by Karin Harlow
“I don’t like the proximity of the grand ballroom to the outside,” Jax said to Marcus. “It’s too deep, with absolutely no chance of getting the colonel out in the open sun.”
“It doesn’t matter. The storm clouds will protect him enough so he can move around outside. He’ ll get a little warm under the collar, but it will be tolerable.”
“Damn weather,” she muttered.
Marcus reached down and squeezed her hand. “We don’t need the weather’s cooperation. We’ ll get the colonel regardless.”
Jax nodded. She refused to entertain the slightest thought of defeat. Lazarus had to die. He was more dangerous than a nuke. Fifteen minutes later, everyone assembled in a staff room for a briefing.
“We’ re going to divide into two teams,” Godfather said. “Cross, you’ re in charge of Team One. Take half the men here.” Godfather looked at Jax. “You’ re with me on Team Two.”
“She’s with me,” Marcus said, his voice implacable.
Godfather didn’t move a muscle. “I said she’s with me.”
“Not tonight. I know the target,” Marcus reasoned. “If we have any chance at all, we’ ll need the combined forces of Jax and myself. Split us up and you dilute the alpha team.”
Godfather was macho, he was stubborn and he was always the one in charge, but he wasn’t stupid. Jax knew he wouldn’t sacrifice a man for his ego. He nodded. “Point taken. Be sure you keep your com on. Now,” he said, turning to encompass everyone, “Team One will go up and replace the posted Secret Service. Cassidy and Cross, I want both of you in the room with Bond and his decoy. Team Two, we’ ll take care of the perimeter and Calhoun. There’s no sense in looking for trouble; trouble is going to find us. At the appropriate time, Team One will escort the decoy senator and his wife to the ballroom. When Lazarus makes his move, we’ ll be going out the back door with the real Bond.”
“And if Team One fails to bring down the mark?” Gage asked.
“Then we take both senators and run like hell for sunlight.” Godfather looked at Marcus. “Is there anything you’d like to add?”
“Trust no one. Lazarus has the ability to kill instantly and take his victim’s form just as fast.”
“Is there any way we can tell the difference?” Godfather asked.
“No. Only coven blood can detect coven blood.” Marcus looked to Jax. “Ready?”
“I’m ready.”
“Then let’s go.”
Marcus took point and Jax took up the rear. Between them, they had four highly trained armed men, including Gage. Jax’s senses were on high alert. She didn’t take one smell or sound for granted. As they approached the service elevator, Jax sensed a change in Marcus. And immediately knew why.
Furies.
The furies swarmed them from all sides, their lethal fangs and claws slashing through the air as they screamed their hair-raising battle cry.
“Down!” Jax ordered. The L.O.S.T. team formed a Roman turtle in the corner while Jax and Marcus protected the front. Standing back to back, Jax withdrew her double mini silver scythes while Marcus bared his hands.
They hit.
She kept her stand and, as one flew around Marcus, she crisscrossed her arms in a high slashing motion, hacking the furie into pieces. Its screeches sent shivers down her spine as her blade severed its jugular. It fell silent when its head hit the floor.
Another descended from the ceiling. She lunged upward to do it in but was pulled back by the quick strength of Marcus’s hand. She returned to safety beside him.
“No separation, Jax,” he said softly. Even so, she heard his voice above the din of the battle. As the creature dropped toward them, she thrust her swords into its belly, yanked them free, and made hash out of it.
Another one crawled along the ceiling. She waited a heartbeat for it to drop, then reached high and cut it in half. She cursed when she saw two of them heading for her team. They battled back, shooting the vamps with their silver-tipped wooden bullets. They fell dead to the floor.
The three remaining furies bunched together and exited as quickly as they had materialized.
“We good?” Marcus asked, turning around to face Jax and her men. She watched as the body parts began to smoke, then catch fire and burn out.
“Jesus,” Gage said.
“Jesus has nothing to do with them,” Jax said. She hit the elevator button and the doors opened. Marcus allowed the L.O.S.T. operatives to enter first, followed by Jax. She turned to make room for Marcus just as the doors abruptly slammed shut. “Damn—”
“Jax!” Marcus yelled through the closed doors even as the elevator car rose unusually fast.
“What happened to Cross?” Gage asked as the car raced upward.
“Lazarus. He has control of the car.” And Marcus was alone. And vulnerable.
The car abruptly stopped. Jax looked up to the escape hatch. She jumped and punched it open, then climbed onto the top of the car. They were between floors. She moved to the edge of the car, reached up to the doors and pulled. They didn’t budge.
“Gage,” she called. “Get up here.”
He scrambled up. “Get the other side and pull.” The door cracked open. She wedged her scythe in and pushed with her foot. Slowly, it opened enough for her to shimmy through.
As she stood, she froze. She didn’t know if she should laugh with happiness or cry in despair.
Shane stood smiling in front of her.
She shook her head and he stepped closer.
“It’s me, Jax.”
“How?” No way could he be standing in front of her after the wounds he’d suffered. It would have taken months to recover.
“Aelia,” he grinned. “She saved me.”
He looked like Shane, sounded like Shane. Had Aelia saved him? Why? How? When?
He took her hand. “It’s OK. I guess Lazarus called for her. She saw what he did and I don’t know why, but she got really pissed off and she bit me. I’m like Marcus now, Jax. I’m here to help.”
“A vampire?” His hand was cool, clammy. She pulled hers away, not sure. . . .
He smiled, his deep aqua-colored eyes shining bright. “Yes. It hurt like hell, but I’m healed.”
“Jesus Christ,” Gage said from behind her as he shimmied through the opening.
Shane’s smile waned just a fraction, and Jax caught it.
Shit, she thought, remembering Marcus’s words. Trust no one.
“We thought you bought the farm,” Gage said, moving closer.
“I’m doing just fine, mate, as you can see.”
Marcus materialized from behind Gage. “Stand back,” he said to Shane.
Shane did what he was told, even raising his hands in compliance. “I’m not here to hurt anyone. I’m here to help.”
Marcus strode slowly toward them. He caught Jax’s gaze and inclined his head for her to move away.
She took Gage’s hand and drew him with her to the other side of the hall. A new scent began to assail her nose. Faint yet detectable.
“What is the name of the man who heads up your organization?” Marcus asked Shane.
When Shane hesitated one heartbeat too long, Marcus dove at him.
Lazarus! He’d taken Shane’s form. And that could only mean one thing.
Shane was dead.
As Marcus and Lazarus tumbled down the hall, Jax charged after them. Lazarus leapt up to the ceiling, reached down and plucked Jax from the floor. He kicked Marcus hard in the chest, sending him tumbling backward. Jax pulled her scythe. Lazarus laughed and swatted it out of her hand.
“You are nothing compared to me,” Lazarus growled, then hurled out the window with her clutched to his chest.
THIRTY-THREE
Marcus had thought he could never be more frantic than when the elevators had closed, separating him from Jax. He’d been wrong. Seeing Lazarus dive through the window with Jax was almost enough to paralyze him, but he shook it off.
His job was no longer to protect Bond but to
eliminate Lazarus. Swiftly. Once and for all.
He gave immediate chase.
Marcus hurled himself down the elevator shaft, knowing Lazarus would go to the bowels of the building. In less than an hour, it would be dawn.
“Alpha leader,” Godfather called in Marcus’s earpiece. “What’s going on?”
“Lazarus has taken Shane’s form and he has Jax. I’m in pursuit.”
“Jax,” Marcus softly said, knowing that even though Lazarus had her she would still have her com on. “Can you hear me?”
“I can hear you loud and clear, Marcus,” Lazarus sneered.
Marcus’s heart skipped several beats. “A trade,” he said. “Her for me.”
“Why make a trade when I can have you both?”
“I’ ll hunt you down and stake you in the Sahara if you harm one hair on her head.”
Lazarus laughed. “Fear not, my friend, it’s the neck, not the head, I fancy.” He laughed again and sighed in exaggerated contentment. “I never thought I’d live to see the day when you’d pine over a woman, and a mortal one to boot. A mortal until dawn, anyway. Then I will turn her or she will die in the process. And she will belong to me.” Lazarus laughed demonically. “As a furie. How will it feel when I give her the kill command for you, Marcus? How will it feel when your enemy lover is stalking you to the death?”
“What do you want?” Marcus bit out.
“I want Bond. You have fifteen minutes to tell me you have him or I cut your girl’s heart out.”
“And when I have him?”
“You’ ll have to wait to find out.”
Marcus turned off his mic and hurried back to the Wardman Tower and Godfather.
He strode angrily down the hall of the penthouse floor where the senators and Godfather were.
“I heard it all,” Godfather said.
“I want Bond,” Marcus demanded.
“I can’t do that, Cross,” Godfather said, stepping in front of the senator’s door.
“If you don’t move, I’ ll kill you and every one of your men here.”
“Where is Lazarus?”
“Move aside.”
“I want Jax as much as you do, Cross—” Godfather began.
Marcus grabbed him by the throat and shoved him hard against the door, lifting him off the floor. “No. You don’ t.”
Marcus felt the press of Godfather’s team behind him. He didn’t want to hurt them, but he would. Godfather warned them off. He grabbed Marcus’s hands and pushed them away, but only because Marcus let him. He set Godfather down.
Godfather cleared his throat. “Let’s be smart about this, shall we?”
“We have less than ten minutes.”
“We’ ll use the decoy, but only if he gives his permission.”
“No decoy. Lazarus will know the difference. He’ ll kill Jax.”
“Take a look at the decoy before you say no. He’s a dead ringer,” Godfather said, then turned and knocked on the door to the senator’s room, where the decoy was also staying. He was gone for less than a minute.
The door opened and Godfather motioned Marcus in. He came face-to-face with two men who could pass for twins. Both tall, dark-haired, brown-eyed, almost nondescript. The kind of face that blended in. The only difference was two inches in height. From the dossier photos of Bond, Marcus guessed the one on the right was the real senator.
“Have either one of you met a Colonel Joseph Lazarus?” Marcus asked.
“I have not,” the Bond on the left said. His voice carried the same deep cadences as the voice samples Marcus had listened to.
“Nor have I,” the other Bond said. Remarkable. Virtually no difference. Since neither had ever met Lazarus, so much the better.
“Which one of you is the real senator?”
The man on the left stepped forward. Marcus looked to the decoy. “You fooled me.” He pulled a wooden stake from his inside jacket pocket and handed it to the decoy. “Find a place for this.” Then he handed him his Glock loaded with vampire-killing rounds. “Don’t use these unless Lazarus makes a threatening move on you. Aim for the heart. Now let’s go.”
As he strode down the hall with the decoy Bond in tow, Marcus turned the mic back on. “I have him.”
“Bring him to the ballroom. Come alone, Marcus. My friends don’t play well with others, and it’s my friends holding the girl.”
“Let me talk to her.”
“Not until I see Bond.”
“No proof of life, no Bond.”
“Marcus—” Jax cried out as Lazarus hit her.
Marcus cursed, knowing that if he didn’t beat Lazarus to the draw, Bond or not, Jax was dead. He killed his mic and cursed.
“We’ ll be right behind you,” Godfather said.
“No,” Marcus growled. “He’ ll kill her.” Lazarus was going to kill her regardless. “Let me get into the same room as him and then I’ ll eliminate him.”
For a long minute, Godfather didn’t say a word. Then he held out his hand. “I’m trusting you to bring my top operative home. Alive.”
Marcus looked down at the proffered hand and took it. “I will, sir.”
Then Marcus looked to the decoy. “Don’t be a hero. Don’t say a word, just follow my every command without hesitation. Do that and we’ ll all walk out of here alive.”
“I’m a retired ranger, son. I can handle myself,” the decoy said.
As they passed through the long glass corridor that connected the original tower to the newer hotel, Marcus noted that the rain had stopped. Between the clouds, the first blush of dawn began to rise.
That was good. More than good. It might give them the chance they’d need.
He walked purposefully through the main gathering area, then right toward the ballroom. The corridors were eerily quiet and the carpeted floors sucked up their footsteps. Only the far-off sound of vacuums disturbed the early morning hour. The doors to the grand ballroom were closed. Marcus selected the ones farthest to the right to enter. He paused for a moment and drew a deep breath through his nose. Jax was on the other side.
As they entered the dark room, Marcus could see it was already set up for the conference, with a stage at the far end, and rows upon rows of chairs and press stands.
The scent was becoming stronger. The lights flooded on with a harsh flash. The decoy blanched and pulled back. Marcus grabbed his shoulder and pulled him deeper into the room.
“That’s far enough,” Lazarus said from above him. Marcus looked up. Lazarus hung suspended from a light bar, Jax dangling from his right hand. Several furies stuck to the ceiling like bats around them.
Jax’s hands and feet were tied behind her back. He had immobilized her. “I’m going to kill you, Lazarus,” Marcus softly said.
His maker scoffed. “Then you kill yourself. You’ re willing to give up your life?”
“Yes.”
“For a woman?”
“For the woman.”
Lazarus sighed. “I can give you back your mortality, Marcus, and I will allow her to live.”
Until two weeks ago Marcus had thought the only thing he’d wanted had been the return of his mortal life. Now, he didn’t care about that. Only one life mattered to him at the moment. “In exchange for what?”
“You leave Bond and walk out of here and never look back.”
Lazarus had just shown his cards. Making the offer meant that Lazarus knew Marcus’s strength and knew it was enough to kill him. “No.”
“Let me remind you. Rurik is not only my creator; in our mortal lives we were of the same bloodline. He considers me his son. If I should fall by another’s hand, and you should survive this day, Rurik will make you beg for death.”
“I’m willing to take that chance.”
“There is no chance, Marcus! Betray your maker and pay with eternal torture. Destroy your maker and die the same death. It cannot be changed; it is our law, as well you know!” Lazarus shook Jax at him. “Why have you turned against me? Against The Solu
tion?”
“Because you are no better than a crazed fanatic. You have lost your perspective. Too many innocent lives have been lost for your personal causes. I want no part of it.”
“That is unfortunate, Marcus. I am on the precipice of my greatest triumph. The White House! I will rule the free world!” He threw Jax across the room, then swept down upon the decoy. Marcus leapt after her. She hit the wall with a sickening thud. Before he could reach out to her, the furies swarmed him like wasps on a mouse.
Marcus’s fury was so intense that all he could see was red. He rose up against the mercenaries, who were slashing and stabbing him with their fangs and claws. He didn’t feel any of it. Instead, he grabbed them and twisted them with his bare hands, tearing them apart limb by limb. Their blood splattered across his face and drenched his hands. In a wild frenzy, he destroyed them.
As they smoldered to dust on the carpet, he went to Jax. He pulled her into his arms. He felt her broken bones and damaged organs, but she breathed. “Jax,” he said gently, smoothing her hair from her face. “You’ re going to be all right.” He kissed her lips and rubbed his forehead against hers. He felt as if his heart was ripping in half. The overload of emotion he felt at that moment was indescribable. Never had he loved anything or anyone in his life. He was clueless to how that emotion was supposed to feel. But what he felt for Jax had to surpass even that. He could not bear her death and would gladly give up his life to preserve hers.
“If I were human, I would never let you go except to die for you. Again and again if I had to.” He kissed her again and said against her lips, “Good-bye.”
Then he turned on his mic and looked for Bond. Gone. Lazarus had him. “Godfather, I’m bringing Jax out, meet me in the main lobby.”
Marcus held her close to his chest, trying not to move her. She had hit the wall hard. He knew she was broken inside. He prayed the blood he had given her the night before would sustain her life until she could get to a hospital.
Reluctantly, Marcus handed her over to Gage. Marcus scowled, not liking the way the man took possession of her as if he had some right to her. Marcus shook off the jealousy. Maybe he did have a right to her. She would be better off with her own kind than with him. Marcus inhaled, then focused on what needed to be done.
