The Monster Apocalypse

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Paul didn't know what time it was. Hours had passed. Maybe days. He didn't know. He was happy he wasn't human, because he would've died from hunger at this point. But he had gone over two weeks without blood of any kind—and he was feeling hunger pains of a different variety.

He pushed himself up off the dirt ground. He wanted to hear Principal Stine's voice again. Even though the older man had been two cells over, away from his sight, just knowing somebody else in his shoes was close by had comforted him. Now he was all alone, the principal sprawled out dead on the ground in front of him, in a dark dungeon of the Underground that even he didn't recognize.

He shoved his back against the cell wall and waited to die. He didn't have any help this time. He didn't have anyone who was going to save him. His father, his new mother, the entire clan, were going to have their way with him in any way they wanted, and there was nothing he'd be able to do to stop them. It was him versus hundreds. He was going to be torn to smithereens—and he wouldn't ever see Brin again.

In those final moments of silence, Paul thought about Brin Skar, about her startling good looks, and her kind, compassionate personality. He never thought he'd fall for another human again, but he had done so with Brin, and in such a short amount of time. Deep down he knew his time with her wasn't going to go on forever, definitely not an entire semester's worth at Grisly High. He might have been naïve in leaving Bodie for a better life, but Paul didn't ever want to settle and just be another one of his father's minions. He wanted something more, something right.

Paul figured he'd rather be dead than live a lie.

The loud metal door opened into the hallway, and footsteps entered the dark room. He tried to listen for the sound of Mrs. Skar's high heels, or his father's tap-tap-tap of his black dress shoes. He couldn't tell whom the person was coming toward him. All he could tell was that it wasn't just one member of the Bodie clan, but two.

He waited for Tessa and Droz to appear, but the two figures stepping into the light were two men, both highly unstable and slow. He didn't recognize them at all, even from their wardrobes.

But when the two vampires appeared in full next to the lit torches lining the dirty hallway, Paul had to keep from screaming in shock.

"No," he said. He jumped up to his feet, marched toward the cell door, and wrapped his hands around the bars so tight he thought he might bleed. But he didn't care. He had to get the best possible look at the two young men, two people he never thought he'd see again.

"So this is the famous Paul," one of them said, the geekier one. "The one who swept Brin off her feet and left me here for dead."

"No, it can't be," Paul said, blinking a few times erratically and moving to the far right. "You two are dead. They sucked too much blood out—"

"Just enough to keep us alive, that's what your daddy told us," the second one said, this one tall and attractive, even behind the pale skin and deadened eyes. "At least, that's what he said to me. If one more vampire had sunk his fangs into me, I would have been a goner for sure." He looked at the creature next to him. "What about you, Sawyer? Did you hear something similar from Droz?"

The last time Paul laid eyes on Sawyer Neville, the cinematographer of the Bodie film shoot, he had been completely naked in the center of the Underground, and sucked dry by four ravenous vampires. Now he was dressed up, in a black suit and slacks, with a bloody red bow tie, looking more like his father's son than he himself ever could. Sawyer didn't look like his former self, that quiet, introspective dork from Film class. He looked sleek and confident, a whole new person.