the same treatment, and each time I feel a burst of love exploding through my mind from her. Finally, we find propped open double doors and when I step through, a growl escapes my throat. This is where they kept my mate, this is where they killed her sister.
Empty cages stand in rows, and I spot a body of a dead man in one and plenty of blood, but no women. Stepping farther into the room, I close my eyes, letting Nyre look through me, knowing his senses are stronger than mine. I want him to confirm what I already know.
Mishal, he growls, and I sort through the smells and information assaulting him, my eyes popping open as I turn to Dabria.
“The women are gone, this place is empty.”
“Did the guards kill them?” she cries, wrapping her arms around her body. Her eyes keep darting to a spot near the cages, so I block her view of it, knowing that’s where they killed Rachel.
“No, no this wasn’t done by humans,” I growl, my hands clenching into fists.
“What do you mean?” she questions, confused.
“I smell…changeling, fallen, and even a fucking nature supe. This wasn’t humans, this was our kind.”
Dabria
I gasp and fall back a step. “They killed them all? Our kind?”
“No, it doesn’t make sense,” he growls, pacing before me, his head working so fast I can’t even follow his thoughts.
With a roar he spins, and I race after him as he leaves the room and heads down the hallway. I see him checking if I’m still following as he pushes open a door at the end of the corridor and races down the steps, with me on his heels. A metal door is on the floor at the bottom of the staircase, and when we step through into what must be the basement, I have to cover my nose at the smells assaulting me.
“You aren’t used to it, you will be soon,” he promises.
Cells like the one we were kept in stand open down here and I look in each one, checking that no one is trapped inside until I get to one in the middle. It’s empty, the door closed, but something makes me turn the handle and swing it open. Stepping inside, I freeze as I smell myself in here and blood…is this where they kept me after Rachel?
“Little one?” Mishal calls from the doorway.
Stepping back, I walk into his chest and he wraps his arms around me, steering me from the room. We end up in an open room at the end, with computers in the middle, two broken glass cells on either side, and past that what looks like an operating room. I leave Mishal ripping through papers on the desk as I head there, something drawing me, calling me, until I stand at the foot of what looks like a dentist chair and the half-mauled corpse in it. If it wasn’t for the white coat, I might not recognise him. His face has been ripped off, and his chest and stomach ripped open and pulled free. Fuck, someone even cut off his cock. I spot it on one of the counters at the back.
“What was this place?” I ask, when I hear Mishal approach me from behind.
“I don’t know, little one, it doesn’t make sense,” he growls.
I turn to see him, his eyes bright with him and Nyre mixing together, his mind riddled. “Tell me,” I order, stepping closer. “Tell me, Mishal!” I yell.
“I told you upstairs what I smelled. Well, I smell all types of creatures down here. It looks like humans were experimenting on them and some of our kind broke them free. From the wreckage at the front door, I’m guessing that is where they got in. I’m betting they freed the women and killed the rest for their crimes but, little one, this shouldn’t be possible.” He starts to pace again. “Nothing like this should exist under the council’s watch….. It’s not even possible that they didn’t see this. I did wonder who was bold enough to take us all those years ago, I figured it was a rogue faction. I didn’t even question what they were doing with my blood..none of that matters now though. They must have if they sent a fallen to clean up, unless it’s gone rogue, but a changeling and a fallen?” He shakes his head as I try to follow his logic.
“What’s the problem with that?” I almost yell, sick of being in the dark.
“Changelings