Page 42 of Sergi
The last bits of worry drained from Devon, and he shouted, “To victory!”
His heart filled with pride when the van—filled with vampires and shifters on their first true mission as a team—shouted as one.
“To victory!”
Chapter Sixteen
The following day,before the guard came for me, I stuffed four vials of blood and the vial of Blood Poppy under the waistband of my underwear. Once I was on level three, I pulled the cart out of the storage closet and moved slowly around it, ensuring the necessary supplies had been loaded. The guard, one I hadn’t seen before, turned his back to speak with another guard, and I jumped on the opportunity to stuff the vials into the middle of a stack of rags.
When he turned back to me, he growled, “There’s a change in the cells. There are three more males. They’re wilder than most but don’t worry, they’ve been chained to the wall like the others. Be quick about your business.”
I nodded, still wondering where they were getting so many shifters. He led me down a row of cells I hadn’t cleaned before. Like the other cells on this level, the doors didn’t have keycards, and instead of one wooden beam barring the door, there were three.
Before the guard left, he gave me a malicious grin. “Try not to get yourself ripped apart.” Then he strolled down the hall, banging the doors to the other cells with only intimidation in mind. An abusive tactic. I glanced at the rags with the vialshidden among them. If I got caught, I could be back in one of these cells and added to the list of test subjects.
I took a deep breath and shook off the thought. I’d gone too far at this point. It would be safer to give the blood to the vampire and then toss the empty vials out with the garbage. I lifted the three bars away from the first door, wanting to get this over so I could spend more time with the vampire. If my uncle could hear me, he’d wonder if I’d lost my mind.
I opened the door of the first cell slowly, not convinced the guards had chained the shifters. This guard didn’t seem trustworthy, but I didn’t have to worry. The shifter, a young, wiry kid, was curled up in a fetal position and didn’t move the entire five minutes I was there. The second shifter, about the same age as the previous kid, was shorter and heavier. He sat in the corner, knees pulled up to his chest. He didn’t move either, but his eyes followed my every move.
“I know you must be scared.” I wanted to ask if he was friends with the other male but decided to wait a day. “I’m also a shifter. I’ve been here for a few months, just trying to stay alive. Never give up.”
I don’t know why I shared that last thought. Did I still believe that? I’d been on the verge of accepting my fate after witnessing the horrific experiments.
Until the day they chained a vampire.
I’d opened the third cell door and had taken two steps inside when the shifter stood. He was chained and appeared more coherent than the first two. I immediately raised my hands to calm him.
“I’m also a shifter. I’m just here to…” I stared at the shifter and blinked.
He stood motionless. Staring. Then he spoke. “Alex?”
“Carlos?” Without a thought, I ran to him and grabbed his arms. “What are you doing here?”
“I could say the same of you.” He pulled me in for a hug. “We all thought you were dead.”
Tears sprung to my eyes. “Even my uncle?”
His smile was sad. “I think he still holds out hope, but with each day that passes…”
He couldn’t finish, and I could barely see beyond my blurred vision.
“What’s happening here?” He gratefully changed the subject.
“Horrible experiments.” I sat on the floor next to him, taking in his bruises and cuts inflicted by the guards’ welcoming committee. His expression, happy I was alive yet sad to see me in this place, changed as I explained everything I’d witnessed. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. His eyes, shimmering with the light glow of his wolf, reflected his anger and a touch of fear.
And I was scared for him. “How did they capture you?”
“We were sent to find the lab, just like you’d been.”
I scoffed. “Then you were sent on a fool’s mission.”
“There were two vampires with me. Have you seen them?”
I jumped up and almost tripped over the mattress. What was he saying? “You came with vampires?”
He nodded. “Your uncle is working with them.” He shook his head at what must have been my look of dismay. “These vampires are different. They’re fighting as much for us as they are themselves. Have you seen them?”
Shifters and vampires working together? And my uncle agreed with this? He had mentioned something about testing a business partnership with a vampire House. It must have developed into something more than I’d realized. I was never one for politics and considered my uncle’s dream of shifters and vampires working together nothing more than a fantasy. But then again, I had more of a grudge against vampires than my uncle.
