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back the protective, waterproof canvas they’d been wrapped in. Rising, the jagged, cool rocks brushed roughly over her fingertips as she made her way forward until she came across a torch propped against the wall. With her enhanced vampire vision, she could see far more than she ever had as a human, but no light penetrated this deep into the caves, making even a vampire blind.
    She could navigate the rest of this cave by memory and touch alone, but she much preferred to have a torch with her. For some reason, the idea of light made her feel not quite so alone.
    “Please work,” she whispered as she pulled a match from the box and struck it against a rock.
    It took a few fumbling tries with her numb fingers, but eventually a flame sputtered to life at the end of the small head. She held it up to the cloth around the torch and watched as it blazed to life. Walking back, she replaced the matches in their hiding spot in case someone else, who had once lived and survived within these caves, might one day need them.
    She adjusted Braith on her shoulders, before dashing down the cave. The flame of the torch flickered and danced over the walls as she held it before her. Shadows danced sinuously over the gray rock surrounding her. The crackling fire warmed her chilled cheeks, but it did nothing to warm the rest of her.
    The next gate she came to was open; she closed it behind her. After traveling another quarter of a mile beneath the earth, she stepped into a large cavern and gazed at the small, smooth bottom of the cavern fifty feet below her.
    Along the edges of the center, black and gray rocks rose up from it like seats in an auditorium. The jagged rock formations circled the flat center all the way around and offered more protection from anyone looking to enter. It was impossible for someone to descend the rocks quickly, and anyone in the center would have plenty of warning and time to getaway if someone entered from above.
    The shadows created by the torch lengthened and swelled imposingly with each flicker. Sniffing at the air, she detected the feral, musky scent of wild animals within, but she didn’t smell humans or vampires. No footprints could be seen in the dirt within the cave, only the paw prints of some fox, raccoon, and opossum showed.
    Her head tilted back to take in the stalactites forming on the ceiling above her. No bats hung from the ceiling, something Ashby would appreciate, as she knew from past experience he hated bats.
    That was if her brother-in-law made it here.
    “Don’t think it,” she whispered to herself.
    Turning her attention back to the chamber, she carefully picked her way down the rocks to the open space beneath her. Arriving at the bottom, she carried Braith into the center of the cavern. Gently, she set him on the ground and propped his side against a rock to keep him from falling back on those arrows.
    She had to get the arrows out of him so he could begin the healing process, but first she had to make sure they were safe here. With the torch in hand, she ran down each of the three side tunnels branching off from the lower level. She checked for keys before shutting the gates behind her.
    William, Daniel, Max, Timber, and Jack would know where to look for those keys if they made it here. The others wouldn’t, but the others would never make it this far into the cave without someone to guide their way. Returning to the cavern, she raced up the rocks with far more ease than she’d descended them and closed off the gate in the one other tunnel up there.
    Once they were secure within, she ran back to Braith’s side and fell to her knees before him. She pulled her bow and quiver from her back and set them on the ground within easy reach. She couldn’t look at the pallor of his skin or the way his cheeks had hollowed out, as she broke off the feathers of all the arrows going straight through his body.
    Her fingers shook when she gripped his shoulder and wrapped her hand around the first arrow