The Underworld by Jessica Sorensen Read Free Book Online Page A

grow so edgy
    that I just about turned around and ran back. Of
    course, since it was almost pitch black, and I could
    hardly see a thing, I’d have probably just ended up
    getting lost if did.
    “Alright,” Laylen muttered to himself as we came to
    a stop in front of a garage door belonging to an old
    metal warehouse.
    “So this is the place?” I asked uneasily.
    He nodded. “This is the place.”
    I glanced at the closed metal garage door. “So
    how do we get inside?”
    “Like this.” He turned around, guiding me with him,
    and he looked up at a camera perched on the wal
    above us. “Smile for the camera.”
    Okay… I highly doubted that whoever was watching
    the surveil ance screen could actual y see us—it was
    way too dark. Then again…I squinted up at Laylen.
    Did vampires have night vision or something?
    I opened my mouth to ask him if he did, but I was
    cut off by the roar of the garage door lifting to life as it
    moved up from the ground. I was surprised to find
    that, on the other side of it, there was nothing. And I
    me a n nothing , other than a concrete floor and a
    stairway leading up to a second floor, which also
    appeared to be bare.
    “Umm…Where is everyone?” I asked.
    Not answering, Laylen pul ed me along with him as
    he stepped inside the warehouse. I was abruptly
    smacked in the face by an invisible wal of cold air. It
    was as if we’d walked into a freezer, and right away, I
    started to shiver, my low tolerance for the cold kicking
    into ful force. Plus, I was wearing shorts and a tank
    top, so that didn’t help.
    “Are you cold?” Laylen asked. Then he shook his
    head. “Stupid question. Of course, you’re cold. It’s
    barely forty degrees in here.”
    “Why is-s it so c-cold?” I chattered.
    “It’s a vampire thing,” he explained as he started to
    slip off the long-sleeved black thermal shirt he was
    wearing.
    “What are you doing?” I asked, taken aback. Why
    was he taking off his clothes?
    He wasn’t, though. He had a black t-shirt on
    underneath it, and he handed the one he’d taken off to
    me. “Put this on. It might help a little.”
    I slipped his shirt on, smel ing a hint of cologne
    lingering in the fabric. Putting it on did help a little, but
    the bottom of my legs were stil exposed, and goose
    bumps spotted my skin. “So now what do we do?” I
    asked.
    He nodded to the stairs. “We go upstairs.”
    He took me by the hand, and we made our way up
    the metal stairway, which shook with every step we
    took. The air sank colder the higher we got, which
    didn’t make any sense. Wasn’t warm air supposed to
    rise?
    At the top of the stairs, there was a door; a red door
    —the color of blood—which seemed like an omen or
    something. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying
    to stay warm as Laylen opened the blood-red door.
    Instantly, the smel s of smoke, rust, and sweat swirled
    al around me.
    “Stay close to me,” Laylen whispered, and we
    stepped through the doorway and out onto a balcony.
    I had no problem with staying close to him—I was
    already clinging to him like a scared little child.
    Below the balcony, a room opened up packed with
    tables, chairs, and lots and lots of people. Black
    Angel’s, “Young Men Dead,” was blasting through the
    speakers. The lights were low, and the air was heavy
    with smoke.
    We started to make our way down the stairs, the
    metal railing pressing cold against my skin as I held
    on to it. Looking down at the room, I didn’t seem to
    notice anything out of the ordinary, like I’d expected
    to. People were just sitting at tables, drinking, talking,
    and smoking. But as we got closer, I realized that
    most of the crystal glasses were fil ed with a deep red
    liquid, which I assumed was blood.
    I tried hard not to stare at anyone as we walked
    across the room—I swear I did. But as we passed by
    the tables, it felt like everyone’s eyes locked on me.
    That’s when I noticed some of these “people” had
    fangs