Chapter 2 Restricted Access

• The doors marked "Restricted Access" looked ordinary. Emily had walked past them for six months. She assumed they led to a supply closet or a maintenance room. She never wondered what was actually behind them until now.
• Kael Thornwood entered the room with ease. He tapped a code into a hidden panel and disappeared inside. The door shut with a hiss of pressurized air—a sound that didn't belong in a hospital.
• Emily slipped inside before the door could latch. Kael had warned her not to follow him, but she didn't listen.
• Beyond the door, St. Aurora changed. The fluorescent lights and pastel signs were gone. Instead, there was bare concrete and dim amber lighting. A staircase led deeper into the ground than the hospital blueprints allowed.
• Below, Emily heard voices. Kael was giving orders. Another man sounded urgent.
• "—two hunters, maybe three," the man said. "They hit the loading dock right as the transport arrived."
• "Casualties?" Kael asked.
• "One of ours. Silver round to the thigh. He's stable, but the poisoning will spread if we don't get the silver out in ten minutes."
• "Get him to Sub-Three. I'll meet you there."
• "Silver." Emily’s stomach dropped. She kept walking down.
• The stairs ended in a corridor that looked like a second, sleeker hospital. It smelled of antiseptic and something else: wolfsbane. Emily recognized the scent from nursing school, but she had never smelled it in real life.
• A broad-shouldered man with a buzz cut was waiting at the bottom. He spotted her immediately. His expression went flat.
• "Kael," he called out. "We have a civilian."
• Kael was standing by a gurney. On it lay a man bleeding from his thigh. The blood was faintly steaming—something blood is not supposed to do. Kael looked at Emily, his face frozen for a second.
• "Lucas. Get her out," Kael commanded.
• Lucas stepped toward her. Emily backed away.
• "Wait," she said, holding up her hands. "I just want to know what this is. That man's blood is smoking. I've been a trauma nurse for four years. Silver poisoning doesn't look like that in humans."
• "Emily," Kael said quietly. "Not here."
• "Then where?" Emily snapped. She was exhausted and curious. "You told me not to follow you. You told me I wasn't supposed to see a wound heal in twenty minutes. Now I'm in a secret hospital watching a man bleed smoke. You expect me to just go back to my shift as if nothing happened?"
• Lucas looked at Kael, wondering how much "cleanup" this would require.
• "How far in did she follow you?" Lucas asked.
• "Far enough," Kael replied. He turned to the patient. "Hold pressure, I'm coming." Then he looked at Emily. "You need to leave. Now. For your own sake."
• "Why?"
• "Because there are people in this building who would see you as a liability for knowing this," Kael said. "And I can't guarantee I could stop them tonight."
• The hallway went silent.
• Emily had always been the person who ran toward emergencies. It was how she survived foster care and nursing school. She should have been terrified, but she was mostly just angry that no one would tell her the truth.
• "Fine," she said. She stepped back toward the stairs. "But you should know, Dr. Thornwood, I document everything. Every strange wound. Every patient I'm not allowed to finish treating. I'm going to find out what this is, with or without your permission."
• Kael looked at her. For a moment, his anger shifted to something like respect.
• "Lucas, escort Nurse Carter back to the ER," Kael ordered.
• "And if she doesn't want an escort?" Lucas asked.
• "She's getting one anyway."
• Lucas gripped Emily's arm. He wasn't rough, but he was immovable. As he led her away, Emily looked back one last time.
• Kael was already treating the patient with terrifying precision. He looked up at her once.
• "Mate," a voice whispered in the back of his mind. He shoved the thought down instantly.
• Emily didn't hear the thought, but she saw the look in his eyes. It was something new. Then Lucas steered her around the corner, and the secret hospital disappeared behind a door that looked like a supply closet again.
• In the elevator, Lucas stood beside her like a wall.
• "You won't remember the stairwell code," he said. It wasn't a threat; it sounded almost gentle, which made it creepier. "Nobody remembers it if they aren't supposed to."
• "Try me," Emily replied.
• Lucas looked at her like a problem he hadn't decided how to solve. "Get some sleep, Nurse Carter," he said, then stepped back into the elevator.
• Emily stood in her stained scrubs, twelve hours into a shift. She thought about the smoking blood and the man with the green eyes.
• Her phone buzzed. It was a text from Noah.
• Em — you up? Weird night. Can't sleep. Tell you about it tomorrow?
• Emily hesitated, then typed: Weird how?
• The reply was instant.
• Not over text. Just — lock your door tonight, okay?
• Emily read it twice. She put her phone away and walked to her car. She told herself the shadows in the parking lot were just shadows, but for the first time, she didn't believe it.