“Yes, and it finally came in handy.”

It was Max’s turn to chuckle, and taking a deep breath, he ran his fingers through his hair. “What I thought was sand on the cavern floor was more like rice, except it was black, and it wasn’t just on the ground. It was everywhere. I picked up a handful and let it run through my fingers, but before I could process anything else, I heard the oddest noise. It was a clicking, almost like the tiniest chirp you could ever imagine, so I turned around. The others had heard it, too, because they were all looking up, and as my eyes followed theirs, the noise grew louder. Hundreds if not thousands of bats high above our heads were coming to life, and in our panic to escape, someone knocked over the lantern. It went from light to dark in an instant, an inky, sinister darkness filled with nothing but the cacophony of those bats.

“I remember hearing the others shouting out in fear and anger as they tried to find the exit, but it was truly pointless. We were encased in onyx. It was that dark, and believing my end to be near, I curled up in a ball on the ground, covering my face as best I could as the bats attacked. There seemed to be no end to it as they bit and clawed at me like vultures over roadkill, and the sounds they made were positively deafening. There were so many, the discord of their high-pitched squeaks made it feel as if my skull was going to split…and then I passed out.

“I have no idea how long we were in that cave, no idea if we truly died and were resurrected or merely became what we are now because of some disease those bats carried. All I know is that when we awoke, we were no longer men. We were monsters.”

Chapter Nine

Bennett and Max exited his house, their breath visible in the chilly night air. “Thank you,” Max said as they walked down the steps. “My study was becoming stifling.”

“I can understand why,” Bennett said, walking alongside her mentor.

“Actually, you can’t,” Max said, stuffing his hands into the pocket of his coat. “Because you had knowledge, and we had nothing.”

“What do you mean?”

“When you awoke, after Yannick turned you, while you didn’t know everything about our kind, our lifestyle, you knew enough to know what to expect—yes?”

“Yes, of course.”

“We did not. We had nothing. We had no mentors or covens to guide us, no one to teach us or warn us, or even protect us from our own hunger or learn how to control it.”

Bennett stopped and looked at Max. “I honestly have never thought about that. If you were the firsts, then—”

“Exactly,” Max said, dipping his head. “We were babes in the woods…literally.”