Page 9 of Kingly Bitten

I didn’t disagree with his conclusion but felt the need to say, “It’s dangerous.”

“Everything we do is dangerous,” he countered.

“Fair enough.” I locked gazes with Damien. “Lead the way, expert.”

3

Calina

A few minutes earlier

I showedJames and Gretchen my watch.

29:32:47.

They observed the countdown for three more seconds before gaping up at me. “The entire bunker?” James asked.

“Yes. It’s the doomsday sequence.”

“I’ve never heard of it,” he replied.

“Because you’re meant to die during it,” I informed him. “It’s my job to kill everyone—permanently—and send all copies of our research to a server in another bunker.”

Gretchen frowned. “And that one isn’t being destroyed, too?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “My orders are to send the files and kill everyone inside. That’s it.”

James glanced at my empty hands and arched a brow. “How?”

“There’s a toxin designed to knock everyone out. I have a serum in my office that will do the rest.” A serum I left locked up. Only my watch could open the safe. Unless someone else was given access to the emergency reactions, in which case… “I should destroy it. We need to destroy it.” Why hadn’t I thought about that beforehand? “If someone else is notified of the doomsday protocol, they could use it against us.”

I didn’t wait for them to agree, my feet already moving. But as I reached my office, a blaring alarm shrieked through the hallways.

My palm froze on the doorknob as Lilith’s voice flowed through the air around me. “Detection protocol enabled. All evidence must be destroyed. Vigils, engage.”

Vigils, engage?

My watch buzzed, the new time glaring up at me.10:00:00.

“Ten hours,” I breathed. What the hell had just happened? Was this a result of not following the codes appropriately?

No. The AI version of Lilith’s voice had said,Detection protocol engaged.

Which meant someone from the outside now knew our location.

Likely because of the unsecure data connection I’d created.

I started to run my fingers through my hair, only to belatedly remember that I had the locks tied back in a bun.

James and Gretchen were at my side half a beat later. “What did she mean by ‘Vigils, engage’?”

I shook my head. “This isn’t a course of action that I’m familiar with. But I can guess what it means.”

I pressed my watch to the locking mechanism to open the door to my office and found it unresponsive.

Because I’d been locked out.

This emergency procedure superseded the doomsday sequence.