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“I brought you what I could get. We even went to Vashon Island looking for help.”
Vin sits up straight, suddenly very interested. “For real? You hit up the Vashons?”
“We tried.”
“And how’d that go?”
“We ended up in prison,” Ryan tells him frankly.
“And now they hate us,” I add. “Colonist boats showed up out of nowhere so they assumed we were spies. We barely made it off the island alive.”
“Colonists showed up how long after? Days? Weeks?”
“Days. There was a fight out on the water. The Vashons won. We barely survived it. The boat Marlow lent us sank, we ended up on the Colonist shore, and that’s when we were found by the ca
“And the ca
I scowl at him. “No. They took us prisoner.”
“You’ve been to jail a lot lately,” Vin chuckles. “Do you want me to lock you up for the night? Will you feel more comfortable?”
“They took us to their city under the streets,” I continue. “That’s when they offered to help us.”
“And why would they do that?”
“Because they hate the Colonists as much as anyone else—maybe a little bit more,” Ryan tells him.
“They told us about the arrangement,” I snap.
I shouldn’t have brought it up, not now, but I couldn’t help it. It was out of my mouth before I even knew I was saying it.
Vin looks at me blankly. “What arrangement?”
“The one in your stables. The one with the babies.”
I’ve never been afraid of Vin, and there’s no visible reason why I should be now, but there’s something in the air that changes then. It becomes hotter. Tighter. I feel it burning and turning in my lungs, not filling the space the way it’s supposed to. It’s more like a living, angry, writhing thing threatening to strangle us all with each breath.
A scream cuts through the air and the tension. It’s gut-wrenching, and for a brief, crazy moment I wonder if I made it. The tightness in the room and in my chest make it completely possible, almost probable. But then I hear ru
We follow Vin out of the office, down the stairs, and into the open sleeping area. He stops there, his eyes scouring every corner of the room like a wolf sniffing the air for its prey. The scream sounds again and we’re on the move. I know where we’re going now.
The showers.
Chapter Eight
When we reach the door to the showers we find a crowd already forming. Vin shouts once, just a bark of a noise, and the crowd immediately thins to let him through. I’m amazed by it, but the amazement is short-lived. When I enter the room behind him, my amazement turns to horror.
The floor is bathed in blood. Vibrant red. Living. Warm. The walls are sprayed in a mist of rusty red that’s ru
At the edge of the mess is a woman I recognize from the sewing rooms. She’s on the floor on her knees in the corner, as far away from the body as she can get. She’s sitting silently with her hand against her mouth, her eyes watery and wide. Several people are sitting with her as she shakes uncontrollably.
I hear someone in the hall vomit on the floor—coughs and heaves, the splash of their di
“Who is it?” someone asks tremulously from the corner.
I look at the thin delicate wrist, one of the few sections of skin still intact. It’s a woman.
“Can you tell?” I ask Vin.
He shakes his head.
Ryan steps up beside me. “This is the room we came in through. It was clear when we got here. Joss, Trent, and I were the last to leave it.”
“Not exactly.”
We all turn to look at Trent.
“What do you mean?” Vin demands.
“When we left there was a ca
“Bryan,” I breathe, remembering my tall creeper.
“He was one of them?” Vin asks, pointing to the ceiling where the ca
“Sort of,” Ryan explains. “He was with them but he wasn’t exactly like them. He was more… predatory than the rest.”
“He freaked me out,” I agree.
“Roll call! Rec room! Now!” Vin commands, turning sharply to the crowd at the door. “No one is left alone! Buddy system goes into effect immediately! Go!”
Everyone flies into action. Only Vin, my Lost Boys, two guards, and I stay in the showers. When we’re alone, Vin turns to the guards, his eyes bright and hot.
“Lock this space down. That drain is a weakness. Seal it.”
“Wait,” I tell the guards, turning to Vin. “You can’t do that. That’s how we got in. How will we get out?”
“You’ll take the water, same way you left before. You don’t need to sneak in and out.”
“Yes, we do. What if the other Colonies have eyes on this place? They can’t see us coming and going over the water or they’ll know something is up. This tu
“You expect me to leave it open to the ca
“Guard it, but don’t seal it. We need it open.”
“For what exactly? Where are you going?”
“It’s not where I’m going, it’s who’s coming. Elijah, the head of the ca
Vin steps up until he’s towering over me. “And what do you think is happening? You think I’m allying with them now?”
“You need to team up with someone,” I snap, not intimidated by him. “You can’t keep this place by yourself. Word is going to get out to Marlow and the Colonies that this place is under new management, and when that happens you’ll have angry armies knocking at your door. What are you going to do then? You’ll lose this place so fast you won’t even remember it, and any chance we had of being free will be dead.”
He chuckles. “Still reaching for that star, huh, Kitten? Freedom?”
“Isn’t that what all of us want?”
“It’s a dream. A stupid one.”
“You wa
Vin stares at me with hard eyes that give nothing away but I know he hears me. I know he wants that freedom because Ryan is wrong: we are alike. And deep down Vin wants it just as badly as I do.
“We have one chance,” Ryan says, coming to stand beside me. “One shot at taking them out, but without this Colony we have nothing.”
Vin steps back suddenly, rolling his shoulders. He glances back at the guards watching from behind him. Listening.
“We’ll have a meeting,” he says curtly. “We’ll let the people decide what we do, both with the building and the ca
“Are you going to kill them?” I ask anxiously.
He shrugs. “We’ll see, won’t we?”
***
It only takes ten minutes to round up everyone in the entire building—two hundred people plus the ca