Chapter 5 - The Tunnels Beneath the Chapel
Cora didn't wait for the guards to clear the chapel.
The moment she heard the word "tunnels," she slipped past Silas, running down the stone steps toward the rear of the sanctuary. Orso trotted right beside her, his nose low to the cold stone floor, tracking a scent he had memorized weeks ago.
"Cora! Stop!" Silas shouted, rushing down the stairs after her with four soldiers.
Cora sprinted past the high wooden pews of the empty chapel, following Orso as the giant dog barked sharply at a heavy iron trapdoor hidden behind the altar!
The trapdoor was slightly ajar, fresh tire marks and muddy footprints visible in the dust.
Cora grabbed the heavy iron handle, pulling it open. A dark, damp stone staircase led down into the ancient drainage tunnels beneath the city.
From deep within the darkness, a faint, terrified cry echoed up the shaft:
"Cora! Help me!"
"Nina!" Cora screamed without hesitation, leaping down the stone steps into the dark!
"Corinna! No!" Leo’s voice roared from behind as he burst into the chapel, taking the stairs three at a time!
At the bottom of the tunnel, two of Marcone’s men were dragging a ten-year-old girl wrapped in a heavy blanket toward an idling motorboat tied to an underground canal outlet.
The girl had Cora’s dark hair, her bright gray eyes, and her fierce, stubborn expression—it was Nina.
"Let her go!" Cora shouted, running down the slick concrete catwalk.
One of the guards turned, drawing a pistol and aiming it directly at Cora! "Back off, kid!"
Before he could pull the trigger, a eighty-pound brindle monster launched itself through the shadow! Orso slammed into the guard with the force of a wrecking ball, knocking the weapon into the black water of the canal!
The second guard grabbed Nina, pulling a knife and pressing it against her throat. "Step back! I'll cut her!"
"Touch her," a voice whispered from the darkness behind him, "and I'll skin you alive."
Leo stepped out of the shadows, his weapon raised, his eyes burning with a dark, terrifying fury that made the air in the tunnel feel suffocating.
The guard took one look at Leo Vance’s face and realized he was standing before the Reaper himself. His hand trembled—and in that fraction of a second of hesitation, Nina bit down hard on his wrist!
The guard cried out, dropping the knife!
Nina broke free, sprinting down the catwalk into Cora’s open arms! The two sisters collided, sinking to their knees on the cold concrete, weeping and clinging to each other as if they would never let go!
"I came back," Cora sobbed, burying her face in her sister's hair. "I promised I'd come back!"
"I waited for you!" Nina cried. "Every Sunday, I looked at the gate!"
Leo stepped past the girls, handing his weapon to Silas while his men subdued the remaining guard. He stood over his two daughters, his massive frame trembling with overwhelming emotion.
Nina looked up, her tear-filled eyes wide with fear as she saw the intimidating man standing over them. "Cora... who is he?"
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Cora looked up at Leo, then smiled through her tears, reaching out to take her father’s hand.
"It's Papa, Nina," Cora whispered. "He came to take us home."
