Page 27 of Crimson Born

“Nothing. You’re just not like her usual ‘recruit.’ No offense. I like you, kid.”

I looked down at my typical Amish clothing. “What do people wear at the... what did you call the place you’re taking me to?”

“The Bastion. It’s another word for fortress or stronghold. It’s like our headquarters and a sanctuary all in one.”

“What do they wear at the Bastion?” I formed the word carefully, its unfamiliarity a challenge for my tongue.

He chuckled and tossed his head in my direction. “Notthat. Don’t worry about it. You’re fine. You may just be the first Amish vampire anyone’s ever met, that’s all. And hey, there’s a first time for everything, right?”

“What were you like, you know, before?”

“Before I was Crimson born?” he asked. “I was sort of like you, in a way. Not Amish, of course, but I was paralyzed too. I played college football at Auburn—wide receiver. Shoulda been a quarterback with a name like Kannon, right?”

He laughed. “Anyway, I was hit on a play, pinned between these two huge defensive backs. Obliterated my spine. I was pretty depressed. There was no way I was going to ever walk again, much less play ball. When I finally got out of the hospital, some of my friends took me out to celebrate, or more accurately, to cheer me up. I met Imogen at a bar in Savannah. She offered me a job. Of course she explained I’d have to be turned first, but once I found out I’d be able to walk again, I was all in.”

“What kind of job?”

“I’m Bloodbound,” he said with a noticeable sense of pride. “We’re sort of like Jedi.”

At my blank look, he shook his head and chuckled. “There are actually people in the world who haven’t seenStar Wars. Wow.Okay, well, how can I explain it? We’re sort of like soldiers, highly trained in battle, but we don’t seek out a fight. We’re like a peacekeeping force—ready and able to fight if needed, but we’d rather prevent a battle than start one. We serve the queen, do whatever she needs. One of our jobs is to go out and collect the strays—”

He held up a hand. “No offense—the newly turned vampires. See, generally, when someone is turned, it’s an intentional thing. They’re surrounded by a community that helps them through the acclimation process—we’ve even got a special ceremony for it at the Bastion. But occasionally, like in your case, it’s more of a spur-of-the-moment thing, and the circumstances leave a few loose ends. Sometimes when a newbie is left on their own, it gets ugly. We have to track them down quickly and bring them in before they put us all at risk.”

“Ugly? I don’t understand.”

“They’re confused, thirsty,” he said. “They kill humans indiscriminately, or they make other poor choices when it comes to blood sources.”

“Animals?”

“Exactly. Either way, by the time we find them, the rogues aren’t always cooperative. Sometimes we have to use force to subdue them and bring them back to the Bastion for remedial training and sometimes for detox. If they’re too far gone, we have to destroy them.”

* * *

The early morninghorizon glowed with pink promise as we parked the car and Kannon announced we’d reached our destination.

It was the kind of sight that would have filled my heart with joy and anticipation—before. Now sunrises had taken on a whole new meaning for me. Now they meant danger.

Kannon and I scrambled to get below the earth’s surface before the sun’s first rays crested the Blue Ridge Mountains and burned through the famous shroud of blue fog.

A faded sign near the entrance indicated the system of caverns in Northwestern Virginia had once been open for tours. Now, according to Kannon, who’d given me the history of the place during the three-hour drive here, no intelligent human would come within miles of it.

He said in the height of its popularity, these caverns had welcomed more than half a million visitors a year. But after a series of mysterious and increasingly frequent “accidents” befalling tourists, the series of elaborate connected caves had developed a reputation as a haunted place, and business had dwindled to only a trickle of thrill-seekers.

When even those brave souls had failed to re-emerge, humans had collectively decided to cede the natural wonder back to nature.

And to the vampires.

Kannon said they’d been moving in at greater and greater numbers.

It did seem like the ideal vampire habitat. He told me this particular series of caverns covered sixty-four acres, and that was just the part that was inhabited.

The complex network of passageways had been mapped as far as five miles into the earth, but expeditions still hadn’t managed to reach the end of it.

“It’s perfect. Plenty of space for our growing population and an easily defensible stronghold against anyone who might try to breach it,” he explained.

“Why would they?” I asked as we made our way down one long set of stairs after another—I counted thirty stories—before reaching a sloping ramp that ended in a wide chamber lit by wall-mounted torches.

“I thought vampires and humans got along now.”

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