Chapter 63

We walked down the unfinished tunnel with two A rank Night Hunter's ahead of us as Ki explains, 'It seems the ghoul we encountered were simply here to guard what's below unlike our first assumption of it being a nest.'

'So what's below?' Nick asks.

'That's what is strange. Theo can explain it better.'

My eyes dart to one of the A rank Night Hunters leading the way. His brown eyes land on Nick as he explains in a thick Arabic accent, 'Stangely enough, the tunnel leads seemingly to no where. It converges on another tunnel, leading to a much larger one which we will be following. Several other comrades are ahead of us, making sure the way is clear.'

'So are you saying that more tunnels were found like this and there is a possibility that more people than we first thought have gone missing?' Nick asks, eyes narrowing.

'Yes, but those tunnels were not guarded as the one you came down. It must have been quite harrowing to deal with them,' Theo's eyes land on me with a slight frown.

I knew that look well, it was something all C rank felt. It was the eyes of non-belief that we could survive a ghoul attack. I had dealt with it before, when a B rank named Falcon had pulled me out of the river shortly after the ghoul attack and helped me heal.

Theo's eyes flick back up to Nick's once we both smelled his pheremones strengthen and I look at him as well. There was nothing different about his features and I realize he was simply getting Theos attention as he continues a little unnerved, 'So we think that maybe there is something beyond here.'

My eyes glance over Ki and Nick. Igor had disembarked and left us at the international airport in Tokyo, saying he had another lead to follow. It left me curious, but I had squelched it when Jerry's face flashed in my mind. Numbness still took me, a large chunk of my humanity having been stollen by the red haired winch.

But then a question hits me, why were the other tunnels abandoned by the guarding ghoul? What was the sound I hear that Ki and Nick couldn't? Frowning we come to a large open area and Theo swings his lamp around, showing us the huge cavern.

Ki murmurs, 'A holding place? Is it possible the ghoul dug this out?'

'I wouldn't be surprised. Ghoul become the bassist animals, digging tunnels and at times making nests when there is enough food.'

I couldn't imagine ghoul getting along. Most times when I saw them they would turn on each other for food, even eating one another. It still ran chills up my spine remembering the bloody battle field of Gettysburg and the ghoul scavenging the dead deep in the night. The smell of blood had drawn me, but once I had seen the massacre I left.

'This must have been one heck of a nest.' Ki replies, looking up at the high ceilings above.

'The question is where did they go?' Nick replies, looking at the four or five tunnels leading off from it.

Theo points to one and says, 'That one is the only one that leads down and the one we will be traversing.'

There were two Night Hunters standing guard at its entrance and we walk towards them. Ki greets them in vampure and we continue on. The dripping got worse, light murmurs of sound came and I jump. Nick looks down at me asking, 'Are you alright?'

I nod once, saying softly, 'It feels like we are going into the depths of hades itself.'

His lip twitches with a smile, but he doesn't say anything, simply gives a small nod. Ki chimes in, 'Don't think you need go worry Nina, you did date him.'

My eyes cut to him as I reply, 'I left him at the alter.'

His eyes go wide and he replies, 'Oh.'

'Exactly, though we both know this isn't his doing. He loves Paris too much.'

Ki chuckles and says, 'Too right.'

A deep rumbling moan and wind hits us in the face. Nick grabs me, pulling me behind him and the wind stops, the roaring moan gone. Ki was in front of his subordinates, looking sharp and deadly while they stood in front of Nick.

I ask, feeling the hairs on my arms rise, 'What was that?'

Just then the two Night Hunter's that had been sent down appear around a bend and Ki calls out, 'Collin, Zuka, report!'

'Its alright sir, come on down.'

I felt a little relief, letting out the breath I had been holding and relaxing. Nick still seemed on edge but follows nontheless. The ground was uneven now more than before as we cherry pick our way around large puddles of muddy water.

Ki holds out his hand to a small man with a stout body, shakes his hand, and asks, 'Collins, what have you found?'

'Something you aren't going to like. Follow us.'

Zuka looks down at me, his golden eyes in dark skin was like a panther. I gulp and nod my head in acknowledgement of him but he doesn't even react. He turns to follow the others and I see the giant sword on his back, it was terrifying and I gulp again. He wasn't a Pureblood, to be sure, but he was intimidating in his own right. Ki smirks and says, 'So you got the legendary claymore Zuka?'

Zuka just glances at him and then follows alongside him. Truly night and day as we follow behind, Ki's pale skin, and Zuka's dark skin. Ki laughs and says, 'Very funny Zuka, don't start with me.'

I frown and ask Nick in a whisper, 'What is Ki doing? Zuka isn't talking.'

'Zuka is mute.'

Now I was shocked, that was rare among vampire much like Ki's albinoism, and when I look back Zuka is glaring at me and I reply, 'My apologies.'

He turns away and we come around the bend. There before us was a gapping hole, behind a pale blue glow. We come up to the edge and I look both ways. Frowning I ask, 'The subway?'

Kí's face was sharp and I look at Nick. His eyes were bright with rage. His power was slowly leaking out of him as he growls, 'How did they find the Curriculum?'

My eyes widen and I stare up at Nick. The Curriculum was the vampiric way of travel around the world. So as not to have to fly or worry of the day, underground cities were built. Alexandria's Library was just a part of the one under Ciaro. There were seven cities and I had never been to one. The Curriculum was the vampires way of traveling, much like a bullet train, and no human knew of its existence or of the cities for that matter. My eyes soaked in the sight of the pale light tunnel running in both directions for as far as the eye could see.

Furlow had told me a little about it, how it was a piece of marvellous technology that used gravity to move it at the speed of sound. So the roaring moan we had heard was it going past, breaking the sound barrier.

Nick spins away, walking up the tunnel. I jump and start to follow him as Ki replies from behind us, 'Igor needs to know this. If the ghoul have broken through here, they could be in our cities.'

That was a more terrifying thought than any I had had. Vampires truly ruled the world, in the background much like a shadow, but still with amazing power. Without the vampire, mankind would collapse. I knew that for a fact as Furlow had explained the finite details so long ago. Catching up to Nick, I ask, 'What does this mean?'

'I have to leave for Kotowa sooner.'

My blood runs cold at the name. The City of a Thousand Moons, Kotowa, where vampires walked freely and no human interaction existed. Following close beside him, I ask, 'Where will I go? I can return to Mart for...'

But he cuts me off with a growl in the darkness, 'You will be coming with me.'

--D--

I sat there in the kitchen of the house we had rented in Tokyo and I munch on some chips. Ki sat across from me while Igor and Nick were in the other rooming talking. It was sound proofed, so there wasn't any way of listening in if I wanted to. Ki asks, munching on one of the cheetos as well, 'So from your expression in the tunnel, you have never seen the Curriculum?'

'No.'

'How was it?'

'I can say I've never seen such a large tunnel, but I am curious about the light?'

'When your in the Curriculum's ship it mimics the daytime sky. Something the creator of it wanted, he always wanted to see the sky unimpeded by the sun's rays.'

I nod, my mind going back to me and Jerry having that last conversation on the bench in Mart, enjoying the heat of the sun on us. My heart burns and Ki asks, 'How is your arm?'

Jumping, I look down at it. I had wrapped it in a smaller area and lie, 'Better, it's...almost healed.'

'How about with regard to Jerry?'

My heart burns for a moment and I shake my head murmuring, 'It hurts.'

'You know I spoke with Jerry for quite a while in Mart. He was an amazing human, so enthusiastic about what he was learning.'

I look up at Ki and his slight smile as he looks at the shuttered curtains continuing, 'He told me how excited he was to be helping us. He even said, considering we are gods. That sense of humor of his kept him centered despite all the strangeness he was experiencing. You can't give up on all this Nina, Jerry would probably beat you.'

A soft sad smile cones over my face, my pheremones taking on the soft smell of rain as I whisper, 'I know that, but what happened is still far too raw for me to even begin again. I want revenge, I want answers. I feel as if I'm blocked, deep inside me.'

Ki nods and takes my hand in his murmuring, 'I can sympathize. Give it time, that burn to continue will return.'

I nod, taking a shaky breath. Just then Nick and Igor come through the doorway into the kitchen. Ki and I look up at them. Nick looks down at me and says, 'You won't be able to go to Kotowa.'

'I knew that already. I am clanless and bitten.'

Kotowa was a special city where only B rank and above could wander. The other six cities were available to all clanned, but I wasn't. Nick glares at Igor saying, 'Even if I smuggled you in, Igor said any other Nigh Hunter would strike you down.'

I look at Igor, his eyes were on me. His expression I couldn't understand, as if he was pained but then he says, 'We will be traveling back to New York City, from there Nick and I will take the Curriculum to Kotowa. Ki you will stay with Nina and continue the invest...'

Igor stops when his phone rings and notices the number. Sliding it to answer, he looks at us and says, 'The plane will disembark at nightfall, there will be layovers. So enjoy your night.'

With that he steps away, answering the phone with, 'What is the news?'

Nick looks down at me, his jaw set. It looked like he wanted to say something, but shakes his head and walks back down the hall in which he came. Ki shakes his head and says, 'The fiery dragon needs to control himself, or he will do something he regrets.'

I didn't understand, but I just let my mind go blank, uninterested in the context of his sentence or where I would go next. All I wanted was a moment of peace.