Illumination (The Penton Vampire Legacy Book 5)

by Susannah Sandlin

  “That wasn’t disapproval; it was envy. I wish I had done it myself.”

  Nik moved aside and let Cage step past him and trot down the steps. “Better it was me so you don’t have to live with it. For me, it was just business. We don’t leave loose ends.”

  Like Nik could ever forget his hatred of the guy. Before he closed the door, he looked around to see if there was anything finger-printable he or Robin had touched, other than the door. Not a problem for Cage, who’d technically died a prisoner of war in occupied Paris in the 1940s. Neither Nik nor Robin had criminal records, but he’d been fingerprinted when he joined the Army and he didn’t know about her.

  He used the hem of his black t-shirt to wipe down the doorknob inside and out, and took a swipe along the doorjamb where Robin had leaned.

  “His car’s disabled,” she said. “I wiped for prints, too.”

  “Let’s move.” Nik led the way to the SUV, senses on alert, scanning the few people still milling around outside a club called the Spiderweb. Nothing looked amiss.

  They got back in the SUV and he pulled out slowly. Last thing they wanted was to draw any attention. According to the dashboard clock, it was 4:10 a.m. It would take them about fifteen or twenty minutes to get back to the warehouse, say at 4:30 a.m. Then they had an hour at most before they needed to head back to the safe house, hopefully with the women in tow and no vampires nipping at their heels.

  Cage had been watching the clock too. “Think we can risk waiting until tomorrow at dusk? Simon Landry has to follow the rules of daysleep as well. We’ll be out of commission, but so will he.”

  “Or I could get the women out while you fangpires sleep the day away,” Robin said, leaning forward to insert herself between them from her backseat perch. “They’ll only have humans guarding them.”

  Nik thought about it. Robin could take down a human male, no problem. But who knew how many guards there would be. Jonathan Lachey was bonded to Simon Landry, so Simon would know he was dead or at least unconscious. Robin was shifter strong, but she was neither invincible nor immortal.

  “Let’s check it out first. If Jonathan got through to his master, then Simon could be barking out orders to have the women moved tomorrow by a platoon of humans. Plus, if we can take him out tonight, all the better.”

  “Agreed.” Cage shifted in the seat to face Nik. “So, what do you think you figured out from plundering in our Jonathan’s head?”

  Nik sifted through the images and snippets of conversation he’d gotten from the human. “Well, I don’t know if you noticed, but our friend back there was unvaccinated.”

  “Right, but bonded to Simon,” Cage said.

  “I think what they’re doing is using human males like Jonathan Lachey to impregnate unvaccinated women, then they’ll use the babies to…” He shook his head. Could they be so warped?

  “Oh, God, Gadget’s Internet chatter was right. They’re breeding their own human feeding pool.” Robin punched the back of the seat, hard enough to send a jolt through Nik’s spine.

  Cage looked at Nik. “Does that seem to go along with what you saw?”

  Damn it, yes. And Shay was one of their breeders.

  Chapter 15 * Shay

  Simon’s agitation hadn’t diminished; if anything, it had grown worse. Shay wasn’t sure if that was good or bad news for herself and the other women. For what seemed like at least a half hour since dispatching Marianne to some place in the Bywater neighborhood, he’d either been pacing circles around the sofa with his phone to his ear or sitting in the armchair that faced her, rubbing his temples and muttering to someone who wasn’t there. He’d said Jon’s name a couple of times.

  So, that had to be good news: anything that upset Simon had to be a positive, and if it involved injury to or a colossal screw-up by Jon, all the better for Shay. Sorry, baby. Your mother will turn back into a nice person soon.

  Right now, being a nice person would get her nowhere.

  The bad news: Simon would soon have company. He had finally gotten his shit together enough to call for help to cure whatever ailed him. Within a half hour, Marianne showed up again, full of attitude. She strode in with purpose.

  “Who set your pants on fire this time? What’s the problem?” She wore a long black leather coat, tall black leather boots, and a short red leather dress. It made Simon’s simple jeans, sweater, and sports coat look both human and plain.

  “Go to Jon’s house in the Marigny and see if he’s alive.” Simon’s tone was all business, his words clipped. “Call me when you get there.”

  “Isn’t your human stud bonded to you?” Marianne raised an eyebrow. Arrogance wafted around her like waves of heavy perfume, but Shay was finding arrogance and fangs to be the two things all vampires had in common.

  “Would I ask you to check on him if I could find the bond? It has been broken. Do as you’re told, Marianne. You might have your own little scathe in Atlanta now, but I’m still your boss.” Simon’s temper was on G and ready for O. “Jon’s either defected or he’s dead. I need to know which. If he’s dead, we have to do damage control before the human authorities get involved.”

  “You mean before you have to tell Frank Greisser there’s been another screwup. And I have to do your grunt work because…” Marianne clearly thought herself too important to be relegated to something as demeaning as tracking down a human.

  “Because you fucked up the chanced to kill Aidan Murphy in Atlanta, so your incompetence is already on Frank’s radar. Murphy was weak and ripe for killing, as you noted yourself. And yet he’s back in Penton, safe and sound, hiding behind that beast Mirren Kincaid.”

  “How could I know that freaky human psychic would be there and smart enough to escape our traps?” Marianne propped hands on her narrow hips.

  Shay stiffened at the words human psychic. They had to be talking about Nik Dimitrou. Had he shown up a night earlier than expected? She had mixed feelings about that. God knew she wanted to be rescued, but she didn’t want to see Nik hurt because of her, even if she had spent an unhealthy amount of time fantasizing about hurting him herself.

  “And where is Rocky?”

  “I left voicemail.” Marianne’s voice had a defensive edge.

  “Go. I’ll call him myself.”

  Marianne eventually left, grumbling, after which Simon placed a call. His side of the conversation was short and simple, and also sounded like a voicemail message since he didn’t allow time for a response: “I need backup at the warehouse. Weapons heavy. If it’s anyone unfamiliar, go for the kill.”

  For the next half hour or so, Simon sat and stared at Shay and Tina. They both lay on their beds. Shay was trying to look as small and helpless as possible while curled up so she could keep an eye on Simon. She didn’t like the feel of his gaze on her.

  A fluttering sensation in her belly caused her to gasp, and she raised a hand to rub her soon-to-be baby bump without thinking.

  She didn’t see Simon move, but suddenly he was outside the door of her cage. “What’s wrong?”

  Shay sat up, weighing the truth versus exaggeration. Given Simon’s mood, truth was probably best. “Nothing to worry about. Just a fluttering sensation, like maybe the baby is moving a little or, more likely, indigestion.” She was only a little over fifteen weeks along, so the roast beef po-boy was more likely to be moving than the baby.

  Simon’s mouth widened into a smile, however, his eyes turning a brighter blue. Like a proud father…or a wolf contemplating a juicy steak coming his way in a few months.

  Shay broke eye contact and curled back into a ball on her bed. If he got any wild notions about touching her to see if he could feel the baby, she’d fight him. She wanted his hands nowhere near her child. She didn’t care who donated the sperm, and she didn’t care what happened to Jon. This was her child.

  Simon would take the baby as soon as it was born, to use for food and breeding. She’d known that, but as she felt the possible first stirrings of life inside her, even if it mig
ht be indigestion, the reality of the game being played by Simon and his fanged buddies sank in for the first time. Sank in like Simon’s fangs had disappeared into Tina’s neck.

  I will die first. My baby will die before I allow them to touch her. The baby was a girl; Shay had decided Frank was right about that. They could tell freaky shit about human bodies, like when blood was moving to the surface of skin or a heartbeat sped up. And her baby girl would grow up free, or not at all. If that was the wrong moral choice, then too bad.

  Simon jerked his gaze from her and stared toward the far end of the warehouse. Shay followed his gaze to the middle set of high, narrow windows and only then did she hear the light tapping sound. Same as she’d heard at lunchtime when the observant eagle showed up. When he’d arrived earlier today, Eric had climbed on top of an empty cage and nailed a board over the open rectangle on the far left, where only a couple of glass shards remained.

  Thank God Shay’s cage was far enough from the window that Eric hadn’t felt the need to climb on top of her cage. He’d have fallen through her escape hatch and landed on her bed.

  The glass in the larger middle window burst inward, followed by a few deliberate pecks to get rid of remaining shards. A reddish-brown head with a dark gold, hooked beak appeared in the opening, looking around with bright interest before honing its gaze on Simon. The eagle gave a loud hiss and a high-pitched squawk.

  “Has to be that damned Penton eagle shifter,” Simon muttered, then spoke in a louder voice. “Robin Ashton, I know all about you. Where are your little Penton friends? What have you done with my familiar?” He eased a pistol from the pocket of his jacket.

  “The little bird has many friends, Simon Landry.” A voice, cultured and British and oh-so-calm, came from a dark, shadowed corner near the door. When had anyone come inside?

  Vampires were too damned sneaky and quiet.

  Shay sat up, adrenaline racing through her system at the sight of the handsome man that stepped out of the shadows. Make that handsome vampire. He was too perfect to be human, with caramel-colored hair that reached his shoulders and moss-green eyes glazed with gold. He also held a big-ass handgun, trained on Simon.

  Since she was in the direct line of fire, Shay moved to the corner of her cage nearest Tina. Tina joined her from her side of their shared wall, and they clutched fingers through the wire of the cage.

  “You must be the infamous traitor Cage Reynolds.” Simon backed toward the center of the warehouse, never taking his eyes from the newcomer or the aim of his gun. He seemed to have forgotten the eagle, which had managed to squeeze through the widest part of the middle window and perch on the inside of the sill.

  Wait. Simon’s words finally reached her brain. Eagle-shifter? Did that mean the eagle became something else? A robin? A person named Robin?

  “Sounds as if my old adversary Fen Patrick suffered from a severe case of loose lips.” Cage hadn’t moved. “Too bad we didn’t kill him when we had the chance.”

  “Tsk, tsk. Mr. Patrick spoke very highly of you. Well, until his neck suffered an unfortunate injury and his heart somehow sustained irreparable damage.” Simon grinned, a sight that sent chills along Shay’s arms. “I’m surprised you felt Penton safe enough for you to leave. Don’t tell me your pet human psychic didn’t care enough to come for his old friend Shay. He sent one of the Penton elite to do his work? You answer to humans now?”

  “We no longer have a pet human psychic, I’m afraid.” Cage shrugged, but the gun never wavered from Simon. “I’m afraid we had to drain poor Nikolas Dimitrou. He is no longer among the human race, so he is no longer yours to control. Too bad we had to lose a feeder.”

  Shay gasped, part of her breaking inside as she released Tina’s hand and charged to the front of her cage. “You killed Nik?”

  “Don’t worry, Shay. They brought me back.”

  A second man emerged from the shadows far to Simon’s right. Now her nemesis had Cage on the left, Nik on the right, and the eagle behind him. Shay’s inner warrior cheered. She didn’t like Simon’s odds.

  Shay pulled her gaze from Simon’s clenched jaw to focus on Nik Dimitrou, who she was pretty sure was now a vampire. And yeah, he was still a Greek god, with dark hair that curled just enough to look good long, almost-black eyes with lashes to die for, and the olive skin she remembered. But he was all grown up, with a chiseled body that even a leather jacket, loose t-shirt and combat pants couldn’t camouflage. He looked like a soldier, but she’d bet her former salary that he had fangs.

  “Hey, li’l Shay, all grown up.” Nik’s voice was pure New Orleans, a little boozy, rough as sandpaper and sweet as sin. The memory of it hit Shay like a visceral blow. She’d fallen for him based on that voice alone, but she’d never, ever admit it. “You ready to blow this place?”

  “Free the women, Simon. Unlock those doors.” Cage took a few steps farther into the warehouse. “Start with Nik’s friend and the woman next to him.” He shifted those mesmerizing moss-green eyes to look directly at her.

  Simon hadn’t moved, but a flash of light behind Cage drew Shay’s attention. A man. A big man.

  “Watch out!” Shay yelled, but in the cavernous warehouse, the sound seemed to be swallowed up.

  Cage turned and fired in one smooth motion, but he wasn’t fast enough. A long blade—what Shay had seen reflecting light—came down with a hard, vertical slash. It missed Cage’s head, which had been in that space a fraction of a second earlier, but caught his right arm.

  Shay couldn’t tell her own scream from Tina’s, or Cage’s shout from Nik’s, until everything froze for a second. The vampire who’d come in behind Cage was the size of an elephant, with muscles to match, and his sword—because it was a real, abso-fucking-lutely, honest-to-God sword—hadn’t just cut into Cage’s arm. The giant vampire had cut off Cage’s arm, jacket sleeve and all.

  Cage’s right limb lay on the floor, oozing blood. His gun had bounced a couple of feet away. Blood poured from the stump, just below the elbow, splashing on the floor at Cage’s feet.

  After that moment of frozen horror, chaos took over. The eagle swooped in for the giant, dodged the swinging blade, and caught one hooked claw in the man’s left eye, sending out spurts of blood and meat that Shay didn’t want to look at too closely.

  At the same time, Nik pulled out his own handgun, raised it, and shot Simon without hesitating. The side of Simon’s right cheek exploded in a rain of blood and tissue, and he dropped where he stood, about three feet to the right of Tina’s cage door.

  Cage fell to his knees in the pool of his own blood, then collapsed onto his side, his face only a few inches from his detached lower arm. Shay knew vampires could heal quickly, but could they regenerate limbs? Could they survive that kind of injury?

  With a nonstop series of hisses and squawks, the eagle took repeated dives at the giant, who’d finally thrown down his sword and collapsed to his knees. He wrapped beefy hands around his face, but Shay could see blood from his left eye dripping between his fingers as he tried to protect himself from the eagle’s piercing claws. Then she hooked a claw toward his other eye, creating a deep cut above it.

  Nik ran to Simon’s body and began patting him down.

  Shay quickly scanned the room. “The keys are on the table by the sofa!”

  At Shay’s shout, Nik let Simon fall back toward the ground, stopping only to deliver a quick jerk to break the man’s neck. He grabbed the keys from the table and flipped through them on his way to Shay’s cage.

  A woman’s scream echoed through the warehouse. What the hell?

  Shay moved to the front of her cage to get a better look. A petite, auburn-haired, and very naked woman knelt over Cage, sobs convulsing her body. She was shaking Cage and trying to bring him around, but he was unconscious. Could vampires die from blood loss? Shay didn’t know, but the concrete around his body wore a thick coat of red.

  “Robin, get him out of here!” Nik handed Shay the keys. “Shay, see if you can get yourself a
nd the other women out. I’ll be right back.”

  Which answered Shay’s questions about who the eagle shifter turned into. A woman named Robin.

  Nik stripped off his jacket as he strode across the warehouse toward the couple, then tugged his t-shirt over his head, giving Shay a view of a toned back and smooth olive skin stretched across well-defined muscles. He was as ripped as she suspected, although she probably shouldn’t be noticing it now. Or ever. He had a pretty high opinion of himself as a teenager; becoming a vampire would make him insufferable.

  Nik leaned over and spoke softly to the woman, formerly the eagle. After a few seconds, he had calmed her down and helped her to her feet. He slid his t-shirt over her head and it reached her knees.

  The giant vampire began stirring and Robin charged toward him, but Nik stopped her. “Take Cage to the house. Now. We’re running out of time before dawn.”

  “What about you?” Robin turned toward Nik. “Niko, I can’t leave you here.”

  “Yes, you can. Get Cage to the house and call Mirren. Tell him what’s happened.” Nik’s voice was firm. “I’ll finish things here and find a place to hide for the day.”

  The giant raised his head, both gruesome eyes starting to heal over. The ruined one was simply smooth lids without a visible eyeball. “You fucking freaks.”

  Nik walked over and picked up the giant’s sword, hefting in both hands. “Robin.” His voice was soft. “Take Cage and go. Now, please.”

  Still crying, the woman picked up Cage’s arm and laid it on his stomach, then slid her hands beneath his neck and shoulders. She made an oof sound when she picked him up, but she lifted him without losing her balance.

  Damn, but shifters must be as strong as vampires. Shay wished she’d never seen any of them.

  “Shay, how are you doing with those keys?” Nik’s calm voice didn’t give a hint that he stood in front of a half-blinded, giant vampire holding a sword.

  “Just found mine.”

  A click sounded as the lock of Shay’s cage door disengaged. She slid the keyring through the mesh to Tina. “Unlock your door but keep it closed in case this goes badly,” she whispered. “We don’t want any new vamps to know we’re free yet.”