Flight from Hell Read Free

ground.
    The building’s front door was boarded over but one of the lower windows was broken. The iron bars were bent, telling me that somebody—or some
thing
—had made it into the building. I climbed through the broken glass, smashing a couple of jagged edges to get them out of the way. The remnants of the pane shattered and I pulled my jacket sleeve over my hand to brush away the glass. It wouldn’t really hurt me but might as well not take any chances.
    Putting my foot on the windowsill, I levered myself up and over, cautiously jumping through to land inside the room. My boots scrunched on the broken glass as I hit the floor, and I quickly crouched down, just in case anything might have noticed me. After a moment, the silence of the room echoed around me and I slowly rose up as my eyes adjusted.
    The room was dark, and even with my eyesight being what it was—vampires could see better in the dark than just about any other creature—it was hard to make out how big the chamber I was in, or what else might be lurking in the shadows.
    I cautiously moved forward, feeling my way through the darkness. I had a miniature flashlight on my keychain, but if I used it, then I would alert anything or anybody else in the area. As I skirted the room, edging to my right, I began to see nuances in the darkness—dim light from the streetlamps outside filtered through some of the barricaded windows. A table here, a chair there . . . what appeared to be the remains of a broken-down sofa that smelled terribly musty but wasn’t infested by mold yet. Apparently, there weren’t any leaks, though with the window I’d broken, that could easily change.
    I still didn’t have a handle on what this place had been until I nudged into a sign leaning against a desk of some sort. Frustrated with the slow going, wondering where the scream had come from, I finally flicked on my flashlight.
    R OSELLE’S D AY L ABOR
.
So this office had been a temporary employment agency. While the light was on, I flashed the beam around the rest of the room for a quick look. Nothing in particular stood out.
    As I was trying to get my bearings, another scream echoed in the building, this time from higher up. I could hear it through the ceiling, and this time I could smell the fear and I could smell blood.
That wasn’t any ghost, that was a woman.
    Catching sight of a door, I raced for it, ignoring the noise I was making. As I slammed through—breaking it off the hinges—the scream echoed once more. My flashlight showed me that I was in a hallway, near a door marked S TAIRS, and so I grabbed the handle and pulled. It was locked. But locked doors weren’t really a problem for me. Gritting my teeth, I gave it a good yank. Metal screeched as the hinges twisted. I put my weight into it, and the door gave way as I ripped it off the hinges. Sending it flying behind me, the door splintered as it hit the wall.
    Taking the stairs two at a time, I flew up them, pouring on the speed. The scream had sounded from the floor above, and so I busted through the second-story stairwell door, shoulder-butting it to slam it back against the wall. Stumbling through the opening, I found myself in a large open room, dimly lit by a handful of scattered candles.
    Figures vanished into the shadows. Vampires—I could sense my own kind. At least three of them.
    What they’d been up to was obvious. A woman lay on a dirty mattress in the middle of the room, either dead or comatose. Her clothing had been ripped away and blood trickled down from her neck, from her nipples, from between her thighs. I winced, grateful she wasn’t awake at the moment.
Please, let her be alive,
I whispered. This was no way to die.
    I debated. I could either take on the other vamps and chance letting her die—
if
she was still alive. Or I could bundle her up and get the fuck out of there. I wanted to follow them into the shadows, to drag them