Page 79 of His Curse

“This was the last aerial shot taken of what is presumed to be Kentworth Labs,” he says as a few more photos pop up along the bottom of the larger one. “Unfortunately, it’s from about thirty years ago, so I fear it is incomplete, but…”

My mate slowly rises from the couch and sets her plate on the desk as she walks toward the image, so many emotions surging through our bond, and while her fear and unease are present, it’s her fiery determination and hate that make my skin prickle. And, full disclosure, it makes my cock twitch too, because goddamn, my Birdie is sexy as fuck when she goes into kill mode.

“This is building A.” She lifts a finger and traces the one in the top center of the photo.

The letter pops up on the screen over the brick structure that looks every bit the looming and horrible place it is. And more words follow as Havok asks my mate questions. “Where you and the others were kept?”

Lark nods and draws a X through it. “I was here, the male elite are here. Everyone else was on this hall and the entrance to the lab starts here”—the center—“with a security booth that sits at the front of a long hallway that disappears to where the testing was done. That’s all on the top floor.” Her finger follows the outside of the building in a rectangle. “The second floor is the hospital portion and the first is thewelcome centerwhere Kentworth would bring anyone of importance to fool them into thinking everything was on the up and up. He usually had a few nurses or better behaved guards pose as patients to keep the charade going.”

I’m not sure I’m going to be able to sit through this.

Just having Lark describe the first of five buildings without any real detail has my blood fucking boiling, but this is an incredibly critical part of our plan, especially since this image only has two buildings in it, and if we intend to get in there and get the others out, we need this shit. I don’t have to fucking like it, though.

“This one”—the other menacing brick structure—“is B, where the guards live. Originally, it housed all of Kentworth’s staff but when nurses started turning up brutalized or dead, he put a rush on C to keep them separate.”

Vok types furiously as she speaks, my mate a little lost in her thoughts before she draws a line over to the right of A. “C is here. Medical staff housing”—another two lines that form a pentagon—“D and E for the armory and morgue. They’re a little smaller, and are only two floors because they have their own set of guards that reside there permanently.”

“Why?” Ronny asks from next to Cora, who looks utterly horrified. “Why would themorgueneed guards?”

“It wasn’t necessary at first, but as the facility grew and there were more of us, Kentworth started running tests and dissecting the deceased, then added a crematorium to make disposal easier.”

“So…” Frankie nods. “Since each species has their own customs and beliefs on how the dead should be treated, people started breaking in?”

Lark gives her a small smile over her shoulder. “Exactly.” She turns back to the TV, her fingers flexing ever so slightly. “But there were also a few that would try to break in so they could…”

Throw themselves into the crematorium.

I hear it inside her head and the sadness in her words, the pain my mate feels, it’s almost unbearable. And even though I don’t want to, I stay on the couch and simply send all my love through our bond because she needs to do this. Lark needs to do this for herself just as much as the others. My Birdie needs to find her strength again, the strength that I know is burning inside her and she doesn’t need my comfort right now regardless of my urge to provide it.

“I love you.”Lark glances back at me with that gorgeous smile. “Thank you for letting me do this my way. I promise it’s not that I don’t need your comfort, I will always need that, always crave that, I just—”

“You need to do this on your terms. Be strong now, fall apart when we’re alone. I get it, honey.I send a smile back.And I love you, too.”

On a sigh, she turns back to the screen. “Kentworth had an electric fence put in to surround E and the crematorium. That’s outdoors here. He didn’t want anyone who wasn’t supposed to be there to get in, but he liked making a spectacle of using it, especially if there was a big purge. D is entirely surrounded by another separate fence with armed guards at the gate. The garage is here between A and B and behind A is another enormous fenced off area where we were let outside for exercise and shit.” Lark draws a huge pentagon that surrounds the entire property and stops between A and C. “The whole thing is closed in with a stone fence at least thirty feet high, the top covered in wrought iron spikes, wrapped in barbed wire and electrified fencing, and the inside wall of the stone fence is covered in nearly invisible silver barbs that will latch onto and immobilize anyone who tries to climb it.”

“Jesus,” Havok whispers as everything Lark says pops up on the screen in words as well as shapes. “This bastard really went to extremes to make sure no one would escape.”

“Wouldn’t you, if you were some measly little human surrounded by people like us?”

“I suppose…” He frowns with a shake of his head.

“Oddly enough, the front gate was pretty easy to drive a Hummer through, though, so I’m sure he’s changed that since I left. The gate to the property is here, then the driveway itself is miles long. It’s semi-hidden, totally surrounded by trees and there’s another smaller, classier, if you will, gate at the very end with nothing but a call button andKentworthon a plaque in the stone.”

We’re all silent for a few minutes, everyone staring at the TV, Vok finishing his rough layout. Zan gets the last of my research situated on the cork board then leans against the window next to where Frankie is seated with a rather morose look on his face. Even the demon is affected by this shit and that definitely tells me no matter how it plays out, all of it will be bad.

“Based on what you told us the other day,” Vok grunts as he taps away. “I was able to do some searching and cross referencing in order to find more recent pictures of Kentworth and a few key players.”

Once again, Lark tenses as the older pictures of the facility disappear and are replaced by photos of people, smaller boxes start popping up under them with names and stats.

“Ishmael Kentworth. Regina Lofton.”

“Head nurse,” Lark clarifies.

“Allen Ness.”

“Coroner.”

“Christopher Warner.”

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