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I obeyed. It didn't seem to help much.
"I'm with you. If it gets too bad, I'll get you out. I promise."
I swallowed, pulled my elbow free, and grabbed his hand. Tight. "Let's go."
Before whatever courage I had deserted me.
Quinn opened the door. He had his vampire face on, yet concern sparkled in his eyes. Or maybe that was a trick of the light flowing from the brightly lit corridor beyond the door.
Or even wishful thinking.
Our footsteps echoed in the silence, the concrete cold under my toes. Every five steps there was a door - an indication that the rooms beyond were small. We didn't stop at any of them, walking to the end of the corridor and turning left.
Jack came out of the end room as we reached the halfway point. He was carrying a clipboard and his expression was grim. "This place is nothing more than a breeding pen."
We stopped, and my gaze went past him. Saw the white walls. The neat tuck of white sheet around the mattress. The sparkle of the chains that rested atop of it.
My stomach churned. "This was my room?"
Jack glanced down at the folder he was holding.
"Yeah." He hesitated. "You were in a coma after the accident. They didn't expect you to come out of it."
"I escaped because they didn't bother to either drug me or chain me, like everyone else."
Jack nodded. "I'm no doctor, but looking at these records I have to say it's a wonder you did recover."
I released Rhoan's hand and took a step toward the room. A chill ran down my spine, and something sharp flickered through my head.
I swallowed heavily, and took another step.
Red needles of fire lanced through my brain, and sweat broke out across my brow. I shuddered, clenching my fists, fighting the urge to run as far and as fast as I could from this place and the memories that stirred in agony.
Rhoan touched my shoulder, and I jumped.
"Maybe you shouldn't push," he said softly.
"There's something I need to remember."
Why I was so sure, I couldn't say. If I was in a coma, then surely this place would mean nothing to me. Yet I'd become aware enough to escape. Maybe the answers we needed were locked behind that threatening wall of pain.
I licked dry lips and took another step.
The pain became a tidal wave, and I was falling, screaming, to the floor. oment I paused, the shadows attacked.
Only it wasn't shadows but a creature - as black as night, as invisible as a vampire, and just as fast.
Luckily, so was I.
I rolled off the bed and twisted around, lashing out with a bare foot. The blow connected with solid darkness and the creature grunted, but didn't waver. It flowed over the bed and leapt at me, a flash of deeper black that slashed with wicked-looking barbed claws.
I ducked the blow then dove sideways, over the bed, grabbing at the weapons lying casually on the bedside table. My fingers scrapped across metal, sending the lasers flying even as I grasped the knife.
"Rhoan!"
My shout rang across the silence. The creature hissed, a hushed sound that nevertheless irritated my ears. It came at me, a blur of arms and legs and claws. I backed away fast, ducking and weaving and slashing as hard as I could with the knife. One blow hit flesh, slicing deep and hard, until the shock of hitting bone reverberated up my arm. There was a plop, followed by a gush of stinking blood, then the door was flung open and the room flooded by sunlight, revealing the creature to be humanoid in shape but not proportion.
"Drop," Rhoan said.
