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Immortal Internment Compound

Present day

When Carrow Graie had awakened fro headache, cotton mouth, and a s had only gone downhill fro rock botto, no-balled loser - forced her down the corridor of cells to her doo," the centaurs&039; leader sneered from their cell as Carrow passed He, like every other Lore creature ierie, suspected she was about to be offed

"Shut the fuck up, Mr Ed," she said, earning a harsh yank on her collar froainst her cuffs "Once I get ley, I&039;ll curse you to fall in love With your own bodily functions If it co for it"

"Then I guess I&039;ain jerked on the band at her neck - the mortals called it a tor"ue It mystically nullified her abilities and weakened her physically Every species here had been hobbled in soley "Besides, witch, whatto make it past the next hour?"

If these people executeto be sooo pissed Unfortunately, that appeared to be in the cards At the very least, she was about to be tortured or experimented on

Hell, one to the trouble of abducting her

Carroas a rare three-caste witch, but she was by no means the most powerful, not like her best friend Mariketa the Awaited Though overjoyed that Mari hadn&039;t been taken, Carrow didn&039;t understand why she&039;d been targeted

What would Ripley do? When in a jaendary badasstress of the Alien "uadrilogy, would figure her way out

Ripley would analyze the enes and resources, use her wits to defeat her foes and escape, then nuke everything in her wake

Analyze the enemy From what Carrow had heard from other inue of ister na with his trusty bitch, Dr Dixon

Carrow&039;s sorceress cell all the ims? A diabolically designed prison, with cells made of foot-thick steel on three sides and unbreakable, two-foot-thick glass on the front Each cell had four bunks, with a toilet and a sink behind a screen - and no real privacy The Order recorded their every action fro ca she&039;d ever known - and she&039;d known more than her share of two hots and a cot Carrow hadn&039;t enjoyed a single shower or change of clothes She still wore her club duds: halter top, black leather h boots

Each day inside broughtwith experiments on immortals, some of ere her friends

Resources? Carrow had precisely zero-point-zero resources Despite the fact that she could usually charuards, these ley, who for some reason appeared to resent her deeply, as if they had a history

Though each of her steps carried her potentially closer to her demise, she observed as much as she could, determined to escape Yet one reinforced corridor bulkhead after another doused her hopes of breaking out

The layout was labyrinthine, the halls riddled with cameras and the cells all booked up Lykae, Valkyrie, and the noble fey - all allies of a sort - were mixed amid the evil Invidia, fallen vaious ghouls snapped at each other, tearing at their own yellow skin In another, succubae wasted away fros than could be named, many of which were notorious and deadly

Like the brutal olf Uilleaest creatures in the Lore, but with that tor"ue on his neck, Uilleam couldn&039;t access the beast within hilass with his club Maddened by the captivity, Uillea his scalp to the skull right before her eyes The surface was unharmed while blood poured down his tense face

In the next cell stood a huge berserker, a savage warrior male that Carrow had seen around New Orleans He looked on the verge of going berserk

Carroed to see his neighboring ins The Furies were feers, embodied and lethal

The Order certainly didn&039;t pull their punches Sos here were even infamous Like the vampire Lothaire, the Enemy of Old, with his white-blond hair and eerily sinister hotness Whenever the guards sedated hied him down the ward, his pale red eyes promised pain to those who&039;d dared to touch hiley said "Or I&039;ll introduce you to Billy"

"I ritted her teeth when he shoved her again

Once they&039;d reached the prison ward&039;scorridor branched off, this one filled with offices and labs Without a word, Fegley hauled her into the last room, what looked like a modernist den No lab? No electrodes or bone saws?

A plain-Jane brunette sat behind an executive desk She sported an I&039;lasses Must be Dr Dixon

Behind her, a towering dark-haired ht, revealing only a shadowy profile

Carrow peered outside to get an idea of their location, but rain pelted theAccording to iniant island, thousands of miles from land in any direction Natch

"Free her hands," the tall h he&039;d spoken only three words, Carrow recognized Declan Chase&039;s voice - that low, hateful tone with the faintest hint of an Irish accent

Fegley unlocked her cuffs the same way he&039;d locked theh a concealed panel door in a side wall

Everything in this place, including her tor"ue, was locked with a person&039;s right hand thuley&039;s Beauty So to look forward to "I remember you, Blademan," she told Chase "Yeah, from when you and your men electrocuted me"

Those bastards had posted bail for Carrow&039;s latest disorderly conduct charge - proudly earned! - and then lain in wait outside the Orleans Parish Correctional As she headed hoe throwers, gagged her, and forced a black bag over her head "Was the hood supposed to instill dread in ?"

&039;Cause it&039;d worked

Without deigning to reply, Chase faced her briefly, yet he didn&039;t look at her, ish Several hanks hung over one side of his face, and she thought she saw scars jagging beneath theray

He was dressed in so any exposed skin on his body with the help of his leather gloves and high-collared jacket By all outward appearances, he seemed cold as ice, even as his aura screamed I&039;m unbalanced!

This was the in the Radiant out of her cell, tiin, her Valkyrie lightning struck outside and the coy

He hurt her a lot

"So, Chase, you get off torturing women?" It made a kind of sick sense that a in, with her glowing beauty and lust for life

Carrow thought she saw his lips curl, as if this statenificance to him "Women? I only torture one woo steady with Regin the Radiant for now?" Out of the corner of her eye, Carro Dixon frowning at Chase, as if she suspected some untoward interest as well Ah, so that was the way of it - Dixon carried a torch for the Bladeht consider his features attractive, for a sadistic human, but his half-hidden countenance resembled a pale, deadened mask

All the best with that, you crazy kids Tommy-used-to-work-on-the-docks andback to theBut the tension in his shoulders was so ht

"You&039;ve got stones to nab a Valkyrie, I&039;ll give you that," Carrow said "But her sisters will come for her For that matter, you really shouldn&039;t have pissed off the House of Witches The covens will find your little jail They&039;ll descend on this place" Though she sounded confident, she&039;d begun to suspect that the island was cloaked somehow By now, Mariketa would know she&039;d been abducted, and if her powerful friend hadn&039;t yet scried her location - or gotten a soothsayer to uncover it - then it couldn&039;t be found

"Will they, indeed?" His tone was s "Then I&039;ll add to my collection"

"Collection?"

Dixon hastily said, "Magister Chase is only doing what in to plot, we sentinels rise up, as we have for centuries"

"Plot?"

Dixon nodded "You&039;re planning to annihilate mankind and take over the earth"

Carrow&039;s lips parted in disbelief "That&039;s what this is all about? My gods, it&039;s too ridiculous! You wanna know a secret? There&039;s no plan to kill you all, because you&039;re beneath our notice!"

Ugh - fanatical humans! Sometimes she hated them so ," Dixon insisted "If your kind isn&039;t contained, you&039;ll destroy us all"

Carrow s"uinted at her "I&039; to the idea Especially with et it? Human fanatics are more monster than any of the Lore"

"More than the Libitinae?"

The Libitinae often forced men to self-castrate or die - for fun

"Or maybe the Neoptera?" Dixon continued

Insectlike huhtmares At the mention of the latter, Chase tensed even

Watching for any reaction, Carroly said, "No, I&039;ll grant you that the Neoptera are depraved They don&039;t kill their "uarry; they keep it, tor it hour after hour"

Had sweat beaded on Chase&039;s upper lip? If those creatures had gotten hold of this les, what they did to their victim&039;s skin, and it made her stomach turn

Was that why Chase had covered as much of his body as possible? Hoas he still sane? Was he?

The inossiped about this man constantly; apparently, he hated to be touched, had once clocked an orderly who&039;dhis shoulder

That would explain the gloves

She alrated, "And the witch believes she&039;s better than they are"

And the witch is talking to a madman "Okay, clearly you two are beyond rational debate, so let&039;s just get to it Why did you take me?"

Dixon answered, "Our aim is not only to study you, but to conceal your existence Most immortals fly under the radar You flaunt your powers in front of humans"

Carrow had been repeatedly chastised by her coven for this But, as she&039;d often argued, she never used her powers around sober huht?"

"You&039;re going to help us capture a vampiric demon, a e says I&039;m not "A vemon? You really think they exist?" she asked innocently Veht an impossibility, a "true myth" - oxymoron, hello? - until one had been unleashed on New Orleans last year

Uni, he&039;d defeated several fierce Valkyrie, who&039;d survived only by chance He&039;d barely been destroyed by the powerful Lykae king, and only because he&039;d been threatening the olf&039;s e of one&039;s existence," Dixon said "You&039;ll seek out this o out and coax some poor sap to his death?"

"We don&039;t intend to kill him," she said "We want to discover his weaknesses - "