“Alison is different than you two. She’ll be safe with me. I regularly hunt the revenants in the underground, usually during the day, when they’re relatively inactive. You two aren’t safe anywhere but here for now…and especially not in the tunnels.”
“I don’t get it,” Aidan said. “My mom and I take the subway all the time and Teslar has never attacked us before.”
Saint considered first Christina and then Aidan with his enigmatic gaze.
“The subway tunnels are relatively shallow compared to where the revenants reside.”
“Yeah,” Alison whispered, her enormous eyes fixed on Saint. “He took me down on an elevator real deep, into places I never knew existed under the city.”
“The planet itself possesses a soul,” Saint said. “The deeper one goes into the earth’s mantle, the more it can be felt. For us, it is a constant source of nourishment—like a human breathing the purest air and drinking the freshest water. We could live off the earth’s vitessence alone for a week or longer. We are creatures of the underground…of the earth.”
“But that doesn’t explain why it’s okay for you to take Alison down into Teslar’s hellhole,” Christina said fiercely.
“It’s okay, Christina,” Alison murmured. “I want to help if I can.”
“It does explain it,” Saint told Christina as if Alison hadn’t spoken. “If you or Aidan were to go that deep into the earth, the vibrations of the earth’s energy and your powerful vitessences would amplify one another’s. It’d be the equivalent of a crashing gong going off in Teslar’s sleeping brain. A clanging dinner bell,” he added harshly when Christina opened her mouth to argue. “The relative shallowness of the subway tunnels is the only reason I’ve allowed you and Aidan to use the subway in the past.”
“The only reason you’ve allowed us,” Christina repeated in mixed amazement and outrage. This was really too much. The guy refused to even commit to being her bedmate and yet had no problem masterminding her life!
“We can talk about it when I get back,” Saint said, jerking his head at Alison in a let’s go gesture.
Christina felt like she had no choice but to watch helplessly as Saint handed the motorcycle helmet to Alison and both of them headed out the door.
Chapter Ten
The metallic whine of the hydraulic crane bounced off the walls of the limestone shaft, the echo making it necessary for Alison to shout in order to be heard.
“Where in hell are we going? Or, don’t tell me—my question contains the answer, right?” She glanced nervously below the steel grating on which they stood. They’d started out in an empty water reservoir that was already two hundred and fifty feet below the surface of the ground. By the time the crane reached the bottom, they’d be far, far down in the bowels of the earth.
“Chicago Deep Tunnel. Close to a hundred miles of tunnel and reservoirs used for water runoff. All of the tunnels have been mined at this point, but only some of them are currently in use. The project has been going on for several decades. According to my sources, some of the tunneling equipment is mysteriously being utilized at night, although they haven’t been able to figure out the precise location of where, or who’s doing it.”
“Teslar?”
Saint nodded. “I’m guessing he’s been burrowing below the deep tunnel.”
“Even farther down?” Alison exclaimed. “Why didn’t we just use the elevator Teslar took me on? I said I’d be able to show you the location.”
Saint shook his head. “Teslar would make it impossible for just anyone to access that elevator. Even if we did access it, he’d be alerted to the fact. I guessed from your description where the elevator must have been located. You got off in the deep tunnel before you transferred to a chamber where you went farther downward, right?” Alison nodded. “We’ll use this entrance and hope one of the chambers looks familiar to you. You can lead me from there.”
“He did key in a code to call the elevator,” Alison mused, her brow wrinkled in memory. She stepped closer to him. “So, how do you rate, just walking into this pumping station and being allowed to come down into these tunnels? I thought that guy up there was going to lick your boots, he was so happy to do whatever you asked.”
“I happen to know the President of the Water Reclamation District,” Saint murmured.
Alison snorted. “More likely you own the bastard.” She stumbled and almost fell when the metal platform reached the bottom of the shaft and came to a halt with a shudder. She scurried off the platform quickly, casting a suspicious glance at the hydraulic crane.
“You’ve got an awesome bike, but your twin’s got one up on you in regard to the transportation to hell department.”
Saint didn’t reply, just walked over to the MinerMobile that would quickly take them to the first giant maintenance chamber five thousand feet away. Alison perched on the side of the vehicle and he steered them to the entrance of the thirty-foot-high limestone tunnel.
“It’s weird down here. I noticed it when I was with Teslar,” Alison murmured in a hushed voice after several minutes, glancing around the dark, circular tunnel. The flashing lights on the MinerMobile cast her pale face in crimson light. “Do you think I’m sensing some of those energies you were talking about back at Christina’s—the earth’s soul, or some shit like t
hat?”
Saint shrugged. He doubted it. “What do you hear?”
“Hear? I hear this little car-thingy moving and nothing else. That’s what’s so weird. It’s like we’re insulated from every sound on earth down here. Why? What do you hear?”
“The earth singing,” Saint said simply. “What you’re experiencing is more than likely your imagination. Only the rarest of humans can sense such things.”