Wild Creatures

Chapter 101

Mo XuanYu quickly clears it for them, activating the cameras which have been switched off for a while.

Wei Ying shivers, reaching for Lan Zhan again.

"Cold?"

"More like creeped out," he explains. "This is like some bad horror film filled with bad decisions by the main characters." He giggles, in spite of himself.

"I do not like horror films," Lan Zhan says, quietly.

They are leaving to go up to the tenth floor.

"What did you do for entertainment? Back then?" Wei Ying asks him, thinking back to the time before his turning.

"Reading."

"Favourite genre?"

"Non fiction. Maths and its relationships with the world."

"Wow, riveting stuff," Wei Ying grins. "Never picked up a murder mystery? Crime? Fanfiction?"

"No." His tone says it all, vehement opposition. "What about Wei Ying?"

"Not much time to read, when I was working. But when I was travelling back and forth to school, I read voraciously. All on my phone, and really, it was a mix. Whatever caught my attention."

There's no more time to chat, because they've reached the next floor.

The tenth floor is a series of separated labs with even more complex state-of-the-art equipment, machines that looked like they belonged in the future with hi-tech buttons and blinking lights.

"Ever get the feeling you're in the wrong time zone?" Wei Ying lets out a low whistle, looking around.

The pristine white tiled walls and reflective surfaces suggest a no nonsense approach to work, or whatever they do here. But what is even more disturbing are the cages. They are large enough to contain at the very least, three decent sized adult humans at the same time. Worse, they are screwed into the floor.

"Whoever thought it was okay to experiment on living creatures like this, ought to be castrated." Baoshan Sanren murmurs, her silver eyes turning hard as she studies her surroundings.

"Next on our to-do list," Wei Ying agrees.

The mood turns sombre as they leave, all of them aware at how easily it could have been any one of them here, brought against their will and kept in a state worse than circus animals. Silently and a little slower, they climb up the stairs to the eleventh floor.

Wei Ying has been feeling hungry for a while now, but he hasn't said anything, not wanting to waste time for anyone. He's possibly the only one except Wen Qing and Wen Zhuliu, who needs to eat anything solid and he's feeling self conscious about it. He thinks he can hold on a while longer though, so he stays silent.

He's thinking about the last time he ate, which was last night at the dinner for the Awards ceremony, more than eighteen hours ago, and if he waits too long, his stomach might turn around and start eating itself. He's way past it just grumbling by now.

When they open the doors leading out onto the eleventh floor, he's distracted and doesn't see the sword coming straight for him.

The wind is knocked out of his solar plexus, even as Lan Zhan shouts and grabs him, pulling him out of the way. Dimly he's aware of the clatter of falling steel as he struggles to put much needed oxygen back into his lungs. It's a whoosh of air when it finally enters but he's dizzy and disorientated.

This fight is intense as they find out why the other floors were empty.

Every single vampire that can fight is here, lying in wait for them. All the air around them is charged, filled with savage screams and shrieks of bloodthirsty vampires hungry to kill, on both sides.