“What is it?” Logan asked Asher.
“Leonardo broke free of his restraints,” Asher answered.
Elena gasped. “How is that possible?”
“I don’t know.”
“Shit,” Logan said.
“They have five hunters in their guarding him, but I’m not sure it’s going to be enough, especially if Diego wakes too.”
He turned toward Elena. “You should stay here.”
“No way,” she said. “I’m a part of this too.”
“It’s dangerous to be anywhere near them,” he growled. “And we don’t know what we’re dealing with.”
“It’s as dangerous for you as it is for me; I’m going.”
Before he could respond, she jogged down the steps and started toward the prison. Logan muttered a curse under his breath and ran after her. Asher kept pace at his side.
Once he caught up to her, it took all he had not to drag her back to safety, but one of the things he loved most was her defiant spirit. Breaking that would destroy him too, and it would surely ruin their relationship.
“Stay by me when we get inside,” he told her.
Elena bristled over his commanding tone and was about to tell him that he wasn’t her boss. Then, she recalled what he looked like in that chair and closed her mouth. He’d regained control before opening her bedroom door, but he only had a thin grasp on it. Pushing him now might only lead to something worse than Leonardo breaking free of his chains.
When they neared the prison, Logan grasped Elena’s arm and slowed her as they walked toward the door. He strained to hear what was going on inside. He detected the low murmur of voices, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying, and they didn’t sound panicked.
He opened the door and stepped inside first. Elena entered behind him, and Asher stayed close to her as he followed them through the door.
Chapter Forty-One
Behind the thickbars of his cell, Leonardo paced like a caged tiger. Like Manuel, his eyes were entirely black, and the black blood flowing through his body emphasized all his veins. When he bared his fangs, he revealed the gaping maw of his black mouth.
Bile burned Elena’s throat as she gazed into that yawning black abyss of death and terror. For some reason, all she could picture was some kind of moss or fungus eating away at Leonardo’s flesh and causing him to rot from the inside out.
It was a disgusting image, but she couldn’t help picturing little black mushrooms growing inside him as the black ate him. And he was being eaten or rotting, or some repulsive thing was happening.
There was no doubt about that. The tips of his fingers were now completely black too. She hadn’t seen that with Manuel, but then she hadn’t looked too closely either.
“Did Manuel’s fingers turn black too, Dr. Espinosa?” she asked the man who stood only five feet away from her.
“Yes.”
“Is he rotting?” another hunter asked.
“No, or at least not from what I could tell after I examined Manuel.”
He’d done an autopsy on Manuel after Maria; Elena hadn’t been there for that one.
“From what I can tell, the color is settling deeper into some areas or maybe more fully into them. Since your fingers are almost always hanging down, it makes sense they would be one of those areas. I’m sure his feet are the same way. Manuel’s fingers and joints were still fully intact,” the doctor continued. “There was no sign of rot anywhere in him.”
“Were there mushrooms?” Elena asked in a voice barely more than a whisper.
The corners of Dr. Espinosa’s mouth quirked into a smile. “No fungus either and no alien life-forms. Everything was normal except for the fact his blood had turned black. There was still some red in some of the organs. Not in the bloodstream, but some of the organs. It gives me hope we can save them.”
Elena tamped down the rush of excitement that followed the doctor’s words. She yearned for that hope too, but she was afraid of being crushed by it. She prayed he was right.
