My muscles were twitching from the teleportation, and envy simmered inside me. If only my body could teleport as easily as it did when I was a full demon.
"I smell death," Titan spoke up first, shaking me from my thoughts.
I sniffed, and sure enough, the lingering scent of death wrapped around me. I focused on listening, but I heard nothingoutside of the room. No heartbeats, no movement, and no breathing.
It was eerie.
A shiver made its way through my body, and warm hands wrapped around my waist, pulling me into a hard chest.
"Are you okay?" Kai mumbled, his warm breath fanning over my ear.
"Something's not right."
"I feel it too," Thaddeus said.
Concern grew around us as we listened, but not one sound was heard. If there were new-bloods or humans, we’d have heard them. If there were any vampire guards, I’d assumed we’d have heard something by now.
“Did he teleport us to the right place?” Blaise asked.
It was then I heard one loud, distinct thump. A vampire's heartbeat, and it was close by.
"Viktor?" Aziel asked.
"I don't think so."
The aurora this vampire gave off was self-deprecating, hateful, and sick. It didn't feel as menacing and murderous for no reason as Viktor's did.
"Open this door. We'll go to the right and then the vampire's somewhere on the left," Thaddeus instructed.
Kai kissed the back of my head and removed his arms. "We're going to be fine."
“Stick together,” I told them, and they nodded.
Thaddeus opened the door, and we poured out. The warehouse was completely empty save for some cardboard boxes on shelves filled with junk, but there was an intensity to our surroundings that made my stomach clench.
It was the same warehouse from my vision.
Another thump of the vampire's heart sounded, coming from the same place as before. It knew we were here.
"Move," Thaddeus said. "Don't let your guard down."
Our movements were fluid as we used our supernatural speeds to locate the vampire. He was in an enormous room with the door wide open, like he was expecting us.
The walls and floor were drenched in blood splatter, and cages filled the room in random clusters with the barred doors swung open. Each cage had two or more drained bodies inside. Bodies of both human and new-blood vampires.
Ruthless.
Realization rippled through me. If they were all dead, it meant Viktor had already slaughtered them and gained more power. He was probably at the North Dakota facility right now, which meant we had to deal with this guy before heading to the other facility as soon as possible.
The vampire had his back turned to us. He had broad shoulders with an insane amount of muscle mass that showed even under his shirt. There was a cracked window to the right, letting in a dapple of sunlight that reflected off his bald head.
I wished for the first time since becoming a vampire that sunlight was fatal.
“Where’s Viktor? Is he at the other facility?” Thaddeus asked.
“We were having so much fun until you had to catch on. Now the fun’s over.” The vampire turned his head back to look at us with a dull look in his red eyes. “He has a message for you.”
“Why doesn’t he tell us?” I asked.
