Aside from the hall where the hunters stayed, the corridor where he slept, Joseph’s office, and the large communal bathroom with showers that the Savages took him to after returning from the hunt last night, Killean knew little about this place. He decided to spend the next day trying to learn more about their location and the exits from it.
He made sure to look merely curious while he explored as he discovered cameras hidden in some of the lights of every hallway. They would expect him to explore and learn; if they had a problem with it, they would stop him, but so far they’d left him alone.
His exploration also helped him keep his distance from Simone. Still, he couldn’t rid himself of the incessant pull he felt to go to her and get her out of here. But he’d discovered no way to do that yet.
Returning to the bathroom, he discovered another circular room near it. The hair on his nape rose as he gazed inside the room. He saw no instruments of torture, but the drains in the concrete floor didn’t bode well for those brought here.
Turning away, he padded down the hall and back toward the corridor where he slept before branching off down another hall. This new hallway ran along the backside of Joseph’s office and housed more closed doors with numbers beside them.
Though he already suspected more bedrooms lay beyond, he had to confirm his suspicion before moving on. He didn’t glance at the camera as he turned the knob and poked his head inside one of the rooms.
The room beyond was identical to his except no clothes littered the concrete floor, and the bed was neatly made. The rooms along his hall were almost all full, but he’d only seen enough Savages in this place to account for the occupancy of those rooms. Most of the ones along this hall were probably empty and waiting for their time to be filled.
Gazing down the long hall, Killean calculated twice as many rooms were lining it as the one where he slept. This place could house a hundred and fifty Savages comfortably; more if they doubled up in the rooms. And this may only be one of many bunkers or shelters or whatever this place was that Joseph had.
What is going on here? What are they preparing for?
The end of the world.
He almost snorted at the melodramatic thought, but the cold certainty Joseph and his followers might be readying themselves for such a thing stopped him. The path Joseph was taking was one that could destroy everything vampires and hunters had spent thousands of years trying to protect. Joseph’s course of creating so many Savages and decimating the hunters could alert the humans to their existence, which might result in total anarchy.
Shit. It was such an inadequate word to describe the dread churning in his gut.
Killean closed the door and continued down the hall. Toward the end of the corridor, the space between four of the rooms grew larger. Killean tried the knobs but discovered them locked. Stepping back, he gazed at the identical doors as understanding dawned.
These four doors housed larger bedrooms, one of which was most certainly Joseph’s. At least one of the other rooms had to be occupied by the guest Joseph greeted the other night. Killean didn’t know if the other two rooms were empty but locked to keep out Savages looking to upgrade, or if other prominent figures in Joseph’s army slept behind them.
Killean resisted kicking the doors in to learn more; that would only earn him a detour from his explorations. Turning away, he strode to the end of the hall and turned left; it was the only option given to him.
He stepped into the doorway of another circular, concrete room, but this one was twice the size of the empty room and Joseph’s office. About twenty feet separated him from a metal shelf set in front of some see-through plastic sections about waist-high off the ground.
The setup looked familiar to him, and it took him a minute to realize the plastic and shelf were part of a human serving area. He’d seen cafeterias resembling this over the years, but without servers behind the plastic dividers ladling out food, and no people pushing their trays down the metal ramp, he hadn’t immediately placed what it was.
Also, when he’d seen places such as this before, there were tables in the room where the humans ate, but aside from the serving area, the room was only empty space and concrete floor. His steps didn’t make any noise as he glided across the room to explore beyond the serving area.
When he stepped around the serving area and walked past some cutting tables, he discovered a metal stove and a large, double refrigerator. He opened the fridge and found it empty. Still, if this room was here, then it had a purpose and it wasn’t to feed Savages. Whatever this place was, it seemed humans originally built it and not vampires.
Bomb shelter. It had to be. But not one built in the fifties and sixties when fear of nuclear war was at its highest, and even vamps were concerned about what the imbecilic humans would do next. Vampires could survive many things, but they had no idea what nuclear fallout would do to them. If vampires did survive, it wouldn’t be pleasant, and it would wipe out most of their food supply.
No, this shelter was newer than those uncertain days, or at least it was more recently updated than the heyday of the Cold War.
And then he realized the Savages could have recently had this place constructed to serve as an emergency shelter if it became necessary. They would require a food supply if they locked themselves in here, and they would have to keep that food alive by giving it nourishment. Keeping humans alive in here would be difficult, as some of the Savages would give in and kill some of their supply; he also suspected those Savages would be slaughtered in return.
He couldn’t imagine anything more horrible than being locked beneath the earth with a bunch of Savages who weren’t allowed to kill their limited food supply.
Walking around the fridge, Killean discovered the room went another twenty feet back. He strolled past the appliances and to the back wall where he opened the door of a pantry to reveal thousands of canned goods stashed inside. He had no idea how much people ate, but there seemed to be enough here to keep them going for months, maybe years.
He closed the pantry door and strolled over to the walk-in freezer taking up most of the back wall. Not only did the freezer contain enough blood to keep a hundred vampires alive for at least a year, but it also held plenty of meat and perishables for humans.
He tried to process everything he was seeing, but his gaze kept returning to the bags of frozen blood. Saliva filled his mouth as he licked his lips; what he wouldn’t give to sink his fangs into someone’s throat, rip it out, and bathe in their blood. Memories of last night’s kill danced across his mind as his body thrummed with excitement.
What he was becoming should repulse him; instead, he found himself pondering when he’d be able to hunt again. He craved the rush of blood filling his mouth, the life slipping into him, and the power it brought. All he wanted—
Stop!
Killean rubbed at his temples as the demon part of him clamored for more death. Must control it.
But he felt as if he were spiraling farther away. Simone! You’re here for Simone!
Drawing on that reminder, Killean gathered the tattered remains of his self-control and finally lifted his head again. He kept his gaze away from the blood as the chilly air flowing over his skin further helped to clear his mind.
If the freezer was fully functional, then they had to be powering it somehow. The same could be said for the lights and the hot water in the showers, but until seeing this freezer, he’d never really thought about a power source for this place. Either they had a self-contained electric grid here, or they were hooked into a natural gas line that wouldn’t be affected by a disaster.
But then, if the world went to shit, he doubted anyone would choose to be plugged into combustible gas… so, their own power source fueled this place.
“What are you doing back here?”
Killean almost jumped at the sudden intrusion, but he kept himself from doing so as he turned toward the Savage standing behind him. How had he not heard the man approach?
Because you’re losing it.
And that was true.
“Exploring,” he replied as he closed the freezer door. “What are you doing back here?”
The man crossed his arms over his chest. “Joseph sent me for you; he says you’re to go to him now.”
Killean bit back the retort of, I don’t give a fuck what he says, but such a reply wouldn’t go over too well, and he had a role to play. Never had he chafed against the responsibilities placed on him by being one of Ronan’s men, but Ronan never treated him like a dog meant to jump when he commanded.
“Now!” the man barked.
Before Killean could think, he lashed out and seized the man’s throat. Lifting the Savage off the ground, Killean smashed him into the concrete. The impact shattered the wall and created a perfect, man-sized indent. He bared his fangs as he thrust his face into the man’s.
“Don’t you ever talk to me like that again,” Killean snarled.