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  He made his way to the back of the tavern and through the empty, small kitchen before walking out to the porch. He lowered his bow as he surveyed what he could only call a ghost town. Tucked into the mountains, it was remote, but not so remote that all of the residents would have fled before the winter set in. The humans and vampires who had lived here knew how to survive the icy temperatures and snow. They would have been prepared for it, and they wouldn’t have willingly left their homes behind.

  Or perhaps, they were still here, somewhere.

  He turned and strode back through the tavern. Stepping outside the front door, he stared at the silent town. He jogged down the stairs and across the snow-covered road to the buildings on the other side of the street. He peered in the windows but didn’t bother to go inside anywhere until he came to the log cabins on the next road. The lack of signs hanging from the porches, or painted on the windows, led him to believe he’d reached the residential area of town.

  These may be the homes of vampires and human, but no smoke spiraled lazily into the air from the chimneys; he didn’t smell any fires in the hearths within the homes or hear the crackling of firewood. No footprints disturbed the snow on any of the roads or porches of the homes.

  He walked up the steps of one of the homes and opened the unlocked door. Like the tavern, everything looked normal, except for the faint scent of something rotten wafting from one of the back rooms and the complete lack of occupants.

  He put his bow on his back again and returned the arrow to his quiver before pulling out a stake. Entering the dining room, he discovered the remains of a family dinner. Four plates of rotting chicken and the moldy, shrunken remains of corn and potatoes sat on the table. A fork still stuck out of one baked potato.

  “What is going on?” he muttered.

  Striding into the bedroom, he opened the closet doors to reveal all of the clothes still neatly hanging within. Closing the doors, he turned his attention to the bureau next to the closet. Pulling open the drawers, he discovered socks, underwear, and undershirts. He found no empty drawers or empty spots where clothes had once been. He went through the other two rooms, where he discovered children’s clothing but nothing more.

  Returning to the main street, he glanced up and down it before walking to the next home and jogging up the steps of the porch. He made his way through three more homes; two of them were human homes with food rotting in the cabinets and fridges. The other was a vampire residence with no food in it at all. All of the buildings were as vacant as the tavern and first home had been.

  Confusion filled him, his mind spun as he tried to figure out what had gone on here, but for the life of him, he couldn’t even begin to guess at it. The vampires hadn’t killed all the humans and ditched their bodies; they would still be residing here if they had. The humans hadn’t turned on the vamps and had a bloodbath; there would be evidence of that. There would be survivors, but there was no one.

  He walked back to where he’d left Achilles. The horse looked up from the scoop of grain William had given him before returning to his meal. William turned as he stared up and down the street again. Around him, snow began to fall in lazy spirals. It stuck to his clothes and hair; snowflakes melted against his cheek and nose. He wanted out of this town, but if there were any answers here, he had to uncover them before moving on. His feet sank into the snow as he walked up the stairs of the prison and opened the door.

  The hush of the building was as complete as it had been in the other homes he’d gone through. A broken window in the back had allowed snow to enter. It formed a three-foot high drift against the back wall. The curtains billowed inward as more snow fell through the busted pane. A crow lifted its head from the top of the pile and let out a loud squawk when it spotted him. Its wings kicked up swirls of snow as it took flight. Black feathers gliding lazily to the ground were the only sign it had been there after it vanished out the window.

  The bird was smarter than he was, he realized as he looked around the dust-covered desks in the room. Both cells were empty, but multiple blankets lined the floors, along with makeshift pillows created from rolled up coats and other clothing. There were at least fifteen of the beds in each cell. William’s confusion continued to mount as he stared back and forth between the two cells.

  What had happened here that they’d been forced to house so many prisoners within the cells?

  For the first time he wished he hadn’t decided to strike out on his own. Something truly bizarre was happening here. Daniel or Xavier might be able to figure it out, or maybe Xavier had seen something like this before, but he had no idea what was going on. He turned on his heel and started to make his way out of the prison when he heard a muffled sound.

  Turning around again, he searched the empty room. He didn’t see or smell anything, but he knew he’d heard something. His brow furrowed when he heard it again. Moving back into the center of the room, he studied the walls and opened the one closed door to reveal the closet sized bathroom. He looked at the ceiling and then the floor.

  He didn’t hear the sound again, but just as he was getting ready to go, his eyes landed on a different pattern in the wooden floorboards. His boots were noiseless against the floor as he made his way to the desk over the top of the panel in the floor. He grabbed hold of the end of the metal desk, lifted it, and moved it aside.

  With the desk out of the way, he knelt to examine the panel placed discreetly into the floor. He ran his fingers over the edge, looking for some way to pull it up but finding nothing. Years of living with Daniel, and watching his ingenious traps and designs had taught him there was always more than met the eye when it came to places others wanted to keep hidden.

  Finding no way to pull it up, he began to press down on the flooring. When his fingers pressed on the top left hand corner, he heard a small click. It rose up a quarter of an inch. Rising, he walked over and grabbed a lantern from where it hung on the wall. He placed it on the desk and opened the drawers in search of some matches. Uncovering a matchbox, he pulled out a match and lit it before pressing the flame to the wick of the lantern.

  He turned the flame up before bending down to pull the panel away from the floor. Rustling sounds drifted from below when he moved the lantern to reveal the stairs leading into the basement room. A hiss that sounded like it came from a couple dozen snakes sounded from below, but nothing appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

  The mildew odor of the room, body odor and something much more foul and pungent filled his nostrils. He had a feeling he really wasn’t going to like what he found, but he pulled his stake from the holster at his side and began to descend the stairs.

  The steps creaked beneath his weight; the wood sagged in the middle. He kept his back to the stairs and his body turned to face any menace coming at him. Stepping off the last stair, he lifted the lamp to chase away the shadows filling the room the size of the building above it. His blood ran cold, his deadened heart plummeted as the lamp revealed the dozens of gleaming red eyes across from him.

  CHAPTER 7

  Tempest kept her head bowed while she walked down the street as twilight descended upon the town. Trying to stay invisible was the best way to get by since they’d been invaded. They’d all come to realize dissenters, and anyone who questioned what was going on, soon found themselves dragged to the prison or locked within the growing number of stocks being built outside the prison.

  She still had no idea what was going on, who this woman claiming to be the queen was, or what would become of them all, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that things weren’t going to get better anytime soon. They weren’t allowed to gather in groups of more than four. Any weapons they’d had were confiscated and burned the second day after the invaders arrived.

  The power of the queen was whispered about amongst those that had taken over here. They spoke of the vampires taking back power, of putting right the wrongs committed by declaring humans equals and allowing them to have equal rights. Tempest’s skin crawled every ti
me she heard one of them say they had to take back the world and reestablish their place as the superior species. They had to put the true and proper queen back on the throne, where she belonged.

  She had yet to see the queen, but the way these vampires talked about her made her seem as if she were something almost mystical. Something completely unstoppable.

  Someone had to do something before they were all imprisoned, slaughtered, or enveloped by the group who had invaded. She’d tried to deny it in the beginning, but she could no longer ignore the fact that the invaders numbers had swelled with residents of her town. She didn’t know if the new recruits actually believed the rhetoric they were hearing, or if they were simply trying to survive whatever the invaders had planned for all of them. Either way, it made her terror grow to watch them being indoctrinated into these new beliefs without having even met their new leader.

  She buried herself deeper into her thick cloak as she surreptitiously searched for some weakness or break in the guards lining the streets. If she could get past the guards on the trails above, she’d easily be able to get lost amongst the mountains and slip away into the wilderness.

  She didn’t know how long it would take her to find another town once she was free; she’d never wandered that far before. She didn’t know if anyone would believe her, but she had to try to do something to save her loved ones.

  “You!” Her head shot up at the barked word.

  Across the way, the ugly vampire who had taken up residence in the orphanage strode toward her. Over the past two weeks, she’d learned his name was Kane, but she still considered him the ugly, malicious troll. She glanced around to see if he’d been yelling at someone else, but his beady hazel eyes were focused on her as he moved in on her.

  She threw back her shoulders when he stopped before her. “Where are you going?” he demanded.

  “I simply wanted some fresh air and a walk.”

  His gaze raked over her before returning to her face. Tempest had to fight the urge to pull the cloak tighter around her, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing his lecherous stare made her feel like scrubbing herself in a bath until her skin turned pink. “Go back,” he commanded.

  Tempest opened her mouth to protest but bit back her words. She’d never be able to slip free of here if she was thrown into prison with the others. “May I ask why?”

  “Go back.”

  I’ll take that as a no. She turned on her heel to head back toward the orphanage.

  Around her, she began to realize the vampires who had invaded her town were moving down the street toward the hotel. She wanted to turn and see what they were doing, but she didn’t dare let her curiosity show to them. She also wasn’t above admitting she was a little afraid of what she might see there. The only ones who weren’t on the move were those patrolling the mountains, the ones in front of the barricade, and a dozen or so others who remained in front of some of the homes and businesses.

  Her pace increased until she almost jogged up the steps of the orphanage. She thrust open the door and hurriedly closed it. Pallas and Abbott looked up from where they were sitting with the children in the living room. All of the children had books open in their laps.

  “What’s going on?” Pallas asked.

  “I don’t know,” she murmured and hurried to the window.

  Pallas rose to her feet and followed behind as a growing swell of the vampires in white gathered before the hotel. She recognized some of the vampires from town, now dressed in white, amongst them. She hadn’t seen a human since the first day they’d invaded town and locked them all within the blood bank. Blood was delivered to them, not much, but enough to get them through the days. Normally she would have gone into the mountains and supplemented the meager supply with animal blood, but that had become impossible now.

  Her gaze ran over the mountains again. From here, she could tell there weren’t as many vampires patrolling up there as before. Even those vampires were coming in to witness whatever was about to unfold.

  Turning toward the children, she walked over to them. “Nora, take the children upstairs.”

  “Oh,” Nora moaned, but she rose to her feet with the other kids.

  Tempest closed the doors behind them before hurrying back to the window. “Now might be my chance to escape,” she murmured.

  Pallas glanced at her before focusing on the street again. “If you’re caught…”

  “We can’t stay here and do nothing,” she whispered. “I think they’re going to kill those of us who don’t join them no matter what. I’m more concerned about what will happen to all of you when they realize I’m gone.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Abbott replied. “There’s no reason to worry about us.”

  “They may throw you in jail because of me.”

  “That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

  “Abbott…”

  “You’re right, Tempest. They’re either going to integrate us, or they’re going to kill us, and I refuse to stand here and take it. I’ll go if you don’t. We have the cloak,” he reminded her. “It will help one of us to blend in with them.”

  “You’re not fully matured yet,” she reminded him.

  Throwing back his shoulders, his green eyes burned with determination when they met hers. “I don’t care. I’m not going down without a fight, not like those other saps out there.” He waved his hand at the window and the vampires walking by. “It’s like they’re brainwashed or something. Besides that’s a big part of the point, I’m not mature yet, and neither are the other children here. I know you’ve noticed that there were no children with them when they entered this town.”

  She had, she’d just been hoping the children hadn’t noticed. She should have known that detail wouldn’t have slipped by them; they were far too astute not to have noticed. Whatever was going on out there, it didn’t include anyone who wasn’t strong enough to fight.

  She liked to believe the children in the towns the invading group had already passed through were all safe and sound, but she couldn’t bring herself to buy that lie. These vampires were ruthless. They were also trying to work under the radar and not draw attention to themselves until they were ready for their presence to be known.

  They wouldn’t be recruiting in her little town, in the middle of nowhere, if they were ready to reveal themselves yet. They definitely wouldn’t take the chance of leaving behind any survivors who could tell the tale of what they’d seen.

  “The people in town are scared,” Pallas whispered. “That’s why they’re joining them.”

  “They’re not even putting up a fight,” Abbott protested hotly.

  Tempest rested her hands on his shoulders to calm him. “No one understands what is going on. They don’t know what to do or where to turn.”

  “I know, but we can’t stand by and do nothing, like they are.”

  She focused on the few straggling vampires still moving down the road. “There may be others trying to do something. That’s most certainly the reason why some of them are in the stocks and in jail, but we can’t talk to each other about it.”

  Down the road, she saw the doors of the hotel open. She couldn’t see what was going on over the sea of heads, but the murmuring voices of the crowd ceased abruptly. Tempest’s hands fell from Abbott’s shoulders as they all stepped closer to the window. She fought the urge to press her nose against the glass in order to get a better look, but it wouldn’t do anything to help her view.

  “Hello everyone.” A man’s clear voice traveled down the street and carried with it an air of confidence and authority. She placed her hands against the window and craned her head to try and see better. “Thank you all for joining us here tonight and for your unwavering support toward our mission. For helping to fix the wrongs this new regime has placed upon vampires by forcing us to deny our true nature. When the one true queen is restored to the throne, vampires will once again know their rightful position in this world.”

  Abbott glanced a
t her, but she didn’t look at him as the mob pushed closer to the hotel. The excitement of the crowd pulsated out in waves so fierce she could feel the vibrations of it against her skin.

  “Good evening everyone!”

  A woman’s sweet and melodic voice flowed over the crowd. Even if Tempest hadn’t already heard the power and self-confidence resonating in the woman’s voice, she would have known the supposed queen was speaking when all the gathered vampires bowed as one. It was like watching a flock of birds following their leader and moving with the same rhythmic flow. The sight of it made her stomach turn. Her hands fell away from the window as the woman continued to speak.

  “I am so happy to see so many new faces amongst us today. So many who know our proper place is at the top, above the human vermin we’ve been forced to coincide with and treat as our equals.”

  The sick feeling in her stomach grew. Judging by the vast crowd out there, and their growing enthusiasm, there were many who believed this woman’s twisted words.

  “We will take back what is rightfully ours!” The woman’s zealous tone caused the crowd to erupt into applause.

  The woman waited until the cheers died down before speaking again. “We will be the top of the food chain again; vampires will no longer have to pretend to give equal rights to a species far inferior to ours!” The woman’s voice rose with her ardent words. “As you can see, our numbers are swelling to encompass more and more who realize being ruled by a king weak enough to fall in love with a human, a former blood slave, is no king at all. We are vampires who refuse to be led by a turned human, a woman weaker than us in every way. We will not be kept down. We will not be forced to accept a race who kept us locked away for thousands of years, and who would do so again if given the opportunity! We will be number one again!”

  Cheers erupted through the crowd. They vibrated so vigorously down the street that the glass in the window before her vibrated with the force of their shouts. Their feet stomped on the snow-covered ground, causing resounding thumps to shake the floor beneath her. Tempest rested her hand against her chest; she didn’t know what to do as acid burned its way up her throat.