Heart of Stone - Book 2: Hearts Collide

[We’ll find her, Alpha,] Alistair said.

Stone nodded, holding back a groan of pain in his chest. It came from him, rather than Aubree, and he felt for the thread of her emotions but found only the tightening sensation of fear and anxiety. Knowing that she was still alive, and still human, he took a deep breath through his mouth and looked around them. [We need to cover more ground.]

Alistair nodded in agreement before taking off to the left.

Stone moved as silently as he could down the main stretch for five minutes before taking one of the pathways to the right. The humans couldn’t have taken Aubree too far from the entrance. Surely, wherever they hid her had to be close by. Any deeper into the sewer tunnels would have been difficult for them to carry her.

A rustle of movement echoed down the passages, causing Stone to pause in his tracks and listen for its source.

[Got one,] Alistair said. [She was clean. Not a trace of Aubree or the other human scents on her. Not even Carina.]

Stone turned and started heading in Alistair’s direction. [Did you see where she came from?]

[Yes, sir,] Alistair said with a note of triumph in his voice. [She came out of a hidden doorway in the wall.]

[And?] Stone glanced down passages as he moved, sloshing the water around him noisily.

[You won’t believe me.]

Stone grit his teeth. [Tell me.]

[There’s a ladder going down a deep hole. I can’t see the bottom, it’s too dark.]

This was the break he’d been hoping for.

Forget about moving silently through the sewer, he picked up his feet and began to jog through the disgusting water. [Where are you?]

[Near the entrance, actually,] Alistair said and began to whistle to help Stone find his location.

Indeed, he was near the entrance when Stone found him. Third passage on the left from the entrance, and fourth on the right.

The stench of vampire blood filled his nostrils as he approached and he reverted to breathing through his mouth again as his eyes took in the disembodied limbs spread out across the passage. A head of thick, black hair oozed blood out at his feet as he paused in front of the hole in the wall.

Smelled like a newborn.

“How did we not see this?” Stone asked in a low voice as his eyes examined the brickwork of the gaping hole.

“Simple.” Alistair reached into the hole and pulled back what looked to be a brick door on hinges that fit perfectly into the hole. It wasn’t actually brick, but rather wood painted to look identical to the old brick walls. The stench of the sewer water blocked out the smell of the wood and it was too dark for anyone without trained eyes to notice the minuscule difference in texture. There were two chinks in the wooden door and when Alistair pinched them between his fingers, he turned them like a doorknob and easily fit the door back in its place. Turning it back, counter-clockwise, he pushed it back open to reveal the gaping hole.

Stone cursed. It was as Alistair said. Simple. So simple, and yet so easy to overlook.

“After you, Alpha,” Alistair said with a dramatic flourish of his hand.

Grunting, Stone climbed through it and down the iron ladder, much like the ones found on the back of old buildings in the downtown core.

[Stay up there until I find where this goes,] Stone told him.

[You got it.]

Stone mentally filled Gunner in as he made his descent.

The air grew colder, nipping at his skin the deeper he went. It was pitch black and with the sewer smells behind him now, he could pick up other scents among the damp, stale air.

Vampires. Humans. Aubree.

[She’s down here,] Stone said to Alistair and Gunner. [I can smell her.]

His foot touched down on a smooth, even surface and although it was black as ink down there, his lycan vision enabled him to see two wooden doors on his left and right.

He commanded Alistair to come down as he pressed his ear against one of the doors. He couldn’t hear anything beyond it. The other door was equally silent.

When Alistair reached his side, the space was rather cramped with both of them standing there. Vampires normally weren’t as thick with muscles as they were, and although neither one of them were claustrophobic, even they felt uncomfortable.

[Should we split up again?] Alistair asked.

While Stone didn’t know what to expect beyond each door, the hair rising on his nape told him to stick together.

His gut told him to take the right door. He pushed it open a crack to see oil lanterns illuminating the passage. The walls were made of clay, the dirt ground was even in most places, and more doors and pathways stretched down as far as he could see.

[It’s a labyrinth,] he told Alistair before he stepped out into the hallway.

[The air is so stale here, we should be able to follow her scent and find her,] Alistair asserted as he followed Stone.

The hallway was wide enough for them to walk comfortably side-by-side, and the rough ceiling must have been about seven feet from the ground. It still felt a little tight for Stone, but it was better than hunching forward as he’d done in the sewer. While the stench of the place was better than that of the sewer, the faint bitter smell of vampires still tickled his nose.

They followed Aubree’s scent down a corridor to the left, moving silently as they strained their ears for movements around them. Occasionally, they heard voices on the other side of locked doors that made their nails extend, but they held themselves back. Now was not the time to draw attention to themselves. They needed to get in and out with Aubree as quickly as possible—and take out anyone who got in their way.

Vampires weren’t like humans. They had sharpened senses, and although their hearing and sense of smell weren’t as strong as lycans’, someone was bound to notice their scent or footsteps and know that their lair had been invaded.

Aubree’s coil of emotions tightened around his heart. He could feel her, sense her. She was close.

He held his hand up to signal Alistair to pause. [Listen.]

A heartbeat. A strong, steady, fluttering of muscles pumping the life-force within a petite, feminine body thrummed like music to his ears.

Alistair gripped Stone’s arm, his eyes widening, as he heard the pulse of life as well. His shared relief washed over Stone at the physical contact and it took great control for both of them to maintain silence as they rushed forward.

A large space opened up in front of them and they paused in the doorway to peering inside.

Limestone lined the walls and thick, rich carpets covered the floor. Perfectly arched indents in the walls, like half-circles, were designed to mimic windows with iron lampposts evenly spaced out between iron benches under each window around the room. Potted shade-loving plants stood between the benches and lampposts, filling the large space with fresh, clean air. It was reminiscent of a garden with oil lamps hanging from the iron lampposts, filling the space with a yellow glow. The ceiling was even higher here, at least twenty feet up, to give the illusion of being outdoors.

It was here that the heartbeat skipped before drumming faster and Stone’s gaze turned to another entrance across the space and diagonally to his right to find its source. Her heavenly vanilla-rose scent wafted over to him, full of life, love, and relief. His eyes met hers and he stared at her, too awestruck and relieved to move.

She was like a beacon of light in this dark, dank dungeon. Her hair was fly-away and tangled. Her nice clothes coated in dirt and smudges. She was missing a shoe, and her face was streaked with trails of eyeliner and dusty tears. She was a mess, but, Goddess, she could have been covered in fecal matter and he wouldn’t have cared. She was beautiful, and human, and alive.

“It’s them,” she whispered.

“Are you sure about this, Bree?”

Stone didn’t notice Dan standing next to her until she tore her eyes away from his and looked up at Dan’s face. She jerked her arm away from him and it was then that he noticed Dan’s hand had gripped her, holding her back.

Stone couldn’t help the growl that rumbled up his throat.

Dan was a vampire, he could smell it, and he was touching his mate.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

Her voice cut Dan like a knife and he flinched as she turned away from him. Her eyes met Stone’s again as she ran across the space to him.

He stepped forward and caught her face in his palms when she reached him. Turning her face up, he held her eyes with his own and released a shuddering breath before pressing his forehead to hers and brushing his trembling fingers through her hair.

Hazel. Her gorgeous eyes were still hazel. Thank the Goddess.

Of course, they were—she hadn’t been turned. He could smell that she was unchanged, hear her heart beating within her chest, but he needed to look into the windows to her soul and see that she was still in there, untouched, and as vibrant with life as she always was.

He trailed his finger over the arch of her ear, down her lobe, and to the corner of her jaw. Her pulse was strong under his fingertips, drawing awareness to his own heart hammering fiercely within his chest.

The joy in his heart, the relief that she was unharmed, rendered him speechless and stunned. He couldn’t think straight, forgot that they were deep within the enemy’s lair, and couldn’t tear himself from her. Her flesh was warm, her breath hot against his face, and the touch of her forehead carried him away to his own personal little heaven in this hidden underground hellhole.

“I’ll take care of this one,” Alistair grumbled lowly.

Stone was ripped from his haven as Aubree tore away from him and latched onto Alistair’s huge bicep with both of her hands.

Alistair froze in his tracks and looked down at Aubree in bewilderment.

“If you so much as touch him, I’ll never forgive you,” she said, her voice uncharacteristically dark and bitter.

A long, high-pitched whine crept up Alistair’s throat as he looked over at Stone, his face torn between duty and love. [Alpha?]

Stone ground his teeth together. Aubree didn’t understand. Dan was one of them. They had to kill him.

He had a hunch that Dan was behind this and Carina had the manpower to make it happen. He was a snake. He didn’t deserve to live.

“Aubree,” he warned through gritted teeth.

She turned back and shot him a hard look. “He didn’t turn me. He was trying to get me out of here before Carina did. We owe him my life.”

Growls erupted from deep within Stone and Alistair. They didn’t like this one little bit.

Time was running out. If he didn’t make a snap decision now, they might all get caught, and he didn’t want to put Aubree in any more danger.

“Fine,” he snapped. “We’ll spare his life this time, but next time—”

A door clicked open nearby. They all stiffened—except for Aubree, as it was too far away for her human ears to pick up.

“Time to go, babygirl,” Alistair whispered as he turned her around and guided her back to Stone. “Climb on his back—quick.”

Stone lowered himself to one knee so she could climb on piggy-back style. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his torso.

“Not a sound,” Stone ordered as softly as he could, but still loud enough that she could hear.

She nodded as she pressed her cheek against his shoulder.

“Go,” Dan whispered to them. “I’ll hold them off. Just get her out of here.”

Stone couldn’t help scrutinizing Dan for a second but nodded his head. He turned and hurried down the corridor with Alistair on his heels.