As she neared my compartment and the sounds of the wheels and heels stopped, my heart skipped a beat. I suddenly became acutely self-conscious about my breathing and the way I was lying. I also realized that my eyes had clamped too tightly shut in my nervousness. I loosened them, trying to force myself to appear relaxed.

The curtain drew aside, and the woman approached my bed. She paused for a moment, and I imagined that she was eyeing my face. Then she touched the blanket that I’d pulled up to my chest. Clasping it, she pulled it down to my feet, then paused again, perhaps now glancing over the rest of my body. She drew in a breath before taking a step back. Metal doors creaked open. There was no metal cupboard by my bed, so I assumed that there must have been a compartment at the base of the trolley she’d wheeled in. She began rummaging through what sounded like pins and plastic containers before standing again and hovering near the edge of my bed.

I picked up on the sound of liquid swishing, and then a kind of suction. I was horribly tempted to open my eyes, but I could not. At least not until…

The woman’s hand reached for mine and she raised it at an angle. As another needle made contact with my skin, before it could penetrate deeper than a few millimeters, my eyes shot open. Indeed, it was Jocelyn, wearing her usual lab coat, her mousy hair tied back in a ponytail. Her eyes bulged with alarm. But I didn’t give her more than a second to react.

My arms extended, my hands wrapping around her throat and stifling her yelp. Her right hand slipped beneath her coat and fumbled against the outline of a gun, fixed to her belt. Again, I was too quick for her. My strength allowed me to grip her by the neck with one hand while with the other I was free to knock her hand away and snatch up the gun for myself. Noticing a safety catch, I quickly slid it in the opposite direction. Then, gripping the weapon so hard the blood drained from my knuckles, I pointed it at her square in the chest and hissed, “Free my ankles.”

Jocelyn’s face blanched, her lips quivering. I wasn’t even sure what type of bullets this gun was loaded with. I had been shot by one of the hunters’ bullets before, back in the desert after escaping from The Oasis. I’d later learned that it had been a special UV bullet, uniquely designed for ending the lives of vampires by burning them up from the inside. The only reason that I hadn’t suffered that fate was because I was a half-blood, and their technology didn’t have the same effect on me. It had just ended up lodging in my side, but if Ben hadn’t come back to help me, I could’ve easily died from it. Based on the look of fear in Jocelyn’s eyes, it was clear that these bullets could do similar damage to humans.

Reaching into her left pocket, she pulled out a set of keys with trembling hands. Then she inched toward the end of my bed. But as she lowered the key to my foot restraints, she stalled.

“I will pull this trigger if I have to,” I whispered, pulling my meanest face. “Free me, and don’t say a word. If you make a sound or try to call for help, it will be the last call you ever make.”

Biting her lip, she nodded. Then she removed the restraints from my ankles, allowing me to swing off the bed and stand on my feet. My knees felt shaky at first, my legs weak—from all the drugs they’d been pumping me with, no doubt—but even as I tried to find my balance, I was careful to hold the gun steadily in front of me.

I moved closer to her and grabbed the collar of her coat with one hand while pressing the gun against her temple with the other.

In that moment, I wasn’t sure who was more terrified—Jocelyn or me. Although I’d been forced to use a gun before, during Ben’s and my voyage from Egypt to The Shade, I had never been properly taught how to aim. I prayed that I would not have to use this one on Jocelyn. Besides my inexperience, the gunshots would trigger a dozen alarms. And on the subject of alarms, I spotted several CCTV cameras positioned around us on the ceiling—one I was certain was angled enough to spy on my compartment. All it would take would be a casual glance from one of the hunters monitoring the cameras, and a whole horde of them would come rushing into the ward. I pushed Jocelyn roughly against the curtain, where I guessed we’d at least be less visible. But I had to move fast now.

Still careful to keep the gun pressed against her, I whispered against Jocelyn’s ear, in a voice barely louder than a breath, “Now, you’re going to tell me which of the keys on your chain belongs to your vehicle.”

She shook her head in an instant. “I don’t own a vehicle.”

The keys hung half in, half out of her pocket. I picked them up with one hand and looked them over. One was half covered in thick, black plastic. It so obviously belonged to a vehicle, I was shocked that she had even bothered to lie to me.

I slid the key into the pocket of my pajama shirt, then tightened my grip on her, pressing hard against her larynx.

“Are you telling me this does not belong to a car?”

“It does,” she wheezed. “But not my car.”

I breathed out in frustration. “I don’t care whose car it is. I have the key, and now I want you to take me to it.”

“O-Okay. I-It’s outside, in the main parking lot.”

Outside. Just the thought of stepping outside sent shivers running through me. My pajamas were so thin and my feet were bare. Just standing without my blanket in this ward was already painful enough. I had half a mind to ask Jocelyn to give me her shoes, but she couldn’t go roaming around the facility without them. It risked drawing too much attention. I, on the other hand, was looked on as nothing but an animal here, so nobody would give a second glance to my bare feet.