Where could Javi be and how long until we stumbled upon cells that weren’t empty?
“If there are no guards, can’t we just turn on the light?” I whined.
“No. We’d have to get to the main grid to turn everything back on. Everything’s offline. No lights. No wi-fi. No phone signal.”
“No witnesses to our death by convicts,” Brady added.
“Wow. This just gets better and better. Where the hell are you, Javi?” I shook my head.
Despite my brave façade, I was freaking out. Trapped in a prison with pissed off, unguarded supernaturals was not what I signed up for. When I found my cousin, I was going to beat the crap out of him.
A loud clink echoed in the distance. Fear crawled up my spine. The others stopped to listen too. It came again. Chains against metal. I gripped the knife tighter, dreading what we would find next.
“Come get me! I know you’re coming for me!” A voice screamed.
Javi.
“What is he doing?” I raced ahead.
Grayson flung out his arm to stop me, making me stumble into Brady.
“We have to assess first. Don’t just run into danger,” Grayson chided me.
My cheeks burned. Of course, I knew that. But Javi was right there and he sounded like he was in trouble.
“Javi?” My voice echoed.
“Shh!” Brady elbowed me in the arm.
I glared at him and his freaking bony elbows, but he couldn’t see me in the dark.
Ahead, the light revealed Javi curled in a ball on the floor. Chains lay broken around him. Alarm filled me, but Brady grabbed me before I could run forward.
His suit was torn to shreds, the dark fabric lay scattered on the cement floor.
“What happened?” My words were breathless.
Javi’s head whipped toward us. His eyes were bloodshot, but he was grinning. Grinning and drooling.
I gasped. “Javi?”
“Don’t go near him,” Grayson warned.
“Why? What happened to him?”
The sight of him feral on the floor tore my heart.
“Fairy bite,” Brady answered. His light shone on Javi’s shoulder. Blood poured from a grisly looking wound.
I sucked in a breath. “What?”
“Great. That means a prisoner has already escaped. It’s only a matter of time now…” Grayson’s light continued to shine on Javi.
Fear filled me. Javi didn’t flinch at the light. Instead he stared at it dead on, his eyes looking glazed over.
“But… he’s going to be okay, right?”
Please be okay.
“There’s an antidote to the poison back at school. But he’ll never make it that far even by portal. There’s probably an antidote here too, but I don’t know where the clinic is. I’m not sure how we’re going to get to it before hell breaks loose.”
“Well, we have to try!” My voice bounced off the metal bars.
What was I supposed to tell my tía? I had to bring him home safe. My family had suffered enough loss.
“No way, Grayson. That’s crazy. How are we going to transport him like this?” Brady, ever the voice of self-preservation, argued.
“We’re not leaving him.” I turned to him, the knife trembling in my hand.
“Careful with that thing,” he snapped.
“Nobody’s getting left behind. Let me just think.” Grayson sighed in irritation.
“Sure. We’ll let you come up with a genius plan. Take your time, oh great one. I’m sure the prisoners will wait to attack us,” Brady scoffed.
“Shut up,” I hissed.
My heart raced as sweat coated the back of my neck. I was just as scared as Brady, but I wasn’t going to abandon my cousin. It was Brady’s fault we were even in the prison. I shook my head as I stared at Javi. He was sitting up now, rocking back and forth and singing a song in a language I’d never heard. Some kind of rhyming lullaby from the sound of it.
Brady’s phone lit up.
“What are you doing?”
“Are you kidding? I have to get this on video.”
Anger flared inside me. I yanked the phone out of his hand.
“Give it back,” he ordered.
“I swear to God, I will throw your phone into the next prisoner’s cell.”
“Shut up. Both of you,” Grayson snapped.
Javi’s eyes widened. “They’re coming,” he whispered.
“What is he talking about?”
“Fairy bites are venomous. Makes you hallucinate,” Grayson explained.
Javi started cackling. Drool dripped from his chin, his face full of glee.
An icy fear filled me.
“What the—” Brady was cut off by a high-pitched wailing.
The hairs on my neck bristled. I took a step closer to Grayson, hand gripping my knife. My heart slammed against my chest. Whatever was coming was no hallucination.
“It’s still a ways off. We have time,” Grayson assured us.
“But they can’t get through here, right? With the lock?”
“They can if they’re spirits,” Grayson grunted.
My eyes widened. “But we have to get that antidote.”
He nodded at me. “We will. Help me move him to the cell, Brady.”
“Hell no. I’m not touching his poisoned a—”
I whirled on him. “Get over here and help us. You’re the one who got him into this mess.”
He huffed but shuffled toward us. They set the flashlights down, the light shining on the ceiling.
Together, we grabbed Javi, Grayson grabbing underneath his arms and Brady and I each grabbing a leg.
He started kicking and screaming. I held tight as he struggled against us. His weight dragged me down as I fought for control. His screams ripped a hole in my heart.
Hold on, Javi.
“Shit. He needs to lay off the donuts,” Brady grumbled. He dropped his side and got kicked in the arm.
Good. He deserved it.
“Come on,” Grayson urged.
We scrambled to grab his legs again and carry him into the cell. Worry filled me. We were losing time.
“We’ll leave him here, so he’ll be safe. Let’s get to the clinic.”
Brady swore. “How are we supposed to do that? We don’t know where it is.”
“We’ll have to get a prisoner to show us.”
I shuddered. The last thing I wanted was to face another vampire or worse, but what choice did we have?
“This is suicide,” Brady said.
“We’ll set a trap and capture one of the prisoners. Preferably a
