Page 14

Dominic

R in and I met Keiko and Aaron inside the laboratory’s security room, where they were studying the various monitors. Keiko had pulled her mask off, and the cat shifter was back in his two-legged form.

Two guards sat back to back on the floor, their hands bound behind them and their chins against their chests.

They were out cold. From our limited surveillance and knowledge of Ichiro’s activities, most, if not all, of his guards here would be non-Gifted humans.

Less chance of drawing attention that way.

To be certain, I inhaled deeply, allowing Jou to analyze the scents. He confirmed they were indeed non-Gifted.

The monitors matched the blueprints we’d studied, showing a handful of rooms and hallways, as well as a series of closed doors leading off from the hallways. Not a single camera aimed beyond any of those doors, which instantly piqued my interest.

What was Ichiro hiding behind those doors that he didn’t want captured on camera? At least not by the security team.

A single man in a white lab coat continued to work in an open, office-like space with desks and tables. He was eyeing a slide under a microscope. Other than that, no one else appeared to be inside.

"We haven’t seen anyone but him," Keiko said, gesturing to the man.

Aaron checked his watch. "We’re good on time, too. Should have at least forty minutes until the next patrol is due."

I double-checked that the guards were secured. "Rin, you good here?"

"You bet, boss." Rin bent to smooch Keiko on the cheek, then slid onto a chair in front of the monitors. "Get us something good."

I nodded to Keiko and Aaron, and we entered the building’s main hallway. The first thing I noticed was the warm air. Warmer than I expected, at any rate.

The Sato warehouses I’d entered recently had been kept cold, nearly freezing to keep the pyrocrystals from overheating and combusting. If this lab had anything to do with the pyrocrystals, then I didn’t understand why I was feeling this much warmth.

Wouldn’t he be concerned with the crystals combusting and bringing down the entire building?

With that in mind, I surveyed the area more thoroughly, my scalp prickling with unease. Maybe Aaron’s intuition hadn’t been picking up a trap, just the wrong location. This could very well be nothing but a wild dragon chase.

Except I didn’t believe that was true either. Something strange was happening here, and I would find out what that was, even if it had nothing to do with the crystals. If Ichiro was involved, it was worth investigating.

As the blueprints and cameras had shown, this main hall branched in three directions.

"Okay, we each take our assigned hallway and report on any findings," I said. "If you come across anyone else, do not engage unless necessary. I trust you both can find a place to hide easier than I can."

Keiko grinned, flashing a hint of sharp canines. "That’s an understatement."

Cute, but she wasn’t wrong. "Check in every two minutes. Go."

We split up with Keiko going left, Aaron right, and I ventured straight ahead. Rin would remain in the control room to monitor the cameras and alert us of any potential issues. We were nothing if not efficient.

Swiftly but quietly, I moved down the sparse, sterile hallway. The fluorescent lights hummed and flickered overhead.

The way the doors were uniformly spaced apart with small viewing windows made this place feel like a prison or an asylum. I didn’t scare easily—or, possibly, at all—but this place was eerily quiet, even for an after-hours excursion. A chill crept down my spine.

As I continued forward on light feet, high-pitched screams erupted from the room just ahead and to the left.

I stopped and hovered my hand above my knife’s hilt, waiting to see if someone was about to barge out of a door.

Until we knew more about what we were dealing with, I couldn’t risk using a gun.

The sound wasn’t the issue, but I didn’t make it a habit to go around shooting people who might be innocent.

Jou prowled restlessly, reminding me of his presence, but I couldn’t risk letting him out either. The beast was anything but stealthy or quiet. Destruction was his modus operandi .

My dragon growled. While dragonkind couldn’t telepathically communicate the way other shifters could, we were more than capable of understanding each other’s emotions. He’d caught the intention behind my thought about his love of destruction.

Now was not the time to pacify a grumpy dragon, but I’d make sure he had time to come out and play before tomorrow’s Council meeting. I would need him to blow off some literal steam before his emotions and desires could override my own.

The screaming continued for another moment before falling silent. Nobody appeared.

Keiko’s whispered voice crackled in my earpiece, "Eesh, this place gives me the creeps."

Glad I wasn’t the only badass feeling that way.

I inched closer to the door where the screams had come from and peeked through the small window. At first, I wasn’t sure what was happening inside the mostly empty room, which was encased in steel.

A brunette woman was strapped face down on a metal table, sobbing and throwing her head from side to side. Her back was bare, but there was a large red mark across her left shoulder blade where a tattoo must have been. Now, it was only angrily inflamed raw skin that was vaguely dragon-shaped.

Suddenly, her back bowed upward, and a blood-curdling scream erupted from her throat. Tendons bulged in her neck and arms as she attempted to break free of the restraints, tugging uselessly against the steel bindings.

Her entire body glowed red moments before a fiery dragon spirit ripped from beneath her skin, bellowing with fury. Flames engulfed the room as the beast took out its wrath on everything in its path, the woman included. Her exposed skin blackened beneath the onslaught.

Horrified, I tried the door handle, but it was locked.

What the fuck was happening?

Next to the table, a machine that was enclosed in steel like the rest of the room came to life with a whirring and clicking sound. A blue liquid flowed from the machine via a tube into a syringe in the woman’s arm.

The dragon flung itself around the room and clawed at the walls, desperate to escape and clearly confused. As the blue liquid seeped into her veins and spread, the dragon whined pitifully. He dove for the woman’s body, disappearing into her skin through the spot where there had once been a tattoo.

The woman groaned once before going limp as the dragon’s fiery essence dissipated within her. Red droplets rose from her skin like sweat before hardening and crystallizing.

The newly formed pyrocrystals fell into an awaiting trough surrounding the table. The trough was angled in such a way that the crystals rolled toward the floor until they disappeared into some sort of collection barrel.

My mouth ran dry as the realization hit me. No, this couldn’t possibly be how Ichiro was manufacturing crystals en masse. Was this just his way of torturing his enemies? I prayed the latter was true.

As I watched, the woman’s charred skin slowly healed thanks to the dragon’s magic within her. The only thing remaining unhealed was her tattoo. The skin there remained raw and red.

"This is beyond sick," Keiko’s voice chimed in my ear, horror evident in her hushed tone.

"What is?" Rin asked.

Aaron’s strained voice came through the comms. "You seeing dragons too?"

"Yes. How many doors are in your hallway?" I asked.

"Twelve," Keiko said.

"Fourteen," Aaron said.

"Twelve here too. Thirty-eight in this building alone. Confirm if all rooms are in use."

"What’s happening, guys?" Rin asked. "Don’t leave me hanging like this."

As we moved down our respective hallways, Keiko briefly explained to Rin what we saw. A fire dragon and its human host—men and women alike—occupied each room, creating pyrocrystals through the bonding ritual before breaking it and starting again via the liquid being pumped into their veins.

Not a single person had an intact tattoo controlling the dragons. Whatever was in that blue liquid somehow forced the beasts to obey, which meant the dragons were being tortured as well. Given their freedom, then having it ripped from them over and over.

How long had such madness been going on?

How had Ichiro even come up with a sick and twisted idea like this?

"Fuck me. How’s that even possible?" Rin asked the question we all must have wondered.

I didn’t answer because I didn’t know. All I knew was that it had to stop.

And yet, I couldn’t free them. Not yet. Not without blowing our cover or alerting the guards, or worse, Ichiro himself.

Rage clawed at the inside of my chest, but I shoved it down, forced myself to move.

Every second we waited felt like a betrayal, but charging in half-cocked would get us all killed and leave these prisoners to rot.

As I passed each door, I took photos with my phone. When the machine activated a dragon, I captured the event on video. Their screams would haunt me for the rest of my life. I memorized every face and made silent promises.

Because if the Council didn’t act after seeing this, then I would. And I wouldn’t stop until the walls bled. When the time came, I would burn this place to ash. Not just for justice, but for vengeance. For them.

This entire operation would cease to exist. One way or another.

By the time I reached the end of the hall, only one room was unoccupied, though the scorch marks on the wall spoke of a violent history. Most of the room's occupants were going through the same torture as the brunette woman. A few were in a restful state but still strapped down.

I guessed Ichiro had to let his captives rest every once in a while before they died altogether when their bodies gave out. Small mercies. Although death might have been preferable.