Uriel and Grayson strode toward me, expressions like thunder, while two Magiguard tied up the shooter. There were two more guys laid on the ground, already restrained.

“He needs to die,” Grayson growled. His gaze zeroed in on my side, then up to my face, and then he spun toward the human he’d just walked away from.

Uri grabbed him around the waist to halt him. “We can’t. Grayson. You know we can’t.”

“He’s human,” Ponytail snapped. “We can’t kill him. Besides, we need intel.”

“He probably radioed for backup,” Uri said. “We took down three, but there could be more on their way.”

She picked something off the ground. My radio. It must have fallen off when I got shot.

“Busted,” she said. “Let’s hope Ursula got a lock on the signal before it died.”

“Then we move,” Grayson said. He hooked an arm around me and took my weight. “I got you, Fee.”

I shook my head and pulled away. “No, I won’t be a liability.”

“Here.” Ponytail held up a metal contraption that looked like a dart gun. “This will help.”

She pressed it to my arm, and a sharp sting followed, and like magic, the pain ebbed. It was still there, but it wasn’t all I could think about.

“You good?” Ponytail asked.

“I’m good.”

“Okay, so let’s get to work.”

Hunter

I don’t fight when they stick the collar on me, and I don’t fight as I’m led to the labs.

The stone and the chill tell me we’re below ground, at least until we climb the first flight of metal stairs, and then the terrain is all hardwood floors and magnolia walls. The scent of disinfectant fills the air. I don’t look at the lab to my left, and as we turn right, I don’t bother to check out the vampire holding rooms. There are several. They keep the creatures in twos and threes.

“Meek today, aren’t we?” one of the guards says to me.

“Maybe the Loup has lost his bite,” the other one said.

One of them shoves me, and I pretend to stumble.

They laugh.

Let them think I’m weaker than I am. My Loup may be suppressed, but that doesn’t mean I’m powerless. My body is a honed machine, but I’ve held off on using it because I know I’ll only get the one shot. I can’t blow it.

There’s static, and then a voice fills the hallway.

ALL ACTIVE UNITS TO SECTOR C. INTRUDERS DETECTED.

Shit. Fee, it has to be.

“Should we go?” one of the guards asks.

“No, you idiot, they have the fangers for that shit.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Yeah.”

The super vamps are going after Fee.

The lab comes into view, and the white doors swish open. The guards shove me inside, and the doors close behind me. I surreptitiously scan the room. Yes, the vials are where they always are, and there are two syringes on the tray filled with the same amber fluid that’s in the vial. My pulse quickens.

My needle-happy host turns to me with a smile. “Ah, hello there. Did you sleep well?”

The bastard always does this. Small talk, as if I’m here voluntarily. As if this is some kind of fucking summer camp.

I don’t usually engage, but today is different. “I could do with a mattress.”

His brows shoot up. “You don’t have a bed?”

“No. Look.” I sigh. “I get it. I’m stuck here for…however long you decide. I’m not human, I get that you probably think of me as a beast, but even a dog is given a comfortable place to lay its head.”

He frowns. “Yes, well. This won’t do. I’ll look into it. Please, have a seat.”

A seat? He means the tormenter chair, of course. As soon as I sit, the metal bands will engage, and I’ll be trapped. I need to act now and fast.

The control to my collar is on the table to his 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 before.

“We’re going to head down,” Ponytail said – I really should find out her name. “You stay here until I give the signal.”

“What’s the signal?” Grayson asked.

She tapped the radio at her chest and then pointed to the one Grayson was carrying. “Listen for static.”

She slipped away with two other Magiguard, making for the trail to our left that led down into the woodland. The plan was to get to the edge of the forest and then scope from there. Maybe send in a unit.

“Ursula should be here by now,” Uri said.

“She’ll come.” Grayson sounded confident.

Me? Not so much. My radio with the tracker was busted. I doubt there’d been enough time for her to catch the signal, let alone lock onto this location. Why in the hell hadn’t she given Ponytail a tracker? Why me?

It didn’t matter. It was done.

We were on our own.

We could do this.

Long minutes passed, and then Grayson’s radio buzzed, and Ponytail’s voice came through.

“We’re clear, “she said.

And then the radio went dead.

My nape pricked in a warning I didn’t understand.

The remaining Magiguard were around us, ushering us to move.

I glanced back at my Loup team, unease a worm in my belly.

“We move,” a male Magiguard said. “Brit’s orders.” He led his team away from the rise and around it, heading for the narrow trail that led down toward the building.

Grayson signaled our Loup to move, and then we fell behind the Magiguard as they took the trail. My stomach began to knot.