Darkkin Knight: Formerly published on Kindle Vella under the same name. by John Conroe

Author:John Conroe [Conroe, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 32

Complete darkness—blinding darkness. I couldn’t see, my innate sense of space was gone, my hearing too dull to even tell if any of the Outsiders were pursuing me. But I had my memory and over a hundred and seventy years of experience. My initial panic faded as I felt my way down the tunnel, my body turning left automatically at the first junction. Fourteen steps, then a right turn. Four paces, duck under the cross pipe, drop down the access chute until my foot stopped me—painfully—on the next tunnel opening. That was new as well. Poor senses plus extremely low pain threshold mixed with awkward reflexes. How did humans even make it through a twenty-four-hour period, let alone seventy years of life?

I blundered through the dark but found my haven. The booby traps were an issue, because I couldn’t see the telltales that marked each of them. But I slowed my movement to a crawl, remembering that the first trip wire was tied to a hot water pipe—a really hot hot water pipe. One burned hand later, I was past the first trap, which meant that the second trap, a pressure-sensitive mat, was about ten feet ahead. I crawled on hands and knees, glad for my jeans that were protecting my suddenly sensitive knees, until my fingers found the rubber material.

Beyond the mat, I was home free, literally, and I wasted no time unlocking then relocking my door. Once the nest was secure, I turned on all the lights, closed and locked the bedroom door, and huddled in my pillow fortress.

When ten minutes or so had passed, my breathing had slowed, and no angry vampires had beat down my doors, I picked myself out of the bed, cursing my sudden human awkwardness. Then I stood before my floor-length mirror and studied my suddenly flush face. My cheeks were pink, real pink, without makeup, and warm to my touch. I pinched the skin of my arm and felt the immediate pain and more warmth. I was human—again. What had Tanya said? “For a few days.”

I fell back into my pillows and stared at the ceiling, my normally ordered mind whirling with confusion. What did this mean? How would I survive?

I woke suddenly, confused and muddled. And I needed a bathroom… like almost immediately. Vampires use bathrooms, if only to urinate, as you can’t live on nothing but fluids and not eliminate liquid from time to time. But it was a matter of frequency: every other day, not every other hour.

My nest has plumbing, so once my immediate needs were met, I realized I had another odd sensation. I was hungry—for food. I checked the time and then checked it again. It was ten-forty-five… kind of late, until I looked closer at the clock. The letters next to the numbers said AM, not PM. Morning… daytime.

I was awake at midmorning. Not just awake, but alert and hungry. Every vampire in the tunnels would likely be in a coma, but not me.

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