'Safe' Is Not A Word In My Vocabulary

“Why don’t we just walk in?” I growled while we hiked through the forest.

Damien was bush-whacking and Bree was just strolling through ignoring the thorns that tore at her clothes and barely tickled her skin.

“Because, it might be a trap and if a vamp sees all of us, he is gonna high tail it, it’d be best to send you in first.”

“What, as bait?” I snapped and he smirked. “Something along those lines…” he muttered before picking up the pace again.

I sighed dramatically, although I really had no problem with the idea. I think I was just hormonal.

The Rio Camuy Caves has only a small section open to the public with tours or rappelling events you can try. Only three crater-like sinkholes and two caves made up the attraction, although it was huge.

I’ve never been on the actual tour, but Damien has, when we were eleven him and some other stupid boys deciding to go exploring. They took the tour in, and dug their way out.

Just kidding, they conveniently showed up when the tour was leaving.

I pushed those thoughts away as Damien suddenly broke through a break in the rainy green scenery.

Bree inhaled when she saw the caves, her breath coming out a startled gasp. I nodded, although it didn’t have quite the same effect on me.

We hiked in quickly, Bree running ahead of us because we were sure neither Jed nor an ambush would be this close to the tourist area, unless they were feeding, which was also very unlikely.

“This is amazing!” Bree giggled spinning around in a bright patch of sunlight in an opening to the sky.

I shushed her and looked around.

Damien wasn’t being paranoid right now, he was lost in the beauty too and that meant I had to be on my guard.

He touched the nearest filthy wall in awe.

“It’s been so long…” he whispered, looking out towards the entrance and then back to where the cave deepened, as if he were waiting for his young childhood friends to suddenly run around the corner and tell him to leave me so I wouldn’t slow him down...

I put a hand on his shoulder, meant to be comforting, but also impatient. I started walking deeper.

It was pretty, but I was more focused on the task ahead, involving deadly vamps and serious survival skills.

Also I was more concerned about whether or not this cave would be the last place I ever walked, if this murky air was the last I’d ever breathe.

Come to think of it, if this is the last beautiful sight I’ll ever see, why aren’t I looking at it?

Damien caught up to me and caught my arm. He and Bree shared a brief look, and then nodded to the where the cave deepened before going on for miles.

I sighed and started the long trek down ward. They were staying at least four hundred yards behind, following at a quiet careful distance in case of surprises and such.

I felt they were too far away, even though they never swayed position and I hummed to myself as I continued on.

It got steeper and steeper, jungle roots twisted here and there to try and twist someone’s ankle and crystallites hanging from the roof of the cave to fall and break someone’s neck.
The cave was wider in some places, and smaller in others, it never got to the point where I’d been forced to crawl to fit but I had to duck a lot.

Eventually, I realized it was getting darker inside and I wondered if I’d be wiser to turn back or to stay.

I was about to suggest as much when the first scent hit.

It was a vampire, no doubt about it, and it was fresh. I followed it stupidly. Feeling my heart beat pick up as my nose wrinkled in pain.

I walked into a large cavern, the height of it bigger than it’d been for a long time, and I froze.

My eyes widened in shock at what was in front of me.

Cages stood littered around the entire floor, chains hooked to the wall and hanging from the ceiling greeted me at every sight.

But they weren’t empty.

Humans stood and sat in the cages, looking dirty and sick, some clearly tourists, and others more like natives who were struck by poverty and no one would miss if they were gone.

I felt a gasp leave my mouth and several dirt blackened face looked up at me. Two children in a cage huddled close to a woman in a sweat soaked, messy purple tank top. Her blonde hair sagged down limply and fell into her face.

A clap sounded from the back of the cave.

An ancient pale face greeted me.

“Welcome! Welcome little 'Were,’ so glad you could join us today!” a brittle scratchy voice called. Jedediah stood flanked by six other vampires, newborn’s from the looks of it, they sat on a pile of dead bodies and I imagined that they were full, and that was why the humans in cages weren’t dead yet.

One of them smiled at me and glared at the same time, and the others just glared.

They were all male, and looked as big as Emmett and Felix of the Volturi.

“Ahh, you’ve been giving us quite a bit of trouble, haven’t you?” Jed scolded his tone regrettable. He sighed in what sounded like contentment.

“So much trouble that all my dearest friend sup and left me, they called me mad and said to leave it alone, that they’d learned the ‘error’ of their ways, and would follow me no longer.” Another sigh from him, and another impatient look from me and the vamps.

“Of course, I have new friends now, and I intend to finish what I started.” He snapped his pale fingers and several people screamed, including all the children whose families covered their mouths so as not to draw attention to them.

I recognized that the snap must mean it was feeding time.

The first three stalked forward, the others following lazily behind.

I expected pain.

And then suddenly a huge black blur slammed into one of the vampires, tearing into him before he could react. His scream echoed off the walls and Bree dashed in next. She had a lighter in her hand and lit him up.

His screaming cut off quickly and the other vamps slowly responded.

Except Jed.

“You!” he snarled at Bree, snapping for the other vamps to come. The humans were going crazy and I knew I couldn’t have them in the middle of this. Damien destroyed another vampire slowly and Bree attacked two on her own.

I wouldn’t have imagined that kind of rage in her and I remembered never to get on her bad side. She was small, but she was quick and agile as she danced around the two humongous monsters chasing her.

And what was I doing during this fight, you ask?

I was rushing over to every chain and cage, popping latches and breaking them, doing whatever it took to give the humans the chance to run.

They fell out in heaps, they’re legs heavy and weak and their screams cut off momentarily while they tried to rush out and gather their families.

I didn’t bother getting the cuff of the one chained to the wall but just snapped the metal and pushed them towards the exit.

A vampire attacked me and I shoved it off my back.

There were three left, Bree’s two had become only one and Damien’s one was quickly being dissembled as he rushed to try and help me.

I paused from my work and fought the vampire quickly.

I tossed his pieces into the fire before flinging the rest of him at Damien who’d done his part. Damien tore into slowly, deliberately.

I went back to the chains and the last of the humans scurried out.

I knew when this was over we’d have to help them, they couldn’t see as well in the dark, and they’d probably all get lost.

I didn’t blame them for running though, this place was worse than any horror movie concentration camp.

Damien howled and a cold arm suddenly threw me into a wall.

I crashed into it, moving at the last second and hitting my shoulder instead of my stomach and large chunks of rock fell down and hit me. One landed on my leg and I screamed out in pain when it snapped.

Jedediah snarled and lifted me up by the throat.

Damien howled but he was busy still, three more newborns came out of nowhere and he and Bree were taking them down.

“You irritating little bitch,” Jed snarled throwing me again, this time I caught myself and lay panting on the ground.

He kicked me, missing only when I rolled over and jumped up. Another vampire tackled me from behind and held me down while Jed brushed my hair back from my neck.

He held something poised there, and I felt a blade at my skin. A silver tipped dagger.

He was about to plunge it into my neck when I remembered.

No amount of density applied to me, not even something as solid as vampire skin. I phased right through the vamps arms and Jed stumbled forward with the dagger slipping from his hand.

I snatched it off the ground and launched it across the room where it stuck itself in the wall with a sickening bang.

Damien rushed over (that boy was just coming out of nowhere) and took out the extra, mystified vampire. The expression on his face was priceless.

I felt a smile grace my face before suddenly a searing pain shot through me, prior to my earlier hit against the wall.

I wasn’t expecting it, so it made it worse.

There was only one vampire left, Jedediah hovering over me with a pleased expression on his face.

He stood, on boot raised above me as if he were going to stomp my head in before Bree rushed over and knocked him backwards.

She stood protectively in front of me and waved off an anxious looking Damien.

“This is my fight,” she half whispered half snarled.

Bree’s POV

“This is my fight,” I whispered, my hands twitching with anticipation. Jedediah gave me an amused look and Damien stood protectively in front of Centhua.

“You will pay,” I whispered gravely, to Jed.

He smirked at me.

“Pay for what my dear?” he asked

For taking my life, for taking everything.

“I gave you immortality. I gave you strength, speed, beauty; I gave you life.” I shook my head sadly, smiling evilly.

I was new, I was strong and I was fast.

I was also pissed.

This speech didn’t matter; I was just stalling to give Centhua some time.

Jedediah wasn’t the only one who could be a drama queen.

Centhua’s POV

I struggled with consciousness while Bree and the leech fought. I could see my brothers black face, outlined by the fire and burning corpses and smiled.

He licked my face repeatedly and whined before licking my shoulder. I hadn’t realized I was bleeding but when I looked over there was a pretty nasty wound.
I ignored it.

The sound of boulders crashing made me think the walls were caving it, but it was only Bree getting her revenge.

My stomach felt fine, it was my shoulder that was a wreck, tears slipped out my eyes as the pain increased and Damien whimpered again. He licked them away rapidly and I suddenly needed Damien to stay with me, it was like a way of coping with the pain.

I wondered if this was how Jacob felt when he got crushed, when he was begging me to stay with him. They thought of Damien or Bree leaving me now, made my heart ache and for a second I experienced what I put Jacob through.

Knowing that made it worse.

Damien licked my face again before he phased back. He didn’t care that he was naked in front of Bree at the moment and quickly dressed before taking me in his lap.
Speaking of Bree, her tiny head, bright pink lips, sandy hair and baby curls appeared at his shoulder.

A look of pain crossed her face as if she was the one who was hurt and she fell beside me.
“Oh god Cent, oh god, are you okay you-” I shushed her, smiling slightly.

“Just a fracture in the bone, it’s nothing serious, don’t get worked up about it.” I tried to soothe her and Damien growled.

He looked like he did the day dad died, angry and in pain.

I shushed him too.

My eyelids dropped slowly and he noticed.

“Humpty dumpty went after the Were,” Damien whispered. I smiled bleakly through the pain.

“Humpty dumpty was no longer there,” I answered wincing. He brushed some hair out of my face and Bree stood over me crying.

“All Humpty’s leeches and all Humpty’s friends…?” he prodded, tears starting to leak out now.

Wow, Damien crying? I must be pretty messed up, or this is a dream. Or Im dead. He was as bad with crying as I was, maybe worse because he was a hugger.

“Couldn’t put Humpty together again,” I whispered. Bree cried harder and Damien shook my shoulders gently. It didn’t matter.

Everything went black.