Leticia

  “You’ll be OK.”

  “We’ll be OK.”

  He kissed me once more before loading us both up with guns and ammunition.

  We arrived at the lab twenty minutes later. We pulled up a couple of side streets away and slowly and quietly walked towards it.

  “That doesn’t look like a lab,” Jackson said, looking at the building. “It looks more like a large garage or warehouse.”

  “He took what he could get, but trust me when you get inside... well, you’ll see.”

  He was right, from the outside the building looked like a rundown warehouse with overgrown wasteland at either side. The place actually looked unsafe. When we got closer we saw a light on towards the back of the building. It was faint but that meant someone was there. Jackson pulled one of his guns out ready to shoot anyone who got in his way. We tried the front entrance but it was locked, there was no way we would be able to get inside.

  “There are two doors around the back, we could try those,” I whispered.

  He nodded and made me walk behind him as we crept around the back. Both the doors were bolted shut, but we did notice one of the windows was open and thankfully it was big enough for us to climb through. Jackson went inside first. He wanted to check that no one was around. I appreciated the fact he wanted to protect me, but I also wanted to protect him. He motioned for me to come inside. We were in one of the empty rooms that I knew Luke used for storage at one point.

  “Do you know the layout of this place?” Jackson asked.

  “It’s been a long time since I’ve been here, I can only remember parts of it. To be honest I didn't see everything.”

  We opened the store room door as quietly as possible and made our way down the little hallway towards the main room. The light was coming from in there, not the main lights, it wasn’t bright enough, maybe it was from a desk lamp. We stood next to the double doors silently, not even breathing, just listening to see if we could hear anyone. Jackson looked at me and shook his head, it was silent. He waved his gun a little, I knew he meant for me to pull mine out too. He motioned with his fingers...1...2...3... then kicked the doors open. We walked in expecting to shoot someone, but the room was empty. The light must have been left on accidentally.

  “Wow,” Jackson said, looking around him. “This place is... wow.”

  “Told you didn’t I? You see, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.”

  “How did he fund this?”

  “It’s like I said, his business was booming, he was making an unbelievable amount of money. The cost of all this... it was nothing to him.”

  “Maybe it was nothing to him back then, but now it’s gonna cost him his life.”

  “I know.”

  We started looking around to see if we could find any clues to Luke’s whereabouts. Jackson looked amazed by everything. It was so clean, with test tubes of all sizes neatly placed around the work benches. Chemistry books were on shelves and on a large desk by one of the windows, along with dozens of note pads and pens. There were several computers, microscopes, two centrifuges, micro plates, pipettes and... syringes.

  “Jackson look,” I waved him over. “These are the same kind of needles I saw in the barn when I found Tristan.”

  “Well that definitely confirms it’s him then.”

  “Have you found anything?”

  “No, nothing. What’s in the next room?”

  “I don’t know, let’s take a look.”

  We walked through the large door at the other side of the lab. The smell hit us straight away. There was blood everywhere. The floor was just a mass of deep red; the walls were splattered with it. To me it smelt like copper. There were also flies and maggots everywhere.

  “Jesus Christ,” Jackson gasped, covering his nose. “What the hell happened here?”

  “I was wondering the same thing.” I cringed, trying not to breathe.

  “Look,” he pointed to a rather large chest freezer, the only item other than a few lockers in the room. “Open it.”

  “Piss off, you open it!” I shot.

  He smirked at me before walking over to it, I watched as his boot prints appeared in the blood, then waited anxiously as he went to lift the lid. As soon as he had, he turned away from it for a moment in disgust.

  “Leticia, you’re not going to like this, but you need to see if you know this person.”

  “Oh god,” I moaned. “Can’t you just describe him?”

  “Erm... not really.”

  “Is it that bad?”

  “It’s not good.”

  “Oooh... shit, fine.”

  I made my way over to him, pulling funny faces when I heard the blood squelching under my shoes. I took a deep breath before quickly glancing inside. There was nothing there. He burst out laughing.

  “You bastard that wasn’t funny,” I shot, punching his arm. I hit him a little bit too hard and he stumbled into one of the large lockers behind him. “Sorry.”

  “I just couldn’t resist,” he continued to laugh.

  “Oh shut up. Come on, this blood must come from somewhere.”

  I started to walk away and he moved away from the locker; I heard the door moan a little as it fell open and turned around just in time to see a body start to fall out. I quickly grabbed Jackson’s arm and pulled him away.

  “Jesus,” he frowned; glaring at the partly decomposed body now lay in front of him.

  “Oh my god, that’s... that’s Charles... Charles Mansbridge.”

  “One of the scientists?”

  “Yeah.”

  “God he stinks, oh my god, that’s disgusting.”

  “Try having a heightened sense of smell,” I nearly gagged, covering my nose quickly. “I need to get out of this room.”

  I practically ran out and back into the main lab. I had to open one of the windows and stand next to it taking deep breaths to try and stop myself vomiting. I expected to see Jackson appear beside me but he hadn’t come out of the room yet. What was he doing? Why the hell would he want to stay in there any longer than necessary? Once the nauseous feeling had subsided I turned to face the room again, I was just about to shout him when he walked out.

  “What were you doing?” I asked.

  “Seeing if I could work out what killed him.”

  “And?”

  “He’s been shot, once in the chest and then again in the head.”

  “Jesus.”

  “Seems Luke doesn’t mind being a murdering bastard these days. He’ll do whatever it takes to get his grubby little operation up and running.”

  “God he was never this sort of person. The Luke I knew... he couldn’t have done this.”

  “People change when money is involved. Greed takes over and people stop seeing things as they once did.”

  I shook my head in disgust. “It just goes to show... no matter how well you think you know a person... you never really do.”

  “You know me.”

  “Do I?”

  “What you see is what you get. Well... it is now,” He smiled. “Anyway, I don’t think we’re going to find anything here, shall we leave?”

  “There’s a couple of office’s towards the end of the hall, I think we should check those out first, if there’s nothing there, then we’ll go.”

  “OK,” he said taking my hand.

  The first room we walked in was in a real mess. The chairs were broken, papers were scattered everywhere, and the blinds were half hanging off. There was broken glass, which I think must have once been a whiskey tumbler, next to the desk. One of the bookshelves was broken, and the books were in a heap on the floor just below it.

  “Either someone has a bad temper and trashed the place, or there’s been a fight in here,” Jackson commented, walking over to the desk. “I personally vote fight.”

  “Why?”

  “There’s blood on the edge of this desk. I noticed that... what’s his name? Charles, he had a gash on his forehead an inch or so away from where the bullet entere
d. Looks to me like the fight started here, and ended in that other room.”

  “If that was his fate, I wonder what happened to Roger Mayfair. God I hope he got away, I hope he’s OK.”

  “Well if we don’t find parts of him here, I would think the better of it.”

  After a bit of rummaging in there and finding nothing, we moved on to the second office. This one was in perfect condition. There seemed to be a place for everything, and everything was in its place. Jackson went through the drawers while I looked through some of the paperwork, but again we found nothing. Not even a note about what they were researching.

  “You know, something’s off,” Jackson pointed out, slamming the bottom draw of the computer desk shut. “I mean, all the research they were doing in here, and yet... where is it? There’s been nothing written down, no print outs of anything... nothing to show anything actually took place here other than murder.”

  “Maybe Luke took it with him,” I suggested.

  “It’s possible, but surely there would be at least a trace of something here.”

  “You would think...”

  I was interrupted by what sounded like a loud tapping. Jackson glared at me, while once again getting his gun in his hand. We heard it again, only this time it was followed by a scratching noise.

  “It’s coming from in there.” I whispered, pointing to the door behind where the desk was.

  “What is it?”

  “Another little room.”

  I remembered Luke telling me how fascinated the scientists were, and how sometimes they would spend most of the night at the lab. In the end, they used a little room next to one of the offices to take a nap. I was sure that was the room. I was going to walk over, but Jackson stopped me.

  “Get behind me, if it’s him and he shoots... if the bullet is silver he could kill you,” he said in a low gravely concerned voice. “Silver doesn’t affect me.”

  “But...”

  “No buts, I’ve seen you get shot before, I can’t watch that again. Especially not now.”

  He didn't wait for me to respond; he walked quickly over to the door and kicked it open with such force that the door actually flew off its hinges. It took me by surprise, I’d forgotten how strong shifters were. I ran over after him, he stood there as still as a statue, I looked past him and into the room. There was an old hospital bed in there now; it looked like it had come from the psych ward. It even had the leather restraints. Someone was lying on the bed, I felt sick again and started shaking.

  “Luke!”

  Chapter 33

  I ran over to him, his hands and feet were bound by the restraints and he had three thick leather straps over his knees, stomach and chest, securing him. He was as white as a ghost and looked a quarter of the weight he was the last time I saw him; he was now just skin and bone. There were bruises all over him and dried blood around his nose, mouth, wrists and ankles. It seemed he had been struggling to get off the bed, trying so hard that the leather from the restraints had cut deep into his skin. His clothes were filthy, torn, blood stained, and he had no shoes or socks on.

  “Is he alive?” Jackson asked, standing behind me.

  “I don’t know.”

  I started to feel for his pulse. As soon as my fingers made contact with his skin his eyes flew open. It frightened me; I nearly jumped out of my skin. His breathing became erratic.

  “Luke,” I nearly cried, cupping his face. “Luke it’s me, it’s Leticia.” He glared at me for a moment, he looked like he was trying to focus on my face. “Luke can you hear me?”

  “Is it... is it... really you?” He choked.

  “It is.”

  “You need... to leave, he’ll... be back... soon”

  “Tish,” Jackson spoke. “We need to get him out of here. Now.”

  “There’s no... time.” Luke told him.

  “Yes there is.”

  Jackson and I both started unbuckling the restraints as fast as we could. Luke could hardly move, he was so weak he couldn’t carry his own weight.

  “Take this,” Jackson said passing me his gun. “Get ready to use them both.”

  I was about to say I needed my hands free to help, but before I got chance he lifted Luke over his shoulder.

  “We need to move quickly,” He said. “If anyone comes in, shoot first and ask questions later. I’ll make sure Luke gets out.”

  I nodded and headed towards the door, just as we got to the hallway we heard doors opening.

  “Leave me here, get out now, both of you,” Luke panicked.

  “No,” Jackson told him. “Stay quiet.”

  “We need to go out the way we came in,” I told him. “I’ll climb out and you can pass Luke to me while you get out.”

  “She’s strong,” Luke croaked. “She can do it.”

  “I know what she is,” Jackson confirmed.

  Luke didn’t respond.

  We reached the storage room and I closed the door behind us as quietly as I could. All the lights in the building came on.

  “Get out quick,” Jackson ordered.

  I didn't argue, as soon as I was outside I reached for Luke. Jackson lowered him as quickly but gently as possible before climbing out himself.

  “We should get him to the car, then come back and kill the bastards,” Jackson barked.

  “No, you wouldn’t last two minutes in there,” Luke warned. “They have so many weapons, chemical ones too. Not to mention all the silver bullets. Leticia, let’s just leave, I don’t want them to kill you.”

  I nodded and then returned him to Jackson. We crept around the sides of the building, ducking under the windows. When we reached the pathway we heard raised voices; they must have realized Luke was missing. We heard things smashing and men’s voices shouting, it sounded like there were quite a lot of them. We also noticed there were several cars now parked up just in front of the wasteland. Needless to say we didn't stick around any longer than necessary; we ran down the road and completely out of sight as fast as we could. Jackson laid Luke across the back seat of the car before getting us out of there.

  Neither of us thought it was good idea to stay at the hotel. It was too close. Jackson went inside to get our things and sort everything out with the receptionist, while I called Nancy and Tristan to tell them the short version of what had happened, and that we were coming straight back. Nancy said she would prepare a room for Luke and they would stay up and wait for us. As soon as Jackson returned, we set off.

  ***

  Nancy and Tristan were waiting impatiently at the door when we arrived back home. He came to help Jackson move Luke into the house. I was about to walk inside when Nancy blocked my path.

  “What?” I asked, a little brusquely.

  “Are you sure this isn’t a trick?”

  “Is what a trick?”

  “It’s convenient how Luke was there.”

  “Have you even looked at him, have you seen the state he is in, he’s been beaten, starved and god knows what else... do you think he did that to himself?”

  “All I’m saying is be careful. Someone could have heard us talking before; he could have known you were going down...”

  “Yeah so then, in the space of a few hours, he starved himself to an almost skeletal state, beat himself up and tied himself into...”

  “Chill out I’m just worried that’s all, I want you to be on your guard, nothing more and nothing less. You are my concern, not Luke.”

  “I’m sorry,” I sighed. “This is just a lot to deal with; I don’t mean to snap at you.”

  “I understand, especially since he’s an ex-lover. I know what it’s like to think you’ve lost someone, only for them to turn up again. It’s sends you on an emotional rollercoaster, but please don’t let your heart rule your head. Don’t take everything Luke will tell you as gospel truth; listen to him, remember what he says, then decide what to do next. But be prepared for the fact he may lie.”

  “I know,” I nodded, attempting to walk away.
>
  “Also...” she said, grabbing my arm. “With regards to my brother... this won’t be easy for him... you were close to Luke and now he’s here with us...”

  “Oh my god Nancy this really isn’t the time.”

  I pulled away from her and ran upstairs, Jackson was in the hallway waiting for me.

  “He’s asking for you,” he said, avoiding eye contact. “Tristan will be out in a minute, we’ll leave you to it.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing, I’m fine.”

  “OK, well will you ask Nancy to make him something to eat please?”

  “Yes.”

  “Jackson look, I hope...”

  “He’s asking for you Leticia,” Tristan interrupted. “He’s slipping in and out of consciousness, so if you want to talk to him for a little while now is your chance.”

  “OK, thanks.”

  I kissed Jackson’s cheek before entering the room. Luke was under the duvet, his eyes closed, someone had removed his shirt; it was tossed in the bin. I walked over quietly, looking at him. I could see just how much weight he had lost now, he was covered in bruises and some of them looked fresh. He had cuts and grazes all across his shoulders and down as far as his collarbone. It became obvious that he’d been beaten rather severely and very recently. When I got closer to him, I looked at his arms. I instantly felt sick, he was covered in needle marks; some of them looked infected too. It reminded me of something you would see on a heroin addict.

  “Don’t pre-judge me Leticia,” he croaked, opening his eyes. “Those aren’t self-inflicted.”

  “OK... how are you feeling?” I asked, sitting on the chair next to the bed.

  “Very tired, drained, but... safe.”

  “You are safe. What happened? Why were you strapped in that bed? How long have you been there?”

  “Slow down, please, I’m having problems taking everything in.”

  “I’m sorry, get some rest, we can talk tomorrow.”

  “Please don’t go yet, I haven’t seen you for a long time. It’s nice to be around someone who cares again.”

  “I won’t leave until you fall asleep.”

  “You know, I wish I’d never started all this... looking for a cure I mean. I didn’t want any of this,” He said, getting upset.