Blood Cure (Blood Type 3)

“Enter the passcode and follow the hallway to the left.”

Reyna repeated the instructions. Gabe was already a step ahead of her, entering the fifteen-digit code. The lock gave with no resistance.

“Here goes nothing,” Gabe said. He yanked open the door, holding the gun aloft in front of him. He took out a vampire waiting on the other side. Philippé took out the other one and then checked the hallways. “Empty. We’re clear here.”

A sinking feeling set into the pit of her stomach. He couldn’t know they were coming. There was no way the motherfucker had predicted they were coming. He wasn’t just clearing the path for her to walk into another one of his traps. Had Rowland given them up? Given them all the information that they needed to hang themselves? God, that bastard. He would do it too. She couldn’t believe that Beckham had trusted him even this far. No, she’d have to do something he wasn’t expecting.

“What’s this mean?” Meghan asked. Her red ponytail was high on the top of her head and she held a gun in her hand. Jodie came in behind her, looking around wide-eyed.

“He knows?” Tye guessed.

“If he knows and he wants to see me, well then, let’s make that fucking easy for him.”

She strode forward and did the thing that Beckham had told her not to do. She abandoned the plan.

* * *

—

“You are not walking to the left, Little One,” Beckham said in her ear.

She sighed. Yeah, she wasn’t. “He knows we’re here. Rowland must have told him we were coming. We have to go with Plan B.”

The silence on the other end was enough for her to know he was not pleased. Five minutes in and already shit was breaking down. But that was okay. She could roll with the punches. It didn’t change what she needed to do. Nothing did.

“Where the hell are you heading?” Gabe asked, jogging to catch up with her.

“You can’t walk in there,” Jodie said.

“I appreciate it, guys, but clear the way for me.”

“But…” Meghan began.

“That’s what I need from you,” Reyna said. “I’ll be fine.”

Meghan looked skeptical. Jodie actually snorted. Philippé said nothing of course. But none of them contradicted her and they all ran ahead to clear the hallways as she walked through the first floor of the feeding camps like a woman on a mission. She passed dozens of closed doors on her way. She knew from studying the blueprints Rowland had given them that these were all holding facilities. The nicer ones. The ones they kept the new prisoners in before they got them doped up on bites and forgot to care where they were living or eating or breathing.

That knowledge made her grit her teeth. She was glad to be immune to bite addiction. The venom had never made her crave it like an addict after her next fix. She’d actually hated the euphoria that swept away everything else. After one bite from Beckham, she’d been ruined for all else.

She needed to save these people. Give them back the lives they deserved and not the one forced upon them by Visage through poverty and desperation.

A set of double doors stood closed at the end of the hallway. Two guards were unconscious on the floor in front of them. Philippé stood by impassively while Gabe shook out his right fist. Meghan’s gun was aimed on the vampires. Her hand was steady, but Reyna knew she’d rather heal than kill. Jodie and Tye returned a minute later from connecting hallways.

“Clear,” Tye said. “What’s our next move?”

“Help get others out this way,” she told them.

“What about you?” Jodie asked.

Reyna kicked one of the vampires out of her way with the edge of her black boot. “I have an idea.”

“Little One, do you know what you’re doing?” she heard crackle through her earpiece.

Yes. Yes, she did. This might look reckless, but she didn’t want to walk into Harrington’s trap. She needed to do this her way and on her terms. She stepped over the second vampire and pushed the double doors open with both hands.

“Did someone throw a party without me?”

About a hundred pairs of eyes snapped to her and her grand entrance. She’d entered the main holding facility for the humans here. Medical equipment lined the walls and rows of chairs filled it to its entirety. As with most things from Visage, the room was strangely sanitary. No one would guess that they were dosing humans with antidotes and feeding a vamp army out of a place like this. But it didn’t surprise Reyna. Not when she knew about Harrington’s insane idiosyncrasies.

“Get her!” someone cried as a group of vampires lunged for her.

Philippé and her friends kept most of them off of her, but one got through and grabbed her upper arm with enough force to bruise.