The further wewent into the med wing, the more alarms went off. Loud, piercing wails sounded down the corridor, the lights that once glowed white now tinged red.
But there were no other soldiers. No guards patrolling, no one reacting to the alarms.
“Where the hell is everybody?” I asked quietly, hand moving to my gun.
The vamp shook his head, barely sparing me a glance. “This is need-to-know and requires silence. Understood?” When his eyes flickered to mine, the distrust was back. Like he wasn’t sure I would be able to follow his lead.
All I did was bow my head, heart racing.
One of the doors sat ajar, and from it a pool of blood entered the corridor. I breathed in, expecting to smell bleach and copper, but what I got tickled a memory. One far off, murky, but I was able to pull at it.
A dark night. Trees. And the unknown female staring up at me with those dark, doe eyes. Lips swollen from a kiss.
I blinked hard, trying to push the memory from my mind.
Beside me, the vampire unholstered his weapon and raised it, the safety clicking off. “Be ready for anything,” he muttered, glancing at me from the corner of his eye. His irises darkened to a bloody red, and when his lips parted, fangs dropped.
I swallowed thickly, grabbed my own gun, but kept it low at my side.
The vamp moved ahead of me to the door. There was moreblood now; it cut across the ground like a red river, leading to one of the other exam rooms.
My leader raised his fist, motioning for me to wait as he gently pushed the door open.
The buzzing exam room light flickered, swaying like it’d recently been hit. The mangled body of a mage I vaguely recognised lay on the ground, face slashed open from claws. His innards spilled from him, the source of all the blood.
My eyes tracked the blood splatter to the other side of the room where the healer witch lay unconscious. She was bleeding, but there was still a heartbeat from her.
Two other vampires lay dead, their heads torn clean from their bodies. Their fangs and dead eyes glinted in the white light.
There were two other guards, barely alive. A prisoner in the corner, unconscious. And a monster who convulsed on the floor at the feet of our king.
King Dante looked up, hair dishevelled, blood dripping from his nose. Fury darkened his eyes, and his magic…something felt entirelywrongabout it. The hairs on my arms prickled as I felt it wash over me, dark tendrils of his power reaching for mine. Instinct told me to fight it, to push it away, but I was locked in place when his eyes found mine.
“Finally,” he sneered. He motioned a hand at the creature at his feet. “Take this one down to the cages. I want him dosed and compliant. Is that understood?”
The vampire beside me bowed his head. “Yes, my King,” he replied, holstering his gun. “We’ll handle him.”
Our king made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. But his gaze shifted to something else, a bed in the corner of the room.
I followed his line of sight, feeling that same strange sensation from before washing over me. It was untouched, though blood had splattered across the white sheets. There was a body on the bed, a body I somehow recognised immediately—knew intimately. My heart crashed against my ribs as I turned towards the femalelying unconscious, dark hair framing her round face like a halo.
Blood rushed to my ears, and when I blinked, I wasn’t seeing her lying on a bed. For a moment, she was in my arms unconscious as I held her while the world around us turned to rubble. It was her face, dusted with dirt, as her head fell against my chest, her magic protecting us from the destruction.
The memory passed, only to be replaced with another. Her running towards me in the rain, magic sweeping over me protectively. Then her body replaced by a wolf as she took down a threat I hadn’t noticed, putting herself in the path of danger to saveme.
I blinked hard and stepped back. My fingers tightened around the weapon still in my hands.
“What the fuck are you two waiting for?” King Dante growled. “Take the prisoner.”
I tore my eyes away from the female, listening to the steady beat of her heart as I asked, “What about her?”
The king’s eyes darkened, and he took a step away from the beast lying on the floor. “Do not ask about her,” he hissed, smoothing a trembling hand over his hair. “Do not even think about her. Understood?”
A cold chill rolled down my spine, followed by what felt like prickling in my mind. Something in King Dante’s eyes shifted, the colour of his irises muted as he slowly cocked his head.
The invasion turned into something else, like fingers trying to pluck memories and thoughts from my brain. The female on the table and everything I knew about her—the green dress, the kiss, the grief, her power—disappeared one by one.
You do not know who this prisoner is,a voice whispered.The prisoner is nothing to you.
