“They might,” he said. “Let’s hope they do. It might give us some leverage.”
“Jeremy will have thought of that.”
“Maybe not. His experiments haven’t been that successful.”
“He has the two of us.”
Dante offered her an evil smile. “Not yet, he doesn’t.”
Xandra nodded and pulled out another of the drawers in her wardrobe. This one contained a lethal-looking collection of knives. She strapped twin sheaths on each arm and added silver-plated knives.
Dante whistled. “I’m so not touching you again until you take all that off.”
“Hopefully, tonight will be the last time I ever have to wear any of this.” She closed the doors on the wardrobe. “It might be the last time I’m able to.”
He glanced at the innocuous closet that could have graced anyone’s bedroom without attracting a second glance. “I guess your neighbors don’t know what you do for a living?”
She shook her head. “Only Alix knows. As soon as we have her back, I’m walking away from all of this forever.”
“Let’s hope you have the chance,” Dante said.
Xandra pulled her hair back and quickly braided it into a French braid to keep it out of her face and make it less of a target should anyone want to yank on it. Just in case, she secured it with a silver clasp. Her leather jacket would protect her from the metal.
She adjusted the ammo belt slung across her shoulders and stuck the handguns in the holsters at the small of her back and under her jacket. She clipped the two water pistols to her belt and secured a small metal thermos of holy water as a backup.
Then she loaded another handgun and held it out butt first to Dante. He checked his own weapon and then took the one she offered. “Silver bullets?” he asked skeptically.
“Wood-tipped,” she answered. He seemed to like the idea of wood better. He took the gun, made sure the safety was on and then stuffed it into the waist of his jeans.
Reaching for the ceramic dish on the top of her bureau where she kept her car keys, Xandra stopped. Crafted in the shape of the sun, the dish had always been one of her favorites. If Dante stayed in her life, would she ever see the sun again? Was she even now changing, becoming closer to what he was?
An augmented butane lighter lay beside her keys. After a second’s hesitation, she took the lighter, just in case. It was compact, but it had been modified to produce a bigger flame. She snatched up the keys and turned to face Dante. “Let’s go.” She’d worry about the new turn her life had taken when Alix was safe.
Dante clasped her shoulders. “Xandra, if we don’t have a chance to talk later—”
She placed a finger against his lips. “Shh. We will talk about it later.”
“There might not be a later.”
“There will be,” she told him. And fervently wished it that would be true.
He followed her out of the bedroom and down the metal stairs to her front hall. After a cautious glance out the front door, he nodded. “The sun is setting. We can leave without protection.”
She locked the door behind her and headed down the steps. Even though the sun lingered on the horizon, it still seemed unusually bright. She tried to ignore it and strode across the parking lot to where her Hummer was parked.
Dante burst out laughing at the sight of the bright yellow vehicle. “Couldn’t you have bought a more inconspicuous color?”
“Like what?”
“Black.”
Xandra shook her head. “It appealed to my sense of humor.”
She unlocked the doors and swung up into the driver’s seat. Leaning out the window, she nodded to Dante.
“Well, Officer? Hop in.”
Chapter Fourteen
Xandra pulled out of her parking lot and onto the street. She groped for the sunglasses she usually kept on the dashboard, even though the sun had slipped a little lower on the horizon. Immediately she felt relief. She noted Dante had pulled a pair of his own out of his jacket pocket.
“I’m going to check in with the force and make sure we’ve got some backup on our tails.” He fumbled in his pockets for his cell phone.
“No!” Her hands tightened on the steering wheel. She couldn’t let her attention wane and allow the Hummer to drift into another lane. “Jeremy said to come alone, just the two of us.”
“Don’t worry,” Dante assured her. “They’ll stay far back.”
Normally she would have permitted him to arrange for reinforcements. But Jeremy had learned much in his years in the military. He’d be watching.
“Jeremy will know. We can’t take that kind of chance with Alix’s life.”
He shot her a look of annoyance. As a police officer, he was used to having the law on his side and an entire force available if necessary. “Okay, I’ll tell them to assemble—” he held up a hand for patience, “—at another location. Somewhere not too far away.”
Xandra turned onto the highway. The sun crept closer to the horizon. She took off her sunglasses. “I’d feel better if it was just us two.”
“There’s no way we can guess the outcome of this thing. If it goes south suddenly, we might need the police to rescue Alix.” He glanced at her and his mouth tightened at her stubbornness. “Sometimes you just can’t beat brute strength.”
He had a point. What if they arrived at the old candy factory to find themselves outnumbered? She knew from painful experience that Jeremy wasn’t the kind of guy who’d willingly give up anything. Losing rankled deeply within him. He’d try to keep Alix and recover her and Dante.
Who knew what kind of unsavory plans he had for them? Memories of being trapped in the alleyway, completely buried under a mountain of feral vampires flooded unwillingly into her mind. Had Jeremy rigged that entire encounter? Did his promised backup never arrive in time because he was testing her?
“Okay,” she said finally. “Assemble your troops. Keep them out of sight until we know what we’re dealing with here.”
Dante looked relieved. He punched a series of numbers into his cell phone and gave the orders. Xandra gunned the engine as they hit the on ramp to the highway and headed for the outskirts of town and the abandoned candy factory.
Dante watched her as she drove. She operated the Hummer like a woman possessed, weaving in and out of traffic despite the vehicle’s size. He had to admire her for that. Instead of fearing for herself, she concentrated her worry on freeing her friend. Loyalty was truly one of her virtues. It had to hurt that she’d given so much of that misplaced devotion to Jeremy.
And now that he knew that about her, it troubled him that he had suspected her motives. That he’d gone to the clinic unsure whether he’d be taking her home or taking her out.
That Xandra seemed like a distant phantom to him. Now that he knew the living, breathing woman, she’d become more than a curiosity to him. At first he’d been suspicious of the shadowy figure who hunted those of his kind. But once he’d met the vampire hunter, he’d been intrigued. And inexplicably drawn to her.
All his life he’d straddled two worlds. Daylight forever separated him from his human half. And yet the life of most vampires didn’t quite appeal to him either. In Xandra he’d found his mirror image. The two of them had been created by human meddling in the natural order of things. They were the only two who could understand each other.
Still, Xandra meant far more to him than that. What had started as wary intrigue had grown into respect and…love.
Eyes on the road and her attention occupied by the struggle to come, she wasn’t aware of his scrutiny. But he recognized what his heart had been trying to tell him. He loved her. He knew that with a calm certainty.
They would walk away from this struggle together. Now that they’d found each other, he refused to believe it could end any other way.
***
The sun lay squashed against the horizon like a flattened tomato by the time they pulled onto the rough gravel road that led to the old warehouse. The factory had o
nce been one of the most profitable businesses in town until the owner had suddenly gone broke and the property had fallen into ruin. For the first time she wondered about Jeremy’s connection to the place. Had the owner of the candy factory been one of the investors in his perverted scheme?
Against the drama of the red sky, the factory looked dark and foreboding. Glass lay strewn across the gravel. Most of the windows on the first floor had been broken. Squatters had invaded the building by pulling the wooden planks off the doors and boarded-up windows. Careful of the glass and loose nails and splinters of wood, Xandra pulled the Hummer up on the periphery of the property and stopped. For a few minutes they merely watched the building. If Jeremy or Alix was inside, there was no sign.
Reaching into the glove compartment, Xandra pulled out a pair of binoculars. Squinting into them, she studied the factory. “Nothing.” She handed them to Dante.
He gazed through the twin lenses, using the optics to enhance his already heightened vision. But after a minute he shook his head and offered them back to her.
In the gathering darkness Xandra was suddenly aware her night vision was far better than it had been. She could see almost as far without the binoculars. But she took another look with them just in case.
Something moved against the side of the building, almost imperceptible in the growing shadows, a figure wearing torn clothing nearly the same color as the blackened old brick. “There!” she said suddenly, making Dante jump.
His own gaze focused on the side of the factory nearest to them. “More than one,” he said tersely.
She didn’t need the binoculars now to see that an entire army of feral vampires crept toward them. Out of the shadows, they crawled along the side of the building. What she’d taken for lumps of discarded lumber turned out to be the disheveled and wild remnants of Jeremy’s experiments. She felt at once repulsed and outraged. How dare he play games with people’s lives? Those horrible things had once been people like her. And she’d bet a good number of them hadn’t volunteered for the project. Knowing Jeremy, he’d likely found devious means of acquiring his test subjects.
No matter how they’d been coerced into participating in Jeremy’s experiments, those creatures were now creeping toward the Hummer like a rising flood, obviously intent on doing them harm.
Dante pulled his cell phone back out of his pocket. Quickly he punched in some numbers. “Rodriguez,” she heard him say. “Looks like we’ll be needing those reinforcements. Stand by.”
“We have to get into that factory.”
“I think we should wait.”
“If we wait we might lose our only chance at catching Jeremy off guard and rescuing Alix.”
Dante drew in a long breath. Bracing a hand against the ceiling of the Hummer, he nodded, understanding what she meant to do.
Xandra gunned the engine.
Feral vampires scattered in a wave of flailing limbs and torn clothing. They dug their yellow talons into the crumbling brickwork and scrambled up the walls so they could drop like bugs onto the Hummer’s roof. Still more leapt for the sides of the car.
The vehicle swerved as Xandra fought for control. It careened into the side of the building, pinning several of the feral vamps against the brick. She heard their shrieks of pain and outrage as they fell to the ground.
She cut the steering wheel the other way, throwing more from the hood where they were attempting to break the Hummer’s windows. Dante reached into his jacket and pulled out his badge. He slammed it against the glass.
Vampires paused in their onslaught. At the sight of their liaison’s badge, they drew back momentarily. Then, with defiant hissing, they continued using the windshield wipers as purchase to climb up farther onto the moving vehicle.
“So much for your leverage,” Xandra observed wryly as she tried to wrestle the vehicle back under control. Feral vampires thumped against the roof, using their superior strength in an attempt to bash their way through. It might take them a while, Xandra thought, but with enough brute strength and enough time, they just might do it.
More feral vamps climbed onto the driver’s side of the Hummer. Xandra unclipped one of the turbo water pistols loaded with holy water from her belt. She tossed it to Dante. “On my mark. I’ll hit the power windows and you fire. I’ll try to dislodge them.”
With another furtive glance at the bunch on the hood, he nodded.
“Now!”
Freeing a hand from the steering wheel, she slammed it against the switch for the power window. The stench of their unwashed, rotting bodies instantly filled the car. A long-nailed hand covered in a filthy black sleeve snaked inside. Xandra ducked.
Dante fired a stream of holy water at the narrow crevice. He had good aim, she thought with appreciation. The smell of rotted, burning flesh nearly choked her.
“Stay down!” he ordered. “I don’t know if the holy water will affect you.” She did as he said.
Shrieking, the feral vampire lost his grip on the window. Dante sprayed the stream of holy water back and forth at the rest. Putrid steam rose from the vampires’ flesh. Hissing, they let go. Xandra thumbed the switch to close the window.
But they still had the horde on top of the Hummer to deal with. Not to mention the bunch on the hood.
Raising her head, Xandra took stock of their whereabouts. They had nearly cleared the side of the factory, but the vampires showed no sign of leaving. Time to encourage them to.
“Hold on!”
Dante opened his mouth to ask something. She hit the brakes, pitching them both forward against the seatbelts. He braced his arm against the dash.
Caught off guard, the vampires on the hood grappled madly for traction. Their nails scraped against the bright yellow paint job as they fell from their perch. One last holdout attempted to grasp the windshield wipers. Finally they snapped, sending the vampire careening off.
Another ominous thump echoed off the roof. Dante pulled a gun, the one Xandra had loaded with wood-tipped bullets. Raising it toward the roof, he looked at her questioningly. The interior of the vehicle was already dented from their persistent hammering.
Xandra sighed. “Might as well. Looks like I’m going to be doing a ton of repairs when this is over.”
She cranked the wheel, turning around the back of the factory, looking for an entrance.
Listening intently, Dante waited for the next bang. When it came he placed the gun against the roof and fired. Through the metal they heard a vampire screech in pain. Its fellows took up hammering with renewed intensity.
He fired again. Xandra’s ears rang from the gun going off in close quarters. Another feral vamp fell from the roof. She imagined their bodies turning black with decay until they left nothing but black ooze in their place. But she couldn’t spare a glance from her driving to see what had become of the felled vampires.
Dante fired again, dislodging another.
She cranked the steering wheel sharply to the left, throwing another feral vamp onto the gravel. Dante aimed the gun and sent another wood-tipped bullet through the roof. Xandra heard a thump, then silence from above. A glance in the rearview mirror showed a black lump lying motionless on the gravel.
Ahead loomed the entrance to the factory. They might not get another unencumbered shot at it. She gave Dante a questioning look. “I’m afraid it’s now or never.”
He nodded. “Let’s go.”
Xandra slammed her foot down on the brake. The Hummer lurched to a sudden stop. She cut the motor and grabbed the keys, hoping the vehicle might still be operational when they returned.
If they returned.
Making sure all her weapons were in place, she leapt from the cab, Dante hot on her heels. He wrenched the dented metal door open, admitting them to the darkness of the factory inside.
His hand closed on her shoulder, holding her back from rushing into the gloom. Though she could see better in the dark than she ever could, his touch urged her to be cautious. She scanned the shadows.
On
ly a spattering of moonlight came from broken windows above. She smelled dust, dampness and an underlying odor of rot. A persistent dripping sound came from a shrouded corner. Then, beneath the splash of water, she heard it—the skittering of a multitude of feet.
Dante whirled. Putting their backs together, they spun, looking for the source of the sound. The patter grew closer.
“Light,” Dante whispered.
Xandra reached inside her jacket. Her fingers located the smooth plastic of the butane lighter. Fire could be an asset where vampires were concerned. She usually carried some kind of flame maker on maneuvers.
With a flick of the lighter, the factory blossomed into light…to reveal a fence of feral vampires surrounding them.
She took the offensive, slashing out with the lighter’s flame. It caught the jacket of the nearest vampire. His threadbare clothing caught fire. Shrieking, he batted at the flames, blackening the flesh of his hands in the process. The others skittered back and regarded them nervously.
Glazed red eyes stared back at her from their slack-jawed faces. They seemed more like mindless ghouls than the feral vampires who had attacked them outside. In his desperation to preserve his work, Jeremy had clearly gotten reckless. He’d stepped up his experiments. But instead of producing hybrids like Xandra and Dante, this was the result.
Torn from their lives, Jeremy’s test subjects had forgotten all about things as natural as bathing and grooming. They still wore the clothes they’d been wearing when they were transformed. A couple wore hospital gowns, the backs gaping open to reveal their decaying gray flesh. Others were dressed in business attire. One woman still sported a navy suit and matching pumps. Splashes of blood marred their clothes and stained their mouths. No self-respecting vampire would be caught undead that way, Xandra thought darkly. The horde stared back at them like they were the opening course at a buffet.
It felt like the alleyway all over again.
Beyond the circle of the lighter’s glow, she heard the scuffle of more footsteps approaching.
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