That had to be it. She’d been betrayed. She couldn’t see what other possible explanation there could be. There was no other way Kyle could have found her. And what about Blake? She couldn’t remember seeing him getting captured in the church. Granted, she couldn’t see much as she was taken down so fast. But she didn’t remember hearing him crying out, screaming.
And if Blake had been captured, wouldn’t he be here, in the jail with her?
“Blake?” she called out.
She cleared her throat, rose to her feet, and screamed: “Blake!”
Her scream echoed again and again throughout the empty chambers, as if coming back to taunt her.
No answer. That settled it. He must have betrayed her.
She felt like such a fool for loving him. She felt so deceived, so betrayed. So stupid.
Caitlin suddenly heard the creaking of an iron door, followed by footsteps.
She stood on her feet, in the corner, and waited, prepared to fight for her life if need be.
She had a feeling, though, that it would be futile. Kyle was not a man to leave anything unplanned for. Knowing him, he probably had several backup plans to keep her locked down, tortured, or killed. Her chance of escape, she knew, would be almost none.
Kyle suddenly came into view. He appeared on the opposite side of the silver bars, faced her and grinned. It was more like a scowl.
Kyle had certainly seen better days. Half of his face was disfigured, and now he was missing an eye. He looked hideous, grotesque.
“How do you like your new accommodations?” he asked.
Caitlin said nothing, just stared back at him. Finally, she spit on the floor in his direction.
He laughed—an evil, creepy noise.
“You’re right,” he said. “Blake led us right to you. A lamb to slaughter. How could you have been so naïve? Well, finally, I have the upper hand. You have been a thorn in my side for as long as I can remember. It’s thanks to you that my face is disfigured like this. That was my punishment for letting you go.…Not this time.”
Caitlin could feel the evil emanating off him, like a tangible thing. She had a sinking feeling that this might be the last moment of her life, and she prepared mentally to meet her fate.
“Before I kill you,” Kyle continued, “I want you to know that I’m a very kind man. I’m going to offer you two options. To die quickly, easily and painlessly—or to die slowly, brutally. You still have a chance for the former, if you comply with what I have to say. If not, make no mistake about it: your fate will be beyond painful.”
“I’m not afraid of dying slowly,” Caitlin answered with contempt. “I’d rather die in one thousand hells than give you whatever you want.”
Kyle smiled wider.
“You are a girl after my own heart,” he said, licking his lips. “It’s a shame that you and I never had a chance to be together. We would be a splendid couple.”
She felt sick at the thought. “I had rather die,” she answered.
He laughed out loud. “Don’t worry, you will. Very soon. But before you do, I will make you this offer: give me the object that you found in the pulpit. We searched, and found nothing. Tell me what you did with it, where you managed to hide it before we caught you. Did you break it? Did you swallow it? What was it? Tell me, and I will spare you. In fact, if it’s an answer I like, I might even let you go.”
Caitlin thought, wracking her brain. She tried to remember, but her head was still foggy. What object was he talking about? What was it that he thought she’d found?
It started to slowly come back to her. What she’d found in the secret compartment. Kyle hadn’t seen it, so of course he thought it was an object. What a fool.
What he didn’t know, and what she would never tell him, was that there was no object at all.
That it was a message. Inscribed in the stone. A message just for her: the Rose and the Thorn meet in the Vatican.
He would never understand what that meant. And she would never tell him.
Now, she was pleased. Let him think that there was a missing object.
“Yes,” she lied, “I did find an object. And I destroyed it with my bare hands. Just like I would destroy you, if you were man enough to open these bars and give me the chance,” she spat back, defiant.
At first, he scowled, but then he broke into a grin, wider and wider.
“You do not disappoint,” he said. “Well, at least I tried. Now it’s on to the good part. It’s going to be fun watching you die slowly and painfully. In fact, I’m going to make sure that I have a front row seat.”
Caitlin suddenly heard another cheer, this one louder, and felt the entire room shake. She wondered again what it could be, and where she was.
“You still have no idea where you are, do you?” he asked. “No, I can tell that you don’t. You are one hundred feet beneath the earth, in the basement of the Roman Coliseum. Above us, the stadium is in use. By the grand vampire council. There are thousands of us up there, watching the games.
Watching the brutal fights between vampire and human, between human and human, and between vampire and vampire. These fights offer us brutality beyond what we could ever hope to see elsewhere. It is one of our favorite spectator sports.”
He got so close to the cell that she could smell his bad breath.
“And do you know who’s going to be next in the show?” he asked.
He laughed aloud.
“Did you ever think you’d die here, of all places?”
Kyle turned to go, but before he did, he stopped and faced her.
“By the way,” he said, “a present for you.”
He threw something between the bars, and it landed on the floor of her cell.
Caitlin looked down at it: it looked like a small, silver necklace. It looked like her necklace.
“As the boy died, he called out for you. He seemed to really like you. Too bad you weren’t there to protect him,” Kyle said with a snort, then turned and stomped away.
Caitlin stopped breathing as she bent down and picked up the necklace. She looked closer, hoping beyond hoping that it wasn’t really hers.
But it was. The one she had given to Jade.
There was no way that Kyle could possibly have this, unless it was true. Unless he had really killed Jade.
Caitlin felt a grief unlike any she’d ever known. She curled into a ball in the center of the floor, and broke down and sobbed. Her cries rose up, louder and louder, and mingled with the sound of the distant roar.
Caitlin stood in silver shackles, before the entrance to the Coliseum. She’d been dragged there by two vampire guards, who’d shackled her in her cell by her hands and her feet, and led her up the stone stairs, down a ramp, and to this place. Now that she’d reached the upper levels, traveled down the ramp, and was really here, looking out, the view was awe-inspiring. And terrifying.