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They continued down the narrow, hidden hall until they found a trapdoor.
Jasmine suspected if the elder was still here, he was hidden underneath the house. She carefully pulled up the trapdoor and headed down the stairs, her heart beating wildly. “The safe rooms.”
Stasio was right behind her, and she knew he would do everything to protect her, if she needed him to. She expected to see another small room with dead bodies, but it was huge, more like the size of a ballroom and there were maybe twenty men there, alive and well.
Crap! This was not good, unless they were Scotty’s allies. But they wouldn’t know her from Adam. William or Eleanor needed to be up front. Minor mistake on her part. Jasmine warned,“Twenty men.”
She had her sword out and moved quickly into the room so the others behind her could aid her or assure them that they were on the same side.
The others pushed into the room, their swords readied.
The vampires there had been talking to each other and turned to see the intruders.
“The elder and his cronies,” William warned, and then they were fighting.
These vampires were ancient. They were hardened fighters. And they outnumbered them. Jasmine sliced at one of the shorter vampire’s necks, but he flew out of her path and another dove in to fight her. This was so not good. The others in her group might like the odds, but she sure didn’t.
Then a bunch of vampires rushed into the room, and she knew they were done for. But then she recognized the man they’d seen up in the rooms who was with the rebels. They were their reinforcements.
Stasio fought with a giant of a vampire while Levka was dealing with another who looked like his twin brother.
Caitlin was zapping a vampire repeatedly as if she was using a taser on him. As soon as she paused, he stopped shaking and went to kill her. Levka was too busy trying to fight his vampire target to help her. Stasio was too. Arman finally beheaded one of them and he came to Caitlin’s rescue. Jasmine killed the one she’d been fighting and turned to help Stasio with his giant. He was like two vampires in one.
William killed another and then Jasmine and Stasio managed the one they’d been fighting. She wondered which of the vampires was the elder who owned the estate.
Eleanor jumped in to help Levka. Jasmine and Stasio had separated from each other to take on two more vampires.
The rest of the rebels were busy fighting several other vampires but one of the vampires was managing three of the rebels at once and Jasmine suspected he might be the elder.
As soon as she went for the suspected elder, another vampire tried to take her on, but she quickly eliminated him. She wasn’t about to be deterred.
One of the rebels fell dead in front of her. She didn’t have time to think about it and took his place fighting the vampire who was engaged with the other two rebels. She aimed for his heart, but the man was quick for one who looked like he was frail and couldn’t move all that well. If he was one of the elders, she was thinking that if they were all like this, how could they fight them and all their cohorts?
Suddenly, Stasio was helping her, fighting to distract him while she attempted to strike him in the chest. Another rebel vampire went down.
Ruric took his place and there were four of them fighting the elder, but still they couldn’t manage to get him in the heart. He flew too much for them to take his head. But then Jasmine leaped upon Stasio’s shoulders, surprising him and swung her sword at the vampire’s neck. Ruric had just thrust his sword at the vampire’s heart, and she managed to take the vampire’s head.
Four of the vampires in the room turned to dust, just like he did, which meant the elder had made them.
After that, they easily dispensed with the remaining vampires, then the rebels shook hands, introduced themselves to the Welsh vampires, Jasmine, and Caitlin.
“I hope you’re not too worn out,” one of the rebel female vampires said. “This appears to be the headquarters for the elders, their safe haven. Somewhere in the belly of this beast, four more elders and their cohorts have taken refuge.”
“Wow, so if we take out all of them, several more of the elders will be removed from power.” Jasmine was used to taking out her target and getting a good night’s sleep. Fighting all hours of the night? That really wasn’t her style.
“That’s only if we can keep fighting at this pace,” Angus said.
“Scotty wanted us to convince them to lay down their arms or even join us,” Levka said.
“As you can see, it’s not happening,” Angus said. “You don’t have a chance to talk with them. It’s a choice of kill or be killed.”
“I would have had them leave and not fight if they’d been blood bonds,” Caitlin said.
“Too bad you didn’t arrive before we did. The blood bonds fought ferociously against us,” Angus said. “They usually don’t, but the elders said if they didn’t, they’d die by his hand. They didn’t believe we would win the battle.”
“Each of the rooms are sealed from the others so that the other vampires can’t hear what’s going on from room to room. That’s so any intruders can’t hear them either. They never expected anyone to find the hidden passages. But a warning, no one can escape from this place by vanishing either. The elders thought that if anyone attacked them, they could vanquish them without the enemy escaping. The only way to leave is the way we came in. Thanks to you for joining us,” one of the rebels said to Levka and his party.
“That was the elder we were after?” Jasmine pointed at the dust and his clothes on the floor, which was all that remained of him.
