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He met my gaze. “You saved my life.”
“I think I owe you a few of those.”
His jaw set. “Don’t let it happen again. When I tell you to move, I want you to move.”
“Yes, sir.”
His lips twitched, as if he wanted to smile, but he held it back. “Let’s collect your new BFF and get the fuck out of here.”
“Your leg—”
“It’s healing as we speak. I reset it already. I’ll be fine, just slow.”
Declan had reset his own broken leg before it healed wrong. I wasn’t sure if I should feel sorry for the pain that must have caused him or be impressed. He was a serious badass.
I pulled the door open, expecting to see that the woman had taken off, but she was still there, sitting on the ground in the hallway, pressed up against the wall with her legs pulled close to her chest.
She looked up at me with fear. “Vampires.”
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t know they really existed.”
“They do.”
She let out a shuddery breath. “What’s your name?”
I gathered my long black hair, pulling and twisting it to the side to keep it out of my face. “Jill. That’s Declan. You?”
“Laura.” Her gaze moved to my throat. Whatever damage she saw there made her gasp out loud.
“Well, Laura. Let’s get the fuck out of here, shall we?”
“Good idea.”
We went back to the stairwell and started climbing. We were deeper than I thought. I was in decent shape from being a bit of a gym rat back in my regular life, but this was rough going, especially after being knocked around and fed upon. Declan brought up the rear, but he kept pace with us, which was pretty impressive considering his injuries.
Finally, we reached the main level, which appeared to be nothing more than an abandoned warehouse. It was dark in here. A hundred feet ahead of me was the exit. I saw the line of light around the large door through which we’d entered.
“Leaving so soon?” The voice froze me in my tracks before I took another step.
Declan moved to stand in front of me and Laura. “Get out of our way.”
Lawrence came far enough into the dim light for me to see him. His eyes were still black. The crazed look in those black eyes seemed worse now. Bigger. Scarier. Mostly because he was smiling, drawing my attention to his mouth stained with blood right down to his chin. “Can’t do that.”
He wasn’t a bad guy. I’d seen him before he’d received that phone call. He was smart and reasonable. And, yes, obsessed with finding his wife. And willing to assist Dr. Reynolds with injecting Declan with my blood without a second thought.
Maybe he’d been crazy all along, just better at hiding it before.
But maybe he could still be reasoned with. “Lawrence, this can end here. You don’t have to do anything else you’re going to regret.”
He laughed, and the sound sent a shiver down my spine. “I don’t regret anything. This was meant to happen. I’ve been a pawn, a flunky. So eager to embrace my past that—do you see what I’ve been doing?” His voice broke and his bloody smile disappeared. “I’ve been betraying my kind. I’ve been offering up vampires just like me like lambs to the slaughter. Months now. So many have died here.”
Declan wiped at the blood on his face with the sleeve of his coat. “Those vampires deserved to die.”
He wasn’t quite as good at negotiating.
Lawrence glared at him. “Are you God? Do you have the right to say who lives and who dies?” His expression grew pained. “You—you’re just like Victor—taking other people’s lives and using them for your own gain. It makes me sick.”
