Brandr shut and locked the door behind them with an echoing clang, and Declan led them down a flight of narrow stairs into a large room. The exam room. Rows of metal tables-with restraints-stood in the center. Cages lined either side, while desks and cabinets occupied the front and back walls.
Oversize ventilation grates covered the ceiling. Blood drains dotted the tiled floor. Archaic-looking tools hung from wal pegs.
Thad whispered, "This place gives me the creeps."
Brandr rubbed his chest, no doubt reliving his own torture. "The ones in the cages had to watch?"
Natalya added, "Regin's going to lose it when she sees all this."
Declan gazed around, trying to see it from their point of view. Though the Order's research work hadn't changed much in sixty years, the manner of it had. The new facility's atmosphere was sterile, distanced.
This was raw, blatant, leaving nothing to the imagination.
Regin would lose it. She should. He glanced at her in Brandr's arms. She was shivering and soaking wet. And still not waking.
Brandr gently laid her on one of the desks, then began exploring. "There are more rooms?"
"Smal er exam rooms and some lavatories. The water should still work."
"Wil there be a key here to remove the torques?"
"No, none." Wanting Regin close, Declan sat on the end of the desk beside her, ignoring Brandr's scowl.
"I guess we're bunking here tonight," Brandr told the others. "It'l give all of us a chance to recover."
"And to eat." The halfling began unpacking his bag atop another desk, pul ing out energy bars and bottles of Coke. He, Brandr, and the fey began splitting the take.
"Where did you get all this?" Brandr asked.
Natalya said, "Thad cleaned out the PX store. He's a natural at looting. I was quite proud."
Thad beamed. "Wel , the Scout motto is Be Pre-pared."
Declan realized that he hadn't eaten in eighteen hours and had no more medicine in his system to dull his appetite. Withdrawal already threatened. He was alternately starving then nauseated, hungering for food while missing his nightly shot with a feverish intensity.
But he'd be damned before he asked them for something to eat.
They'd just finished their meal when banging on the door sounded. Everyone tensed.
Natalya said, "Has to be Lothaire. Are we certain we want to let that vampire in?"
Thad felt his busted lip. "He cleaned my clock."
"We all swore all egiance, remember?" Brandr started for the stairs. "Besides, he will help us keep Chase alive for the time being. He stays for now."
Moments later, Brandr returned with the vampire.
So much for my hope that Lothaire would die.
The vampire strol ed in, casting his surroundings a bored look. "Breathe a sigh of relief. I've returned."
While he'd been out, Lothaire had acquired a hooded camo jacket and a bush hat. More claw marks riddled his shirt and pants, and blood trickled from a wound down his chest.
My blood. Filthy leeches. Declan's hands fisted as he reminded himself that Lothaire had saved them all this night. And might come in handy in the future.
But at what price? Make no bargains with vampires.
Lothaire leapt onto a tal cage, sitting atop it with his back against the wal . He began removing his many weapons-one of which was Declan's sword. A vampire wielded his weapon. Just as I'd threatened to do with Regin's.
"Yes, you returned," Natalya's eyes narrowed, "but you've got Wendigo scratches. You'll transform into one of them."
"Luckily, I have salt." He took a handful from his pocket, rubbing it into the laceration on his torso.
Natalya raised her brows. "Salt halts the trans-formation?"
"Do you know how many people I had to drain to come by that knowledge? You're welcome, fey."
"Good to know. Now, what's happening out there?"
"More fighting. The facility is one giant kil box."
"What do we do now?"
"We get information from Chase." Lothaire winced as he tended a particularly deep gash. "How long before more mortal troops arrive?"
"They won't. I said the Order would strike. Not how. They'l bomb after one hundred and fifty hours."
Lothaire said, "Why so much time?"
"It's a Hail Mary protocol. The island is seeded with incendiary bombs for a total self-destruct, but for some reason, they didn't detonate."
Natalya said, "Technopaths could have detected them and disarmed them."
Declan had suspected the same. "The soonest the Order can deploy an aerial attack is six and a half days. They can't strike before Friday at noon." It didn't escape his notice that he'd begun saying they instead of we.
His life with the Order was over. But Webb had it wrong. That didn't mean Declan had to throw in with these miscreats any more than necessity demanded.
Unfortunately, it looked like they'd be along for the ride-al the way to the escape boat and beyond. "In the meantime, there are other adversaries to contend with."
Lothaire said, "Some of the vampires and demons will simply trace from here now that their torques are gone."
"Some?" Brandr swigged his Coke.
"Others will remain to pick off the Vertas while they're at their weakest. It's what I would do. Actual y, I'd trace more of my brethren back to this place and exterminate them all."
Brandr whistled low. "Fish in a barrel."
In a thoughtful tone, Lothaire said, "We will have to chance that they don't."
"Then what?" Thad said. "How do we get out of this place? How do we get home?"
Declan grudgingly said, "There's a boat on the far west coast of the island. It would take about three days through the forest on foot."
Brandr said, "Which is the Wendigos' natural habitat. The woods will be crawling with them."
"The only other option is to stay above the tree line while crossing the mountains. Which will tack on two days."
Thad belched into his fist, then said, "Never been on a mountain before!"
"So the mountains it is," Natalya said. "Doesn't sound too bad. We only have to stay alive for a spell, then we cruise home."
Declan gazed at Regin. And then she would leave him and never look back. Or maybe she would remember that he'd rescued her from those vampires and feel gratitude. Aye, gratitude.
Brandr added, "When we get back, we can get a witch to remove the torques. Regin's good friends with several of them." Then he frowned at Declan. "Wait a second. You said the mainland is eight hundred miles away. What kind of boat are you taking us to?"