by Amelia Elias
* * *
Sian had never been happier to get anywhere in her life as she was when Eli landed on the roof of a cruddy warehouse and released her from his talons. A moment later, she found herself sprawled on the metal roof in her own body again as Eli shimmered back to his own imposing form. “Don’t you ever do that again,” she hissed at him.
Eli just smiled. “You asked to come to Diego,” he said nonchalantly. “You’re here, it was fast, and you didn’t specify how I was to transport you. Don’t complain.”
If this wasn’t payback for shooting him, she’d eat a toad. She drew in a breath to really let him have it when his eyes sharpened and he held up a hand. He looked like a lion on the scent of prey and she froze, not daring to breathe lest she break his awesome concentration.
He abruptly knelt beside her and pulled her gun out of her waistband before she could react to his sudden nearness. He pulled a silencer from his pocket and screwed it onto the barrel before handing it back to her.
“I’m always prepared,” he told her softly when she looked at him in shock that he happened to have the right silencer for her gun. “Be ready to use it, and for heaven’s sake keep your head down in there. Diego would be really ticked if you got hurt and I don’t want to have to find him yet another mate.”
“Well, I’ll be really ticked if he’s hurt,” she whispered back, deciding she wasn’t going to comment on the rest of his remark. “Let’s go.”
Eli led her across the roof silently as a cat. Sian followed, trying to mimic his stealthy movement. She didn’t think anyone would hear her unless they were listening hard, but she couldn’t imitate Eli’s complete silence no matter how hard she tried. He might have been floating an inch above the roof for all the noise he made.
He led her to a broken skylight and jumped straight down without hesitation. Sian looked over the edge carefully, hesitant to trust Eli that much, but he reached up, grabbed her wrist, and yanked her down. She barely bit back a yelp of surprise and fell soundlessly, but it was an effort.
It was a greater effort to keep from screaming when she found herself suspended in midair sixty feet above the ground, supported by nothing more than Eli’s hand on her wrist as they floated just below the skylight. “Shh,” he breathed. “They’re close. You see?”
After a moment she did. Three men hid on a catwalk running the perimeter of the building ten feet below them. Not trusting herself to open her mouth without a terrified squeak coming out, Sian just nodded stiffly.
“Good girl,” Eli murmured in the same barely-there voice. “We’re going to get rid of them, understand?”
If she didn’t he made sure she got the point by dropping slowly down until their feet touched the catwalk less than five feet from the nearest man. She raised her gun but Eli stopped her with a gesture. He walked silently up behind the man and grabbed him around his throat, lifting him with one-armed ease as he simultaneously crushed his vocal cords and kept him from pounding on the metal catwalk and attracting attention. Sian watched him strangle the Templar in silent horror, unable to move or look away until Eli laid the still body silently back on the deck. He glanced back at her and raised an eyebrow. He pointed to her gun, then his ear, and she understood.
Even silenced, a gun made noise. If she’d fired, someone definitely would’ve heard and come to investigate. While she didn’t think anyone was going to get past Eli—something about the man was too spooky for words, yet he inspired utter confidence—she didn’t want to distract Diego from his rescue of James, wherever he was.
Sian caught sight of the second man and nodded in his direction, wanting to get Eli looking somewhere else. She didn’t much care for being the focus of his attention. Eli turned and crept toward the second man, taking him out just as he’d done with the first man. Sian managed to keep from staring at it this time. She’d been a cop, she’d seen dead bodies, but the only killing she’d seen before this night had been the unfortunate woman Santonyo had shot. Watching Eli so casually subdue these men with nothing more than his enormous hands sent shudders down her spine. Logically she knew this was war, a definite us-or-them situation, but her skin still crawled at how easily Eli had taken a life just moments before.
A movement caught her eye and she saw the third man on the catwalk suddenly jerk toward Eli. His crossbow was ready to fire and he swung it around silently. Sian forgot all about secrecy and silence, reacting instinctually to save the only ally she had. She raised her gun and fired all in one motion as she’d been trained to do an eternal time ago.
There was a click and a sharp whuff of air as the gun bucked in her hands. The Templar jerked and spun with the force of the bullet piercing his leg and the bolt he fired at Eli went wild. He shouted in pain and anger before his momentum carried him back over the railing. His scream echoed in the cavernous space as he plummeted to the floor many feet below. A second later, he went silent with a sickening smack.
Sian hadn’t even had time to lower her gun when Eli grabbed her, taking her straight over the other rail and down to the floor in a split second. It was only the paralysis of shock that kept her from shooting him a second time out of sheer fury that he’d push her over the edge like this. An instant later, a spotlight illuminated the very spot she’d been standing and she understood why Eli had done it.
Sian barely noticed the impact of their silent landing. Her eyes were glued to the man she’d shot who now lay twisted and still on the concrete floor. Her stomach clenched. She’d done that. She hadn’t meant to make him fall, only distract him from taking a shot at Eli, but there was no doubt it was her fault he was lying there dead—
“Shoot to kill, damn it,” Eli hissed in her ear. “If he’d lived, he’d have gleefully peeled your flesh from your bones. He’d have used you for bait and burned Diego alive. Your soft heart is commendable, but now is not the time for it!”
Sian pushed angrily at him, ignoring the way he’d put his own body between hers and the rest of the room and had very likely just saved her life. In her mind, that made them even. She glared at him and gripped her gun tighter. “I’d think you’d be glad I don’t shoot to kill,” she breathed back, aching to yell at him and wishing they didn’t have to be silent.
Eli shook his head at her. “I don’t die from bullets,” he told her. “Or crossbow bolts either, for that matter. Now hush and stay put. I have work to do and I don’t want to have to move you again.”
She didn’t want him to do it again either. Okay, so he’d brought her to Diego, and he’d been a good sport about getting shot. It didn’t mean she particularly wanted to get close to him again. He terrified the hell out of her, to put it mildly, and the further he was from her the better she’d like it.
He was already gone before she could gather her thoughts and tell him off, and she bit her lip, suddenly alone in the dark and surrounded by God only knew how many Templars. She scanned the darkness for them even as she hoped she would see Diego instead. Every flickering shadow made her heart jump and she couldn’t stop shaking.
It made no sense, this trembling, and it made her angry with herself. All right, all she had to do was glance at James to know what would be her fate should the Templars catch her, but she was well hidden, she had no intention of giving away her position, and she’d been in dangerous situations before. She’d trained for this, damn it. She’d been in the military and she’d been a damn fine cop. Why was she sitting here freaking out in a situation she’d spent a decade honing her skills to handle?
She caught a glimpse of a black shadow across the huge room, saw it take down a Templar she hadn’t seen before that moment, and the sudden pounding of her heart both identified the shadow and answered her question. Diego, her heart cried, but she remembered how he could read her mind. Instead, she locked down her thoughts to prevent herself from calling out and distracting him. She had no problem putting herself in danger, but she hated seeing Diego do the same.
She really hoped she didn’t have to shoot again, bec
ause right now she was shaking so hard there was no telling what she’d hit.
* * *
Chapter Fifteen
Diego worked the perimeter of the warehouse, honing in on each bright life-force he sensed and not moving away until he’d snuffed it. Normally he would rather cut off his own arm than injure a mortal—he’d taken a vow to protect them and he’d meant every word—but this was most definitely an exceptional case.
If only the Templars would get a clue and hunt Outcasts they’d actually be doing the League a favor, but no, they didn’t care to see the difference between the evil killers and normal, law-abiding vampires. If it had fangs, it should be dead, seemed to be their motto.
Well, better men than these had tried to kill Diego and failed.
Diego was closing in on his third Templar—he was keeping count, wondering if James had meant ten total or ten in the warehouse with two extras on the roof—when someone suddenly got there first. Diego rushed forward when the Templar dropped his crossbow, catching it as it fell—no need to let the thing hit the concrete floor and give them away with its clatter—and glanced up at Ronin.
Except it wasn’t Ronin.
“Enjoying yourself?” Eli asked in a ghost of a voice only another vampire could hear, returning the now-still Templar to the ground and grinning.
Diego couldn’t even reply for a moment. When he finally did, it was an effort to keep from shouting. “You’re not supposed to be here!” he breathed furiously. Damn, but it was hard to get anger across when he had to be quiet, but Diego was certain Eli got the message from his glare even if he couldn’t get it from his voice. “Did you forget you’re supposed to be finding Sian before the Templars do?”
Eli shook his head as though disappointed in Diego’s lack of faith. “Your mate is perfectly fine,” he replied, standing completely at ease as though that bright white hair of his didn’t make him a walking target, as though they weren’t in the middle of a battle here. “Or at least she will be, if she stays where I put her.”
Diego’s mouth dropped open but he didn’t dare allow himself to reply. He really did not want to know what that little comment meant. Besides, he was fairly certain anything that came out of his mouth right now would be considerably louder than they could afford and contain more profanity than his daily limit.
Eli smiled as though reading his mind. “Go get your Steward,” he told him. “He needs some attention and we don’t have much time left.” And he was gone before Diego could trust himself enough to reply.
Sometimes there was only one thing to do with Eli’s cryptic comments—forget them and finish the task at hand. Diego turned toward the brightly lit center of the room and tried to plan how he was going to accomplish this without getting James or himself killed. He didn’t know how many Templars Eli had taken out and Eli’s little comment of Sian being safe only if she stayed still utterly wrecked his concentration. He was no longer able to summon the concentration to find the hidden Templars, if any remained.
There was no help for it. Diego rushed into the light, slashing through James’s bonds with elongated talons and tensing with the expectation of an attack at any moment. Nothing happened, though, and he lifted James over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. James groaned and Diego sent a quick spell through him to ease his pain. “Had all the fun you can stand yet?” James whispered in a cracked and hoarse voice.
“Not as much fun as you’ve had,” Diego replied, hiding his anger behind their customary sarcastic teasing. “What have I told you about these wild parties?”
A sudden movement across the dark warehouse caught Diego’s eye and he froze, the lights glinting off the barrel of a gun pointed straight at him while leaving the shooter’s face in shadow. He didn’t even have time to duck before the gun went off and every muscle tightened in anticipation of impact.
A breeze tickled his temple and Diego’s first thought was gratitude that the shot missed him before he heard the heavy thud of a body hitting the floor behind him. He whirled, provoking another groan from James, and saw a man lying on the ground not five feet behind him with a wooden stake still clutched in his hand. It took him a moment to find the bullet wound.
Finally he saw it. The Templar had been bulls-eyed right through the red cross tattoo at the base of his throat.
Diego turned back around, intending to thank Ronin for his incredible shot since he knew Eli’s disdain for guns, but Diego didn’t know where the hell the other Slayer was because this definitely wasn’t Ronin. Sian was running straight toward him with the gun still in her hand and her blue eyes deep and dark with emotion, and Diego’s heart stopped in his chest.
He understood Eli’s comment perfectly now and he could’ve killed him for it. He sprinted for Sian and managed to grab her while still holding onto James. He didn’t stop until his momentum had carried them straight back into the shadows and out of the line of sight of any Templars who might remain.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he hissed furiously, not sure if he wanted to kiss her blind or shake her to pieces. “Damn it all, Sian, this is no place for you!”
The shimmering emotion in her eyes died in a wave of ice and she glared at him. “It looked an awful lot like I was saving your ass,” she snapped back. “Or didn’t you notice the guy with the stake about to turn you into a Diego-kabob?”
Her incredible feat finally penetrated his brain and he stared at her in shock for a moment. There’d been a reason he’d thought Ronin had fired that shot. The spotlight had been between her and the Templar who’d fallen just outside the edge of the bright circle of light—such contrast should have completely confounded her human vision. From that position, it should have been damn near impossible for her to find an angle that wouldn’t put either himself or James in the bullet’s path. Still, despite all this, she’d managed a shot that would make the most seasoned marksman drool in envy.
“Where did you learn to shoot like that?” Diego asked, staring at her as though he’d never seen her before.
“Can we resume this later, children?”
Eli’s voice shook Diego from his paralysis and he turned furious eyes on the reason why his mate was in danger in the first place. “How dare you bring Sian here?”
“Well, I couldn’t just leave her at your place with Santonyo no matter how well he’s tied up,” Eli said as he ushered them toward the door. “She’s too damn softhearted for her own good and I’m not sure she’d shoot him if she needed to. Now I’d rather not be here when their reinforcements arrive, so if you could please get your butts in gear—”
Diego didn’t need to be told twice. Shoving Sian in front of him, he balanced James on his shoulders and sprinted for the exit with Eli bringing up the rear. Sian glanced back at him once and he growled at her not to worry about him before he realized she was running faster than any mortal he’d ever seen.
What was going on with her?
She was faster than a mortal, but not as fast as a vampire. She’d taken that Templar out with a shot more accurate than any human could hope to manage, yet she’d clearly been in the sun today if her pink, sunburned cheeks were any indication. Confusion started to overwhelm him but he chalked it up on his list of things to figure out later—if they were allowed a later—and kept on running. Right now her strange new abilities were far too useful to question.
Eli passed them when they reached the street and Sian followed him without question. When they caught up to him two streets later, he was calmly standing by the open door of a taxi. “Your chariot,” he said, gesturing at the empty back seat.
They didn’t ask how he’d gotten a cab in the middle of the night in this seedy section of town. Sian got in first and cradled James’s head on her lap when Diego eased him down beside her. James cracked open the one eye that wasn’t swollen shut when she stroked his hair and managed a smile as he looked straight up at Sian’s breasts. “Nice view,” he mumbled.
Diego shook his head at him as he climbed into the f
ront seat. Even knowing how badly injured his Steward was, even knowing Sian was only comforting him because she would comfort anyone in that much pain, even understanding that James didn’t have any idea what he was saying, Diego found it hard to repress the instincts demanding he tear James away from his mate. His territorial possessiveness didn’t seem to care that he was mad enough at Sian to strangle her either.
“Enjoy it while it lasts, because I guarantee it’s a position you’ll never be in again,” he said, and he was pleased to hear the growl in his voice was at a bare minimum.
Sian rolled her eyes at him anyway as the cab began to move. “Hey, what about Eli?” she asked suddenly, turning to glance behind them.
Diego shrugged. “I’m sure he can make it home on his own.”
“But the—” Sian cut her sentence off with a glance at the driver, but his blank eyes clearly said he’d remember none of this later. “He’s not going to wait for them there, is he?”
“He’ll be fine, Sian,” Diego said, irrationally angry that she was worried about another man when he knew Eli had found her and saved her from God knew what tonight. “He always is.”
“Not always,” Sian muttered.
* * *
Sian was stunned to see Eli lounging on the front porch when they got back to Diego’s house, and she could tell Diego was as shocked as she was even though he hadn’t spoken another word to her during the entire drive home. Diego stayed silent until the cab disappeared down the drive before turning to Eli. “Haven’t you caused enough trouble for one night?” he asked acidly as he carried James inside.
Eli shrugged. “You have questions,” he said. “I have answers. But I’d be just as happy to go on home and let you two figure it out on your own, if you prefer.”