Greykin Valley

| 68 | More Than Friends

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| Jackson |

When Jackson emerged into the huge house's entrance hall, he glanced around at everyone. Cyrus' people were sitting on the grand staircase, the couches between it, and even on the white fur rugs beside the archways which led into other rooms.

Some of them didn't look like wolf walkers, though; three men and two women standing by the archway on the right wore much more expensive-looking clothes rather than the ripped, ragged attire Jackson saw Cyrus' pack wearing. One of the women and two of the men had eyes as red as blood, and it made him wonder whether they were vampires or demons or some other race he didn't yet know about...or remember.

He sighed and tried to choose someone to approach, but to his relief, he spotted Amos and Elias making their way down the stairs. He waited for them to reach the bottom, and then he walked over to them.

"Uh, hey guys," he said.

The brothers stopped walking and both said, "What's up, Jackson?"

"Could you tell me how to get to the medical...place, please? I wanna go and see how Wilson's doing."

Amos stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Well, we're actually headed down there right now. I guess you can tag along," he said as he glanced at Elias.

Elias shrugged. "Yeah, suppose so. Just don't touch anything or look at anyone or talk to anyone."

Jackson frowned strangely but nodded in agreement. "O-okay."

"This way," Amos said as he and his brother walked towards the doorway under the stairs.

They stopped outside the mahogany double doors and pressed a button beside them. A few moments later, they opened, revealing that they were actually elevator doors. Jackson stepped inside when the twins did, and he stood beside Amos, who he felt was the less intimidating of the two, and watched the doors shut.

"How's your leg?" Amos asked him.

Jackson glanced up at the guy and shrugged. "Fine now, I guess."

"Lucian's a prat," Elias grumbled.

"Couldn't agree more," Amos said.

Although Jackson wanted to voice his opinion of that kid, he wouldn't risk it getting back to him, not after what happened an hour ago. So, he kept his mouth shut and waited as the elevator took him deeper into the ground.

The elevator soon came to a creaking, squealing halt. When the doors strained open, they revealed a long, white hallway with a black carpet covering the floor and several glass doors and windows on either wall. Jackson peered through each window as he followed the twins forward; in some, there were labs with doctors and scientists hard at work, and in others were offices and storage rooms.

"Uh...so, what exactly goes on down here?" he asked Amos. He was getting an uneasy feeling, recalling the conversations he'd had with Damon about being experimented on. This place certainly had the vibe of a facility that conducted the sort of tests he'd been petrified of.

"Depends," Amos said with a shrug. "We've got doctors helping out those of us who got hurt in the Kane fight, as well as taking care of some of our packmates who still haven't recovered from past shit we've been involved in. Sometimes, we get sent high-profile Nosferatu workers; this place is in the middle of nowhere, and believe it or not, probably one of the safer bases. Ain't no one coming to raid us; we're so deep in the mountains that you'd have to be crazy to try and get past all those undead, especially the variants."