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When Leah recognized the room number they passed, something clicked within her. “Stop! Stop!” she shouted, pounding on Julian’s chest.
“What’s wrong?” Julian asked.
“We have to go back. Back! To the last room. Please!” She pushed the sense of urgency toward Julian.
“Let’s go,” Julian said before anyone could argue.
Devon and Marek followed them to the laboratory.
“We need to get out of here,” Marek said, his tone disapproving. “The others can only distract the Hunters for so long, and we need to get as far away as we can before sunrise.”
“I know, but this is important.”
Leah jumped out of Julian’s arms and searched through the cupboards. There, in the third one, she saw them. As she reached for them, her vision blurred, an all-consuming pain exploded in her head.
She recognized the feeling. It was the same one she had right before she staked Julian.
Arms dropping, Leah dropped her head into her hands.
“Leah, what’s wrong?” Julian was at her side in an instant.
“Dmitri,” she gasped through the searing agony. “He’s trying…”
Something warm flowed down her nose. Instantly, all three vampires stiffened. Leah reached out to Julian, who took her hand and squeezed it.
“Fight it. You can fight it.”
“Get me… get me the shot…”
Struggling, Leah pointed to the cupboard she was reaching for. Julian opened it.
“Which one?” He grabbed a handful of items to show her.
Leah, leaning against the counter, her chest heaving with ragged breaths, grabbed the one in his left hand. She tore open the plastic and jabbed the needle into the vein in her arm. For a few seconds, there was only the sound of her harsh breathing as the solution snaked through her veins. The pain diminished and then was gone.
“What’s that?” Julian asked with suspicion.
Leah bit her lip. He wouldn’t like the answer.
“I think I know,” Devon said from the opposite side of the room.
His body was rigid with leashed anger. Leah didn’t want to get near him for fear of the Councilor losing control of his palpable rage. Steeling herself, she followed Julian to Devon’s side, and looked through the window into the other chamber.
At the sight that greeted them, Leah gasped with horror.
Five vampires, their bodies desiccated, were chained in beds. Their skeletons and veins stood in sharp contrast against their papery skin. Each of them had two IVs inserted into them, one leading to a machine that had a small tank filled with blood, the other with a bag of blood hanging on an IV stand.
Though the vampires must be starving, they didn’t struggle against their bonds. They lay still. They were being fed just enough to keep them alive to produce more vampire blood.
“The bastards!” Devon punched the glass.
“This was what he wanted for you,” Leah whispered, not sure how she even formed words as bile rose in her throat. She couldn’t think of Julian like this, her brain too horrified to even form such an image.
“Fuck this,” Devon hissed and stalked through the door to the other side. “Is there blood in there?”
Leah followed Devon’s gesture and opened the fridge, which was full of blood bags stacked together. “Yes!”
“No, it’ll take too long to revive them at this point. We don’t have time.” Marek placed a restraining hand on Devon before he unplugged the first vampire.
