Kioko woke the next evening, dressed, and exited to find Ark in the corridor.

"I was on my way to summon you," he said. "Come, we're supposed to report to the lower laboratory."

The name sent a shiver down Kioko's spine. A semi-secret area in the bowels of the citadel, no one knew what went on there, except Malick and the so-called men of science who ran it. She'd done a stint as a prison guard, just up the hall from the lab. The vampires she'd seen scuttling up and ...