by Dannika Dark
Even if I could jump to the upper level, then what? Take on fifty immortals? If any were Vampires, they would tear me limb from limb. On the other hand, maybe that wasn’t such a bad way to go. Better than falling down an elevator shaft or getting shanked in an alleyway.
How do I survive with no weapons, no backup, and no escape?
No one was coming for me. The only chance of surviving was to kill an innocent man.
I stared at the hole in the wall and thought about that long slide.
“This wasn’t in the brochure.” I yanked off my boots, hopped off the wolf, and braced myself for one hell of a climb.
Chapter 29
Wyatt packed up his laptop while Viktor sped to the auction house. He reached inside the glove compartment and swapped out his loose beanie for a black ski mask that belonged to Shepherd. It had a rectangular opening over the eyes and looked like something a serial killer would wear.
“What is all that?” Viktor asked, gesturing to Wyatt’s backpack.
“Laptop, spare battery, external drive, flash drives, lockpicks, a phone, lip balm, peanuts—the usual.”
Viktor drove by the building.
“Do a U-turn in front. Go slow.” Wyatt put his hands on the dash, the ski mask in his grip. “I need a better look.”
Viktor slowly turned the wheel and then backed up. The headlights sprayed the brick wall and revolving door. Wyatt spotted the metal shutter behind it.
“Blast!” He flew back in his seat. “Pull over for a minute. I have an idea.”
“What is your plan?”
Wyatt raked back his hair. “They don’t usually hook up sensors to windows on the upper floors. I doubt they even have an alarm system with all the illegal activity going on inside.”
“And if they do?”
Wyatt looked at the open bag of weapons in the back. He didn’t like carrying weapons. The dead could be spiteful, and the last thing a Gravewalker wanted to do was kill someone. Wyatt had enough issues with random specters, but he sure as hellfire didn’t need a freshy with a grudge following him around for the rest of his mortal life. If they had money hidden somewhere, they might cut a deal with another Gravewalker and put a hit on him.
“I’ll worry about that later.” Wyatt pressed his nose to the glass and studied the taller building next door. They were crammed together like sardines. That was how city architects used to construct them in the old days. As he studied the windows, he realized it was an apartment building. A brunette woman with a messy bun on her head waddled down the steps and waited by a tree while her little white dog sniffed at a patch of grass.
Wyatt opened the door and looked back at Viktor. “Take your time following me. Act cool. I’ve got a plan.”
Hopping out of the vehicle, Wyatt reached deep down for that boyish charm that the ladies liked. After putting on his backpack, he stuffed the ski mask into his back pocket and rushed across the street. “Hurry up, Dad! We’re gonna be late for your party.” He smiled at the lady, who looked embarrassed when he glanced at her blue pajama bottoms covered in white crescent moons. But then she noticed his Pac-Man shirt, and Wyatt had found that people were put at ease by the simplest things.
He bent down and gave her little dog a scratch behind the ear. “My dad’s finally retiring from the force. Thirty years.”
“Congratulations to him.”
It was the best lie Wyatt could come up with considering Viktor was crossing the street with a gun on his hip. “SWAT team commander. His buddies are taking him out for drinks after the formal ceremony. I’ve got to get him in a suit and make sure he looks decent.”
She chuckled and gave Viktor a passing glance. “Isn’t that your mom’s job?”
“She died five years ago.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Wyatt stood and scratched behind his own ear. “It hasn’t been easy, and he turned into a workaholic. Most nights he doesn’t even go home, and when he does, it’s after midnight. Sorry—I talk a lot.”
“No, that’s okay.”
Viktor stepped over the curb and kept a straight face. He knew better than to speak and give away his accent until he could assess the situation.
“Come on. We have to hurry.” Wyatt tugged at Viktor’s sleeve and led them up the steps. “Nice meeting you!” he said over his shoulder.
“Have fun,” she replied cordially.
When they reached the door, Wyatt frowned at the key swipe. A lot of apartment buildings these days had access-control cards. He tested the door and glanced at the card swipe again.
“Search your pockets,” he murmured. Then louder, he said, “Where’s your key? Don’t tell me you left it at work. I thought you cleaned out your desk? You can’t go in your work clothes. I bought you that suit and everything.” Wyatt sighed dramatically and stepped down, gazing across the street and pretending not to notice the woman’s curiosity. “We’ll miss the ceremony if we go back.”
“This outfit is fine,” Viktor said in his best American accent.
“You look like you’re going on a drug bust. It’s not fine. They’re taking your picture and everything. Don’t you have a spare key somewhere?”
His friend in blue pajama bottoms led her dog toward the steps. “I can let you in.”
“Thank you! You’re a lifesaver. Thank you so much,” Wyatt went on. “I think he’s just looking for an excuse not to go. He doesn’t like attention, so this is his version of a nightmare.”
Viktor grumbled and folded his arms, which made the lady giggle.
She opened the door and held it for Wyatt. “I don’t like parties, so I know how he feels.” When Viktor glided past her, she smiled at him. “Congratulations. Thanks for your service.”
Viktor’s expression softened, and he nodded at her. Viktor had a remarkable way of carrying on a conversation without saying a word. Wyatt had a way of sticking his foot in his mouth, so his best bet was to avoid getting in the elevator with this woman or else she’d start asking questions he wasn’t prepared to answer.
“Wait, do you have your door key?” he asked Viktor. “I’m not about to go all the way up there if you left your keys in the van.”
“Just like your mother,” Viktor grumbled.
“Well, someone has to be the adult here.”
The woman held the elevator. “Are you coming?”
Wyatt waved at her. “I need to get his keys out of the van. Thanks again, lady!” As he jogged toward the doors, he listened for the sound of the elevator doors closing. Then he quietly pivoted, relieved that she hadn’t suspected anything.
Viktor pushed the elevator button. “It frightens me sometimes how easy it is for you to lie.”
He waltzed up to the doors. “I made a career out of it.”
After a short ride to the top floor, they jogged upstairs to the roof. There wasn’t much to picking the roof lock, but the real challenge was how they were going to get down to the auction house. They were about two stories higher than they needed to be. Not a huge distance, but it wouldn’t take much for Wyatt to crack his melon.
Viktor walked to the back corner. “This is good.”
Wyatt approached the edge and was hit by a gust of wind as he bent over and studied a pipe going down the wall. “You call this good? A ladder is good. That’s the thing of nightmares.”
Viktor chuckled. “Is my son afraid?”
Wyatt took off his backpack and shoved it into Viktor’s arms. “I want a bonus for this, Dad.”
“It is not as if you will die.”
“Says the man who can heal in three seconds. Remember the time I cracked my skull and we had to call the Relic? That was when you sent Niko and Blue on that trip to Dallas. It took me a week to heal all the way, and I had to wear that stupid helmet.”
“Niko is not far.”
Wyatt sat on the ledge and imagined his head splitting open like a melon. As far as he was concerned, brave men fell into two categories: stupid and smart. The stupid ones put their lives in
peril for nothing. The smart ones lived to see another day. As a Gravewalker, he could live to be a thousand as long as he made smart choices. He healed at an accelerated rate and was harder to kill than a human, but death never took a holiday.
He reached down and felt the pipe. “There’s no gap. I can’t hold on to it.”
“Use your fingertips. We have no time to quarrel. Go!”
Wyatt put the ski mask over his face, and Viktor held his hand as he lowered himself off the roof. When he thought he had his boots anchored against the brick on the adjoining walls, he let go of Viktor’s hand and clasped the pipe. Wyatt could already feel his weight pulling him down like an anchor. His boots scrabbled in a futile attempt to slow his descent. When his knuckles began to scrape against the brick, he jumped onto the lower roof and rolled across the asphalt.
Despite his stinging knuckles and sore arm, he sprang to his feet and reached up to catch the bag Viktor tossed. Seconds later, Viktor jumped off the roof like a crazy person. Wyatt was so startled by the leap that the backpack struck him on the head.
Right before landing, Viktor shifted into his wolf. His clothes and gun fell on top of him.
“Show-off,” Wyatt muttered, rubbing the knot on his head. “They always make it look easy in the movies. You never see Jason Statham pulling a groin muscle. Tell your wolf the plan. There might be a security guy in the lobby, so I’ll need you to take a sniff while I check things out.” He gathered up Viktor’s clothes and weapon. “Since you’re in doggie mode, I’ll leave these up here by the door.”
Viktor’s wolf snatched the gun holster from Wyatt’s hand and trotted off.
Some of these old buildings didn’t have roof access, but to Wyatt’s delight, there was a hatch door made of glass. It was raised like a crypt, and when he grabbed the lower bar, it opened. Hopefully the fall hadn’t messed up his finger tattoos, but it was too dark to see anything. After descending the stairs, Wyatt got out his lockpick, put a penlight in his mouth, and went to work on the door. Blue had taught him a few techniques that had come in handy on a few occasions.
Viktor’s wolf growled impatiently.
“Got it!”
Once inside the main stairwell, they crept through the second floor. Someone had gutted the place for storage, filling it with large crates, tons of paintings covered in tarps, rugs, statues, a piano, and old weapons. He shined his light on the walls and saw nothing but tapestries. If any secret files were hidden in here, it would take him hours to find them.
“Downstairs,” he said to the wolf even though Viktor had probably blinked out of consciousness by now.
Instead of the elevator, they took the stairs. Wyatt couldn’t breathe in the ski mask, but the lights were off and it helped him blend into the shadows, so he left it on.
When they reached the first floor, Wyatt gave the grey wolf a long look. “I need to look around. Your job is to protect me. You don’t understand anything I’m saying, do you? I bet all you want is a bone.”
Based on the blueprints, the first floor didn’t have any private offices. But Wyatt still wanted to search the place, and they needed to make sure there wasn’t a security guard who might set off the alarm or make calls. He shouldered open the door and peered out. Like upstairs, it was an open space, only this room had the art tastefully displayed. To his relief, the front desk was empty. Viktor’s wolf sniffed the chair by the desk and investigated all the smells in the room while Wyatt located the elevator.
He took a deep breath and snapped his fingers, summoning Viktor’s wolf over.
“Do you even know why you’re carrying that around?” he asked, noticing slobber all over the gun belt in the wolf’s mouth.
When the elevator door slid shut, Wyatt hit the button and pressed his body against the panel to hide. All he could imagine was a man with a machine gun waiting for them when the door opened. His heart pounded as the elevator moved like molasses. Wyatt kept his eyes on the wolf. Viktor’s nostrils were twitching, but no growl settled in his throat as the elevator came to a stop.
The doors opened. Viktor’s wolf craned his neck and then stepped out of view. Wyatt took a deep breath, hooked his thumbs underneath his backpack shoulder straps, and entered a brightly lit hall. The control room was to the left, but Viktor’s wolf had already made it clear he wanted to go right.
“This way,” he whispered.
The wolf gave him a sharp look.
“Fine. But just remember it was your idea to separate.” He opened the heavy door and allowed Viktor’s wolf to dash through.
Wyatt quickly jogged back to the other door. Time was ticking.
The carpet met with white flooring, and when he passed an elevator on his left, he skidded to a stop. “That wasn’t in the blueprint.”
He continued on until he reached another door. This one had a small viewing window, so he peered inside the dark room before going inside. Feeling along the wall, he found a light switch and then looked around. None of the monitors on the right-hand wall were operating. Wyatt sat down at a computer station in the center of the room and sputtered with laughter when the computer came on without a password prompt.
No longer able to breathe, he took off the black mask and flung it across the room. It didn’t take long to locate the security camera program, and when he did, the monitors lit up. Most of them were aimed at the white floors of an empty fighting ring, but as he went through the commands, he found cameras in hallways and a public seating area. He spied Viktor’s wolf sniffing chairs in what appeared to be the upstairs viewing room. Wyatt took off his backpack and began copying everything to his external hard drive. He couldn’t afford to waste time digging through computer files. His sole job was to collect evidence and then get out of Dodge.
After he finished up, he walked over to the wall across from the door to check out the control panel. The large metal square had a lot of switches and buttons, each neatly labeled.
“Hold your ponies. External doors?”
Wyatt hurried back to the computer and looked closer at the surveillance system. He clicked on each camera to bring it up on the big screen.
“Empty hall, another empty hall, lobby…” He froze when he pulled up a camera aimed down at Gem. She stood in front of a steel door, wielding an energy ball. Another view showed the rest of the team standing far back.
The ball grew larger, blue light snapping from the exterior like miniature lightning bolts. When it reached the size of a soccer ball, Gem hurled it at the door and collapsed.
“Holy Toledo!” Wyatt knocked his chair over when he shot out of his seat. He’d never seen anything like that up close, let alone from a safe spot where he wouldn’t get burned to a crisp.
After the smoke cleared, the door was nothing but a memory. Claude knelt by Gem. There was no sound, but silent pictures told the story as Claude helped his weakened partner to stand. Wyatt located video of the next door. There was no way in hellfire she’d have enough energy to blast through another one, and they couldn’t pick the locks since the external doors were activated by a keypad.
He was looking down at the computer when the control room door suddenly burst open. Wyatt flew backward onto the fallen chair, startled by the loud noise. With his heart racing, he looked up to see Christian and heaved a sigh of relief.
“You scared the crazy out of me!”
Christian gave him a mirthless smile. “Would you happen to know where my partner is?”
“I’ve got stuff to do.”
Christian waltzed in, hoisted Wyatt off the floor, and hauled him out of the room. “That can wait. Viktor asked me to join, but I can’t seem to hear anyone else running their mouth but you. If my partner’s in danger and I don’t get there in time, I’ll extract your teeth, one by one, and replace them with nails.”
Wyatt blanched. Vampires were strong enough to do it. “Fine. Let me go.”
Once Christian released his hold, Wyatt hustled down the hall. He’d memorized the blueprint, so it wasn’t difficu
lt to locate the stairwell that led to the upper floor.
Once they emerged from the stairwell, Viktor’s wolf lunged at Christian.
“Jaysus wept! It’s me, you furry eejit!”
The wolf hopped back and snorted.
Christian wiped his bloody hand on his black T-shirt. “Careful, Spooky. He’s got blood in his mouth now.”
“That only matters when they’re in the middle of a fight.”
Large windows encircled the fighting room down below.
Christian gave Wyatt a menacing stare. “Well? Where is she?”
“I thought you wanted to talk to Viktor about a plan.”
“I don’t speak dog.”
Wyatt pointed around the bend. “She went that way.”
Christian marched off.
Wyatt caught up and tugged on Christian’s shirt. “I wouldn’t advise going the way she did.”
“You let me make that decision.”
Wyatt didn’t bother arguing. At least this would get Christian out of his hair, if not eternally. If Christian wanted to join his lover in a fighting ring or a pit of fire, so be it.
Wyatt stopped in front of a door on the outside wall and looked at the card reader. “That’s a problem. I need to go back for my bag.”
Christian shoved him toward the wall. “Figure it out, Einstein.”
Even with the keypad below the reader, Wyatt didn’t know the code. Before cracking it open, he decided to run down a list of the most commonly used passwords. Birthdays were ruled out since he didn’t have that information, so he punched in the street number of the building’s address.
The door opened.
He chortled in disbelief. “What a bunch of idiots.”
Christian stepped inside the small closet. “Is this your idea of a joke? You insipid little—”
The door closed, and Wyatt heard a whoosh.
“Hope you don’t end up in a pie.”
Viktor’s wolf barked to get Wyatt’s attention. Then he picked up the gun belt in his mouth and trotted into the stairwell. Viktor’s wolf wanted to go back up to the lobby, but Wyatt had more work to do—like opening the second exterior door to let Keystone through.
