It was a huge, cavernous room, all stone, dark, lit only by torches. It was airless in here, and the only sound was the soft moans of other prisoners. She scanned the walls and saw several others, vampires and humans, chained, too. They were crying out in pain, tugging at their shackles. Caitlin knew how they felt: the tug of her chains was unbearable, and she wondered how long she’d been chained here like this.
She continued scanning the room, her heart pounding, desperate for any glimpse of Scarlet. And then, to her great relief, she saw her. She was chained to the wall, across the room. Her heart flooded with both relief, and panic. Seeing Scarlet like that, chained, hurt her even more than her own captivity. Caitlin tugged again at her shackles, trying to break free and help her, but to no avail. Beside her, on the ground, muzzled and chained to the floor, was Ruth.
At least Scarlet was here. With her. Alive. Or she appeared to be.
“Scarlet,” Caitlin whispered, urgently.
Scarlet did not open her eyes, and Caitlin’s heart sank. Was she dead? Caitlin wondered with a sudden panic.
“Scarlet!” Caitlin said, more forcefully.
Slowly, Scarlet’s eyes fluttered, then began to open. She looked drugged. Or exhausted. Or sick. Caitlin wondered again how long they had been here.
Caitlin’s first impulse as a mom was to rush to Scarlet and give her a hug, to help her, to unchain her. But she tugged again at her chains, and cursed the fact that they were silver. And that her strength was useless against them.
Caitlin could sense that something terrible happened in the universe, something terrible to make events get this far. To allow Jesus to be captured. To allow Sam to track her down, to hurt her like this. She had a sinking feeling that such chaos could only mean one thing: Aiden and his men had been defeated. And the dark side now had free reign.
And the only way that could have happened was if they’d found some sort of secret weapon.
Caitlin’s heart stopped at the next thought: had they beat her to the Shield?
Caitlin knew they had to get out of there fast. She had to find Caleb, to see if he was alive. She had to assess how bad the situation was. And she had to find Jesus, before they killed him. After all, he was her guide. The only person left who could lead her to her father. And in hours, he would be dead. Crucified.
This was her last chance.
As Caitlin tugged at the chains again, to no avail, she suddenly heard a noise, high up in the ceiling. She looked up, and as she watched, saw a barrel being lowered directly over the head of one of the captive vampires, on the far side of the room. She watched as it slowly turned, showering liquid through the air.
Caitlin watched, horrified, as the liquid poured through the air and landed a directly on the chained vampire’s head.
As it did, the vampire shrieked, in awful agony. Her shrieks filled the room.
Smoke rose up from her body, as there was a horrific hissing noise. Caitlin sensed right away what was in that barrel: ioric acid. She hadn’t seen that since her time in New York. This, she knew, was Rexius’ work: his favorite device of torture.
“Don’t watch!” Caitlin screamed to Scarlet.
But Scarlet was watching, horrified, eyes wide open, and there was nothing Caitlin could do about it.
Caitlin watched as the acid ate away at the vampire. The vampire shrieked and shrieked—and after a long and agonizing torture, was half-melted away, half of her face and body eroded. Yet somehow, she was still alive, stuck in a vegetative state, in indescribable agony.
Suddenly there was another noise, and another barrel was slowly lowered from the ceiling. This one was heading for the vampire next to her.
Caitlin could see that, one by one, each prisoner in this room was going to be tortured and then killed by the acid. And as the next barrel overturned and the shrieks of another vampire rang out, Caitlin realized she would be next.
And then, Scarlet.
“Mommy! Help us! Please! Do something!” Scarlet screamed.
Caitlin was frantic. She didn’t know what to do.
And then she remembered: her training, her final training, with Aiden. She closed her eyes, forcing herself to concentrate. She focused on her new skill, the final skill Aiden had taught her. The ability to change any element. To change silver to metal.
Caitlin forced herself to relax. To center herself. To summon her ancient power.
Slowly, she felt an energy rising through her, felt her body warming, from her toes up through her legs, through her torso, and through her hands. She focused on the shape of the silver shackles, focused on their composition. And slowly, she willed them to change.
Suddenly, Caitlin felt the shackles around her wrists start to change. They were still there, but before her eyes, she saw the color change from silver to a dark iron. And just as a new barrel was being lowered and aimed towards her head, Caitlin realized she had done it: she had changed silver to metal. Now, they were ordinary shackles. Now, she could break free.
Without a second to lose, Caitlin snapped off her iron shackles. She shattered them one at a time, first with each wrist, then each ankle.
Finally free, she lunged forward.
Just in time. A split second later, the acid poured down, landing on the spot she had just been.
Caitlin sprinted across the room, for Scarlet. As she went, she focused on Scarlet’s silver shackles and willed the shape to change. By the time she reached Scarlet, she sensed that they had, and she reached out and tore off the shackles without hesitating. She then reached down and tore off Ruth’s chains and muzzle.
Caitlin took Scarlet’s hand and pulled her out of the way—a second before the acid fell.
The three of them sprinted across the room, and Caitlin saw the silver door up ahead, and changed the shape without even slowing. As they reached it she kicked it down and the three of them charged out of the cell.
They burst out into daylight, in a remote countryside, at the top of a mountain.
“Grab on!” Caitlin yelled.
Scarlet jumped onto her back while Caitlin grabbed Ruth, and leapt into the air.
A moment later they were flying, soaring, getting further and further away from the place.
Caitlin looked over her shoulder, and saw that they had just flown out of an ancient, pagan temple. It looked like the Parthenon in Rome, but smaller, carved with demonic figures and statues in every direction.
Caitlin could see that their escape had caused a stir: dozens of vampires, dressed in all black—Rexius’ people—scrambled on the hillside. They were blowing trumpets sounding alarms, and moments later, dozens of them were up in the air, chasing after Caitlin. She knew that, in moments, Rexius would summon all of his people after her.