Page 28 of Fanged Embrace
Maxine’s face paled and Hunter muttered a curse under her breath. I cast one last glance out at the empty lot and pocketed my phone. “We’ve got to go—now.”
And hope like hell we weren’t too late.
14
Laurie
‘Stay put’ was what River had said.
Clearly, she still had a lot to learn about yours truly. I would notstay put,thank you very much. Instead, I stood on the outskirts of a massive warehouse in the industrial area—exactly where Arlon’s lead had pointed.
I kept low, pressed up against a rusted chain-link fence, squinting at the rows of crumbling buildings. Most of them looked abandoned, graffiti scrawled across the walls, but as I crept closer I noticed the smaller details: a functioning security camera—green light blinking in the dark, tire marks on the loading dock. Most of the windows were boarded up, but faint slivers of light cut through the cracks.
Movement drew my eye to the left—a car rolling into the lot. I slunk lower, broken bottles and rusted cans crunching under my shoes. Headlights cut a bleak path across the concrete before shutting off. I watched from my spot in the dark as a blond guy—couldn’t have been older than twenty-five or so—stepped out. He stood vacantly in the lot, staring into the distance like a sleepwalker.
A man in a neat silvery suit followed, placing a hand on the other guy’s shoulder. I watched him murmur something into the blond’s ear before urging him forward, toward the warehouse. A wash of light spilled out when a door opened, blackening their silhouettes as the two figures slipped inside.
So it was true. They really were collecting people like this.
It was a fuss-free method, I supposed. Why bother snatching people off the streets when you can thrall them into walking themselves to their doom?
Adrenaline turned my legs to jelly, but I crept closer, skirting the edges of the warehouse complex, on the hunt for a gap that might let me in. Most of the ground-level entrances seemed locked tight and boarded shut, and I was pretty sure a front door approach would end in me caught red-handed. I needed something subtle, so I broadened my search.
The faint glow of a flickering exterior light revealed a boarded-up window one story up. Better yet, there was a relic of old scaffolding alongside it—a creaking metal structure with patches of rust and a couple of loose boards. Bingo.
“Sure, Laurie,” I muttered under my breath, adjusting my backpack on my shoulders. “Scale the rickety scaffolding. What could possibly go wrong?” But I stepped onto the first rung anyway.
My foot made the entire frame shiver, but I got to climbing, cursing my frail body all the while.
Every time a gust of wind rattled the structure, my heart jumped. The board under my left foot cracked ominously, sending my stomach into freefall. I did not need a broken leg tonight. Or any night, really. Arlon would never let me hear the end of it.
Slowly, carefully, I tested each rung before putting my weight on it, feeling it flex under my foot.
At last, huffing like I did scaling the stairs to my apartment, I managed to climb high enough to reach the window. A couple of short boards had been nailed across it in a lazy attempt to seal it off. One was already coming loose at one end.
Balancing on the final rung, I clutched the window frame for support and lifted my leg.
“Don’t you dare break,” I muttered, glaring at the bar I balanced on that could damn well do me in if it felt like it. The entire structure wobbled but held.
I braced my foot against the boards on the window and kicked at the upper plank.Thunk.A muffled crack. The plank didn’t give.Of course.I had about as much leg muscle as a freshly born foal.
But I was on a mission and I would not be halted by one stupid plank that refused to yield. Besides, River would be showing up soon and damned if she caught me dead and buried in a pile of collapsed scaffolding.Here lies Laurie Montgomery: She never did get through that window…
That morbid thought urged my efforts and my cheeks burned at the shame of failing in front of someone like River. “Comeon.”
Another kick—harder this time, fueled by sheer spite and a grim determination to not be one-upped by a vampire. This time, the wood splintered, letting out a resounding snap that felt about ten decibels too loud for my liking. My entire body went rigid, heart in my throat.
I froze, waiting for an alarm or shouts of discovery. But nothing followed except the low hum of wind batting against the warehouse walls. Wasting no time, I pulled at the broken plank, wiggling it until it came loose abruptly and clanged down the scaffolding, thudding to the ground below. I grimaced.Very stealthy. Nancy Drew could never.
Then I hoisted my torso through the narrow gap, swearing every time my hips snagged on a splinter. Finally, I tumbledinside with a yelp, rolling through a crouch and landing flat on my face when the floor turned out to be farther away than I thought.
Thankfully, my woefully ungraceful entrance seemed to go unnoticed. The interior I’d crashed into remained silent, save for the subtle buzz and whirr of unseen machinery. I pushed myself upright, touching disgruntled fingers to the welt starting up on my chin.
Inside was… not the filthy, abandoned husk I expected. The floors were swept clean, rows of metal shelving neatly organized with plastic bins, sealed crates, and hospital-like instruments that made my skin crawl.
A flickering overhead light cast an eerie glow over the scene. I hauled myself to my feet, standing on shamefully shaky legs. A desk in the corner was packed with computer monitors, every dark screen reflecting my own pale face back at me.
My gaze flicked over the equipment splayed out on the shelves. It was all strangely familiar, in an unsettling kind of way. Like I’d stepped back in time.
