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“Well, whether it was him or not, people know we are after it, which puts a very large target on our backs.” I perched on the top of one of the tables, my brain racing to figure everything out. “Now where do we go from here? Any clues on where it is located? Lars tell you anything?”

“Just that there was a report it was in this area, and he knew you had at least figured out the same thing.” Cooper leaned on his forearms, his muscles bulging. “The last report Lars received said a Dr. Novikov had it. Lars tracked him down here in China.”

The Dweller was even bigger than I remembered. Since he had become second in charge after Eli left, the guy had packed on more muscle. Not that Dark Dwellers needed it because they were born to kill. To slip up behind their prey and tear their throat out with their sharp dagger teeth. I had seen them shift before, and they were scary as shit, a cross between a prehistoric wolf, black panther, and monster rolled into one. They were fortified with claws, teeth, and poisonous daggers that grew down their backs when they shifted.

My body froze, ice pouring down my veins.

“What?” I struggled to speak. “What did you say his name was again?”

“A scientist by the name of Dr. Jansug Novikov.”

The name scraped down my spine, taking me back to the horrors of Rapava’s testing labs, where that name had come up. My charm had gotten a lot of information from the nurses who worked for Dr. Rapava, thinking they were doing some heroic deed while we “lab rats” were tortured and tested on.

My time there with Zoey, and then later Lexie, still haunted me, waking me up in cold sweats. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t forget a detail of that place.

Including that name.

He had worked with Dr. Rapava back in their home country of Georgia before Rapava ventured to the States to really chase his demented beliefs. Novikov went a different path in the pursuit of saving humans from diseases.

That path had circled around and ran straight back into me.

Dr. Rapava might be dead, but it seemed like he had returned. Another fucking ghost from my past coming back for me.

“Croygen?” Annabeth’s voice stirred me out of my painful thoughts, drawing my gaze to her. The girl was one of the kindest souls you’d ever meet, helping with disabled kids, assisting Zoey with the orphanage, and looking like some Disney princess come to life. But considering her past, there was steel behind her sweetness. She had been in hell down in his labs too, though what she went through had been horrific. She hadn’t been there long and clearly didn’t recognize the man’s name. “Are you okay?”

“Fine.” It took everything I had to nod, to pretend everything was all right. Sprig, me, Zoey, Lexie, Ryker, and Annabeth had all been down there. We all were experiments of Rapava’s. But I was probably the only one who knew about Dr. Novikov since he had no connection to the Dr. Rapava we knew in Seattle. I flirted with the nurses, getting them to talk and tell me things. Learn all about the man who was torturing us.

“We know anything else?” I shook off the sickness I felt, pushing forward. “Batara give you anything else?” I glanced at Kat.

“He had the same intel. Somewhere in China, last seen with this scientist.” Kat pinched her lips together, her gaze directly on me as if she could sense something going on behind my façade, peeling back the layers.

Irritation with that intimacy turned me away from her. “We need to find something more!” I barked. “China is a big fucking place, and this guy could already be in hiding.” Everyone stared blankly at me. “Does anyone have one intelligent thought?”

“Ohhh!” Sprig’s hand went up.

“Open your mouth, and I will thread your tail through your esophagus.” I pointed at the monkey.

“Okay.” Kat clapped her hands. “How about we get some food and take a break.” She still stared through me, once again tearing at my walls.

“Take a break?” I belted. “We have Ju’s soldiers breathing down our backs and people trying to kill us.”

“Sounds like a normal day for you, pirate.” Sprig leaped off Kat’s shoulder onto the table. “Plus, we need food. Bad things happen when I don’t get food… ohhhh… Do you have fried honey noodles with ice cream? Or how about double-fried ice cream with honey drizzle? Or maybe—”

“Sprig. Shut up,” I growled, pinching my eyes closed. A soft thump sounded. “I need to fucking think.”

“Holy shit!” Kat yelled, jumping up, my head darting to her, my heart fluttering in panic.

She stared down at the monkey lying on the table, appearing dead.

“Oh, my gods, what just happened? He-he was just talking! Is he dead?” She reached over, prepared to give him CPR.

“Don’t worry about him.” I breathed out in relief.

“What?” Her head jerked to me in shock.

“Another thing you should know about him besides having ADD and an addiction problem.” I snorted as his mouth puffed, a soft snore coming from him. “He’s anarcolepticmonkey-sprite with ADD and an addiction problem.”

The rich, tawny liquid burned down my throat, the smoky aroma coating my tongue, doing nothing to ebb my tension. The stars shined brightly out of my chamber window, though my brain circled around the same situation over and over, coming no closer to a plan than we had earlier.