14
THE LIQUID SEEMED TO set his body on fire and for a moment, Jake thought he would be consumed by an inner flame.
Then the world shifted and shimmered. The people around him faded and the noise of the world dulled. It was as if he stepped through a waterfall into a world beyond, into the cave he had smelled in the vial.
No, not a cave. It was a crypt, somewhere hewn deep in the rock under Manhattan. And in the darkness, he could feel … something.
Jake heard the whisper of wings and the flutter of breath before he saw it.
The chamber was vast and dark, his footsteps a faint echo as he walked towards the sound. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he realized that the whole place was crisscrossed with shining lines, ropes of spun silver and precious metal that held the captive in place a
