Page 37 of B Negative

Fourteen

“Hold on to something,”Sunny said.

I stared at the iron girders flying by, gripping the armrest as we drove right through Titus’s ward.

B and I both hissed as it washed over us, muscles cramping and fangs dropping.

It wasn’t any easier the second time.

“The feeling should pass soon,” she consoled.

The three of us were silent as we pulled into the parking garage, silent as Sunny swiped her card and we ascended to the top floor. Silent when we walked the halls to her suite.

Only after we were safely ensconced in Sunny’s bedroom, behind two locked doors and a witch bottle she’d hung from both doorknobs did she start handing out instructions.

“We only speak about our plan in this room. No texting, calling, no note passing. Nothing. I don’t know what lengths Titus has gone to in order to know what I’m up to, but I know what he’s done in the past, so I’m not taking any chances.”

B and I both nodded.

“Rory, you’re to be stationed outside the suite door. When we leave, you come with us. If the other guards offer you accommodations on the security floor, politely decline. You’ll be sleeping on my sofa.”

“Got it.”

“Eden, same goes for you. You’re sleeping on the chair. None of us are to be separated.”

“No arguments here.” I gave the cloud-angel chair a quick glance.

Sunny turned back to B. “Rory, did you bring it?”

“Sure did. With all your requested modifications.” He reached into his duffle and pulled out Sunny’s tablet.

“The tech guys disabled the Wi-Fi connection. You’ll have to use the 5G exclusively, but without Wi-Fi access, no one in the tower can hack it from the tower network.”

Sunny took it. “Great.”

“They also added a new feature they’ve been working on for a few years.” B flipped the tablet over. “See that fingerprint pad?” He tapped the pad twice and a small-gauge needle, about the length of a thumb tack pin, shot out of the center. “Now it doesn’t read your fingerprint. It reads your DNA.”

“Holy shit,” I murmured.

“Excellent. That’s far more than I expected. I’ll make sure to pay them generously. With Titus’s money,” Sunny added with a smirk.

The Titus Tower guards bookended me, Sunny, and B, one in front and the other in back, all the way to the 152nd floor. They wore the same twill weave suits as the aides I’d seen when I first arrived. Apparently, it was a sort of Titus Tower uniform.

Expensive-ass uniforms.

They also had the same black irises as, oh, what was his name?

The aide from before.

Jareth?

Goblin King? No, I definitely would have remembered if he’d shared a name with the Bowie character that made me want to run away and find the labyrinth at ten years old.

Whatever his name was, those black irises meant he was likely related to the wonder twin guards.

Siblings or not, they remained silent as we entered the sprawling room of dark wood and countless rows of shelving. Despite its size, the space pressed in around me uncomfortably. With no natural light and oh so many towering cases of books, the library had a suffocating effect. I took a deep breath and pretended my lungs didn’t feel tight and heavy.

“Do you know your way around?” I asked Sunny.

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