“Heather was—?”
He held his hand up.“They ran tests on her and on Brendan, who as you know, is a memberof our Pack and as you stated earlier was asked t’help Heather byyour relative. The Pack rescued them, but your cousin wanted t’goback as she had discovered a large room of … I’ve forgotten whatyou call them.” His brow furrowed. “Before a victim fullyturns?”
My eyes widened. “Theyhad a room full of Infecteds?”
“I believe that wasthe term. I think she wanted t’put them out of their misery.” Heshrugged. “Anyway, it was a trap, and the Leeches set the facilityon fire. They all managed to escape only t’come back and find thatthe Vampires had also set fire to the Pack keep and kidnapped threePack members, one of which is our Alpha’s daughter. The other is mynephew.” His eyes darkened, shoulders tensing. “The Pack has beenhunting for them since that night, and this Nest was the finalplace we needed to search.”
Yeah, he was a doctor.Facts delivered calm and emotionless until he mentioned his onlyfamily member had been taken.
“Shit,” Nathanexclaimed.
Heather had beenkidnapped and experimented on. The Vampires had a room full ofInfecteds. The Vampires had set fire to the facility. A facilitythat both Heather and Nathan had been kept at. Werewolves had beentaken. Werewolves had hunted down all the Vampires in the UnitedKingdom, which at least explains why we hadn’t run in to any in thelast few hours.
The world felt asthough it had been tilted on its axis as I ran the details aroundand around in my head. My focus moved around the destroyed room wecurrently stood in for the fifth time, noting the piles of ash.
“You’ve slaughteredthem all?” The words were quiet as they left my lips in stunnedbelief, but the doctor seemed to hear me just fine.
“Not all.” His darkfocus moved to Nathan once more.
“Nathan isn’t likethem.”
“He’s a Vampire.”
“Yeah, but not bychoice,” Nathan replied, a hint of frustration tainting hiswords.
“He came t’me forhelp.” I scrubbed my hands across my face. “He wants t’find outwhat they did t’him.”
“It’s one of thereasons we are looking for Heather,” Nathan continued. “She willhave a better understand of why they were experimenting on me. Whatthey were trying t’achieve.”
“They’re tryingt’recreate themselves,” he answered flatly. “Or rather, create moresuperior versions.”
Some will want touse you. Sofia’s voice flittered through my mind.
“That’s why they tookHeather.” I turned to Nathan, my fingers pressed against mythrobbing temples. “They want t’figure out how she’s survived solong as an Infected.”
He turned toward meand lowered his voice. “They’re the crazy ones, right?”
“Aye.” Dropping myarms to my side, I stepped closer to Graham. “Can you take met’her?”
The warmth hadfiltered back into his eyes, which evaluated me. Finally, hereplied. “I can take you.”
“Nathan comes withme.”
A dry laugh left him.“Not possible. If my Alpha sees him, he will kill him.”
“He had nothing t’dowith any of this. He didn’t ask for this. He and his friend weretaken and turned against their will.”
“Isn’t that whatVampires do?”
“No. They feed orkill. If they create an Infected, they give them the option. Nathanwasn’t given that option.”
“I wouldn’t havechosen this.”
Nathan’s voice crackedwith unshed tears, and I felt a piece of my heart breaking.
“Maybe he can helpHeather and you all figure out what the Vampires are up to. Yousaid they experimented on Brendan, and Nathan’s file saysWere-gene, and you just admitted that three of your Pack have beentaken, which means they have already been targetingWerewolves.”
No such thing ascoincidences. Sofia always said that.
This all couldn’t be acoincidence. It just couldn’t.
A muscle ticked in theside of Graham’s neck.
“Look, Than is just asmixed up in all of this as you and I are. He means no harm t’you oryour Pack. If he tries anything, I will kill him myself.” I held myhand out. “I promise.”
“She will. Trust me.”Nathan sighed. “She’s nearly done so twice already.”
“You’re not helping,”I mumbled under my breath as I glanced over my right shoulder.
Graham’s large handwrapped around mine. His skin was boiling, his grip bone crushing.“I will hold you t’that.”
I gave him a curt nod.With one swift shake, he freed my hand from his grasp.
“We have things t’dohere. If you stay and help us get it done, then I will take youboth t’Carter, but I warn you he won’t be welcoming to a Vampireregardless of how he came t’be or how long you have been friendsfor. His truce with them is over. All Leeches are fair game.”
I glanced at Nathanand then back at Graham. “We understand.”
***
So, when Graham saidthat they had things to do, it was basically cleaning up all theLeeches’ charred remains and moving the broken furniture down tothe basement. I found this strange and asked why they bothered ifthey hated the creatures so much. It earned me a laugh.
“We’re only tidying upwhat we need to in order to hide the existence of their kind andtherefore ours.”
Okay, I suppose thatmade sense.
He had said that allVampires were fair game and that the ‘understanding’ that theLeeches and Werewolves had was over—that understanding being thatthey kept to their territories and out of each other’s way as bestas possible.
Did that mean they hadkilled every Vampire in the UK? He said they had been hunting for aweek straight and any Vampire that stood in their path would havemet their end. It was justice for what had been done to their Keepand for who they had taken.
I could understandtheir reasoning, but surely, that was going to cause a shitload oftrouble in the long run. Had they even considered what would happenif there were no more Leeches in the UK?
It was the early hoursof the morning by the time we had all finished the ‘maintenance.’The four other Werewolves who had been present left in pairs,taking different exits out of one of the three houses.
Graham agreed to meetus at Heather’s house in a couple of hours so we could set off tomeet the Alpha who lived in Scotland. Should we have been surprisedby the location?
