I spotted Ramon approaching the door of the lodging area.

“Pssstttttt…” I whispered with my hands cupped over my mouth. Ramon whipped his head around quickly, trying to find the source of the sound. I threw a stone in his direction. “Over here!”

He finally saw me and walked over to the trees with a confused expression.

“What the hell you are you doing over here, man?” Ramon looked through the trees at me, brushing some branches out of the way and crouched down beside me.

“I figured I’d just explain things when you got here, because it’s kind of a long story.”

I told him about finding Danielle’s body, the two camera guys and the shifter who we knew was responsible for it all. When I started describing the odd things I witnessed when observing the shifter in his cell, Ramon’s eyes went wide, and his gaze panned from me to the holding lodge repeatedly.

“Diablo, man. That’s crazy!” I nodded, and Ramon shook his head. He knew this wasn’t good. “So how are you getting me in there?”

“I have a plan,” I said, motioning for him to follow me as I stood up and walked through the doors of the holding lodge.

Alex and Gerard were reading some papers and taking the first few sips of their coffees when we entered. They looked up when they saw me walk in and seemed confused by my presence.

“What brings you back?” Alex asked, putting down his magazine and sizing up Ramon who was standing beside me.

“Yeah, weren’t you relieved for the night? We can handle this.” Gerard appeared a little agitated.

“I’m here to help Agent Gianni. I figured it would save her a lot of work in the morning if I brought someone in to test the dried blood on the suspect’s body—you know, to see if it matches the victims’.” I held my hands up, showing I meant no harm.

Alex kept his eyes on me for a long time and finally decided I must be telling the truth, so he nodded at Gerard to step aside and let us through.

“We were due for a smoke break anyway, right Alex?” Gerard pulled out a pack of Marlboro Reds and I scrunched my face, slightly disgusted. I never liked cigarettes, and was glad they were stepping outside to smoke. I would not have been happy to smell the cancerous stench in my office in the morning.

Ramon and I watched them leave, and once we heard the door close behind them, we headed straight for the cell. The shifter took one look at us and jumped toward the bars with the same pitch-black eyes that I saw before.

“Mierda!” Ramon exclaimed, taking a step back from the cell as the shifter tried to push his mouth between the bars, gnashing and gnawing at the air. Ramon looked mostly surprised, but I could sense a hint of fear as well.

“I told you something was wrong with him. We don’t have much time to do this, so I’ll go in there and restrain him. You grab the blood and hair samples, and then we’ll run back out and test it. Make sure to grab some dried blood samples, too, so we have something to show the agent in the morning. Got it?”

Ramon’s eyes moved from me to the shifter and back. His expression reflected his worry, but he finally nodded and started to fumble through his kit for his armamentarium.

I grabbed the keys to the cell, “Just let me know when you’re good.” I glanced back at him, key at the ready. Ramon held up a few vials, a knife, a needle and a tourniquet.

“Ready.”

With that, I took a deep breath and shoved the shifter’s face back through the bars and opened the cell door with my other hand. I pounced on him, grabbing both his arms, pinning them to his back with one hand and held his face down with the other. Ramon was just staring at us as I fought to keep the bastard still.

“Hurry up, man! What are you standing there for?” I yelled through gritted teeth. I was using almost all my strength to keep this guy held down and I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to do it.

My voice seemed to have snapped Ramon out of whatever shock he was experiencing. It wasn’t hard for him to find a vein; as he stuck the needle into the shifter’s arm, our eyes widened a bit as we watched his blood flow into the vial.

“Isn’t it—”

“Blacker than it should be? Yes.” Ramon’s voice was serious now. His brow furrowed as he studied the ebony liquid filling the tube in his hands. “I’m going to need more than one. How much longer can you hold him?”

“A minute. Tops.” The suspect was kicking his legs wildly and I didn’t have enough hands to hold those down, too.

Ramon filled the next two vials in seconds. “That’s all I’ll need.” Grabbing his knife, he cut a piece of the shifter’s hair, placed it in a separate vial and hauled ass out of the cell. “Okay, but now how are you getting out of there?”

“I’m going to count to three. On three, I want you to close the cell door and turn the key.”

“What? ¿Estás loco? I’m not leaving you in there with Chupacabra!”

“Just do it! Trust me! There’s no more time!” I yelled. Ramon nodded, and I started counting. “One…Two…”

“Three!” I used the last of my energy to push my strength to its limit, allowing me to exit the cell in one second, slamming the door behind me. I heard the lock click as I knelt down and caught my breath. I was breathing heavily and looked up to see Alex and Gerard returning to their post.

“Too much for you to handle, Mr. Bailey?” Alex joked, and Gerard chuckled before letting out a yawn.

The meds must be starting to kick in. I rolled my eyes and stood up slowly, trying not to show my exhaustion.

Ramon was staring at the cell, watching the suspect just sitting on the floor, glaring in our direction.

“Well, did you get the blood samples?” a sleepy-eyed Gerard asked.

We both looked at him and nodded. Little did he know, they weren’t the blood samples he thought we got.

“I have to get them back to the lab to test, but the results should be ready in the morning, before Agent Gianni returns,” Ramon said as he started walking towards the door, “now, if you’ll excuse us…”

“You boys have a great night and make yourselves at home,” I added, motioning around my office with a forced smile and walked out after Ramon.

“Hey, man. Wait up!” I called, trying to catch up to him as he made a beeline for his lab.

“Lo siento, but I have to get this back to the lab, Trent. I know that pendejo killed a bunch of people, but he’s obviously very sick.”

“What do you think it is? There aren’t many things that can do us in.” It’s not like we were taught shifter biology in school; everything we knew was passed down by our parents and the rest of the clan, and I’d never learned anything about what I’d just witnessed in the cell.

“You’re right. There aren’t very many things that can infect us—not viruses like the common cold or the flu, at least, but we’re susceptible to HIV/AIDS. We can develop cancer, too, but I’ve never seen any illnesses like this. I have to figure out what’s going on with him and more importantly, figure out if it can spread to our clan in any way.” Ramon’s face was filled with worry and as he explained how the information could affect the clan, I felt his same concern.

“Is it okay if I come with you? Knox asked me to report anything we find back to him.”

“Of course, amigo! Your company is always welcome.” With that, Ramon’s worry seemed to have vanished for the moment and was replaced by a smile—one I had missed for a while.

The tragedy at Acadia was causing a lot of trouble, but I couldn’t help but think that it was bringing the clan closer together as well.