far right. The vials on the table to my right. Several are already in syringes. I might be able to grab the syringe, but then he’ll incapacitate me by grabbing the collar control.
There is only one thing to do.
I lunge at the table where the control is, knocking it to the ground with a clatter. Mr. Needle-happy bellows, but I’m already across the room, and then I have a syringe in my hand.
Guards enter the room, guns pointed at me.
“Don’t shoot him!” Needle-happy says, his eyes on me. “Put the syringe down, and no one will get hurt.”
“Really? Funnily enough, I don’t believe you. I have the scars to prove it.”
His eyes flinch at my words. “That formula is specifically designed for the vamp species. It could kill you.”
A few minutes ago, I might have reconsidered, but Fee is here. I know she is. She’s on the island, and she’s defenseless without her outlier power. I have no choice.
“I guess we’ll find out.” I slide the needle into my skin and push down the plunger.
Cora
Okay, so now I’m pacing. Where the fuck is Hunter? Did it work? Did he get the juice he needs?
Fuck. The announcement comes again.
ALL ACTIVE UNITS TO SECTOR C. INTRUDER ALERT. LOCKDOWN IN PROGRESS.
It’s Fee and the gang. It has to be. We need to shut down the wards, and we need to do it fast.
The sound of boots running down the corridor has me flying toward the cell door. I know it’s him before I peer out of the tiny window.
There’s blood on his face, but I doubt it belongs to him. Shit, has he killed humans? Not the time to quiz him.
The door opens with a clang, and I’m out.
“This way. Stay close,” he orders.
I’m not about to argue. He’s the one with the special juice in his system.
We get to the end of the stone corridor and take a left. There’s a door up ahead with a guard slumped to the floor beside it at a funny angle. We get closer, and I see that his keycard is slotted into the wall but still attached to his hip by a length of plastic.
Hunter shoves the door open, and then we’re clambering up a flight of metal steps where another door awaits with another unconscious guard keeping sentry.
Jeez, dude.
“Move,” Hunter says. “Right now, it’s all hands on deck outside, dealing with the intruders.”
“Fee.”
“Yes. They have guns. Lots of them. I doubt Fee and the pack came similarly equipped.”
Of course, they’d have relied on their powers.
I follow Hunter through a maze of corridors. We pass labs, and I catch sight of people laid out in beds with drips attached to them feeding blood bags.
“The vamps they intend to turn are down that corridor,” Hunter says. “I haven’t come across any super vamps yet.”
“You think they’re outside?”
He doesn’t respond. Instead, he presses a bloody card to the door we’ve stopped in front of. I feel the buzz of power coming from the room, and my body reacts to it like a nympho in a cock store.
There’s a beep, and we’re in.
It’s dark, or it would be if not for the glowing silver symbol etched into the ground. The air above it wavers and shimmers.
“Can you deactivate it?” he asks.
I’ve seen this symbol before. I’ve seen it in a vault under a fake store, and I know just what to do to shut it down.
“Yeah…yeah, I think I can.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Fee
The building was a monolith of black stone. I couldn’t see any windows. If it had windows, they were hidden or shuttered. It was getting too dark to see, to be honest, and without my Loup ability, my eyesight wasn’t outlier sharp.
We crouched behind a rise, watching the building below, looking for signs of life. There was forestland all around it, and to get to it, we’d need to track through the woodland, but so far, aside from the three humans who’d accosted us on arrival, we hadn’t come across a single soul.
But this was it, the place linked to the super vamps and the missing humans. It had to be. Cora was in there somewhere, and so was Hunter.
I had to get them out.
Grayson crouched to my left and Uri to my right. Their presence was reassuring. We could do this, even without our superpowers. Crap my side ached. Had the bleeding stopped? I was too scared to check. I didn’t feel lightheaded. That was a good sign, right? Hard to know when I’d never been shot