It waspast noon by the time Logan returned to the jail. He’d showered and changed into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt to go with his sneakers. He would have preferred shorts andnoshirt in the sweltering heat, but this wasn’t a beach day.
He’d walked Elena home only an hour ago from the gym, but though they’d only been apart for a little bit, he already missed her. He despised that they couldn’t spend more time together, but she was still anxious about what people would say, even if their relationship was the worst kept secret on the compound.
He doubted many of the hunters realized they were sleeping together. It would be alotmore of a scandal then; now, it was simply fodder for the gossip queens.
Two hunters stood outside the door, and when he entered, he discovered another five in the room, including Asher, Juan, and the doctor.
In the cells, Diego and Leonardo remained asleep, but Leonardo was starting to twitch. At some point, he’d dragged himself into the corner and curled into a ball.
“When did he wake up?” Logan asked with a wave toward Leonardo.
“About an hour ago,” Asher answered. “He only woke for long enough to crawl into the corner. I’m guessing he doesn’t like the sun.”
Logan frowned at the sleeping hunter in the corner. The only reason sunlight should bother him was if he’d killed an innocent, but that was if he was a normal vampire. Which he most certainly wasn’t.
“Wasn’t Manuel in that sun in the medical building?” Logan asked.
“Not direct sunlight,” the doctor answered.
“Leonardo started to smoke once the sun hit him,” Asher said. “I think we would have noticed if that happened to Manuel.”
“Interesting,” Logan muttered as he rubbed his chin. “The sun isn’t affecting me any more than normal since I killed Manuel.”
“Would it bother you after killing one person?” Juan asked.
“I called Declan today, and he confirmed it would. He said it wouldn’t be bad and I could still tolerate sunlight, but it would bother me some.”
“What does that mean?” Juan asked.
“It could mean two things; either they’re more demon or Savage than human now,” Logan said. “Or, because Manuel killed his wife and planned to keep killing, he’d lost the last of his humanity by the time I killed him.”
“They act a whole lot less human,” one of the hunters said.
Logan had to agree with him.
“There could be something more to it,” Logan continued.
“Like what?” the doctor asked.
“I don’t know, but after seeing Leonardo this morning, it’s obvious they’re something worse than a Savage. The Savages are brutal, ruthless killers, but they’re also calculating and intelligent. While they do lose control, they’re far more likely to maintain it. You can’t say that about Leonardo earlier.”
“No, you can’t,” Juan muttered.
They all turned to stare at the men in the cages.
“If the Savages and demons turn this loose on the human race, it will spread like wildfire through them. Manuel was free for maybe ten minutes, and he managed to kill one and turn two others. Imagine what one of them could do if it went unchecked and no one was around to bring it down,” Asher said.
“I don’t think this is meant for the human race,” Logan said. “I think the demons want to dominate and subjugate the humans, but they don’t want to destroy them. I’m not sure what the demons eat in Hell, but they feed on humans when they’re here. They can’t ruin that food supply, and let’s face it, they love to spread fear. Without humans, they can’t do that.”
“Who do you think it’s meant for then?” Juan asked.
“For the hunters and possibly the vampires in the Alliance. Although, we don’t know if the injection will work on a vampire.”
“I don’t want to know,” Asher said.
“Neither do I,” the doctor said. “If it does this to hunters, I can only imagine what it would do to a vampire, and none of those imaginings are good.”
No one spoke for a few minutes as they all pondered the horrible possibilities. Then, Logan continued with his train of thought from earlier.
