Monsters Like Us (Book 1 in The Huntress Series)

Chapter Ten (Part Three)

In bed that night, Luz laid curled up with her computer, the covers tented over her head. Marisol's insufferable snoring nearly drowned out the peaceful slosh of waves on the beach, but despite that, she felt relaxed. Maybe it was because she was overtired or because they were finally out of the rainforest in a tropical themed bedroom with a lock on the door and a sturdy roof over their heads. Or maybe it was because she was clean and showered in pajamas that smelled like tide detergent, her belly warm and full of delicious food. Even as she stared at her bright screen, she could feel her eyelids drooping, her heart rate slowing.

More than anything else, she wanted to sleep. It hadn't occurred to her before just how tired she was, just how worn ragged her muscles were, as if she attended an all-day extreme exercise class. She could already feel the onset of soreness and dreaded the pain she would suffer in the morning after a good night's sleep. She really wasn't looking forward to that.

But Luz couldn't sleep yet. Not until she'd pulled up the data from Nerilla's computer. There was too much valuable information available at her fingertips. After sticking the USB into her own computer, she scrolled through the files, almost immediately discovering the location of the lab. It was constructed into the base of Monte Milagro, a mountain on the Northernmost tip of the island.

Luz clicked into Nerilla's emails, poring over each one intently. She wasn't sure what she was expecting to find. Photographic evidence that the Hemlocks were monsters? Plans to exterminate the locals on Paradise Island? There was nothing like that. But there was one email that caught her eye. More specifically, a single word: Centennial. The Centennial serum was still experimental and causing their test subjects, which were most likely human, to explode. But in these emails, they spoke about Centennial and Ethereal as if they were anti-aging serums that would soon be on the market. Centennial would take off a hundred years from the clients and the company would sell it as a subscription service, a new serum automatically sent out once the bottle ran out.

It would be slightly cheaper than the more luxurious Ethereal, and Nerilla wanted to launch the product by early next year at the latest. The purchase came with a membership to their rewards club called the Society, which apparently was very exclusive and hosted retreats all over the world. One of the spots listed was Luxe Resort.

The last thing she did was check Nerilla's schedule. Tomorrow, she had a dinner with clients. That meant she would be out of the way when Marisol and Luz broke into the lab, which Luz planned on doing if she could talk her new companion into it. She chanced a peek at Marisol, who was drooling on her pillow, her limbs occasionally jerking as if she were dreaming of running away from something.

There were two twin beds in the room and Marisol had the one by the window, the light falling down over her hair in a pale slash. Luz reached out and poked her, attempting to wake her friend from a possible nightmare, but she only snorted and flopped onto her back.

Luz wondered if she looked so ridiculous sleeping. Then she thought about the scavengers and what would happen if they tracked them down in the middle of the night. A simple lock on the door wouldn't keep those monsters out, and she hated to think something might happen to Elena and her family.

Worry knotted in her gut. She didn't want to think about that. Instead, she wanted to call her sister. She knew that she wasn't supposed to unless it was an emergency, but didn't recent events qualify as an emergency? Everything possible that could have gone wrong went wrong. Not to mention, she had a ton of new information swirling around in her head, and she wanted to tell someone about it. It might even help her sister to have the extra knowledge. Making up her mind, Luz punched in her sister's number.

It was video. "Luz!" Esperanza exclaimed. Her eyelids looked swollen as if she'd been crying, but that was impossible because Esperanza never cried. Had something happened? "Oh, God. I'm so glad to hear from you. Are you safe? Is everything okay?"