“Maybe the demon blood is becoming stronger in him,” Saxon suggested.
Logan didn’t like that idea. It should get weaker, not stronger, or at least that’s whathewanted it to do.
“Maybe he’s fucking with us,” Killean suggested. “Look at the way he’s staring into the camera. He knows we’re watching him.”
“Do you think anyone can lay that still for so long?” Declan asked.
Killean ran a hand through his disheveled brown hair. “What else does he have to do all day?”
“I hate this,” Saxon muttered.
“Let’s hope the little serial-killer-in-training is just screwing with us,” Killean said. “Because if the demon blood is getting stronger in him, then we might as well kill him now.”
For once, Logan was on the side of Killean’s often brutal and callous ways.
“I think he’s messing with us,” Logan said. “The vampires in Arizona aren’t doing this. If the demon blood does get stronger in them, then we would be seeing changes like this inthemfirst, but we’re not.”
“I’d almost prefer that to the idea of this freakshow deciding to fuck with our heads,” Saxon said.
“So would I,” Nathan muttered.
They fell silent as Josiah rose in a fluid motion that reminded Logan of the vampires rising from the coffins in those B-horror movies he once loved so much. With Elena in his life, he’d rediscovered his love for those movies.
Last night, they laid out a blanket on the floor of his room and settled in to watch some of those old flicks. At first, it was a little strange not to have chocolate and popcorn, but he discovered holding her in his arms while they became engrossed by the tales was far better than any snack.
Not only did he have his mate, but she was an equal and a friend who made him laugh and shared his dreams and his love for cheesy acting and bad graphics. He couldn’t wait to discover what each new day would hold for them.
And watching Josiah, he was reminded that many of their days would include carnage, death, and uncertainty. It made him love her all the more as he would cherish every second of happiness they got to share.
Once he was on his feet, Josiah stood with his head tilted back and his eyes fixed on the camera. Logan kept waiting for him to move, but he didn’t. When another half an hour passed, he was almost ready to go in there and stake Josiah himself.
A door opening drew his attention to some of the guards as they opened the thick, steel door separating the cafeteria from the hall where the cells were located. The hunters nodded to them before going to the refrigerator and stove on that side of the room.
Logan didn’t pay any more attention to them, but he heard them opening and closing things. Part of the reason he didn’t pay attention was because a tingling had started at the base of his skull and now crept down his spine.
Logan glanced around the room as he sought the source of his sudden unease, but everything seemed normal… if he didn’t count the twisted hunter still staring at the camera.
And then, a sinking feeling settled in his stomach as the others shifted uneasily around him. He opened his mouth to say something when Elena’s words exploded into his mind.
“We have trouble! Come quick and be safe.”
Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who got a message from his mate as Declan rose from his seat so fast the chair skidded into Logan. Logan shoved it aside as Killean swore and ran toward the door. Saxon was close on his heels.
“Stay here!” Nathan shouted at the hunters in the kitchen as he and Logan sprinted after them. “And lock everything down!”
Chapter Fifty-One
The rideback to the compound was the longest fifteen minutes of Logan’s life. Normally, it took about twenty minutes to get to the prison from the compound, but Declan was doing a hundred through quaint, residential neighborhoods marked at thirty miles per hour.
If someone pulled them over, they could always change the police officer’s memories, but Logan wasn’t sure the officer would survive the encounter. They were all too enraged and too hyped up to handle a human right now.
Finally, they left the smaller neighborhoods behind for the more rural land surrounding the compound. And though his thoughts were mostly on Elena, Logan was relieved when Declan didn’t run anyone over.
With every passing mile, Elena’s increasing distress brushed against his mind before she shut him out completely. Probably because his words and questions would distract her from whatever was happening... at least that’s what he told himself.
He didn’t know what else it could be, and he couldn’t think about the possibility something had gotten a hold of her and injected her or hurt her, and that was why she shut him out. She hadn’t left the compound; he was sure of that, and he was sure none of the others’ mates had left either. He didn’t see Ronan permitting them to leave with everything else going on.
But how could the Savages or demons have found the compound? They’d always been so careful about their comings and goings.
