Alone in my apartment, I tried to get the song out of my head and couldn’t, so I turned on some music on my phone and picked up the stack of papers. I glanced back through the names of the people I’d already tried to contact. Some of them had been missing for weeks. That could be the problem. Instead of starting at the beginning, I went to the other end of the stack and found someone who’d only been missing a few days.
A name jumped out at me. I’m not sure why, but it didn’t surprise me too much. It was almost as if the girl on the paper was shouting my name. “Dala Toth,” I whispered aloud. Aaron’s list had more detail than what I would’ve gotten on my own, but it didn’t tell me much. She was about my height and weight with the same color hair and just a little older than me. Was there a possibility that she might still be alive?
I closed my eyes and felt out into the universe. Remarkably, it didn’t take me long to find her, but what I found inside of her mind was more than a little disturbing. Dala was surrounded by darkness. Not just the kind where it’s sort of hard to see when your bedroom light is off at night but the sort of darkness that makes your eyes ache because they are trying to focus and there’s nothing to focus on. I knew immediately where she was. Christian had said there were others, and he was right. Dala was one of them.
The sound of her sobbing made my heart ache. She was frightened and alone, even though I could sense she was aware there were others nearby. None of them could help her get out of this mess, to get home. Pushing through the initial devastation I encountered, I dug into her thoughts, trying to determine exactly what had happened to her.
I heard yelling, saw Dala slamming her bedroom door. More tears—the angry kind—wet her cheeks as she headed for the bedroom window. So she’d snuck out. Later, I saw her out past her curfew, walking home from a friend’s house. She’d been so angry at her parents and so worried about getting caught she hadn’t heard the van pull up behind her.
It was a whirlwind after that. She’d been pulled into the vehicle, and though she’d struggled, it seemed like whoever—or whatever—had her was much stronger than she was. Dala wasn’t alone, though. Other bodies littered the floor of the van. None of them were moving, and soon, Dala wouldn’t be either. I felt the pricks in her neck as teeth sunk in, and then everything went dark.
But she wasn’t a Vampire. I could tell as soon as I jumped into her mind that she hadn’t gone through the Resurrection process. So what was she?
I saw her down there in that hole, scared, trying to figure out where she was and how she’d get out when Daunator’s face appeared through the darkness. He’d done something to her wrist, something that stung and ached. He wasn’t sucking her blood out, though. He was transfusing his own blood into her system. Why would he do that? When he was done, and she looked down at her hand, I got my answer. The blood he’d sent through her veins was turning her hand black, and even though in her memory, it was just beginning to change, I knew now it was far worse and that the condition was creeping up her arm.
Daunator told her not to worry, that she’d be fine, and in a few days, there’d be no more pain or sorrow. Dala thought that meant she was about to die, and the idea had her shaking, wishing she had one more chance to speak to her parents. In her mind, I heard the same words over and over again. “Mom, I’m so sorry. I just want to go home....” Of course, it wasn’t in English, but I was able to figure it out pretty easily with a bit of translating and the overwhelming grief that shook through her body with every breath she took.
I opened my eyes and noticed my heart was beating quickly again, though not as bad as before, when I’d put that dream in my sister’s head. Still, it was unsettling. I wanted to help Dala, to get her out of there, but there wasn’t much I could do on another continent.
Even though I couldn’t help Dala, she had helped me. Her memory made one thing quite obvious to me. The black creatures were the people in the holes. How Daunator was changing them, I had no idea. It made no sense that he was capable of taking a human who’d already been bitten by a Vampire and turning them into a completely different monster, but that was what was happening. Christian had said there were hundreds of people down there. We had hundreds of people missing. They were definitely linked.
Who knows how long Daunator had been doing this? Was it possible there were people down there who’d been living in those holes for hundreds of years? If so, that would account for all of the strange clothes the people Eliza had fought against were wearing.
I was momentarily worried for Christian. What if Daunator tried to turn him into one of these creatures? I didn’t think that was possible, but then, he shouldn’t be able to turn a person either. As much as I didn’t want to talk to the Guardian again that night, I tried to get him anyway.
“Christian, listen, I need to tell you something.” He was still singing, and it was all I could do to stay in his head long enough to try again, but I did. “Will you shut up for a moment and listen? It’s really important! It’s about the others, the ones you heard screaming!” I knew he could hear me. He was just being stubborn. I decided to tell him anyway, even if he didn’t want to hear. “They’re people—but he’s turning them into monsters! Will you please listen to me?”
He wasn’t letting up. Frustrated, I came out of his head.