But they must have; the Alliance would havedone their best not to kill humans. However, they must havesucceeded in subduing them.
“What do we do about this place?” Melanieasked.
“We let the Savages have it,” Kylereplied.
For once, those bloodthirsty fucks were thelesser of two evils and were about to be an asset.
Melanie didn’t want to ask, but she had to.“My father?”
“He was in the control room with my mom thelast time I saw them. They were alive, but…” Lucy held up her handsand shrugged. “I’m sure some of their experiments will findthem.”
A sick feeling twisted in Melanie’s stomach,but even if she could save him, she didn’t think he’d welcome herhelp. To him, she was nothing but a traitor, and he probablyconsidered her worse than the vampires he hated so much.
He’d chosen this path when he locked heraway. She didn’t want him to die, but she’d prefer not to see himagain, and she didn’t want him inflicting any more misery on Kyleand his family.
Kyle opened the back door of one of thevehicles and ushered her inside. Lucy slipped in on the other side,and Melanie found herself wedged between them as Dante climbedbehind the wheel and Cassidy settled into the passenger seat.Julian and Aida climbed in and sat in the row behind her.
Julian lifted a cooler from the far back andopened the lid. He removed some blood bags and passed them out tothe others before handing Kyle a second one. “Let me know if youneed more; you’re pretty banged up.”
“I will,” Kyle muttered as he used his teethto tear the top off the bag.
Dante started the vehicle, and when theydrove around the compound, Melanie spotted the guards lying on theground. They’d been restrained with zip ties and hogtied. Some ofthem squirmed against their restraints, but the others watched thevehicles drive by with a resigned air.
“The Alliance members must have fallen backto keep watch after subduing the guards,” Julian said.
“The Alliance members?” Melanie asked.
Kyle filled her in on the extra help they’dreceived as shadows emerged from the trees, and the members of theAlliance fell in beside the vehicles. The vamps and hunters joggeddown the road beside them until they reached the place where theyleft Abby.
Abby climbed out from behind the wheel of theSUV. She rested her hand on her belly as she watched them approach.When they pulled up beside her, Brian climbed out of the vehiclehe’d shared with Isabelle, Stefan, and Ethan. They embraced beforeBrian guided her around to the passenger side, opened the door, andhelped her inside.
“I’ll be back,” Julian said.
He climbed out of the SUV with the cooler andran to the other vehicles to distribute the blood. When Melanieturned to look back at the facility, she spotted smoke rising fromits location.
“The facility is on fire,” she remarked.
“Good,” Lucy said. “I hope Hell claims itsashes.”
Melanie agreed with her, but she couldn’tshake the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach or her unexpectedsorrow.
“What if the survivors come after us?”Melanie asked.
“I don’t think there’s going to be manysurvivors.” Kyle tossed his empty second bag onto the floor andtook a deep breath as the bullet in his right lung finally backedits way out. “But if there are, they won’t find us. Let me haveyour sneakers.”
Melanie glanced questioningly at him, but sheremoved her sneakers and handed them over. He tore the soles outuntil he located the chip tucked within. Pulling it out, he showedit to her.
Melanie’s jaw dropped when she realized howthey’d located her. “This is allmyfault. Everyone is hurtbecause ofme.”
“It’s not your fault,” Kyle assured her.
“They had one on me too,” Lucy said.
Kyle crushed the chip and threw it out thewindow. He tossed her sneakers out behind it; he wasn’t taking anychances.
“Let’s get out of here,” Julian said.
“With pleasure,” Dante replied.
