“I didn’t—”
He shook his head. “Don’t. You think because I’m an incubus and feed off of lust that I’m incapable of anything more than that?” He snorted, his focus still on the screen. “Just don’t. Not right now.”
“Sorry.” And I meant it, because he was right. I felt a bit small in that moment. Of course he had the capabilities to love someone. And for him, that was Ami.
I shook off my thoughts and went over to the wall, ignoring the hum of the electronics as they worked overtime. The wall was completely covered in screens of varying sizes, giving us a clear look at the company. My focus went to the outside cameras until I located the gates. Dwight was right in the middle, glaring at the shimmering ward that kept him out of his own company. Even on screen, I could feel the suppression of his fury. He was completely still, muscles locked into place, bulging against the strain of his beast. He wanted to shift into Black Dog, but he also knew he wouldn’t be able to do anything in that form. For now, he needed to stay on two legs.
This was a spit in the face for him. The intruders effectively kept out the one person who would make their life a living hell. There wouldn’t be an issue if he was here, he would hunt each of them down and make them wish they’d never gotten out of bed that morning.
But he was stuck out there, unable to get past the ward, and we were inside, facing unknown foes for unknown reasons.
Venni, Rhett, and Davies were the same. Davies was pacing behind them while Rhett and Venni had their heads together, mouths moving. I tore my gaze from them and traced the barely visible outline of the ward, trying to find some kind of clue to what it was. I didn’t know of a ward that could do that, decimate someone within five feet of it, and yet, this one did.
I fought against the image of that man disintegrating. Work. I needed to work, and think, and solve this problem. “Henzie, can you change the filter on these cameras so I can get a better look at the ward?”
“Got it.”
The camera filter changed, the ward now a dark blue opaque. Alijah stepped up next to me, his hand resting on my back.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“Nothing yet,” I said. “Have you ever seen something like this?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I saw what happened to that guy. He didn’t even burn. He just disintegrated.”
“And it started from the inside. It wasn’t an outside force.” I shook my head. “Henzie, can this screen be rewound to the last half an hour. I want to watch the ward.”
A moment later, the screen jumped. I was staring at the ward I’d helped create. It was a mixture of purples and greens, swirling together.
“Here,” Henzie said and Alijah grabbed a little remote, bringing it over to me. “Use that to fast forward and rewind.”
“Thanks.”
The next few minutes were spent staring at the screen as I slowly went through the frames. When I found the first thing I wanted, I froze it. “Here,” I said and pointed at the screen. “The ward wasn’t just destroyed. It didn’t get torn down. It was eaten up. See, it’s still there in different spots.” Alijah and Henzie came over, along with some of the other guards in the room with us. I forwarded the video slowly, and we watched as the rest of our ward slowly disappeared. “As it ate up our ward, it became theirs,” I whispered.
While this happened, people were able to slip out of the gate, but then once the new ward was in place, the opaque blue taking completely over, anyone else was screwed. We had missed it, but a woman had disintegrated too. She had been off to the side of the screen.
Dwight came on screen and Venni and Rhett had to hold him back as he tried to charge forward. Their mouths moved and it took a few seconds to get him to stop trying. Not even thirty seconds later, the pregnant lady appeared on the screen and then we did too. I watched it all unfold, everything I went through. The guys on the other side had even held up their hands as if to tell us to stop.
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “I just don’t know. A ward can’t do that. I’ve studied hundreds of wards in my research as a student. My thesis was all about them. But this. It isn’t right.”
“Okay,” Alijah said and turned me, resting his hands on my shoulders. “Deep breaths, Laila. We need to take this one step at a time. Empty your head.”
I did as he said, relaxing my body, trying to brush off the growing doom that rested on my shoulders. “Now, start slow. Think only about what I ask you. Got it?”
I nodded, never looking away from his eyes, letting them ground me.
“Good. Now, what do you know? Not what do you think. What do you know? About that ward.”
“Magic,” I said, licking my lips. “It was created using magic.”
“Good. What level of magic?”
“A.” I shook my head. “No, it’s beyond A. It was stronger than ours.”
“The ward, is it layered? Is it just one ward or multiple working together?”
I thought about his question, about what I felt and what I saw. I added in my knowledge of wards. “Layered. There have to be at least four.”
“Good. Now what exactly is that ward doing?”
I closed my eyes, picturing it, feeling it again. This time, I could feel a buzzing against my skin, as if it was touching me, keeping tabs. Hunting. “No noise in or out. At five feet, a person disintegrates. No fire or burning and starts from the inside.”
“Good, what else.”
“Tracking us. It’s tracking us. So that if we do step within the five feet boundary, it attacks us. It knows because it’s already tracking us.”
“Good. You’re doing good. Now, each layer, what do they need to do individually?”
“The first was an offensive ward, created to attack our ward specifically. The other for neutralizing senses from the other side. One for tracking. One for its defensive mechanism.” I paused.
Alijah moved his hands from my shoulder and gave me room. “Do you know how to combat that?” he asked.
My resolve strengthened now that I had calmed down enough to think clearly. I didn’t look away as my lips curled into a smirk. “Not yet, but I will.”
He smiled back.
“Outside communications went down pretty much as soon as they attacked,” Henzie said, drawing everyone’s attention. “But they hadn’t had time to strengthen it yet. I’m going to create a moment so we can get a call out but the guy on their side is as good as I am.” He didn’t sound happy about that fact. “As soon as I open it up, he’s going to shut me down. Make this call count.”
Alijah shared a look with me, and I nodded. We had to call Dwight. “Laila, I realized something,” Alijah said. “You’ve never seen Lombardi on a real hunt. If we can get him in here, he will destroy them. They’ll never have a chance.”
“You’re so sure,” I said.
“Lombardi is a lot more powerful than he lets on.”
“Because he’s aes sidhe?” I asked.
“Did he tell you that or did you read about it?” Alijah asked in a dark voice. His eyes widened when he realized what he’d said to me. “Forget I said anything. We’ll talk later.”
My heart twisted at his dig, but I refused to let him drag this out, especially with the current situation. I gave him a hard look. “I’m holding you to that. And if you really care about how I came to know that, he told me.”
The muscle in Alijah’s jaw flexed. “Good. That means he’s in this for the long term.”
“What do you mean?”
“Now,” Henzie called out before I could get an answer.
Alijah’s cell phone was to his ear before Henzie even finished his words.
“Boss, no time,” he said, his eyes meeting mine briefly before flickering away. “At least twelve working their way in. Ward kills anyone within five feet. We’re doing a sweep. Henzie is sending what we have to you, which isn’t much.”
Alijah listened for a moment, nodded, and then held the phone out to me.
“
Dwight,” I breathed out.
“Laila,” he growled, his voice tight and deep. “Stay fucking alive and listen to Ami and Alijah.”
“Of course.”
“Don’t be stupid. I’ll get in there and once I do, they’re fucked.”
I smirked. “I believe you.”
“Do you know who they are?”
“No idea. And we won’t really know for sure until they get inside. We need to see where their goal is.”
“I have two people upstairs, tell Ami and Alijah I need them safe. They could be the prime targets.”
“Why—”
The phone cut off before I could even finish.
“Sorry, he got us,” Henzie said, his focus on the computer screen. “Bastard is good.”
“What did he say?” Alijah said.
“There are two people on the guest floor. We need to ensure their safety.”
Alijah nodded and grabbed a tablet from one of the two other guards in the room. “Dr. Bertini,” Alijah said, grabbing Henzie’s attention. “What do you know?”
“We have at least twelve intruders that I could locate. Sniper on the roof, the others are currently about to break through the first set of doors. Within the next couple of minutes. I’m fighting a hacker. He’s trying to get into our system to shut us down.”
“We can’t lose,” Alijah said.
“I know that,” Henzie snapped back before swearing to himself and pounding on the keyboard as his fingers danced across the keys. We waited him out until he looked back up. “We have three admins laying low in Mr. Lombardi’s office and two guests in one of the apartments. A woman and a child.”
“A woman and child?” I asked. “Why?”
Alijah spared me a glance. “The child needs protection. It’s one of our current assignments.”
“Do you think that’s why they’re here, for the kid?” I asked.
“We need to wait until they break through the door and see if they go up or go down. Even if they go up, they could go to Lombardi’s office. He has a lot of information there.”
“They’re through the first door,” the guard with the short light brown hair and goatee said. My memory pulled up a file, and I put a name to the face. Logan Seghers. Coasted through high school and college, playing football. After getting his bachelor’s in engineering, was an enforcer down south before making his move here for the private sector.
“What are the protocols, what is stopping them?” I asked.
“Since it’s the weekend, not much,” Logan answered, eyes on the screens before us. “Right now, the doors are slowing them down, but they’ll make their way through. Whatever they’re here for has them determined. They had this planned to the minute.”
I stepped next to him and looked at the one he pointed out to me. Eleven black forms rushed through a set of doors and were now working on another set.
“How many doors?”
“Four,” the guard answered.
“Rooms of interest are backed with steel doors and wards. Each floor has two safe rooms hidden even from the blueprints.” I nodded at Alijah, remembering the two located on my floor. We learned about them after being hired. “All labs are on lockdown. Short of a nuclear bomb, they aren’t getting inside any of those,” he finished.
I turned to him. “In theory, yes. But look what they’ve managed to do so far. I wouldn’t be surprised if they also have a way into the labs if that’s their goal.”
“Damn, I hope that isn’t their goal,” Logan said. “Who knows what you guys have cooking down here.”
I smirked at him. “Would you like to come to visit sometime and find out? I can always use an extra set of hands.”
Alijah growled, and Logan lifted his hands up and stepped away from me. “No offense, but I think I’d rather get my teeth pulled.” He flashed me his pointy incisors, and I laughed.
Logan was an unknown being that didn’t feed on blood. He didn’t change into another form. His extra speed and strength were on the same level as a shifter’s, but he didn’t heal as fast. And his file noted that he fed off of sunlight. By the small buzz in the air around him, he used energy, not magic.
I would definitely be interested in finding out more about him, solve a mystery, but now was not the place nor the time. He didn’t know it yet, but he was going to help me out with some of my projects.
“They’re taking off their masks,” the second guard said. His name was Ishaan Moreno, a no-nonsense type of guard from what I’d read about him. He was a mercenary before joining, taking any jobs he wanted. As a vampire, many wanted his services, and somehow Dwight had managed to reel him in to join BMS.
“Shit,” I whispered. “That has to be bad, right?”
“It means they aren’t worried about us IDing them,” Alijah said.
“They’re going to kill anyone they see,” Logan said. “Whatever their goal is, they have no intention of letting anyone in this building live. They just condemned us all.”
“Henzie, can you ID them now?” I asked.
“They have me blocked from outside now.” He shook his head. “I can’t use anything that isn’t on our private servers.”
“Have they gotten into those?” Alijah asked.
“They’re trying, but I created this system. They aren’t getting into it. To have any access to it, they’d need to get down to my lab. They’re still blind inside of this building.”
“Good.” Alijah leaned closer to the screen. “Can you make this bigger?”
A moment later, the image moved to a bigger screen and we all shifted to get a look at it.
“Do you know any of them?” Alijah asked.
I took in their features. There were so many of them, but I didn’t recognize anyone.
I pointed to a lanky brunette. “Witch. Her jewelry are charms.” I pointed to a short buff man with short blond hair. “Mage. That on his cheek is a sigil. I don’t recognize the symbol, but the way it glows on the edges, it’s active right now and the design is the same style as sigils.”
Ishaan pointed to a man with thick black hair and a bearded face. “I know him. He’s a mercenary who tends to stay out west. Shadowsmith. Jaylam Reese.”
“By the way he carries himself and how he’s doing more observing than doing, he must be the leader,” Alijah said, expression closed.
“What?” I asked.
“I saw him.”
“Where?” Ishaan asked.
“At the fights. I beat up one of his shadowsmiths.”
“Holy shit,” I said and eyed the other men. None of them looked like the one Alijah went up against.
“I knew they were trouble,” he said. “But nothing I dug up suggested they were here for anything other than the fights. I only saw him briefly. He broke my opponent’s arm as punishment for losing.”
Ishaan snorted. “I wouldn’t be surprised. I ran into him once before down south. A true cold-hearted bastard. He took part in a massacre that involved children and infants.”
I winced, not needing that image in my head.
“So he’s the leader, and he’s a mercenary. Then who hired him?” I said, looking over everyone again.
“I doubt whoever hired him is here too,” Logan said.
“That would be convenient, wouldn’t it,” I said and then smirked. “Unless he feels secure in the team and what they’re capable of doing.” I pointed to an older man. He wasn’t the only older one, but how he held himself screamed Big Baddie. “Like him for example.”
The man had to be about my height, with trimmed silver hair and piercing dark eyes that focused on the camera. The same camera that should have been invisible. His mouth moved and Jaylam’s head whipped around to focus on the camera.
“He can see it,” I said.
“He can’t,” Henzie said.
“Well, this says otherwise.”
Henzie let out a stream of curses as a spritely looking man came over, waved his hand toward the camera and we lost connection. A momen
t later, another screen went dark. That one had given us a view of the room from behind them.
“I’m calling Ami back. Without eyes in the room, we won’t be able to say when they break through,” Henzie said.
There was a loud explosion causing the building to shake. Items clanked and clattered, something glass in the room broke. Once it stopped, I went over to Henzie.
His fingers flew over a few buttons before he leaned back. “She knows now. And the intruders inside.”
“That was too fast,” Alijah said.
“And the hunt begins,” Ishaan so kindly pointed out.
Bile rose in my throat, and I had to swallow that along with the fear growing inside of me. These intruders were serious business and there was not enough of us to fight back. We were strong, but those guys weren’t messing around. They came with the strongest and they wanted to kill us all.
I stared hard at the screens, wondering how the hell I’d gotten myself into this mess. I just wanted a peaceful Sunday to work in my lab and test out my theory for the MBG.
“Now what?” I asked, having no answer, no ideas.
Alijah grabbed my hand and squeezed it. His orange eyes were closer to a burning brown, his lips thinned out. “Now we survive.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Back,” Ami said, slipping through the door with Ben and Clayton, the two guards who’d gone with her. A moment later another person slipped through.
“Elliot,” I said.
“You didn’t make it out,” he said, looking at me before taking in everyone in the room.
“The ward kills anyone within five feet of it,” I said.
He nodded and came over to my side. When he rested his hand on my lower back, I jumped, but then as he rubbed it, I melted into him. His touch was reassuring, letting me know he was there with me, and he wasn’t going anywhere.
“What d’you got?” Ami asked Henzie.
“Including those of us in here, we have eleven security scattered in the building, three admins in Mr. Lombardi’s office, the woman in labor downstairs with three guards, a woman hiding outside, and a mother and daughter in the guest suite on the fifth floor.” Henzie pointed some things out on the tablet he was holding. “We have a total of twenty-one people locked in.”
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