I took in the space with fresh eyes and recognized that, yes, it did sort of look like a laboratory. A very dark laboratory.
“You don’t find that weird?” I pointed to the chains fastened to the wall.
He followed my finger with his eyes. “I guess it depends on what he had chained there.”
That was ridiculous. “Obviously he chained his victims there.”
Julian arched an eyebrow. “How can you know that?”
“Common sense.” How could he not see that?
“I don’t know.” Lucinda had moved to that space. “I think he was experimenting on people.”
I was caught between a “give me a break” and “what makes you say that” when Marjory joined the other shifter.
“There’s no blood here,” she noted. “At least not that I can see … or scent.”
“Is that good?” I challenged.
“I should think so.” Marjory held out her hands. “Doesn’t blood make everything worse?”
“Definitely,” Taylor agreed, solemnly nodding her head. “Blood makes everything ten times worse.”
I gave the chains a wide berth and walked to the table in the center of the room. I recognized some of the items on it — a mortar and pestle to grind potion ingredients, a scale to weigh them, and vials that I’d seen in movies where blood was supposed to be deposited for testing. There were other items that seemed out of place.
I picked up a pair of small tongs. “What do these do?”
“They grab things,” Marjory replied. “They’re a smaller version of the ones Galen uses when he’s barbecuing.”
“And this?” I held up a vial of liquid. The glass was dark. My natural inclination was to pull the stopper and sniff it, but Julian stopped me.
“You really don’t have any survival skills, do you?” He clucked his tongue and shook his head. “What if that’s poison?”
“How would I figure that out if I don’t look inside?”
“What if it knocks you out when you inhale it?”
He was right that I didn’t have great survival skills when it came to stuff like this. “Well, then you’ll be here to catch me.” I jerked out the stopper and looked inside, tentatively lifting my nose to scent it. It smelled sort of like a really pungent penny.
“That’s blood,” Lucinda volunteered. She was still near the chains but left her spot to join us. “Not just any blood.” She jerked the vial away from me. “That’s vampire blood!”
Now I had more questions. “How can you know that?”
She gave me a “well, duh” look. “I’m a shifter,” she said as if that explained everything and I was an idiot.
“Okay.” I dragged out the word. “How do you know it’s vampire blood?”
“It’s a really rich scent,” Julian replied as he snagged the vial from her. He looked inside, as if searching for something, then replaced the stopper. “She’s right; it’s vampire blood.”
“Any vampires on the island?” Flip asked.
“A few,” I replied. “Why?”
“They can scent each other better than we can scent them.”
“He means that a vampire might be able to identify who this blood belongs to,” Julian offered.
I was friendly with one vampire. I didn’t mention him by name. “I might know somebody who can check it.”
