Morganville (Justin Bieber)

Chapter 115

Amelie grabbed my other arm, and before I could so much as grab a breath, I was being pulled through the portal. There was a brief wave of chill, and a feeling that was a little like being pushed from all sides, and then I was stumbling into utter, complete blackness. My other senses went into overdrive. The air smelled stale and heavy, and felt cold and damp, like a cave. Amelie's icy grip on one arm was going to leave bruises, and Hannah Moses's warmer touch on the other seemed light by contrast, although I knew it wasn't.

I could hear myself and Hannah breathing, but there was no sound at all from the vampires. When I tried to speak, Amelie's icecold hand covered my mouth. I nodded convulsively, and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other as Amelie--I hoped it was still Amelie, anyway--pulled me forward into the dark.

The smells changed from time to time--a whiff of nasty, rotten something, then something else that smelled weirdly like grapes? My imagination conjured up a dead man surrounded by broken bottles of wine, and I couldn't stop it there; the dead man was moving, squirming toward me, and any second now he'd touch me and I'd scream. . . .

It's just your imagination; stop it.

I swallowed and tried to tamp down the panic. It wasn't helping. Justin wouldn't panic. Justin would-- whatever, Justin wouldn't be caught dead roaming around in the dark with a bunch of vampires like this, and I knew it.

It seemed like we went on forever, and then Amelie pulled me to a stop and let go. Losing that support felt as if I were standing on the edge of a cliff, and I was really, really grateful for Hannah's grip to tell me there was something else real in the world. Don't let me fall.

And then Hannah's hand went away. A fast tightening of her fingers, and she was gone.

I was floating in total darkness, disconnected, alone. My breath sounded loud as a train in my ears, but it was buried under the thunder of my fast heartbeats. Move, I told myself. Do something!

I whispered, "Hannah?"

Cold hands slapped around me from behind, one pinning my arms to my sides, the other covering my mouth. I was lifted off the ground, and I screamed, a faint buzzing sound like a storm of bees that didn't make it through the muffling gag.

And then I went flying through the air into the darkness . . . and rolled to a stop facedown, on a cold stone floor. There was light here. Faint, but definite, painting the edges of things a pale gray, including the arched mouth of the tunnel at the end of the hall.

I had no idea where I was.

I got quickly to my feet and turned to look behind me. Amelie, pale as a pearl, stepped through the portal, and with her came the other two vampires. Gerard had Hannah Moses's arm gripped in his good hand.

Hannah had a bloody gash on her head, and when Gerard let go, she dropped to her knees, breathing hard. Her eyes looked blank and unfocused.

Amelie whirled, something silver in one hand, and stabbed as something came at her from the dark. It screamed, a thin sound that echoed through the tunnel, and a white hand reached out to grab Amelie's shirt.

The invisible portal slammed shut like an iris, and severed the arm just above the elbow.

Amelie plucked the still-grabbing hand from her shirt, dropped the hand to the ground, and kicked it to the side. When she turned back to the others, there was no expression on her face.

I felt like throwing up. I couldn't take my eyes away from that wiggling, fishpale hand.

"It was necessary to come this way," Amelie said. "Dangerous, but necessary."