Page 109 of Amethyst and Iron
“Too right. Sweet bite you’ve got, by the way.”
“Well, he’s very respectful of all beings,” my dad’s voice sounded, and I turned to see him now standing right beside me.
I was in a bit of a daze from the feed. Not high, but just… still immersed in it.
“I’m getting that, yeah,” Matthew said, before resting his head back against the comfy chair and closing his eyes.
I looked over at Eric to see him doing the same.
As I rose to meet my Dad, my veins buzzing and so warm, he assured me, “This is par for the course. They will rest here for ten minutes. Carers will come in to check on them, provide them with water, iron, and nourishment, then they will either return home, or be escorted to their quarters here. For Matthew and Eric in particular, they are regular feeders, so they wish to remain here. They prefer the Shadow Tunnels to their lives above ground.”
“Wow, that’s a hell of a thing.”
“How do you feel?” he asked, looking me over. “You appear energized. Greatly so.”
“Yeah,” I breathed. “I really am. And it was good… going there… doing that.”
“I would imagine it would be, especially with it being your first feed from a human.” He brushed his fingers over my cheek. “I’m proud of you. And I’m glad it pleased you.”
“Thank you. You made all this possible.”
“Something I should have done much sooner. So don’t thank me.” Emotion flickered in his eyes briefly, and then he stepped back and gestured at the door. “Now you are satiated, there is something I wish to show you.”
Ah, back to the cryptic. Like when I’d first arrived here. Well, he hadn’t steered me wrong once yet, so the least I could do was give him the benefit of the doubt.
I followed him out, taking one last glance back at Matthew and Eric looking so satiated and peaceful.
We made our way through what I’d sometimes come to term in my head as theluxurious vampire bunker.The Shadow Tunnels were really a covert, fortified underground network, a subterranean fortress, labyrinth-style hidden beneath unknown terrain. The tunnels were dug deep into the bones of the earth.
Smooth black stone walls shimmered faintly with protective magical wards. Pipes and power lines ran overheard, some bracketed to reinforced steel beams. In some places, the rock had been carved into archways and alcoves with flickering sconces.
The tunnels branched out, each hallway leading to some pocket of The Shadowed’s operations, like suites for agents in the Residential Wing, or the Combat Area, the Vermillion Chamber, the Medical Bay, Utility Corridors and Escape Routes,andthe Command Center which doubled as a war room.
I’d briefly been inside the latter.
But as we delved deeper into the tunnels, dropping in stages with stairs that coiled downward, my boots echoing off stone, a more brightly lit area up ahead caught my eye.
An area I hadn’t been to before when he’d given me a brief tour of the place.
We made a sharp right turn and then, etched into heavy stone, were a set of double arched metal doors, a sign engraved across the surface:Investigative Sanctum.
Remnant walked to the right door and the moment he was within breathing distance, a security console shot out.
Not any ordinary sort of console.
There were no buttons. Just what looked like some sort of needle.
He pressed his palm to it, pricking his skin, enough to draw a few drops of his blood.
And then the console shot back inside, concealing itself, and both doors whirred and clanged, followed by them opening smoothly.
“Nice.”
He smiled, then gestured for me to follow him inside.
The moment we stepped across the threshold, the doors closed behind us, a lock clanging into place again.
Just that slight sound echoed around the still room.
