Little Tree by Amanda Hocking

Author:Amanda Hocking
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amanda Hocking

Chapter Six

Scaling the fence had been easier than der Wüstling made it sound, but then again, he hadn’t built this place with vampires in mind.

Jack and I both wore boots, jackets, and hats, mostly so we’d blend in with the other humans, but they ended up being beneficial as we hiked up the mountainside following faint tracks in the snow. Up this high, the air was thin, and it was frigid, even for a vampire. Fortunately, we could withstand extreme cold and didn’t need oxygen, but it still made for an uncomfortable and sometimes difficult trek on rocky terrain between thick trees.

Finally, the faint tracks led us to a large cave. The entrance was covered in a sheet of ice, and as I approached, I noticed intricated designs swirling through it.

“What is that?” Jack asked in an awed tone.

I shook my head. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

As I stepped closer, it began shimmering and glowing a dull blue. It rumbled and then all at once, it slid upward and opened. I peered inside, and it was more like a medieval castle than a cave, with stone floors and torches lining the wall of the entryway.

The only room I could see was a long oval, with walls carved out of the rocky side of the mountain and the ceiling domed twenty feet above us. There appeared to be only one other way out, via an open archway on the far side.

“I’m going in,” I told Jack. “You should stay back.”

He scoffed. “Yeah, right.”

As soon as we stepped in, the door closed behind us.

“That’s an ominous sign,” Jack muttered as he pulled his camera out of the case.

He wore it around his neck in a secure satchel, but it was a rugged camera designed for extreme conditions and subzero temperatures. So far, he’d mostly just used it in regular conditions around Amsterdam, but he was hoping to start hiking with Zuzu in more scenic areas, so he wanted something durable.

He started taking pictures, first of the door and the intricate patterns on it. The designs reminded me of art nouveau but with the blunt edge of Nordic artwork. While he did that, I moved the titanium stakes from the lining of my jacket to the back of my jeans, so I could quickly access them if I needed to.

I stepped closer to the archway. Beyond it was a hallway that began winding downward, so I could only see a few feet into the passageway.

“Alice,” Jack whispered, sounding uneasy. “The digital screen on my camera just cut out.”

Then I heard footsteps approaching, soft on the stone tiles, and I stepped backward, away from the archway and closer to Jack.

We saw their shadows first, elongated and dancing from the torchlight, but that didn’t lessen the shock of their height. There were two of them, both distinctly humanoid but not quite human. One appeared to be a man, the other a woman, and she was the taller of the two, easily towering two or three feet over me.

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