“Don’t even try it,” I warn. If he thinks I’m staying behind, he doesn’t know me at all.
To my surprise, though, Jericho leans in to kiss me. “Do you have your gun?”
I nod. “I’ll grab more bullets before we go.”
He puts his forehead to mine. “Stay with me, okay? Don’t leave my side for any reason.”
“I’m not planning on it.”
Within minutes, we’re loaded into three vehicles and driving into Prodigy. My heart races the entire way.
When we reach the parking lot of the club, thirty wolves trot up to greet us, followed by roughly twenty humans.
Jericho stands tall, addressing the group. “All right, listen up! We need to go in hard and fast. Foxx will either be by the bar or downstairs in his bedroom. I don’t know which one is his, but my best guess is it will stand out from the others. Remember, not all of these vampires are our enemy! Some of them have no choice in being there, and they deserve to choose whose side they’re on. They can fight with us, or against. But if they choose to fight us?”
“We kill them,” someone says from the back.
Jericho nods. “These people are vile. They’ve shown no mercy! We shouldn’t either. Are you ready?”
The wolves nearest us paw at the ground, and a few people whoop.
Jericho swirls his hands to form a ball of fire and smoke, and within seconds, it morphs into a six-foot portal rimmed with bright orange flames. It’s only the second or third time he’s made a portal, so I’m impressed. It’s just like Red said: it’s simply a part of him now.
Through the opening, I can see a darkened room, but not much more.
“Hurry!” Jericho says, gesturing for them to start moving.
One by one, the shifters step through the portal, teeth bared and ready to fight.
When it’s my turn, Jericho touches my arm. “Be careful.”
“I will if you will,” I say, lowering my voice. “I love you.”
He closes his eyes briefly, absorbing those words. “I love you.”
I kiss him once before stepping through the portal, holding my gun firmly in front of me.
Inside, I pause to gain my bearings. We’re in a small room with an exposed red brick wall and empty shelves. A long fluorescent bulb overhead is dimmed by the dirty plastic covering, and a narrow window is covered in bars. The bars look like the only new thing in the room.
Below the window is a mattress covered in a plain red sheet and lumpy pillows. My heart lurches at the torn foil wrappers on the floor.Condoms.
Vampires don’t need condoms, they can’t carry diseases. They also can’t bear any children. But vampires aren’t the only ones who come to this god-forsaken place.
Bile rises in my throat as a horrible thought crosses my mind.
No.
Oh, shit no. It can’t be…
But it makes sense. How else would Jericho know where to go inside the club? This room would’ve been burned into his memories because of what Foxx did to him. Every horrible, vivid detail.
My blood boils as I stare at the filthy mattress, the truth a dead weight in the pit of my stomach. This is where Foxx not only raped the man I love, but turned him against his will—and he didn’t do it in his private room. He did it publicly, where monsters paid by the hour to watch. To revel in someone else’s nightmare.
Foxx is going to pay for what he did.
30
JERICHO
