by Trina M. Lee
Ignoring my interruption, he continued. “Option one: I take one of you in as my prisoner and try to convince Winston to let me back in. Option two: Split up. One group creates a distraction while the other—”
My laughter was immediate. “Is that a joke? We tried the prisoner thing, remember? You fucked me over.”
“You’re right.” He didn’t bother with an apology. We’d both know it was fake. “So then you take me in. Hand me over to Winston. I’m sure you’ll both love that.”
I pointed a finger in his face, backing him up against the truck. “I don’t trust you.”
“Wait,” Shaz broke in. “Maybe we should do the prisoner thing. With me. I’m part of Doghead. It would make sense for him to bring me in as a way to get his job back.”
“Not a chance. We can’t trust him. There’s no way we’re putting any of us in his hands.” Still dangerously close to Briggs, I bared fangs, snapping the air in front of his face. “Try anything to screw us over, and I will bleed you slowly.”
He tensed, muscles tight beneath his jacket. It took more than a vampire pressed against him baring fangs to make Briggs afraid. He was wary though. His breath came just a little bit faster.
“This is getting us nowhere,” Arys stated the obvious. With a hand on my arm, he tugged me back from Briggs’s face. “I say we save the distraction. Shaz should go in with Briggs as his prisoner. Worst case scenario, it doesn’t work. We’ll fight our way out, and then Briggs dies.”
“That would ruin the element of surprise, but it’s a chance I’m willing to take.” Shaz crossed his arms and waited for my argument.
Arys edged closer to him and not so subtly breathed in his wolfish scent. “It’s a worthwhile risk. I think it’s the best way. What do you think, Alexa?”
“Nobody is going in as Briggs’s prisoner.” Although Arys had an annoying tendency to be right about most things, I was putting my foot down on this one. “He threw me into the sun to fry. He can’t be trusted. I say we go with the distraction. If it backfires, then we blow the fucking place apart.”
I waited for someone to protest. Shaz and Arys exchanged a look that conveyed more than words, something they did a lot these days. Gabriel stood there being quiet but deadly, a sullen teenager on the outside, hiding the monster within. Briggs did his best to appear detached, staring at a group of smokers crowded near the entry. His expression said he was done with this, with us. He just wanted it over. Finally something we agreed on.
“The queen has spoken.” Arys nudged me with an elbow and snickered when I stomped his foot. “Gabriel and I will handle the distraction. Should be a breeze.”
Shaz seemed skeptical. Our eyes met and our wolves communicated with just a look. He nodded. “Alrighty then. Let’s go.”
* * * *
Patience was not a virtue of mine. I was ok with that. Although impatience had not served me well in the past. Even though I’d insisted on a distraction, I was uneasy as I watched from outside the fenced perimeter of the old haunted hospital. A massive evergreen tree provided a place for Briggs, Shaz, and me to wait without being seen.
Leaving the distraction itself to Arys and Gabriel made me nervous.
Lingering somewhere on the other end of the property, he waited for Gabriel to draw agents out of the building. When I’d asked the kid how he planned to do that, he merely smiled a secretive smile and told me he had something in mind.
Now I watched him slip from the shadows and glide to the exact spot where the door to Lilah’s evil empire was located. Although it remained sealed, the key destroyed, it made me nervous to watch the black magic vampire head right for it. I couldn’t hear it, but I knew the evil that lived in the land would be speaking to him, whispering obscenities and manipulative taunts in his ear. If he succumbed to it, we would have a whole new problem on our hands. The murmurs seemed to be worse inside, hence he wouldn’t be going in.
“What’s he doing?” Briggs asked, stinking of anxiety. Betraying your own people could do that to a guy.
“Watch and see.” Because I didn’t know Gabriel’s plan, I had no answer and no choice but to be ready. Just in case.
My body teemed with the energy I called forth. Always in the back of my mind lurked Hurst’s warning, and always I was ready to take Gabriel out the second he gave me a reason.
“Do you trust him?” There was no shutting up Briggs.
“About as much as I trust you.” After a moment of consideration, I added, “Scratch that. I trust him more. At least he’s proven himself. You haven’t. But this is your big chance.”
Briggs scoffed but said nothing. All three of us stared at Arys’s witchy prodigy. Waiting.
Gabriel sat cross-legged on the cold, hard ground. From his pocket, he produced an orange stone. Unable to see as well as Shaz and me, Briggs nagged us for details. I shushed him, trying to stay focused on both Gabriel and our surroundings.
The kid’s lips moved in a spell murmured so low I couldn’t hear the words. A blade flashed in his hand, a small knife, just big enough to drag across his palm. Spilling blood here didn’t seem like a safe activity. I tapped enough power to make my hair whip about my face. Maybe I didn’t trust Gabriel more than Briggs after all.
A rumble shook the earth beneath us.
Gabriel dripped blood onto the stone, his lips still moving. A spark shot up from the stone, high into the sky. It exploded like a firework, lighting up the night as it took form. A fiery phoenix hung in the sky above.
“Holy shit.” Shaz was amazed.
Though not nearly as much as Briggs. “Did you know he could do that?” he demanded, unable to tear his eyes from the flaming bird. “Is that fucking thing real?”
The damn thing appeared incredibly real. However, that was the point to such an illusion. “It’s magic, Briggs. Don’t go getting hard at the idea of doing experiments on that thing.”
With a great shriek that hurt my sensitive ears, the phoenix flapped its mighty wings, sending sparks down like a waterfall of fire. Gabriel gazed up at his creation with something like wonder, as if he couldn’t believe it either.
It didn’t take long for agents to pour out of the building. They came out in riot gear complete with shields, helmets, and weaponry. Laughter spilled from me, and I clapped a hand over my mouth to muffle it. Not that it would have distracted the Feds from the bird of fire. So easily the FPA were lured into letting their guard down. Big mistake.
“How many agents are here?” Shaz was in Alpha wolf mode, ready to spring into action.
Briggs seemed reluctant to tell us, but at my narrow-eyed glare, he said, “We started with about three-fifty. Currently there’s about a hundred. It’s hard to keep agents in this city.”
“They won’t all be here if some are out scouting for shifters and vampires to abduct. Looks to be at least sixty out there. How many should be on assignment?” I glanced at Briggs but couldn’t keep my eyes off that bird for long. It was just so outrageous.
Gabriel rose at the arrival of the Feds. With a flick of his wrist, he commanded the phoenix. It dive-bombed the cluster of agents, showering them with hot sparks. They huddled together in a group, shields raised.
“I don’t know. A dozen or more.” Briggs brazenly nudged me. “He’s not going to kill them, is he? I didn’t agree to that. These people are just doing a job to support their families.”
That got me turning on him with wolf fangs bared. “Oh, so you expect me to give a shit about your people when you can’t do the same for mine? I’d soak the ground in the blood of every last one of you if I wasn’t afraid it would feed the evil in this place.”
“Lex, come on. We have to be ready to move.” Shaz’s hand on my arm warmed my cool skin. “Tell Arys not to kill anyone he doesn’t have to.”
Most people would not have gotten away with telling me or Arys what to do and who not to kill. Shaz was not most people.
I reached out to Arys, mind to mind. ‘Don’t kill anyone unless you have to. Dist
raction. Not death.’
His disappointment came through strong. ‘So no fun at all?’
‘Take it up with our wolf. It’s his command.’ One might not think a smirk could be conveyed mentally, but I managed to pull it off.
‘Of course it is. Well, tell him I’ll do my best, but I’m not making any promises. Better get moving. We’re about to bump things up a notch. We’ll keep them busy until you’re out.’
Arys stepped into view. Gazing up at the phoenix, he nodded in approval. He and Gabriel positioned themselves on either side of the cluster of agents. Hands raised, they formed an arc between the two of them, their power meeting in the middle. It spread out to create a cage of energy. Those agents weren’t going anywhere.
The phoenix disappeared before it could draw the attention of residents living in the homes nearby. There was no way of knowing how many people were inside the building, but it was a safe bet the bird had drawn most of them out.
I turned to Briggs, waving my hands to get him moving. “Lead the way. And don’t fuck us over because the one person who has a chance of talking me down if I lose control in there has already punched you tonight.”
Briggs muttered, “Fan-fucking-tastic,” beneath his breath.
The hospital loomed like a silent monster in the night. We headed inside.
CHAPTER TEN
“Keep an eye out for Winston,” Briggs instructed as we approached the rear entry used by agents. “I didn’t see her out there.”
Keycard in hand, Briggs scanned the vicinity before he swiped it and shoved the door open. Any time I’d let myself in, I’d had no need for a keycard. The many entries on the ground level didn’t have much in the way of security. Keeping up the ruse of an abandoned building meant a lot of broken windows and decrepit points of entry. The real security started inside.
Stepping into the bedraggled old building was like entering another world. A world inhabited by disembodied spirits condemned to forever walk the halls, reliving their horrible lives and deaths. The building was in total disrepair, other than the top floor and the basement, both of which the FPA occupied. Every floor in between remained the rundown, rubble-filled mess it had been for decades.
The stories of hauntings in the former hospital had spread throughout the city. As creepy as those tales were, they didn’t come close to the true horror I’d witnessed within those walls.
I headed for the stairwell at the end of the hall. The abductees would be in the basement.
Briggs stopped me with a low, hurried protest. “We have to go up first, O’Brien. I have to get into the control room while everyone is outside and put the cameras on a loop. Our tech guy will be up there. I’m pretty sure I can trust him if I can get in there and explain the situation.”
I gaped at him, trying not to focus on the ghostly image of a woman drifting toward him from behind. “We don’t have time for that, Briggs. As long as Arys can keep everyone busy, it doesn’t matter if they see footage of us after we’re long gone. We need to know what they’re doing with everyone they’ve taken. I’ve got to find Dayne.”
“Speak for yourself,” Briggs hissed. “I don’t need video evidence of my betrayal by bringing you in here.”
“Is that right?” Shaz broke in, slapping uselessly at the ghost when she reached for him. “You kind of deserve it though after what you did with Alexa’s video.”
We so didn’t need to discuss that right now. “Can we please find Dayne and the others? That’s what we came here to do.”
Briggs shook his head. He seemed oblivious to the ghost, frowning as Shaz told it to back off. “I’m telling you we need to get into the control room. If they don’t know we were here, they also won’t be tipped off if you need to come back.”
He did have a point, although I still thought he was full of shit. “Forget it, Briggs. We’re going downstairs.” After some consideration, I handed him my phone. “Here. Call up there and talk to the guy.”
Grumbling obscenities beneath his breath, Briggs snatched the phone from my hand and strode on ahead to the locked basement door. He paused to swipe the keycard before punching numbers into the phone. There was a thud as the deadbolt slid back, allowing us entry.
The dimly lit stairway spiraled down into darkness. I’d come in this way once before, so I rushed ahead, wary of wasting the little time we had. Shaz shoved Briggs along behind me, trapping him between us.
“Andy.” Relief filled Briggs’s tone. “I need a favor. You’ve got to trust me on this one.”
I listened as Briggs hurried to explain the situation, including that he didn’t believe Winston to be on the up and up. From what I could hear, Andy hadn’t seen her tonight. She might not have shown up yet.
The stairs led to the morgue, which I skipped after little more than a cursory glance inside. The basement was a maze. There were several points of entry and a fuck-ton of intersecting halls, which made it easy to get lost. However, I knew the interrogation room lay ahead, so that was where I started.
“He’ll loop the cameras but only for fifteen minutes.” Briggs handed the phone back, a sour expression on his face. “The only reason he’s helping is because Winston threatened to cut his pay last week when he asked for a sick day to take care of his kid.”
“Then I guess we’d better hurry.” Stuffing the phone in the side of my boot, I sprinted down the hall.
In my ear, I heard a familiar voice say, ‘I knew you would be back, lost wolf. I’ve been waiting for you.’ A chill stole over me, freezing me the way the cold night had been unable to.
Doing my best to ignore the evil voice, I pushed on, slowing when we drew close. Large double doors with windows allowed us a peek inside. It looked as it had before. Steel chairs with restraints and torture devices laid out on tables filled the room. It was eerily quiet other than the ragged breathing of the room’s one occupant.
Black hair matted with blood clung to his forehead. Crimson stains marked the white muscle shirt he wore. Tattoos lined his arms, drawing my gaze to the Doghead moon on the side of his neck.
“Owen.” I flung the door open, trusting Shaz to keep an eye on Briggs. Rushing to the injured wolf, I reached for the titanium cuff holding his wrist in place.
The scent of his blood hit me like a brick in the face. Sudden and overwhelming, the bloodlust grabbed hold of me, sparking a ravenous fire in my belly while filling my mind with black desires. The evil entity laughed in my ear.
Owen lifted his head to find me leaning over him with hunger blazing in my blue vampire eyes. Bruises colored his face a mottled black and purple. His energy buzzed with pain and pent up rage that seduced me. Fresh blood dripped from his lip to run down his chin. I had to taste him.
“Alexa, stop.” A hand on each of my arms jerked me back as Shaz stepped in. He swung me around, shoving me several feet back.
“What the fuck, O’Brien?” Briggs took my place in front of Owen. He observed the wolf’s pupils before putting a finger on his neck to check his pulse. “You’ve got problems, woman. Seriously. Goddamn vampires.”
I held tight to Shaz, fighting to center myself despite staring at his jugular like a starving animal. “It’s this fucking place. It gets inside my head.”
Holding me at arm’s length, Shaz shook me, forcing me to meet his gaze. “Don’t lose yourself in here, Lex. I need you to keep it together. You can do this. I know you can.”
A battle raged inside me, dark versus light. Fighting back the bloodlust proved difficult because it felt so damn good to give in.
“I can’t decide which of you I want the most,” I said, sounding more like Arys than myself. He’d said something similar when the evil here had its way with him.
“Keep yourself together until we get out of here, and you can have your way with me until we’re both walking on clouds.” With both hands on either side of my face, Shaz drew me close, brushing his lips against mine. “I’m here. I’m your anchor. Cling to me.”
My anchor. The keyst
one Willow had created, changing Shaz’s life forever, binding him to Arys and me in a way that never should have been.
“Are you alright? Do you think you can stand if we get these things off you?” Briggs asked Owen. “Can you tell us what’s been going on here?”
Finding Owen was a good sign. I could do this. I had to. Sliding a hand down Shaz’s arm, I slid my fingers between his, holding tight.
“Thank you,” I whispered, drawing on his warm, wolf essence to beat back the darkness.
“What the fuck does it look like?” Owen snarled, spitting blood. “This is what happens when you fight back instead of being a good little lab rat.”
That redirected my focus. “Where’s Dayne? What’s been going on?”
“I haven’t seen Dayne in days. Not since we ambushed a few guards. They separated us.” His brown eyes solid wolf, Owen spat the words out through wolf fangs.
Briggs looked to me expectantly. “I can’t get these shackles off without keys. Time to put that vampire strength to use. And hurry up. Clock’s ticking.”
Trying to tear the things off would be pointless when I could manipulate the lock. Damn, if Briggs didn’t already know I could do such a thing, he would now.
Still holding onto Shaz, I approached Owen, slow and careful. The bloodlust lurked like a shadow, waiting for its chance to ensnare me again. Somehow, I held it at bay.
My free hand hovered over a shackle. Focusing my intent, a little push of power turned the lock. No key needed.
“Well, aren’t you surprisingly handy?” Briggs’s remark was accompanied by an approving head nod.
I targeted the second metal cuff. “Don’t go getting any ideas, Briggs. I’m not a supernatural Swiss Army knife. I won’t be a tool for you.”
“It’s just nice to know what you’re really capable of.”
Shaz released my hand to help Owen up.
The big wolf took a tentative step before collapsing back into the chair. His hand went to his ribs, and his breath came fast and raspy. “Fuck.” Owen spat more blood. “I think I have a punctured lung.”
