Blood Isn't Always Thicker Than Water

After many more turns and intersections, we finally made it to another door. Monty was panting, Jeremy was normal, I was nervous, Balto was looking bored, and Fallen still had purple eyes. We hadn’t run into any more random magic illusions—pownage—and the one from before had dissolved into golden sparkles. That didn’t make sense. Before, the thing was black. But, hey, we’re talking about Guardians here. Wentz is one. What more should I expect?

Fallen, shimmering gently, looked inquisitively at the huge black-and-iron door in front of us. “Any clue how to open this thing?”

I shrugged. “Have you charge it down.” I looked around as I heard a weird sound. Monty was whimpering and running over to me, away from a different, much smaller door to the left of the big one. I rubbed my eyes, not believing what I was seeing. “Lancaster?”

He gave me a despairing look from behind a beautiful lady in a red dress that went about halfway down her thighs. Her hair was a probably dyed black and went about as far down her back as Samantha’s. Her eyes were a gray color.

“Y…you’re a ‘vampire’?” I asked Lancaster incredulously, his hazel eyes darting everywhere except the place where I was standing.

“Um, no. I’m human. But King Liam hired me—”

“Do not speak of the King so lightly!” Lady in Red hissed. “A lowly slave like you should know better. What am I saying? You shouldn’t know anything. But you speak of the King as the King of ‘Vampires’ and nothing else.”

Lancaster nodded miserably. I looked closer and saw the he had a literal collar around his neck. Gee, Monty and Balto didn’t even have those. Lancaster’s wrists were chained together. And the Lady in Red was holding the long chain that connected to his collar.

‘Help me!’ Lancaster mouthed once Lady in Red turned away from him.

I was horrified. This was what the leader of “vampires”—my leader; my King—did to people? Cruelty. Pure cruelty.

I nodded with a jerk of my head to Lancaster and asked, “Who are you?” to the Lady in Red.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you? You [i[]are the ones who came here unannounced.”

“Well, you’ve got my friend in chains and you’re calling him a slave! We’re in America. The humans are free.”

“I’m human,” she said. “I don’t see a problem with this.”

“Then you’re blind,” I said venomously. No offense to Jeremy.

“Cas, calm down,” Jeremy ordered. “Miss, we would like to have an audience with said King of ‘Vampires’.”

“So it seems,” she sneered. “But you all must be very…powerful ‘vampires’. How did you get through the tunnels unscathed? They’re meant to test courage and strength and loyalty, but it seems you three and your dogs haven’t fought anything…” She was looking at me.

“We got attacked once, and easily overcame our assaulter. But that was it,” I said, chewing on each word before spitting it out.

“Just bring them in.”

Everyone—including the Lady—turned to se a rat identical to Freaky McHorrific, or maybe if McHorrific himself, sitting in front of the big black door.

“King’s waiting,” it said in its greasy rat-voice, then it scurried off, right through the black door.

“Come now,” Lady said. “Slave, lead the way. I’ll take the rear. And do not converse with them.” She glared at Lancaster, and I saw that there was this random samurai sword on her back. I resolved not to mess with her. That would probably prove fatal.

I whistled for Monty, and then we walked forward and fell into step behind Lancaster. He was fiddling with his chain. Once we were out of earshot of the Lady, I whispered as quietly as I could and still have him hear me, “So. You don’t need to tell me if I’m right or wrong, but I’m betting that you were stationed in that music store to keep an eye out for us.”

He looked sadly at the ground…and shook his head. “They somehow found out we know each other.” I could barely hear him even with my “vampire” senses as full blast. “They used me to gauge your reaction to check and see if you are really you. It worked,
I guess…” He shut up and kept leading our group down tunnel after tunnel, his chain the only thing breaking the domineering silence other than his and the dogs’ footsteps. Us “vampires” and Samurai Lady in Red Who’s Human were silent.

“How on earth do you know which way to go?” I asked him quietly at one point when we were rounding a corner so the Lady couldn’t see.

I decided that I despised tunnels.

“I go down whichever one is colder. I thought you’d’ve figured that out by now.”

I stayed silent, frowning. I guess I’m not that sensitive to temperature… That’s a good thing, right? Ah, who cares? As long as I can feel my toes.

The feeling of GD (Guardian Danger) just wouldn’t stop getting stronger. It absolutely refused. So I was getting edgier and edgier. And what Jeremy had said and done
earlier wouldn’t leave my head. It bothered me. Why was he crying? And I’m guessing that the sword on the Lady’s back was not meant for making subway sandwiches and cutting pepperoni. That’s possible, right? I’ve got no clue.

OMG, Jeremy’s gun. What was going to happen to that?

Oh no… There was an ornate silver and black double door set or whatever in front of us. There were too many doors in this place, too. If there could be an underground version of Hogwarts, this would be it.

Monty whined and wedged himself between my legs, forcing me to spread my stance. Then he just stood there, making me feel awkward. I irritably blew some hair out of my face. “What now, boy?”

Balto started barking. Fallen said, “What the hell…”

“Okay, what am I missing out on?” I asked, arms crossed, eyes fixed on the back of Lancaster’s head, and Monty shivering against my legs.

“Ah… The last purebreds. How delightful.”

If poison had a voice, that would be it. I turned my head and saw a lady in a long black dress emerging from a tunnel that connected to the one we were in right now. She had a steely sort of gaze, and naturally colored hair. It was very dark brown. And her skin was pale like the rest of us "vampires". It's weird how all of us except Kaitlin seemed to have tanning problems.

“Who are you?” I asked her.

“One of the King’s Advisors. I’m Lady Ivy.”

“And you’re a ‘vampire’,” Fallen said, his purple eyes suspicious.

She nodded. “That I am. Now hurry up, all of you.”

At first I thought she was talking to us, then I saw a sight that almost knocked the wind out of me. George Ryan Ross III was walking into the tunnel, brown eyes wary, orange scarf around his neck.