by Tessa Cole
“Eyes open,” Gideon said, his voice low as he followed Marcus down the stairs.
I swept my scope to a pipe mouth on the other side of the stairs. Three heat signatures. Two more in the tunnel beside it. Another one in the tunnel beside that.
“They’re in the tunnels,” I said. “I’ve got six—” Four more in the next tunnel and two in the one above. “At least twelve.”
“Jeez, Logan’s been busy,” Marcus growled, reaching the bottom and scanning the tunnels closest to the stairs.
Kol hopped over the railing, skipping the last five steps, and landed beside Marcus. “How the hell did no one notice this many missing humans?”
“Since the war, more people are living off the grid,” Gideon said.
“And we did notice,” I said. “Missing persons has seriously spiked in the last month or so.”
A low growl rumbled around the chamber, echoing off the concrete walls and growing in volume until it felt as if it came from all around us. Then someone screamed a high-pitched howl and a woman, covered in blood and filth, with matted hair and a ripped T-shirt, barreled out of the tunnel across from the stairs. Her eyes were wild, her fangs extended, and her nails sharpened claws.
She rushed toward Kol, throwing herself at him, and he deftly sidestepped her attack, sliced her arm with one dagger, and rammed the other into the base of her neck.
With a gurgled scream, she collapsed to the ground, but more ferals started howling and the dozen I’d counted ran from their tunnels toward the guys.
Kol rushed to the center of the room to meet them, making space for Gideon, who summoned his sword of divine light and decapitated a feral as he marched to meet a group of three coming from a pipe only a few feet from the stairs.
Marcus snarled and stabbed at a feral rushing toward Kol. He sliced open the feral’s side. The creature stumbled but didn’t drop and changed targets, lunging at Marcus.
Jacob drew his Berettas and fired at a feral coming from a tunnel on the other side of the room. His shot hit right between the eyes. Blue lightning crackled around the feral’s body. The creature screamed and died, his body crumpling to the floor, but two more jumped over it and rushed into the fight.
I kept scanning the tunnels, but there were heat signatures in all of them. I fired a three-round burst at a feral dashing toward Marcus. Lightning crackled around it as it stumbled but didn’t drop, and Marcus swept his sword out and decapitated it.
Jacob fired again and dropped another one with a flash of blue lightning.
Someone above me howled, and a bulky feral dropped from the third-story tunnel and crashed down on Jacob.
My pulse leaped. They weren’t just on the ground level.
Jacob jerked out of the way, but the feral’s razor sharp claws still slashed his hand and ripped the Beretta from his grip. He grabbed the feral by its leather sports jacket, pressed the muzzle of his other Beretta to its heart, and fired.
Lightning swept around the feral, and Jacob tossed his body into another feral who was moving faster than humanly possible. Many of them were, actually, which meant they were older than the ones I’d come across in the school, or Logan had figured out how to make stronger ferals.
I jerked my attention to the second- and third-story tunnels and counted more heat signatures. “Heads up. There are more in the second- and third-story tunnels.”
“How many more?” Gideon asked.
“Two dozen— Three—” And those were only the ones close enough to see. Whatever Logan’s plan, he’d definitely made an army of vicious creatures that were hard to kill. And while the guys were deadly efficient, more ferals kept coming. We were already outnumbered and our odds were getting worse.
Chapter 13
I shot a three-round burst at a feral about to jump from a second-story pipe onto Kol. The feral fell out of the tunnel and hit the concrete with a sickening crunch, but still staggered to his feet.
Jacob grabbed for his dropped Beretta but it was kicked down a ramp in the scuffle, while Gideon impaled a feral rushing toward Jacob.
The feral I shot lunged at Kol. He twisted out of the way but into the reach of a petite female feral. She grabbed his arm and wrenched him around with her enhanced vampiric strength. He rammed his dagger into her gut, but she didn’t even flinch and slashed her claws across his face.
With a roar, Jacob shoved out of the grip of a feral clinging to him and shot Kol’s feral in the head before turning back to the group surrounding him. His eyes were black and his vampiric intensity radiated around him, a palpable energy that sang to his claim entwined with my essence.
I wrenched my attention away from him and fired again at the ferals jumping from the pipes. Lightning crackled around all of them, but I wasn’t the marksman Jacob was and only managed to drop one out of the five. More rushed from a tunnel on the other side of the stairs. I stepped away from the wall to get a better shot and sent a barrage into the group as they barreled toward Marcus, who snarled, his wolf still captured within his human skin, but barely. Blood splattered him from the ferals he’d killed and oozed from deep gashes on his arms and legs.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Gideon’s blazing sword swept through the dim light, leaving a trail in the air. He too was covered in blood, his expression hard and icy, as he moved with powerful precision, each strike meant to kill or maim then kill. He decapitated a feral, twisted and impaled another through the heart, then ducked low, twisting again, as a feral swiped at his back. His blade slashed through one of the feral’s legs, drawing a scream and toppling it to its knees.
Another feral lunged for Gideon’s back, but he was engaged with two others. I fired a quick burst, making the feral behind him stumble. His gaze leaped up to mine, and the heated electricity from his brand swept up my arm, then he wrenched his attention back to the ferals he was fighting.
Marcus roared and killed another. The bodies were piling up and blood slicked the concrete, making the footing dangerous. I scanned the tunnels for heat signatures.
Nothing.
I did another sweep.
Still nothing.
“I think we’re at the end of it.”
“Thank God,” Marcus growled.
“God has nothing to do with this,” a raspy tenor said, his voice carrying over the growls and screams of the fight.
“Take cover,” Gideon barked.
Jacob tossed the feral he’d just killed and jerked his attention up, his gaze jumping around the chamber. “Too afraid to come out and fight me?”
“You don’t scare me, Lockwood,” Logan said.
Marcus shoved past a feral and headed to the closest tunnel’s mouth. Kol did the same.
I bolted to the closest cover, an alcove with a pile of bodies, pressed my back tight against the damp wall, and searched the chamber for Logan’s heat signature. Still nothing.
Gideon impaled a feral as he ran for the tunnel across from him, and a rifle blast roared through the chamber.
My heart seized and Jacob tackled Gideon, moving with his enhanced vampiric speed. Blood blossomed across the top of Jacob’s shoulder. He wrenched Gideon to his feet, and they bolted the rest of the way to the tunnel.
I yanked my scope back to the tunnels where I guessed Logan would be. Still nothing. I had no idea how he was hiding his heat signature, but in the world of supers, anything was possible.
“Jacob, can you find him?” Gideon asked over the coms. “Shoot him?”
“No,” Jacob said.
“We can’t just wait around,” Marcus snarled.
“I’ll draw his fire,” Jacob said. “I have the best chance of surviving.”
“Not a headshot, you won’t,” Kol said.
“Then I’ll have to move fast enough he can’t hit me.”
Jacob darted from the tunnel mouth.
“Son of a—” Marcus snarled.
Another rifle shot roared through the chamber, and I caught a flicker of muzzle fire from a floor-level tunne
l — not at all where I expected a sniper to hide. Another shot and another flare of muzzle fire.
Got you. I aimed just behind the muzzle flare and fired. Lightning exploded around Logan, illuminating him in the tunnel, and he screamed.
“You damn bitch,” he howled and jerked his rifle toward me, the temperature spiking.
I wrenched back against the alcove arch as he fired. The shot roared and concrete shrapnel exploded from the edge of the arch.
“Get on out here,” he snarled, and a low growl rumbled through the cavern.
“Holy shit,” Kol said.
Cold sliced through the heat.
“Essie, watch your back,” Jacob yelled.
His claim twisted in my chest, and I wrenched around. The bodies in the pile were moving. A hand, the skin bloated and oozing, reached out from the bottom of the pile and grabbed for my ankle.
I jerked out of the way and shot at it as all the bodies on top rose and heaved toward me.
I fired again, then wrenched back around to face the chamber even though the animated corpses were the biggest threat. All of the bodies with the exception of those the team had decapitated were rising up and rushing toward the tunnels where the guys hid.
Jacob’s claim twisted tighter, and my body heaved around again. I scrambled out of reach of an ashen-skinned guy with cloudy dead eyes who wasn’t decomposing yet. I fired again, scrambling to get out of the way, only to wrench back around.
God damn it.
“Jacob. Command,” I yelled, straining against the claim. It wrenched me around again, and I stumbled to the side, losing my balance as I fought it. A rifle blast sliced across the side of my shoulder, and the claim wrenched me back to face the chamber.
I emptied the rest of my magazine into Logan’s tunnel but didn’t hit him.
“Essie, protect yourself,” Jacob said as he bolted across the chamber toward Logan.
“Stay with the team, Jacob,” Gideon said, but Jacob kept running.
Logan fired again, and Jacob twisted, the bullet slicing across the front of his vest.
“Marcus, cover him.” The light from Gideon’s blade blazed from the mouth of his tunnel.
Marcus surged into sight, but the animated corpses pressed close and clung to him.
The woman with bloated skin broke free of the pile and lunged at me. I jerked out of the way, but another corpse swiped at me. His claws sliced into my arm with burning agony, while another woman wrenched the M4 out of my hands.
“Marcus,” Gideon snapped. “To Jacob.”
“Trying,” Marcus growled back, but he couldn’t break through the press of bodies.
Jacob fired into the tunnel where Logan was, didn’t hit, holstered his Beretta, and drew his sword without missing a step.
“Kol?” Gideon asked.
“Almost. There—” Kol dove through the press of corpses at the mouth of his tunnel, and they wrenched around and grabbed at him. One snagged his ankle, tripping him just long enough for another to tackle him.
I scrambled out of reach of another body, my mind whirling. Of the team, I was the closest to Logan’s tunnel and the only one not completely surrounded by animated corpses, but what kind of backup would I be for Jacob?
Jacob rushed into the tunnel and half a dozen corpses followed him.
I drew my Glock and bolted after him, instinct propelling me forward. I might not be able to help with Logan, and certainly wasn’t fast enough to catch a vampire running at full speed, but I could hopefully stop the corpses so they didn’t slow Jacob down, making him lose Logan. I’d need to be close enough to get a good shot, but I could handle them long enough for one of the other guys to break free.
“God damn, Essie,” Marcus growled over the coms.
“Officer Shaw,” Gideon yelled.
“We can’t let Logan get away.” I barreled after Jacob and the corpses.
The one at the end, slower than the others because of the rotting state of its body, jerked around and rushed at me. I fought my panic and kept running forward. I didn’t know if I needed a head shot to stop any of the feral vampire’s now animated victims, but I wasn’t going to take the chance that I didn’t. And please, God, let a head shot work.
The corpse snarled at me. I shot it in the chest. It stumbled, and I shoved it against the wall and shot it in the head.
I raced away as the spell’s lightning enveloped it, destroying whatever magic animated it. My feet splashed through water and my lungs burned as I strained to run faster.
I reached another corpse with a gaping wound in its chest — this one had been a feral that one of the guys had killed. I shot it in the chest and shoved it against the wall. It raked its claws at my face and I jerked back, but not fast enough. Fire blazed along my jaw. I finished it off and kept running.
“Essie, I’m on your six,” Marcus said over the coms.
I bolted around a corner, and Jacob roared. My pulse seized in fear. He stood at the mouth of another chamber, fighting the four remaining corpses, and Logan had his rifle aimed at him.
I fired at Logan, hitting his shoulder with a flash of lightning, and his shot went into the tunnel’s ceiling. Jacob slammed an animated corpse at another one, crashing them against the wall, and lunged for Logan.
“Essie, get out of here,” Jacob yelled, swinging his sword at Logan, keeping close so the vampire couldn’t use his rifle.
The claim twisted, but I clung to my willpower, fighting it. Marcus was close. I could handle these corpses until then. Just a few seconds. That was all I needed to last, because Jacob had to deal with Logan.
I reached the first of the still-standing corpses, shot it in the chest, but I had to wrench out of the way of a slash from another one before finishing it off. The new one, a bulky man with fangs, seized the front of my vest and jerked me close to bite my neck. I shoved the muzzle of my gun to his chest and fired. He screamed and collapsed in a blast of lightning, but the first one was back on me.
I scrambled aside as it swiped at me. Jacob’s claim twisted tighter. I had to run, to leave, to get out of there—
God. Damn. No.
I could hear Marcus’s footsteps pounding against the water-slick concrete. I just needed to stay a few seconds longer.
“Essie,” Jacob barked.
“No.” I fired two shots into the reanimated feral in front of me, making it stumble, and shot at its head, killing it.
Marcus rushed around the corner as Logan howled. The animated corpse closest to me lunged. I leaped back but my heel caught on a lip in the floor as an explosion erupted from the chamber’s entranceway. I hit the floor, and massive chunks of concrete rained down on me, slamming against my chest and legs and pinning me to the floor.
“Essie,” Marcus said over the coms. “Talk to me.”
“I’m here.”
“What happened?” Gideon asked.
“Cave-in,” I said. Jacob, Logan, and I were in another chamber, this one only about thirty by thirty, with only one tunnel leading out. A hint of light came from a grate high above, but no light came directly into the chamber.
Logan laughed, the sound filled with dark glee. “This is wonderful.” He blocked Jacob’s sword swing with his rifle, and turned so I was in Jacob’s line of sight. “Your human is here to watch you die.”
“I don’t think so.” I fought to move under the press of rubble. My left arm was buried, but my right arm and head were clear. Except I couldn’t get anything to budge and could barely breathe against the pressure.
“You think you’re that much more powerful than me?” Jacob snarled.
“I know so.” Logan leaped back, dropped his rifle, and raised both his hands, palms up. “I have Ibizual’s power rushing through my veins.”
Jacob froze, his arms raised mid-swing, and groaned in agony, his eyes wide.
Logan fisted his hands. Jacob groaned again and collapsed forward, his palms pressed to the concrete, his chest heaving with desperate gasps.
I sea
rched the ground for my Glock. The gun lay a few inches from my outstretched hand.
“And with a touch—” He laid a hand on the back of Jacob’s head. “—I can take your unnatural life.”
Red energy swept around Jacob, and he screamed. His body went stiff, and Logan howled with glee.
I heaved against the rubble and strained to reach my gun. I was close. So close. My fingers grazed the butt and pushed it a fraction farther.
Shit.
“What the hell is going on in there?” Gideon asked.
“Essie,” Marcus said, his voice clipped, “I’m coming. Hold on.”
Logan leaned close to Jacob’s ear. “I’ll take every last drop of your essence,” he snarled, “and then I’ll take your human’s.”
Jacob’s screams turned desperate.
My soul howled, frantic to stop this, to save him, and it had nothing to do with his claim.
There was no way in hell I was going to reach my gun. My only choice was to pray I could find enough juice for a light strike to break the spell on Jacob so he could fight back.
I flexed my hand back, pointing my palm at Logan, and screamed the divine light strike spell, hoping the force of my words would aid the force of my spell. A blast of light shot from my palm with almost as much power as I’d had when I’d fought the archnephilim.
The blast hit Logan and he jerked toward me, barely a hint of a burn on his neck and face, and that healing before my eyes.
He sneered, and my pulse froze.
“Wait your turn,” he growled, and he seized Jacob’s head and sank his fangs into Jacob’s neck.
Chapter 14
Fear clenched cold in my chest. The red energy blazed brighter around Jacob and he convulsed as Logan fed on him.
I had to stop him, except my light strike wasn’t powerful enough. I couldn’t do this alone. Hell, I couldn’t do this at all. “Marcus, help.”
“I’m trying.”
