She pushed herself up until she was sittingwith her back against the glass. When she felt strong enough torise, she stood and took in the other cages.
There weren’t as many Savages down here asbefore, but they’d recaptured almost a dozen of them. Thosevampires stared back at her with red eyes full of hatred andcuriosity. For the first time, a human stood amongst them.
She kept herself composed as her stomachrevolted against the idea of using the bucket or eating the food onthe tray. She’d never given much thought to the lack of privacydown here, but now she would have to use the bucket to piss andshit in front of everyone.
Her head tipped back, and she looked up atthe glass. Her father stood there with Delilah, watching her. Tothem, she was another experiment. Except her experimentationwouldn’t start until Kyle arrived, and she had no doubt he wouldcome for her.
Her throat closed as she recalled the bloodspraying out of him. He couldn’t die from his injuries, couldhe?
She didn’t think so. None of the vampires haddied down here, and they’d done a whole lot of horrible things tothem. He would survive those wounds. He had to.
Determined to hold onto hope, she refused tolet herself think Kyle was dead. If she did, she wouldn’t keep ittogether in this place. He was alive, and he would come forher.
And then what?
Melanie couldn’t let herself think abouteverything that could go completely wrong if he showed up here.They’d just gotten their freedom back, and now they could lose itagain. And they could lose a whole lot more. There was a goodchance neither of them would get out of this alive.
And if he didn’t realize they were somehowtracking him, or Lucy, or both, then her father and Delilah wouldknow the second they arrived.
For a second, she almost threw herselfagainst the glass and started screaming as she begged to be setfree and demanded they treat her with dignity, but she didn’tmove.
She would not fall apart in front of thesemonsters. She wouldnotbreak.
It only took two steps to reach the tray offood. Sitting down beside it, she lifted the peanut butter sandwichand bit into it. It tasted like sawdust in her mouth as she chewedand swallowed.
She made herself portray an air ofindifference as she finished the sandwich and shifted her attentionto the fruit cup beside it. It wasn’t until she was halfway throughthe bottle of water that she realized she should have drunk moreslowly. Now, she would have to use the bucket far earlier thanshe’d intended.
Then, she decided she wasn’t going to letthem know it bothered her. She took another sip of water, recappedit, and set the bottle down.
Resting her head against the glass, shefeigned nonchalance as every part of her protested thisimprisonment. She wanted to run free, but there was a very goodpossibility she would never know freedom again.
Melanie wouldn’t let herself consider that;if she did, she would go insane in this cage, and she couldn’tafford to turn into a raving lunatic.
CHAPTER 43
“How did they findyou?” his dad demanded once Kyle finished telling them everythingthat happened.
“I don’t know,” Kyle said. “I didn’t considerit until now.”
He’d been too busy rushing to feed, heal, andget to Melanie to consider that detail. Howhadthey foundthem? There was no way they could have known where they weregoing.
He turned to look at Lucy, who frowned backat him. Then, she glanced at her clothes. She started patting overher pockets, and he did the same, but his scrubs didn’t leave manyplaces to hide things.
“Here,” Cassidy handed him another bag ofblood from the cooler Dante had brought out from the back of one ofthe SUVs.
He ripped the top off the blood bag and drankit; his hunger was finally starting to ebb. Almost his whole familywas here. The only ones who couldn’t be here were Emma and Mia asthey’d stayed at the compound with the children.
“Could they have stuck a chip or somethinginside me?” he asked.
“They could have,” Julian said. “But yourbody probably would have pushed it out already.”
“Yeah, it would,” his dad said. “Our bodiesdon’t keep foreign objects inside them.”
“What about me?” Lucy asked. “What if theystuck something inside me when I was still human? Would it still bein there?”
“I don’t know,” his dad said. “But I doubtit. I think once you turned, your body would try to expel it.”
“What if it’s been in me for years and mybody has accepted it as a part of me?” she asked nervously.
