Page 83 of Bitten Shifter

“Can I turn off the screen? I don’t have to touch it,” I ask—the flashingGame overmessage is drilling into my skull.

“That’s fine,” he says, waving a distracted hand.

I wave mine, and the screen goes black. The sudden darkness makes the room feel even more oppressive. Nausea claws at my throat, and I force myself to breathe steadily. The floor is a minefield of blood, gore, and… bits. My knees threaten to buckle.

“Riker, take Lark back to the van,” Merrick says. His voice is calm but edged with worry.

“Sure thing. Come on, Rocky, you’re looking a little pale.”

“Wait.” My voice wavers, but I force myself to continue. “Do you… want to see what happened to them?”

Merrick’s intense gaze softens. He sets his hands on my shoulders. “Are you still willing to access the security system?”

I nod. “Yeah, and I can replay it on the TV.”

He hesitates. “Are you sure you want to see that?”

I swallow hard, ignoring the bile rising in my throat. “We have to know what happened.”

“Okay, little mate.”

“If it helps,” a woman from one of the rear-entry teams chimes in, “they came through the front. The back doors were chained shut, and the chains hadn’t been touched in years.”

“That is helpful, thank you,” I reply, turning my attention to the tech. I draw on my magic to sift through the building’s digital history, starting with the cameras and scrubbing through the footage.

The interior cameras show nothing unusual—the group is alive, absorbed in their game. “Their device activity slowed just before dark,” I mutter, mostly to myself. I fast-forward, isolate the footage, and bring up a split screen on the TV. Four feeds fill the display, each focused on a different part of the building.

As night falls, a pizza delivery guy appears on the street cameras, his cap obscuring his face. He pounds on the glass door, and one of the Human First members gets up, wallet in hand, and heads to the main entrance.

What happens next makes my blood run cold.

The Pizza Guy drops the box and lunges, his hands morphing into claws as he rips out the man’s throat in one brutal motion. No one else reacts—they are too absorbed in the game. On the feed, the Pizza Guy killer drags the lifeless body by the hair, leaving a dark, glistening trail of blood. He dumps the corpse behind the sofa, and still—no one notices.

The room fills with the wet sounds of carnage as he moves impossibly fast, faster than the cameras can track. I let out a shaky breath and make the main room feed full screen. We watch as he tears through the remaining Human First members, each kill as vicious as the last. It’s a massacre.

He spends extra time on Chatty, the sound of ripping and snarling filling the room. When he uses the red Swiss Army Knife to pluck out Chatty’s eyeballs, I clamp my eyes shut, unable to watch until the noises stop.

When I open them again, the blood-soaked killer is staring directly into the camera. His red eyes glint, and his pale face tilts in amusement. His voice comes through the speakers, unnervingly melodic.

“They dared to mess with my hunt,” he says, lips pulling back in a sharp grin that exposes his fangs. “I will be seeing you soon, little birdie Lark.”

Oh, shit.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Everyonein the room turns to look at me. Weapons are drawn, and the shifters instinctively form a protective barrier around Merrick and me. It’s almost comical—the notion of guarding against a vampire that fast. He is long gone, but their instincts won’t let them relax.

I keep my eyes on the screen, watching until the vampire leaves. He places something on the arm of the sofa, then blurs through the hallway and out the main doors. In a flash, he’s gone. I stop the recording and turn off the TV.

“I’ve sent the footage to the war room server,” I say, my voice tight.

“Is this the vampire who came to the Facility? The one hunting you?” Merrick asks.

“Yeah, that’s him.”

“I have his scent,” Riker says from behind me, his voice low and grim.

The shifters exchange uneasy glances. Even they look rattled, and I don’t blame them. The Alpha Prime’s mate is being stalked by a psychopathic vampire. Human First decided to toy with me, and he responded by wiping them out in a gruesome bloodbath.

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