She found a side door to the large building, the word “Laboratory” printed in gold letters right above a keypad to swipe her badge. Except her badge wouldn’t work, of course, because it was fake.
Knowing there were cameras everywhere, she made a big scene of trying to get her badge to work, then threw up her arms and made her way around to the front. She spotted another way in and headed that way, only to get cut off when a doctor, or scientist, or whatever he was, came from the other side. Everly plastered a wide smile on her face as they met at the door, hoping he would do the gentlemanly thing and let her in. He did, after giving her a sweeping look that widened at her purple sneakers and got stuck at her boobs. With another smile she thanked him and hurried on her way. Which, hopefully, was a different direction than the one he was going.
Turned out it wasn’t, and he followed her around the corner and rushed forward to open another door for her.
Everly smiled her thanks and stepped through, wondering if she should say something or if he’d noticed her aids, when the entire building rumbled beneath their feet. She stumbled into the man and he caught her by the elbow as they both regained their footing.
She looked up at him just in time to catch him saying, “…the hell was that?”
Everly shook her head when it happened again.
The doctor/scientist took off at a jog, and Everly followed him. She would rather have gone off on her own, but every door they’d passed had some kind of security measure on it. She wouldn’t get very far without a badge that worked. Or without the correct fingerprints, she soon found out as they reached the center of the building.
Catching the heavy door, she followed him into a room and ran smack into his back. Her companion had pulled up short two steps inside the doorway, and Everly sidestepped to see what it was that had him in such a state. Her breath froze in her chest.
She recognized this place. It was the lab Devon had hacked into. Only it wasn’t her brother she was looking at in horror. A full-grown dragon crouched inside some type of cell, one large wing half in and half out of the interior glass. Shattered pieces littered the floor, glinting in the flash of the emergency lights. Its skin was scaly green with patches of white that didn’t look right, like maybe it was sick or something. Golden eyes burning with rage skittered about the room, glaring at the man before they found her and stuck. As she watched, it opened its mouth and inhaled, its chest filling with air, before releasing a stream of flames that would’ve burned her and her companion alive if it weren’t for the glass along the front of the cage that was still intact. It yanked its wing back inside and then busted it through again, enlarging the hole it had already made.
Matthew had just tried to burn her alive.
Once the initial shock began to wear off, Everly had no doubt this creature was her brother. She could tell by the cock of its head and the color of its eyes and the feel of its rage. It was all very familiar to her. This creature that was her brother, and yet wasn’t. The Matthew she’d gotten to know these last few months was a gentle soul with an easy smile and laughing eyes, not this raging beast. But something inside of her recognized her connection with him all the same.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a woman in a lab coat she hadn’t noticed before. She was gesturing madly as she talked to the man Everly had followed there. Neither of them paid her any mind as she walked closer to the cage.
The dragon watched her, lowering its head as she gripped the bars surrounding it. Everly smiled, a strange sense of calm floating through her. “Think you can get yourself out of here?”
In response, he rammed the glass with his head, hard enough to shake the room, and then he threw back his head and opened his mouth wide. Long, white teeth nearly the length of her forearm glinted in the flickering lights.
She didn’t need to hear the sound that came out, she could feel it reverberating all the way through to her bones. Losing interest in her, the dragon went back to working on the hole it had created and started ramming the points of an already bloody wing at the loose edges. Everly turned to check on the doctors and found them frantically shouting at each other as the woman stared at the computer screen in front of her and gestured with her hands as the man yanked at the door. Probably to let in the armed guards she was positive had been called to control the situation, given the flashing red alarm lights that were going off above the door.
Spotting a large microscope on a table to the side of the cage, Everly grabbed it. It was pretty heavy. Heavy enough to break glass.
Chapter 21
Hawke winced as the screech of a dragon ripped through his sensitive eardrums. Gritting his teeth, ignoring the taste of his own blood when his fangs sliced through the inside of his mouth, he ripped the entry gate to the Parasupe labs from its locking mechanism and entered the compound. Stealth wasn’t necessary this time. No guards were there to stop him. By the sounds of it, they were otherwise occupied.
He’d come alone. There was no reason to ask Kohl to leave the coven when he could easily catch up to Everly and bring her back. But she’d manage to send him on quite a chase, and when he’d found the rental car parked down the road, he’d figured out how.
Had she planned this all along? And didn’t tell him?
As he neared the lab at the center of the grounds, he fell into step with the fifty or so humans who had come running from other buildings. Some guards, some just humans in white coats who were working late. None of them paid the vampire in the hot pink shirt more than a passing glance. They had bigger things to worry about. Way bigger things.
Inside, the building shuddered around them, and some of the humans stopped and looked at each other while a few others wasted no time in turning around and hightailing it back outside. Even a few of the guards. Cowards. Hawke ignored them all, shoving bodies out of his way as he jogged toward the center of the building where they were holding Everly’s brother. She was in there. And he didn’t need the abandoned car to tell him that. Her blood called to him as soon as he’d gotten within a few miles of the place, long before he’d found the rental.
Guards were trying to bust in the door when he reached the interior of the lab. The building shuddered again, and he heard glass shattering and a woman screaming. Fear shot through him for a split second. But, wait. Not Everly. Someone else.
With little effort, he tossed bodies away from the door and ripped it from its hinges. As soon as it was gone, two humans in lab coats ran past him. Hawke let them go. He had little interest in them or the destruction of their lab. Which was exactly what was happening. Inside, Everly’s shifter brother was in full dragon form, and using one wing to bust through the special glass between bouts of angry shrieks and gusts of fire.
Another woman with bright red hair in a lab coat was near the hole the dragon was breaking. She wasn’t trying to stop it. She was helping him break out.
“Everly! Stop!” She didn’t hear him, of course. But she must’ve noticed something, felt something, because she stopped mid-swing and looked right at him. Hawke held his hands out in front of him, palms out. “Honey, please. Stop. You can’t let him out of there.” Pointing to the dragon, he shook his head to emphasize what he was saying.
She gave him a sad smile and went back to breaking glass without bothering to answer him. She wasn’t nearly as effective as the dragon was, even with only one bloody wing, but that didn’t matter. Judging by the size of that hole, Hawke knew he only had a matter of a minute or two before the dragon broke free.
Repetitive popping noises broke out around him before he could get to her, and he felt the red-hot heat of newly fired bullets streak by him as the guards finally shut their gaping jaws and started doing something about the situation.
By firing at bulletproof glass.
Without thought, Hawke launched himself at Everly and knocked her down onto the floor. Fire slammed into his chest, shoulder, and neck as some of the bullets found him. Bullets that would’ve went through Everly. The rest of them bounced off the glass or peppered the walls.
