There wasanother dragon coiled within the stairwell. If the one that basically ate the third floor was Julian, then this one must be Fable. I mean, I probably could have figured that out all on my own because his eyes were fucking intense. Simply stunning.
“Hey, hot stuff,” Aratiri greeted Fable as we slipped by his sleek body, running his fingers along the smooth scales as he went.
I couldn’t help it. I’d never touched a dragon before. So I trailed him, my fingers following the path Aratiri’s left behind. Fable watched me, those eyes penetrating into my soul.
Smiling, I kissed his long snoot and whispered a ‘thanks’ as I passed him. I heard him sneeze behind me. Grinning, we stepped out onto the ground floor.
The acrid scent of blood filled my lungs, and I coughed. The smell was nothing in comparison to the sight. I paused, eyes wide as I took in the massacre. The enormous sphinx lying down the center of the open corridor was licking her paws of blood. I shuddered and stepped around. Far away from the claws.
“You didn’t find what you were looking for,” Lazer said as the doors opened and Lazarus, the oni of Darkyn that I could never remember his name, Bastian, and Ryker stepped inside. The doors clanged shut behind them, echoing in the space. I could hear the secure locks settling into place.
Lazarus went to Nephele, who was sandwiched between Kohara and Raiden as they helped him down the stairs. Without speaking, he tended to Nephele’s broken leg.
It was too much to concentrate on the way we hurt. The only thing I could think about was that no one had actually died.
“No,” Saar said, sighing in frustration. “Either they knew we’d come for them or… I don’t know. Dumb luck that no one was working?”
“Maybe we’re giving them too much credit,” Yarak said, wiping his hands on his pants, leaving bloody streaks behind. I swallowed at the sight. “We know that they have several facilities. It’s silly to think that they work out of the same one all the time. It’s more likely that they have offices in all of them.”
“We killed a handful from the top floor,” Kohara said, frowning. “We found more abominations than we did men from the top, though.”
“I suspect we’ll find more downstairs,” Bastian said. “Whatever mutants they were creating, they had to start somewhere.”
I winced at his words. He’s right. They didn’t start out that way. They were probably innocent people at one point. But what had they been made into?
“I need to see the other rooms that the sonars didn’t make it through,” Bronte said.
Plum shook her head. “You don’t, honey. More of the things you already saw. Different, but more of the same.”
Bronte looked sick. He was still staring at nothing while he wrestled with that information when Lazarus put his glowing hands on Bronte’s wounds. Witches couldn’t heal, but they could cover pain. A Nephilim is an instant health pack. Like in a video game. A few minutes and you’re completely revived.
As long as you haven’t been dead long.
The thought made me glance at Kohara. We were really lucky that the Malaks had made it to us on the mountain in time. So fucking lucky.
“Let’s go,” Bastian said. “Ryker is getting antsy.”
I glanced at the nightmare as a chill fell through the building.
“Depending on what we find, let’s not kill right away. Employees of Silence, yes. But I want to see these beasts, if we have a chance to look at them in a contained setting,” Nephele said, walking once again.
“Everything secure outside?” Saar asked.
The oni nodded. “Yep. We’re in touch with our guys back at base. They’re monitoring the computer systems. From what we can tell, none of the other buildings have been tipped off.”
“Keep us posted, Tyrus,” Saar said. “I’ve realized I don’t have the concentration to listen to the radios and watch what’s going on around us.”
“No problem,” Tyrus said, falling into our ranks as we headed back to the stairs and made our way down a floor.
“There are two lower levels,” Bronte said. “I think that the bottom houses the cells. And this one”—he looked at the door with a look of disgust—“is where they experiment.”
“Then let’s stop here first,” Yarak said, pushing the door open. “Kill whoever’s left working. We can bring the monsters—or humans—from the bottom level out after.” I watched in awe as he spread out and slipped into the shadows, disappearing from sight.
A moment later, someone screamed. A sound that was shrill and filled with terror. The fear turned to pain before it was choked off.
Movement was suddenly everywhere as we filed through the door. The dragons, both of them, slipped inside and took off in different directions. But I was too busy watching Ryker as his black tendrils of death reached out like tentacles and slithered along the walls.
“Don’t hurt anyone behind bars or locked in rooms,” Bastian said, his voice firm.
