“If there’s something inside you, then youwould feel it,” Dante said. “Feel the skin around your hands, theback of your neck, your legs, anywhere.”
“Do you want me to help?” Cassidy asked.
“Yes,” Lucy said.
The two of them worked together to feel overLucy’s skin together. When she removed her shoes, Dante took themfrom her. Cassidy and Lucy worked on her while Dante pulled out thesoles of Lucy’s sneakers.
“I don’t feel anything,” Cassidy said.
“That’s because it’s not inside her,” Dantesaid as he held up a small chip he’d removed from inside hersneaker.
“Oh,” Lucy said, and her hand flew to hermouth as she paled considerably. “Oh no. They have Melanie becauseofme!”
Kyle stared at the chip as he kicked himselfin the ass for not thinking about something like that sooner.
“Melanie probably has one in her sneaker,too,” he said.
Lucy’s hand fell from her mouth. “Thoseassholes.”
Dante crushed the chip before dropping it.“Now, they’ll never see us coming.”
“How do we get into this place?” Ethanasked.
“That’s going to be the tricky part,” Lucysaid. “I’m sure the Savages I released killed some of them, butthere will be a whole lot more guards on duty now. They’ll expectKyle to return.”
“Why do you say that?” Stefan inquired.
“Well, they may all be mad scientists, butthey’re not blind. He chased down the SUV she was in, he got us outof that facility in the first place, and he didn’t kill us. Well…they might think I’m dead, but they know he kept Melanie alive.They’re going to expect him to come for her, and they’ll preparefor it, though hopefully less prepared now that you’ve destroyedthe chip. And they definitely won’t be prepared for our newnumbers. They willnotexpect this many vampires to descendon them, but theyareexpecting something.”
“And I’ll get us more numbers,” Declan said.“I’ll call Ronan for help.”
“Thank you,” Kyle said.
“So, what is the best way to approach thisplace?” Mike asked.
Lucy picked a stick up from the ground andstarted drawing in the dirt. “Maybe we can figure that out,” shesaid. “It’s surrounded by woods on these three sides.”
She drew the chain-link fence, the mainbuilding, the garage, the two sets of stairs, and the elevator.
“The first level is the main entrance,” Lucysaid. “There were always two guards there before. I’m sure therewill be at least three times that number now. They’ve probablyrepaired the main gate by now, and there will be guards there.
“Most of the bedrooms are located on thesecond level. The third level is the gym, cafeteria, and storage.The fourth floor holds the laboratories as well as the controlroom. And the fifth floor is where all the cells and vampiresare.”
“Where will they have Melanie?” Kyleasked.
Lucy stared at her crude drawing as she satback on her heels. “When they interrogated her, they kept her onthe fourth floor, but when they locked her away for a week, it wasin her room.”
“You know where that is,” Kyle stated.
“Yes, but I don’t think she’ll be there.”
“Why not?” Ian asked.
“Because they’re expecting Kyle to come, andhe’s proven to be a pretty big adversary; they’ll try to draw himfurther into the building,” Lucy said. “And they’ll want him asclose to those cells as possible. Or at least, I think theywill.”
“Where do you think she is?” Aiden asked.
“I think she’s on the fifth floor. Of course,we’ll have to check her room on the second floor just in case, butI think she’s going to be in one of the cells.”
