I held out my hand. “Give me your phone.”
“What? Why?” His mouth dropped open. “You think I called him?”
“It’s not outside the realm of possibility.”
“You’re climbing up the wrong tree. The werewolf is the likely suspect. If his job was to get you here, he’s completed his task. It makes sense he would find some petty excuse to take off and get out of the line of fire.”
What he said made sense, but I dismissed it within half a second. Yet the delay was enough to tip up the corners of his mouth. Damn him! I jerked my hand toward him. “Your phone.”
He held his hands out at his sides. “My right front pocket. Come get it.”
I cursed again, which brought a burst of laughter from him.
He dropped his hands and gave me a satisfied smirk. “That’s what I thought.”
Perhaps he was amused, but I was not. Holding his gaze, I strode toward him. I kept my gaze neutral as I stopped in front of him and reached into his pocket. His eyes danced as my fingertips brushed his inner thigh. I pulled the phone out, keeping my face a blank slate.
“Enjoy feeling me up, Rachel?”
“I’m sorry,” I quipped, swiping his phone screen. “Was there something in there to feel?”
He laughed again and tried to take the phone from me, but I held it out of his reach.
“I just want to enter my password.”
“Just tell me.”
“Four-one-six-two.”
I opened the phone app as soon as the screen unlocked. Most of the entries in the call list belonged to one name. “Who’s Skylar?”
“Have we moved to the next phase of our relationship? We’re now ready to share our friends with each other?”
“Cut the shit, Antonio. Who’s Skylar?”
“I told you. My friend.”
“I had no idea guys were so chatty with each other on the phone.” I looked up to stare into his face. “You talked to him six times the day I met Hades.”
“I’ve made no secret I was watching you. And I’ve told you I work for an organization that oversees supernatural creatures. I’m not sure what you think I’m hiding.”
“Your duplicity mocks everything I shared with you today.” God, I was so stupid.
He moved closer and lowered his voice. “Rachel, there is no greater honor than avenging your friend’s death. I swear on my life I was sincere when I said I would help you. I have not betrayed you, but there’s a good chance someone has. Entering this facility was dangerous in the first place. Now there’s a good chance we’re walking into a trap. We can hole up and wait a few days. It’s probably advisable.”
I studied him, certain he was bullshitting me, but the earnestness in his eyes told me otherwise.
There might be hope for him yet.
“No, it has to be tonight. Something big is going down and we have to stop it. End of the beginning and all that shit Hades said.”
He nodded. “Then we do it tonight. Which tunnel do you want to enter?”
I took a breath and grabbed the map. My finger tracked the facility grounds and then pointed to a tunnel entrance on the northeast side. “Derrick seemed to think this entrance was the most easily accessible, but his intel was nearly a year old. Everything could have changed by now.”
“Your call,” he said, his gaze on the map. “I trust you in this.”
I took a deep breath and pushed it out. “Let’s get ready.”
We’d already prepared a battery of weapons and explosives, so we grabbed our packs. As I slid my straps over my shoulders, Antonio held out several stakes.
When he saw my irritation, he shoved them toward me. “Don’t let your stubbornness get you killed. You need to be prepared to defend yourself against every type of enemy.”
I agreed with everything he said, but I was worried about two supernatural creatures in particular. “Fine, but if we see Lea or Ivan, you have to swear not to kill them.”
“They betrayed you.”
“You don’t know any such thing. Swear it. On your life.”
He handed me a blade, then covered my hand with his, staring into my eyes. “I swear on my life I will not kill Lea or Ivan tonight.”
I jerked loose. “I caught the ‘not tonight.’ Just so we’re perfectly clear, any time after midnight still counts as tonight.”
A slight grin lit up his mouth. “Agreed.”
We crossed the dunes in no time and made a wide sweep around the perimeter of the building. When we got to the tunnel entrance, we studied it for signs of movement.
“Derrick’s intel still holds,” Antonio said, lowering the binoculars and handing them to me. “Only one guard.”
I grabbed the binoculars and peered through them. “I don’t want to kill him.”
“That’s ridiculous. He’ll die in the blast anyway.”
“Probably not. He’d be far enough from the blast.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. This is your mission, so I’ll do it your way.” He gave me a knowing look. “But next time we’ll do it mine.”
“There will be no next time.”
“We’ll see.” He stuffed the binoculars into his backpack. “So what’s your plan?”
“Shoot him with a tranq dart. I found a gun in the back of the truck.”
He shook his head, his dislike for my plan evident. “Your circus. You take the lead. I’ll follow.”
“What about the cameras?”
“They make a sweep, so once it moves past us, we’ll take him out and run for the entrance. I’ll tell you when.”
We waited for nearly a minute before he said, “Take him out.”
I was surprised he didn’t question whether I could make the shot—he just accepted I could. I got the guard in my sight and squeezed, thankful when he staggered and then crumpled to the ground.
“Go!” Antonio took off running for the entrance, and I followed. He tugged the key card from the guard’s shirt and handed it to me to hold over the card reader.
When door slid open, Antonio dragged the guard into the empty hallway. “We need to find a place to stash him.”
“How about there?” I asked, pointing to a door. It had been listed as a janitor’s closet on the schematic. To my relief, that was correct.
“Where to?” Antonio asked after he dropped the guard’s legs on the floor in the closet.
“This way.”
The plans indicated the laboratory was close to the ventilation room. It couldn’t hurt to see what I could discover. The reporter in me couldn’t help it.
We’d gone down a flight of stairs and made it around a corner when I heard voices. I grabbed Antonio’s arm and tugged him toward a nearby door. To my relief, it was unlocked. I dragged him in with me, though I almost regretted it when I discovered we were in another cleaning supply cabinet.
Antonio gave me a ghost of a smile as his chest pressed against mine and his arm snaked around my back, pulling me closer. But his body was tense as he strained to hear the conversation from the hallway. I wasn’t surprised to hear them conversing in English.
“—difficult to be done in time,” a woman said, her voice growing louder.
“I don’t care,” a man responded in a short tone. “The time table has been accelerated and it happens tonight.”
“Sir, the suits haven’t been fully tested,” the woman protested. “Our people might not be protected.”
“Ms. Danvers, we are about to annihilate an entire village of two hundred and thirty men, women, and children. There are always casualties in war. We shall deal with losses, even if some are on our side. Is the antidote ready?”
“We think so.” She sounded flustered.
“Then put the antidote in the canisters like we discussed and hose them down. That should be sufficient.”
“But it hasn’t been fully tested. Can I offer a suggestion?”
He sighed. “Yes.”
“Your original plan was to drop a bomb with the toxin in it. But what
if you send in a tank and spray the village? I think it will help with the problem of the toxin getting caught in the wind and carried to a nearby village.”
The man was quiet for several seconds. “Fine, it’s a good idea. Make sure everything is in motion within the hour.” Their voices faded and Antonio looked down at me, his mouth pressed into a tight line.
Suddenly, this thing had gotten a whole lot bigger.
CHAPTER 29
LEA
The T intersection in front of us beckoned along with Ivan’s scent. And the scent of several other werewolves. But there were no signs of struggle, no claw marks dug into the walls; worse, there was no smell of a struggle. Ivan’s adrenaline should have been through the roof, throwing off a scent trail so strong, a blind man could have followed it.
But there was barely a whiff of him.
“He went willingly,” Calvin confirmed. “This place is good at bringing people in without a struggle. They’ve perfected it.”
“How?”
“Was his pack taken at some point? I assume so, since he’s here with you.” Calvin looked down the left hand branch of the intersection, then ducked back. “Camera.”
I nodded. “Yes, his entire pack was killed, but...” The conversation I’d seen in Rachel’s memory was so strong. The way Ivan had spoken of his wife, the pain on his face.
“He’d have followed her anywhere,” I whispered. And the truth slammed into me like a ten-inch silver stake.
I was a fucking moron.
I swung a hand at Calvin, grabbing him around the throat and lifting him off the floor. “And you were my bait, I suppose?”
He scrabbled at my hands, but Ivan’s blood still sang in my veins, making me stronger than Calvin by ten-fold. As if he were a mere human again.
“Not like that,” he bit out. “Helping.”
I tightened my hold and then threw him into the T-intersection, slamming his body into the far wall hard enough to send him through it. A high-pitched alarm went off, and a chorus of howling sounded from the depths of the facility, carried to us through the filtration vents.
“You’re going to get us both killed!” Calvin slowly pulled himself out of the hole. “I swear I can get you to them!”
“And then walk me right into a trap? I think not, my friend.” Madre de Dios, I was a fool’s fool. I had more than one problem. I couldn’t leave Calvin loose. He’d already confessed he was doing his master’s bidding.
But I wasn’t sure I could kill him, in spite of our agreement. Even I wasn’t that cold. He took a slow side step away from me as his eyes widened. “You can’t kill me, Lea. Not yet. I’m not done yet.”
“You know the rules, Cal. No witnesses.”
His eyes widened as I leapt at him and tackled him to the floor. We rolled down the hall, fists flying hard and fast. I pulled a stake from the top of my boot and drove it into his shoulder, twisting it until it ground against bone.
Calvin screamed, his body arching under the silver. “Fuck!”
I left the stake where it was and steeled myself. “I’m sorry, Calvin.” And drove my fangs into his exposed neck. I drew down his blood, gulping it until I felt as full as a bloated tick, my body barely able to contain everything I took. Sweet blood, the blood of my friend and the one person I’d trusted for so long. Tears trickled down my cheeks. I was the monster he’d accused me of being so many times.
I unlatched my mouth from his neck and his eyes flickered. I’d taken enough to make him too weak to follow me, but not enough to kill him. Even now, I couldn’t make myself end his life.
“Damn you,” he whispered.
“I am damned, no need to remind me.” I rose and lifted him easily into my arms. I slid into the first open door I found and settled him inside the room. Until someone came along, he’d be going nowhere. “If I can, I’ll come back for you.”
He glared at me and I shrugged.
“No, you won’t.” He said.
I didn’t argue with him, just bent and took his pass card from around his neck. I couldn’t say goodbye, not again. So I backed out the door and closed it softly. A distant howl caught my ears.
A howl I knew all too well.
“Fuck it all, Ivan,” I snarled. “You’re going to get us all killed.”
I sprinted down the hall, following his scent to a wide open room—a small ballroom by the looks of it. But why would there be a ballroom in a facility like this one? I took one step inside before the room’s lights dimmed. I froze and watched as an image flickered to life in front of me, about halfway across the open space. A tall auburn-haired woman with pale gray eyes smiled at me.
“Ivan.” She breathed his name and held a hand out to me. “My love, come to me.” She glanced over her shoulder, a full body shudder rippling over her. The scent of roses and fear wafted into the room.
Fuck, whoever had put this hologram together was good. I could see the glimmer of sweat on her brow, the flicker of uncertainty in her eye, even the twitch of her muscles as she seemed to fight something.
I held my ground and she went to her knees, pleading. “Ivan, don’t leave me here. Please!” The words sang between us. She tried to move toward me on her hands and knees and then flipped onto her back, her whole body convulsing as if electricity were being run through it. “IVAN!”
From below us came a howl full of pain and grief.
“Fuck, this is going to get ugly.”
Unraveling the rope from my waist, I tied it around both sides of the doorknob behind me and then made a slip knot on the other end. I grabbed the knot and tightened it around my wrist, grabbing the rope as well.
I gritted my teeth and walked toward the image of Ivan’s wife. Each step I took shuddered beneath me—a portent of what I knew was coming. Ivan would have run to her, never noticing the shift in the floor.
As I reached her, the image flickered and went out, and the floor dropped out below me. I swung down into the darkness. The jerk at the end of the line snapped my body sideways and I slammed into a slick metal wall.
“Ivan.”
Something shifted below me, and I looked down. There were four werewolves, three with glowing red eyes. Their bodies were hulking, huge and covered in dark fur. Except for the one whose coat was several shades lighter. He looked up at me with a pair of chartreuse eyes I had grown rather fond of.
“Ivan, move it, wolf. Despite my propensity for a long life, I’m not going to wait forever.”
He leapt up to me, his claws digging into my hips. I gritted my teeth, biting the words out. “Get your ass up here.”
He climbed up my body, pausing only to lick my cheek before continuing up. A lick from a werewolf should not have made me smile.
Damn the grin on my face.
As soon as he was above me, I started up after him. And was grabbed from below by a set of teeth that clamped into my left foot. “Let go, you fucker!”
I lifted that one foot high enough that I could slash at the werewolf with my free hand. The silver stake cut across his face diagonally, popping one of his eyeballs. Screaming, he fell back to the ground with a thud.
Then the rope jerked upward and I was out of the hole in a matter of seconds.
Ivan’s body had returned to his human form. And he was buck fucking naked. I snapped my eyes upward, doing my best to un-see what I’d seen.
“Come on, we have to get back to Rachel,” I said. “Knowing her, she’s already on her way. I’ve been gone for almost forty-five minutes.”
“Why did you come for me?”
I untied the rope and pushed past him. “We’ve got to move.”
“Lea, why did you come for me?”
I could have lied, could have told him he was just a part of the team. That Rachel had made me come after him.
I spun around, grabbed his face and kissed him. His arms wrapped around me, crushing me to him. I pulled back after a few seconds. “Because.”
“Because?” He grinned, and there he was. The wolf I�
��d first met in the taxi.
“Yeah. Because. No gloating. Let’s get Rachel, kill Stravinsky and blow this place the fuck up.”
“I notice there was no mention of finding clothes for me,” he said.
“I assumed that was automatically on the list.”
He snorted. “I think you like the show.”
“Well, you certainly like giving it.”
He burst out laughing. “Oh, Lea. Every time I think I have you pegged, you surprise me.”
We were already out of the ballroom, headed back the way I’d come. He grabbed my shoulder and tugged me back toward the last intersection, his nose in the air. “Wait.”
Oh, fuck no. “Don’t tell me she’s in here already.”
He grimaced and shrugged. “Both of them. She’s got Antonio with her. And there are wolves on her ass if I’m smelling right.”
I pushed him. “Go, go!” Another time I would have enjoyed the view, but fear coursed through me. Rachel was already in here, and with only Antonio to help her...Madre de Dios, we were all going to die.
CHAPTER 30
RACHEL
“We have to set those explosives and get the fuck out of here,” Antonio hissed in my ear.
“Not until we stop them from killing those people.”
He grabbed my shoulders and leaned back to look into my face. “How do you propose we do that?”
“I don’t know, but I have to at least try.” I tried to jerk loose, but he held me in place.
“Stop and think this through. There are only two of us against all of them. It’s one thing to sneak in here and set explosives, but it’s another thing entirely to take them head on.”
“Then you go set the explosives, and I’ll take on the other mission.”
He cursed in Spanish, then pulled me closer. “And if I drag you out of here?”
I snorted. “You can try, but I highly doubt you’ll be capable of fathering children if you do.” His hesitation irritated the shit out of me. “You would seriously let them kill those people?”
“It’s not like I’m pulling the trigger,” he said defensively. “And if the odds were even slightly bent in our favor, I would consider it. But it’s a suicide mission. If we do this, then we run the risk that we won’t get to set the explosives. If we don’t destroy this place, a lot more villages will be destroyed.”
Replica (The Blood Borne Series Book 2) Page 17