Author's Note: Okay, a tad of action here! I hope it keeps you hanging for a couple chapters! :) Be prepared to see sides of characters that are not often seriously explored...and I promise we'll get to some really adrenaline-laced stuff soon! I promise! ;) Thanks so much for sticking with me, I know this is one. long. story. You guys are so encouraging!
22. Silence
We headed out on our mission without further ado. Blaise was at the front of our party, with Liam and Rosalie after him. Maggie and Siobhan were behind, and I was in the middle, like I was being shielded by a contingent of bodyguards. Rosalie kept giving me disgusted looks over her shoulder, her golden hair attracting every particle of sunshine when she turned her head. I understood her concern, but, to quote her, she'd just have to deal with the situation, whether she liked it or not.
"Now, we'll let Blaise approach a considerable distance ahead of us," said Siobhan, leaping agilely over a small stream. As we all followed suit she picked up her plotting again. "You'll come back down and report the status to us, Blaise. We'll decide what to do from there."
"If Adelaide isn't in the mood for company, I'll make sure she doesn't trail me when I return," Blaise assured us. "But if she agrees to see you, then I will come back directly."
"We need a back-up plan," said Rose, "such as how we're going to form up for a fight if things go badly."
"You don't have time," objected Blaise tiredly. "We're nearly to her hiding-place. Just don't fight-- run."
"Run, from one woman?" Liam was still confident in our battle expertise.
"Were you not paying attention when Adelaide demolished all those nomads?"
"Nomads generally have a less organized plan of attack," I pointed out, feeling churlish. In truth I should have kept my opinions to myself, since I was in such a precarious position. Of course, if I was being honest, I would want my friends to fight for me-- I was selfish at heart, like most people. But I couldnt' ask Siobhan and her coven to do that, and I wasn't about to ask that of Rose.
"Whatever you think," sighed Blaise, throwing up one hand. "I've done my best for you all, and so far you haven't heeded me well." No one rose to the potentially infuriating statement. We ran on for several more minutes in silence, everyone deep in thought. "Wait here," said Blaise, and sped up toward a rocky outcropping that was built into the side of one of the green hills that made up the majority of the small Irish town.
"That's where she's hiding?" asked Rose, shading her eyes to look up at the cave.
Siobhan nodded. "Yes, she's been there for weeks, only coming out to hunt. It's an easily-defensible place, and that's probably why she's held off so many of us."
"So if we can draw her out, somehow..." Maggie pursed her lips. "Carlisle would make good bait, I guess."
Rose growled at the redhead. "Carlisle is not going to be bait."
"I don't like the idea of tricking her into the open," I felt obliged to say.
"Carlisle, just don't contribute to the plan, okay?''
Well, thank you very much, Rose, I thought silently. My authority over her was never going to be on the same level as it used to be.
"How long does it take to deliver a message?" asked Liam impatiently.
"Give him some time," replied Siobhan soothingly. "Blaise is testing the waters, I'm sure that takes time. Not to mention, this is the first time he's spoken with Adelaide in days."
"Weeks, by the sound of it, but he's also on sore terms with her. It's not as if it's going to be a tender reunion."
A sudden concern ocurred to me. "You don't think the woman would harm him, do you?"
"Who knows?" Liam shrugged; he wasn't overly worried about Blaise. "This woman's crazy. Who can say what she's up to?""Who can?" I murmured back, staring up at the narrow mouth of the aperture in the hill.
From inside the cave there was a loud, high-pitched scream that set my teeth on edge. It lasted for about ten full seconds, making our sensitive ears sing. We tensed, indecisively looking to each other for direction. "We should go in," said Rose.
"No, that wasn't Blaise," answered Siobhan. "And it wasn't a scream of pain."
"You're right," I said. I 'd heard screams similar to that one in human hospitals more than once. "That was a child's scream-- more of a temper tantrum than anything."
"Ugh," Maggie shuddered. "Then it was that--thing."
"Yes, the immortal child." What else could it have been? Adult vampires wouldn't make that sound, and there were no human children stuck in that cave.
Rose had a strange look on her face as she listened for more noise from the opening. "I wonder what annoyed it so much?"
"Does it matter?" Liam was clearly getting restless.
"Where is Blaise?" Now Siobhan was craning her neck to peer inside the cave. She gave up after a moment. "I don't like the feeling of this. Maybe he should have been back by now."
"You just said to give him time," I tried to calm her.
"What do former lovers have to talk about?" retorted Maggie.
"It's only been five minutes, Maggie."
"I don't hear anything," said Rose, lifting her face for more sound. "I don't hear talking. I don't hear them, Carlisle."
Well, they didn't just disappear, they had to be there. "That cave could be farther away than we think."
"In five minutes, we're going after him," decided Siobhan firmly. "I cringe to think what kind of trouble he could be in, and I don't want to give that woman time to work mischief."
"I'm in no hurry," said Liam under his breath.
"But, I don't hear anything!" Rose was insistent. "Nothing! No voices, no fighting. Nothing."
Their anxiety was starting to leach onto me, making that other sense, that vampire sense, stir within me. "Siobhan said we'll retrieve Blaise in five minutes, so let's not jump to conclusions in the meantime."
"That is strange," said Liam, cocking his head. "You can't catch anything over there, not even from the creature."
Tamping down the distractions around me, I honed in on my sense of hearing. There were the steady breaths coming from the vampires next to me; the sounds of nature that permeated everything outdoors; wind; and, from the cave-mouth--
Nothing. There were natural sounds, but those were not what we were waiting to hear. Near the cave, I could detect no noise like two vampires--negotiating or otherwise--would make. Just earthy, eery silence.
At this point, a snarl or growl would have been welcome.
"Has it been five minutes?" whispered Maggie.
"About," Rose whispered back.
"Form up," commanded Siobhan quietly. "Carlisle, you and I will take vanguard position." I didn't argue with her, but took my place beside her at the front.
If Blaise was encountering problems, he had five spooked vampires ready and willing to assist him. "I'll go in first," I breathed. For some reason, we had all dropped to muted tones.
"No--" Rose began.
I finally put my foot down. "Rose, I'll go in first. You stay with Liam behind us."
It was necessary to go in first; if Adelaide saw me, maybe she would be more forgiving to my friends. That was going on the assumption she knew what I looked like, of which I had no guarantee, but what other option was there? And, if she didn't know me, first in line was the best position for me anyway, as the leader of a coven and the reason for all this madness.
I nodded to Siobhan, and together we slunk forward, avoiding the spots on the ground that made the most noise. The three vampires in our wake hovered close to us, and I felt Rose shift sullenly against my back. I ignored her angry huffs as we breezed onward.
When we approached the entrance to the cave, we slowed, wary of the silence. I stepped over a piece of loose rock and gave Siobhan's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Cautiously, I inched forward, straining to sense the two vampires I knew to be in the cave. Siobhan hung back a foot or two, uncertain of the looming darkness.
"What if it's a trap?" Maggie whispered from four feet behind me.
As if on cue, I was seized by talon-like fingers and dragged roughly inside the cave. For half a second, I was too shocked to react, even to cry out. In that beat of time something thick and pliant was wrapped tightly around my eyes, blinding me, while steel arms pinned my hands behind my back. Fortunately, I came alive and tried to shake off whoever had me restrained, hisses springing automatically from my mouth. Although I wasn't gentle--for all I knew, this was Adelaide preparing to murder me--my arms stayed locked in place. "Who are you?" I demanded, twisting in vain to encounter my attacker.
"Carlisle?" called Siobhan. "Carlisle! Stay together, let's go in!"
"Rose, wait!" Maggie cried.
Then there was a thud of bodies colliding and a familiar snarl. Frustrated by the black cloth around my eyes and the arms imprisoning me, I heard Rose struggling with someone. A faint crunch was followed by a woman's grunt of pain.
Handcuffs weren't going to keep me from helping Rose, no matter that they were a person's arms.
If I listened hard, I could discover where my captor was standing. In a moment I had their position in relation to me fixed in my mind. Whoever blindfolded me hadn't thought to gag me as well, and that would turn out badly for them. A rustling behind me zeroed my concentration in on the vampire holding me. Just one more noise, one more beacon of sound--
The vampire leaned closer.
I turned as fast as possible and sank my teeth into the first thing that came into range.
Violent cursing accompanied the startled shove that sent me across the rocky ground. I rolled and came up standing, tearing the blindfold off my eyes.
It was still dark as an abyss in the cave, but from the light streaming in several feet outside, I could see. What I saw astounded me.
How were there six vampires I didn't recognize inside the cave?
"Carlisle!" Rose was up against the wall of the enclave, a silhouetted shadow looming over her. I came a step nearer to her, already tensed to spring on her attacker, when an arm hooked around my neck. I snarled unintentionally, the vampire equivalent of adrenaline soaring through me. Usually I would have tried to assess the situation through inquiry, but I didn't know how long Rose and I had to escape this bizarre ambush.
"I thought you said he wasn't violent," complained a male voice, tight with annoyance, to my right.
"Don't move," a low, enchanting voice said in my ear. I heard scrabbling, snarls. I shifted toward the noise, but the arms holding me back tightened, inhibiting me. "If you move, your daughter will suffer for it."
"Don't listen to her, Carlisle!" Rose yelled. "Siobh--" Her voice cut off in a sharp yelp.
"Rose!"
"And don't speak!" commanded the voice, shaking me. "You may move and speak when I tell you to."
"Who are you, and why are you doing this?" I asked, as rationally as I could.
"Carlisle!" Siobhan again. "Where are you?"
"Don't answer," the woman's voice ordered. "Now, move." I had to do as she said, for fear of hurting Rose. The arm pulled me backwards, and I put one reluctant foot after the other, feeling the ground behind me carefully. "Faster," the woman hissed.
"I can't see behind me," I said. Nor did I want to; I wanted to keep an eye on Rose.
The woman swung me around to face the even deeper black of the cave's interior tunnel. "Fine. Now walk, and quickly."
We had marched about twenty feet when a man laughed behind us. "Here, Adelaide."
Something whopped my captor on the back. I soon found out it was the blindfold, because it reappeared over my eyes. "I trust you can hear well enough," chuckled the woman humorlessly. "I daresay you can, if you could bite Luke going purely on sound."
"Come on, girly," said another man.
"Get your hands off me," hissed Rose, and I stiffened at that ominous phrase. "I can walk by myself."
"And how do we know you won't run off?" That was the man I'd bitten, his voice still gruff from anger.
There was a silence in which I felt Rose's eyes on me, watching the woman force me onward into the darkness. "I won't run off."
"Rose--" I started, but was interrupted by a furious blow to the back of my head.
"You will not speak until I tell you to!" said the woman's voice emphatically. I held my peace and allowed myself to be pressed farther down the tunnel of the enclave. From the man's comment, I assumed this was Adelaide's arm around my neck. What did she want with me? And why did she feel the need for all the dramatic blindfolding and restraints? I wondered just where in the world we were going, and, more importantly...
What had we gotten ourselves into?