“Sorry about that.” I grinned as I slid her a sideways look. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
“It’s okay. So where are we going? What have you found out?”
“Vaughn came home Sunday night for about ten minutes. I followed him to just outside of Petersburg to this warehouse in an industrial park that hasn’t been used in years. He stayed there for a few hours and then left, but there were two officers who remained.” I slowed down as a deer dashed across the highway. “They’re keeping something there.”
“You think they’re keeping Bethany…or Dawson?”
I glanced at her, lips pressed into a tight line. God, I hoped I wasn’t making a huge mistake. “I don’t know, but I need to get in there and someone needs to keep an eye on the outside while I go.”
She nodded. The excitement that poured off her was palpable. “What if the guards are still keeping watch?”
“They weren’t doing anything until Vaughn showed up. He’s home right now. With Nancy.” My lip curled. “I think those two really have something going on.”
“Did you know my mom’s boyfriend is Bethany’s uncle?”
“No.” I frowned as I focused on the road. Immediately my mind went to the shoe box full of prescription pads in Bethany’s old house. Was that the connection? “I didn’t really try to get to know her,” I said after a few moments. “Hell, I didn’t really try to get to know any human girl.”
“So you’ve never…dated a human girl before?”
“Dated? No.” The question knocked me off guard. I glanced over at her, deciding how to answer the question. “Hung out with? Yes.”
Kat looked away quickly, and she didn’t respond.
I let out a low breath and forged on. “Anyway, I didn’t know they were related.”
A moment passed. “Do you think that’s weird? I mean, he’s related to Bethany, who’s sort of like me now, and he’s messing around with my mom. We know that someone had to have betrayed Dawson and Bethany.”
I considered it. Even if he was the man the prescription pads belonged to, what did it mean other than him living there? That is, if he lived there and those pads weren’t for someone else. But then there was a stethoscope. Some doctors owned their own stethoscopes, but even if Will saw Bethany injured, how would he have known to put two and two together? How would he know about us, the Luxen, and what we could do?
Again, there were more questions than answers, but some damn interesting new questions were raised. I was going to have to look into Will.
“It’s weird, but how would he know what had happened?” I asked that question a lot. “He would’ve needed to have some inside knowledge of the whole healing process to know what to look for.”
“Maybe he’s an implant.”
I looked at her sharply, but didn’t say anything. Anger thinned her lips, and I knew if I told her what I’d found in Bethany’s house and the possible link to the man her mom was dating, she’d probably cut him the first chance she got.
Wrong or right, her confronting Will without any concrete evidence was the last thing we needed. After a few moments, I cleared my throat. “I’ve been thinking about what Matthew told us—the whole marrying DNA thing.”
She tensed as she stared straight ahead. “Yeah…?”
“I talked to him later and I asked him about the connection, if it could make someone feel anything. He said no. But I already knew that. Thought you should know.”
Kat nodded. “What about the whole you die, I die thing?”
“What about it?” I kept my eyes on the road. “There isn’t anything we can do about that other than not get ourselves killed.”
“There’s more to it than that,” she said. “We’re really joined together, you know. Like, forever…”
“I know,” I said quietly.
Neither of us really spoke after that, because what else could be said? We were joined together. Forever. And knowing that didn’t send me screaming off into the night.
We arrived at the abandoned industrial park near midnight. We did a drive-by to make sure there were no cars around. There were three buildings nestled together near a field covered in white. One was a squat, one-story brick building and one in the middle was several stories high, and that was the one I wanted in. I pulled behind one of the buildings, parking the SUV between two large sheds with the front facing the only entrance.
Killing the engine, I turned to her. “I need to get in that building.” I gestured at the tall one. “But you need to stay in the car while I do this. I need eyes on the road and I don’t know what’s waiting in there.”
“What if someone is in there? I want to go with you.”
Bringing her here was one thing, but I drew the line. “I can take care of myself. You need to stay in here, where it’s safe.”
“But—”
“No, Kat, stay here. Text me if anyone comes in.” I reached for the door. “Please.”
She stared at me a moment and then nodded curtly. I hesitated, wanting to kiss her before I got out of the SUV, but figured I better not push my luck. Quietly closing the door behind me, I darted around the side of the building, past the padlocked, windowless steel bay doors, keeping an eye out for security cameras, and found none. I reached another door, the entrance I’d seen Vaughn head in and out of. This door would be way easier to manipulate than the others. Placing my hands on the door near the lock, I willed the internal gears to turn. The click was like learning a whole new season of Paranormal Hunters was starting sooner than expected.
As I opened the door, I noticed something reddish-black, glossy and smooth, embedded in the center of the threshold. Having no idea what that was, I closed the door behind me. I quickly scanned the first floor as I kept the brim of the cap low. I moved fast, so if I showed up on any security cameras, I would be nothing but a blur.
I passed empty offices, following the scent of recently smoked cigarettes that hung thick in the air. I moved farther in, finding an office where metal folding chairs were spaced out. Full ashtrays sat on one of the metal tables, next to used coffee cups. There was nothing else. No paperwork or computers, not even a printer or a landline phone.
Weird.
Darting out of the office, I raced down a wide hall faintly lit by dull yellow light. A set of double doors was at the end, and when I pushed on them, they opened easily. I stepped into a large room and my heart nearly stopped in my chest.
“Holy shit,” I murmured, feeling my cell vibrate in my pocket.
Cages. There were cages in this room.
There were about ten of them. All of the cages were empty. For a moment, I was frozen as I stared at them. Anger and horror swirled inside me. They kept people in those cages. They could’ve kept Bethany or my brother in one of these cages. Energy stirred inside me, and I wanted to let it go, blowing this building off the face of Earth.
I finally moved to the cages and saw the chains. Chains. The same strange material I’d seen over the door encased the chains. In here, it looked like some reddish-black stone I’d never seen before. The cage in the middle looked recently used. A red rusty substance covered the cuffs. Blood. It took me a moment to realize it was blood, probably from someone pulling against the metal. The shackles were also covered with the same reddish-black material. In another cage, liquid had dried in the middle. It wasn’t blood—human at least. It looked sort of transparent. Luxen blood.
Stepping back, I lifted my gaze. At the end of the room there was a door marked Stairs. God only knew what I’d find on the second floor. Maybe cages that weren’t empty. Purpose filled me. I prowled toward the door, stopping short when I remembered my phone had vibrated.
I reached into my pocketed and pulled it out. It was a text from Kat. One word. Company. I spun around. “Shit.”
Not going upstairs pissed me off, but if the officers or Vaughn had shown up, Kat was at risk. Whatever was up there had to wait. I raced through the building, and when I neared the entrance, my heart rate jumped erratically. Kat. It was due to Kat. Something was wrong. Her heart was beating way too fast.