The heavy meteoric iron gates at the end of the sanctuary corridor shrieked off their hinges with a loud BOOM folding inward like wet cardboard under the weight of Alpha Vane’s vanguard. "Get them!" a guttural, distorted voice roared from the entry tunnel. "Don't let the Priestly boy touch the water!" My heart slammed against my ribs like a trapped bird. I knelt on the slick white marble floor of the First Altar, my left arm still locked tightly around Clara’s trembling, soaking-wet waist. Her skin was freezing now, the terrifying fever completely gone, leaving her fragile, shivering, and exhausted in my arms. If I was alone, I might have stood a chance with the burning heat pulsing in my right palm. But, with Clara barely able to stand on her own? They would tear us both to ribbons in five seconds. "Leo..." Clara gasped, clutching my torn denim jacket with weak, shaking fingers. "The doors... they're through..." "Hold onto my neck," I gritted through my teeth, hoisting her up ag

Hurry!" I whispered frantically, grabbing Clara’s hand in the pitch-black crawlspace and pulling her deeper into the concrete utility shaft. "Tell me everything you see, don't leave out any details."Behind us, a deafening, wet CRUNCH echoed through the sluice grate, followed by the metallic screech of tearing steel armor. Alpha Vane had finished off the Crimson Synod squad in seconds.Clara stumbled beside me on her hands and knees, trying to keep up with the vision and run. Her breath came in uneven, shallow gasps as her fingers stayed pressed tightly against the freezing scar on her neck. "He's... he's standing over the vampire squad leader's body," she whispered, her voice trembling with a strange, hollow echo. "He's huge, Leo. Through his eyes, everything looks washed in blood-red and silver. He can smell our blood from your shoulder and my neck cutting right through the sewer stink and he's not going to stop coming for us.""Which way is he turning?" I asked, keeping my voice lo