Chapter 52
Laurie
At the break of dawn, I approached Exercitus Biomedical with my heart in my throat.
The high-rise building looked nothing like the looming, villainous structure I had expected.
It stretched to the sky in a sweep of polished chrome, smooth glass windows reflecting the first few rays of sunlight streaking over the horizon.
The streets were quiet—as quiet as this city would allow, at least—with only a few passersby clad in suits and carrying briefcases, all of them hurrying past without a backward glance.
No one noticed me dawdling there on the sidewalk across the street.
No one paid any mind to the violent way my body was shaking.
Looking up at that towering structure, and knowing my enemies were waiting for me inside, I felt small. I felt small and vulnerable and downright terrified; I crossed the street anyway.
The glass doors slid open silently as I approached, and as I stepped into the lobby, I was greeted by two strangers.
Two men in black suits with sharp charcoal eyes trained on me.
Both of them bore bland smiles, and facial features so fine I had to wonder if they’d been sculpted by hand.
I didn’t have to see their fangs to know they were vampires, but both of them flashed their pointed canines anyway.
I flinched away as the one on the left stepped forward and inclined his head. “Ms. Montgomery, welcome. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.”
A vein of anger ignited in me at his cheery delivery of the lines, but I tamped it down.
I had to play my cards right. I was important to them—important enough that they seemed willing to treat me with a smidge of dignity if it meant luring me back.
They needed me, I knew that. Before I’d escaped, I’d learned from the Doctor that I was apparently the perfect model for creating hybrids.
Something in my genes was valuable to them.
They hadn’t anticipated my escape the first time, and I had no doubt they would never allow me a second chance, but if I was going to return for good, I could at least make some demands.
Knowing how much I mattered to them, I had to find some way to manipulate this agreement.
I had to twist this deal into something that suited me.
Sure, they had me backed into a corner, but they didn’t know the intensity of my bite.
So I lifted my chin, met those coal black eyes and forced my words out with an edge of steel. “I want to meet him. The man at the top.”
The man’s expression didn’t waver, his smile held firmly in place. “Well, you’re in luck.” He jerked his chin at the elevator across the room. “That is precisely where you’re headed. The director is most interested in making your acquaintance.”
“Oh.” I fumbled, suddenly weak at the knees at just how easy that had been. “That’s… good.”
It must have shown on my face, the colliding sensations of terror and disbelief, because the man’s empty smile widened.
Two years I’d been hunting their leader, and now I was going to meet the guy face to face.
Two years of fantasizing all the many ways I’d make him suffer, and now he was here, within my grasp—and he wanted to meet me.
I forced my expression blank, though my fingers still quivered at my sides. The lobby guy was still watching me with those odd, hollow eyes. I moved to step past him, but his arm swept out in front of me. “Uh, one moment, please.”
I followed his gesturing hand to the metal detector to our right, then met those dark eyes again. His smile was uncanny, not a hint of warmth behind it. He looked at me like I was nothing but meat, though his voice retained that polite, padded tone. “If you’d be so kind…”
I bristled. The detector would shriek like a banshee once it caught the gun under my jacket. Better to announce the weapon on my own terms. It was the last thing I wanted to do, it felt like stripping down right in front of them and leaving myself open for attack, but it couldn’t be helped.
With a strategically blank face, and though it pained me to let go of my final piece of protection, I slid the gun from beneath my jacket, holding it by the barrel, and handed it to the lobby guy. His eyes lit with smug satisfaction as he accepted the weapon and secured it at his belt.
I kept my mouth shut but catalogued every detail of the exchange, already scheming ten steps ahead on how to get my hands on it again. Then, with a wry smile loaded with snark, I strode through the detector; it stayed mute. I was officially weaponless and at their mercy.
When I made it through the detector without a hitch, the second vampire man offered an approving nod, then flanked me as we approached the elevator paneled in black glass. The same guy tried guiding me by the elbow, but the moment his fingers made contact, I jerked free.
“Touch me again and you’ll lose a finger.” I hissed the words out through gritted teeth. “I can walk perfectly fine by myself.”
I was no longer a child, and I wouldn’t let them treat me like one.
I wasn’t property either, and I wouldn’t stand their hands anywhere near me.
I lifted my head, held it high. It seemed River had rubbed off on me more than I’d expected.
I found myself feeling suddenly defiant, steadfast. I may have been their prisoner, but I would not let them push me around.
The vampire man withdrew his hand, lips thinning to a line and looking at his buddy for guidance. The other guy just shrugged, like this was nothing but a mild temper tantrum that should be treated as such. Neither of them challenged me. Funny what a willing sacrifice can get away with.
The first guy brushed past me, and with one keycard swipe the elevator doors hissed open.
I swallowed my stifling panic and stepped inside.
My escorts positioned themselves beside me like bookends—one to the left of me, one to the right—and the lift rose with a whisper, acceleration so abrupt I felt my stomach dip.
I counted the seconds, gauged the distance to my gun on the guy’s hip.
Meanwhile, my body was seized by a bad case of the jitters, but to my immense surprise, I didn’t crumble.
I was afraid, yes, but that fear felt suddenly distant.
It was overtaken by a deeper desire to see this through and protect the one person who had come to mean the world to me.
That determination spurred me on, kept the horror of what I was getting myself into at bay. It also made me annoying.
“Sooo….” I piped up when the elevator numbers kept climbing, while I noted, silently, that we were headed for the top. “I’ve been calling you guys ‘the organization’ for two years now, and ‘Exercitus Biomedical’ is obviously a front, so—uh, what are you actually called?”
I earned a blank stare from the guy on my right.
“Right, classified.” I nodded sagely, clasping my hands at my back so they couldn’t see them tremble. “Never mind then.”
When silence settled again, I glanced at the guy on my left.
“Okay, what about your names? The two of you. This seems like a fairly long journey up, so we may as well get to know each other.” He said nothing and I leaned further into his line of vision.
I waved a hand in front of his nose. “Helloo?”
The vampire man finally exhaled quietly—an unspoken “Please shut the fuck up.”
Fine. I dropped my hand, folded my arms instead. He would forever be immortalized in my head as ‘Creepy lobby man #2’ and he had no one to blame but himself. I was about to state as much when the elevator dinged and we finally ground to a halt.
I looked up at the numbers. Top floor.
The fear shivered up my spine again, plain terror returning with a vengeance. I didn’t move, not even when the elevator doors slid open, and the crisp, white hallway beckoned beyond. I stared at the single white door waiting for me at the far end.
Eventually, Creepy lobby man #1 pushed at my back.
The jolt sent me staggering forward with my steps echoing on the tiled floors.
I jerked around to snap a complaint but the doors were already closing on the two vampires, both of them probably relieved at finally leaving me behind. And then I was alone.
And this was all too real.
I forced a step forward, and then another—and then stopped.
The hallway seemed to twist and warp before my eyes, stretching longer and longer until the door at the far end was a distant pinprick.
I was panicking, I could feel it, and without River around to soothe me it was overwhelming.
It swallowed me whole, seized my limbs and left me paralyzed.
I swallowed hard, wrestling to get a handle on myself. I ordered my feet to move; I managed the slightest shuffle. My pulse picked up to a loud roar, blood rushing in my ears. My erratic heartbeat whipped my terror into a frenzy, like a raging storm around my head.
I couldn’t think, I couldn’t breathe, but I had to keep going. I had to see this through. For River, for her coven. I had to protect them, and that meant reaching the goddamn door.
I managed one step. Then two more.
The ground tilted beneath my feet and I swayed, but didn’t fall.
I shook my head, blinked back the fog from my eyes, and kept going.
I repeated a silent mantra with every strained footfall: For River.
For River. Do it for her. On and on, one foot in front of the other, until the door rushed up to meet me.
Hesitation would allow room for paralysis, so I lifted my hand the moment I reached it.
I gripped the handle despite the screaming terror in my head, and I flung the door wide open.
I caught the faintest murmur of conversation, before a hush settled and all eyes within that room fastened on me. I stared back, breath stilling in my lungs as my mind rushed to assess the scene.
I was looking at a boardroom. A single, staggering window pane formed the far wall, framing the sprawling cityscape.
A table of smooth glass ran the room’s length, long and shiny, reflecting the punishing white of the ceiling lights.
Twelve figures sat perfectly spaced around that swath of glass, twelve monsters in fancy suits.
Some wore sly smiles, others looked bored out of their minds. Some of them were vampires, some of them supernaturals I’d never seen before—all of them looked deadly in their own unique way, but my focus tunneled to the figure at the head of the table.
He rose slowly, his face lined with faint wrinkles that deepened when he smiled. “Ah, Ms. Montgomery.”
I stared, confused and conflicted, because this man did not look like the monster I’d imagined. He just looked like a man. A middle-aged, friendly man, unaware that he was surrounded by keen-eyed vultures waiting to pick him apart.
His eyes were an easy brown, laugh lines crinkling the corners.
His hair was fading to gray, combed carefully to the side.
He looked… human. But then his smile stretched wider, and I glimpsed the sharp points of his teeth, just a little too prominent, a little too knife-like, and my breath hitched in my throat.
“Lorelai.” The man, the monster in hiding, bowed his head. “Welcome home.”