Probably. But . . . “What other choice do we have?”
“You’d better be right!” Chris headed for the vampires’ apartments. As he passed Stuart, Chris pointed at him and said, “You’re dead, motherfucker!”
Bastien shook his head. “He didn’t know they were tracking him!”
Stuart followed them to Cliff’s apartment. “You won’t kill me if I help, right? You aren’t going to let those guys capture me again, are you? I mean, I can help, right?”
“Yes,” Bastien answered while Chris swiped a card and entered the security code. “Help the humans get their wounded to the tunnel.”
Stuart did as ordered. Racing to the stairwell, he grabbed a wounded network employee two others were struggling to support, looped him carefully over one shoulder and raced over to the ragged tunnel entrance to pass him off to Todd.
Cliff’s door opened. Cliff stood there, brown eyes already glowing amber. “I can help up on the ground.”
Bastien shook his head. “I don’t want to risk your being tranqed.”
Chris moved on to unlock Joe’s door.
Joe stepped into the hallway, eyes glowing a vibrant blue.
“Help with the evacuation,” Bastien ordered and it felt almost like old times. These were his men. Members of his army. “Check the upper floors. See if anyone is trapped. Get everyone out you can.”
Nodding, the two took off down the hallway, their forms blurring with speed. The stairwell was packed. So they forced the doors of the disabled elevator open and leapt up the shaft.
“They’d better damned well keep their fangs out of my people!” Chris shouted.
“They will!” At least he hoped they would. Cliff would. But Bastien wasn’t so sure about Joe.
Stuart raced past with a whimpering woman in his arms. Bastien couldn’t tell if it were pain or fear of the vampire that instigated the sounds.
Across the hall, Melanie applied a pressure bandage to a guard’s arm to stanch the blood gushing from his wound.
Bastien drew his katanas. “I’m heading up!”
Melanie raised her head and met his gaze. It seemed a thousand words, all unspoken, passed between them in that moment.
She nodded.
Bastien raced for the elevator shaft. There were four bodies in the elevator. Bastien didn’t know if the drop had killed them or the explosion that had snapped the cables.
Half of the ceiling of the elevator was gone. Bastien leapt up through the hole. Far above him, he saw stars twinkling in a sky that was beginning to lighten as dawn approached. Emrys had timed his attack well.
Three ropes suddenly fell through the open doorway to Sublevel 2. Soldiers garbed in black camo followed, sliding smoothly down, intent on taking the rest of the building.
Bastien grabbed the ropes and yanked with all of his preternatural strength.
The grappling hooks held. The ropes didn’t, snapping where they bent over the edge of Sublevel 2’s floor. The men shouted as they free-fell toward Bastien.
Bastien dropped the ropes and met them with his swords, his blades ensuring they would die if the fall didn’t kill them.
As their bodies hit the elevator, he leapt up, catapulting from level to level until he reached the ground floor.
Most of the building above ground had been demolished. Only fragments of walls stood, pillars among piles of rubble.
Emrys’s troops surrounded the place. Military Humvees. Sisu XA-180 armored personnel carriers with mounted 12.7-mm machine guns. Soldiers with shoulder-fired missiles. Grenades. The usual automatic weapons.
Smoke and dust and debris hovered like fog and stung Bastien’s eyes. Lisette was on top of one of the Sisus, firing the mounted machine gun while she fed on the soldier who had previously manned it and used him as a shield.
Richart was doing his Grim Reaper thing, appearing and disappearing amid the soldiers, picking them off before they even knew he was there, throwing them into a panic. Étienne swept a circle around the crumpled building’s perimeter, a constant blur, fatally wounding every soldier he passed. The soldiers began to shoot each other as they tried to stay ahead of him and failed.
Bright light blinded Bastien. He shielded his eyes and glanced up in time to see a door gunner lean out of one of two Black Hawk helicopters that hovered overhead and drop a grenade.
With lightning speed, Bastien caught the grenade and lobbed it back.
Panicked shouting ensued.
Soldiers dove out just as the vehicle exploded.
Bastien smiled. This was going to be fun.
Chapter 12
“The sun will be up in a few,” Roland murmured.
Lounging on the sofa, feet propped on the coffee table, with Sarah curled up against his side, he soaked in her warmth like a sponge. Savored her scent. Listened to the familiar thumping of her heart.
He would never grow tired of moments like this. And, now that she was immortal, he looked forward to enjoying thousands upon thousands of them.
“Already?” she posed with a yawn.
Nietzsche rumbled and purred like a Harley as Sarah stroked his back and watched the news. The ornery feline had done his best to wedge himself between them, then given up, and settled for sprawling across them both.
“Mm-hmm. Want to shower and head for bed?” Both still wore their hunting togs, sans bloodstains since they hadn’t encountered a single vampire tonight. Their weapons were scattered around his feet on the coffee table.
Tilting her head back, Sarah smiled up at him. “You gonna wash my back?”
He brushed his lips against her forehead. “Among other things.”
Her heartbeat picked up. “I like the sound of that.”
He dipped his head and did what he’d been dying to do ever since they had settled here on the sofa half an hour ago: tasted those luscious lips and listened to her pulse begin to race as her slender arms curled around his neck.
Damn, he loved her.
“Ahem.”
Roland grabbed a dagger from the coffee table and let it fly.
Richart ducked, barely evading it. “Damn it!”
“I told you to call before you came here,” Roland growled. He hadn’t wanted the immortal to know where he lived in the first place and sure as hell didn’t want the man to think he could drop in whenever he wanted to.
“I didn’t have time!” Richart snapped. “The network is under attack.”
Roland and Sarah rose, dislodging a disgruntled Nietzsche. “What?” they demanded in unison.
“Emrys’s men are blitzing the place,” Richart said while they donned their weapons. “Large force. Heavy artillery. I don’t know how the hell this isn’t going to make the news. The civvies are being evacuated through the tunnel, those who haven’t already been killed.”
Sarah finished fastening her last holster. “Ready.”
Richart drew something out of his pocket. “Here.” He held out two cylindrical objects that looked like big plastic pens with green tops. Roland and Sarah each took one.
“What are they?” she asked.
“The antidote Bastien tested. If you get tranqed, use this to counteract it.”
Roland tucked his away. “Let’s go.”
Marcus broke out in a cold sweat as he watched Ami pack on the weapons. “Please rethink this.” He didn’t want her to risk falling into Emrys’s hands. Didn’t want to find out what being at those people’s mercy again might do to her.
“I have to.”
“No, you don’t. It’s too risky. And you know damn well Seth would not want you anywhere near that place.” Marcus had tried without success to reach the immortal leader at least ten times in the seconds or minutes that had passed since Bastien had called.
“Bastien is right. We haven’t been able to locate Emrys or his base through any means we’ve tried. This may be our only chance. If I can get close enough to his men, I can memorize as many signatures as I can and . . .” She looked up as she tied the bottom of one of her Glock 18 holsters to her thigh. “I know I can lead you all to them. I did it before with the vampire king. I can do it now.”