“You said you searched him before you brought him here.”
“I must have missed something. Anything yet?” he asked Lisette.
“No. There’s nothing between his running from the mercenaries and his waking up in the shed.”
“There must be something! Because they sure as hell didn’t follow us from my lair. We teleported!”
“There’s a chip,” Richart spoke behind Melanie.
She spun around. “What?”
Clothing torn, rumpled, and stained with blood, he nodded at the vamp, who abruptly stopped moaning. “I heard the mercenaries talking. There’s a chip implanted just beneath the skin.”
“Where? I didn’t see anything when I examined him.”
“Under his hair at the base of his skull.”
Eyes wide, Stuart reached up to touch the back of his head.
Bastien palmed a dagger and strode toward him.
Stuart shook his head frantically. “Bullshit!” His voice rose an octave as he scrambled backward, bumped into a wall, and skidded sideways. “That’s bullshit! I didn’t help them!”
“It’s true,” Richart said. “He didn’t get away when they tranqed him. He passed out. They implanted the chip, then stuck him in the garden shed so he would think he did get away. All they had to do then was wait for us to take the bait.”
Melanie jumped when Bastien suddenly shot forward in a blur and caught Stuart. He overpowered the boy’s struggles with ease. Lisette crossed to the duo and took the dagger from Bastien.
When she ran her fingers through the vamp’s dark hair, then angled the dagger to remove the chip, Melanie looked away from the kid’s fear-filled face.
Richart dialed his cell phone and swore. “Why is Seth so fucking hard to reach?”
“Because so many need him,” his sister replied drolly as the building shook again.
Stuart howled.
Richart shoved his phone back in his pocket. “I already teleported Étienne in. He’s trying to hold down the fort on the ground until there are enough of us to start a counterassault. They’ve got fucking shoulder-fired missiles up there. Grenades. Too many mercenaries to count. Lisette, help Chris evacuate the mortals.”
“Hell no!” She handed Bastien his bloody dagger and the chip she’d removed, then zipped over to her brother’s side. “I’m going with you.”
Richart nodded and gripped her arm.
Melanie threw out her hands. “Wait!”
They hesitated.
“In my office. In my desk. Bottom right drawer. Auto-injectors with the tranquilizer antidote Bastien tested. They have green caps. I upped the dose, so you should only need one each. Take one for Étienne, too.”
Richart nodded. The two vanished.
Bastien drew his phone out and strode toward Melanie.
Face pale, she stared up at him with wide brown eyes. Her heart raced. Her hands shook. But she didn’t bolt. Her courage both impressed and terrified him. He wanted her on her way out of the damned building with her colleagues.
Taking her hand, he headed for her office, checking out the hallway as he did. No infiltration down here thus far.
“Would you please get me one of the auto-injectors?” he asked.
She nodded and hurried over to her desk.
Richart and Lisette had already come and gone, leaving the drawer cracked open.
Bastien stayed in the doorway and dialed two numbers. Seth didn’t answer. David did.
“Yes?”
“The network is under attack.”
David swore foully. “By vampires or humans? Darnell!”
“Humans. The mercenaries are here in force with heavy-duty weaponry. Shoulder-fired missiles are pounding the hell out of the building. So are grenades. We need all hands.”
David relayed the information to his Second, who began to make calls in the background.
Bastien could hear automatic weapons firing on the first and second sublevels, so those two floors must have already been infiltrated by soldiers. Mortal network employees continued to walk, limp, or drag each other past the doorway. Lisette, Richart, and Étienne began to wreak havoc among the mercenaries’ ranks, eliciting satisfying screams.
Melanie handed Bastien an auto-injector, then returned to her desk.
“Help is on the way,” the elder immortal told him.
Bastien thought furiously. “David.”
“Yes?”
“We need Ami here.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“Look, I know—”
“Forget it!” David ended the call.
Swearing, Bastien dialed another number. The scent of blood grew stronger as casualties from the upper floors entered the hallway and trekked past.
He glanced over at Melanie and did a double take when he saw her loading up with weapons. 9mms. Extra clips. Tranquilizer darts. Daggers. Shit! No way in hell was he letting her fight!
She met his gaze. “Bastien, you know how badly Emrys wants to get his hands on Ami. Why do you—”
“Hi, Bastien,” Ami answered in a cheerful voice. Darnell must not have contacted her.
“Hi, Ami. I need to talk to Marcus for a moment.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked, voice sobering.
“Just let me talk to Marcus for a minute, please.”
“Okay. Marcus, honey, he wants to talk to you.”
Marcus answered, his voice as cold as his wife’s was warm.
“What?”
“I’m at the network with Richart, Lisette, and Étienne. Emrys’s soldiers are attacking.”
“How many?”
“All of them by the sounds of it.”
“I’m on my way.”
“Marcus! I was thinking . . . We have a chance to end this here and now, but I need you to listen to me. Okay? Will you listen to me?”
“All right. Go ahead.”
“You need to bring Ami here.”
Marcus hung up.
Growling, Bastien dialed Ami’s number again.
“Fuck you!” Marcus snarled into the phone.
“We can use her gift to get these bastards!” Bastien shouted. “To get Emrys! You want him dead, don’t you? You want to find him and make him pay for what he did to Ami? I sure as hell do!”
Steely silence.
“Look, I’ll find Richart and have him teleport both of you to Sublevel 5. The fighting hasn’t reached here yet. All Ami has to do is stand here and absorb all of the energy signatures she can so if any of these assholes get away she can trace them back to the source and we can napalm their asses, or better yet, turn them over to Seth and David.”
Ami had done the same once before. She said every living creature possessed a unique energy signature. Once Ami was in close proximity to that individual, she could locate that signature again, tracking it like a homing beacon. If even one soldier got away, he could lead them back to Emrys.
Marcus’s inner struggle was palpable, his tension carrying over the line.
“You can remain by her side every second,” Bastien promised. “If it looks like the mercenaries are going to get down this far, have Richart teleport her to safety. This is our best chance, Marcus. I don’t want those fuckers to get their hands on her again. Or on Sarah or Lisette. Or any immortal, for that matter.”
Melanie stared at him, face grim.
Bastien couldn’t read what she was thinking and wished she were close enough to touch. Did she think him as crazy as the others to risk Ami’s safety? Did she think him uncaring?
“I’ll ask Ami what she wants to—”
“I’m in,” Ami said before Marcus could finish. “He was kind of yelling, so I heard enough to figure out the plan.”
“Darling, it’s too dangerous.”
“I’m doing it. Bastien, send Richart.”
The call ended.
Bastien pocketed his phone. “Go ahead and say it. I’m a bastard.”
Melanie shook her head. “It’s brilliant. I’
m just afraid for her.”
Relieved, he yanked her to him and hugged her close. Her fear stole into him. “Lisette!”
What? I’m busy taking out a Hummer.
Tell Richart to go pick up Marcus.
He’s fetching Roland and Sarah. I’ll tell him when he gets back.
Across the hall, Stuart stepped into the doorway of his apartment. The collar of his shirt bore a red stain from the wound Bastien had inflicted. Brow furrowed, he watched the humans hurry past as debris and dust fell from the ceiling. He shifted his weight, met Bastien’s gaze.
“Cliff,” Bastien said.
I’m here, Cliff answered through his door. How bad is it, because it sounds fucking cataclysmic.
“It’s bad.”
Chris Reordon exited the stairway at the end of the corridor, the arm of an injured guard looped over one shoulder.
Dr. Lipton’s okay? Cliff asked.
“For now.” His gaze returned to Stuart. “Cliff, you up for a fight?”
Hell, yes, man. Let me out and I’ll help you kick some serious ass.
Me, too, Joe said. I’m a little out of it from the drug, but I can hold my own against humans.
Bastien set Melanie away from him and urged her out into the hallway. “You have to go now.”
“No. I’m staying. I can fight.”
Above the employees’ heads, through the dust and shit falling from the ceiling, he caught Chris’s gaze as Chris half carried, half dragged the guard forward. “Don’t argue with me, Melanie. You’re human.”
“So are they!”
He didn’t have time for this. He wanted her safe and didn’t want to risk her being taken and tortured for information. “If you insist on staying, help Chris evacuate the wounded. But I need you to stay down here.”
She nodded.
“Promise me.”
“All right. I promise. Be careful.”
He gave her arms a squeeze, then zipped through the throng to Chris’s side. “Étienne and Lisette are up on the ground,” he shouted so the human could hear him over the explosions that grew louder and closer as parts of the structure gave way above them. “David will be here any minute. Richart is fetching Roland, Sarah, Marcus, and Ami.” Bastien took the injured guard from him, swept him over to Melanie, then returned in a blink.
Chris stared at him in disbelief. “Why the hell is he bringing Ami here?”
“We have a plan! I’ll fill you in later!” He motioned down the hallway. “Right now you need to let the vampires out to play!”
“Now I know you’re crazy!”
“They want to help! And we need all the help we can get! It’s going to take all of us immortals to handle the human firepower. We need the vamps to keep the damned building from collapsing until the rest of you can evacuate! Let them out! I’ll take full responsibility!”
“Which doesn’t mean shit! Because once Seth hears you put Ami in danger, he’s going to kill you!”
Probably. But . . . “What other choice do we have?”
“You’d better be right!” Chris headed for the vampires’ apartments. As he passed Stuart, Chris pointed at him and said, “You’re dead, motherfucker!”
Bastien shook his head. “He didn’t know they were tracking him!”
Stuart followed them to Cliff’s apartment. “You won’t kill me if I help, right? You aren’t going to let those guys capture me again, are you? I mean, I can help, right?”
“Yes,” Bastien answered while Chris swiped a card and entered the security code. “Help the humans get their wounded to the tunnel.”
Stuart did as ordered. Racing to the stairwell, he grabbed a wounded network employee two others were struggling to support, looped him carefully over one shoulder and raced over to the ragged tunnel entrance to pass him off to Todd.
Cliff’s door opened. Cliff stood there, brown eyes already glowing amber. “I can help up on the ground.”
Bastien shook his head. “I don’t want to risk your being tranqed.”
Chris moved on to unlock Joe’s door.
Joe stepped into the hallway, eyes glowing a vibrant blue.
“Help with the evacuation,” Bastien ordered and it felt almost like old times. These were his men. Members of his army. “Check the upper floors. See if anyone is trapped. Get everyone out you can.”
Nodding, the two took off down the hallway, their forms blurring with speed. The stairwell was packed. So they forced the doors of the disabled elevator open and leapt up the shaft.
“They’d better damned well keep their fangs out of my people!” Chris shouted.
“They will!” At least he hoped they would. Cliff would. But Bastien wasn’t so sure about Joe.
Stuart raced past with a whimpering woman in his arms. Bastien couldn’t tell if it were pain or fear of the vampire that instigated the sounds.
Across the hall, Melanie applied a pressure bandage to a guard’s arm to stanch the blood gushing from his wound.
Bastien drew his katanas. “I’m heading up!”
Melanie raised her head and met his gaze. It seemed a thousand words, all unspoken, passed between them in that moment.
She nodded.
Bastien raced for the elevator shaft. There were four bodies in the elevator. Bastien didn’t know if the drop had killed them or the explosion that had snapped the cables.
Half of the ceiling of the elevator was gone. Bastien leapt up through the hole. Far above him, he saw stars twinkling in a sky that was beginning to lighten as dawn approached. Emrys had timed his attack well.
Three ropes suddenly fell through the open doorway to Sublevel 2. Soldiers garbed in black camo followed, sliding smoothly down, intent on taking the rest of the building.
Bastien grabbed the ropes and yanked with all of his preternatural strength.
The grappling hooks held. The ropes didn’t, snapping where they bent over the edge of Sublevel 2’s floor. The men shouted as they free-fell toward Bastien.
Bastien dropped the ropes and met them with his swords, his blades ensuring they would die if the fall didn’t kill them.
As their bodies hit the elevator, he leapt up, catapulting from level to level until he reached the ground floor.
Most of the building above ground had been demolished. Only fragments of walls stood, pillars among piles of rubble.
Emrys’s troops surrounded the place. Military Humvees. Sisu XA-180 armored personnel carriers with mounted 12.7-mm machine guns. Soldiers with shoulder-fired missiles. Grenades. The usual automatic weapons.
Smoke and dust and debris hovered like fog and stung Bastien’s eyes. Lisette was on top of one of the Sisus, firing the mounted machine gun while she fed on the soldier who had previously manned it and used him as a shield.
Richart was doing his Grim Reaper thing, appearing and disappearing amid the soldiers, picking them off before they even knew he was there, throwing them into a panic. Étienne swept a circle around the crumpled building’s perimeter, a constant blur, fatally wounding every soldier he passed. The soldiers began to shoot each other as they tried to stay ahead of him and failed.
Bright light blinded Bastien. He shielded his eyes and glanced up in time to see a door gunner lean out of one of two Black Hawk helicopters that hovered overhead and drop a grenade.
With lightning speed, Bastien caught the grenade and lobbed it back.
Panicked shouting ensued.
Soldiers dove out just as the vehicle exploded.
Bastien smiled. This was going to be fun.
Chapter 12
“The sun will be up in a few,” Roland murmured.
Lounging on the sofa, feet propped on the coffee table, with Sarah curled up against his side, he soaked in her warmth like a sponge. Savored her scent. Listened to the familiar thumping of her heart.
He would never grow tired of moments like this. And, now that she was immortal, he looked forward to enjoying thousands upon thousands of them.
“Already?” she posed with
a yawn.
Nietzsche rumbled and purred like a Harley as Sarah stroked his back and watched the news. The ornery feline had done his best to wedge himself between them, then given up, and settled for sprawling across them both.
“Mm-hmm. Want to shower and head for bed?” Both still wore their hunting togs, sans bloodstains since they hadn’t encountered a single vampire tonight. Their weapons were scattered around his feet on the coffee table.
Tilting her head back, Sarah smiled up at him. “You gonna wash my back?”
He brushed his lips against her forehead. “Among other things.”
Her heartbeat picked up. “I like the sound of that.”
He dipped his head and did what he’d been dying to do ever since they had settled here on the sofa half an hour ago: tasted those luscious lips and listened to her pulse begin to race as her slender arms curled around his neck.
Damn, he loved her.
“Ahem.”
Roland grabbed a dagger from the coffee table and let it fly.
Richart ducked, barely evading it. “Damn it!”
“I told you to call before you came here,” Roland growled. He hadn’t wanted the immortal to know where he lived in the first place and sure as hell didn’t want the man to think he could drop in whenever he wanted to.
“I didn’t have time!” Richart snapped. “The network is under attack.”
Roland and Sarah rose, dislodging a disgruntled Nietzsche. “What?” they demanded in unison.
“Emrys’s men are blitzing the place,” Richart said while they donned their weapons. “Large force. Heavy artillery. I don’t know how the hell this isn’t going to make the news. The civvies are being evacuated through the tunnel, those who haven’t already been killed.”
Sarah finished fastening her last holster. “Ready.”
Richart drew something out of his pocket. “Here.” He held out two cylindrical objects that looked like big plastic pens with green tops. Roland and Sarah each took one.
“What are they?” she asked.
“The antidote Bastien tested. If you get tranqed, use this to counteract it.”
Roland tucked his away. “Let’s go.”
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