The Dying Light (Bloodwitch #1)

‘Max …’ Charlie’s mind was racing. Inside his head, a hundred questions battled to be asked first. Then, the full weight of what Seren had said hit him like a tonne of bricks. ‘You said something about soldiers. What happened to him? How is my brother involved in this?’

‘I just saw the soldiers surrounding him. I didn’t see what happened afterwards.’

‘And you didn’t stop them? He was trying to save you, and you didn’t help him?’

Seren narrowed her eyes. ‘I wasn’t exactly in control of what I was doing at the time.’

‘Where did they take him?’

‘How am I supposed to know? I came back for my sister, not your brother.’

‘We need to find him,’ Charlie said, looking around wildly, as though expecting his older brother to materialise out of thin air. ‘You said you escaped from some lab. Could you find your way back there again? Maybe we’ll find a clue there, or –’

‘I’m never going back to that place again,’ Seren said, her voice as sharp as a knife.

They fixed each other with furious stares, before Charlie rolled his eyes and began to walk away. ‘Whatever. I don’t need your help. I’ll do this on my own.’

‘You’ve thought it all through, have you?’ she called after him. ‘Ready to be a hero?’

Her words brought him to a halt. ‘Listen, I’m grateful to you for getting me out of that cell, but you should consider our partnership officially over. You can go off and find your sister, and I’ll rescue my family, and that’ll be the end of it. There’s no reason for us to work together anymore.’

‘Fine,’ Seren said with an ice-cold glare. ‘Good luck facing those soldiers without me.’

Charlie let out a humourless laugh. ’I hope I see them again. Just let them try to –’

’Breakout from the High-Security Cells!’ a piercing, tinny voice shrieked. ’Witch Hunters – red alert!’

With a cry of shock, Charlie and Seren leapt towards one another. They each grabbed hold of the other briefly before immediately breaking apart again, both of them reddening slightly. There was no one else in the passageway with them. The voice was coming from a loudspeaker above their heads.

’Escaped prisoners still in the Volya Research Facility. All available units, these orders come from Lieutenant Dragomir: locate and contain the prisoners! Maintain radio contact.’

‘Perfect,’ Charlie sighed, scratching his throat with his nails. ‘Just what we need.’

‘I see something over there,’ Seren said, pointing. ‘Let’s check it out.’

They had reached a circular antechamber, from which eight passageways led off in different directions. A large, detailed map of the Volya Research Facility was fixed to a far wall. Charlie hastily went over to inspect it, his heart falling. It only took one look at the pictures for him to realise that he was in worse trouble than he had thought.

What he had supposed was a prison appeared instead to be one single part of an enormous complex, spanning countless floors and multiple separate buildings. Some of the larger buildings were named, while others were marked with numbers and letters. There was a key at the bottom of the map, but Charlie could not decipher most of the words.

Seren was watching him closely, making him nervous. ‘Can’t you read it?’

’Can’t you read it?’ he snapped back.

’I can speak Matyan, I can’t read it! I thought you were from around here?’

Charlie looked around desperately, his heart hammering in his chest, and headed down the nearest passageway, motioning for Seren to follow him. ‘Let’s go this way.’

The passageway was empty, but Charlie could hear the thunder of oncoming footsteps in the distance, coupled with the sound of his own heart thumping horribly fast. The noise of the soldiers echoed all around them, confusing him as to which direction their pursuers were coming from.

‘This way!’ he shouted to Seren.

With each new connective passageway that they reached, Charlie was convinced they were about to run straight into a wall of gunfire. A terrible shooting pain was lancing through his side, making him feel as though he was being stabbed between the ribs.

‘Why are you stopping?’ Seren asked, coming to a halt beside him. ‘What is it?’

Charlie leant against the wall, his hands braced against his thighs, trying to catch his breath. As the pain gradually began to subside, he glanced up at Seren. She was wearing a strange expression.

Set into the wall beside him was a heavy wooden door. Seren stood in front of it, one palm pressed to the wood, her brow knitted in concentration. It was as though she was listening intently to something he could not hear. She met his eyes and withdrew her hand from the door.

‘We need to get inside. It has something to do with the other prisoners.’

‘Are they in there?’ Charlie asked, pressing his ear to the door but hearing nothing.

Seren shook her head, the furrow in her brow deepening. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘Then we should keep going. It won’t take them long to catch up with –’

’Third level is clear,’ a nearby voice declared. ’Sweeping fourth level now.’

’But they were here,’ Seren murmured, her hand returning to the door almost longingly as she looked at Charlie. ‘Maybe there’ll be a clue to help us find my sister, or your family.’

‘Let’s get inside,’ Charlie said. ‘It should be a safe enough place to hide, at least.’

He shouldered the door and forced his weight against it a few times, even kicking at it, but it would not budge. Seren watched without comment before she stepped in front of him and threw her arm out towards the door. It flew open. They both hurried inside and Seren closed the door behind them, plunging them into complete darkness.

Charlie immediately had the sensation that he was trapped, surrounded by countless shadowy figures. He could feel their hands on his skin. His breathing began to turn harsh and shallow. His hands were shaking. He closed his eyes against the nauseous feeling rising up his throat, and, in an attempt to find something familiar to hold on to, gripped Seren’s wrist tightly. She shifted slightly but did not pull away from him.

‘I’m here,’ she said, her voice unexpectedly calm and gentle. ‘You’re safe.’

‘It’s – too dark.’ He forced the words out through gritted teeth. ‘I can’t –’

‘I’ll take care of it.’

The next moment, Seren’s face was illuminated by a warm, flickering light, emanating from a small ball of flames that she held cupped in her hand. Charlie felt relief wash over him and dropped her wrist quickly. He nodded his thanks to her, and she smiled back.

‘My sister is afraid of the dark too.’

’I’m not afraid of –!’ Charlie snarled at once, before deflating at her knowing smile, which, even in his distress, he could see held no malicious intent. ‘Anyway.’ He avoided her eyes and looked around, squinting through the low light provided by the flames. ‘What is this place?’

‘I don’t know, but …’ Seren began to walk forward, the flickering light travelling with her, and Charlie made sure to keep as close to her as he could cope with. ‘I’ve been here before.’

The room was much larger than Charlie had first assumed. The door they had come through appeared to be one of many side-entrances that led into a sort of theatre hall. Behind him, the floor rose upwards on a sharp incline, and there were countless empty wooden benches ranged around the room in the shadows. In front of them, the floor sloped steeply downwards. There were more wooden benches on either side of a central gangway, allowing access down to a viewing platform.

’Why did they bring you here?’ Charlie murmured. ‘Hey, where are you going?’

Charlie followed Seren as she continued walking towards the platform until she reached an iron railing. It seemed to have been erected there to prevent anyone leaning over the edge from falling into the space below. Many more wooden benches were set up on the lower level of the hall, all of them empty. He guessed that hundreds of spectators could easily be packed into the theatre. The benches were all facing the front of the room, towards a raised area on which a steel table was set up. It was large enough for a grown man to lie on.

Charlie squinted. ‘Am I imagining it, or is there something on that table down there?’

He leant further forward over the railing, straining to make out the shapes in the semidarkness. Without a word, Seren increased the size of the ball of flames in her hand. By the stronger light, Charlie saw that heavy manacles were hanging from the corners of the steel table. Strong chains rested across it, positioned appropriately for chests and torsos.

A shiver of horror rippling through him, Charlie stepped back from the railing. He half-expected somebody to be standing right behind him in the darkness. Seren was still staring at the restraints as though in a daze. Charlie’s eyes were drawn to the enormous portrait of the Great Protector, Nikolai Ignatiev, hanging above the steel table, his eyes cold.

‘Is this where –?’ Charlie began, picturing the scars he had seen on Seren’s head.

‘I knew it was real …’ Seren whispered. ‘They tried to make me forget, but –’

‘Why are they doing this?’ Charlie clenched his fists. ‘How many people have they done this to?’

Seren shook her head, the flames in her hand guttering. ‘I need to get out of this place. If my sister is –’

She broke off, her head snapping towards the steel table. For a moment, Charlie caught sight of the fear in her eyes. Then the ball of flames disappeared, and they were plunged back into darkness. At the sound of voices below them, he forced Seren down onto the floor with him, hissing at her to be quiet.

‘Yes, but can you commit to more shipments?’ a sharp voice demanded. ‘I don’t care about whatever messes you have to clean up. The project cannot be delayed any longer.’

‘No worries. Keep the payments coming, and we’ll keep sending them straight to you.’

’That’s him,’ Seren whispered, her hands gripping her head, her eyes huge.

Charlie gritted his teeth, risking a glance through the iron railings. That had been Faulkner’s voice, he was sure of it. It was too dark to make out what was going on beneath them through the gloom. However, the theatre hall was so huge that the conversation from the floor below carried up to them, even when their owners kept their voices low.

‘You will have whatever you need. We are close. I must have more specimens.’

‘And you will, Doctor Ivanov, you will.’ A new voice, soft and faintly mocking, sounded from under the railings. ‘The four of us share a dislike for empty cages. But do not let us keep you. I know how committed you are to your work.’

Silence fell once more, and Charlie frowned as he attempted to piece together the fragments of information he had learnt. Whatever Faulkner was doing with the people he had captured, it had something to do with a project being run out of an Elysian research lab. He knew the kids would have been taken here too. Seren had said there were already over a hundred people imprisoned in the Volya Facility. But the doctor – Ivanov – still wanted more.

Charlie blinked. Ivanov. Wasn’t that the name Maya had shared with him before the Pen hideout had been destroyed? His mind was racing. Jasmine Darkwood and the other prisoners he had freed from the cages … he had assumed the explosion had been accidental. But he remembered Jasmine’s triumphant expression before she ran off into the slums. Was it possible that she –?

‘What do we do now?’ Seren mumbled, her face a pale shade of green.

‘I think they’ve gone,’ Charlie said, tearing his mind away from his thoughts and trying to sound braver than he felt. ‘We should get out of this place. It’s not safe here.’

Seren nodded, pointing to the way out. ‘Stay close to me. Let’s do this.’

They both eased themselves onto their feet, silent shadows in the darkness. Then, there was a horrible groan from underneath their feet. The sound of a creaking floorboard reverberated around the enormous theatre hall. Charlie closed his eyes, holding his breath.

‘Did anyone else hear that? Sounds like your muscle was right, my lord.’

Charlie froze at Faulkner’s words, his eyes wide open, his heart hammering in his chest.

‘Oh, no …’ Seren whispered, her hands in front of her mouth. ‘It’s –’

‘Perhaps our conversation was not quite as private as we had intended,’ the Great Protector said, his voice low and dangerously relaxed. ‘Where is our uninvited guest?’

’You have to get out of here now,’ Charlie whispered. ‘Don’t argue with me.’

Seren frowned, her mouth tight. ‘What about you? I can’t just leave you behind.’

‘Just go already!’ Charlie urged. ‘You need to find your sister, don’t you?’

‘But if they catch you, they’ll –’

Charlie tried to keep his tone light. ‘Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.’ Seeing that she was still hesitating, he ground his teeth. ’Damn it, go – while you still have the chance!’

Biting her lip, Seren nodded, then turned and raced back up the walkway. She was heading straight for the door through which they had first entered the theatre. Charlie raised himself onto his haunches, readying himself to chase after her.

‘There’s someone up there!’ he heard Faulkner yell from below him.

‘Bring them to me – alive.’

The Great Protector’s order echoed around the cavernous theatre hall, ringing in his ears as Charlie sprinted after Seren. He needed to give her enough time to escape. If he followed roughly the same route she had taken through the wooden benches, he might convince them that there had only ever been one person hidden in the shadows. That it had only been him listening to their plans for trafficking human beings and experimenting on living people.

He was closing in on the door now, but Charlie had no intention of leaving the hall. Instead, he flung himself to one side and raced further up the gangway, deeper into the upper section of the room. If he made it obvious that he was still there, they would not try looking for anyone else beyond the theatre hall. Breathing hard, Charlie raced ahead, glancing over his shoulder to gauge how far behind him his pursuers were.

Then his foot connected with something solid. With a yell, he tripped over and crashed onto the floor. Gritting his teeth, pain tearing through his knees and elbows, Charlie attempted to force himself to his feet. He managed to raise himself onto his knees but stopped dead in his tracks when he felt the muzzle of a gun pressed into the back of his head. When he heard the amused voice of Arron Dragomir from behind him, he went completely still.

‘You should really watch your step. You could’ve gotten hurt.’

Charlie closed his eyes, bracing himself. He heard the whistle of air as Dragomir drew back his arm. There was a jarring crack as the butt of the soldier’s gun smashed into the back of his head. He slumped forward, the world spinning in front of his eyes. Then everything went black.

*

‘Will this take much longer, Lieutenant? I don’t have all day.’

‘It would be my pleasure to hit him again for you, sire.’

‘I have no doubt that it would, but I hardly think that it will get us what I want …’

His head throbbing, Charlie groaned, blinking to clear away the stars in his eyes. He was on his knees on the lower floor of the theatre. As the scene before him stopped swimming, he instinctively drew back. Something tore into his wrists as he shifted position.

He tested his hands. They were bound behind his back with zip ties, secured so tightly that they dug painfully into his skin. Looking up, he caught sight of the chains and manacles on the steel table in front of him. This close, he could see that the floor beneath the table was covered in dark red stains.

‘Finally, you are awake.’

Charlie looked up to find a tall, middle-aged man standing above him, an expression of mild interest on his sun-kissed face. Though narrow-framed, he had a commanding presence. He was dressed immaculately in a navy-blue, formal military uniform, adorned with medals. His thick, dark brown hair was brushed back into neat waves, and his light green eyes burnt with an intensity that made Charlie feel like he was being pinned down. They were the same pair of eyes that had been watching him out of faded portraits for as long as he could remember.

He could not believe it was real, yet there was no mistaking the man standing before him.

‘Come now, do you have nothing to say in my presence?’

Charlie felt his whole body begin to shake with terror as the Great Protector knelt down on one knee in front of him. Charlie lowered his head, his eyes on the blood-stained floor, as he heard a soft, mirthless laugh. He felt one of the Great Protector’s sharp fingernails dig into the skin underneath his chin. Unwillingly, Charlie lifted his head, his eyes wide and horrified as he came face to face with Nikolai Ignatiev for the first time in his life. The older man’s wide mouth curved in a way that made Charlie think he looked as though he was preparing to bite.

‘You have caught my attention, my little thief,’ he said, an almost tender smile twisting his mouth as he studied Charlie’s face. ‘I congratulate you. I must confess, I am rather interested in what a piece of filth like you is doing on the wrong side of the Wall.’ His eyes narrowed as they fell to Charlie’s throat. ‘And without a collar, no less. Is this the best the covens have to offer?’

‘I – I’m not –’ Charlie did not recognise the sound of his own voice, hoarse with fear.

‘But we have more than enough time to find out,’ the Great Protector said, stroking his fingers through the longer section of Charlie’s hair and getting to his feet. ‘I am sure you will enjoy our hospitality. I imagine you will find your stay here to be a memorable one. Take him away,’ he added, waving a lazy hand as he turned on his heel and disappeared into the shadows.

‘Get on your feet, scum,’ Dragomir said, grabbing Charlie under the arm and wrenching him up. ‘You’re coming with me.’