The Jackal (Black Dagger Brotherhood: Prison Camp #1)(100)

The blood was strong, but they didn’t stop to roll her over and find the wounds. She was gone.

More bodies started to show up the farther they went. Two. Three. A fourth and fifth together. All in brown/gray/black tunics and baggy pants.

Animals, he thought—and not in disrespect to the deceased. The prisoners had existed like animals down here, never seeing the moonlight or taking fresh air. This was an atrocity. How had they let this go on for so long?

“Who was in charge here?” he asked out loud.

Nyx glanced at him. Then cleared her throat. “The Command.”

“Is that a warden?”

“Kind of. But from what I understand, it wasn’t an official position, sanctioned by the glymera. It was a created authority, one that was taken by force and intimidation, as the aristocrats lost interest in the prison.”

“Lost interest? Are you fucking kidding me? Like this is a toy they got bored with?” Goddamn, he hated aristocrats. “And the Command was a prisoner, you mean?”

“Yes,” she answered. “A prisoner who took over, gathering power and control and using it to their own ends.”

Rhage shook his head. “This is fucking awful. We should have done something—but we didn’t know. Fuck, Wrath is going to lose it.”

“The Command didn’t want to be found.”

“How the hell did they feed everyone?”

Nyx stopped. Looked around. Leaned forward so she could see around a corner. “Okay, so the barricade is gone.”

“What barricade?”

The female went over to the wall and ran her free hand up a vertical stripe. “It’s been retracted.” She seemed to refocus. “The prison was on lockdown as I left. Most of the tunnels were blocked so that you could only go into certain areas. But that’s been lifted now.”

“So someone’s still here?” V said.

“I don’t know,” the female murmured as she looked to what was ahead. “I have no idea.”



In the end, although Nyx did her best to lead everyone to the Command’s private quarters, she got turned around, and only figured out the miscalculation when she took the group into what had to be the work area.

Hoping to find Jack somewhere, anywhere, she pushed through a pair of steel doors that seemed like they belonged in a human hospital— and discovered a disordered work area the size of a soccer field. Long tables were out of alignment and chairs were toppled over. Stray plastic baggies littered the floor and there were scales here and there.

The kind you used for measuring food portions.

Except there was a lot of suspicious-looking white powder dusting them.

Shit. Drugs, she thought.

The goateed Brother walked over to one of the few tables still on its four legs and picked up a tiny plastic bag that was filled with something that appeared to be facial powder or flour. Licking his pinkie, he put his finger inside, then sucked off the residue.

Peeling his lips back, he licked his front teeth. “Cocaine. And maybe something else.”

“Makes sense,” the blond Brother murmured as he walked around, his enormous shitkickers crushing anything he happened to step on. Spoons, baggies, scales. Hell, she was pretty sure, given his size, he could ruin a table. “It’s a perfect commerce system if you want to stay under the radar. Unregulated by humans with endless demand and a great profit margin.”

“Plus if you’re a vampire,” another of the Brothers said, “and you’re picked up for distributing? Take the cop’s memories and you’re home free.”

“So that’s how they fed everyone.” Nyx went over to the other side of the space where there was no debris at all. Instead, the floor was marked with tire tracks and oil stains. “And kept the prison going.”

“Do the wholesale deals out of the country,” someone murmured. “Import the shit here. Process it with the prisoners and get it out onto the streets. It’s a money-making machine.”

Nyx glanced back at her grandfather. As their eyes met, he shook his head sadly.

Guess Janelle had found her fortune, Nyx thought.

“There’s a lot of blood right here,” she said, pointing to the stained concrete she was standing on. “They were moving people and supplies out in big trucks. They also had an ambulance that looked really legit.”

Walking forward, she sighted the road that disappeared out of the area. But she wasn’t going to worry about all that. Old news, as it were. The trucks were gone, what guards and prisoners had been still alive as well.

They weren’t why she was here anyway.

Doubling back into the processing area, she went down the side wall to another door. As she cranked the handle, she wouldn’t have been surprised if it was locked—

The thing opened wide, and the scent of spilled blood was so strong, she recoiled, arching back.

She didn’t have to call anyone over. The fighters and her grandfather came immediately, the smell getting their attention.

Stepping through, she saw dead guards down on the floor—which was a surprise. But maybe it meant Jack was alive and had fought back?

“Jack!” she called out as her heart started to pound.

As her voice echoed, the blond-haired Brother took her arm and squeezed. “Shh. None of that. We don’t know who’s in here.”