by Mary Hughes
“Yours is the much greater risk.” Ryker blinked at him a moment longer. Then he glanced at me, a question in his eyes.
Should I do it?
My gut reaction was no way. Knowing Ryker’s past, I disagreed that he had any less risk than Logan and company. Ryker might have the power to enslave them, but he wouldn’t. His own code wouldn’t let him.
Yet I could see the Alliance vampires turning their backs on Ryker all too clearly.
Then I considered Logan, his steady gaze. The loving, gentle way he treated his wife, my sister, sitting stalwartly at his side. They all cared about Elias, yet where his brother Luke was ready to destroy me and Ryker without question to protect his master, Logan had a more level approach. He’d called pax. He’d at least listened to Ryker. He’d said, “Something tells me this isn’t the same male we met in the past.”
Maybe he wouldn’t turn away from him.
Maybe he would. But the truth was, we needed their help. If they rejected Ryker, I’d simply have to be there for him instead.
Giving his hand a squeeze, I nodded.
He sat straighter. “Very well. I’m in.” He offered his hand to Logan.
The blond took it in a brisk shake. “Then let’s do this.”
Relief burst in my chest. We weren’t going to have to fight alone.
The blood exchange was fast yet surprisingly moving. Logan slashed his forearm with a dagger, rose, and offered his blood to Ryker, who raised both brows, a sign of extreme surprise. Apparently, he thought he’d have to go first, confirmed when he said simply, “I thank you for this token of your trust.” He took Logan’s arm, pressed his tongue to the wound, and sealed it.
Logan passed the dagger to Sandy, who repeated the act. After she’d shared her blood with my king, Race and Hardison went.
Then Hardison passed the dagger to the younger Steel.
“This is crap. Cooperating with him.” Luke’s glare was angry and resentful.
“We do this as a team or not at all.” Logan’s tone was neutral, though I could see the concern in his eyes. “This might be our one chance to stop the Destroyer.”
Twin hazel gazes met. Battled.
“You owe me,” Luke snarled. He raised the dagger to cut, a jerky, hard rise that foretold a slash severe enough to take his arm off.
Before the blade bit, Ryker snared it from Luke’s grasp. “Your brother demonstrated his trust first because I needed it. Let me return the favor.” He pushed up his sleeve then slashed his forearm and offered it to Luke.
Luke only stood there, disbelief erasing his anger. Ryker’s wound sealed up and he had to slash his forearm again. “Quickly, please. I don’t want to cut so many times I dull the blade.”
“Jerk,” Luke said, but he touched his tongue to my king’s welling blood.
Ryker kept the blade to cut his arm for Sandy, Hardison, Race, and Logan. Then he offered the blade to Logan, two-handed.
Logan only tipped his head at his brother. “We’re a whole team, or we’re not. Besides, he won’t thank you for it.”
“I didn’t expect him to.” With a sigh, he offered the blade, again two-handed, to Luke.
The younger Steel snatched the dagger with an angry swipe. “You try to compel me, I’ll eat your balls for breakfast.”
“Promises, promises,” Ryker said drily.
Luke stabbed the point into his arm and twisted. He removed the blade, revealing a hole filling with blood.
“What is given in anger, I take in peace.” Ryker held the young vampire’s gaze.
Luke relented, ungracefully. “Fuck you. In peace.” He offered his arm. Ryker touched his tongue to the wound.
“And done. Protectors. Grab weapons.” Logan pointed at the walls. Luke, Sandy, Hardison, and my father jumped to their feet, gathered weapons, then lined up beside the table.
Alexis was rummaging in her purse. She came out with a tiny eyedropper vial and handed it across the table to Logan. It shimmered gold.
He handled it cautiously. “This dissolves even ancient vampires?”
“If you get it into their bloodstream, yes. It’s the last of it.” She turned to me. “Since I had a base serum already prepared, I only had to tweak it with a few elements. To make it from scratch will take days. I did think to grab these before we left the apartment.” She gave me two more tubes of ruby serum, which I tucked in my vest.
“All right, here’s the plan.” Logan slid the golden serum into his pocket. “Liese, you’ll take Alexis, Hattie, the kids, and Elias to his compound in Iowa. Race and Sandy, you’ll go along to keep them safe. Elias needs his power back from the champion Blackthorne. Call him the moment you arrive and arrange for him to return Elias’s blood. Hopefully that’ll bring Elias’s healing back online—bring him back online—and he can take it from there.”
“If not?” I challenged.
“Then we need to find that antidote.” Logan went to one wall, selected a rapier, and belted it on. A switchblade dagger slid into his back pocket and a pepper-spray-style can into his front. Then he tossed a similar switchblade and spray to Luke, who’d already picked up a stiff, diamond-shaped estoc blade. “If Strigorul has it on him, we’re golden. If not, we’ll have to track Umbra down.”
“The Shadow Lord will have more enhanced vampires, no doubt,” Ryker cautioned.
Luke grinned rapaciously. “Alexis can use her new knowledge to put some extra kick to our vampire fighting arsenal.”
Standing, I lifted a crossbow from the wall. Bigger than my compact, smaller than my heavy, it fit awkwardly in my arms. I put it back and took down a weapon like a hockey stick—and nearly dropped it. Was it made out of lead? I turned the thing over to reveal a switch, a tabbed cover below it like a battery compartment.
“Careful,” Liese said. “That’s a laser axe.”
“Cool.” Gently, I put it back. I’d love to use these goodies, but if I borrowed any of them without practice, I’d probably only chop off my own limbs.
“Should we take the SMAW?” Sandy lifted what could have been a bazooka.
Logan shook his head. “Too dangerous. We evacuated our buildings, but the rest of the neighborhood homes are still occupied. Besides, Strigorul will be able to dodge even an anti-tank rocket.”
“One other problem,” Ryker said. “Those fangs for hire are right outside your door. The minute we leave this room, they’ll be on us.”
“Yeah. About that.” Logan poked buttons in the open panel. A short, narrow doorway opened in the back wall. “Reinforced and shielded.”
Ryker snorted. “What is it with you and passageways?” Yet a part of his tone was admiring.
Logan went to the playpen and gently picked up one of the sleeping babies. “Move out.” He led the way through the small door.
Liese, carrying a diaper bag over one shoulder—crossed bandoleer-style with a short sword’s harness—picked up the other baby. She followed her husband, tossing over her shoulder, “Come on, girls.”
Because that had worked so well at the carnival. A laugh bubbled up inside me despite the grim circumstances.
Sure enough, the tykes kept playing with their dolls.
But I’d learned something from my mother and father. I knelt beside the twins. “Your mom’s taking a trip. You wouldn’t want Barbsie to miss a car ride, would you?”
“Gosh, Auntie Kat. Thanks!” Both little girls popped to their feet and quickly gathered their Bazooka Barbsies.
Auntie Kat. That was a big ol’ pluck of my heartstrings.
Hattie and Race came over, Hattie taking one girl’s hand and Race the other.
But not before he bestowed me with a smile that said well done.
My dad’s proud of me. A little glow lit in my chest.
“Race, Hattie…” Apologies weren’t my thing, so before they left, I stood with a
quick, “About before. At the carnival. I’m sorry.”
Race’s smile dissolved into confusion. “Sorry for what?”
“For not having an open mind. For not treating you with respect.”
Race blinked, stunned. Hattie’s eyes glistened.
“Look…it’ll take me some time to adjust, but…when this is all over, maybe we can try breakfast again?”
The pair exchanged a glance. Race said solemnly, “We’d like that.”
The glow strengthened.
Ryker stood beside me as they left, the little girls trotting beside their grandparents. He said, “I guess family isn’t all terrible.”
“Not all the time.”
My sister urged a shuffling Elias behind them into the tunnel. With a deep breath, I fell in line, Ryker at my side. Despite everything, walking together energized me.
Sandy and Hardison closed the door behind us. The tunnel had emergency lighting, and I could see well enough as we walked along.
Rey left Elias a moment to fall back, walking alongside me.
“You said something back there… You really think Greyson was poisoned?”
“His name is Elias, Rey—”
“Greyson.” Ryker gave me a tiny shake of his head. “Unfortunately, we know he was poisoned. We found the broken needle in the van that transported him.”
Her gaze found Elias, shuffling ahead of us. “Is that why he’s so sick?”
“The Alliance will do everything in its power to help him. I’m sure of it.” Ryker’s tone was unusually gentle. I appreciated him being kind to my sister.
“Do you really think the monster will have the antidote on him?” She meant Strigorul.
“We can hope,” I said.
With a resolute nod, she went ahead to take Elias’s arm.
I sighed. She’d been hurt badly by vampires and refused to believe Elias was one. How she’d feel about him when he reverted… Well, only time would tell.
The tunnel turned out not to be a single passageway. Branches led off in different directions. We followed some and ignored others. After several twists and turns I was thoroughly lost, so I had no idea where we were when we emerged into an underground garage.
A dozen or so slots were marked off on the concrete. Full-size vans, sedans, and even a couple motorcycles filled the slots, all late-model vehicles, as if this was some sort of fleet.
Ryker scanned the area with approval. “Escape plan.”
“We built this years ago, after the first Soul Stealer attack,” Logan said. “I hoped we’d never need it.” He chuffed a breath, half regret, half determination. “It’s far enough away that Strigorul’s shadow gang won’t immediately find us.”
“What about the city? Aren’t you worried that once the Destroyer figures out Elias is gone from Luke’s household, he’ll go on a rampage?”
Logan shook his head, hair brushing lightly against his shoulders. “This is the first I’ve heard of him, which means he must normally respect the masquerade. With Elias out of the equation, Meiers Corners will be safe.”
“The masquerade?” I asked.
“Civilized vampires live alongside humans as human.” Steel’s hazel gaze met mine, firmly. “We don’t attack innocents.”
The dark web rumored there was some sort of unspoken agreement among vampires not to prey upon people who were ignorant of them. I’d discounted it as romanticized claptrap, until now.
Then again, I’d never considered vampires as anything but prey to their inner beast until now, either.
Logan handed off a baby to Race. Liese and my father headed for the van, Hattie following with both girls.
The blond lieutenant turned to Elias. “Go with Liese, sir. We’re going to get you the best care possible.” He nodded at Sandy, who took Elias gently by the arm and led him toward the van.
Rey broke off from the rest. “I’ll go with Kat.”
My shoulders tensed. “Wait, what?”
Elias stopped. Despite Sandy’s gentle tug he remained planted, twisted toward my sister. “Rey?”
“Go with them, honey.” She smiled reassuringly at him. “You’ll be in good hands. I have to do something, and then I’ll be back for you.”
“Oh.” He brightened. “Like getting medicine for the shelter?”
“Exactly.”
Nodding as if he was reassured, the vampire leader shuffled off with his lieutenant.
The whole thing was a little surreal to me.
When everyone heading for Iowa was in the van, Logan shooped the door closed, gave it a pat, and the van pulled away. Then he turned to us.
“All right, here’s what we’ll do. Luke and Hardison will keep the shadow troops at bay while Ryker gets me close enough to hit Strigorul with the liquid gold.” His gaze went to Ryker, his eyebrow raised in challenge. “Think you can handle that?”
“Can you?” Ryker drawled back.
Vampires. They probably got spam emails pimping fang extenders.
“What about me?” I asked.
Logan shook his head. “From everything on the perimeter cameras, these foot soldiers are well trained and fast. Too fast for a human wielding swords. And since you didn’t take any of our distance weapons—”
“I didn’t like the feel. I have a bunch of my own at the flat. If I can take one of these cars, I can fetch them.”
His eyes narrowed, thinking rapidly. “My concern is whether Strigorul has sent a guard to your flat.”
That made me snort. “A human? He doesn’t think I’m worth the bother.”
“We’ll accompany you, just in case. Keys are in the ignition. Hardison?” He turned to the other two Alliance vampires. “Ride with Kat. Luke, you and I will flank the vehicle.”
I headed for a sedan. Rey fell into step beside me. I leaned toward her. “Why didn’t you go with Liese? You’d be safer.”
“I’m not leaving you,” she said simply.
I blew air and unstrapped my swords. “Has anyone ever told you you’re annoying?”
“Annoying is the number one requirement in the sister job description. Give me those, I’ll put them in the back.”
I handed the scabbards harness to her then opened the driver’s door and slid in. “The only person more annoying is—”
“Hello, Kat.” My vampire king smiled at me from the front passenger seat. He reduced the roomy interior to stuffy and claustrophobic not only with his sheer size but with his immense presence.
My stomach jumped, but I managed a caustic eye roll. “Yeah. You.”
“Damn. I wanted shotgun.” Rey slid into the seat behind me and propped my swords against her legs as Hardison took the seat beside her.
“How’d you figure I’d be taking a car?” I glared at Ryker as I started the engine and pulled out. “And how’d you guess this car?”
“The way you handled those Alliance weapons spoke volumes. And for traveling to your flat, you’d want understated but large enough to carry a few weapons. Which meant dark sedan.”
“Yeah, but there are a half dozen dark sedans.”
He shrugged. “You’d pick the one I was in.”
Delight tickled me, despite the danger. The boy didn’t lack for ego.
As I pulled out of the garage onto the street, Rey said, “So how are we getting Greyson’s medicine?”
Luke and Logan paced us, Luke pointing directions until I recognized where I was. It was only about nine thirty, but either the sidewalks were rolled up for the night or we were really lucky, because nobody was out to see.
Or maybe the town sensed the trouble in the air.
“Hopefully Strigorul has the antidote on him. We all need Elias—”
“Greyson.”
“Rey.” I said it gently, trying to prepare her. “If you won’t believe me, believe Logan and
the rest. That man isn’t a man. He’s Kai Elias, and he’s an ancient vampire.”
“The Ancient One,” Ryker intoned, ruining it with a snort. “As if he’s the only one.”
“Maybe he’s the only one who matters,” I shot back.
“Ow,” he said mildly. Hardison gave a soft chuckle.
“You’re both being absurd.” Steel was in Rey’s voice. “He’s Greyson.”
“Fine, Greyson.” I shook my head. My sister could out-stubborn a rock. The truth would be inescapable, once he was himself. I could only be there to pick up the pieces. “We all need him returned to normal, for different reasons. If Strigorul has the antidote on him, we’re golden. If he doesn’t—”
“You have a lead on it?”
Glancing at Hardison, I decided it wouldn’t hurt if the Alliance knew. “A partial shipping label.”
“My token of apology.” Ryker brightened. “Does this mean I’m forgiven?”
I sliced him a glare. “We’ll get to that later, bubby.”
“Ah.” The syllable was mournful. “I have regressed to the despised ‘bubby.’”
I had to laugh. Then I got serious. “Rey, there is no ‘we’ in this. Umbra is too dangerous for you to come with me.”
“Don’t be silly. Who’ll drive?”
“He might not be in the US,” I said quickly.
“Even more reason for me to go,” she retorted. “How far do you think you’ll get if you don’t speak the language?”
“Hell.” Reaching my flat, I pulled to the curb and turned in my seat to face her, needing to understand. “Why do you care so much?”
“Greyson is one of the few really nice people out there, Kat. He’s a sweet fellow, and I like him. I want to get his medicine, so he feels better.”
“Fine.” I was pretty sure there was more to it, but if we were lucky, we’d find the antidote in Strigorul’s fatigues and that’d be the end of it. “Let’s get us some weapons.”
Ryker unfolded to his full height outside the car. “Wait here a moment. I’ll go make sure the place is safe from Strigorul’s goons.”
