o_18vdqvms01tdp1ck54q91frg17mg2d.pdf

"There are no Strigoi there," said Mason. "It's seriously all janitorial stuff. There was no sign of
anything weird. I really do think the guardians had bad information."
"Rose," said Christian, "let's get something fun out of this."
They all looked at me. I felt like a mom who wouldn't buy her kids candy at the grocery store.
"Okay, fine. Just a peek, though."
The others led Christian and me to the opposite end of the mall, through a door marked STAFF
ONLY. We dodged a couple of janitors, then slipped through another door that led us to a set of
stairs going down. I had a brief moment of déjà vu, recalling the steps down to Adrian's spa
party. Only these stairs were dirtier and smelled pretty nasty.
We reached the bottom. It wasn't so much a tunnel as a narrow corridor, lined in grime-caked
cement. Ugly fluorescent lights were embedded sporadically along the walls. The passage went
off to our left and right. Boxes of ordinary cleaning and electrical supplies sat around.
"See?" said Mason. "Boring."
I pointed in each direction. "What's down there?"
"Nothing," sighed Mia. "We'll show you."
We walked down to the right and found more of the same. I was starting to agree with the
boring assessment when we passed some black writing on one of the walls. I stopped and
looked at it. It was a list of letters.
D
B
C
O