Page 66 of Sergi
A hundred different responses raced through my head. None of them mattered. I’d seen the excited anticipation each time a shifter was led into the room. His glee as he walked around them, caged like an animal, as he decided the most painful spot to inject their poison.
I’d spent many nights thinking of ways to kill him. I turned toward the doorway as I heard the tell-tale sound of nails and low growls. Their muzzles were stained with blood from the guards.
Their eyes glowed with the bright crimson of rage and blood lust.
This wasn’t my kill.
I grabbed the collar of Leonard’s lab coat and dragged him out of the corner to the center of the lab. I snatched his keycard and tossed it on the ground by the wolves.
I faced them, and their eyes locked with mine.
“He’s all yours.”
I turned and walked away, ignoring Leonard’s pleas for mercy. I never looked back as his cries turned to whimpers, more shouts of pleas, and then screams of agony as he was ripped apart.
I smiled with satisfaction as I broke into a run.
When the alarms rang,Sergi encouraged the two freed shifters to follow his orders to free the other shifters and secure the third level before the guards came. His instinct was to race directly to level one, but someone had to get all the shifters out of their cells. He would have to trust that Alex could protect herself.
Five minutes later, he continued to work his way down the hall on level two, stopping at each door to open it. Many of the cells were empty, but there were too many that weren’t. When he found a shifter inside, he went through his practiced speech.
“I’m Sergi. Cadre for House Trelane and your liberator. Come out and join your pack. We’re taking this facility.”
He waited long enough to ensure the shifter heard, but he didn’t wait while they made their choice whether to join or remain in their cell. He simply moved to the next one and ignored his internal clock that said he was losing his opportunity to find evidence. When he reached the end of the hall, he turned back to find six wolves who’d left their cells. They lifted their snouts to catch his scent.
“We need to flush out any guards who might be down here.” He pointed down a hallway to their left. “The guards’ quarters should be that way. I’ll open some more cells, but it wouldn’t hurt to find more keycards.”
A thin brown wolf with matted fur yipped, and the four raced away in the direction Sergi had pointed.
He opened a few more cells, his mind elsewhere. If Alex had made it down to the second level, he hadn’t seen her. If she’d been in wolf form, she would have made herself known. He might have missed her, but he worried she was still on the upper level.
Where he needed to be.
He reached the end of the hallway and decided he’d released enough shifters to get the rest out on their own. He tossed his keycard to one of the shifters who hadn’t morphed into his wolf. He grabbed it, nodded, and ran for the next hallway.
Sergi, free to accomplish his own goal, jogged in the opposite direction, circling back to the stairs. He wasn’t expecting the two naked males striding toward him. He didn’t know the one on the right, but he recognized the other one.
“Carlos. It’s good to see you. I thought you were on level three.” Sergi shook his hand.
“And shouldn’t you be on your way to contact Devon?” Carlos noticed Sergi eyeing the other shifter and said, “Sergi, this is S-272. He’s an Alpha who’s been here a long time.”
“So, this is Sergi who I’ve heard so much about. You can call me Cadfael. Though in here, as I’m sure you’ve figured out, they call us by numbers.” He shook Sergi’s hand. “But Carlos is right. Did you not find the door?”
Sergi studied the old shifter, and though the face didn’t register, his name did. “Are you the same Cadfael from the Buckholt uprising?”
The shifter smiled. “You heard the stories?”
Sergi scratched his chin and matched the shifter’s grin. “I might have been in Monmouth about the same time.”
Cadfael assessed Sergi as if altering his original perception of the vampire. “Alex was right about you. I can sense it even without knowing about your mission. But you can’t stay. This all depends on you getting word out.”
Sergi nodded. “Agreed. But I can’t leave without evidence. The House running this operation won’t risk information getting out. They’ll make every attempt to destroy it.”
Cadfael wasn’t pleased but couldn’t argue. “I can send a couple wolves with you.”
Sergi shook his head. “It won’t be necessary.” He tapped his shoulder harness. “I do better with daggers.”
“Of that, I have no doubt. We’ll continue to consolidate a defense once we have everyone out.”
