by Karen Lynch
I signaled Brock, who stood at the front corner of the house, to let him know I was going in. Making short work of the lock, I opened the door and went inside.
A small foyer opened into a great room with heavy dark furniture, oriental rugs, and fine art on the walls. Not exactly Madeline’s taste – at least not the Madeline I used to know, who had preferred modern styles over traditional. But then, I hadn’t seen her in five decades.
Chris entered quietly through the back door. I pointed at the ceiling to let him know I was going upstairs. He nodded and began doing a sweep of the first floor. We’d worked together so much in the last two years that no other communication was needed.
Several of the stairs creaked under my feet, but it wasn’t as if the person I sought didn’t know I was there. There were five bedrooms, and I searched them all without any luck. A narrow set of stairs led to an open attic, but a quick search of that turned up nothing as well.
I walked back to the top of the stairs and texted Brock, who assured me no one had left the house since we’d entered. So where was the person I’d heard inside?
Abandoning all pretense of stealth, I called for Chris, who ran upstairs, looking as confused as I was.
“They have to be up here,” he said, walking to the first doorway on the right. “Unless they sprouted wings and flew away.”
The two of us did another search of the second and third floors and met up again in the master bedroom. The room looked undisturbed except for a corner of the bedspread that had been ruffled. I walked over for a closer look. Seeing nothing suspicious, I straightened and looked around the room. Something was off about it, but I wasn’t sure what it was.
“What are you looking for?” Chris asked.
“I don’t know.” I did a three-sixty degree turn. “There’s something about this room that…”
I trailed off as it hit me what I was looking at. “This room is shorter than it should be.”
His brows drew together, and he looked from one end of the room to the other. “You sure?”
“Positive.” I went to the head of the bed, where the cover had been out of place, and felt around the bedframe and nightstand. My fingertip touched a slight depression at the base of the headboard where it connected to the frame. I pressed the area and heard a soft click before a door-sized panel separated from the wall on the other side of the nightstand.
“Damn,” Chris said. “We’re not getting through that thing.”
My lips pressed together when I saw the steel door behind the wall. A panic room. The door was probably an inch thick, and there was no knob of any kind. I’d bet it could only be opened with a remote, and I had a good idea where that remote was.
I glanced at the upper corners of the room, and I wasn’t surprised to see a camera in one of them. No doubt, there were cameras all over this place that fed into a security system in that room.
I stood facing the camera, guessing it had an audio feed as well. “Madeline, we just want to talk.”
Chris shook his head. “Somehow I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”
My reply was cut off by the sound of pounding feet below and Brock’s hoarse shout. “We’ve got trouble.”
“Jesus Christ!” Calvin yelled. “They’re everywhere.”
I ran to the window and watched a mob of people surrounding the house.
No, not people. Vampires. Dozens of them.
I blinked, unable to believe my eyes. In my whole life, I’d never seen that many vampires in one place – and working together.
A door slammed, jerking me into action. I took the stairs two at a time and had my sword drawn before I reached the first floor.
“Everyone in?” I shouted as warriors ran to take up defensive positions near the windows and doors.
“All in,” Brock confirmed.
Will peered through a closed drape. “Fuck. We’re screwed.”
“No, we’re not.” I strode over to the much younger warrior. “They have the numbers, but we’re armed. And I guarantee half of them are new.”
He nodded and tightened his grip on his sword.
I looked at Brock. “Call Raoul and tell him we’re under attack. Tell him we’ll hold them off, but we’ll need backup ASAP.”
Chris came to stand beside me, his sword drawn. He peered out the window and swore. “Bloody Canadians don’t do anything small, do they?”
Glass shattered all over the house as the first wave of vampires came. The warriors near the windows took the brunt of the assault, and Chris and I jumped in to even the odds.
I sliced through the throat of one of the two vampires attacking Will, sending a spray of blood across the warrior. He didn’t seem to notice, his fear from a few minutes ago swept aside as adrenaline and training kicked in.
A grunt of pain had me spinning to Calvin as he went down with two vampires on top of him. I grabbed one of the vampires by the hair and ripped him away before he could sink his teeth into the warrior’s throat.
The vampire sailed across the room and went headfirst into the stone fireplace. Before he could move, one of the Vancouver warriors was there, finishing him off.
I looked back to Calvin to see him on his feet, facing off against the second vampire. Behind him, Tyrelle and Brock were locked in battle with three vampires.
From all over the house came shouts and the sounds of fighting.
The second wave came at us. Vampires poured through the broken windows, and it hit me that this was an organized breach, unlike the one at Westhorne last fall. They’d waited until the first group had engaged us fully before they sent in the second group to overwhelm us. It was a military tactic, and one we used whenever we cleaned out a large nest.
My blade eviscerated one vampire. He fell to his knees, and I spun to the larger threat. This one was faster and stronger. His claws scored my stomach before I could bring my blade around to counter his attack. With so many bodies in the room, it was getting harder to wield my blade. No doubt whoever was commanding this assault knew that too.
I ignored the burning pain in my stomach and drew one of my knives. The vampire’s eyes flicked between my sword and my knife.
My foot slammed into the side of his knee, and the cracking of bone was followed by his scream of pain. He flailed and fell toward me, his claws reaching for my throat. My knife caught him between the ribs, and his momentum did the rest.
Brock yelled, and I whirled to see two vampires trying to pull him through a window.
I leapt over a couch and severed one of the grasping hands with my sword. It was enough for Brock to yank free and fight off the second one.
“Will,” Chris shouted from the stairs.
My eyes found Will’s unconscious form slung over the shoulder of a big vampire who was carrying him to the closed front door.
A growl burst from my lips, and I let my knife fly as I sped toward them. The blade sank into the back of the vampire’s head, and he dropped like a stone.
I caught Will just before his head made contact with the hard tile floor.
There wasn’t much I could do for the warrior, except ensure he was still breathing. I dragged him behind a large chair where he was mostly hidden from sight. Then I turned back to the fight.
The punch came out of nowhere. My head snapped back, and I barely had time to recover and block the kick that came next.
I dropped my sword, grabbed the foot inches from my face, and twisted. Instead of the bone breaking, the body attached to the foot spun in the air to strike out at me with its other foot. I released the vampire to protect my head, and he hit the floor on all fours like a cat before he came back to his feet.
I faced my opponent and immediately knew he was the leader of this ambush. Tall and muscular with short-cropped hair, the vampire had been in his mid-twenties when he was made. Judging by the speed with which he moved, that had happened at least fifty years ago. He wore camouflage pants and a black T-shirt, and on his bicep I saw a Semper Fi tattoo comm
on among Marines.
We took several seconds to size each other up, and then he struck. His fists blurred as they came at my face and throat.
I blocked them and caught his arm, spinning him toward me. I grasped his shoulders and pushed him down as my knee came up and met his face with a sickening crunch.
Blood sprayed from his broken nose as he grabbed my leg and threw me on my back. In a second, I was on my feet, facing him again.
An arm wrapped around my throat from behind. Instead of trying to pull free, I gripped the arm and flung the vampire over my head. He crashed into the Marine, who batted him away irritably and grinned at me through bloody teeth.
I smiled back.
We began trading strike for strike, kick for kick. He was fast, strong, and he knew how to fight. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d fought hand-to-hand with a vampire who could hold their own against me. He even managed to land a few hits, including a kick that most likely bruised a rib or two.
“Nikolas,” Chris bellowed over the shouts and screams. “Could use some help when you’ve finished your fun.”
The vampire used the brief distraction to kick out and hook behind my knee to throw me off balance.
I rolled onto my side and bounced up behind him. Grabbing his arm, I yanked it behind his back until I heard his shoulder pop. My other hand pulled my second knife free. I drove the blade between his shoulder blades, straight into his heart.
He jerked and sagged against me. I released him, and he slid to the floor. During our entire fight and his death, he’d never uttered a sound.
I surveyed the room. Two of the Vancouver guys were down but alive. Vampire bodies lay everywhere, but the living ones still outnumbered us two-to-one.
The front door opened, and I saw six vampires file outside as if the pied piper was out there calling to them.
I didn’t have time to wonder what they were up to. Chris was at the bottom of the stairs, fighting off three vampires at once. I grabbed my sword off the floor and ran to help him just as two more flew down the stairs.
The two of us fought back-to-back as we’d done a hundred times. All around us, warriors battled with everything they had in them. If we made it through this…
Not if. When. I thought about Sara and the way we’d left things. Nothing was going to stop me from getting back to her.
A vampire sped out of a doorway on my left, and this one was not young. He didn’t have the fighting skills of the Marine, but he made up for that in sheer speed and strength. It took all my concentration to battle him in the confined space. Unfortunately, that left Chris to handle the others on his own.
A flash of pale gold caught my eye as a blonde female ran past the second floor landing. Madeline.
Son of a bitch. She was making a run for it, and there was nothing I could do to stop her.
The vampire must have seen her too. He broke away from me and ran out the open back door into the night.
Before I could give chase, another jumped in to take his place. Goddamnit. Where the hell were they coming from?
“I’m down,” Brock shouted weakly.
“Hold on,” I called back.
My sword came down, severing the head of my opponent. I made my way over to Brock through the sea of bodies, killing two vampires that got in my way.
Brock was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall and a hand over the side of his neck. Blood seeped through his fingers, but it was flowing too slowly to be a major artery. I yanked a throw off the back of a chair and pressed it against the wound to staunch the flow of blood.
“Hold this here until we can triage,” I told him.
He did as I ordered and gave me a thumbs-up with his free hand.
I took up his sword and went to help the others finish off the bastards. The last one ran past me and out the back door. I gave chase and caught him as he hit the night air. My blade sliced easily through his neck, taking his head from his body.
A second vampire fled through a window and tried to run past me. My sword impaled him before he took two steps.
Silence fell over the yard that was littered with bodies.
A small sound brought my gaze around. Standing in the midst of the dead vampires was a masked figure dressed in black. I could see no weapon, though a burnt body lay at his feet.
“Who are you?” I asked, not really expecting an answer. He wouldn’t have hidden his face if he’d wanted me to know his identity. I had a suspicion I was looking at one of our mysterious vigilantes.
“A friend,” he replied in a voice that was oddly distorted.
“That doesn’t answer my question.” I waved at the carnage around us in the yard. “No human could do this. What are you and how did you find us?”
No one but our own people and Sara’s friends knew where we’d be tonight. Sara trusted David implicitly, and for his part, he could have betrayed her many times before now if he’d wanted to.
“That is because I am not human,” the stranger rasped without enmity. “As for how I found you, I have my ways.”
Not human? Warlock then. Who else could cloak themselves and mess with the memories of all the people they’d saved? I took a step toward him, intending to see what was under that mask.
“Nikolas,” called a member of the Vancouver team.
“What is it, Devon?”
“We found a tablet and some other things, but she’s not here. Looks like she got away.”
Before I could answer, a window shattered on the front of the house and a vampire screamed. Thinking of our injured men inside, I raced to the front of the house. When I got there, I found Chris finishing off what I hoped was the last of our attackers.
Chris straightened and pushed his damp hair out of his face. “I think that’s it.”
“I hope you’re right.” My eyes fell on a pile of vampire bodies in the driveway. “Your work?”
“I think we can thank our mysterious friend for that.”
“Shit.”
I sped to the backyard, but it was empty except for dead vampires. I’d been so close. I couldn’t believe I’d let him slip through my fingers.
Chris came to stand beside me. “I don’t know about you, but I’m going to need a stiff drink – or a bottle – after this one.”
“You and me both. But first, we have to clean up this.”
He groaned and turned to the house. “Going to be a long night.”
Chapter 37
Once the Seattle team had arrived to take over the cleanup operation in Vancouver, the rest of us took our injured back to the safe house to see to their wounds. There were a few deep lacerations, a couple of broken bones, and one concussion, but we’d all survived. After we’d treated our injuries and showered, the healthier warriors had wanted to drink and celebrate. I’d told them to have fun. I was going home.
It was almost dawn when I let myself into Eldeorin’s house. I walked up the stairs and stopped outside Sara’s door. I had no intention of going in. I only wanted to feel her nearby, to know she was close and safe before I tried to get some sleep and put this night behind me.
Tomorrow, she and I would talk, and I’d make her understand why I’d had to do what I did. Even if she refused to talk to me for a week, I wouldn’t go back and change a thing. If she’d been with us tonight…
A shudder went through me, and the need to see her became too strong to deny. Entering the room, I closed the door softly behind me and walked quietly to the bed.
My chest squeezed at the sight of her sleeping so peacefully and safe. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed with her, take her in my arms, and let her closeness soothe the aches in my body and heart.
I sat on the edge of the bed and caressed her face with a featherlight touch. I didn’t want to disturb her sleep; I just needed physical contact after being away from her for two days.
She stirred, her face turning toward my hand. “Nikolas,” she murmured drowsily.
“Shhh. Go back to sleep,” I w
hispered, feeling selfish for having woken her. I kissed her forehead. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”
“Mmm,” she said as I started to get up.
Her hands came up and cupped the back of my head, pulling me down to her. Surprise and desire jolted me as she claimed my lips with a hungry desperation that fed my own need for her.
In the next instant, I was lying beside her with my top half covering her as I deepened the kiss. My heart pounded and my brain lost all function as my body responded to her.
I didn’t remember pushing the blankets down, just the raw pleasure of running my hand slowly down her side, brushing the curve of her breast through her T-shirt, wanting the barrier between us gone.
Mine, my Mori growled.
Mine, I agreed as my hand found the bare skin of her stomach.
The small gasp against my lips brought me back to my senses so fast my head spun.
Khristu, what am I doing?
It took everything in me to lift my mouth from hers and to stop myself from taking what I craved more than the air in my lungs. I laid my head beside hers and studied her profile as I willed my body and heart to calm down.
My arm still lay across her, and I could feel her chest rise and fall rapidly as her heart hammered in tune with mine. She wanted me too, but it was easy to let desire carry you away. When we made love, it would be because she was ready for that final commitment, and not because she’d been swept away by a moment of passion.
I lifted my head until our eyes met. “I should go.” And take a very long, cold shower.
“Okay,” she whispered.
The confusion and desire in her eyes were almost too much to take, and I groaned as I touched my forehead to hers. “Jesus, Sara, don’t look at me like that or I’ll never be able to leave.”
“I don’t want you to leave,” she replied huskily, her breath warm against my face.
I almost groaned again. Did she realize what she was asking and what her words did to me?
“I know, but you’re also not ready for where this is headed.”
“I…”
Her hesitation told me what she could not put into words, and I was glad I’d made myself stop before it was too late. I wanted her. God, I’d never wanted anyone this much, but I wouldn’t take her like this. If I had to be strong for the both of us, I would. Even if it killed me.