Greykin Valley

| 4 | Debrief

"Do you think we haven't tried that?" Sebastien mumbled.

"What...happened?"

"Humans and demons don't go together unless they're born a cambion. You can't just...make a human-demon hybrid out of a human that's already walking around. All the attempts our scientists made ended up in death. Some of those deaths were really gnarly, man," he mumbled, heading through the offices and towards Lucian's corner office. "No, this whole thing started with wolf walkers, and that's how it's gonna end."

Sebastien pushed the office door open.

Jackson immediately set his eyes on Lord Caedis, who was sitting on the black leather couch over by the window. Then, he looked at Lucian, who just stood up from his chair and made his way over to the couch.

"'Ow are you vounds?" Caedis asked Sebastien.

"I'm all right," he answered with a nod, closing the door behind them. "Look, we saw some pretty effed up stuff out there, and you're not gonna like any of it."

Caedis raised an eyebrow.

"Zombies," Jackson uttered.

"People," Sebastien added. "Turned people."

Both Lucian and Caedis adorned the same concerned frown.

"Turned by the cadejo virus?" Lucian asked.

"I believe so," Sebastien answered. "They looked the same way all things do when that virus takes them, and they smelled the same, too. There were hundreds of them."

Caedis scowled irritably—it looked like he was going to flip the coffee table in front of him as Sebastien said—but he shook his head and exhaled quietly. "Ve can't be sure until ve get samples. Vor all ve know, zhis could be someving else. Whoever created zhese cadejo could be creating ozzer vings, too." He looked at Sebastien. "You zidn't so 'appen to bring vone of zhese turned 'umans back vith you, did you?"

"Uh...no, my lord. Sorry," Sebastien answered, shaking his head.

With a sigh, Caedis turned his head and gazed out the window. "Ve are going to need to tighten security 'ere. Ve vill 'ave to do medical screenings vor everyvone coming and going. Ve can't visk vhatever you saw out zhere getting in."

Sebastien nodded. "I already took precautions, my lord. One of the troops was bitten. I had to kill him."

Caedis nodded as he turned his head to look at Sebastien and Jackson. "And zhe mission vent vine apart vrom zhis?"

"Yes, my lord. We extracted the target. He's in an interrogation room downstairs. We're going to try the personal approach first, and if Jackson can't get him to tell him where the laboratory is, we'll get someone else to extract the information."

"You're still going to let me talk to him?" Jackson asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Lucian said. "If we can avoid force, then we will. Sometimes, though, force is the only thing that tends to work."

Jackson shook his head. "He'll talk to me."

Caedis sighed as he stood up. "Vell, you better get to, zhen." Then, he moved closer to Lucian and muttered to him, "I need to share zhis vith Zaliv. You are in charge vhile I'm gone."

"Like always," Lucian replied.

Then, Caedis pulled open one of the windows. "Ve vill veconvene vonce I 'ave more invormation." Then, he morphed into a cloud of vermillion smoke and raced out the building.

Jackson shook his head and frowned strangely. What the hell just happened?

"Come on," Sebastien said.

"What just happened?" Jackson asked, following him out of Lucian's office.

"What?"

"Lord Caedis. He just...turned into, like...smoke."

"It's an ancient form of demon travel. Dude is probably already on the other side of the world by now."

A part of Jackson wanted to ask if he'd be able to learn to do that, but he didn't have any motivation for absorbing information right now. He wasn't only entangled with worry for Damon, but he was also scared about what those human zombies meant for the world. Had the cadejo virus evolved? Was it affecting more than wolf walkers?

"What happens if the virus has evolved?" he asked Sebastien, following him towards the elevator.

"Cadejo were never a problem to humans, but if the virus is turning humans, we're going to have to up our defences a lot. Not just here, but everywhere. As far as we know, the cadejo are only here in Ascela, but all it takes is one infected person to get on a plane and carry it elsewhere. It's now the Venaticus' job to stop the spread before it can start.

"This also means you're really going to have to step up and get this information out of your friend. We need to find that lab so we can stop this thing once and for all."

Jackson exhaled deeply and tried to calm himself down. He had to believe that Damon would be okay and focus on what he was going to say to Wilson. But what was he going to say to him? He had so many questions: why was he working with hunters? Why was he acting like a hunter? But his need for answers was going to have to wait, wasn't it? The Venaticus wanted to know where the laboratory he and Wilson were going to come looking for was, so somehow, he needed to get that information out of his friend first.

The elevator arrived, and as he followed Sebastien through the hall, Jackson glanced inside every empty room. When they stopped outside that which Wilson was in, though, he tensed up, and his body was once again riddled with angst. His friend was handcuffed to the table, and he was sitting there with his head in his arms.

But then Jackson noticed that Wilson's clothes were torn and bloody. "What happened to him?"

"He's a little roughed up. Maybe from the van crash or whatever happened out in the forest when your pack captured him. Do whatever you have to to get the location of that lab out of him."

"What...what if he doesn't tell me?"

Sebastien shrugged. "Then we take over."

He didn't want that to happen. The way demons pried information from someone sounded painful, and as much as he wanted to find out where that lab was so that he could fulfil his part of the bargain with Caedis, he didn't want his friend to be subjected to such a thing. So, he was going to have to do his best to get Wilson to tell him where they needed to go.

When Sebastien pushed the interrogation room door open, Jackson watched through the window as Wilson lifted his head and glared at him.

"What's going on?" Wilson called. "Where the hell am I?!"

With a deep exhale, Jackson did his best to shove aside his anxiety and slowly made his way past Sebastien and into the room.

The moment Wilson saw him, his face lit up, but then a frown stole his surprised expression. "Jackson?"

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