Page 22 of Incandescence

Chapter Twelve

Maya

Islinked out of whatI presumed was a guest bedroom with a pillow and two blankets folded under an arm. Everyone who’d lingered in the hallway was now part of the knot of people in the living room avidly watching the show.

I smirked at seeing the buxom blonde woman on the dining table in her underwear, swaying seductively to the music. When she unclipped her bra and tossed it into the crowd, her big breasts bobbing to the movement, everyone roared with approval. The roar amplified when she used one hand to pull at her pink nipples and slid her other hand inside her panties.

Alexander stepped toward me, glancing around before he lifted the hatch. “After you,” he murmured.

I nodded thanks and said, “Great distraction.”

He waited until I’d climbed down the stairs before he climbed in after me, then closed the hatch to complete darkness. But the sudden panic I swallowed back wasn’t just from the impenetrable blackness. It was as much from the all-too-familiar vile scent of something between cat urine and ammonia.

I dumped the blankets and pillow on the floor before peeling off my backpack and riffling through it in search of my pen flashlight. Alexander stepped onto the concrete floor beside me as I flicked on the beam that sliced through the darkness.

My heart rate steadied only a little as I moved the light over the row upon row of shelving in front of us that was filled with dusty bottles of booze. I moved the light farther along, to where the shelves ended, leaving a small gap between them and the concrete wall.

I led the way, squeezing through the gap, my stare going wide and my belly sinking at what I’d suspected.

“What is it?” Alexander asked from behind me.

I swallowed past my dry throat, a little nauseous and dizzy from the smells...and the memories. “It’s a meth lab.” I turned to him. “They’re making drugs. If they find us down here, we’re as good as dead.”

“Fuck.” He stared past me at the table filled with common household items.

Aluminum foil, pressure cookers, a camp stove, two blenders, dozens of empty milk bottles, latex gloves, funnels, chemistry glassware, paper towels, pH test kits, coffee filters, cotton balls, duct tape, jugs, thermometers and plastic tubing. That wasn’t to mention the bleach, gas cans, pool chemicals and propane tanks lined against the wall.

I backed away from the toxic scents that were dangerous even to inhale. “We need to get out of here.”

But when I turned and headed for the stairs, Alexander clasped my arm.

“Wait.”

I stilled at his hoarse order. “The music’s stopped.” He tightened his hand. “Turn the flashlight off.”

I flicked off the light to complete and utter blackness. Alexander was right. Music no longer throbbed through the floorboards, but the faint cadence of voices became clearer as my hearing attuned.

It was Rory’s voice that came through loudest. He sounded belligerent and more than a bit pissed off. “I don’t care who invited you inside. You can’t just come in here searching for my guests.”

“Can’t I?”

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