126. The Same Volunteer
The Same Volunteer
The little monster whines. Again.
“Shut the fuck up!” I kick the side of the wire kennel as my shout echoes in the cement room.
He lunges for my foot, crashing against the metal.
I know he can’t get through. But I still take a step back.
“I’ll give you something to cry about,” I mutter as I go back to digging around in the metal cabinet on the back wall.
Checking my watch, I grit my teeth.
So much for someone bringing me dinner.
That’s what I get for working with fucking vampires. They don’t even remember that people need to eat.
I shove the items around in the cabinet, but there’s no food.
Typical, put me on babysitting duty. Don’t feed me. Don’t brief me. Just leave me here to rot.
Slamming it shut, I glare at the monster.
I haven’t seen Jones since we arrived early this morning and the Alts brought him to the med tent.
The bite on his arm didn’t look good when we were in the chopper. Still didn’t look good on the airplane. Or in the van. So maybe he needed surgery.
Or maybe vampires have no idea how to treat human injuries, and Jones is fucking dead.
I drop onto the single folding chair.
Maybe the blood suckers didn’t even try to heal Jones and just ate him for dinner.
My knee bounces as my nerves climb.
Johnson said he’d be here. But I didn’t see him when I was up top earlier. And if he was here, I’d have seen him by now. Even if he doesn’t give a fuck about me, because I know he doesn’t, I’m certain he’d want to see the monster.
Still sitting, I fake a lunge at the kennel. “What?”
The monster backs to the far side of his cage, but lifts a lip, showing me his teeth.
“If your parents aren’t dead, I bet they’re happy to be free of you. Probably won’t even come looking.”
The wolf barks at me. And it’s so fucking loud.
I jump to my feet. Totally fucking over this.
“Shut the fu—”
Behind me, something glows gold.
Turning, I hold my hands up to guard my vision against the light.
What the hells…
On the wall, near the base of the stairs, is a black doorway or something. It’s outlined in a glowing gold band. And… I think this might be one of those wormholes.
Curious, I start to step forward. But then a man steps through the black surface and into my small underground room.
And his eyes are glowing. Just like the wall.
It’s hard to see his features against the glow. But he’s not as tall as the vampires. And he doesn’t have horns. And his eyes are fucking glowing.
I have no idea what the fuck this guy is. And I don’t want to know.
Knowing shit isn’t good.
He looks at me. At the kennel. Then he reaches a hand back through the wall.
I straighten my shoulders but stay silent.
This shit is already the most classified of classified. I’m not speaking a word out loud unless it’s to Johnson himself.
The glowing man steps away from the wormhole, and godsdamn King Tosa walks through the wall, into the increasingly small bunker.
He is the last person I want to be down here with.
I met him earlier. And instantly hated him.
The glowing wormhole behind The King disappears, and I have to blink at the change in lighting.
I nod in greeting.
No one told me the protocol for vampire royalty, so I’m just going to treat this like any other assignment. And this mission was definitely assigned to me. Even though I was forced to sign a waiver saying I volunteered.
The King turns to the kennel. “Still in his wolf form, I see.”
“The whole time.” I confirm.
“Good.”
As my eyes adjust back to the dim lighting, I see the other man’s eyes are no longer glowing. And he looks… totally normal.
A chill pricks my spine.
The big vampire watches the wolf for a long moment. Then he turns toward the stairs.
The other man follows, and their heavy footsteps bounce off the cement walls as they climb the steps.
I wait for the door at the top to close, and then for the sound of the electric dead bolt to turn, before I reach for my watch.
These ancient assholes took my phone when I got here for security. But they forgot it’s not the eighteenth century.
My service is shit. One bar. Underground and in the middle of a godsdamn forest. But the call still connects. It just goes straight to voicemail.
“Johnson, I don’t know where the hells you are, but I need an extraction. I haven’t seen Jones since we got here, and I just met a dude with glowing eyes.”