Chapter 8

 

 

It was 5AM and I had barely slept. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Tessa in the pit being starved to death by Fugly, and Ryder being killed the second he stepped into the Hive. Lucas had written to tell us that Tessa was caught doing something suspicious against the Quorum and they threw her in the pit for a month. That was two weeks ago. He could only now get word. He said the entire Portland Hive had been turned into a military regime where Fugly’s word ruled all. Any rebellion was met with the pit or death. Sounded like Tessa was lucky to get the pit, but something told me they still had plans for her. Plans which involved me.

Sam had called in a favor and got us new identification and a chartered private plane. Being rich really was awesome. Thank you, Deliverance.

I was itching to go. When Sam and Kyle entered the room, a burst of excitement flooded me. We might be finally ready to go.

Sam looked at Kyle and they seemed to be considering something, then I saw the scissors in Sam’s hands. Both ash faced me.

“Hey, Charlie … how attached to your hair are you?” Sam asked.

Oh hell no. “How attached to your penis are you?” I countered, hands on hips and eyes narrowed.

Kyle tried to hide his laugh but couldn’t.

Sam groaned. “It won’t be long before the humans know there’s a cure. My gut says that your picture could be plastered all over the news by sundown. I’ve got you new passports, but a new look would really give you guys a fighting chance.”

Shit. Was he serious? I loved my long hair. I wasn’t overly vain in that type of way, but it took me forever to grow it out from this horrendous bowl cut I had in middle school. Not to mention my jaw was wide and short cuts didn’t look good on me. But dammit, Sam had a point. I couldn’t go walking around like this much longer and expect not to be noticed.

I just nodded. “Fine. Just do it.”

My hair was in a low ponytail at the base of my neck. It hung down my back past where my bra clipped. Sam gave me a sympathetic look and took a firm grip on my pony tail. I closed my eyes, telling myself to grow the fuck up and put my big girl pants on.

“PUT THE SCISSORS DOWN!” Jayden’s voice boomed down the hallway and my eyes snapped open. My BAFF was looking at Sam in shock and clutching his chest.

“How dare you try to cut her hair so barbarically! Sam, for future reference, when a gay man is available, you always ask him to do these things.”

My face lit up with a smile. Jayden would make sure I didn’t have another “middle school bowl cut.” Sam handed him the scissors and Jayden wasted no time in pulling out a dining room chair and placing a plastic bag over my shoulders.

“Okay, honey, do you want the Jennifer Aniston from Friends bob or short chunky like Charlize Theron?”

“Ohhh, Charlize, definitely,” I said.

Jayden was in his element as he brushed out my hair and started to slice away. I nearly cried when I saw twelve inch strands falling to the floor, but ten minutes later I had a super cute short chunky hairstyle that actually looked good. Somehow he’d managed to accent my nicer facial features and hide those which were not so attractive. Like the fat chin … it was looking positively slender.

Jumping to my feet, Jayden dusted me off, and when I was finally clear of my departed hair, I pulled my BAFF in for a hug. “Thank you for everything,” I whispered. “I love you, and I’ll do my damn best to return to you and to bring all of our boys back.”

His grip was tight on me; his chest heaved a few times but he didn’t speak. Something told me he couldn’t. With a breathless “Love you,” he took off into the house, and I fought the urge to follow him. His pain was my pain. But right now there was no time for either of our agony. We had a job to do.

Squaring my shoulders, I grabbed my pack and Kyle and I left. As we crossed those front porch steps, part of me knew I would never see this place again. I threw my pack into the back of the buggy, and Kyle was just about to jump into the driver’s seat when I stopped him.

“My turn to drive,” I said.

He gave me a lopsided grin before leaving the door open and crossing to the passenger side. The enforcers tended to be a little old school, thinking the dude drove while the lady emulated Ms. Daisy. Time to remind them that Charlie Bennett was no lady. She was a BAMF, and she was getting her guy back.

As the engine roared to life, the front door to the house smashed open. I turned to find the entire crew descending on us. Markus, Sam, Jared, Oliver, Becca, and even number three, who I was yet to officially meet.

They all spread out across the porch and each of their faces was somber. I lifted myself up out of my seat and through the open roof. I took a moment to examine all of them. My family. My team. The best damn people I’d ever have the luck to know.

“I love you guys!” I shouted. “Except for you, number three. You, I don’t know.” There was laughter all around as I blew them kisses and all of them returned the favor. Even number three, who at least seemed to have a sense of humor.

“Be careful, wee lassie,” Marcus bellowed. “We’ll see you very soon. We’re heading off to Cellway as soon as Becca has the cure done. We’ll meet you three once we have the trucks locked and loaded.” His Scottish brogue was always stronger when his emotions were strong. Right now all of us were on emotional overload. But I liked that we were getting very close to the blood and cure being united as one.

With one final salute, I dropped back next to Kyle, and shifting the buggy into drive we took off. Snow shot out around us, and the air was freezing, but I barely felt anything. We were on our way to Ryder, and there wasn’t a damn other thing that mattered.

 

It took most of the day to travel to the private airfield. Losing the chopper was a huge blow, but at least this chartered plane would take us straight into Portland. No more screwing around. Kyle and I carried our bags on board, and I was surprised to find this was the fanciest plane we’d been on to date. Wide-cushioned leather, captain-style chairs, plush carpets, huge screen television that was showing an action flick. If only I could enjoy it. I was in panic, lockdown mode.

“Charlie, calm down,” Kyle said, his warm hand wrapping around mine to stop my fingers from drumming right through the arm of the chair. “We’re close now. We know it’s going to take Ryder and Sanctum time to get everything into place. I think we’ll make it before they hit. Everything will work out. The other guys will meet us as soon as Becca has the mass cure.”

I nodded a few times, my head bobbing rapid and jerky. “Yes, I know. But we’re cutting our timing so short. The cure needs to be in that blood within a week, and right now it doesn’t seem as if Sanctum is in position or anything yet.”

Kyle’s thumb rubbed across the back of my hand, over and over, the motion soothing. “Ryder would not jeopardize the plan. I know him, and there’s no way he hasn’t thought through every single facet of what he’s doing. Trust in him, Charlie. Trust that he does the right thing no matter what. That’s the guy you fell in love with. The one who cares. Too much. He has one of the best strategic minds I’ve ever encountered. That’s why Sanctum wanted him originally. That’s why he’s such a good leader. He’s got this.”

My heartbeat calmed as Kyle’s reassurance invoked a clarity which had been missing from me for days. Panic had eaten away at my common sense. The fact that Ryder had been so cold and distant, so emotionally wrecked before he left me, had caused me to forget the fundamental personality traits of the man I fell in love with.

“I trust him,” I said. “He always does the right thing.” My head drooped at little. “I shouldn’t have lost faith in him.”

Kyle chuckled. “Yeah, and he shouldn’t have left without explaining that plan to us. He still needs an ass kicking, but you can keep your faith.”

I snorted at that. “Oh, he’s getting a butt kicking, don’t you worry about that. Fugly has nothing on me when I’m pissed.”

We settled back into the plush chairs then, the engines roaring around us as the plane began to taxi down the runway. Finally, we were on our way.

 

Portland was cold, but compared to Alaska I felt like I could walk around in a tank and shorts. The flight had been uneventful; our new identifications passed at the airport and car rental place without question. Kyle and I both wore sunglasses and contacts to hide our eyes. I even convinced Kyle to wear a little blush with me to look more human. The chill would be reddening the humans’ cheeks and I wanted to blend in as much as possible. We needed to make sure no reports of ash traveling to Portland reached the Hive. They had their little spies everywhere. As we walked out into the cloudy parking lot, I pulled my hoodie up. I knew with that and my short hair, I was pretty incognito.

“Did Sam send coordinates for us?” I asked. He was using some sort of satellite frequency to track Ryder and the Sanctum. He hoped anyway.

Kyle powered up his phone, a special one from Sam. Then he frowned. “Nothing yet.”

I sighed. “Alright, I know a place close to the Hive where we can camp out until we get word…”

Kyle nodded and we made our way into our rental car.

 

An hour later Kyle and I were sitting along the Willamette River. It was about 3 P.M. The Hive would be coming alive shortly, the vampires soon to be waking up to start their day. If Ryder was going to make a move, it would be in the next two or three hours. My leg bounced nervously on the grass as Kyle finished off his hot dog. I was trying not to think of Tessa. My sweet Tessa locked away in the pit enduring God knows what. Just before I was about to lose my mind, the phone in my hand buzzed. I unlocked it and read the text from Sam.

GPS shows Ryder at a house near you on Maple Grove. The address was at the bottom with a map.

“We got him,” I told Kyle, jumping up as nerves and excitement thrummed through me. Ignoring the fact that Sam knew that the house was near me – I was tempted to look in the sky for cameras or drones – I clicked the map to open it. Ryder was only half a mile from where we were.

“We should drive,” Kyle said, glancing over my shoulder at the map. Good point, we might need our car. I literally had no idea what we were about to get into.

It took us only a few minutes and then we were parking in front of a small Craftsman style house on Maple Grove Street. Before I could say anything to him, Kyle jumped out of the car and began stalking up the front steps. Oh shit. I’d been assuming we would go in through the back and unobtrusively see what was going on. Or maybe have Sam tell Ryder we were here.

Nope. Apparently we were going in brazen as hell.

Kyle didn’t look back once as I scurried after him, and I realized then how much he was hurting too. Ryder was his best friend and those enforcers had been his men too. All of the boys were suffering, and each of them had been doing it silently and alone. This was one area we’d fallen apart as a team. The moment we saw that video surveillance of the slaughter, we should have dealt with it. Together.

Anger was bubbling inside of me again. Ryder shouldn’t have done this without us. He’d majorly fucked up and I was putting him on my naughty list this Christmas.

But first I needed to see he was okay.

Kyle banged on the door hard. “Ryder!” he shouted.

Since he was more than a little occupied in his pissed-off-ness, I kept an eye on our surroundings. There were no humans around; the neighborhood was almost too quiet for this time in the afternoon.

Unease filtered through me, and I took a step close to Kyle. This could be a trap; we didn’t know Ryder was here, just that his phone was. There were footsteps and then the door opened.

It was Ryder, standing there wide-eyed in black fatigues, looking hot as fuck and pissed as hell.

He was pissed? Oh no, buddy, not happening. I stepped right up into his personal space.

“That’s right. Operation Tie Charlie Up in the Basement With the Vampires failed!” Moving even closer, he backed into the doorway and I poked him in the chest. “We’re a team, dude! You don’t leave me behind EVER again or the only ass you’ll be sleeping next to will be Kyle’s.”

His lips quirked the tiniest bit. “You cut your hair,” he said softly.

Oh … yeah. I had forgotten about that.

Looking behind Ryder, I noticed we had an audience. A mishmash of a dozen Sanctum and a few of what looked like a human SWAT team. I recognized Lincoln immediately. Old Blue Eyes was in his element, surrounded by a wall filled with pin-ups of dozens of maps and pictures.

“Welcome to my home, come right in,” Lincoln said with heavy sarcasm. We stepped into the house and closed the door.

Ryder met Kyle’s eyes and it was a total staredown. Finally, Kyle spoke under his breath: “I understand leaving Charlie, but why me?”

Ryder looked vulnerable, his eyes shuttering as he fought for composure. “No one else gets hurt.”

Kyle chuckled. “Aren’t you a fucking hero.”

Ryder clenched his jaw. “I didn’t—”

Lincoln groaned, cutting Ryder off. “We don’t have time for this! Either get in on the op or get out of my house.”

Kyle brushed past Ryder and took his place with the rest of the men. Ouch. I was beginning to feel bad for Ryder now. Maybe we were being a bit hard on him; it was clear he only wanted to make sure none of us got hurt. But dammit I didn’t want him hurt either. He’d put me through hell over the past twenty-four hours, and all because he thought he was the hero and could do this all alone.

Before I could decide what to do, Ryder’s hand slipped in mine and he pulled me over to join the group. After scanning the faces of the newcomers, my eyes stopped on a tall redhead chick with huge amber eyes. She was completely sleeved with tats, gave off a don’t mess with me vibe, and if I was being honest she was hot AF. She was a human, so she must have been with Lincoln’s crew. Kyle had noticed her too and his eyes were definitely lingering on her.

Lincoln cleared his throat and we all looked up. “Ryder gave us intel late last night. I’ve been in briefings ever since and have had about zero hours of sleep, so don’t fuck with me.” A few of the Sanctum douches shifted in their seat, but strangely enough no one questioned Lincoln taking the lead. The SWAT leader continued: “Our orders are to help Ryder release one human girl, a Tessa Grace McNair from a place known as the pit, where she is being held in captivity.” He held up a photo of her from about two years ago, which I was pretty sure I took. How the hell did Ryder get his hands on that?

And … did Lincoln just say Tessa was human? I shifted on the spot, and Ryder squeezed my hand. Meeting his eyes, he gave the smallest shake of his head.

Holy hot damn. He’d lied. He lied to save my best friend and get him in the door so he could kill Fugly. It was brilliant and stupid all at the same time.

Lincoln was still in the midst of his update. The looks on the SWAT team’s faces were menacing. “It’s a direct federal violation to keep a human feeder against their will.” Then Blue Eyes gestured to the Sanctum and Ryder: “These ash enforcers have agreed to go in on the job with us, since they know the inner terrain better than anyone.”

My eyes cut across to Ryder again. My my, he’d been a busy guy, lying all over the place. Lincoln was going to kill him when he found out. I also found it quite offensive to have the Sanctum linked with my enforcers. They were nothing like the enforcers and never would be. But for now I’d play along.

Lincoln walked over to some high-powered rifles. “We’ve got some AT20, but that doesn’t last long in a full-fledged vampire. If they’re hostile, our orders are shoot to kill.”

Ryder cleared his throat. “And by shoot to kill he means cut their heads off, burn them alive, or completely pulverize them.”

I grimaced. Jesus. In the back of my mind I knew Ryder was doing this now because once Becca got the cure in everyone, they’d all return to cuddly oxytocin teddy bears and it would be hard to hate them. Ryder wanted Fugly to have his reckoning and I agreed. Even with oxytocin, something told me Fugly would always be evil.

Kyle remained stony-faced, even as the others in the room got to their feet and started to gear up. Kyle and I hadn’t come with much. I was already wearing my black fatigues, so I wasted no more time in strapping on a few knives and finding myself a rifle.

“If I asked you to stay behind, would you?” Ryder’s voice was soft and made my heart clench. He’d done absolutely everything he could to keep me out of this and we’d showed up anyway. But he couldn’t bubble wrap me, that wasn’t the girl he fell in love with. If I had to accept Ryder as he was, then I deserved the same. Plus, I would never leave my best friend in there.

I shook my head. “No.”

Ryder made me look into his eyes. “What if I begged?” His hands went through my freshly chopped locks.

I tried my best to harden my resolve. He was doing that thing where he completely disarmed me. “Becca has the cure now, so if I die it won’t matter.”

Ryder’s mouth thinned; his eyes went blazingly silver. He opened his mouth, but I interrupted before he could speak. “Hurts doesn’t it? When someone you love has no regard for their own life.”

He looked down at his boots and nodded. “Shit. I’m sorry, Charlie. Okay!”

I sighed, and then nodded. That would have to be enough, because the boys were suiting up big-time. Ryder realized it too. He switched straight into hardcore enforcer mode.

“Have you used one of these before?” he asked me, gesturing to the rifle.

I hadn’t seen Ryder grab any weapons earlier, but I wasn’t worried. Half the time he went to bed more armed than a drug lord fearing for his life. Just because I couldn’t see them didn’t mean they weren’t there.

Gripping the heavy weapon, I shook my head. This model was not one I was familiar with, but it looked semi-automatic and hugely powerful.

Ryder then spent the next few minutes running me through the mechanics of the gun and how to reload it. I had refills of the sleek canister darts filled with the AT20, and some extra rounds of bullets. My handgun was bullets only.

The rifle was definitely heavier than I was used to. Ryder made sure I was able to sight my target properly, and how to adjust for the pull. I forced myself to pay attention because this gun was my chance to make it out of the Hive alive. Everyone in the vampire world was after me, and I was just going to bust right in and say “Here I am.” But it was Tessa. And it was Ryder. I would do anything for those two. They already had the cure, so I was less important in the grand scheme of this plan.

Once everyone was ready to roll, Lincoln led the large group through the house and out into the back yard. We crossed the yard to stand before a dilapidated old shed. Luckily for me I was an ashpire, because the place looked like a tetanus epidemic waiting to happen.

The SWAT leader reached to the side of the door and flicked a cover off a panel of numbers. Quick as a flash – I was standing right behind him and couldn’t follow along – he keyed in a bunch of digits. The door slid across with a whoosh. As we followed him inside, lights flickered on across a large warehouse space. Okay, seriously? This was like James Bond shit or something. The old tetanus shed was actually a state of the art hanger filled with cars, quads and a bunch of other military style machinery. No wonder the house was so tiny; this shed must have taken up the rest of the house block, plus the one behind. What a nicely hidden gem in the middle of suburbia. It must be linked to the industrial building I’d spotted next door.

We made our way right to the back, where a long line of SUV’s waited. Each looked a little different, definitely reinforced, and I had no idea of their various makes, but they were all black. Black seemed to be the color of choice in this business.

“With this sort of mission, we hit them hard and fast so they have no time to regroup or prepare,” Lincoln said. “Fill the cars. We’ll take as few as we can.”

There had to be forty soldiers in this room. Testosterone was high, especially since there were only two chicks, me and hottie tat girl. Although, she was not letting our sex down at all. With a rifle over her shoulder, and handguns on both thighs, not to mention the mini sword strapped to her right forearm, she was female badass goals.

I ended up in one of the middle cars, squished between Ryder and Kyle. I could tell the boys were going to stick close to me as much as they could. We all had our mission, sure, but we three were a team. Protect our own. Even if Kyle and Ryder were on the outs, they were always brothers. In the end, only six cars were needed to get everyone out of the garage and on the way to the Hive.

The ride was silent. Lincoln wasn’t in our car, and none of the Sanctum were ones I knew – aka the assholes who had tranqued and kidnapped me. I shifted a little. Ryder’s gun was jammed into my side, and unfortunately that wasn’t a sexy euphemism.

Familiar landmarks flashed past me, and the tension within the SUV increased as we crossed the invisible boundaries of the town, which signaled we were heading for vamp territory. Shit. I really never thought I’d come back here, especially not before the cure was working its way through the Hive. As the large gated compound came into view, I straightened, and breathing deeply, prepared myself for the next few moments.

“Stay close to me, Charlie,” Ryder murmured in my ear, his lips brushing against my skin. Tingles rocked through me and I swallowed hard, hoping this wasn’t the last moment we had together.

“I love you,” I said, my voice barely audible. “Even if you are on my shit list and sleeping in the doghouse for the next six months.”

Ryder’s grin was brief, but the sight was beautiful. “Love you too.”

Our lips briefly touched. The front SUV smashed into the gates and with a huge crash we were through. Ryder had already spun to his window, which was now down. Every window was down in our car and I knew our assault was to start immediately.

Ash sprinted in all directions; it was too early for vamps to be on guard duty yet. There were so many, at least twenty. The numbers assigned around the perimeter had been seriously upped in our absence. Someone in the second car hung out the window and took out a few of those running toward us. The ash were getting tranqs, not bullets. They were going to be given a chance to survive, per Ryder’s orders. Any vamps we passed definitely wouldn’t get that same choice.

Ryder had his gun up now and was firing steadily. At least four or five went down in moments.

“They’re warned now, and will be locking down the upper level vampires,” Ryder said, yanking himself and his gun back in. “We have to take out the soldiers first to reach those who make the most impact. Do not hesitate. They’re going to come at us hard.”

Hard was actually an understatement. By the time the Sanctum guy driving our vehicle screeched to a halt beside the others, ash were pouring out of the front of the Hive. Inside, the vamps were hopefully still in their beds. The element of surprise was our best hope to get in and out cleanly.

Sirens blared to life then, and with that whooping sound we lost our element of surprise.

The ash before us weren’t enforcers and weren’t properly trained. The stupid vampires had taken out their best line of defense. But I did recognize Jose with a gun in his shaking hand. When his eyes met mine he lowered his weapon in confusion.

“Stop!” he screamed, holding up a fist.

Ryder jumped out of the SUV, with me hot on his heels.

“Ryder?” His name was being murmured around. A few ash had recognized us, and hope sprang in my chest as I saw them lowering their weapons, relief crashing over their faces.

“If you surrender, none of you will be hurt!” Ryder projected his words loud enough for all of them to hear. I could sense the bodies stepping into formation behind us as we prepared to charge the front door.

One of the ash close to us didn’t seem too sure; he still held his weapon. “You left us to die. Why are you back?”

Ryder swallowed hard and I knew that tore him open. “Revenge.”

I was hoping Blue Eyes wasn’t in earshot, because getting Tessa out of here was supposed to be our cover.

“Is it true about the cure?” Jose – who was very close to me now – asked softly. Our eyes locked.

I nodded. “By next week, vampires won’t exist.”

Jose must have seen the intel on the network, because he accepted my assertion with no more explanation needed. He nodded and turned to the rest of the ash.

“Let them through!” he yelled, and just like that the ash parted and allowed us to walk through the front doors of the Hive.

Our easy run was short-lived, though, because the second we entered the foyer and headed into the dark stairwell, all hell broke loose. Vampires were raining down on us like a goddamn dog pile. They weren’t retreating to their safe upper floors, they were fighting. They didn’t trust the ash to guard them anymore, which was smart, but sucked for us.

“Ooofff.” The wind got knocked out of me as a vampire dropped from above, landing half on me and slamming me to the ground so fast my chin cracked on the pavement.

Shots were fired, and in the close quarters it made my ears ring. Suddenly the weight on me lifted and a strong but feminine tatted-up arm was pulling me up. #lifegoals again. Chick was badass to the core.

“Thanks,” I said, pulling my blade from the thigh sheath I wore.

She nodded, sticking close to me as she too pulled her blade. Together we cut our way through the mess of bodies to get to the door that led to the floor which had the elevator down to the pit. I was going for Tessa. She was my sole focus.

“Hit the deck!” Lincoln yelled, and without question I hit the ground as a small but powerful blast rocked the floor above us, slowing the onslaught of vampires.

When we were able to gain our feet again we tried the closest door. It was locked. Of course. Dammit, where was Sam when you needed him? Tattooed chick busted out some device and stuck it in the lock. She tinkered with it and I heard a beep and an airlock sigh. Well, how about that. Looks like we had our female version of Sam. Rocking the silent thing too. Looking over my shoulder I saw Ryder on the front lines fighting back to back with Kyle.

Go or stay? Go or stay? Ryder or Tessa? As if reading my mind, Ryder looked up for a fraction of a second and yelled. “Go! We’ll hold them off you.”

That’s all I needed. I was barreling down the hallway with this chick and a few Sanctum and SWAT on my ass. I’m coming, Tessa. There was only one way in and out of the pit, and luckily it was on a separate grid to the rest of the Hive power. So they couldn’t easily shut the elevator down. Here’s hoping they hadn’t figured out a way.

Using the hand signals Ryder taught me, I communicated with the others behind me about the potential for trouble as we passed the regular elevator and continued on to the gold-colored door. There seemed to be no vamps on this level. Either they hadn’t expected us to try and gain access to the pit … or it was a trap. Probably the second one knowing Fugly. He’d be expecting me to come for Tessa.

Power was still on at the elevator, but that also meant the security was too. Lucky for us, tattoo chick was not only a lethal weapon and lock picker, but she could hack too. Slipping some sort of electronic device from her pocket, she hovered it near the security keypad and within seconds we had access.

The elevator doors opened easily and I stepped inside with the six others. Which actually included Blue Eyes. I hadn’t noticed him until right now. Go observation skills. Our eyes met, and I was struck with the sudden suspicion that Ryder had sent Lincoln along to keep me out of trouble. I inclined my head slightly and he returned the gesture. We were allies in this moment. Badass chick remained close to my side and I was finding her presence as comforting as that of my enforcers. Once we were zooming down, I turned to the others.

“This elevator leads into the Hive prison system. It’s filled with hundreds of cells, so it’s going to be hard to find Tessa. Be on guard, there’ll probably be vampires down here waiting for us. I don’t like that they left this elevator unguarded.”

My plan was to kill any vamps protecting this place and then run through the cells as fast as I could, searching for my bestie. Worst case scenario, I’d scream Tessa’s name at the top of my lungs and hope she responded. I just hoped seven of us were enough to take on whomever was waiting in ambush.

As the doors chimed at the pit floor I fell into formation with the others. I sheathed my knife again and grabbed for the semi-automatic slung across my back. The doors slid open silently and my eyes flicked around the place, trying to determine where the vamps were hidden.

There was nothing.

“Clear,” Lincoln said, before flashing those blue eyes at me to confirm. He knew my senses were much stronger than his. I nodded to assure him it was clear.

Guns still at the ready, we stepped out two abreast. Taking no chances but also not wasting time, we rapidly crossed the stone area, past the front desk which was empty, and into the damp cell area. The smell of this place never left you; it was rank and depressing as fuck. The mumbling and moans coming from the cells as we passed gave me the chills. So far there was no sign of Tessa, and I was for sure thinking they had her stashed right at the back, the hardest place to retrieve her. Of course. With my recent luck I should have expected that.