Page 15 of Born Wicked
I nod and head off to the left, Roman to the right.
I have to admit, what we’ve done in the modern world is incredible. We have all this machinery, all this technology. It kind of makes me wonder how we survived for thousands of years before we had all this stuff to do something as needed for survival as treating water. Guess this is why life expectancy has increased so massively.
Silo after silo, I wander deeper into the room. And when I reach the back wall, I survey the space. There’s a good five feet between the silos and the ceiling. I spider-crawl my way up between two silos and pop out on top.
And I know it the second I see it.
There are dozens of fifty-gallon drums set up on top of these silos. They’re all connected with a series of pipes, going from one to the next, and finally, a narrow, tiny line goes into one of the main pipes.
“Roman!” I yell out. I climb across the silos, and just two seconds later, Roman appears at my side.
“Sure doesn’t look factory built to me,” Roman says as he lets out a sigh.
“This has got to be it,” I say. And then I’m sure of it when I creep even closer and see a large label on the side of each barrel. It readsVT, and below that is the address of the hospital.
“Can we cut the line without causing a major leak?” Roman asks.
“Might be what we just have to do, and then hope they don’t check security camera footage,” I say. I knock against the side of the last barrel, the one at the end of the line. It sounds nearly full. I knock on the next, which sounds completely empty, as do the barrels next to it. “It’s not a very big line, so I don’t think it would do anything catastrophic. I do think we need to remove those labels though.”
Roman nods, and begins peeling the label off the first empty barrel. I keep knocking.
All but the last are empty. “Looks like it would have run out on its own in about a week,” I estimate as I help pull off the labels.
“Hasn’t been the most effective,” Roman states. “If he was planning to try and take out all vampires, he needed to work on his dosage. There are too many victims, but it’s a fairly small percentage of the overall vampire population.”
I nod. I don’t know what Sebastian’s overall plan was. Did he plan on taking every vampire out, or just enough that it scared off the rest, like is currently happening with the gifted?
“We need to check the other side,” I say as I peel off the last label, stuffing the sticky mess into my pocket. “I’m hoping we’ll find something that explains why the gifted are locked out of their abilities.”
Roman nods, peeling off his last label. Together, we climb down, cross the room, and climb back up the other side.
And like a miracle, there are more barrels here, the same kind of set up. These are labeledGT.
“Gifted toxin, maybe?” I speculate as we begin removing these labels as well. “And vampire toxin?”
“I guess,” Roman says, shaking his head in disgust. “I just can’t…. I mean, you keep everyone on their toes, Juliet, but you’re not this damn great.”
“Keep your opinions to yourself,” I scoff, mockingly. It’s nice, that even in a dire, grave moment like this, I can still find something to smile about. And it’s rewarding that a small smile pulls in the corners of Roman’s mouth as well.
With the labels removed, we need to make a quick exit. So Roman goes back to the vampire side, and I stay on this side. “Three, two,” we count down together. “One.”
I yank hard, and light green liquid leaks from the line leaving the barrel. Instantly, a gushing hiss sprays from the main water line.
“Let’s go!” I call as I jump off the silo, my right side half soaked from the leak I just made.
Roman lands beside me, and we step out of the chemical application room. Looking both ways to make sure the coast is clear, we dart back toward the entry, dodging employees’ line of sight as we go.
I haven’t been so relieved to step out into the brilliant sunshine since I became a vampire. In thirty seconds flat, Roman and I both drop into our seats in his SUV and pull the doors closed behind us.
I shake my head. “I seriously can’t believe he did this. There are millions of people in this city. And Sebastian tainted the water for all of them. I mean, it’s genius. No one would ever call Sebastian stupid. But it’s just so…” I shake my head. I don’t have any words for it.
“He’s going to have to answer for this someday,” Roman says, a low growl in his tone. His fingers tighten around the steering wheel. “Like I’ve said, if anyone besides Sebastian had done this…”
Roman would kill them.
No questions. No hesitation.
“At least we’ve put an end to it,” I say, trying to make myself feel better.