Almost simultaneously, most of the gathered soldiers reached for their guns, but Bryce held up a hand. He cleared his throat. "Mr. Clave, where are those bills headed?"
"They're finding a place to roost for our visit. They'll be close by but will not harm anyone unless provoked," Dorian said, his voice clear and confident, loud enough for all the soldiers to hear. "These creatures are docile and answer to us."
Several of my team exchanged skeptical glances.
"Aye," Bryce replied. He bent his brow and cleared his throat. "I suppose we will trust you on that, then. If the soldiers can step inside the main hall, we'd like to show you to your accommodations."
The vampires knit into a cluster and waited. My team filed into the facility, but I remained beside Dorian and Bryce in front of the line of vampires. On Finley’s word over our comms, we led our guests inside.
I studied Dorian closely as he and his people entered their quarters' hallway. He was stone-faced, but his jaw looked locked, and I could see his heartbeat pulsing in his neck. Kane grimaced and wrinkled his nose upon entering, probably at the chemical smell. As the vampires drifted down through the aisle, Kreya's daughter pulled her mother's hand and whimpered.
“Quiet, Detra.” Kreya immediately shushed her.
"Please, make yourselves at home and choose your quarters however you please," Captain Bryce said, attempting a smile but rubbing his hands together as though nervous.
"Thank you." Dorian nodded in the captain's direction.
At the two words, Bryce’s smile stretched, genuine and giddy, and he placed his hands on his hips, looking dazed as the group explored. I knew the feeling. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening.
The vampires, however, were silent. They split off into the cells, shuffling like nervous zombies. I looked to Dorian, and although I couldn’t read his expression, I could somehow tell that, to him, the bars on the cells said more than Bryce's geniality.
I tapped Kreya's shoulder and pointed to one of the family-sized cells. She bent her head in acknowledgement, showing her children cautiously through the door. The little girl leaned down and poked the teddy bear.
Zach and Gina had remained at their posts by the doorway. I flapped my fingers for them to come over and introduced them to Dorian.
"We've already met," Gina said under her breath, her face tight, but she tried again after I eyed her. "Welcome."
Zach said nothing but gave Dorian a curt little nod. Neither he nor Gina removed their hands from the handguns on their hips.
I gazed around. Most of the vampires had chosen their beds, but Kane and Halla remained in the aisle. Captain Bryce side-stepped toward them.
"Do hope you can get comfortable," he said through his awkward smile. "Isn't five stars, but eh, military housing."
Kane’s glare could have lit kindling.
"Aye, then we'll leave you to it," Bryce said, taking the hint. "First Lieutenants Zach Sloane and Blackwell, please remain posted at the door until First Lieutenant Lyra Sloane has made sure everything is set." He raised his eyebrows at Zach and Gina, and they complied. Four guards stationed themselves beside the entrance, too. I knew they weren't going anywhere.
Kane and Halla chose a two-bed cell at the very end of the aisle. As I walked around, I peeked in to see how they reacted; Kane knocked Dilly to the floor, seeming alarmed and confused by the stuffed animal’s presence. I could almost see him wondering if it was an intimidation tactic.
I continued walking the aisle. The vampires murmured amongst themselves, seated on their beds or standing nearby.
Dorian stood in front of the last single-person cell, his shoulders heavy.
I approached him. "This one gonna be yours?"
He exhaled and stepped inside.
I lingered at the cell door, glancing down at the knit blanket on his bed. It was the one I’d donated. "How are you?" I ventured.
Dorian shot a look down the aisle, momentarily eyeing a bearded security guard near the door, reminding me again of a lion on the prowl, this time one looking out for danger. He licked his lips and set a small cloth bag on the bed.
"Maintaining," was his only response.
"Okay," I said softly. "Well, I'm going to head back and let you rest. I'll visit when I can."
He nodded twice but avoided my gaze.
When I stepped back into the main hall, Gina, Zach, and the guards followed me. I stopped to watch the guards heave the massive metal door closed and enter the code that locked the bolts, the chunk rattling through the corridor. Two guards leaned against the wall beside the door, the barrels of their weapons poised against their shoulders. I couldn't see their eyes behind their dark glasses.
"Come on, Lyra," Zach urged. "We have another briefing."
I glanced once more at the massive bolts on the locks to the vampires’ wing, and then followed my brother and Gina to the meeting room.
Chapter Seventeen
Late into that night, our quarters still buzzed with chatter. None of us could even think about sleep.
"Their skin is so strange," Louise whispered across the aisle. "It almost… moves."
"That little boy had a cast on his arm," Lily added. "Lyra, do you know anything about that?"
Roxy snorted. "She's not going to tell you anything. She signed more NDAs than you did."
I stared at the bottom of the bunk above me. My stomach gnawed over the way Dorian had looked earlier.
"When did Captain Bryce become so chatty?” Roxy continued, trying to hold back laughter. “With vampires, of all people. Maybe they have more in common than we realized."
That was fair. This time, a grin cracked my lips.
"Maybe they'll adopt him once this is over," Louise muttered, flipping a page in her book.
I rolled my eyes and turned onto my side. The weight of the day pulled at my eyelids, but every time I tried to doze off, the thought of Dorian's unease made me fidget.
Gina hadn't spoken to me since I'd introduced her to Dorian. She sat on the side of her bunk playing with her hair tie. She had memories the other girls couldn't understand, just like I did.
The whispers subsided, the conversations slowly dying down around me as the women on the team tried to get some sleep, when a muffled yell resounded through the barracks. A moment later, it was joined by the sound of an alarm screaming into the night.
We all bolted from our beds, staring at each other. The screeching alarm didn't stop.
On the first night?
"Guns, now!" I yelled, and we snatched our weapons and rushed through the door.
Zach and Colin tumbled out the door to their quarters, joining us in the hallway, handguns clutched in white knuckles. We darted through the main hallway and found the door to the vampires’ wing slightly ajar. I sucked in a breath and flung the door open.
A security guard slumped against the wall, clutching a bleeding wound in his neck. The other night guards had bent over, restraining someone against the wall. I recognized the tiny form as Detra.
Blood dribbled down the child’s chin, and she cried in terror, trying to squirm away from the guards. Her screams sounded shrill, like a baby animal cornered by wolves. They were echoed by the threats and wordless howls of vampires down the cell block—all of them still trapped behind bars.
Captain Bryce tore through the doorway behind my group with his gun angled at the floor. "What the hell is going on?" he yelled.
"It got through the bars—I don't know how—it slipped through the bars and attacked him," a security guard stammered, his automatic weapon pointed at the girl's face.
Bryce swore.
"There were two other guards closer to her cell, but she went straight for him, Captain," the guard carried on.
I spun around to face the cells. Every vampire pressed against the bars of their cells, screaming and reaching helplessly toward the girl.
"Detra, come back! Come back now!" Kreya cried, her face twisted in agony. She turned around in her cell, thras
hing an arm. “Carwin, stay at the back. Don’t come toward the bars!” she yelled to her son, who was hidden from my view.
"Listen to us! She didn't know what she was doing. We tried to stop her. Please let her go." This came from Dorian, his voice low and as desperate as I’d ever heard it.
Rhome strained his fingers in an attempt to reach his daughter, but even when he jammed his shoulder as far through the bars as it could go, he couldn’t reach her. "It's okay, Detra, just be still. It's okay."
Detra's bloodstained fangs glinted as she writhed and shrieked, the dark ripples under her cheeks circling rapidly. One of the guards holding her arm twisted it and bent her face toward the floor. She whimpered and it turned into a cry, tears welling in her eyes.
"Easy, easy!" I yelled. "Don't hurt her."
"Don't hurt her?" another guard snapped, throwing a glance at the man gasping on the floor. "What about him?"
That was when I recognized the guard on the floor. He was the bearded guard that Dorian had stared at before I left him earlier that day. They all must have sensed something dark in him… but the children didn't understand that they couldn't hunt now.
I spun on my heels and looked to Dorian. His eyes confirmed my fear. What if this ruined everything? It hadn't even been twenty-four hours.
"Return her to her cell. Now!" Captain Bryce bellowed. "You, keys! You three hold her! Move it!"
"Please don't hurt her," Kreya called out.
Detra wriggled and wailed as the guard fumbled with the three separate padlock keys. Tears streamed down her cheeks. The door finally swung open, and the girl tore from the guards and flew into her mother's arms. Sobs echoed down the aisle. Dorian banged his forehead against the bars of his cell.
A medic leaned over the bleeding guard and pressed gauze against his neck.
"Get him to the medical wing," Bryce said.
I heard Clemmins and Finley shouting orders from the main hallway, having also arrived.
The guards relocked Kreya and Rhome's cell before helping to carry their colleague. As they lifted him, giving him words of encouragement, I couldn't take my eyes off the man's face. If Dorian and his kind sensed bad deeds like rape and murder in their victims, what had Detra and Dorian sensed about him? It must’ve been a powerful lure, for Detra to contort herself enough to get through the bars.
“Captain,” I said. “I will muster a fresh set of guards.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Bryce said, moving to check in with Finley and Clemmins.
I rushed through the main hall to the surveillance rooms. More guards had already arrived, strapping on their belts.
I selected the four who looked the calmest and assigned them to the vampire quarters. The rest I told to disperse. I had to tell them twice, with a bite in my voice the second time.
With the new guards at my heels, I returned to the vampire quarters. Before I opened the door, I leaned against it, snapping my fingers to grab their focus.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” I said, looking each of them in the eye in turn. “We don’t have all the information yet. If this experiment works, it will be a huge win for the Bureau. If you get nervous and shoot somebody for twitching, it won’t work.”
They nodded and gave quiet “yes, ma’ams” of acknowledgment.
Inside, the vampires had retreated from the bars to huddle in the backs of the cells. Detra still wailed.
Dorian lurked in the corner of his cell. His face was dark. The quarters felt even more miserable and cold than before we’d put out blankets and pillows.
The fresh watch was stationed, so the other soldiers and I headed back to the main hall. Everyone looked dazed. We passed the captains, and I slowed my pace, an idea bouncing in the back of my mind.
"Gina, Roxy, go ahead. Need some words," I told them quietly.
They nodded and continued. Zach grabbed Gina's shoulder when she walked past, raising his eyebrows at me.
I stood a respectful distance from Bryce, waiting my turn as he discussed the situation with the other captains. I couldn’t pretend, however, not to hear something about contacting the board, then something about relocation.
My cheeks burned. "Excuse me, Captains," I interjected, eyes on the floor. "Might I have a word?"
"Sloane," Bryce hissed in warning, then rolled his eyes. "She should probably be involved in this conversation. Briefly."
"Captain, I do not believe that the other vampires should be held responsible or punished for a minor's actions. The girl didn’t understand the circumstances."
"We understand that, Lieutenant." Captain Finley closed in on me. "But what if this happens again—and the attacker is not a child?"
"I propose a quarters reassignment," Clemmins said evenly. "No bars. Solid walls only to house children and their parents. We clearly were not prepared for this situation." He turned to a security guard nearby and demanded a floorplan of the facility immediately. She bolted.
"Aye, we'll discuss moving the families." Bryce exhaled heavily. He grabbed the arm of another passing guard and demanded that two extra guards be placed directly beside the cells holding children.
"Captain," I said again.
"Sloane. I understand that you don't want there to be retribution due to a child’s misconduct. Now, move on to your barracks."
"There's something else I need to speak with you about." I held my shoulders tall.
He closed his eyes and exhaled sharply. "Okay. Let's move to my office. Finley, would you please join us?"
The three of us made our way into Bryce's tiny office. He waved an impatient hand for us to sit.
"Captain, I know the board discussed the 'specified feeding' theory with you," I began. "That vampires only prey on threats to society."
Bryce sat at his already-cluttered desk and rubbed his face. "Make this quick."
"Assuming that theory is valid, wouldn't Detra’s attack tonight call that guard’s character into question?" I asked. “Especially since she targeted him preferentially over the other three guards. Two of them were closer.”
"Lieutenant, are you implying that the Bureau doesn't perform thorough background checks on its staff?" Finley snapped.
"That guard has been with us for years," Bryce said. “All of them have. They were each handpicked for this assignment.”
"A seven-year background scan doesn't necessarily mean that he's squeaky clean," I said quietly, trying not to add tension to the room.
Bryce eyed me over his hands. Finley looked like she'd sipped sour milk.
I spread my palms. "What would it hurt to investigate?"
"He's one of us, Lieutenant," Finley warned. “Drop it.”
"If he's innocent, he's got nothing to worry about." I turned to Finley. "And if there is something unsavory in his past, this would illustrate another extremely useful vampiric skill that we can use for the greater good, alongside resolving the redbill issue. The Bureau doesn’t want to hire ethically questionable staff, does it?"
The room went quiet. My eyes bounced from Captain Bryce to Finley and then back.
Finley swiveled to Bryce. "This is not proper conduct from a young lieutenant, Captain." She raised her voice. "Do you typically allow this? I'd say this is bordering on insubordination."
Bryce held up a hand. I gritted my teeth.
"Captain Finley, if you’ll excuse us, I will take care of this," my captain said. "Lieutenant Lyra Sloane forgets her manners when she's vexed. Don't you, Lieutenant?" Bryce glowered at me.
"I simply meant the best for our team and operation," I said after unclenching my jaw. "Captain Finley, no disrespect intended, ma'am."
"Just handle it, Bryce. As if we don't have enough to worry about," Finley muttered. She stormed from the office.
Bryce tapped his finger on the side of his face.
"That will not happen again, Lieutenant," he said. His voice sounded like gravel scraping under metal. "I understand your concern, but that is not the way to conduct yourself with your superior
s."
"Yes, Captain. It will not happen again, sir," I said with straightened posture.
He eyed me, then sighed. "I’ll look into the guard. Now get out of my office."
"Yes, Captain."
Just jogging down the main hall took the wind out of me after the stress I'd had. I retreated to the women's latrine before returning to my bunk. I placed my hands on the sink and stared at my taut face in the mirror. I assured myself things could've been worse. It wasn't like the vampires had staged a coup. Despite everything, no one had died. And the event might have inadvertently shown more of the vampires' value.
I sighed.
But it hadn’t exactly been the smoothest first day.
Chapter Eighteen
We stumbled out of our bunks like drunkards the next morning.
"Jeez," Roxy croaked. "I feel like I just blinked, and then that damn horn was blowing."
The barracks were woken every morning with the standard bugle call, and it never got any easier. I rested my forehead on the frame of the bunk above mine for a moment before I could muster the energy to reply.
"You just have to persevere," I muttered, shooting her a grin. Roxy and I had a tradition of ribbing each other first thing in the morning.
"Yes, oh, thank you, thank you, wise one, oh, second-in-command," she sneered. Roxy was always one to throw my crap back at me.
Louise snorted. Some of the women smiled through their hazes.
Breakfast in the commons was exceptionally quiet. Captain Bryce started the meal with an announcement that the injured security guard was making a steady recovery and would be back on duty in about two weeks. He'd concluded the report by tossing me his side eye, to which I responded with a quick eyebrow arch.
While we ate, Captains Finley and Clemmins briefed us on the day's schedule. Most of the adult vampires would join us in one of the larger common spaces, and we would go through interactive exercises. A few parents would be left to supervise the children, who would remain in the cells due to the previous night's events. Finley addressed everyone but me while she spoke. Clemmins looked like he'd gotten even less sleep than the rest of us.
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