As we crept along one row Jayden whispered: “I overheard one of the ash saying that a few years ago the vampires were hacked and lost a lot of precious info. Since then they have printed everything and kept it in hard copy form.”
Everything? Holy shit. Could it be that easy? Their paranoia was going to make our snooping on the vamps that much easier. Not to mention, so many of the vamps were older than dirt, and found it hard to assimilate into the twenty-first century. Here’s hoping that we would just open one of these cabinets and find the dark secrets of the Hive. Why hadn’t Ryder and his boys done this before? Probably something to do with pit-style punishment if they were caught.
Eek, we’d better not get caught.
Knowing time was short, I began scanning the cabinet labels: Blood Types, Feeder Data, Hive Construction Permits…
“Boring,” I murmured, before moving on to the next one. It was equally as useless. As I rounded the first row I noticed that Jayden had stopped dead in front of a cabinet that looked different from the others. It was sturdier and had a key lock on the front, while the others had a simple push-button to open. Moving in behind him I read the label. Classified. And there we had the perfect example of the arrogance of vampires. Jayden jiggled the locking mechanism, and it was solid. Thick.
Dammit! Of course it wouldn’t be that easy. One of the Quorum members probably had the key. Oh well, we would just have to find another way to get the Hive’s dirty little secrets. Turning to leave, I did a double take as my bestie reached into his pocket and pulled out two bobby pins. He then started tinkering with them, straightening one and twisting the other.
He flipped up his head and gave me a sheepish look. “Don’t judge me for what you are about to see.”
I just stared at him, mystified, until he inserted both pins into the lock and began to twist them around. No way! My sassy BAFF knew how to break and enter with the skill of a master thief.
“Dude! Where did you learn to pick locks?” He’d told me he was a Portland native, and lock-picking was not a big skill around these parts.
“Girl, you don’t want to know. Growing up … the struggle was real.” He quipped and I laughed, stepping forward to give him a hug from behind.
Suddenly I heard a click and Jayden opened the drawer in one smooth move. Holy crap, we were going to be in serious shit if we got caught. Looking left and right to make sure we were still alone, I began to riffle through the folders. Names, dates, and businesses were labeled at the top. I picked one at random.
Jeff Burns, CEO of Global Oil, the label read. Popping the folder open, I scanned the contents. Holy hell on steroids. There were multiple payments issued from Global Oil to Portland Hive. In the back of the folder was a series of photographs showing who I assumed was Jeff Burns wearing a gag ball and leather bondage outfit, posing half naked on a bed. Okay, that shit was going to be burned into my brain for a really long time. Jayden, who was pressed close to my back, was reading over my shoulder. I had the uncomfortable feeling he was taking mental notes. Ugh. Just no. I had to draw the line at ball gags. Putting the folder back, I grabbed another.
Union Blood Bank, it read. Scanning the folder, I began to seethe. My mom worked for the local hospital. I recognized Union Blood Bank as one of the main donation centers for humans to give blood to save other humans. But no, according to this file, Union Blood Bank only gave twenty percent of their blood from humans to the hospitals. The rest was funneled to the Hive, against the humans’ knowledge or wishes.
These files were like crack. I needed more. Looking at Jayden, who was now on his own set of files, I saw he was open-mouthed staring hard.
“What? Another bondage scene?” My laughter died as I leaned over and saw a photo of an absolute bloodbath, a massacre I didn’t even want to describe or ever see again—pooling of blood, decapitated heads, entrails, organs. The victims had been torn to pieces.
Jayden spoke with a hollow voice: “Operation Freedom …when they killed all of the Originals.”
I gasped, opening and closing my mouth, trying to make sense of that carnage.
The sound of a slamming door jarred me out of it. Shit! Footsteps and voices could be heard coming towards us. Frickity frak! Jayden and I both shoved our files in the cabinet, uncaring where they ended up, before slamming the door shut. There was no sneaking out of this room. Every sound echoed off of the walls and there was only one exit. Trying to alleviate suspicion, we crept away from the classified cabinet, moving toward the more boring stuff.
“Who’s there?” a deep male voice called out.
We froze, and Jayden looked at me as if waiting for me to do something. Time to improvise. I quickly yanked off my shirt, exposing my bra. Jayden gave me a solid WTF look, before raising his brows like I was a crazy person who had just escaped from a padded room.