“Why are we here? Isn’t your dad’s lab at the university somewhere?” She kept her voice to a whisper.
Matthew shook his head. “He has two labs. That one’s mostly for show. He kept the werewolf there long enough for the news crews to get their shots, but then he and his lab techs brought it here. This is where he does all of his actual experiments and stuff. No one knows about it, except for him and the techs. And Mom and me, obviously.”
Claire trembled at the thought of what must be going on in this building if Dr. Engle needed to keep it so secret. The two of them pressed against the damp stone wall, waiting, watching. On one side of the facility, the highway wound past in a concrete ribbon, but the other side was bordered by a copse of trees at the edge of a farm. Finding her way back here later would be easier than Claire had hoped.
“No one’s going to catch us sneaking in, right?”
Matthew shook his head. “It’s Saturday. Everyone leaves at five on Saturdays, and they don’t come back until eight o’clock Monday morning. My dad’s always going on about how Sunday’s a ‘day of worship and rest.’”
We’ll have a whole day’s head start after I get her out. But all she could think to say was, “Oh, okay.”
It was nearly impossible to be patient when her mother was so close. She had to do something to quiet the itching in her limbs. “So, which door is it?”
The corner of Matthew’s mouth turned up. “All of them. He had the building converted. He rents this one, all the way down to the end. As long as he keeps sending the owners a fat check every month, I don’t think they care what he does.”
Claire’s mouth fell open as she did a quick calculation. The lab was nearly a city block long.
“Okay, I think we’re clear. We’ve gotta get down to the fifth door. The lock’s broken on that one, but no one knows it. When I say go, we run.”
“Got it.” Claire’s breath quickened and she bent her knees.
“Go,” Matthew whispered and took off at a sprint. He was no match for a werewolf, but the hours of soccer training showed in the way he ran. For a human, he was fast.
He glanced back at Claire in surprise, one hand on the door handle. “You should go out for track,” he said, wrenching open the metal with a twist. “You’re wicked quick.”
You have no idea.
Claire grinned to herself as they slipped into the lab and the scent of her mother washed over her.
In the darkness, the instruments glimmered like stars. No papers littered the counters, no school pictures stood next to the computer monitors—it was as bare and soulless as Zahlia’s apartment had been. Claire grimaced at the memory of the dog lying on the black wolf’s bed.
“I don’t want to turn on the lights,” Matthew whispered, “just in case. Can you make it through in the dark?”
Claire squelched an urge to snort. Her eyesight was good enough to read the brand names on the lab equipment. “Yeah, I’ll be okay,” she said. She could smell her mother at the far north end of the lab. Make an effort to seem human, Claire.
“So, um, where’s the cage?”
Matthew took her hand, and Claire cursed the little electric tingles that shot up her arm. This is not the time. I’m here to find my mother. I can ignore my hormones. She repeated it like a mantra as he pulled her clumsily through the lab. He made it so hard to focus. Standing up to his father like that made it difficult for Claire to remember that he would run away screaming if he knew what she really was.
Claire’s breathing grew ragged when she spotted the silver bars of the cage at the back of the lab.
Matthew peered over his shoulder at her. “Scared?” There was no taunting in his voice, just concern.
Claire shook her head. “Just, uh, trying not to trip.”
The cage came into full view and Claire struggled to keep from whimpering.
Her mother lay curled up in the corner of the cage with her nose tucked underneath her tail. Misery shimmered around her like an aura.
Without thinking, Claire took a few quick steps toward the silver wolf.
A strong arm caught Claire across the chest. “Easy,” Matthew whispered. “I don’t want you to startle it.”