Old Habits

Conor: old flames

Conor

My bones all hurt, but I had made it in one piece after shifting. I would need to eat as soon as I got out of here. The ground was slick and the hall smelled like blood and death. My feet slid a little; I had gotten used to wearing shoes, mostly because Tish made me.

"Mike?" I called in the darkness. Even my wolf eyes couldn't see much, but shifted back to human to save my energy. "Jackson?"

"Conor," I heard as a whisper.

I walked faster, not wishing to run and slide on the wet surface. I found Mike and Jackson, sitting against the wall. Someone turned on their cellphone light and I could see that Mike's legs were a shattered mess. Jackson was also covered in blood and shredded clothes, but looked a little better. He at least could stand. They must have fallen like I had, only I could heal better than they could.

"Took you long enough," Jackson huffed.

"You two shouldn't have gone off on your own," I told them. "Here, Mike. You should drink some of my blood."

"No," Mike shuddered, pushing my arm away with his least damaged arm.

"What?"

"We don't know what's down here, and I'm not going to die like this," he explained. "Yes, I'm in pain and can't walk, but right now, you're the only one who could have possibly survived that trap. So what else is down here?"

"He's right," Jackson said, to my surprise. "We made it this far before I couldn't carry him anymore."

"I can carry him," I said, reaching down for Mike. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah," Jackson said. "The only thing that didn't heal was my damn arm."

Mike was awkward to carry and his dark skin was coated with sticky blood, but I managed. Jackson held his phone out, still lighting our path.

"You two didn't make it very far," I remarked.

"Well, I assumed you two were behind us and then you weren't," Jackson said. "You broke out of my persuasion faster than I thought. And then there didn't seem to be a point in dragging ourselves farther. We would have died down here without assistance."

"Pity," I said dryly.

We made it to a door. Jackson put the phone in Mike's hand so Jackson could wrench it open with his good arm. There was a beam of light from a row of windows illuminating the horrifying sight.

We were not the only people who had fallen into the trap. There were bodies littered on the ground in various states of damage and decay. I could smell human blood amongst the rotting flesh. Vampires had curled up against the right wall to stay away from the sun's passing rays, but they had been down here so long they were only skins and bones wrapped in torn clothing.

"Oh my god," Mike said in my arms. "Oh my god."

In the middle of the room was a cage with a single body in a chair. Their purple hair could only be one person. I set Mike down as gently as I could and hurried to the cage.

"Stefa?" I whispered.

She didn't move. I circled the cage as Jackson looked on, his hands in his hair with a stricken look on his face. The cage was locked and I pulled it once. Her right arm was so burned from sunlight that I wasn't sure was still technically attached. Her hair was matted and she was impossibly still.

"Conor, I don't think..." Jackson tried.

But I ignored him with a growl, pulling the door off its hinges with a shout. Stefa didn't move even when I entered the cage, putting my arm next to her lips in hopes she, if she was even the slightest bit alive, could smell me. When that didn't work, I cut my own arm and I could feel pure relief when her eyes fluttered a dark feral red and she bit my arm so hard I could hear the bone crunch.