Page 91 of Property of Crypt Keeper

Alive.

“That’s where I came in with Mommy and Daddy.” Zara pointed at a metal spiral staircase set in an alcove to our right.

Boomslang pointed to Mako, then to the stairs. Mako rushed up them in a blur. He was back before I could blink. And I thought I was fast.

“Clear,” he announced.

Boomslang nodded.

There was a click, and Hack closed his laptop and stashed it back in his bag. Zeus placed his hand on the door handle. He glanced around the group, wordlessly asking if everyone was ready.

Dexter set Zara on her feet next to me. She immediately searched for and clasped tightly to my hand.

Weapons, cautiously but steadily, rose in answer. Tension crackled through the air as he pressed the lever, and the door swung wide on well-oiled hinges.

When there was no immediate alarm sounded, Boomslang motioned everyone forward.

We hadn’t taken more than ten steps into the passageway when suddenly, a sound echoed through the tunnels. A howl. Certainly not wolf. Not Rougarou either, as far as I knew. No, that keening wasn't anything natural.

The eerie noise twisted through the catacombs like something ripped apart and crookedly stitched back together.

Pain. Rage. Misery.

Every single one of us froze. The Kings glanced at each other. The howl came again. Longer this time. Closer.

My blood ran cold.

Beside me, Zara froze. Completely. The exposed part of her face went pale. The child stared into the inky darkness beyond the security door and whispered, “That’s one of the failures.”

No one asked how she knew. Because I’m pretty sure nobody wanted the answer. Yet, we all stared at her.

Boomslang knelt on the ancient stone floor in front of her. “What do you mean, sweetheart?”

Zara’s eyes were huge. She wasn’t looking at Boomslang. She was looking farther down the tunnel into the heavy darkness. Then she whispered, “We have to hurry.”

Everyone froze. Hack stepped forward. “What?”

She began to search the wall, her little hands frantically feeling for something that wasn’t there. “Where is it?” she whispered, her voice trembling and laden with fear.

“Shit,” I muttered when she took off running into the catacomb with her hand trailing the coarse stone wall. For a young child, she was insanely fast. Hurried footsteps behind me told me the rest followed.

Suddenly, she came to a screeching halt and pointed toward a keypad tucked into the rock wall. “The phone. You have to dial the phone!”

Hack frowned. “What?”

“The thing on the wall.” She swallowed, her breath quickening. “The phone thing.”

Hack shone his light and bent over to peer into the recessed square. “It’s a keypad.”

The Kings exchanged confused looks.

“I never would’ve noticed it,” he admitted as his brow pinched and he studied it.

Then Zara solemnly announced, “If they know we’re here….”

I knew that it wasn’t just my neck hair that stood on end at her pause.

“If who knows we’re here?” I asked her.