Page 8 of Sergi (Of Blood & Dreams #7)

Chapter Seven

I laid on my cot and stared at the ceiling. Breakfast had come and gone, another bowl of porridge, but this time a hard-boiled egg had come with it. They were late in taking me to my assignment.

Two days had passed since the last experiment, and we’d been given other tasks, cleaning smaller labs and offices. S-272 said the experiments had been put on hold. After the last horrific shifter death, S-272 talked more frequently. It was always in whispers and always with his head down. Security cameras were in every room, regardless of size. When we entered a room for the first time, S-272 would slowly point his chin in the location of the camera.

I kept my head down and asked, “Do you know why the tests are on hold?” Maybe they’d run out of shifters.

“From what little I’ve heard, I believe they’re reworking their formulas again.”

I shivered. “How often does that happen?”

He rinsed out a rag then took his bucket to the sink, pouring out the dirty water and replenishing it with fresh water and cleanser. I sprayed disinfectant on a counter and wiped it, slowing my efforts as I waited for him to respond.

He wiped a lower cabinet, his motions thorough as he moved the rag up and down. “It depends on results. Sometimes they go through twenty or so subjects, sometimes only five or six before pausing the tests.”

I shuddered at how many shifters had been killed. Horrific actions hidden from the world of the supernatural. “Do you know where they get the shifters?”

He slid the bucket away, and I slid next to him, cleaning the cabinets above the counter.

“The wilder ones are local to the area. I believe they transport others from various places. Isn’t that how you came to be here?”

I almost shook my head but stopped before the camera could pick up the motion. My skin crawled. How far were they going to kidnap shifters? “No. I was sent here to find the lab. I was captured outside the facility.”

I glanced down in time to see the look of shock on S-272.

“Who was looking for the lab?”

I didn’t think S-272 was a mole for the vampires, but I wasn’t willing to test that theory. Trust didn’t come easy in this place.

“A friend who wants to shut this place down.”

They worked in silence after that. It wasn’t until after our short lunch break that S-272 spoke again.

“Do you think they will send others?”

I would have said yes when I’d first been captured, but that had been some time ago. I considered the experiments. What if others had been sent? Family. Friends. Others from my pack. Were they here now? Beaten and possibly chained in their cells? Or were they the bits and pieces of flesh I’d been picking up for the last three weeks.

“I don’t know.”

We didn’t talk after that. What else was there to say?

I spent most of my working day memorizing each room. The layout, the location of the cameras, the labels on the cabinets and drawers that identified their contents, and anything that was left on the counters. Their organizational skills were top-notch, but they were foolish to give the shifters too much information. Maybe they didn’t think we could read.

What I wanted to see were the contents of the refrigeration units. Each lab and office had one. Commercial-sized units in the labs and apartment-sized for the offices. All of them had keypads. Some of the staff, who’d been in the labs while we cleaned, had been lazy. I caught the first couple of numbers from one vampire and a couple other numbers here and there until I was positive what the five-digit code was. The only problem was that every refrigeration unit was in direct line of sight to the cameras.

I shook off the information I’d been gathering, which only left questions and reinserted my initial worry.

Why hadn’t anyone come for me this morning?

Had they noticed me talking to S-272? It might be nothing more than using the other shifter team to share the workload since the experiments were on hold. And if I didn’t think of something else, I’d drive myself into worst-case scenarios. Instead of going down that tortured path, I returned to reviewing everything I’d learned, starting with the main labs and working my way down the list.

Then I considered the overall lab operations. I’d once seen a map of the facility in one of the offices. I couldn’t look at it very long, always concerned about the cameras, but enough to get a bird’s eye view of the maze of tunnels and the direction of the exits, as if that would ever be needed.

A wolf could hope.

The place was run by vampires. I’d seen a couple of humans, but there must be more. Vampires would eventually require blood. They might be taking it from bags but why not from their workers? They couldn’t take it from the shifters. All pups learned early on that vampires didn’t like shifter blood. It wasn’t palatable and didn’t provide the necessary nutrients. That was something at least.

It was an hour later when the lock on my door released. The same key card seemed to work on all the doors, and the lab workers and guards appeared to hold the same clearance. It could be anyone on the other side.

I sat up as the door opened but didn’t move from the bed. They didn’t like us close to the door, and I wasn’t going to take a chance on a beating. I also didn’t want to lose my work detail.

The guard waved me out as if he was in a hurry, and I was tardy. He didn’t say anything as he led me past the stairs leading to the first floor where the labs were located. Instead, he led me down the stairs to the third floor, where the walls and cells were made of stone. Was I being sent back to my old cell? Back to Tallon and the threat of abuse?

At the bottom of the stairs, a female waited. Not my normal handler. She was taller than me, thin as a rail, and had a pinched face. Her gray eyes matched the color of her hair which had been gathered in a tight bun.

In addition to a second guard, a young male stood next to her. He was a pretty boy, tussled brown curls cut short, average build, and while he held his head high, his gaze seemed unfocused or perhaps just uncaring. He wore a lab coat, so I assumed vampire, but he might have been human.

The female—there seemed to be a lot of them in charge—spoke to her assistant as if I wasn’t there. Of course, shifters weren’t supposed to be very smart. I’d play along if it meant they’d talk freely in front of me.

“It’s bad enough the experiments are on hold for another week, especially when it seemed we were so close,” she grumbled, her tone snappish. “Now I have to waste my time reassigning these shifters to keep them occupied.” Her irritation appeared to grow as her lips thinned, her focus on her tablet as she swiped and typed.

“Why aren’t they just kept in their cells?” The assistant had a deep, melodic voice. I wanted to punch his face in.

“We’re running low on the docile ones. Until a new shipment arrives, we need to use the ones we’ve trained. You know how long it takes to get them to understand basic commands.”

Okay. I’d like to punch her too. Another shipment. Like we wre nothing more than cattle. My wolf whined to be released. Pushed to rip out both their throats, but with the two guards nearby, that would be foolish.

Wait, wolf. Patience.

“Shifter S-473. I see you’ve worked in the labs for almost a month without any trouble. For now, you’ll clean the detention cells and guard’s quarters on this level during your morning shift. After lunch, you’ll go back to the labs. For some reason, the staff prefers your method of cleaning.” She stared at me, a sneer on her face until it turned into a tight grin. “You must have been a house slave before coming here.”

It was all I could do to swallow my fury and keep my expression blank. Or could she see that I wanted to bash her face in?

“She must have been a problem if she was transferred here.”

“It’s more likely they got a good price for her. The unruly ones are usually marked for experiments.”

I bit my tongue. I wasn’t sure what was worse. Her belief that I had been a slave, something that had been outlawed over two centuries ago, or that they were marking us for experiments. Would I have been marked as a test subject if I’d continued to rage at my keepers? Yet, they hadn’t tagged me after I’d stuck Tallon in the neck with a fork. Either way, the thought was sobering.

The female nodded at the guard who’d been standing next to her. “Make sure all the animals are either out of their cells or fully restrained before she’s allowed to enter. There’ll be hell to pay if we lose a decent cleaner.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The guard gripped my upper arm and led me to the far end of the hallway, toward the guard’s quarters.

I shivered at the cold air and wrinkled my nose at the stink. Had it gotten worse down here, or had I never noticed when I lived in these cells?

“I’m Dallas, and you’ll be brought down to report to me at the guard’s station each morning.” He released my arm when we entered the guard’s quarters.

I nodded. I wasn’t sure if his name was a given name or a nickname. What I did know was that he was a shifter. He must have been here a long time, like Tallon, to be trusted as a guard. So, not a friend.

“My understanding is that you’re a good worker, so I’ll show you your duties over the next couple of days. Then you’ll be expected to work on your own. You’ve lived down here before, so you should remember that guards walk the corridors. One misstep and you’ll find yourself back in one of these cells marked as a test subject.”

He gave me a long look. His jaw was firm in his once handsome face. A scar ran from his left forehead across his face to the right side of his chin. However he’d gotten it, something or someone had stopped him from shifting, otherwise a shift would have prevented the scarring. His lips were set in a scowl, but when I met his gaze, something in his bright green eyes gave me pause. He was either sizing me up or perhaps looking for something else. An ally?

Interesting. But his threat still hung in the air. I lowered my gaze and nodded. “I understand.”

I walked behind him as he gave me the tour.

“Each level has quarters for the guards. They include private rooms, a cafeteria, lounge, and game room.” This side of level three had white walls and tiled floors rather than the rough-hewn stone that encompassed the rest of the level. He opened one of the private rooms. It was surprisingly spacious and included a single bed, wider and longer than the cots in the cells, and the mattress was thicker, a galley kitchen, a dining table and chairs, and an entertainment center with a small sofa.

“The bathrooms and showers are communal.” Dallas stopped at one. “There are two in the quarter’s area and two bathrooms without showers in the cell area.”

He showed me the storage closet where the cleaning supplies and linen were stored. The cleaning of the guard’s room included removing the used sheets and providing clean ones. The guards made their own beds. I was responsible for removing the trash and replacing the wastebasket liners, but the guards were expected to do their own sweeping and dusting. That was something. Otherwise, they’d need a full-time maid to thoroughly clean all the rooms.

However, once we started through the rooms, only twelve of the twenty available rooms were occupied. Twelve guards for how many prisoners? I’d soon find out. I stored away the information, along with the discovery of a security room and armory, both requiring key cards.

The quarters took two hours to clean while Dallas explained the routine. It would be faster once I was on my own.

The detention cells were just as I remembered them. Cold, dank, and held nothing more than a thin pallet on the floor and a bucket for waste. In this area, I was assigned a cart. It held a large tub where I dumped the buckets of shifter waste. After scraping out any remaining food in a second container, the bowls and trays were stacked on two top racks. The third container held fresh water to refill the one plastic tumbler each shifter was allowed.

“The shifters are rotated through here frequently. When a cell becomes available, you’ll need to sweep it out and replace the pallet.”

The used pallets were set on the bottom rack of the cart. The cleaned pallets were on the middle shelf. It made sense to change out the pallets. They wouldn’t want to spend time dealing with pest control. That was why all shifters were bathed every twenty-one days. They must have determined that was the longest they could go before lice or other infestations occurred.

Before we went into the first cell, Dallas pulled me aside.

“We currently have twenty-two shifters in this area. There are six main corridors and various side tunnels. Before you start on a new hallway, a guard will check each room to ensure the shifter has been restrained. Don’t dawdle in the rooms. Once you’re done with a corridor, you need to check with the guard in the next corridor to ensure the cells are safe.” Again with the strange look in his eyes. “Do you understand the importance of that?”

I met his gaze, searching to understand what I saw—concern, warning, or information that I wasn’t sure what to do with. All I said was, “Yes.”