Part 30 (1/2)
”But why would he think my blood would give him that?” Amber asked.
Will took the book from Rhiannon, flipping backward through the pages, skimming rapidly until he found the section that stopped him. What he read there made him sick to his stomach.
They'd been trying to kill the beautiful teenage girl with the piercing eyes ever since they'd had her here. Food laced with poison. Electric shock while she was under sedation. They'd even tried drowning her. Each time, she had revived.
”What?” Amber asked. ”What is it, Will?”
He shook his head. ”Later. We'll discuss it later.”
Jameson arrived, carrying the still-unconscious woman in his arms. He'd removed her bonds and gag. ”I'm not sure we can wake her,” he said.
”You can. There's an antidote to the tranquilizer. They used it to rouse me when they needed me awake a couple of times,” Amber said.
Rhiannon went to the shelves, then to the tiny refrigerator, knocking bottles and jars to the floor in her haste. ”Here,” she said, picking up a labeled syringe. ”This must be it. It seems to be premeasured.”
”Premeasured for a vampiric dose,” Angelica said from the doorway. ”I checked, there are some windows in some of the rooms, but all closed and locked from the inside. No other doors he could get to from that direction. The hall just ends.”
Rhiannon brought the syringe to Jameson, glanced at him. He nodded. ”Her heart's barely beating. She had a full dose of the tranquilizer, after all.”
”Not a full one,” Amber said. ”They had to dilute it for me. And probably the antidote, as well. If that's premeasured, it was probably meant for me.”
”Either way, it will kill her soon enough if we don't try,” Will said. ”Go ahead, it can't hurt.”
Rhiannon injected the woman; then Jameson laid her down on the floor. Roland returned, looked around at them. ”The guards outside haven't moved. I don't think they heard anything.” ”Good.” Will set the notebook on a counter and bent over the woman on the floor. He tapped her cheeks. ”Wake up. Wake up now, come on.”
She moaned softly, moved her head from side to side. Finally her eyes fluttered, then opened, then opened wider when she saw them all standing around her.
”If you want to live, you'll tell me what I want to know,” Will said.
She looked around frantically.
”There's no one left to help you. The others are dead, Stiles has escaped, and the guards outside don't even know we're in here. Now look, see the room you're in? The lab?”
She nodded.
”Stiles escaped from here, but not through any of the exits we can find. How did he do it?”
She blinked, foggy, unfocused, scared as h.e.l.l. ”I don't...I can't...”
”Oh for pity sake, let's just eat her and be done with it!” Rhiannon knelt beside the woman, gripped a handful of her hair and tipped her head back, her eyes blazing and aimed at the tender arch of her neck.
”No!” the woman cried.
”Talk or die, mortal. It's of no consequence to me.”
Will had to admit, the vampiress was good. She might have been able to make even him talk.
Nah.
The woman on the floor nodded rapidly. ”There's... a hidden panel...in the wall.” Her hand rose, gesturing weakly in the direction of the wall where the blood trail ended.
”How does it open?” Will asked.
”The...light switch.”
Willem crossed the room and saw the ordinary-looking switch plate hidden in plain sight. He flipped the switch, and a section of the wall slid into itself, revealing a downward staircase.
Roland said, ”That wasn't here before.”
”Stiles...had it built,” the woman said.
Suddenly there was a m.u.f.fled roar from somewhere in the distance, and the floor seemed to shake beneath them.
”What the h.e.l.l...?” Roland began.
Willem glanced at his watch. ”s.h.i.+t, it's the diversion. I set explosives on a timer at the far end of the other tunnel-not this one. The one Eric used as an emergency exit from the rooms below. Not enough to blow it open. I only had a small amount of explosive and-”
He was interrupted by a tinny sounding voice emanating from a small box mounted to the wall just inside the door.
”Stiles? There's been some kind of an explosion nearby. How do you want us to proceed?”
Willem glanced at the woman. ”Explain. Fast.”
”Intercoms,” she said quickly. ”They're s.p.a.ced throughout the house so we can communicate with the soldiers.”
Will marched across the room to the intercom, depressed the b.u.t.ton, spoke into the box.
”Someone blew the sealed tunnel. The prisoners are escaping. Take all your men and go after them.”
”But the house, sir.”
”There are six of us in here, all armed. I think we can handle one little girl. You have your orders, soldier. Go.”
”Yes, sir!”
Roland shook his head. ' 'Unbelievable. You sound nothing like Stiles.”
”Not to you, maybe,” Will said. ”But to an ordinary mortal, most deep male voices sound pretty much the same over a cheap intercom. Besides, mercenary or not, a trained soldier doesn't stop to think too much when given a direct order. He just obeys.”
A thud drew his gaze, and he turned to see Amber, standing over the book, which she'd just dropped to her feet. While they'd all been involved with the woman on the floor, she had, apparently, been reading about the things Stiles and his monsters had done to her.
”I...I don't understand,” she whispered, her eyes welling. ”They tried...they tried to kill me?”
Angelica gasped and wrapped her daughter in her arms. Jameson said, ”What's in that book?”
”Take it with you,” Will said. ”There's no time now. It's not going to take those troops long to realize the tunnel is still sealed. Get out of here, all of you. Go find the vehicles. Close the door behind you and they'll never know anything happened.”