Tara was so happy she did not stop talking the entire time we were walking. The tagging center is the most distant building from all the others on campus for obvious reasons, and even though we can move super fast and the place isn’t that big, it still took a couple of minutes to get there. I’m not sure she paused to even take a breath the whole while.
Eventually, we reached the front gates; not the one Cadence and I had gone through the night before, but the ones I remembered from the tour I’d taken a month or so ago. Strangely, there was no one there. Not a single Guardian. I thought that was really odd, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. That should’ve been enough for me to realize there was something going on. I should’ve left right then, gone for help. But I knew the Leaders were in an important meeting. So were the other people I’d go to for help, and I was concerned about Bonnie. So I decided to try to open the gate with my IAC. When I pushed on it, and it swung open, I was shocked.
“How did that happen?” Dax asked, and Tara began to laugh, clearly not realizing something was wrong. She was just so happy to have gotten past the gate.
“I used my IAC,” I replied to Dax, though I wasn’t even sure that was the case. We went through, and I made sure the gate was closed behind us even though I didn’t know for sure if I’d be able to open it again. I didn’t want anything escaping and then finding out later it was my fault.
“Is that the thing, the implant they put in your eye?” Dax asked as we approached the building.
“Yeah,” I replied, realizing he didn’t have his yet. “Christian will put yours in in a day or two.” Tara made a disapproving noise when I said Christian’s name, and I wondered what he’d done to her, but it wasn’t any of my business, so I kept walking. I definitely didn’t want Dax to already have bad connotations toward the guy who’d be all up in his business sticking a computer chip in his eye, so I let that part go.
Besides, there were other things to worry about. Like the fact that the door to the tagging center was also unguarded. Something was definitely going on now. “This is so weird,” I muttered.
“Maybe it’s unlocked,” Dax said, and I was just about to say that wasn’t possible or else we really had problems when the door literally swung open. “What in the world?” I asked, every alarm possible going off in my mind. This wasn’t good….
Cautiously, I stepped inside, wishing they weren’t with me. But they followed me into the narrow entryway. The lights were out here and for as far as I could see down the hallway. Somewhere in the distance, one fluorescent bulb flickered, and for a moment I was reminded of the streetlamp and questioned what I was.
An irritating buzzing sound which may have been coming from the bulb was the only sound that registered, and I knew instantly something was terribly wrong.
As if reading my thoughts, Tara asked, “What do you think happened?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. To my right, there was a long hallway. Without the lights on, it was pitch black, but I could see well enough with my Vampire sight. I didn’t see or hear anyone, and I got the impression we’d stumbled upon something pretty horrifying. “I don’t like it. I think we should call Aaron and Cadence and get out of here.” I didn’t really want to leave, but I knew that was the smart thing to do. I couldn’t handle this on my own, and bringing a brand new Guardian and a Hunter into this situation was beyond stupid.
And then we heard the first scream.
It was unlike anything I’d ever heard before, and recently, that’s saying a lot. It echoed off the walls and vibrated around us, the sound of sheer panic, of terror. My heart stopped in my chest for a moment, and my first instinct was to run toward whoever had made that sound and help them while simultaneously pushing my friends out the door and locking it behind them.
“What was that?” Dax asked.
Several loud crashes reverberated down the hallway. We jumped with each one. When it was quiet again, I turned back to them. “I have no idea what’s going on, but you guys shouldn’t be here. Go back outside, outside of the gate.” I pushed them that way, hoping they would listen, that Dax would make Tara go, and then I followed my gut, taking off in a sprint toward the noises, wishing I’d brought a weapon with me.
As I ran down the dark hallway, I tried Cadence on my IAC and got nothing, not even a message that she was busy. It was like I couldn’t reach her. I tried Aaron, Elliott, Jamie, even Christian. I was cut off from the world.
I reached the end of the hallway and rounded the corner toward my left, thinking this was the way to the intake room. Figures rushed by a corridor in front of me, and I froze in my tracks, trying to decipher who or what they were. They moved quickly, but skittishly, and I got the impression they were looking for an exit by their erratic movements.
I knew, then, what they were, but I didn’t have time to think about it at the moment. I needed to find the source of those screams, to get help, to find Bonnie and Lena. I ran toward the hall where I’d seen the figures cross my path, and when I reached the intersection, I turned my head and saw two men off in the distance, and by the length of their fingernails and the shadows they cast, I could tell that they were Vampires.