Carpathian 23 - Dark Storm

soup?”
    It took a moment for Riley to realize she was staring blindly at the now-empty bowl.
     “Yes, thank you.”
    Raising his voice, Gary called out to Jubal, and seconds later exchanged her empty
     bowl for a full one. Jubal himself only poked his head into the tent long enough to
     give her a huge smile and a wave, which she returned automatically. Then he ducked
     back outside, and the tent flap closed behind him.
    “Riley, you’ve suspected for a while now that Jubal and I know a lot more than we’ve
     been willing to share. We keep secrets for many reasons, mostly because keeping those
     secrets helps protect people we care for. But because Dax sees us as your “protectors,”
     he’s given us permission to share some of our knowledge with you now.” He looked like
     some of her fellow professors did right before they started their first two-hour lecture
     on a topic that would take years to fully explain.
    “Wait.” She held up a hand. “Before you get started, tell me about the others. You
     said Ben and Jubal are okay. What about the rest of the people from the boats? Did
     they survive?”
    “Dax found Miguel, Hector, Don, and Mack Shelton when we were coming down the mountain.
     And following the trail of the professor and his students is what led us here.” Something
     in the tone of his raised voice caused a sinking feeling in her stomach.
    “What happened?”
    “The professor fell. Oh, don’t worry, it’s nothing too bad, except he’s in the jungle,
     and needs to be able to walk, but he’ll be okay. He broke his leg.”
    “And?” she prompted when he fell silent again. “You don’t get that worried look in
     your eyes because the professor broke something. What else?”
    “Dax found two of the porters dead that first night. They were returning to see if
     we all made it away from the volcano. Fernando and Jorge.”
    She shook her head. “That’s so terrible.” She knew the bad news wasn’t over and waited
     in silence for him to tell her the rest.
    “One of the guides and one of the professor’s students are missing. Pedro went to
     find clean water for breakfast. Marty went with him. They never came back.” Gary’s
     expression went grimmer. “Dax believes the vampire he’s hunting might have found them.”
     The look on his face said he believed it, too. “But just in case he’s wrong, we have
     most of the men out looking for them now,” he added.
    Giving her a moment to process the news, Gary handed her empty soup bowl out to Jubal
     again and exchanged it for two blue metal camping cups.
    Vampire. Riley shook her head in disbelief. Vampires were one of the monsters from stories.
     They were the thing you dressed up as on Halloween, the evil creature in a scary movie.
     They weren’t supposed to be real. But then again there weren’t supposed to be dragons,
     and her mother wasn’t supposed to be dead, and . . . her heart seemed to skip as she
     thought about that man. He wasn’t supposed to be here, either, whatever he was.
    She took the camping cup Gary held out and took a grateful sip of the tepid water.
     It was warm and tasted of ash and chemicals, but it quenched her thirst and soothed
     her parched throat.
    “What else aren’t you telling me?” The image of two dragons facing off in front of
     them rose to mind. “What about the hunter, Dax? Did you know he was here the whole
     time?”
    “No, of course not. We had no idea Dax or the vampire was here. I don’t think anyone
     did. From what Dax told me, he and Mitro—the vampire—were locked in the earth under
     the mountain for a very long time. A Carpathian woman named Arabejila, who came here
     with Dax to hunt Mitro, sealed them both in. Dax suspects Arabejila was your ancestor,
     and that she’s the one who passed down the ritual you and your mother performed to
     keep the volcano from erupting and freeing them. According to Dax, Mitro is worse
     than most vampires, and he has a gift for escaping bad situations. Maybe that gift
     helped him wear down the barrier, but in any case, he’s free now.” Gary noticeably
     swallowed after he spoke.
    “So what exactly is a Carpathian? You keep using that word like it should mean something to me.” Riley
     needed an explanation as to how vampires and dragons had become a reality.
    “The Carpathians are an ancient race—a different species, really—that has existed
     alongside mankind for a very long time. In fact, the Carpathians say