Hunter's Heart

Chapter 19

Does he know? Quinn wondered to herself as she heard heavy footfalls on the metal stairs that lead down from the entrance hatch above.

When she had told Christian about the scars on her back, she had left out the fact that the terms of her banishment encompassed not only her return to the Antanov clan and its territory, but also getting involved in anything remotely related to Hunter business. Entering one of their facilities definitely fell under the latter category.

If she was caught, she was as good as dead.

Perhaps that was why he was so pissed off with the idea of her being so hands on in the rescue attempt. Perhaps he had pieced it together while he had watched her getting more and more nervous on the way over.

"Where to?" Grayson asked when all the members of the rescue party had descended the stairs.

Quinn drew in a deep breath, pushing back the unpleasant memories of the Tomb she had from her previous visit.

"This way," she said and began leading them down into the Tomb. Thanks to Jonathan and his tech skills, the video feeds were down, so there was no danger of them being seen. However, any biometric locking system would immediately alert the Hunter Council that something was amiss.

They needed to do this quickly.

Quinn forced down the urge to throw up as she walked into the room where prisoners were questioned. There was a body strapped to an inclined metal slab against the right side wall, but it was almost unidentifiable. Several chunks of flesh had been cut away from the body. The face had been beaten so badly the skull was crushed in some places. All Quinn could discern from what was left was that it had been male.

"Gods!" Grayson swore as he took in the carnage.

"Sick bastards," Liam breathed, looking as if he were about to be sick.

As the werewolves came to grips with the scene in the room, Quinn wandered over to the computer console and keyed in the unlocking code she remembered from her previous visit, glad Viktor hadn't had the foresight to change it when he expelled her.

It was as much to try and use the data on the machine to find out anything that could help Christian in the war as it was to just give herself something to do other than focus on the ghoulish scene behind her.

As she scanned through the data, finding several files that were heavily encrypted, she jumped violently when she felt a hand placed on her shoulder. She spun around quickly, ready to lash out, only to see that it was Christian and not some enemy that had somehow managed to sneak up on her.

"Easy," he said, his ice blue eyes watching her carefully. "It's just me."

If he saw anything in her face that he didn't like, he chose to say nothing about it, although the hard line his lips became told her he did see something. Instead, he moved his gaze past her to the computer screen.

"Find anything interesting?" he asked.

Quinn swallowed and nodded. "Some heavily encrypted files."

Jonathan heard this and strode over to them, getting to work on copying the files onto a device he had brought with him. She knew he wouldn't try to decrypt them while they were still in the Tomb. Any mistake he made would most likely trigger a lockdown.

"We should move on," Grayson said stiffly, getting them all back to the matter at hand and Quinn nodded her agreement. Lingering in this place would not be a good idea.

Leaving Jonathan to do his work, Quinn led the way out of the grisly room and down a corridor that led to the holding cells, glad to be away from the proof of the Hunters' utter brutality. Before long, she began to sense emotions that were not her own, faint at first but getting stronger with every step.