Chapter Eight
“What do we do now?” Reyna asked. “What’s plan B?”
Meghan shook her head. “There is no plan B.”
“What the hell kind of plan is this?” Jodie asked.
“Look, I don’t know what happened, but we still have time to get to our rendezvous spot. We have two more flights of stairs and an exit to get to. We can do it. We have to.”
“Then let’s move,” Reyna said.
The other woman agreed, “No way am I going back.”
The stairwell door burst open beside them. A flood of people filled the staircase, responding to the alarm. Meghan grabbed Jodie, and Reyna followed suit as they hauled her up the flight of stairs. Reyna tucked her chin to her chest. She didn’t know how many people knew that she had been held captive below Visage, or if any of them would even recognize her face, but she’d rather be safe than sorry.
“Christ, I hate these drills,” one woman said at Reyna’s shoulder.
“Tell me about it,” the man next to her agreed.
“Someone said this isn’t a drill,” another man added. Reyna tensed, waiting for someone to blow their cover. “That the boss himself is going to be waiting to speak with all of us and give us all permanents.”
Reyna blew out a breath. They didn’t know what the alarm was for. They thought that, instead of rotating blood escorts every couple of months, they were all going to get permanent live-in blood escorts—what she had been to Beckham.
“I thought only senior officials were getting them,” the woman said.
“Now that the Census is finished in the city, they can begin to transition the humans to us.”
“I don’t want a human to live with me permanently,” the first man grumbled. “How invasive.”
“Don’t you miss the good old days?” the woman intoned.
Reyna bit her lip and tuned out the rest of their conversation.
After the second floor, Meghan maneuvered them through the crowd and toward the door. When they reached the door, however, a guard stood there, impassable.
“No exit, ladies,” the vampire said with a smile and a discreet look at her chest.
Meghan leaned in and fluttered her eyelashes. “Look, I don’t want to take this girl through all these people. She has that pesky illness that’s going around. Can’t we pop out the door and take her the long way?”
“Sorry. Boss’s orders. Everyone up to the top level for assessment.”
“I know. I know,” Meghan said, biting her lips. “But do you really want me to bring her up there? She’s not an employee. And she’ssick.” She emphasized the last word until he glanced down at the “sick patient.”
The vampire narrowed his eyes. “The blood thing?”
Meghan agreed. “Yeah. Severe case.”
He took a step back. “It’s contagious. What is she even doing in the stairwell?”
“It was supposed to be cleared for us. It’s already ravished her body. Look at her.” Meghan pointed at the woman’s skinny arms and narrow waist. “I don’t want this to continue to happen. It’d be easier if we could avoid all of this entirely.”
“Maybe I should radio down…” He trailed off as Meghan stepped closer.
“Plus…the sooner I’m finished, the sooner I’ll be free for lunch.”
His eyebrows rose. “Lunch?”
She was shameless. She tilted her neck sideways as if in invitation. “I know a great place.”
