“Viper and Joe?” Navarro asked, keeping his voice pitched low as they crept softly through the grass, staying close to the bricked side of the mansion.
“Circling behind them. I sent Emmy for take-out half an hour ago. It’s just the four of us.”
“How many did you count?”
“Twelve, and they’re loaded for bear—AK-47s and Kevlar.”
“Dr. Deats and his friends?”
“Already below.”
Navarro hoped Inigo and Moses wasted no time getting Sidney there as well.
He reached the corner and peered around at the front of the house. He made out the shadowy silhouettes of three intruders and signaled to Dylan behind him before darting to the cover of a tree.
When the men passed within feet of him, Navarro rushed out and aimed a kick at the man nearest him, knocking away his weapon. When the vampire swung his fist, Navarro pushed up his arm and shoved one stake deep into the man’s armpit, straight into his chest cavity.
While dust and clothing fell to the ground, Navarro was already flying at the next intruder.
A pitched battle, punctuated by bright, staccato bursts of machine gun fire and the enraged howls from the young soldiers, erupted on the grounds. The vampires, encumbered by their flak jackets and heavy armaments, and handicapped further by their full transformations, were quickly picked off by Navarro’s much smaller and cunning force. Within minutes, Zachary’s soldiers had been halted from breaching the front door of the house.
As he tackled his last adversary, it niggled the back of his mind that this attack had been too easy to quell. With his knee pressed into the center of a younger vampire’s back, Navarro grasped the webbed harness of his machine gun, yanked it free from the weapon, then wound it around the his neck. With a quick snap, he pulled off the vampire’s head.
Navarro bounded from the sooty pile of clothing and shouted, “To the house. They’ve breached the house!”
*
With the sounds of muffled gunfire in the distance, Sidney chewed a fingernail as Moses turned on the monitors lining the long console, one by one. Moses had given her the Cliffs Notes version of what was going down. Sidney was too scared at the moment to be furious with Navarro—but later, she’d have a bone to chew.
“Damn, your man’s got some fine equipment,” Moses said, as the yard surrounding the mansion came into view. “He’s got infrared cameras pointed at the grounds.”
It took a moment for Sidney to understand what she was seeing—thermographic images of heads suspended above swinging arms and legs, engaged in pockets of fighting with four more recognizably human shapes. “Why can’t we see their torsos?”
“Oh my. They must be wearing body armor,” Dr. Deats said from behind her.
“Flak jackets, sugar.”
“Why aren’t our guys wearing them?”
“Looks like they’re doin’ fine without ’em,” he murmured as one after another of the torso-less figures disappeared from the screens.
Sidney began to breathe easier, and then she noticed monitors with interior views of the house, the living room, entryway, her bedroom—
“Superior hearing, my ass!” she muttered.
The last was a view into the darkened kitchen. Shadows streaked through the room, approaching the basement door, moving so fast their actions blurred.
“Inigo, the cellar door’s locked, right?” she asked, horror tightening her throat as one figure paused at the door and pressed something over the keypad lock.
“We got company?” Moses asked, his glance whipping toward her monitor. “Holy shit! Everyone take cover!”
Just as Moses knocked her to the ground and covered her head to toe, a loud explosion rocked the room.
*
“Dammit! A fucking diversion!” Dylan shouted from behind him.
Navarro didn’t voice his horror. Sidney was standing right in Zachary Powell’s path. His heart thudded like a slow drum beat. He charged through the entry, not bothering with the knob. He knocked the door off its hinges.
When the blast hit, it tossed him backwards, into Viper and Dylan who’d been close on his heels.
“The bastard’s in the basement!” He scrambled to his feet and ran toward the back of the house.
Viper tackled him in the hallway and held him pinned to the ground. “Think, man! He’s already inside. If you charge into that room, there won’t be anybody left.”
Navarro rolled with him, fighting to get free, also fighting the monster screaming inside his head for release.
“Think! We can’t take him inside that room. We have to wait.”
“But Sidney—”
“From what I’ve seen, she’s a smart girl,” Viper said, his voice low and urgent, “but she doesn’t stand a chance if we go barreling in there.”
“Son of a bitch, get off me!”
“Dammit, Navarro!”
Navarro grew still beneath him. “I understand. We wait. But get the fuck off me.”
Viper rose and stepped to the side.
Navarro rolled to his knees, his head low to the floor. This was his fault. His arrogance had placed her in danger. Goddamn, it couldn’t be happening again. He wouldn’t lose her. He jumped to his bare feet and ran out the entryway.
They’d meet Zachary in the garden.
*
Zachary Powell was scarier than his brother. He had the look of a stone-cold killer—movie-star perfect features, empty ice-blue eyes, and a smile filled with jagged, white teeth. His mahogany hair fell to his shoulders—his bare shoulders. Unlike the rest of his team of murderers, he was shirtless.
Sidney, clutching Navarro’s silky robe closed, took a precious moment to ponder that anomaly. It wasn’t likely he’d been woken in the middle of the night.
He tugged open her robe from her clenched fingers, and his gaze raked over her. Then he leaned close and inhaled. “Sidney Coffey, the ‘News at Nine’ girl. So, you’re Navarro’s woman. How delicious!”
The way he drawled the last two words had Sidney’s stomach lurching.
He nodded to one of the younger vamps with him. “She comes with us.”
The young vampire grinned and motioned for her to precede him.
Fighting panic, Sidney closed her robe and cast a desperate glance behind her as she was forced through the wine cellar. There’d be no rescue forthcoming from there—Moses lay in a bloody heap on the floor. The blast had knocked him unconscious.
The three scientists, prodded with machine guns at their backs, followed behind.
With the monitors laying in pieces on the floor, she didn’t know whether rescue awaited them above. At the moment, she only hoped that Navarro had survived.
Once up the stairs, Sidney slipped on the tiled kitchen floor. Moisture beneath her feet had her steps sliding. Had Inigo mopped earlier?
No, even in the dark she could see her dark, smeared footprints. She’d cut her feet.
Her captor shoved her from behind, “Keep moving!”
She stumbled into the garden, feeling no relief from the fact the gunfire had ceased, and the sound of distant sirens meant the police were on the way. Her life could be ended by the time they made it to Navarro’s estate. She shivered as a gust of cool wind whipped at the edges of her robe.
Ahead, Zachary and his young vampires moved faster, exiting the garden, spreading out as they headed to the far wall—ironically, toward the very place she’d begun her wild adventure.
Sidney placed one leaden foot in front of the other, wishing she could stall, hoping for a glimpse among the trees of one particular tall, dark, shadow.
A blur from the corner of her eye bled from one tree to the next. Sidney’s heart beat faster.
Suddenly, rapid movements, panicked shouts, the crack of fists on flesh—so many wonderful occurrences, her mind couldn’t fathom what was happening. Only her heart knew it meant—Navarro!
He leapt past her and swept her escort away. A groan sounded then a cloud of dark dus
t powdered her as it was caught by the wind.
Navarro shoved her roughly to the ground, and Sidney stayed, her hands clutching the grass to anchor her there. She closed her eyes tight and prayed, promising a month of Sunday confessions, a hefty tithe—true contrition—if only God would spare Navarro.
And she shut out the sounds of more gunfire, violent curses and blows—and a sharp flap, like a sheet hanging from a clothesline on a windy day.
Huh?
Sidney stared upward as Zachary Powell extended his arms from his sides. The streetlamp from the opposite side of the wall cast him in silhouette as he transformed into his frightful vampire persona—bony facial armor, expanding muscle and sinew—and wings that sprouted from his back and shoulders and elongated as they unfurled.
With a roar that sent a chill down her spine colder than any Arctic wind, he flapped his enormous wings and rose in the air. He cast one malevolent glance down to someone behind her, turned sharply in midair, and flew out of sight of those left gaping from behind the estate’s wall.
Hands grasped her waist and pulled her up to stand. She wavered, and an arm slipped around her. She glanced up to meet Navarro’s dark gaze. “I’m okay,” she said. “The others?”
“Fine.” The word was terse, biting. Then he dipped down and swung her up into his arms. “You’re bleeding. I smell blood.”
“My feet. It’s only my feet.” She realized her lips trembled, and her jaws chattered together. She’d forgotten it was cold outside.
Dylan O’Hara halted in front of Navarro. “What the fuck was that?”
“Let’s get inside. The police are pulling through the gates now.”
Sidney lay her head on his shoulder, suddenly so exhausted she hadn’t the energy to demand her own explanation for the creature she’d watched ascend into the sky.
When she’d rested, Navarro had a lot of explaining to do.
*
After Navarro deposited Sidney in her bedroom, leaving a shaken Inigo to care for her cut feet, he gathered with the members of his team in his study—less Viper, whose reputation with the law was just shy of reprehensible. Moses Brown, bruised and bandaged, ran roughshod over the forensics team gathering evidence for their home invasion investigation from the grounds and the basement.
For the moment, disaster had been averted.
“So, are you going to explain to us what we saw?” Dylan asked, his hands cupping a snifter of brandy as he sat in the chair opposite Navarro.
Emmy perched on the arm of his chair beside him, unusually subdued. She still pouted she’d missed all the excitement.
The three scientists, their faces alight with giddy excitement, sat on the sofa. Joe Garcia stood before the fire, his back to the room.
Navarro’s jaw tightened. “What you saw was a born vampire.”
Joe’s back stiffened.
Dylan cursed. “Nicky Powell sired his brother—they were both originally human. What you’re saying is impossible.”
“So it would seem.” Navarro steepled his fingers together and stared at Joe Garcia’s back. “I think we’ve grossly underestimated Zachary’s progress on the genetic engineering front. I think he’s already tried gene splicing. I believe what we witnessed was a successful test.”
“Excuse me,” Dr. Deats held up his hand. “As I do have some expertise in this area, may I speak?”
Navarro nodded, giving the man the floor.
“There are many problems with that theory. First, I don’t believe anyone currently working in the field has reached the degree of sophistication it would require to accomplish such a feat. While we’ve spliced genes to create larger, faster growing salmon and have crossed flounder genes with tomatoes so that tomatoes can grow at lower temperatures—we’ve done this at the conception of an organism, not to a fully developed one.”
“Vampires are nearly immortal because all our cells regenerate while we sleep,” Dylan murmured. “But for there to be any splicing between a born and a sired vampire, doesn’t there have to be a DNA donor? Who among us has even met a born vampire?”
Joe Garcia whipped around to face the room. “Fuck! What this means is someone has already breached our security in Vero Beach. Lily had fluids drawn from the sac surrounding our babies in her womb for testing—”
“An amniocentesis test,” Emmy said, her eyes growing wide. “It could have been lifted from the doctor’s office or the lab. But, dammit, the doctor’s one of us. A vampire!”
“For the right price…” Dylan murmured.
“I presume we can thank Nicky Powell for that,” Navarro said softly. “And now, Zachary will be even more eager to retrieve your breeder.”
“We have to get back,” Joe said, his fists clenched, his face a mask of dawning horror. “How fast can your plane be ready?”
Navarro rose. “I’ll have Inigo notify the hangar. I have to pack.”
*
Sidney awoke in the darkness, more rested than she had felt in days. She lay in Navarro’s guest room, in the bed where she’d discovered a passion she’d never known, where she’d surrendered her heart. At last.
But where was the master vampire who’d accomplished the impossible? She rose, stepping gingerly to the floor, but found her feet weren’t the least bit sore. Was that Navarro’s doing? Sweet man. She’d been so out of it the night before, she had only hazy memories of his hands stroking over her body while she lay in the warm circle of his arms, her cheek resting on his broad chest as she’d drifted into dreamless sleep.
She found the clothing she’d removed the previous evening folded neatly over a chair and dressed. Then she went in search of the others.
Inigo was in the kitchen, pouring hot water into a teapot. At the sounds of her approach, he slowly raised his head and gave her a kind smile. “It took nearly the whole day to clean up the dust and broken pottery. I was just making tea for you.”
“Thanks, Inigo, but I need to find Navarro.”
His smile faded, and his eyes softened with concern. “My dear, he’s gone.”
She stilled. Gone? “But, he didn’t even say goodbye.” As Sidney’s heart plummeted, the kitchen door opened.
Moses stepped inside. His mouth stretched into a lopsided smile. “Your vampire’s at his hangar, gettin’ ready to leave your ass here. Whatcha gonna do about it?”
*
The tires of Moses’s police vehicle squealed as he came to a stop outside Navarro’s private airplane hangar. The doors of the hangar stood open, but the bright lighting inside revealed it was empty.
Sidney released her death grip on the dashboard and fumbled for her seatbelt.
Moses shoved her hands away and unclipped it. “Now, go!”
“But he’s already gone,” she said, trying to curb the wail building inside her.
He shook his head. “Man, you got it bad. The plane’s over there,” he said, gripping the top of her head to turn her gaze.
A small jet sat on the tarmac as a crew with clipboards checked off the pre-flight list.
Her breath rushed out.
“I’d bet anything he’s still in the hangar’s office,” Moses said softly.
Sidney swung her gaze back to him. How could she tell a dear friend and lover thank you for helping her throw herself at another man?
Moses’s eyes were moist. “All I can say is he better be worth it.”
Sidney cupped the side of his face with her palm. “Thanks, Moses, for being my friend.”
His smile didn’t hide his wince. “Just be happy, sugar.”
Sidney dropped her hand and stared at the hangar. “He might just throw me back. He made no promises. And he’s never said he loves me.” There, she’d voiced her worse fears aloud.
“You’ll never know, unless you get your ass inside there.”
She swung her gaze back to him. “Will you wait for me, just in case?”
“He won’t throw you back.” His eyes were soft as melted chocolate. “But I’ll wait.” He reached across
her and opened her door. “Now, go!”
She smiled and stepped out of the sedan, then walked on shaking legs to the hangar. Once she passed the door, she blinked at the brightness, but followed the low murmur of masculine voices to an office at the side of the building.
Emmy O’Hara saw her first, and a pleased smile curved her lips. “Knew he was forgetting something,” she murmured.
The room went silent as all gazes turned to Sidney.
Her cheeks warmed under their stares. How embarrassing. Would everyone be there to witness his brush-off? Sidney struggled for a moment, fighting the panic fluttering in her belly.
Then Dylan and Joe stepped to the side, and Navarro appeared in her line of vision. Tall, dark and dead—dressed in that killer leather trench coat. She remembered how he’d left her inside his big old house without so much as a goodbye and lifted her chin. “Mister, you still owe me a story.”
“It’s time to board the plane,” he said, his gaze never leaving hers.
The room emptied around them in moments, and the office door shut quietly behind them.
Sidney wished she had an ounce of Navarro’s eerily accurate intuition. Then she’d know whether that dark, broody stare meant he was irritated with her being there, or if he was struggling for just the right words—just like she was. “Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?” she asked, knowing the question revealed her hurt.
“I wanted you safe. I thought it best.”
“Did you think I’d make a scene? Beg you to take me with you? If you recall, I told you I had no expectations—and we didn’t promise each other anything.” But she’d had hopes. Hopes that were crumbling into dust the longer she stood there, feeling foolish and knowing she wore her disappointment on her face. “It just wasn’t very polite.”
“I’m sorry.”
Sidney turned from his piercing gaze and stared out the glassed window in the office door. “So that’s your polite? Apology accepted,” she whispered and reached for the doorknob.
The air whooshed behind her, and Navarro’s body pressed her to the door. “I wanted you safe,” he said, his voice a ragged whisper in her ear. “My arrogance almost got you killed.”
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