sand falling onto stone, and then I felt them, a cold, creeping darkness like ice seeping into my veins. I shivered and opened my eyes.
