* * *
Three doors, one on the left, two on the right.
Rayne goes first, head cocked. Her steps are light and silent, even her breathing reduced to nothing. “One person, probably a woman, through the second door on the right.” She hands over my gun, slides up to the door, and counts down from five on her fingers.
My stomach gives a little skip.
As Rayne lowers her thumb and shoves the door open, I swing through, gun raised in a two-handed grip.
Security room. Multiple screens. Desk. Chair. Flashing red light. Air scented with greasy chips. A woman.
“Don’t move.”
She whips her hands into the air. A hot dog tumbles to the ground and spills its innards across her shoes. “Don’t hurt me. Please, don’t hurt me.”
I look again. Not a woman, a girl. A young, frightened girl.
Long blond hair spills over her shoulders, fine and shiny in the artificial light. Ragged sleeves drop down her arms, exposing bruised and puckered skin at the crook of each elbow. And bite marks on her wrists.
“Please, please, please. Don’t hurt me, please.”
“Calm down.” Gun down and pointed at the ground. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
The blubbering whimpers pause. “What?”
“I won’t hurt you. I’m Danika, I work with SPEAR. What’s your name?”
The girl jerks her arms down and yanks her sleeves into place. She looks past me towards Rayne. “SPEAR?”
“That’s right. Tell me—”
She dives at me, all shrill cries, fingernails, and gnashing yellow teeth. “You can’t be here. No SPEARs allowed.”
“Wait.” I skip out of reach, but she follows, still yelling.
“Get out. We don’t want you. No SPEARs. You have to get out. Get out, get out, get out.” Her arms flail, weak slaps aimed vaguely at my face. “Go away.”
A shadow of movement flickers in the corner of my eye. “Rayne, no.”
She stops dead, one hand raised, a terrible snarl on her face. Silver blanks her eyes, and fangs shine between drawn-back lips.
“She’s a kid.” I talk while blocking the strikes at my face. “Probably high too.”
“I’m not a kid. You sound like my bitch of a stepmum.”
I drop my gun and grab her wrists to press on the sensitive pressure points located there. “Stop a second.”
“You’re hurting me. Let go. Let go.”
“Listen to me—”
She stamps on my foot and follows by hawking hard and spitting in my face.
Time freezes.
The damp gobbet on my cheek stinks of mustard and processed meat.
“Did you just—”
Again, with poorer aim. The second sticky missile hits my chin and drips off the end.
“You won’t kill my friends. I won’t let you.”
I spread her arms wide and yank her in for a headbutt. It stings, but she cries out and stomps my foot again. Her knee hikes towards my middle.
A shove sends her careening into the table of monitors.
“She’s insane.” Rayne starts forward.
“She needs help.”
As the girl comes in again, I slide left and grab the back of her head. She struggles, so I pull her hair, meaning to shock her into stillness.
It comes away in my hand, a long line of blond strands on a slim thread, studded with popped stitches.
“No. No, no, no, I only just got those. Bitch.”
I toss the extensions aside, snatch her real hair, and tug again.
She thuds into me, clawing at my wrists, bellowing insults.
Laughter fills the air.
“Need help, Dee-Dee?” Noel’s voice is a delighted drawl. He stands in the door frame, gun in hand, peering over Rayne’s shoulder. “These teenagers can be tricky, sí?”
“I’m a grown woman,” yells the girl.
I pull harder, drawing her head back and down, forcing her to bend with it or fall. “Shut up.” To Noel, “What took you?”
“The small matter of a dominance battle in a club full of humans. You didn’t see?”
“Funny. We need to move.”
He shrugs. “My team will join when the wolves are contained.”
“And Wendy?”
“He helps.”
“But—”
He wags a finger at me. “You know this is how it must be. We are SPEARs, always we protect the people first.”
“What about the people here? You don’t think all this racket has let Vixen and friends know something’s up? What if they’re killing people now? Or getting away?”
“Then we follow. We’re no use dead, Dee-Dee, so we must wait.” His gaze shifts to my handful of hair. “And who is this blond beauty?”
“This?” Another yank of her hair as she tries to speak. “This spitfire knows the way down.”
“Spitfire?”
I wipe the cooling spittle clinging to my cheek. “Don’t ask.”
“I don’t know anything, SPEAR fuckers—you won’t get in. You can’t make me say anything.”
Rayne stares at the bank of monitors. “She wouldn’t be in here if this wasn’t important. There must be something here, is that right?”
“Bite me, bitch,” yells the girl.
I cart her to the side and dump her in the chair. “Stay.”
“Fuck you.”
“No thanks.” When I next look, Rayne is studying the area around the monitors.
The screens show offices, bathroom exteriors, entrance, lobby, cloakroom, dance floor all from different angles. The hybrid wolves are still fighting on the dance floor, though rapid response now works with Noel’s team and Wendy’s pack to keep them contained.
“It’s got to be here, there’s nowhere else…” Rayne taps the desk with her knuckles, then ducks to crawl beneath it. “I can feel—yes, there’s a switch.”
Click.
Rayne rolls out from beneath the table, as it and the unit of monitors swing round like a door.
The girl gives a furious wail. “You can’t. Not there. You can’t go down there.”
Noel bends beneath the table and pulls a handful of wiring. Three monitors fall blank when he emerges carrying several lengths of cable. “We can, guapa, and we will. And you? You stay here, nice and quiet.” He uses the cabling to tie the girl to the chair, while I hold her down, dodging more spit missiles.
When he’s done, I shove the length of blond extensions into her mouth.
“Now,” I smile, “be a good little girl and stay there. The grown-ups have work to do.”
Noel blocks my path. “Not yet. We must wait for the others.”
My palms prickle. “No.”
“Of course we wait. Three against how many below? We don’t know.”
“But we can’t stand around waiting.”
He grabs my shoulders. “I understand, honest I do. You burn to save your sister, but we must be smart. If we wait, we have my team and the werewolves with us. That is surely better, sí?”
I shove his hands away and retrieve my gun. It slips into my waistband, no longer needing to hide. “I’m not waiting here. I can’t. We’re so close now. We have to get down there. We can’t wait.”
“But—”
“Rayne? Are you ready?”
She stares at me, then Noel, indecision brightening her eyes. “Now?”
“My sister’s down there.”
Noel’s shaking his head. His expression is weary, features tight. “Please. We must wait.”
“Rayne?”
She presses her hands to her ears. “I don’t know.”
I walk away from Noel, to the open door. “Then stay, but I’m going. Pippa needs me. I won’t leave her down there a second longer.”
Warm air drifts from the opening. The metal ladder bolted to the wall looks narrow, dangerous, and long. Don’t care. We haven’t come this far and done so much to stop now.
I lower myself backward into the hole and secu
re my feet on the first rungs. “Are you coming?”
Rayne sighs. “I promised to protect you. You can’t go alone.”
Relief fizzes through me. “And you?”
Noel casts an uneasy look at the door. “I have a bad feeling.”
“Yes or no?”
He sighs. “Yes, Dee-Dee, I come. For better or worse, I’ll follow you.”
Chapter Thirty
It’s a long way down. Can’t hear or see anything beyond the clatter of my boots on the metal rungs and my fingertips in front of my face. Above, Rayne’s steps are light and quick, stuttering regularly as she stops to avoid stomping on me. Beyond, Noel brings up the rear, muttering in Spanish.
The bottom arrives unexpectedly, my left foot slapping on concrete. When I move aside, the wall curves beneath my back, gentle and subtle, arching inwards above my head.
Light comes from a ragged line of hurricane lamps at intervals along the walls.
“What is this place?” Noel’s voice echoes.
“Entrance to the air raid shelter. Most of Angbec was built on top of the stuff below—that’s how HQ has so much underground space.”
He shudders. “Don’t like it. Too much earth above.”
Rayne points forward. “There’s a door ahead. Steel.”
“We can still wait. My team, they will come soon and—”
I walk on.
Rayne falls in at my side, a warm, comforting presence. After another stream of swearing, Noel joins us.
The door, when we reach it, appears designed to withstand the heat and force of numerous explosions.
I stand against the wall and draw my gun. “Open it.”
“Dee-Dee…”
“Do you hear anything, Rayne?”
She cocks her head. “No, but—”
“Open it. I’ll cover.”
Noel takes the top handle while Rayne grips the bottom. Together, they pull, and huge gears slide, click, and grind together to open the huge door.
I wait with my gun aimed at eye height, breathing slow, body calm.
I’m going to save Pippa. For me. For Mum.
Light spills out. After the dimness of the passage, I’m blind for precious seconds.
“Who’s that?”
“What’s going on?”
“Are you expecting more?”
My body prickles. I’m hot, I’m cold. I’m tense, I’m relaxed. I’m everything and nothing all at once.
My vision clears.
Six figures sit around a small table scattered with cards, slips of paper, and poker chips. Three have the deep purple irises of old vampires while two are bulky in a way that suggests giant heritage. The last bends double to avoid the ceiling. It cocks its head and stares through pale yellow eyes with a black, slitted pupil. Beyond them, an arched opening leads into another corridor that curves out of sight.
More swearing in Spanish.
I steady the gun. “Nobody move.”
The vampires share a glance.
One, on the far side of the table, tucks the pencil he’d been holding behind his ear. “Is that Rayne?”
A blur darts across me, shoulder height and dark. Familiar.
Noel yells as Rayne’s shove to the chest catapults him backward. His body slams into the door, gun spinning away across the floor. Then she’s on him, crouched low, head ducked over his throat.
He screams.
I freeze.
Last time I heard cries like that, three members of my team died.
I can’t move. Can’t think.
Noel’s legs pedal. Both hands claw at the air.
Rayne jerks her head.
Silence.
She stands, shoulders low, hands loose. When she turns, my guts threaten to drop out of me.
Her mouth is ringed with blood.
* * *
Part of me is screaming, ordering me to lift my gun, draw a knife, something, anything to protect myself.
Rayne steps over Noel and pushes the door. The heavy slab swings shut with a resounding boom.
I find my tongue. “What are you doing?”
“Protecting my family.” At last she meets my gaze. Her tongue flicks out, lapping away the blood painting her lips.
I recoil.
That’s not Rayne’s voice. This voice is soft and cold, confident and…cruel.
She’s at my side, a blur of movement I can’t follow. One hand closes on the back of my neck, and she thrusts me forward. Like handling a puppy. Her other hand snatches my gun and tosses it over her shoulder.
Can’t see where it lands.
Brutal fingers dig into the sides of my throat.
“Please, what are you doing?”
She leans close to my ear. “This is my family now. You know, the one with ties only found through blood? I did a lot of thinking before I dropped dead at sunup.”
The paraphrasing sends a jolt of panic through me. At last I can move, I can struggle, but Rayne’s grip is firm.
“What have you done?”
“Brought my mother, my real mother, a present: the great Danika Karson.”
The vampires straighten at the sound of my name.
One shuffles closer, dry washing her hands. “This is her? The bitch with the bounty?”
Another chuckle. “I thought she’d be taller.”
“And uglier.”
Rayne smiles. “Sorry to disappoint. This is her. This pathetic scrap of nothing.”
This can’t be happening.
I twist in Rayne’s grip, stretching for the holy water phial inside my jeans.
She grabs my wrist. Twists.
Agony arcs along my forearm and elbow, forcing me to the right and down.
I kneel, gasping, wincing, blinking.
I won’t cry. Not in front of these animals.
Someone grabs my hair.
The tall creature yanks my head back hard enough to strain my throat. “So you’re Danika Karson?” The voice is awful, a cross between marbles in a metal tube and the shrieks of a dying horse. “Interesting. I didn’t think you’d be as…squishy as the others.” It peers into my eyes, blinking over that creepy slitted pupil.
I’ve no idea what it is. I’ve never seen anything like this before, but a sense of dread lingers around it, a dark, creeping fear.
I want to scream.
Instead I slam my forehead into the narrow ridge of bony flesh I take for a nose.
No crack, just a wet pop. Thin yellow liquid squirts from the flared nostrils and the corners of each eye.
It releases my hair. “Vicious, aren’t you.”
With my left hand still in Rayne’s grip, I give up using the right for balance. It throws her off, forces her to follow me to the ground, offering precious half seconds.
I reach for my knife.
Fingers close on the hilt. Pull—
A stunning impact slams into my mouth. Teeth click together. Blood bursts across my tongue.
Room spinning. Stars. Bile in my throat.
How did I end up on my back?
I’m wet. Is that blood?
The first vampire stands over me, grin wide and feral, cheeks bristly with coarse stubble. “I’ve always wanted to taste a SPEAR. You sweet or sour, little agent?”
“Bitter.” I kick him in the nads.
He grunts but doesn’t fall. “That tickles.”
He catches my next kick and twists my foot.
The pressure spins me sideways and I sprawl on my stomach, face down in a patch of dampness that smells of incense. Holy water.
My phials are gone.
In front of the door, still unmoving, sprawls Noel. He really is…
I scream. I shout. I swear.
I twist again and kick out with the other leg, driving my heel into the fingers around my ankle.
Free.
Seconds to spare.
Scramble across the floor. Reach for Noel’s gun. Fingers scrape the barrel.
Heavy hands grip my calves.
&nb
sp; Concrete grinds against my belly when he reels me in and kneels on my tail bone.
“Leaving? Don’t you want to play?”
Hands in my hair again. Head dragged up.
Slammed to the floor.
Up.
Floor.
More stars dance across my eyes. The blood in my mouth thickens.
“Is that all you’ve got, Agent Karson? Vampire murderer? What a joke.”
I grit my teeth. Brace.
My strength is no match for his, but the third impact with the floor is lessened as I slap my hands down.
“So you do have some spunk?” He spins me round and wraps his hands about my throat. “I’ve lost family to your kind. Dozens of them. You and your buddies took my wife.”
I’m clawing his wrists, working my fingers between his and my throat.
“She’d been a vampire for three days. Three. Would you murder a newborn for following an instinct?”
The grip tightens.
Air vanishes.
“You and your trigger-happy friends shot her, no warning, no attempted capture. That’s murder.” His nose butts mine.
Purple eyes blur into glittering silver.
His breath is hot on my face.
My vision dips in and out.
Someone’s shouting. Rayne?
Doesn’t matter.
Nothing matters now.
Pippa’s image floats across my mind’s eye. She’s smiling, holding a baby. “Look, darling, it’s Auntie Dani.”
Auntie Dani.
I open my eyes again, struggle to find focus in a fading world.
The vampire licks the blood from around my mouth and cheeks. His fangs lengthen and gleam in the harsh light. “This is for my wife.”
I need a weapon.
Knives? Can’t reach.
Gun? Gone.
Something small drops off his face. No, not off his face. Off his ear. Behind his ear.
The pencil.
I grope for it. Find it. Grip it.
“Nothing smart to say, Agent?” He presses in on my throat. “No last words? No begging?”
“Closer.” It’s a waste of my last breath, but I use it anyway. “Closer. Taste.”
A pleasured shudder ripples through him. “Don’t mind if I do.” He leans in.
I bring my hand up, the pencil balled in my fist, pointy end out.
Both Ways Page 24
