Page 28 of Failed State

They’ve been told we’re all dangerous criminals who will harm them and it’s easier to accept it at face value when their lives are hard enough without feeling sorry for ‘lockdown losers’. I don’t have resentment about it; if any of them had enough power to free me or the others locked down, they’d be in chains themselves. It would be a futile effort and end in deaths that are for nothing. I see no reason to kill any more of the supernatural population than the humans already have.

“What’s your problem, smokestack?”

Blinking, I look at the girl glaring at me curiously. She wasn’t thrilled when I said she has too much humanity, but that irritation seemed to fade when we piled back into the tin can to head up to our rooms. “I don’t have one; do you?”

“Hell no.” She crosses her arms over her chest, but the air around her changes and I can taste the fear she’s emanating in the form of a light sheen of perspiration on her lip. Sydney shifts from foot to foot, watching me like I’m going to do something, but she has no idea how wrong she is.

“I see.”

I’d call her out on her lie, but for some reason, I don’t want to. The discomfort is going unnoticed by her two guardians and she obviously wants it to continue to stay under their radar. It means this issue is one no one knows about, and I find myself feeling pleased by that. When that thought goes through my head, I frown.

Who cares what the hell she’s afraid of? This is ridiculous.

“Being on the uppermost floors is a very good sign, you know,” Krista says and I flick my gaze to the human. Even Sydney could kill this woman with her bare hands, so we’ll have to be careful about the flaring tempers should anything bad happen. “You’re on the second highest floor, so the testing must have been quite favorable.”

“Surprise, surprise,” Sebastian says from his corner. “No one but you was dumb enough to miss that this is an over-the-top mix.”

Sydney furrows her brow, looking over her shoulder at the bloodsucker. “Speak for yourself. I’ve spent the past four years hearing how useless I am and you idiots haven’t dispelled that notion.”

“That’s bullshit, sweet pea. You have untapped potential.”

I snort, and everyone looks at me. “He can’t be trusted; he’s a demon.”

I have nothing against demons, of course, but talking about a secret weapon in front of a human is stupid.

“And he has the hots for her.” The mage smirks, puffing his chest up. “Not that he has a chance in Hell, even if he is from there.”

“She’s not interested in anyone.” The bear looks indignant and I have to school my features. These two have no ability to mask anything and that’s going to be an enormous problem.

The elevator car shakes when the woman in question stomps her foot hard, her expression full of fury. “She is standing right here and you all need to shut the fuck up about her before she guts you.”

“Syd…”

“Sweet pea…”

“Shut. It.” Her voice is a hiss, even to the males she seems to be closest to. “We will discuss your participation later, dick heads.”

Good on her.

“Maybe it would be best if we all stay on topic. We have much to discuss about the—” Krista’s interrupted by the doors to the elevator opening into a plush hallway. There’s only one door at each end and she gestures toward the one at the south end. “Let’s go to your quarters.”

“I confess, I’m interested to see what this place looks like,” Rory mutters as we all follow the blond human. “The amount of magic needed to do all of this under cover is staggering. They must have?—”

Reaching out, I smack him in the back of the head. “Be quiet, spell caster. That, too, is a discussion for later.”

“Jeez, you big scaly shithead. Take it easy,” he mutters as he moves out of my reach. “You’re stronger than you think, you know.”

“No, I’m not.” I grin toothily at him, making sure he knows I put just enough strength behind it to make it hurt. “You’re weaker than you think.”

Doesn’t hurt to make him a bit worried, either.

Krista stops at the door, raising a keypad next to it. “You each need to place a thumb on this pad to key it to you. No one but your team will be able to enter this space unless they’re cleared by the officials—this will include trainers, stylists, coaches, and the like. But that will only be at specific times and by specific permissions. You must keep the space photo-ready at any time, should PR or Marketing officials choose to visit. There are no cameras in your private space, but this is the only place where that is true.”

I arch a brow, looking at my teammates. They grimace back at me and I know they understand we will not take that as truth until we verify it for ourselves. “I’ll go first then.”

Hopefully, that doesn’t come back to bite me.

Our ‘chaperone’ finally leaves ten minutes after we enter our room. It took quite a bit of ignoring her attempts to get us to engage before she finally gave up, saying the alarms wouldsound for breakfast in the morning. As for tonight, we’ve been left with a fuckingmenuto select food from for our dinner. Apparently, all we have to do is call downstairs and place the order to get it brought up. That statement made everyone but the vampire look like a landed walleye, though Krista didn’t seem shocked in the slightest.

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