Into The Void (Vampire Hunter Book 4) (2 page)

Nicholas opened his palm to reveal a black round disk. It was about the
size of a dime.

“You won’t lose consciousness because I’m going to be carrying this,” he
told me.
 
“The frequency scrambler will
transmit the signal to this little gem. Just make sure you stick by my side at
all times.”

“What if we get separated?” I asked worriedly. “Can’t
I
carry it?”

“Don’t freak out,” Lucas started.

“Oh, wonderful, I just love sentences that start like that,” I said
sarcastically.

“It’s safer for Nicholas to carry it,” Emmett cut in.

“Why?” I demanded.

“Because you’re special. And I can’t guarantee they won’t search you,”
Emmett replied.

“But they definitely won’t search good
ol
’
Raymond,” Nicholas added. “He’s just a minion.
Easy to
control.
No one will look at me twice.”

“Great,” I said, barely able to keep the frustration out of my voice.
“Fine. So this keeps me from zombie-
ing
out, for the
sake of argument. Won’t the drones next to me – next to us – also reap the
benefits of no mind control, no blackout?”

“
Er
, that’s where the fun part comes in.” Nicholas
again reached into the satchel. I was beginning to hate that stupid bag. He
pulled out a large white envelope.

“Extra insurance that we’re the only ones not affected by Tobias and
Matthews.” He grinned.

“What is that?” I asked suspiciously. Nicholas turned the envelope upside
down and two huge syringes fell onto the couch.

“What the fuck?” I spat out.

Lucas placed his hand over mine. “Don’t worry, Rory, I picked these up
myself,” he told me.

I raised my eyebrows skeptically.

“They’re from the same guy who gave us the scrambler. He’s legit. The
injection, along with the frequency scrambler, ensures you aren’t going to
black out.” Lucas squeezed my hand.

“I guess I’ll just take your word for it!” I said in exasperation. “I
mean, I don’t even have blood in my veins. How the hell is this going to work
on me?”

“It will work,” Emmett said forcefully. We all turned to look at him.

“I, I can see bits and pieces of tonight,” Emmett explained. “You’re not
going to black out. But you need to follow their advice. Stay close to Nicholas
and take the injection.”

“Oh fine!” I pulled my hand from Lucas’ grip and crossed my arms in front
of my chest defiantly. “Whatever. I’m tired of arguing.” I didn’t want tell
anyone that I was deathly afraid of needles. They used to make me pass out when
I was a kid.

I closed my eyes and held my arm out in front of me. “Just get it over
with,” I snapped to no one in particular.

“Afraid it’s not that simple,” Nicholas said apologetically.

My eyes flew open. “Meaning?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“Has to go in fatty tissue. Absorbs best if you inject it directly into
your stomach, by your navel. Here, I’ll show you how it’s done.” Nicholas stood
up, raised his shirt to reveal a set of shredded abs and jabbed the needle next
to his belly button without even flinching.

I willed myself not to swoon.
God,
I hate needles.

“See?” he was saying. “It’s easy.” Nicholas held out the other syringe
for me to take it.

“I could do it for you,” Lucas offered.

I ignored him and snatched the syringe out of Nicholas’ hand. I wasn’t
mad at Lucas but I needed to get this over with. Having him stab me in my
stomach with a needle wasn’t going to be any easier than doing it myself.

“Where’s the bathroom?” I asked. Nicholas pointed down the hall.

Without looking at anyone, I walked purposefully out of the room. I
didn’t want them to see how much I was shaking. Once inside the bathroom with
the door locked, I pulled up my shirt to reveal my stomach.
No fucking way I can do this.
But I had to.

With shaking hands, I uncapped the syringe and, before I could think
about what I was doing, I awkwardly shoved the needle deep into my stomach. I
tried to decompress the syringe, to shoot the liquid through the needle, but my
hands were shaking profusely.

I pulled the needle back out in relief and chucked it into the garbage.
Hope I did that right
. I headed back to
the main room.

“Done,” I announced. “So what else did you find out about Henry’s dad
from tapping his phone and email?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Only about the barcode,” Lucas replied. “He must have deleted everything
else before I saw it. I wanted to tell Emmett right away and remembered that
you said he was a professor. So I went to the faculty section on the
university’s website and got his contact info there.”

“I still wish you’d included me,” I muttered. “So why did you have to
come tonight?” I turned my attention to Emmett.

“I didn’t. In fact, Lucas told me not to feel obligated. But I thought I
might be able to offer some support, if I could see anything about how this is
going to go down.”

“That was nice of you.” I meant it. “Have you been able to figure out any
more about it then?”

Emmett smiled wanly. “I know where the check-in point is located. It’s
about 15 miles from here, farther north.”

“What happens at the check-in?” Nicolas asked. “If you can see anything,
that is. I’d like for Aurora and me to be as prepared as possible. Once we’re
in the middle of this thing, neither of us can show a hint of emotion.”

I could tell Lucas was looking at me when Nicholas said that last bit. I
kept my attention focused on Emmett.

“Yeah, you go into a huge building
 
- a warehouse. It’s one story, if that helps. Then, there’s some type of
gatekeeper – sorry, I can’t tell you anything about the gatekeeper,
specifically. That’s who checks you in, verifies the barcode,” Emmett
explained.

“Okay,” I whispered. My nerves were starting to get the better of me. Up
until now, it had seemed surreal. The full effect of what was about to happen
hadn’t sunk in. I wasn’t
really
going
to some underground meeting with a bunch of undead things…right?

“After you get past the gatekeeper, it should be smooth sailing,” Emmett
said.

“Meaning?” Lucas raised his eyebrows questioningly.

“Meaning that’s the only stop before you get to the meeting,” Emmett
replied. “I don’t know anything else,” he added. “You’ll just have to evaluate
the situation and go with it.”

I shot a nervous glance at Lucas. He looked perplexed. He opened his
mouth to speak,
then
stopped himself. With a deep
sigh, Lucas got up from the seat on the couch next to me. He walked over to
Emmett.

“I know I haven’t said it before, but thanks for everything, Emmett.
You’ve really been a tremendous help.” Lucas patted Emmett on the shoulder
awkwardly. “I know we keep asking for more,” he added. “It’s hard not to. But I
also realize you’re telling us as much as you can.”

“Anything else we need to go over?” Nicholas asked. He turned his
attention to me. “Once we’re there, we can’t falter. We can’t talk. Whatever
happens, you have to keep staring straight ahead; try to make your eyes look
dead, like you’re not focusing on anything in particular. Don’t look at me,
even out of the corner of your eye,” Nicholas ordered.

I nodded. “I can do this,” I whispered.

“I hope so.” Nicholas’ nonchalant attitude was gone. “We both have to put
our game faces on, if we want to get out of that meeting alive.”

Lucas and Emmett were coming with us to the check-in point location, but
they didn’t want to get too close in case there were guards hanging around.
Lucas had gotten one of his contacts to disable the cameras on the outside of
the building, so we wouldn’t have to worry about being filmed going in.

Midnight was the summoning time. We pulled up, several blocks over from
the abandoned warehouse. Emmett thought the gatekeeper was already inside. It
was only five minutes before show time.

“So, what now?” I asked nervously. “In a couple of minutes we’re going to
start seeing the zombies Tobias is controlling walking into the warehouse?
Wouldn’t that look kind of suspicious if someone happened to drive by?”

“They’re teleported there,” Emmett explained. “At midnight, everyone
coming to this meeting will disappear from wherever they are, and reappear
inside the warehouse. That’s why they needed so much space. The creatures have
to be hidden from the outside world throughout this whole process. In fact, I
didn’t mention it before, but this is just one of many check-ins. I don’t think
they have the ability to teleport that far, so they had to set up multiple
check-in stations.”

“But we’re not under their mind control so we won’t get teleported,
right?” Nicholas asked. “We’re just going to walk on in like we own the place,”
he said with a grin.

“It’s bound to be locked,” I said nervously.

Lucas reached in his pocket and held up a small key. It looked like the one
he’d used to open the cemetery gates once before. “It works, trust me.”

“Ah, I haven’t used one of those in awhile.” Nicholas plucked the key
from Lucas’ fingers. “One minute until midnight,” he announced. “Let’s go.”
Nicholas got out of the car and pulled the back door open for me. Reluctantly,
I stood up.

“Well, bye guys,” I said awkwardly to Emmett and Lucas.

“Wait.” Lucas scrambled out of the car and came around to engulf me in a
hug. “Just remember everything we said: look forward at all times, don’t get
curious and try to see what’s going on out of the corner of your eye, and no
matter what happens, remain expressionless. What you hear is going to be more
useful than what you see tonight. So just pretend that you really are blind.”

I nodded, unable to speak. “Let’s go.” Nicholas’ face was serious; he
wasn’t smiling or joking around now. With a small wave, he turned and started
jogging. I jogged after him. I wanted to look back at Lucas, but I didn’t dare.

“I can go faster, if you’re worried about being late,” I told Nicholas. I
wasn’t sure if he knew about my cool running ability.

He gave me a strange look. “We’re already here.”

Huh? I thought we were blocks away.
I had to figure out how to control that. As useful as it was to be able to
run at crazy fast speeds, I’d like to at least comprehend when I was doing it.

We walked through an unlocked gate that surrounded the parking lot and
headed for the huge warehouse. Nicholas placed his finger over his lips,
signaling for me to be quiet. I gave a slight nod and watched as he slid the
key into the lock on the outside. It opened with a barely audible click.

Slowly, Nicholas pushed the door of the warehouse open. I huddled close behind
him, almost scared to peek around his shoulder and see what was inside.
Suddenly, Nicholas relaxed his posture and dropped his hands lifelessly to his
sides as he took a few slow steps into the room.

I quickly did the same in what I hoped was a believable zombie
impersonation. I heard the door we’d just come through click shut, but I didn’t
turn around. I was staring dead at Nicholas’ back. The lighting was low, which
was just as well since I couldn’t take it all in, anyway.

I felt something brush against my arm and just barely caught myself
before I recoiled. Then something was touching my other arm.

It’s a good thing I’m not
claustrophobic.
Nicholas and I were in a sea of bodies.

We shuffled forward several more feet,
then
Nicholas abruptly stopped walking. I was so focused on acting like a mind-controlled
drone that I didn’t realize he’d stopped and I careened into his back. But
Nicholas didn’t flinch.

What’s going on?

I didn’t have to wonder for long. The bright warehouse lights were being
turned on. One by one, they flickered overhead, bathing us in a blinding
spotlight. I blinked, trying not to squint from the sudden change.

“Hurry up,” a voice snapped. “We need to do this as quickly as possible.
Line them up, single file.”

I stumbled as my arm was grabbed by some goon. He wrenched me to the
left. I couldn’t tell where Nicholas was anymore.
What if I’m too far away from him and I black out?
How was this
possible? We’d just arrived and we were already being separated!

Whoever grabbed me forcefully moved me into the line that was forming.
The new back I was staring at most definitely did not belong to ‘Raymond.’

Shit!
I tried to think. But my head
felt cloudy, my thoughts muddled. This wasn’t right. It must be because
Nicholas was too far away. Their mind control was getting to me.

“That’ll do,” the voice said. “Let’s get a move on. The trance won’t last
without the warlock.”

Emmett had said Henry’s father was chanting last time, making sure
everyone stayed under this weird spell.

I caught a glimpse of someone running towards the front of the warehouse.
Slowly, we started shuffling forward again. I was feeling dizzy, lightheaded.
Like when you stand up too fast and everything starts to go dim.

“Aurora!” And now I was hallucinating. I tried to fight the blackness
that was washing over me.

“Hey,” a voice hissed. I blinked and turned to look in the direction of
the sound. Vaguely I remembered being told not to look around. But I couldn’t
pinpoint why.

“There you are.” Nicholas stepped in line in front of me. The fog in my
head started to clear.

“What’s happening?” I whispered.

Nicholas stood on his tiptoes, peering towards the front of the
warehouse. He stepped back so that we were walking side by side. “Okay, that
was a close one,” he said nervously. “They wrenched us apart and I couldn’t do
anything to stop it. I think we have a minute to talk. This warehouse is huge
and the gatekeepers and check-in machines are at the opposite end.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Just before the lights were turned on. Didn’t Lucas tell you that
vampires can see really far distances in the dark?”

I shook my head.

“We only have a minute,” Nicholas said worriedly. “There are two
gatekeepers. When we get to the front, just walk forward with me, even if they
try to usher you to the other side; we can’t get separated again.”

“I’ll try,” I hissed. “I felt like I was going to black out before you
found me.”

“Hopefully it will get easier when we’re at the actual meeting,” Nicholas
whispered. “Right now they’re herding us along as fast as possible. Emmett was
right – they need Matthews’ spells to keep everyone under the mind control.”

“If I lose you, I’ll be useless. It wasn’t like the blackouts I used to
have – those were so sudden. This was gradual. But I couldn’t think; I could
feel my mind slipping away.”

“We won’t get separated,” Nicholas said grimly. “I told my brother I’d
protect you, and I plan to do just that.”

His brother.
I was starting to
understand their connection, their loyalty to each other. “Has Lucas talked
about me much?” I asked Nicholas. Okay, so maybe this wasn’t the best time to
ask the question, but what if I didn’t have another chance?

Nicholas looked at me sideways and flashed his crooked smile. “You really
think I’m going to answer that?”

“It was worth a shot,” I muttered.

“Lucas cares for you, but I think you already know that. Anything else
you want to know is between you and him. I’m staying out of it.”

“I know you wouldn’t betray his confidence,” I said. “I just had to ask…”
my voice trailed off.

“I think we’re getting close to the front. No more talking,” Nicholas
commanded. “I’ll go first. Remember, just come straight through with me, no
matter what orders they try to give you.”

“Okay,” I managed to choke out.

After walking forward for several more minutes, I could finally see the
beginning of the line. There were two huge machines – they must have been about
ten feet tall. They were side by side and it looked like the gatekeepers were
leading everyone inside, a couple of bodies at a time. The top of the machine
was curved. All I could see inside was blackness. It resembled a dark, creepy
tunnel.

Suddenly Nicholas was next in line. As soon as he started walking towards
the gatekeeper on the left, so did I.

“Hold on,” a harsh voice commanded. Ignoring the gatekeeper, I continued
to walk forward, so close to Nicholas that I was almost touching his back.

A hand reached out and grabbed my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks. I
resisted the urge to turn and look sideways, forced my body to stay relaxed.
“Stupid zombies,” the gatekeeper muttered.

He pulled Nicholas’ hair back and pointed a huge handheld scanner at his
neck. It made a clicking sound and the gatekeeper stared at the display. “Go
on, Raymond,” he commanded, giving Nicholas a small shove into the dark tunnel
machine.

I walked forward without being told to move. I was trying not to panic.
Nicholas was still close by, but would he be there when I stepped into the
machine? I couldn’t see anything past the entrance.

The gatekeeper pushed my hair to the side and scanned my neck. “Ah,
you’re the guest of honor, Aurora Stone,” he said aloud.

“I don’t know what’s so special about
her
,”
the other gatekeeper commented.

“We may never know. We’re just guarding the meeting; too bad we can’t go
in and find out what the big secret is.” The gatekeeper shoved me forward into
the machine. My foot turned to the side. For a moment I thought I was going to
lose my balance, but I quickly recovered. A door slid shut behind me.

No wonder I couldn’t see inside.
I
hadn’t even realized this thing had a door on it.

It was dark inside. My eyes were slowly adjusting. And there was
Nicholas.
Thank God.
We were the only
two people in the room. Surely Nicholas had seen me? But he wasn’t
acknowledging me at all.

Nicholas paced back and forth as though still in a trance.
What the hell is he doing?
Nicholas was
walking straight towards me, a dead look on his face.
What if they’ve gotten to him, and he really is under their mind
control?
I’d be lost without his help. I couldn’t face this alone.

I was just about to start screaming at him, waving my hands in his face,
when he was right in front of me. He raised his left hand up and quickly
pointed towards the wall. I knew I couldn’t look in the direction that he was
pointing, but if he was going to walk around pretending to be a zoned out
zombie then so was I.

I did my best zombie walk around the room, trying to study the wall he
had pointed at without moving my eyes. It only took me a minute. There was a
camera. Someone was watching us – or at least had the ability to watch us –
while we waited in this weird tunnel.

It’s a good thing I didn’t blow our
cover.
I had to be on my toes, to never assume it was safe to let our
guards down.

The door slid open and three more partygoers were unceremoniously shoved
into the room. I stopped pacing. It wasn’t a large room, but it couldn’t comfortably
hold much more than five of us. What were they going to do? Stuff us in like
sardines?

I wished Emmett had been able to tell us more about the gatekeeper and
the process of actually getting to the underground meeting. I didn’t like not
knowing what was about to happen.

We didn’t have to wait too long to find out. The room went dark. I snuck
a look at Nicholas, hoping the camera wasn’t trained on me. But he didn’t
flinch. Then, suddenly, we were illuminated by a blinding white light and the
most horrific shrill sound I had ever heard in my life.
 
What if
my eardrums rupture?
I wanted to cover my ears, protect them, but I
couldn’t.

I’m not sure what happened, but I was thrown to my knees as the shrill sound
intensified and the room we were in started violently shaking. And just as
quickly as it had happened, it went black again.

The others in the room with me, except for Nicholas, had also been
knocked off their feet. I stood up, trying not to look frazzled. The door – the
same one we’d originally come through, opened. I expected to see the
gatekeeper, ready to push some more people into the room.

Instead, we were staring into some type of underground cave. It almost
looked like a stadium. It was huge, with a dirt stage near the front. I caught
my eyes scanning the room and immediately forced them to stay still. Luckily,
no one was paying any attention to us – yet.

Then Mr. Matthews was at the doorway, ushering us into the massive arena.
There must have already been hundreds there. I pressed close to Nicholas as we
were led to stand in the middle of the pit, facing the stage.

“Now that everyone’s here let’s get started, shall we?” A nasally, high
pitched voice called from the stage.
Tobias!

Mr. Matthews was standing next to him.

This was it. The meeting was happening.