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He didn’t hear anything at first, but the minute Turney stepped foot onto the third floor, it was like someone had un-paused a movie. Sound returned, as if in the middle of a scene, his ears catching the tail end of a deep guttural growl.
His heart raced at the sound, a shiver running down his spine. Oh, he was having major flashbacks to that fucking disappearing house from hell. The sound continued, only growing louder as whatever it was obviously approached. Mere seconds later, a creature bounded slowly into sight at the other end of the hall.
Its body was that of multiple different breeds of dogs. Different color fur and all, stitched together, yet their flesh was obviously rotting and cracking in the same way the ghouls outside had been. But the creature’s face was unnatural—more so than even a jumbled mess of stitched together dogs. As it was in no way close to a dog’s face. In fact, it was almost horrifyingly human, but even then, it was distorted. Eyes different, nose missing pieces, and the skin over all appeared to be molded on like someone had melted flesh down and stretched it over the thing’s skull.
Turney was going to guess that he may have found one of Bucur’s experiments…and it was definitely still kicking.
The mutated mouth of the thing opened, revealing jagged, uneven teeth. It let out a garbled bark right before it leaped forward, bounding down the hall towards him.
“Ah, shit…” Turney cursed.
* * *
The last ofthe ghouls dispatched, all they could do was wait as the dome they were trapped in continued to lower. Scarlett figured they must be underground. They had watched the first floor pass by, and they were in complete darkness now. Not that most of them even needed light to see. Though, both the brothers were back in human form, Theo did still have his eyes transformed.
“This is so fucked up,” Cormac said with a groan.
Henry sighed. “The situation is not good, there is no denying that.”
Theo cursed. “The bastard is so close, and none of us can even do anything about it!”
Scarlett ignored them and blankly watched the stone walls around them slide by. She tried not to think about what she had just done—sending Turney out there alone. Scarlett balled her hands into fists.
What other choice had there been?! He’d been the closest one to her. Scarlett had really done it without much thought. But someone needed to be free to find Octavius. If they had all been trapped…
At least this way, the vampire would know what was going on, right? Unless…Turney didn’t make it to him…
Scarlett glanced up at Min-ji, when the woman closed her hand over one of her clenched fists. The witch pulled her into a tight but brief hug. “It’ll be okay. They will both be okay.”
As she was released, Scarlett couldn’t help but ask, “Will they? Octavius…is one thing. He is older. But…” She took a deep breath. “Turney is young. He is still learning. I felt his panic as we left him. He almost changed…twice.”
“But yet, he didn’t. It shows how strong his willpower is, that he was able to hold it back despite how young he is. Turney is strong. We’ve all been preparing for this, haven’t we?”
“Not long. And what if it isn’t enough?” Scarlett asked stiffly.
Her gaze flicked to Cormac when the wolf approached. He cleared his throat awkwardly. “It’ll…be fine. I’m sure of it. Turney, I feel, is too lucky to die now.”
“How has he been lucky?!” Scarlett snapped. “He almost died once, got randomly injured on other cases, and then he did die.”
Min-ji’s soft hand cupped her cheek, turning Scarlett’s face in her direction. “And yet, he came back. And he is in even better shape than he was during the battle with all those Knights. He will get through this.”
Scarlett stared into Min-ji’s kind, caring eyes, and just wished she could convince herself with those words. But she could not… It wasn’t who she was. “I…I was never much of an optimist…”
Min-ji leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Then I shall be that optimistic voice in your head for now.”
She snorted.
“I think the dome has stopped descending with us,” Henry announced. The vampire was staring down at the floor.
Scarlett glanced down and found that there was an open gap now between the floor and the dome. That gap continued to grow as the seconds went by, until a flash of light came to pierce the darkness around them.
“I believe we are about to reach our destination,” Scarlett sighed.
It was slow going, but about ten minutes later, they found themselves in some sort of basement with stone walls and many metal doors all around them. The room was square and probably about twenty feet by twenty feet. Not a large room, but not small either.
As the others walked around and examined the doors, she remained there watching.
* * *
