Night's Master (Children of The Night 3)

Rising, I relieved myself, then paced the floor, my thoughts chasing themselves like a cat chasing its tail. Where was this place? Where was Rafe? Tests, Travis had said. Tests to see if the formula concocted by his grandmother and Edna could cure the Werewolves and the Vampires. Tests to see how the shape-shifters, and ordinary people like me, would react to their so-called cure. I broke out in a cold sweat. What if it had no effect on the Supernatural community? What if it turned me into some kind of ravenous monster? Suddenly, being a run-of-the-mill Vampire didn't seem so bad.

The hours passed with agonizing slowness. A man wearing a mask and a white lab coat brought me a breakfast tray. The smell of scrambled eggs and sausage made me sick to my stomach. I drank the coffee, ate a slice of toast, and left the rest.

Agitated, worried for my future and Rafe's, I paced the floor again.

Lunch arrived a little after noon. Even though I wasn't hungry, I forced myself to eat a little of the turkey sandwich, felt a rush of unwanted gratitude for whoever had included a chocolate malt.

Sitting on the edge of the cot, I stared at the opposite wall. Time hadn't passed this slowly since I was a little girl waiting for Christmas morning.

Rising, I paced until my legs ached, then stretched out on the cot and closed my eyes. What were Edna and Pearl doing now? Where was Rafe? Had anyone noticed that I hadn't opened the store today? If I never returned to Oak Hollow, would anyone even miss me? I wished that I had told my mother that I loved her the last time we talked, just in case it really was the last time.

As the hours passed, I grew increasingly more fearful. “Rafe.” I whispered his name, wondering if I would ever see him again, wishing that we had made love when we had the chance. “Rafe, where are you?”

Kathy?

His voice whispered in my mind, calming my fears. “Rafe!”

I'm here.

“Are you all right? I'm so afraid.”

I know. Strange, I tried to contact you before and couldn't.

“That is odd,” I agreed. He was the one with the Supernatural powers. I had always seen things, heard things, through him. I was about to ask him if he knew where we were when the door to my room opened and two men wearing white lab coats stepped inside.

Without saying a word, they took hold of my arms and escorted me back to the lab I had seen the night before.

Something new had been added, a double row of large animal cages, six on each side of the room, facing each other. Seven of those who were locked inside were strangers to me, but I knew the people in three of the cages—Cagin, Susie, and Rafe. The fourth was a pretty girl with dark blond hair and violet eyes. I frowned, thinking she looked familiar. Of course, Jennifer Something-or-other. She had come to the bookstore once or twice.

The last cage was empty, the door open. I knew it was for me.

I fought a losing battle as the two men dragged me toward the cage. They locked me inside and then left the room.

I stared at Rafe. He sat hunched over in the middle of his cage. He stared back at me, but said nothing. His face and neck were badly burned where the holy water had touched him. I felt his pain as if it was my own, wondered what drug they had used to subdue him.

This couldn't be happening. Any minute now I'd wake up in my own house in my own bed. Yet even as I told myself it was nothing but a nightmare, I registered the fact that the cages held two human men, three Werewolves, three Vampires, and three shape-shifters. The Vampires and Werewolves were bound with silver, which drained their Supernatural strength. Each group consisted of two males and one female, all between twenty and thirty years old.

Edna and Pearl were totally insane, I thought. Effectively testing something as radical as this would take years. You couldn't test a new drug on twelve people and call the results conclusive. And what about its effects on dogs and cats, on birds and fish and livestock? On the water supply and agriculture, the atmosphere itself?

I noticed that Cagin was holding Susie's hand through the bars, though she seemed unaware of it. I was surprised to see them there, since Rafe had told me that Cagin was taking Susie away from Oak Hollow.

The other prisoners sat in silence, their faces reflecting nothing of what they felt, if indeed they felt anything. Drugged, I thought, all the Supernatural creatures had been drugged to render them incapable of fighting back.

I tensed as the door to the lab opened and Edna and Pearl walked briskly into the room. In addition to their usual colorful skirts and sneakers, they wore lab coats, rubber gloves and hospital masks. The two men who had brought me into the lab earlier followed them inside. I fought down a rising tide of panic as Edna and Pearl moved around the room. Why had I never noticed that insane gleam in their eyes before? Hard to believe it had always been there and I had never seen it. I had been amused by their outrageous appearance and eccentric behavior and dismissed them as two slightly unconventional grandmothers. How could I have been so blind?

I couldn't help wondering where Travis was. I thought it odd that he wasn't there to watch the tests.

“We'll start with the shape-shifters,” Pearl decided. She picked up a small glass bottle, removed the cap, filled a nasty-looking syringe with dark green liquid, and moved toward the first cage.

One of the lab assistants unlocked the door. He grabbed hold of the shape-shifter inside and held him down while the second assistant extended the shifter's arm. Quickly and efficiently, Pearl injected the serum into his vein. The assistant locked the cage door, and then Pearl and her assistants moved to Jennifer's cage. She offered no resistance.

Cagin was next. He snarled when they opened the door. In spite of being drugged, he tried to put up a fight, but in his weakened state, he was no match for the two burly assistants who held him down while Edna administered the dose.

“The Werewolves next, I think,” Edna said, filling another syringe, “and then the Vampires.”

Pearl looked at me. It was hard to read her expression behind the mask, but it seemed her eyes were sad. “And then the humans,” she murmured.

I could only watch in horror as Pearl and Edna moved from cage to cage, injecting the Werewolves. My stomach clenched when they opened the door to Susie's cage. She seemed unaware of what they were doing to her.

Rafe's gaze locked with mine when they opened his cage. Bound with silver chains, he was helpless to resist, but his eyes never left mine.

The other two Vampires were quickly inoculated.

I glanced at the shape-shifters. They sat as before, unmoving, and I wondered how long it would take to see what the serum's effects would be, if any.

Minutes passed and then the first Werewolf that had been injected howled with pain as he changed into a wolf and then quickly resumed his human form. He howled again and then, foaming at the mouth, he collapsed and lay still.