Page 45 of Bound by Vengeance
Vicky saw nothing ahead to warrant such awarning. Sniffing the air, she detected the faint hint of body odorbeneath the growing aroma of saltwater. Then she realized that yes,they were closer to the surface, and this section of pipe ranbeneath the sea.
She lifted her beam to the ceiling again,running it over the cracks there. She gulped when she saw beads ofwater forming on some of the fissures. Many of those beads werefattening into drops, and as she watched, one let go to plop ontoher boot.
Maybe a cave-in wouldn’t kill her, but shewasn’t in the mood to be swept out to sea. Lowering the beam, sheresolved not to look at the ceiling again. It wouldn’t do her anygood to learn if the cracks became worse the further theyventured.
Pressure built in her chest when it hit herthat she could be as trapped here as she’d been in the warehouse.Fighting the impulse to turn and bolt, she stopped and bent over torest her hands on her knees.
You’re not there anymore!She closedher eyes and inhaled a tremulous breath as she cursed thisweakness. It had been weeks since she experienced this crushingsense of panic over her captivity, but she couldn’t shake it.
“You okay?” Duncan asked and rested his handon her shoulder.
Vicky involuntarily flinched from him. Hishand fell away, but she didn’t worry her reaction would offend him.She’d told him what happened to her; he knew whatever was happeningto her was because there was something wrong withherandnot him.
“You’ll get through this if you just take itone step at a time,” he said. “It’s how all of us get through life,one foot in front of the other. Remember, you can only go forwardin time, you can never go back.”
“Thanks, oh wise Gandalf,” she muttered.
Duncan chuckled. “My beard will never getthat white.”
Vicky cracked a smile. “Jealous?”
“Yes.”
Inhaling another breath, Vicky stood andsquared her shoulders. She wouldnotlet this weakness getthe best of her. “Well, what are you waiting for?” she asked.“Carry on.”
His teeth flashed in the dim light of herbeam before he turned away from her. “Bossy little thing.”
She appreciated he didn’t ask if she wasokay again, didn’t ask what happened. He merely continued one stepat a time. She concentrated on those steps until the constrictionin her chest eased and she found herself breathing normally oncemore.
“Why did they establish themselves here?”she asked. “It doesn’t look safe.”
“That’s why they did.Noone comeshere.”
“That’s because they’re not insane.”
“Terror and brutality often make us dothings we never believed ourselves capable of doing.”
“So true,” Vicky murmured.
Before her imprisonment, she hadn’t seenherself as strong or self-reliant. She would never have believedshe could spend an hour without company, her phone, electricity,and running water. While in captivity, she’d drawn on reserves ofstrength she’d never known she possessed to endure the degradationand agony those vampires inflicted on her. Now, some days, sheforgot to take her phone with her, and she often sat with onlyherself for company.
“Sister asked them to join us, but theydeclined. They only trust each other. It’s me, Duncan!” he calledout again.
Something scraped in the dark ahead as abead of water landed on Vicky’s cheek, causing her to jump. Shewiped the water away as images of cockroaches skittering throughthe darkness and snakes filled her mind.
There are no snakes here,she toldherself, but now that the picture was in her mind, she couldn’t ridherself of the idea of slithering serpents hanging above her. Oneof them would uncoil to run its body across her face before kissingher lips with its tongue.
Despite her resolution not to look, her beamshot to the ceiling again. The water seeped through the concretewalls at a more rapid rate, but there were no snakes. She heaved asigh of relief. She’d prefer thousands of pounds of ocean waterburying her than one frigging snake anywhere near her.
“It’s Duncan!” he called again, and hisflashlight illuminated a pale face when it emerged from theshadows.
Vicky forgot all about water and snakes assunken blue eyes gazed out from a face made gaunt by starvation.The woman’s cheekbones, poking like blades through her pale skin,made her eyes owl-like as they blinked against the flashlight. Whenshe threw up a hand to block the beam, Vicky hastily directed herlight behind her.
Once her eyes adjusted to the lack of light,Vicky saw the woman kneeling in the shadows. Though the face lookedfar from youthful, she suspected the woman was only in hertwenties. Two more heads appeared behind the woman; each was asemaciated as the first.
“I’m Vicky,” she greeted and stepped towardthem. Two of the women watched her every move; the other onescurried into the shadows. The first woman’s hand fell to the knifestrapped to her side. “I came to ask you a couple of questions ifyou don’t mind?”
“About what?” the first face asked. She hadthe voice of a woman three times her age who had chain-smokedunfiltered cigarettes for fifty years. Vicky suspected the raspytone was more from lack of water than a nicotine addiction.
