Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (5 page)

“
Are you
okay
, Fiona
?
”
h
e whispered
with a honey-velvet voice, his cheek pressing against the top of
my head
.

I didn’t know what was more shocking of a sensation
—
b
eing held
in
hi
s
strong
arms,
or
the sudden
, unexpected
plunge
into
the abyss
of a cave
.
I inhaled
his captivating
scent—woodsy, citrus
. I had never
noticed it
before, but also
had
never stood
so
close.

Overwhelmed, I
increased the distance between us
, trembling
, tears streaming down my face
as
I steadied myself
, my bones growing
bac
k inside of my body
.

“Yes, thank you
so much
,” I
mumbled
, clasping my chest
.
“
I truly appreciate it
.
”

M
y gasp
s
slow
ed and I wiped t
he angle of my chin with my sleeve to capture the
waterworks
.
The others flew over
from
across the ro
om, rushing
to
my side
,
inspecting me.

“
A
re you sure you
’re
alright?
I can get
medics
if you need it.
Please be honest, I know how you are about not wanting to trouble anybody,” De
tective Chase said
, voice
breathless
with exertion.

Raising my head, I caught a glance of
Wolfe’s eyes which were
surprisingly vulnerable.
I shifted my hair to hide my
face;
ashamed of the
e
motions pulsing through me.

“I promise, I’m fine,” I groaned
.
“
I didn’t see
the hole
in the gr
ound.
I’m just a bit shaken up, I’ll be absolutely fine.
”

For a second, I
wanted to
hide in the
terrifying
pit
. Embarrassment wasn’t something I handled well.

“I should
’ve
warned you.
I was
rambling on
and didn’t
notice you engaging in an
expedition
over here
,”
the detective
said
with
an
edge of hysteria
.
“
You’re lucky
a
superhero was by your side.
I didn’t know you had moves like that, buddy.”

I dropped my eyes to the cave floor
as
Wolfe chuckled.

“Ha!
Neither did I.”

“I’m sure by
moves
,
he’s
referring to th
e
romantic
hug,” Maddie whispered in my ear
, giggling.

“It wasn’t romantic,
s
top,” I countered
with a flat whisper
.

Thoughts
of jumping back into his arms surged through my mind.
If only we could be alone
, I thought,
for just one minute
.

I couldn’t
allow
the detective
to
sense
any unprofessional
feelings I might have
had f
or
Wolfe
, so I
overcompensated
, walking
a few feet in front of
him
as we strolled towards the tunnel
, diverting
all
my
attention towards Maddie.

“Wow, I’m so stupid.
I can’t beli
eve I almost fell into a hole…and then started bawling about it.
”

A
deep, heavy fog of
humiliation
washed over me.
She
pushed up her sleeves and
laughed.

“You
’d be just
like
one of those kids tha
t fall into a well and make national
headlines
.
”

She
laughed
with a soft punch to my
shoulder.
I recoiled in
pain
—i
t had taken the brunt of
my body
slam against the wall
of the crevice.
We approached the opening of
the tunnel—d
aunting, to say the least.

“Here
’s
the tunnel
.
S
eems narrow
,
but
we didn’t have trouble earlier. N
one of you
are too big to crawl through.” The detective paused, surveying Wolfe. “On second thought, maybe Wolfe will find it to be a challenge.  Well,
if my
belly
makes it through
, your shoulders
shouldn’t be a problem
,
big guy
.”

“I
’ve actually done this before
,” Wolfe
said before pausing
for a long moment
.
“
Bu
t, I
was half my size
back then
,”
he
mumbled
, his eyes sparked into mine as my heart gave me a gentle squeeze
.

“Go ahead
,
go
first.
That way, I can make a call for the crew to come pull you out if you
get
stuck.
The
lab’
s finishing up down there
,”
the detective
ordered as he pointed for
him
to
enter
the
passage
.

I cringed as
he
climbed
into
the
tunnel
.
G
iven his
negative
ex
perience as a child
, I could only imagine the thoughts
racing
through his mind
.
I found myself holding my breath as he
traversed deep into the darkness
ahead, only the soles of his feet
becoming
visible
.
After a couple of minutes, he shouted he had made it. M
addie
was
next.

As I climbed into the tunnel, the smoothness of the walls
amazed me.
M
arble.
I didn’t expect a cave to have so many different textures—the slimy limestone floors, the jagged points of the ceiling, flowing rivers.
The tunnel was
beautiful
,
but
a
claustrophobi
c
would likely have a
panic
attack
midway through
. I was fighting
a big one
.
My mind brought me back to the
colorful play
tube
s at the kid’s pizza places
—which I never cared for since
I was
always
the tall kid.

It was awkward to hold my fla
shlight and wiggle
down the
passage.
I
released an
involuntary sigh
once I neared the glow of the artificial lights from the room below
. Suddenly, my muscles relaxed and I could breathe
again
.

T
he descent from the tunnel to the
short
-stepped
limestone
staircase
was difficult
, but I was able to manage without tumbling down the makeshift stairs. Manmade,
somebody
had
carved them
from
the limestone
of the cave
.

We had arrived. Dracul’s Den.
W
ell lit
with generated light
s
and portable lanterns.
It was
a
horror movie
scene
with
cryptic
graffiti on
rocky
walls, half-burned black candles
in
do-it-yourself
sconces
, scattered books about vampires and dark magic, and
an assortment of
strange, colorful
candles and
glass bowls
—
all
paired with bright
yellow evidence markers
.

The
ceiling
stalactites were more pronounced
in this space with
a uniform grid of spikes
, some
inches from a connection with the s
talagmites from the ground.
In the dead center of the room,
G
othic-
looking
brass
goblets
sat
on
top of
a
large slab
made of a
roughened limestone in the shape of
an operating table
.
A
bloodstain
trailed
from the flattened surface on t
op
to the
sludge of the
gritty
floor below
. This
was the spot
where
Jody James
had taken her last breath.

“
Same goes as always—do not
touch anything
until
we’ve
released
the scene
.
We’re a ways from being done, so
don’t
even breathe on anything.
Don’t give
future defense attorneys ammo against us.
S
tand right over there
where we’ve already cleared,
” Detective Chase
instructed,
pointing to
the corner.

I took the position next to
Maddie, leaving Wolfe on the other side.
My head was still
swimming in
the clouds from the embrace.
I convinced myself
he was
only
trying to calm me because of
my
ignorant
mistake
.
I would do the same for anybody
who fell in a large, gaping hole
.
The hug
meant nothing
.
Stop
imagining things
.
You are friend
s,
nothing more.

“Over there,”
the detective
pointed to a rock sculpture in the shape of a
high back
chair
, “is the Devil’s Throne.
It’s made of limestone
,
and raging waters running through here years ago shaped it
like that
.
Moving w
ater can create some wicked
shapes
.
And
over there is
what they call
the
Altar
of Sacrifice
,
”
he said,
pointing to the slab.

“It does kinda look
like
an
altar
,
” Wolfe
whispered
in a casual manner.