“Code red in the Happy House!” a guard shouted.
A door opened down the hall, and we could hear the distant sound of high-pitched screams. It had to be the girls’ recreation time, because it sounded like the female inmates were fighting down the hall.
The door slammed shut again, echoing throughout the cell block. People shook the bars on their cells and demanded to know what had happened.
“Hands inside your cages!” a guard barked as he went around smacking people with his baton.
Whispers began to spread from cell to cell.
“Apparently, the guys in the cell at the end of the hall saw blood on the guards’ uniforms,” Ivy whispered through the wall. “The guards mentioned a few of the girls died.”
“They’re trying to scare us,” Chancey insisted.
“Nah. I can smell the blood,” Ivy said.
The truth became utterly apparent once we were led to the Happy House. We were escorted down the hall in chains, and my shoes squished through a sticky liquid that had to be blood.
“There are bodies up ahead,” Chancey told me. “A bunch of girls, all piled up on one another.”
“Keep it moving!” the guards demanded. “Nothing to see here.”
We entered the Happy House and were unchained, but the room seemed quieter than usual.
I leaned over to Ivy. “What’s going on?”
Ivy swallowed audibly, and I could feel them shaking. “There’s blood everywhere— puddles of it.”
“Looks like the other vamps in here want to drink it, judging by the red in their eyes,” Chancey whispered.
Someone pushed past us— a vamp, judging by the strength. “Free breakfast!”
Slurping noises came from the ground, and I realized he wasdrinkingit. I waited for the guards to come, to make a scene out of it. No way would they let the vamps findpleasurein this. If anything, I thought they left the blood there to torture them.
“Where are the guards?” I asked.
“Good question,” Chancey mused. “There are a few, but not as many as yesterday.”
“Come to think of it, I haven’t heard Captain all morning,” I realized. “This isn’t right. Cellblock 9 should be overflowing with guards. The Warden must be up to something.”
The vampire kept slurping, and Ivy nearly gagged. “That’s absolutely disgusting.”
The vamp on the ground must’ve heard him, because he leapt to his feet. “You think you’rebetter than me?”
One second the two vampires were standing beside us. The next, the vamp’s voice came from across the room. Ivy cried out, as if they were being pinned to the wall. Chancey and I raced over to them. I grabbed for the vamp, but he swung his arm out and hit me in the face. My lip, which had been healing, split open again, and pain radiated across the bruises. Chancey threw some punches, but he was flung backward into me.
“Oh, you’re a darling,” the vamp said as he held Ivy to the wall. “I didn’t realize we were in the presence of alady. Howrudeof me. Perhaps I should share.”
The vamp grabbed Ivy and hauled them back over to the puddle. He was so fast that Chancey and I couldn’t get to him.
“Drink!” the vamp demanded.
“Ives, you don’t have to!” Chancey insisted.
“Let go of me!” Ivy screamed.
We reached the vamp, and I nearly tripped over Ivy’s legs in the process. The vampire pinned Ivy down, holding their head into the pool of blood. We tried to pull him off our friend, but in the state I was in, I was no match for him. He elbowed me hard in the ribs, and I gasped for breath.
Hands landed on me and yanked me backward. Chancey shouted curses as he too was pulled off.
