Shadows Strike

by Dianne Duvall

  “Yes, sir.”

  Surprise struck. Bastien had injured so many of the guards here during his darker days that none of them had ever spoken to him with respect before. It felt . . . good.

  Nodding to Alleck and Linda, Bastien dashed up the stairs.

  He had almost reached the ground floor when he heard a deep, accented voice say, “Hello, gentlemen.”

  An alarm blared. Curses erupted.

  Bastien burst through the door that led to the lobby in time to see the guards stationed there leap to their feet and raise their weapons.

  A man garbed in black pants, boots, and no shirt faced them. Standing perhaps six feet eight inches tall, with midnight hair and glowing golden eyes, he bore dark wings similar to Zach’s that spanned the width of the lobby when he spread them.

  Oh shit.

  The Other’s thin lips stretched into a cruel smile as he met Bastien’s gaze.

  “Gershom,” Bastien snarled.

  Gershom arched a brow. “So hostile.”

  “Call Aidan now!” Bastien bellowed, loud enough for Melanie to hear down below, and shot forward, swords drawn.

  Gershom tossed something at the guards.

  “Grenade!” a guard shouted.

  Bastien jerked to a halt and looked back at whatever hit the floor and skidded past him.

  It wasn’t a single grenade. It was a cluster of them.

  Grinning, Gershom disappeared.

  Bastien raced over to the grenades, picked them up, and hurled them at the front of the building as the guards ducked behind the massive granite desk they manned.

  Light—blindingly bright—flashed as thunder filled Bastien’s ears. Shrapnel struck like a thousand knives as flames engulfed him and a wave of energy lifted him off his feet and slammed him against the wall behind the guards.

  Bastien dropped to the floor.

  Pain crashed through him.

  “Shit!” one of the guards shouted.

  Bastien tried to sit up, but his limbs were slow to respond. Glancing down, he saw numerous projectiles protruding from his body.

  “Here they come!” someone shouted out of Bastien’s line of sight.

  John Wendleck, one of the guards on duty, helped Bastien sit up. Peering over the desk, he swung back to face Bastien and held out his wrist. “Take my blood.”

  Bastien shook his head.

  “Do it,” John urged. “I’ve never been bitten before, so it won’t transform me. And we’re about to be overrun.”

  Bastien sank his fangs into the man’s wrists and siphoned as much blood as he dared take into his veins. Almost instantly, the virus began to push the projectiles from his body and flood him with strength.

  “Thank you.” Grabbing the swords he had dropped, Bastien rose and faced the enormous hole the grenades had blown in the front of the building.

  In the darkness beyond, an army of vampires sped toward them.

  Melanie swore when the building’s alarm began to blare.

  Adira woke with a start and began to cry.

  As Melanie hurried over to pick her up, she heard Bastien say Gershom’s name, then yell for her to call Aidan.

  Cliff swore. Backing toward Melanie, he tightened his hold on his katanas and kept his eyes trained on the door of the apartment.

  A thunderous boom shook the building and assaulted their ears as something exploded on the ground floor.

  Adira wailed even louder and clung to Melanie while Melanie held the baby with one arm and yanked her cell phone out of her pocket with her free hand.

  “Shh. It’s okay, honey,” she soothed as she dialed. “It’s okay.”

  “Yes,” Aidan answered, the clash of weapons loud in the background.

  Before Melanie could speak, a man as tall and imposing as Seth appeared just inside the apartment’s heavy door. He was garbed much like Zach usually was—black pants, black boots, and nothing else—and radiated power. Large dark wings framed his form as he swept the room with eyes that glowed golden.

  Her blood turned to ice.

  Gershom.

  “Come now!” Melanie cried into the phone.

  Aidan instantly appeared beside her. Glimpsing Gershom, he grabbed Adira and vanished.

  Gershom tilted his head to one side and regarded Melanie with cold curiosity. “Surely you don’t believe you can stop me.” He started to say more, but paused. His eyes shifted to the ceiling, as though something above had drawn his attention.

  Heart pounding, Melanie bent and drew the short swords from her box of tranquilizer guns.

  Gershom returned his attention to her. “Interesting.”

  As Cliff rushed forward with a roar of fury, Gershom vanished.

  Aidan tugged his coat closed around the baby wailing against his chest and teleported to Telfer, Western Australia.

  “It’s okay, little one,” he murmured as he instantly teleported again to Svalbard, Norway. “It’s okay. Uncle Aidan will keep you safe.”

  He took her to Motuo, China. Then to La Rinconada, Peru. Easter Island. Kosaka, Japan.

  He spent mere seconds in each destination before he moved on, fearing Gershom would appear at any moment and try to tear the babe from his arms.

  Aidan vowed he would die before he let the Other have her.

  In McMurdo, Antarctica, he began to croon a song his mother had sung to him when he was a boy. It took them through Colmar, France. Kiffa, Mauritania. Burano, Italy. Monsanto, Portugal.

  The babe ceased weeping in Bibury, England.

  Her breath stopped hiccupping in Mombasa, Kenya.

  Her little head began to bob with weariness in Meissen, Germany.

  She fell asleep in Salta, Argentina.

  And still Gershom didn’t appear.

  Had Melanie and the other immortals found a way to detain him at the network?

  Or had Gershom simply opted to stay and wreak havoc there instead?

  Aidan didn’t know. But he thought it was worth the risk to return Adira to David’s home, where Gershom had not yet put in an appearance . . . as far as he knew.

  At least there, Aidan would not have to battle the Other alone if Gershom caught up with him. He feared Adira’s fate should such come to pass.

  Heather shifted from foot to foot in David’s basement, nerves jangling, as the cacophony of battle raged above her. How the hell many vampires were attacking?

  At the top of the stairs, Ed fired almost continuously. “Marcus!” he yelled suddenly. “I’m about to be overrun!”

  Heather glanced over her shoulder at Marcus.

  Marcus looked at Sheldon. “I haven’t heard any movement in the tunnels so far, but don’t let your guard down.”

  Sheldon nodded.

  Aidan abruptly appeared, Adira in his arms.

  Alarm splashed across Marcus’s features.

  “Gershom is at the network,” Aidan said. “And it’s under attack. Too many vampires to count.”

  Marcus dropped his weapons and took the baby, cuddling her close. “Is she—?”

  “Adira is fine. I teleported multiple times to throw Gershom off in case he followed me, but I haven’t seen or sensed him.” Aidan looked to the ceiling, then back at Marcus. “The vampires are about to make their way down here. Give the baby to Tracy, and help me end this so we can better protect Adira if Gershom makes an appearance.” He disappeared.

  Sheldon looked at Marcus. “Go. We’ll keep her safe. I swear it.”

  Tracy gently pried the sleeping baby from Marcus’s arms.

  Adira roused, her face scrunching up with a disgruntled frown.

  “Marcus!” Ed shouted.

  Heather spun around and fired as a vampire made it past Ed and shot down the stairs.

  She leapt backward as the vampire tumbled to the bottom of the stairs, hit the floor, and skidded several feet, leaving a trail of blood along the way. As soon as he halted, she hit him in the major arteries.

  “I can do this, Marcus,” Sheldon said behind her. “I’m no
t the screwup I was when I first started. I’ll protect her. I’ll keep her safe.”

  Another vampire zipped down the stairs in a blur.

  Heather fired again until he crumpled at her feet.

  Marcus raced past her and swept up the stairs.

  In a brief reprieve, Ed rushed down and planted himself at Heather’s side. Blood speckled his face and neck. “They were coming at me from too many directions. At least this way they’ll—”

  Heather fired as a blurred form sped down the stairs toward them.

  The vampire hit the floor at their feet, tried to get up, then collapsed.

  She looked at Ed.

  “Only come at us from one direction,” he finished. “Good job.”

  She nodded, heart slamming against her ribs, then fired again as another vampire made it past Marcus, wherever he was, and rushed them.

  The same continued for so long that she and Ed both had to reload more than once.

  “Incoming!” Sheldon shouted.

  Heather risked a glance over her shoulder and saw two vampires emerge from a bedroom at the far end of the hallway.

  “Shit!” Tracy exclaimed. “They found one of the tunnels!”

  “I need to help Sheldon,” Ed told Heather.

  “Go,” she said. “I’ve got this.”

  Another vampire shot down the stairs toward her.

  Heather’s gun spat fire.

  As the vampire hit the basement floor hard enough to crack his skull, pain shot through Heather’s thigh.

  She cried out. Her right leg buckled. Hopping on her left leg until she could regain her balance, Heather glanced down.

  A dagger stuck out of her thigh.

  Ed returned to her side and knelt, lowering his rifle to the floor. “Keep your eyes on those stairs.”

  Heather gritted her teeth as he examined the wound.

  “Good. He missed the femoral artery. Sorry, but this is going to hurt.”

  Agony sliced through her leg as he yanked out the dagger.

  Heather cried out again, tears rising in her eyes.

  Another vampire darkened the doorway at the top of the stairs.

  She fired, stopping the vampire before he could even start down toward her.

  More pain careened through her when Ed wrapped a bandage around her thigh and tied it tight enough to keep pressure on the wound.

  Grabbing his rifle, he stood. “You okay?”

  She nodded. Damn, it hurt. “Thank you.”

  He patted her back, then ran down the hallway toward Sheldon and the others.

  “Seth!” Tracy spoke loudly. “David’s place is under attack. The network is, too.” She must have called him on her cell. “If you can spare any . . . She’s here in Ami and Marcus’s room . . . Okay.”

  Another vampire sped toward Heather.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Ami swung her katanas, opening arteries in vampire after vampire after vampire. Her warm breath formed white clouds on the frigid Russian air that poured through the large hole network soldiers had blown in the front of the building.

  She and Seth had planted themselves in front of the opening of what she guessed was a housing building, judging by the number of vampires the two fought.

  Roland, Sarah, Étienne, and Krysta had all shot to the rear of the building and steadily worked their way back toward the front, herding whatever vampires they didn’t kill toward Seth’s and Ami’s deadly blades.

  Outside, white snow reflected bright sunlight like a mirror.

  Nevertheless, vampires continued to rush toward the doors, believing they had a better chance of surviving daylight than they did the warriors who picked them off, one by one.

  Ami had long since run out of ammo. The numbers here rivaled those they had fought at Shadow River. Almost all vampires with some humans thrown in. Had the Russian contingent of immortals and network soldiers not aided them, Ami didn’t think she, Seth, and the others could have held the vampires off this long.

  Barely audible amidst the chorus of cries and racket of weapons clashing, Skillet’s “Monster” sounded. Ami glanced at Seth as he sheathed a sword and retrieved his phone.

  “What?” Seth answered, his voice clipped as he continued to combat the vampires racing toward them with one sword.

  Ami ducked a vampire’s fist and swung. Her blade bit deep into the vamp’s arm, severing his brachial artery. Her next swing cut across a vampire’s neck. Warm ruby liquid struck her in the face.

  “Where’s Adira?” Seth asked.

  Ami’s pounding heart stuttered.

  “Help is on the way.” He pocketed the phone. “Sascha!”

  Had something happened to Marcus?

  Please, not Marcus.

  Ami’s lapse in concentration cost her. A blade cut across her middle. Before she could recover, another blade bit into her thigh.

  A large Russian immortal appeared beside her and tore into the vampires who had scored the hits. “What?” he asked Seth in heavily accented English.

  “Take Ami to David’s. Vampires are attacking. If you’re needed there, stay and help them. You can return here as soon as the tide turns.”

  Sascha didn’t hesitate to clutch Ami’s shoulder.

  Cold, snowy Russia fell away, replaced by the warmth of David’s basement.

  At the foot of the stairs, Heather fired an automatic rifle at vampires who raced down the stairs toward her. At the other end of the hallway, Sheldon and Ed fired at vampires who poured forth from a bedroom doorway. Roughly in the middle, several yards beyond Ami’s bedroom, Tracy fired at any vampires who made it past Sheldon and Ed.

  How had vampires found the escape tunnel?

  Sascha swore and teleported to Sheldon’s side.

  Ami ran toward her bedroom, panic almost choking her.

  Bursting through the doorway, she halted. Relief rushed through her, so strong moisture welled in her eyes. Marcus stood beside the crib, staring down at Adira. Adira stared back up at him with somber green eyes, her favorite teether forgotten in her lap.

  “Marcus,” Ami breathed and smiled as he turned his head. She strode toward him, tears spilling over her lashes. “When Seth got the call, I was afraid something had happened to you.”

  He offered her a faint smile. “I’m fine.”

  She stopped short. Icy fear clawed her.

  The man before her looked like Marcus and sounded like Marcus . . . but his energy signature was all wrong. This was not her husband.

  “Who are you?” she forced through cold lips.

  He tilted his head. “How did you know I wasn’t him?”

  Seth! she screamed telepathically, pouring every ounce of energy she had into the cry to try to make it reach him.

  Losing his smile, the Marcus impersonator shook his head. “I wish you hadn’t done that.”

  Ami lunged toward him, blades raised, fearing he would hurt Adira.

  The man vanished.

  Seth appeared beside her, his face stricken. “Is it—?” He gaze slipped past her and fell on the baby. Relief flooded his features. “What happened?”

  “Someone was here,” she said, hurrying over to the crib. Dropping her swords, she picked up Adira and hugged her close. “One of the Others, I think.”

  His face darkened with rage. “Gershom was here?”

  “No. Someone I’ve never encountered before. He looked like Marcus. And he sounded like Marcus. But his energy signature was all off.”

  Zach appeared beside Seth. “What happened?”

  “One of the Others was here. Not Gershom, someone else.”

  Zach gaped. “Are you shitting me? Gershom isn’t working alone?”

  “Apparently not. Can you trace the one who was here?”

  Zach closed his eyes. His brow furrowed. “Yes.”

  “Then hunt the fucker down,” Seth snarled. “When you find him, do whatever you have to to detain him, then summon me.”

  Face grim, Zach teleported away.

 
Seth nodded to the baby. “She’s okay?”

  Ami nodded. “I don’t think he hurt her. She wasn’t crying or anything.”

  Marcus appeared in the doorway, face and form blood-spattered.

  Ami tightened her hold on Adira and took a quick step back. Then she felt Marcus’s familiar energy signature and realized it really was her husband this time.

  “What happened?” he demanded. “I heard Ami scream.”

  “She’s okay. They both are,” Seth assured him, then met Ami’s gaze. “Put the babe back in her crib.”

  She did.

  “I must return to Russia,” Seth told her. He touched her shoulder. Energy flooded her in such a strong burst she gasped. “Call to me again if you need me. You’ll have no difficulty reaching me now.”

  She nodded.

  Tracy backed into view, gun firing.

  “You’re really okay?” Marcus asked.

  Ami nodded.

  Tracy glanced over her shoulder. “A little help here?”

  Marcus joined the skirmish outside the bedroom.

  Ami leaned down and kissed Adira’s forehead. Then, retrieving the katanas she had dropped, she planted her feet just inside the doorway and prepared to protect her daughter from anyone and anything that made it past the others.

  Breathing hard, Ethan backed toward the door to the basement. The number of vampires they faced had finally begun to dwindle. A fortunate thing, because he had suffered so many damned wounds that they had stopped healing.

  He allowed himself a quick glance down the stairs and saw Heather staring up at him, weapon raised, her face full of determination.

  Aidan and the others who were still on their feet had things under control up here. So Ethan zipped down to Heather. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded.

  He gave her a quick once-over and felt his stomach sink when he saw the bloody bandage wrapped around her thigh. “Your leg—”

  “I’m fine. You?”

  “Yeah. We’ve almost . . .” He trailed off as he looked beyond her.

  Marcus, Richart, Sheldon, Tracy, Ed, and one of the Russian immortals Ethan had seen with Seth earlier all battled vampires who must have found their way in through at least one of the escape tunnels.