Chapter 30: Chapter 30

I never relished going on missions with humans. Neither did my Knights. Not in a life-or-death situation, anyway. But it was their information that got us here. And since this could also involve other humans, they could not willingly hand it over to us. Torres, I could tolerate. He was a professional through and through. He would never let his personal opinions or prejudices impede this operation. It was Chavez who I worried me. His standoffish attitude made us all uncomfortable. It gave me and my men itchy fingers. And fangs, in Jules’ case. An Empath like Irina, he was more attuned to other people’s feelings or thoughts. What he sensed in Chavez aroused the savage in him. Only the promise of getting revenge on the people who had hurt his comrades made him hold back his vicious urges for the police officer. This was the break we had been waiting for. None of us would jeopardize it.

The Count had promised to send reinforcements after I reported the situation to him, but they were not due until tomorrow. I already expected the delay, since my old mentor was dealing with his own problems back home. He didn’t elaborate, but the Count hinted that this was part of a conspiracy to overthrow the Royal Council. That it reached as high up as the Royal Guards made me fear for our future. Another war between humans and vampires could break out if they ousted the reigning Royals. Only the current members of the Royal Council had been smart enough to broker peace between our two species, albeit with a multitude of restrictive decrees imposed on our kind. If there were factions seeking to destroy the royal family or the council, then order would go out the window. And war as the only logical ending.

A bloody war that the humans would surely lose.

My heart clenched at the thought. I didn’t want Mira to get caught in the middle of a senseless war. Nor her friends, those brave girls who meant so much to her.

Thinking of Mira made me want to run back to her. After seeing Jan and Mel, she insisted we let them stay at our place. I didn’t like the idea at first. I feared that they would never leave once they got used to being with Mira again. However, when Torres called to tell me about a lead we’d been waiting for these past few days, I had no choice but to agree. I would need all of my able-bodied men for this operation. Having the girls in one place was the most practical thing to do. Still, I couldn’t leave them totally unprotected, so I pleaded with Irina to help Garrett look after them. My building was a fortress. Yet our enemies had already proven that they could penetrate my defenses. I couldn’t leave anything to chance.

“Sir, Torres and his men are already in place. Should we head out, too?” Stefan said, breaking through my meanderings.

“Yes, let’s do this,” I said, getting to my feet. This was it, the confrontation I both looked forward to and dreaded. I just hoped this would be the end and not the beginning.

We only got here by luck. The detective on Torres’s task force recognized a suspect from an old unsolved case. He followed the man here and, noting suspicious activities, called Torres. They continued surveilling the place for the next two days, and after confirming that there were vampires inside, Torres phoned me. And here we sat in a clump of trees, staring at the decrepit Art Deco building. It sat inside a compound in Alabang and, ironically, very near a bustling commercial area. However, as people believed it to be haunted, the area was devoid of human traffic. If Marcel was the mastermind behind this enterprise, then his chosen hideout was a far-cry from his opulent tastes. Only the statue of a beautiful woman standing on a skull hinted of its former glory. A good place to keep secrets, anyway, I thought. Even if someone overhead cries of anguish from within, they would ignore it and just attribute to the tortured souls haunting the former hospital. The vampires, according to Torres, also moved in and out only at night, when the malls were closed and there was less human activity in the area.

Torres had five men with him, including Chavez, while I had seven—Stefan, Marcus, Link, Jules, Raven, and Mikhail. Keno normally stayed at HQ during missions, but after hearing about what happened to Boris, his mentor, had requested to join us tonight. As a Tokugawa samurai, Keno was one skilled and ruthless fighter. He was an impressive addition to our assault team. Torres and I agreed I would take the lead. His only concern was to rescue humans and not engage the vampires in battle. He understood my concern and readily conceded the point. Chavez didn’t look too happy about that directive, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t here to stroke his ego. And if he wanted to step out of line and deal with the feral vampires himself, then I wouldn’t stand in his way. Let it be his own funeral.

The building itself was huge, with high ceilings and large ornate pillars harkening to its glory days. There were several stairways leading to the upper floors, which we could glimpse through the balustrade in the hallways. But knowing vampires, they would stay as far away from the roof as possible. I would place my bet on the lower levels. There was no other source of illumination other than the beams of moonlight streaming through the cracked windows. Torres’s team had to wear night goggles in order to see where they were going. We didn’t have the same handicap, of course. Since our scents would’ve been enough to announce our presence, my Knights and I doused ourselves with a mixture of human and animal blood again. I wanted to keep the element of surprise for as long as possible.

As we descended the cracked stairs, the stench of human blood became more evident. There was also another scent that was hard to identify. It wasn’t 100 percent vampiric, but neither was it entirely human. Could these be where the hybrids were also being kept? The temperature was colder here, too, the perfect site for a crypt—dark, damp, and secluded. There were no windows, doors, or other means of entry or exit except for the one I just pushed open. It was like a giant tomb.

What I saw next, however, wasn’t something I expected. What I thought would be another dilapidated portion of the hospital turned out to be a modern hospital laboratory, complete with the pungent chemical smell. The white tiles on the walls were old but fastidiously scrubbed clean. Overhead, lights flickered to life the moment I stepped into the room. Those were new. I doubted if motion-activated lights were already available when the owners built this structure. Tall, stainless steel cabinets lined the walls, while on the left sat a giant freezer. I could only guess what it contained. White curtain dividers partially hid the right side.

It was a good thing Torres agreed to keep his team away from the action. They would await us at the ground floor, ready to assist the humans we might liberate. The scenery that greeted us would’ve curdled his blood. Lying on about a dozen hospital beds were comatose-looking men and women, several tubes attached to their bodies. The ones on the left were used to siphon blood into the attached blood bags, while those on the right were pumping life-replenishing liquids into their bodies. It was like they were being kept alive to continue producing blood. They had turned these unfortunate people into nothing more than blood factories.

“What in fuck’s name?” Marcus grunted behind me.

I couldn’t agree more. How could anyone be this heartless? Was this truly Marcel’s doing?

“Sir! Over here,” Raven’s voice called out, breaking me out of my trance.

I tore my eyes away from the horrific scene and jogged over to where Raven and the others were standing in front of a glass-enclosed space on the other side of the room. Only Marcus, Link, and Keno remained gazing wide-eyed at the people on the hospital beds.

“These are the girls we rescued, sir,” Stefan said, stepping aside to let me through.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that aside from being tied to separate hospital beds, the two girls seemed unharmed. However, when I looked closer, I noticed the fresh bite marks on their necks. Yet they didn’t look dead. In fact, they looked like—

“They’re turning, mon ami.”

A familiar voice said, accompanied by the telltale clicks of several guns. I didn’t have to look to know that Marcel wasn’t alone and had us at a disadvantage.

“Marcel,” I said, turning to face my longtime friend.

“My dear Nikolai,” Marcel said, smiling with his usual charm. He had close to thirty vampires behind him, all armed with modified shotguns. It must be what they used on Boris, Tanner, and Rosier. Guns with silver bullets. “I wondered if you would find me here. I wanted you to. It was time that you joined us, your actual family. Welcome, my friend.”

It was only when he spread his hands that I noticed the mark on his inner forearm.

The symbol of Osiris.