The silence that followed was deafening.
“Greer, get Darius and Micca. Move the infected vampire and secure him in the dungeon. He should be safe there. Randal, Mason, gather all your vampires and start searching for thethree who escaped. When you find them, bring them to the castle.”
Alexander turned and walked up the stairs. Greer followed closely behind him.
“Do you think we’ll find them?” Greer asked.
“We should try. If we don’t, we are fucked,” Alexander said.
“What is the demons’ plan with them anyway? It’s not like we can’t fight the infected people. We managed to put you down back then. We’ll do the same with the infected vampires,” Greer said confidently.
Alexander stopped at the back door and turned to him.
“Their plan is far worse than what happened to me,” Alexander said, his mind flashing to Blade’s vision, the part where the veil was drawing in blood until the stake turned to ash. “The blood inside me is the key to opening the veil. They’re infecting as many beings as they can so they can drain them to force it open.”
“What? That’s horrible,” Greer said. “They’re all going to die.”
“That’s why we need to find them first,” Alexander said. “You take the right side of town and I’ll take the left. Hopefully they haven’t gone far.”
Greer nodded.
Alexander walked out of the house and disappeared, reappearing at the other end of town near the edge of the forest. He searched the streets, backyards, and peered into house windows, moving back toward the center of town, but there was no sign of them.
Greer met him in the middle.
“There’s no sign of them,” Greer said. “I wonder where they ran to.”
“Maybe they’re in the mountains,” Alexander said, turning toward the dark silhouette in the distance, a bad feeling tightening in his chest. “That’s where I would have gone.”
“With the snow everywhere, they could hide up there for days,” Greer said.
“Then we go now,” Alexander said. “Bring more men. I’ll wait for you at the foot of the mountain.”
Greer disappeared, then returned with more vampires. They began the search, moving up the mountain and combing through fallen trees, bushes, and rocky outcrops. By dawn, they still had found nothing.
“We need to go back,” Greer said, glancing up at the sky. The sun was finally breaking through, sending its heat down. They had managed to search through most of the morning under cover of cold, cloudy weather.
“You go. I’ll keep going a little longer,” Alexander said.
“You’re going to stay out here?” Greer asked. “But…”
“I can handle it,” Alexander said. “Go.”
“Okay,” Greer said, looking at him awkwardly, but he didn’t push further. He called to the other vampires, and they disappeared.
Alexander searched for another hour, but there was still no sign of them. It was as if the infected vampires had vanished into thin air.
And he had a bad feeling he already knew where they had gone, though he didn’t want to believe it.
They shouldn’t have been able to reach Claremore. They didn’t know the area well enough. And besides, the witches had been infected first, so they should have been the ones to move there.
Something about it felt wrong.
“They have to still be here,” Alexander said, wiping a hand over his face as guilt swirled inside him. He should have been more careful, but he hadn’t known he was carrying a key that could open the gates of hell.
He had thought he was simply different, that whatever changes were happening wouldn’t hurt anyone. He hadn’t feltlike he was losing his mind anymore. For the first time, he had been happy.
He had looked forward to every night because he knew Boaz would be waiting for him. Waiting for his kiss, his touch.