The Annals of Alchemy and Blood: THE LAST VAMPIRE by Patricia Rosemoor and Marc Paoletti

     
Prologue   

Cueva del Diablo, Texas, 1993

“Don’t do it, Leah.  I’m warning you!  Dad told us to wait up for him.”
    Stopping, Leah Maguire glared at her big brother Gabe, her helmet’s lamp making his maturing face glow eerily pale against the enveloping dark.  The only light in the cave came from their headlamps and flashlights and a single thin beam from the narrow fissure overhead.  Right now, everything looked flat, colorless, including his green eyes so like her own.  Behind him, the maw leading to the chamber they’d just passed through was still dark, void of movement.
    “Dad should be back with another lantern by now.”  She couldn’t believe he’d dropped his into a narrow crevasse where it had gotten stuck.  “He said it would only take a minute to catch up to Mr. Anderson’s group and borrow one of theirs.”
    “Maybe he took the wrong tunnel or something, but he’ll get it straight.  Be patient, would you?” 
    Hating it when Gabe got so bossy – he was only three years older, after all – Leah glanced back at the small opening with longing.  “You just don’t want me to go in because you can’t fit.”
    Her brother had grown and filled out in the last year.  His shoulders were so broad he barely made it through a doorway any more.  They sure wouldn’t get through the small opening.
    “No, it’s not that,” Gabe said, his voice sounding odd enough that it sent a shiver up Leah’s spine.  “Something feels strange about this place.”
    Though she didn’t say so, Leah sensed it, too.  Lately, she’d been experiencing a lot of things she couldn’t understand.  Things that frightened her, made her feel like a little kid or something.
    Shaking off the frisson of fear that radiated from Gabe, Leah started to get angry with him.  Her big brother was putting her on, that was it, because he didn’t want her beating him out at anything.
    She turned back to the opening, her ginger braids flying, saying, “Oh, I’m so sure you’re worried.  What’s the matter, Gabe?  Afraid your little sister will prove she’s the better spelunker?”
    “I’m telling you–”
    “I’m going to get the most awesome shots of limestone formations that you’ll never get to see!”
    Before Gabe could stop her, Leah found footing in the wall and boosted herself up and through the opening and under a ragged limestone shawl that dripped like dozens of yard-long fingers.  Good thing she was still scrawny as Gabe liked to remind her.  But for once not having breasts or hips like her friends played to her advantage.
    Negotiating any cave without public access took some amount of expertise and she was a natural.  Her pulse always thrummed as she found new flowstone formations – limestone canopies and shawls and curtains – but she especially liked the more uniquely formed stalactites and stalagmites.  Always chomping at the bit to make new discoveries, she couldn’t wait another minute. 
    “Leah Maguire, get back here!” Gabe called.
    “Bite me!” she yelled in response.
    On her hands and knees in a tunnel, she felt the walls close in around her, hugging her with their cool, damp breath, but she barely felt the cold because she was dressed warmly, her feet encased in hiking boots, her hands in thin leather gloves.  Her camera had a wide-angled lens and was rigged to a front jacket pocket so she could take photos right from there.  She’d gotten lots of good shots already.  Lots of formations that shone an extraordinary bright white.  The cave deposits were translucent because of the purity of the limestone.  She couldn’t wait to see what lay ahead.
    From behind, she heard Gabe’s voice.  “I told her to wait, Dad.  She’s in there.”
    “Leah?” came the voice deep enough and firm enough to put the fear of God in anyone.  “Get back here.”
    Sighing in frustration, Leah stopped.  She was almost there, almost to the next chamber.  Her headlight picked up the ragged edges of a limestone canopy, and halfway there, seemingly imbedded in the limestone, a soft red glow.  What the heck was that?  A dropped light?  A rock of some kind?  Another few feet wouldn’t hurt anything.  She’d check it out, take her photo and then go back.
    “Coming, Dad,” she fibbed as she crept forward, her gaze intent on the red glow.
    A movement from beyond. . .
    She whipped her head up and stared at the opening of the other chamber.  A tickle of uncertainty crawled through her, pebbling the flesh along her spine.  Then a scrabbling sound stopped her again, and her pulse picked up.
    More movement . . .
    Bats?
    She moved her head so her light went straight through the opening.  For a second, nothing.  Then more movement.  A flurry.  Two spots glowed at her like eyes in the dark.
    Her heart leapt to her throat.
     Thump-thump . . . thump-thump . . . thump-thump . . .   
     The beat filled her ears.
    What the heck was that?  Not bats.
    A click of her camera and bright white flashed down the tunnel for a quick glimpse of something dark moving fast out of the light.  Something dark and scary that made her squirm inside.  A strong sense of danger whipped through her and took her breath away. 
    Her throat tight, Leah averted her eyes and began backing up the way she’d come.  Waves of what felt like anger pulsating from the other cavern pushed her faster.  When she looked up again, a whirl of dark movement like a stream of those supposed bats seemed to be coming down the tunnel after her. 
    Gasping, she crabbed backward faster toward the cavern and Gabe and Dad.
    “Leah, come on!”
    “Coming, Gabe, and something’s coming after me!”
    “Well, hurry!” Dad yelled.
    She was hurrying and the whirling darkness was hurrying to overtake her.  The rush of blood filled her ears and her throat went tight.  Suddenly her feet shot out into nothingness – the chamber – and her body followed, tumbling downward, her right hip hitting the cavern floor hard and the breath whooshing out of her even as the black mist shot right over her head.
    An agonized scream raised the hair on the back of her neck.  She twisted and a gush of something wet hit her.  Her brother . . . her big, strong, wide-as-a-doorway brother . . . was on his knees, gagging, trying to avoid the dark silhouette that seemed to be attacking him.
    “Gabe!”
    His only answer was a strangled gurgle.
    Oh, my God . . . oh, my God . . . oh, my God . . .
    Her mouth rounded into an O and she panted to get air as she prayed to the God that Mom assured her always listened.
    Help Gabe . . . help him . . . help . . .!
    The words screamed through Leah’s mind if not through her throat as Gabe slid onto his back.  Then her father was there, lifting her to her feet.
    “Leah, get out now!  Run!”
    Leah couldn’t move, as her father came at the black force, only to be struck to his knees, too.
    No, no!  Please, God, please . . . do something!  Help, them!  Please!
    But her prayers went unheard.  Dad collapsed in a heap a few feet from Gabe. 
    Then the thing that attacked them turned to her, twin spots glowing against the dark her only warning.
    Leah turned to run. 
    A narrow shaft of light guided her to the fissure in the earth so it was right above her.  She could climb to get to it . . . she could find little chinks in the limestone wall for her toes and fingers . . . she could get help to save Gabe and Dad . . .
    Before she could try, long fingers manacled her thin arm, bringing her flight to an abrupt halt.  A dark river of evil rushed through her like an extra pulse, and for a split second she saw Gabe and Dad in her mind.  Stumbling, she whirled and fell backward, the foreign hand plunging with her straight into the light.
    The creature yelled, the sound filling the cavern and nearly splitting her eardrums. 
    Her arm was on fire. 
    No, his hand – smoke was rising off it. 
    She slapped at the putrid flesh to get it off her, then screamed herself at contact.  The thin leather of her glove was smoking and her palm felt seared by flame.
    The manacle fell from her arm as if useless, and Leah fell to the ground, surrounded by nothing but a thin stream of sunlight.  Then she could see things. . . her clothing . . . her hands . . . all covered in blood.
    “Dad!  Gabe!”  She sobbed, broken-hearted at what she had caused.
    Her brother and father didn’t respond.  They lay as still as death, separated from her by the creature.
    No escape . . . there was no escaping the fate she’d brought on them all.
     Wrapping her arms around her head and closing her eyes so that she couldn’t see what was coming next, Leah rolled into a tight ball of pain and waited to die.