Her skin crawled at the idea of themtogether. They were like two serial killers teaming up todestroy.
She’d never known what their end goal waswith all this, and she didn’t think she’d ever understand it.Sometimes, she questioned iftheyknew.
The two of them were imprisoning andtorturing these vampires to satisfy their sick quest for vengeance,but they were also doing it for some other nefarious reason. Andshe suspected it might be to discover the secret of immortalitywithout all the pesky complications of drinking blood and killingothers.
However, she didn’t think killing otherswould be a problem for her father or Delilah. If it weren’t fortheir hatred of vampires, they probably would have turnedthemselves into one years ago. However, despite the fact sheconsidered them to be maniacs, they did despise vampires.
Lucy’s father left when he found out hermother was pregnant, but her stepfather came into their lives whenLucy was two. She’d considered him her dad and said Delilah lovedhim. When a vampire killed him, Delilah went off the deep end.
Delilah and her father connected online. Shedidn’t know where they found each other, the crazy people whobelieved in vampires site maybe, but whatever it was, those twocrazy kids had united.
And when they did, their hatred, curiosity,and crusade to learn more compelled Delilah into helping her fatherbuild this place. Over the years, they gathered more followers andmore vampires.
The elevator doors dinged open, but Melaniecouldn’t bring herself to move. So she stood there, waiting forsomeone to tell her to go back. However, unlike above, no onestepped forward to block the doors.
When the doors started to close, she stuckher foot out, and it opened again.
Taking a deep breath, she exited the elevatorand waited for the guard to point his gun at her and tell her to goback. However, he simply lifted an eyebrow and didn’t say a word.Two other men stood in the room; each of them guarded the doors tothe stairwells.
Melanie had expected them to stop her, andnow she didn’t know what to do. Standing there, she stared at theglass cages until her eyes fell on Kyle. He rose from the groundand walked toward her. He couldn’t walk far.
When he rested his hand against the glass,her feet started moving before she commanded them to go. She waitedfor the guard to grab her back, but he didn’t. The red eyes in theroom followed her every movement, but she kept her gaze on Kyle. Hewas all that mattered, and she was determined to reach him.
She stopped a foot away from the glass andalmost touched it but stopped herself. They couldn’t know how muchshe missed him or that he still mattered to her.Hecouldn’tknow it either.
If everything between them had only been agame to him, she would never give him the satisfaction of seeinghow much she still cared for him. Instead, she stood and simplystared at him.
“I don’t know what I’m doing here,” sheadmitted.
“Neither do I,” he said dryly.
She couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “Iguess we’re in the same boat then, except yours is a lotsmaller.”
“Are you a prisoner here too, Melanie?”
“I am now,” she admitted.
“Because of me?”
“Yes, and because of me too. They can’t trustyou didn’t get into my head and mess around with it, and neithercan I.”
“I didn’t do that to you. I know my wordmight not mean a whole lot to you right now, and I understand why,but Ineverfucked with your head, Melanie. You have to knowthat.”
“That’s the problem. I’m not sure what I knowanymore.”
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. I’m not sure how much trust to put intoyou either. I don’t think you set me up for this; you didn’t knowwhat I was, but now that you do, are you happy I’m here?”
She opened her mouth to tell him no, ofcourse she wasn’t happy to see him here, but then she recalled thecameras everywhere. They’d never let her return to the first floorand the outside if they heard her say that.
“Have youreallynever killed anyonebefore?” she asked.
Kyle didn’t miss that she didn’t answer hisquestion. But he didn’t know if it was because she didn’t know theanswer or because they were watching and listening. She may havemore freedom than him, but she was as trapped as him, and she hadto be careful, or she could end up behind a glass wall too.
“I have never killed a human,” he said.
