I walked through the glass door with a pep in my step. My friends and I spent the entirety of Sunday digging through anything we could use against Lara. We all gave up hope until Jade found something. God, I love Jade. Give her a special place in heaven... and overlook all the people she's murdered, please.

I flashed my badge at the guards, who recognized me. I did the normal body scan before punching the elevators button. I pressed the penthouse floor. I was about to surprise the shit out of Lara.

If she thought she had something against me, then she was horribly mistaken. I was about to surprise the fuck out of her! The elevator stopped and I walked out. I passed Lexi who was on the phone. Once she saw me, she scrambled to end the call with the person on the line. I ignored her and kept walking. Nothing was getting in my way, or so I thought.

"What are you doing here?" Lexi obstructed my path, but I moved around her. "You don't have an appointment." I ignored her and made a beeline for the closed door. "This isn't a good time." I brushed past her and whipped the door open.

Lara flinched in surprise. I smirked and walked up to her desk, slamming the folders down.

"Expiation." She looked at me in bewilderment. "5 patients volunteered in an experimental drug trial. Each being treated with a drug dubbed 'expiation.' The patients got deathly ill and were moved to a remote medical unit. Their symptoms began to worry the scientists because they worried if it could be contagious, so they locked them in an incubator. However, it wasn't just to quarantine them... it was a death sentence. The incubator was turned on and the victims were roasted alive! Murdered in cold blood! You are killers!" She stared at me with narrowed eyes.

"This doesn't seem like a tax evasion investigation." I whipped around at the voice behind me.

Alec and Alena were standing by the wall. I guess I didn't realize they had closed the door when I was engaged in my heated rant.

"It also seems like she's been prying too much." Alena spoke. Her eyes were so cold as they looked at me. " I don't like loose cannons." She made a move forwards, but Lara moved in front of me. How'd she get there so fast?

"Enough! I'll deal with this." Her gaze was so cold that her mother and brother left. They gave me one last glare before shutting the door. I took a deep breath and was about to speak, but Lara beat me to it. "Are you crazy?!" She wanted to shout, but restrained herself from the prying ears outside. "You could get yourself killed with information like that! Who else have you involved?!" She knew I wasn't working alone.

"I'm not-"

"Don't lie to me." Her voice went dangerously low. "You've endangered countless lives. Please tell me that the group is small."

"Very small. Like three people including me." I don't know why I admitted that to her.

"Okay, so just Zayn and your other friend." She breathed out in relief. Wait! How'd she know about Zayn.

"How do you know about Zayn?!"

"Please, was it just a coincidence he got hired under one of the groups investigating my company. I think not. Your friend, Jade, has been investigating one of our subsidiaries, but will be relocated here. She doesn't know about it yet, but will in about 2 hours. Those are the only two that know, right?"

"Uh ya."

"Okay, good." She paused. "Do not tell anyone else. This information could be used to harm you if it ever got out."

"Are you threatening me?" I walked up to her.

"Heavens no, but others will."

"Others like your family?" I crossed my arms.

"They wouldn't hurt you knowing what you mean to me." She didn't realize the words spilling from her mouth. "My mother was just trying to intimidate you. She'd never physically harm you." She assured me, but I wasn't so convinced.

"But it's true, though." She looked at me in confusion. "Expiation?"

"Somewhat, but you're missing key information in that case study. It wouldn't be convincing for me to declare my family's innocence without divulging the entire truth, but I can't reveal such classified information to you."

"Hadn't stopped you before when you were speaking to the engineers." I huffed.

"That's different." She pleaded. "That wouldn't endanger your life. This would and I'd die before I let that happen." Okay, then. Would it be wrong to assume she has feelings for me. "Please, just drop this." She begged.

"I'm going back to the station." I turned to walk out the room.

"Nic-" She begged, but I ignored her and left the building.

I entered the station to join Jelena and her team. Zayn caught sight of me and looked at me expectantly. I signed to him that it didn't go great. She basically confirmed the slaughter, but begged me to keep it quiet and not pursue it out of fear for my safety. Zayn was confused if she threatened me, but I told him Lara didn't threaten me. It was more like she was warning me of an unknown enemy. He was just as confused as I.

Kendall asked if I could stay late to help sort through some files. I immediately agreed since it would keep my mind occupied from this confusing day. We finished close to 8pm at night. Kendall offered ordering food as a sign of thanks. I agreed and we ate our Chinese food.

I got to learn more about Kendall. She came from a law enforcement family. Her mother was once the DA, her father a homicide detective, her sister a cop, and her other two siblings were lawyers. I avoided mentioning too many details about my family. Yes, I had a family and wasn't orphaned, but I tried to talk as little as possible about them. We finished up around 11pm.

Kendall offered to drive me home, but I told her I had to stay a little longer to do some work. The truth was that I was trying to delay returning to an empty apartment. I knew I'd start thinking about Lara if I went home, so I wanted to avoid that for as long as possible.

There was only so long that I could rearrange the already perfectly arranged files. I sighed and stood up to leave. It was just past 1am. I guess this is a reasonable time to head home. With a final wave to the security guard, I exited the building. It was a bit chilly tonight, so I hugged myself to stay warm.

I began walking back to my apartment when I heard a noise behind me. I turned, but saw no one. I still had my guard up as I picked up my steps. My hand was curled around the gun in my pocket. As I rounded a corner, I was slammed into a wall. My hand released the gun. It clattered to the floor while I struggled to breathe against the iron grip on my throat.

The person lifted me into the air by my neck. It's not even like this man was burly, he had a languid figure. How the hell was he so strong?!

"My, my, my. What a lovely surprise you are." His Italian accent ringing thick. "We saw you exiting her apartment and just had to see who the mystery lady was. She's never allowed one night stands to stay late. What's so special about you?" He purred while sniffing my neck. "Ahhh! Your blood." He moaned in pleasure. "It smells exquisite. So sweet and tasty. I'm dying to sink my fangs into you." Fangs? What did he mean by- OH MY GOD!

He opened his mouth to reveal his canines lengthening. Black veins appeared around his eyes while his eyes turned red. Since when are vampires real?! Oh, I'm totally dead! He growled and moved his head back, ready to strike my throat. I was about to close my eyes, but the man was ripped off me. I fell to the ground.

My savior's back was facing me. My attacker quickly stood up and hissed at my guardian. He quickly stopped and opened his eyes wide with fear. He tried to run away, but my savior sped towards him and pinned him to the wall. Everything happened too fast for me to process. My attacker's fangs sunk into the man's neck before ripping him apart. When I say rip him apart... I mean tearing off every limb and appendage. I had to hold in my vomit at the gruesome kill.

I gasped in shock as my savior turned towards me. She straightened up and looked at me with regret. She was disappointed that I had witnessed such violence. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Her stress radiated off her.

Lara?