Den of Sorrows by Quinn Loftis

maze,” Sincaro called out to the vamp. He would check on the female in a few days and see if she’d learned to keep her impudence to herself.
    With his hunger sated, Sincaro could once again focus on the problem of Perizada, Alston, and Nissa, the three high fae that had been in his territory. It was a problem that was going to have to be remedied very, very quickly.
    He wasn’t as familiar with Alston or Nissa, but Perizada, she was one he knew all too well. Though it had been a very long time since their last encounter, he still had the souvenir she’d left on his chest just over his heart.
    “Maybe it’s time for a little payback, Perizada of the fae,” he said into the empty room as a wicked grin spread across his face
     
     
     

     
    B ethany shuttered as the door slammed closed behind her. The absolute darkness wrapped around her body, stealing her breath and every bit of sight she had. If she had ever wondered what it was like to be blind, she’d found out by being down here. Her breathing sounded unusually loud to her ears as all other noises were shut out. She knew she was deep beneath the ground, the cool, moist air made that clear. But how deep, that was a question to which she didn’t know the answer and, honestly, she didn’t know if she wanted to. It wasn’t her first time in the hell that the vampires so affectionately called the maze. She’d been in it many, many times but no matter how many times she visited, the fear never abated. Even though Bethany knew exactly what was hunting her, knew that she would get no sleep as long as she was down here, she was still terrified.
    Her head snapped around when she heard the low growl she’d come to dread. She fought the instinctual urge to immediately sprint away from the sound. She knew that fleeing only urged the creature on. Instead, she began to back away in the opposite direction. Her feet moved slowly as, step by step, she put space between her and the monster hunting her. Bethany heard scratching along the walls and cringed at the awful sound. She’d seen the claws that made this noise and knew them to be at least three or more inches long. Like all the times before, her eyes were trying to give her something to see, but there just wasn’t any light for them to draw on. The one time she had seen anything at all, it had been because she’d come face-to-face with the beast and his glowing eyes lit up the area in front of her like a neon sign. She decided then that she preferred to not be able to see.
    Her hands ran along the cold walls, guiding her back. When her left hand suddenly met air, Bethany knew that she’d come to the first turn. She eased her body to the right as she began to back her way down the new corridor. The growl came again and the nails against the walls continued to grate. Despite the cool air around her, sweat was beginning to form on Bethany’s neck and back.
    “Don’t lose your cool, Bethygirl,” she told herself, using the nickname her father had called her. She remembered him calling her that, but it had been so long ago that she no longer remembered the sound of his voice. She pushed that thought away before it could take root and bring emotions that didn’t need to be clouding her focus.
    She remembered another corridor just ahead, and, just as she was about to turn down it, she heard another growl. Her breath froze in her lungs. This one was coming from the wrong direction.
    “You have got to be kidding me,” she muttered under her breath as she continued backing down the corridor, skipping the turn she normally took. She passed several more turns before finally taking a left. Her feet had turned her around and she was now walking forward as her hands continued to guide her along the wall. These walls didn’t feel familiar, as odd as that sounded. She’d been in the maze so many times over the years that her hands had practically memorized the texture of the walls. But the walls she was touching now were not