Page 106 of Siren in the Rain

The solid metal back door to the building has a security keypad but no one guarding it, at least not from the outside. To my surprise, Harper steps forward confidently and enters a code in the keypad, which opens the door immediately.

My mouth drops open. “How?—”

“It’s your stepmother’s building so I thought I’d try her birthday, and it worked. Humans are so obvious about these kinds of things.”

Well, then. Evidently, Harper is as brilliant as he is beautiful.

Note to self—find out what his favorite blood type is and get him several bags of high-quality stuff!

“This is where things are going to get dicey, folks,” Dallas says. “We’ll take the lead and the rest of you follow.”

Cal cracks his knuckles. “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass—and I’m all out of bubblegum.”

Griff beams at him. “Don’t worry, bro. I’ve got some of that grape gum you like in my pocket. Want some?”

Harper pets Griffin’s cheek. “Sweet summer child, ignore him. Cal’s quoting an old movie from before you were born.”

Cal cackles. “Dude, I’ll introduce you to the awesomeness that is John Carpenter’s They Live after all this is over.”

Griff gives him a thumbs-up. “Right on.”

Dallas, Harper, and Cal flank out in a triangular formation with Harper in the front as we move deeper into the building.

It’s oddly quiet and seems almost empty at first.

“Do we even know where we’re going?” I whisper to Griffin.

“Harper was able to get some kind of map of the interior of the building,” he whispers back. “He’s guiding us to where we think the main research labs are located.”

When we reach a T-shaped intersection in the hallway, Harper turns left. I notice there’s brighter lighting ahead.

Cal immediately sets to work on disabling any security cameras along the way, but eventually we start to hear noises in the distance.

“The LAPD team is here,” Dallas confirms. “Let’s pick up our pace. We don’t have a lot of time.”

Before long, we spot three people wearing white lab coats scurrying somewhere awfully fast. We hide around a corner to observe them covertly.

“Hurry!” one of them calls out. “We have to get rid of the data.”

“There’s never going to be enough time to dump all the samples we have in process,” another one cries.

The third one, looking torn, decides to turn tail and run. “I’m outta here!” he cries before fleeing down another hallway.

We race toward the other two just as they disappear into a lab room up ahead. The door locks behind them, but Dallas uses his large body like a battering ram and slams into it, sending the door flying off its hinges. The two human scientists in the room scream, and that’s when Emma steps forward with a Nerf Super Soaker she’d somehow hidden in her backpack. She sprays them both in the face with her famous knockout potion that has them flat on their asses and sound asleep in seconds.

“You totally reminded me of Ripley with the flamethrower in Aliens,” Griffin says appreciatively. “Right on, Emma.”

Ruby squeals and grabs Emma’s face, planting a big, wet kiss on her lips. “Damn, baby. You were so sexy. I thought my panties might fall off right then and there.”

Emma’s cheeks flush, but she looks inordinately pleased.

Cal makes a gagging noise. “Oh. My. Gawd. Now you two? I’m surrounded by lovesick fools.” He shakes his head and elbows Dallas. “It’s just you, me, and Harper now. We’ll form our own club of fabulous single bachelors.”

Emma and Ruby start looking around the lab. It doesn’t take long for Emma to access a computer, and she whips out a thumb drive to start copying data.

“Not that I don’t trust the human authorities,” she says with a smirk, “but I don’t.”

Anemone gives her an approving nod. “Good work. We should have copies of our own evidence if possible.”

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