She nodded, and he plucked her out of the chair. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she draped her arms over his shoulders as he carried her. The strength of his arms and the power thrumming through his body helped ease her trepidation, but she couldn’t rid herself of a growing sense of urgency.
If something happened to one of them because of her, she would never forgive herself.
“We spent too much time here,” she muttered.
“This isn’t your fault; it’s theirs,” Saxon said as Lucien opened the door to the stairs.
The crisper air in the stairwell cooled her heated skin when they stepped into it. Below, the squeak of sneakers rebounded off the gray, concrete walls. After the brightness of the hall, the dimmer glow of the light here was a welcome respite.
Whoever was below didn’t speak as they ascended, and it could be humans making their way up, but she doubted it; the Savages were coming for them. The door didn’t make a sound as Lucien closed it, but the steps stopped below them. A door opened, and Elyse held her breath as she strained to hear something more. Are they still down there?
A soft cough alerted her that at least one of the Savages remained below. She imagined them standing by the door, waiting for whoever went onto the floor to return. The Savages had no idea they were waiting above. The seconds stretched into minutes and Elyse thought she might scream from the tension before the door opened again.
“Clear,” someone said, and the footsteps started on the stairs once more.
Saxon jerked his head back toward the door behind him, and Lucien opened it. When they returned to the hall, they nearly walked into a nurse. Her jaw dropped, but before she could make a sound, Lucien placed his hand over her mouth and drew her against his chest while Logan closed the door.
The woman’s eyes widened over Lucien’s hand as he bent to whisper in her ear. “You saw nothing. Now get out of here as fast as you can.”
When he released the woman, she scurried away and vanished around the corner.
“I have to put you down,” Saxon whispered to her. “Will you be okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” she assured him.
She wasn’t so sure, but it didn’t matter; she’d make her legs work if it meant helping to keep them safe.
Saxon carried her a few feet away and reluctantly set her down. He’d prefer not to let her out of his arms with Savages close by, but there was no choice. She smiled at him as she rested her hand against the wall and assumed a casual posture he didn’t quite buy.
Drawing her close, he kissed her forehead. “Stay here.”
“Stay safe,” she whispered.
He pulled away so abruptly she swayed toward him before catching herself. She hated the stiff set of his shoulders when he stalked away to rejoin his friends. He stopped behind Lucien as the door opened and a Savage stepped through.
Lucien didn’t give it time to react before he lifted it off the ground and charged through the door. As Saxon followed him, he grasped the edge of the door and smashed it into the face of the one standing behind it. The Savage staggered back, and its hand flew to its battered face as Lucien bent his captive over the railing until its back broke.
Saxon yanked the Savage out from behind the door as he pulled a stake out of his jacket and plunged it into the thing’s heart. When the third Savage turned and fled, Logan took off after it. The young hunter disappeared around a bend in the stairwell.
Saxon turned to Lucien as he tore the heart from his Savage. “Help Logan while I get Elyse,” Saxon said.
Lucien bounded down the stairs as Saxon returned to find Elyse standing where he’d left her. She smiled at him, but she couldn’t hide the strain on her face or the sweat beading her forehead.
“Are you okay?” he demanded.
“I’m great,” she lied; she was beginning to feel her arm again and felt so queasy it was taking everything not to vomit on his sneakers. She suspected it was the lingering effects of the anesthesia, but she felt incredibly weak. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. We have to go.”
“Lead the way.”
Saxon gave her a look before bending to lift her into his arms. He carried her into the stairwell and closed the door as Lucien returned. “Logan took care of it,” he said. “He’s staying with the body.”
Carting three dead bodies around with them wasn’t the best way to go incognito, but they couldn’t leave these things behind to be discovered by humans. Lucien grabbed the Savage he’d killed by the shirt collar and tossed it over his shoulder.
When a door opened below, Saxon leaned over the metal railing running along the stairs to peer down. His stomach rolled as he stared at the stairs winding below them, but he kept his face impassive.
He’d hated heights ever since he fell seven stories while battling a Savage on a rooftop. The fall broke almost every bone in his body, and it took him a week to heal. Ronan and Killean practically scraped him out of the alleyway to carry him to the car. Thankfully, he’d fallen on top of the Savage, with his stake in its heart; otherwise, it would have been worse.
He couldn’t see anyone moving below but their steps reverberated off the walls as they climbed to the second floor before exiting. Saxon stepped away from the railing. “They’re gone,” he said to Lucien.
Lucien grasped the other body by the back the waistband of its jeans and lifted it off the ground; Saxon held Elyse as he followed his friend down the stairs.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“We should exit here,” Logan said when they arrived at the door to the second floor. “There’s no way we’re getting past everyone on the first floor with three bodies.”
“How are we going to get these bodies off the second floor without being noticed?” Lucien asked.
“If we expose them to some sunlight, they might go up,” Saxon said.
“There’s a good possibility these ones can withstand sunlight. It wasn’t daytime when they arrived,” Lucien pointed out.
“They parked under an overhang and walked directly into the hospital,” Logan said. “I watched them on the camera. The first floor is the busiest, and I don’t see us getting past everyone down there without being spotted; you can’t change all their memories.”
Saxon pondered this, but before he could say anything more, the door below opened, and the stench of rot wafted to him. Unless they planned to carry more bodies out of here, they had to get out of this stairwell.
Saxon adjusted his hold on Elyse and carefully turned the knob so as not to make a sound while he opened the door. A shoe squeaked on the steps as he poked his head into the hallway and blinked against the influx of light.
A few doors down, a doctor and nurse were walking into one of the rooms. “Good morning, Mrs…?” The doctor’s voice faded away as she closed the door.
Further down the hall, another nurse pushed an older man in a wheelchair toward the elevator, but there was no one else around. He jerked his head for the others to follow him and closed the door behind him as the steps reached the landing below.
Saxon led the way down the hall as Logan and Lucien carted the dead bodies. They didn’t have much time, so he opened the first door he came to and stepped into the room. The beep of machines greeted him, but the older man lying on the bed didn’t open his eyes. Saxon stepped aside to let the others enter and closed the door behind his friends.
“You can put me down,” Elyse whispered.
Saxon hesitated, but some of the color was coming back into her face, and she wasn’t sweating as badly. He caressed her cheek before setting her down. She squeezed his arm before walking over to lean against the wall. It took everything he had to turn away from her.
He studied the sleeping man before striding over to the window. They were on the backside of the building, away from the parking lots and entryways. Snow covered the twenty feet of clearance between them and the woods.
Nearby, a door clicked as the Savage from the stairwell entered the hallway. Saxon glanced at the bodie
s; if the Savage hunting them was also a purebred, he would smell the stench of garbage these three emanated. Even if it wasn’t a pureblood, the scent of blood was sharp on the air, and it couldn’t be explained away by the hospital environment.
Lucien dropped his bodies by the bed where anyone looking through the window in the door wouldn’t be able to see them. With his dead guy still draped over his shoulder, Logan edged toward the head of the older man. Saxon returned to Elyse and maneuvered her into the bathroom where she’d be safer if something happened.
He stood outside the bathroom as the Savage’s footsteps stopped outside their door. If the bastard knew they were here, how far would it go, and how much would it risk exposure to come after them?
They had to be careful to keep the human world from knowing about their existence, but after the news story the Savages ran on Elyse, he didn’t know if they were playing by the same rules anymore. A fight here could put them all at risk, but this thing might not care.
The doorknob rattled then stopped. Saxon tensed as he waited for it to come after them, but retreating footsteps sounded before the door to the stairwell opened and closed again.
“It knows we’re here,” Lucien said.
“And it’s not stupid enough to come after us,” Logan said.
“We have to get out of here,” Saxon said. “It’s probably already on the phone with all its cronies; they’ll have us boxed in here in minutes.”
He stalked over to the window that stretched from the ceiling to his knees. Despite the size of the window, only a small, rectangular bottom panel could open when the lock was undone. He threw the lock and pulled the window toward him; it only opened a few inches.
Something squeaked in the hall and voices drifted to him. The door across the hall opened, and it sounded like the doctor from earlier calling another greeting. This room would be their next stop.
Saxon gripped the thin metal hinge connecting the window to the pane; as soundlessly as he could, he ripped the hinge from the frame. The window slumped down, but he caught it and propped it on the heater beneath it as he grasped the other hinge and tore it free. Once the window was off, there was enough room for all of them to fit through it.
He lifted one of the bodies and started to heave it out, but Logan stopped him. “What if there are windows and people below?”
Saxon leaned out to stare down the brick façade of the building; he spotted some windows beneath him, but he couldn’t tell if there were people in the rooms below or not. “We have no choice,” he said. “We can’t leave the bodies here for humans to discover and autopsy.”
“True,” Lucien agreed.
Saxon heaved the body out and away from the building before Lucien and Logan did the same with the other two. When they hit the ground, the Savages sank into the snow but not before the sun caught them. Smoke coiled up from their backs, and after a few seconds, the fire flickered over one’s shirt.
He held his hand out to Elyse; she’d left the bathroom and was standing only a few feet away. “We have to go.” She didn’t hesitate before taking his hand. “I’ll jump first and catch you.”
“Okay,” she said.
Saxon sat on the heater and pulled Elyse close to kiss her cheek. “We’re going to get out of this.”
“I know,” she said.
“And I will catch you.”
She smiled at him. “I have no doubt.”
He leaned back and slid out the window to fall into the snow below; he sank almost up to his knees in it. Rising, he sniffed the air for a hint of a Savage, but all he detected was the rising scent of smoke on the air as the Savages burned.
He braced himself before turning to face the building. He’d prefer not to have to look at it, and the possible cameras already focused on him, but he didn’t have a choice. Turning, he glanced into the windows to discover the lights were off. When he looked closer, he saw equipment stacked in corners and strewn about the storage room. They’d finally caught a break.
Smiling, he lifted his arms to Elyse. She didn’t hesitate before wiggling her way out the window and falling.
Elyse’s heart leapt into her throat; a feeling of exhilaration came over her as the wind whipped at her hair and clothes. And then she stopped falling, and Saxon’s arms encircled her. She barely felt the impact of his body as he cushioned the blow by bending with her.
“Are you okay?” he whispered in her ear.
“That was awesome,” she told him as Lucien and Logan landed beside them.
Saxon chuckled and kissed her cheek before loping through the snow toward the woods.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Are you still with me?” he asked Elyse.
“Always,” she said and meant it.
Once this was over, she had no intention of ever leaving this big, beautiful man. But would it ever be over?
With a sinking heart, she realized it was probably never going to end. Saxon would be battling Savages for the rest of his life until, one day, his life ended. Tears burned her eyes at the possibility of losing him.
She couldn’t handle losing him; yet, she couldn’t protect her heart by walking away from him, because it was impossible to protect a heart that already belonged to him.
Somehow, with his sexy smile, protective nature, tender caresses, and willingness to risk his life for hers, he’d stolen her heart without her knowing. He hadn’t turned against her when he learned what she’d done to his friends. He’d accepted her for who she was and hadn’t tried to use her ability for his gain, which was something she’d never experienced.
Her fingers dug deeper into his thick muscles as he ran into the woods behind Lucien and Logan. One day, he might go out to fight these monsters and never return to her, but until then, she planned to enjoy every second of her life with this man.
If they ever got out of this mess.
Lucien pulled out his phone as they ran and dialed someone. “We exited the backside of the hospital, and we’re heading through the woods. I’m sure there has to be a road somewhere. I’ll be in touch.” He hung up and pocketed his phone.
Saxon didn’t see or hear the Savage coming at them, but he scented it seconds before the creature charged out of the trees at them. He skidded to a halt and darted to the side. It was so focused on him that it nearly hit a tree when Saxon dodged out of its way.
Able to stand the sunlight more than its other twisted brethren, this thing wouldn’t be as strong as some of the other Savages, but it was hungry as it came back at him with gleaming red eyes and extended fangs. Saxon set Elyse down and braced his legs apart as he prepared for its attack, but with his shoulder lowered, Lucien ran into the creature.
Lifted off its feet, the Savage soared through the air before hitting a tree with a bone-cracking thud. Closest to it, Logan pulled out a stake and plunged it through the Savage’s heart. The creature grunted as it clawed at the weapon, but its life was already over when Logan ripped the stake free and wiped it in the snow.
Saxon drew Elyse closer when he spotted three shadows slinking through the trees. “There’s more coming,” Saxon said as more shadows crept toward them. He could see at least six.
“Of course there are,” Lucien muttered.
Saxon removed the stakes from his jacket and handed one of them to Elyse. “I don’t plan on letting any of them get near you, but just in case.”
“I know exactly where to stab them,” she assured him, and as she gripped the stake, she realized how much she’d like to kill them all.
She’d planned to hide away after becoming a vampire so she could never be a threat to anyone again, but she’d love to fight and kill these things. She wanted revenge for everything they’d put her and her family through.
“Unless they come at you, stay out of the way,” Saxon said. “I don’t want you getting injured in the chaos.”
“I will.” She’d prefer to fight and kill, but she couldn’t be a distraction, and she wasn’t going to be much good with one arm. A
s much as she hated the idea of being a bystander, she couldn’t be involved in this. “I’ll stay out of the way,” she promised.
Seven Savages burst from the woods, and though Elyse was prepared to start stabbing, she realized Saxon meant what he said about chaos. He grabbed one of the vamps and slammed it into the snow before kicking another in the chest. When the Savage staggered backward, Lucien stabbed it through the heart before tossing it aside.
Logan punched one in the face and darted out of the way of the next one. He spun toward a third, but his foot slipped in the snow. Before he could recover, the third Savage pounced on him and shoved him into the snow.
The Savage Saxon threw into the snow recovered and came back at him as another Savage attacked Logan. The hunter was buried so far in the snow that Saxon couldn’t see him anymore, but he smelled blood.
“Shit,” he hissed.
He caught the Savage coming at him, lifted him off the ground, and propelled him toward a tree and onto one of the branches. The Savage grunted as the limb plunged through his heart before bursting out of his chest. Saxon glanced back at Elyse to find her standing where he’d left her, holding the stake like she was ready to stab anything that came near her.
“Stay there,” he called to her as he sprinted for Logan and Lucien while they dispatched another Savage.
Arriving at Logan’s side, he saw the vamp on top of the pile had Logan’s wrist in its mouth and was sucking greedily on it. Unable to stand the sound of the Savage’s slurping for one second more, Saxon plunged the stake into the thing’s back before tossing its body aside.
The second Savage lay across Logan’s chest. Saxon lifted the Savage away and rolled it into the snow to reveal the stake through its heart. Turning his attention to Logan, he bit back a groan when he saw the knife in the hunter’s belly. It had initially entered his flesh at his belly button but had sliced up to below his rib cage.
“Fuck,” Lucien said as he arrived at Saxon’s side. “Is he alive?”
Bound by Passion: The Alliance Series, Book 4 Page 19