“I followed her,” he says and coughs, clearing his throat. “I saw what she was doing.”

“What did you see?” I demand.

“She had people in cages,” he gasps. “Those poor people are locked up in these small cages. I saw animals. They were human, but then they weren’t. How is that possible?” he asks in confusion.

“Stay on task here, Bill. Was your wife there?”

“Carol? Yes. She was talking to another man. He’s her boss.” He rakes his hand through his hair. “How could she do this? What is she even doing with them?”

“I can explain on the way. You need to take me to where you saw them,” I say urgently.

“Alright, if I can remember how to get back. I ran like crazy to get away. I left my car down the alley. I was so scared,” he admits and follows me out of the room.

“No need for that now. Just show me where you ran from.”

***

We pull onto a street a block down from the abandoned store. Bill tells me it’s an old medical facility.

Hopefully, I can get this taken care of before the guys are done with John. There was no need to inform them or Serenity. I would rather tell her after the fact what I find. I plan to capture Carol. Serenity can decide from there what she wants to do with her. I can always use my influence to wipe her memories if Serenity doesn’t want her dead.

“Stay in the car,” I tell Bill.

“No, I have to go in with you. I have to make up for all the years I did nothing for Serenity,” he says, determined.

“Fine. Stay behind me.”

We exit the car and start walking. I would rather just use the shadows, but I don’t want to deal with Bill throwing up once we get there.

“It’s around back. A garage of some sort.”

The garage is a small dilapidated building where they used to store medical supplies. The windows are all boarded up. The door is shut tight, but a chain hangs from it, and the lock is broken. I glance back at Bill. His head is swiveling from side to side. Afraid someone is going to jump out at us.

I slowly open the door, step inside and stop. My eyes adjust to the dark as I carefully make my way inside. What I see pisses me off. Meeting my mate's dad is not going well.

Nothing. Nothing but empty shelves and dirt. I take a few more steps to the open area in the middle. I hold my arms out wide and turn to Bill.

“What the fuck?” I ask harshly.

The innocent-looking man I met is gone. In his place is a man with a crazy grin on his face. Too late, I see a remote in his hand. He giggles.

I could have moved out of the way. I could have blurred down the street. But instead, I let the large cage drop down from the ceiling to surround me.

I need information about the murders, so who better to give me answers than the man that did them?

“I didn’t think it would work. I really didn’t. I’ve been dreaming about capturing a vampire. All that power under my control,” he says proudly. He moves around excitedly, waving his arms. “I have you now. You can’t escape. Those bars are metal.” He laughs and claps his hands, dropping the remote.

He’s so stupid. The reason he was never able to get a vampire is clear to me. He thinks metal keeps us contained. He has no idea what we could do. He should have done more research. I restrain myself from rolling my eyes and bending the bars to step out or just lifting the damn thing off.

I’ll get some answers and wait for Serenity to find me. She’ll be able to pinpoint my location. She can decide what to do with him.

I sigh, resigned. Unfortunately, I will never be able to live this down.

Chapter Twenty

Serenity

This is a bad idea.