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Despite having some of that unholy power myself, a vampire’s senses were much sharper. Especially their hearing and eyesight. I might not trust him, but I could trust his instincts, so I hurried after the vampire, my skin prickling as if thousands of tiny ants were crawling over it as we got closer to whoever was channeling the insane amounts of magic.
Becca.
God and I had a wonky relationship, but in this moment, I prayed that my sister wasn’t here. That she’d taken the night off. That she wasn’t calling back because she’d met a cute guy in a bar and was hitting it off with him (and that he was treating her right, otherwise I’d have to kick his ass).
Following the vampire deeper into a maze of hallways I’d never seen before, my sense of unease grew by the second. I snuck a look at my phone. I’d turned off my ringtone to avoid announcing my presence to a group of lunatics experimenting on teenagers. My heart sank when I saw that Becca still hadn’t replied.
Maybe she’d gotten caught up in that new book her favorite author had released the other day, that she simply hadn’t heard her phone. Maybe she was in the bathtub. What if she’d been in a car accident?
“Here.”
So caught up imagining scenarios that prevented my sister from looking at her messages, one distinctively worse than the previous one, I almost ran into Redmond’s back as he stopped in front of a door.
I didn’t need a vampire to tell me something was going on behind this door. Even I heard the chanting and the onslaught of magic brushing over my body made me lightheaded.
“Ladies first?” Redmond asked.
“A vampire with manners? Catch me before I swoon.” Sarcasm was the only thing keeping me upright. He didn’t have to ask me twice. With one single, aimed kick I levelled the door. Fear for my sister made me rash. Good thing I worked best under stress.
“I could get used to this sight,” I thought I’d heard him mutter.
“Well, this looks cozy,” I commented as I walked in. “Did my party invitation get lost in the mail?”
The chanting had stopped, and four shocked gazes swung in my direction. Including that of my sister.
“Quinn! You weren’t supposed to be here.”
“Becca!” I exclaimed, my badass entrance coming to a screeching halt as I took in the terrible scene in front of me. “Somebody better give me a damn good explanation why my sister’s strapped to that thing, or I will start shooting.”
Dr. Stryker stood in front some sort of medical table – tilted up – with my sister strapped onto it. Her arms were heavily bruised from the giant needles they’d stuck into her. Tubes ran from her arms to several large glass tanks filled with things that made my stomach turn. In the center of the machine was something that actually did resemble a Sprout.
“The Sprout doesn’t exist,” I mumbled sarcastically under my breath, imitating a certain undead creature who apparently knew shit.
The two others people in the room – one guy and one woman my age – were hunters like me. While technically everyone working for Hawthorn was a witch, which meant they all had access to magic and knew how to wield it, hunters were the most dangerous. I’d have to eliminate them first.
The female hunter looked distinctly familiar, but I couldn’t place her. I also didn’t care. My sister was strapped to a table with needles shoved into her arms and the huntress was part of it. She was going down; I didn’t care who she was.
I pointed the tranquilizer gun at Stryker as he moved closer to Becca, though my desire to take everyone alive rapidly sinking by the second. But I figured I could use him to save Becca if anything went wrong. “Touch her and I will kill you.”
“You promised me she’d be out on a mission,” my sister now said to a person I initially hadn’t seen. Agent Thea White came out from behind one of the huge tanks. I sucked in a breath. Having trained both me and my sister, she’d grown to be something like a second mother to both of us.
Guess even if you pick your family, they can let you down. I mentally crossed her off my Christmas list. Bummer, I’d already gotten her a gift. Maybe I could return it?
Her credentials would also explain the vacant floors. Nothing clears a building faster than some bigwig telling you to get the fuck out.
“Agent White. Care to explain?” I kept my voice carefully neutral.
The hand holding the gun I’d pointed at Stryker shook. For the first time in my life my training refused to kick in. Every single time I was out in the field I knew one of my targets could wear a friend’s face. Hunters were killed. Hunters were turned.
The enemy can be someone you know.
At the academy they’d drill these words into our heads every single day.
Do not hesitate. Hesitation kills.
Vampires tended to look like us, act like us, right up until they went for your throat.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve hunted witches that had gone off the deep end. There were just as many criminals among my race than elsewhere.
