Renegade (Shadow Realms): An Urban Fantasy Dragon Shifter Romance

by Amber Ella Monroe

  A handful of men were already laid out on the ground when she and Melrose arrived on the scene. Gunfire and screams could be heard coming from the inside of the lobby. So much gunfire and no way to tell if the people she loved were okay.

  “Elaina?” Melrose urged her forward. “We have to keep moving. Vicq can take care of himself on that end.”

  Elaina swallowed down the lump of panic in her throat and rushed for the side door. Someone, either on her dad’s side or Vicq’s side, must have had the same idea because the door was already propped open and a dead guard lay bleeding out beside it.

  They moved into the admin offices, flanking each other and anticipating any harmful threats. Whoever had reached this side of the hallway first had already done the utmost damage and had left a line of armed security personnel as their victims along the hallway.

  “Hey!” someone shouted at them from behind and opened fire.

  Elaina shifted out of the way just in time as a spray of bullets lit up the hallway. She pulled her Beretta and aimed for the gunman’s lower half. The bullet caught him in the feet just in time, and he was brought to his knees. Before he could lift his revolver again, Melrose approached from behind and snapped his neck.

  “Let’s go,” Elaina called out.

  She moved into the next room, which turned out to be a storage closet of some sort. Boxes of office supplies lined the wall, and reams of paper were stacked high alongside a printer.

  “It’s clear,” Melrose said after circling the room.

  They moved on to the next room, but the door was locked. They kicked it in and were greeted by a pair of screaming women.

  They held their hands up and huddled together under a desk. “Please don’t kill us.”

  “We’re not here to kill you,” Melrose said. “Get up and against the wall. Put your hands out in front of you and keep them that way.”

  They complied with Melrose’s demands as they checked the room from top to bottom.

  “What do you two do here?” Elaina asked one of the women.

  “We’re secretaries to the VP,” one of them said. “We just answer calls and sort mail for him. That’s all we do. We’ve got nothing to do with the other stuff.”

  “Where are the HR files?” Elaina asked.

  The women glanced at each other apprehensively.

  Elaina closed the distance between them. “Where?”

  “Out the door and turn right. The last room down the hall. In the owner’s suites.”

  “When I leave, I want you to close the door, and don’t come out until the police show up.”

  The women nodded.

  Melrose and Elaina proceeded down the halls until they reached a larger room labeled suite 500. The current owner’s name was engraved on a plate on the door.

  “Mr. Stewart Reynolds,” Melrose read. “Have you met this guy?”

  “No. I was never allowed past this point,” she replied.

  Elaina kicked the door open, instantly taking in her surroundings. At first, the suite appeared to be unoccupied, but then they noticed some movement coming from a dark conference room in the back corner. She drowned out everything around her and refocused her sense of hearing. Sure enough, she picked up on the heartbeats of one panicked soul.

  “Hear that?” Elaina mouthed to Melrose.

  Melrose nodded and pointed her gun toward the right side of the conference room where Elaina had first seen the shadowy movements.

  The person in the room fired a gun, shattering the glass dividing the room. Elaina and Melrose ducked out of the way as shots were fired haphazardly from the conference area.

  Melrose made a sign for Elaina to stay behind and shifted into the conference area. Clashing and tumbling noises erupted only moments later before gunfire began again and a woman’s screams sliced through the room.

  Elaina vaulted inside just in time to spot the red laser aimed at Melrose’s head. She reacted just in time, pushing Melrose from the direct line of fire, only to catch a bullet in her right arm instead.

  Elaina swung around to face the gunman, who had a hostage shielding him.

  “Shoot and she’s dead,” the man said.

  “Can’t you fight your own battles?” Elaina asked.

  “Two vampires against a human?” He chuckled. “I’m not stupid.”

  “Well, then…that means you’ve already lost, so why are you wasting our time?”

  He tugged the woman closer to his chest, pushed the gun deeper into her side, and she squealed in fright.

  “This won’t end well,” he mumbled. “You might as well run while you can. My men are coming.”

  “End well for whom?”

  “The both of you. All of you vampires who dare raid my company.”

  “You sure about that?” she asked.

  He grimaced. “Do you know what we do to you creatures?”

  “I’m aware. Who are you?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “It’s him, the owner. Mr. Reynolds. The girl said his name already,” Melrose exclaimed.

  Elaina grinned. “You’re just the man I want to see, Mr. Reynolds. Have a seat so we can talk.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know you.”

  “Well, you should,” Elaina said. “And I’m getting ready to rectify that.”

  “You can start with your name,” he stuttered.

  “No, you don’t get to make demands. I’m running the show here. I’m going to give you ten seconds to drop the gun, let the girl go, and have a fucking seat.”

  “Who do you think you are? Coming up in h—”

  Elaina lifted her Beretta and aimed. “Ten. Nine…”

  Mr. Reynolds backed up and fumbled for something in his pocket with his free hand. A cell phone dropped from his pocket, and a voice came through on the other end. “Chief Reynolds? Mr. Reynolds? You still there. We’re getting picked off…”

  The voice faded away.

  “Five, four…”

  “If you shoot, she’s dead.”

  Elaina fired the weapon. The gun Mr. Reynolds was holding clamored to the floor, and he dropped to his knees and cried out in pain.

  The woman raced to the other corner of the room. Melrose grabbed hold of her, preventing further escape.

  “Why are you doing this to me?” Mr. Reynolds wailed.

  “That wasn’t even a major artery, Mr. Reynolds. Or should I call you Chief?” Elaina laughed.

  “Look, I’m sorry. I’ll let all the vampires go,” he proclaimed, holding his hands up in defeat. Blood dripped from the bullet wound in his arm onto the floor.

  “It’s too late for that, and you had plenty of time to right your wrongs. Now get up and go sit,” she said.

  Mr. Reynolds stumbled a few times before he made it across the room. He pulled out a chair and slumped down into it.

  “My men are coming for me, ya know,” he said. “You’ll never make it out of here alive.”

  “Let them come.” Elaina opened up her vest. “I have enough bullets for all of them.”

  Mr. Reynolds visibly swallowed, and his gaze shifted to the door as if he expected someone to come save him at any moment.

  “What do you do here?” Elaina asked the girl, keeping an eye on Mr. Reynolds.

  “I just started last month. I’m Mr. Reynolds’ personal assistant.”

  “Really? You use your personal assistant as a shield? I never really got to know you, Mr. Reynolds, but that’s pretty lowdown and dirty.”

  Mr. Reynolds frowned.

  “And your name?”

  “Monica.”

  “Monica, do you have access to the file vault over there?” Elaina said, pointing to the opposite end of the wall where a bookcase had been slid aside to reveal a filing cabinet built into the wall.

  Mr. Reynolds rose from his cheer. “No!”

  Elaina fired her Beretta and Mr. Reynolds nearly toppled over backward in his chair.

  “Stay,” she said.

  He sat down. />
  “Well, do you,” Elaina asked.

  Monica nodded.

  “Open it,” Elaina demanded.

  Melrose nudged Monica toward the vault. The girl then turned back around to study the disapproval on Mr. Reynolds’ face.

  “I’ll lose my job,” she said under her breath.

  Melrose dug the gun into Monica and said, “When this is all over with, no one will have a job here. Don’t you hear that?” She paused as gunshots echoed through the hallway. “Sounds like a total takeover to me. Open the damn vault.”

  Monica pressed her palm to the keypad and a file drawer immediately popped open.

  “Which cabinet contains the personnel records?” Elaina asked.

  Monica pointed to a drawer near the bottom.

  “Seeing that we don’t have much time before Mr. Reynolds’ backup arrives, you’re going to follow my instructions. If you so much as hesitate, I’ll put a bullet in Mr. Reynolds’ heart and you will be responsible for his death,” Elaina told Monica. “You got that?”

  She nodded her head.

  “Retrieve the file on Stewart Reynolds and bring it to me.”

  “No, no, no,” Mr. Reynolds exclaimed.

  Monica pulled the file drawer open and brought the accordion file to the conference table where she plopped it down in front of Elaina.

  “Are older records kept here?” Elaina asked.

  “Some of them. Not all.”

  “Give me what you see there for Chrishauna Arakelian.”

  Mr. Reynolds sat up straight in his chair. “Arakelian?” There was a small hint of recognition in his voice as he spoke.

  “Yes, Arakelian,” Elaina said. “Do you know something about that name?”

  “Are you…?” Mr. Reynolds’ gaze narrowed. “Well, I’ll be damned. I thought you looked familiar. You know you’ve got a lot of nerve coming back here.”

  “You know who I am?” she asked.

  “The one and only, Elaina Arakelian. D-33,” he said. “How’s life treating you?”

  “What do you know of me?”

  He pointed to the file Monica tossed on the table. “More than that file will tell you. It’s been over twenty years. Do you think we would have kept information about your whoring mother here that long?”

  Elaina’s anger rose, and she grabbed Mr. Reynolds so hard about the collar that he almost choked.

  “Do you know something about my mother?”

  He nodded, but his face reddened from lack of oxygen.

  “Start talking.”

  He pointed to Elaina’s grip on his collar.

  Elaina let him go and put some space between them.

  “Where to begin…” he drawled.

  “What happened to my mother?” she asked.

  “Which one?”

  Elaina grimaced. “So, you really do know me?”

  “Of course. I studied your files. You did impressive work here until you got mixed up with the vamps. And when we found out about your blood, your value tripled three times over. It’s too bad that you’re a disposable asset since you’re one of them now.”

  “Tell me about my birth mother.”

  “She was an illegal immigrant. The only way that she could stay in this country was if she worked for the District. We ensured that she never got deported back to her mother country, where apparently, she was wanted for murder.”

  “Murder?”

  Mr. Reynolds shrugged. “Yeah, it’s all in the files there. She was a murderer. She killed her husband, so you might want to watch whom you’re calling lowdown and dirty. She hadn’t even been here three months yet before she got knocked up by one of the field guys. She never said whom, but she told just about everyone he’d gotten killed while out on a mission. And just like today, vampire trackers died every day.”

  “How do I know this is true?”

  “Why would I make it up? This truth won’t set you free. It only explains why you’re so miserable, searching for some explanation as to why your mother gave you up. It wasn’t so that you could have a better life. It was so that she could stay here, in America. She signed your life away, Elaina Arakelian.”

  She gnawed at her bottom lip. “Was that all she got in return?”

  “I don’t know how to tell you this, but…” Mr. Reynolds pasted a crabby smile on his face. “Your mother was a District whore.”

  Elaina charged.

  “Wait!” He held his hands up in front of his face. “It’s the truth. She was a surrogate and worked in our fertility unit. She was hired on to help couples carry their babies to term and deliver them, but like I said, one of the trackers knocked her up before she could even begin. Two months after she delivered you, she caught an infection and died.”

  Elaina nearly choked on her own sorrow.

  “You thought I was going to tell you a story about some little miss perfect mommy who gave birth to her perfect baby and decided to give her to some other perfect couple who could take care of her better and have the perfect life. No. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re the one who came here and insisted. Why did you have to break in here with a team of vampires and castaways to get this information?”

  “That’s not all we’re here for. Do you think we’re shooting up the place for nothing?”

  Mr. Reynolds almost looked worried. “You don’t mean to…?”

  “Mean to what?”

  “You can’t mean to release the dungeon vampires?”

  “Dungeon vampires,” she asked. “Is that what you call them?”

  “You don’t understand. The vampire down there has lived for hundreds of years. It took us several years to catch him. You don’t know what you’re dealing with.”

  “You said hundreds of years?” Melrose asked from across the room.

  Mr. Reynolds nodded. “He was labeled a retched rogue way before we started capturing vampires. He used to feed from humans to the point where he was a few tablespoons short of killing them. Where they were in agonizing pain. So much damage was done that the person would have been better off if he’d just bloody murdered them.”

  Elaina could tell by Melrose’s perplexed expression that she didn’t know anything of this vampire.

  “Well, of course you didn’t know. Your kind can’t even keep your rogue population in check. We have to do it for you. Might as well salvage what we can.”

  Melrose shook her head. “Not anymore you don’t.

  “If you release that thing…” Mr. Reynolds started.

  “You want him so you can create a hybrid, don’t you?”

  “We stopped trying to create the first hybrid months ago after a series of failures that resulted in the human being turned—like you.”

  “Then why are vampires still your concern whether they’re rogue or not?”

  “Because that creature you’re about to release may be the only thing that could diminish the rogue population, but not just the rogue population, all vampire kind, no matter the species.”

  “How do you know?” Elaina demanded.

  “Because it can only live if it takes blood from other vampires.”

  “But you said it fed from humans, draining them of almost all life force.”

  “Correct, but the creature was killing humans for sport. That’s why he must never ever be released.”

  A series of blood-curdling screams resounded down the hallway and throughout the building.

  “Or is it too late?” Mr. Reynolds’ voice trembled.

  “Stand.” Elaina grabbed Mr. Reynolds by the arm. “Let’s head out into the main unit. This time, you’ll be the hostage.”

  Chapter 24

  Vicq thought he was imagining things the moment he spotted Elaina trudging down the hallway of District 5 headquarters, dragging along a badly injured man. What the heck was she doing here? He’d made it clear to Leo that she wasn’t supposed to leave the Refuge during the raid.

  He closed the distance between them rapidly. “Tell me this is an il
lusion and that you’re not here.”

  “This is an illusion and I’m not here.” She pushed past him. “Have you breached the dungeon level?

  He followed her. “Elaina, what are you doing here?”

  Finally she paused and pushed her hostage against the wall. “You should know the answer to that,” she replied.

  “She was fact checking,” the man she had in a vice grip answered.

  Elaina groaned, ripped a strip of fabric from the man’s collar, and proceeding to tie his lips shut. “You speak when I tell you to,” she told him.

  “Elaina…?”

  “Mr. Reynolds, who is also the owner of D5 Holdings, was hiding out in the admin offices. Let’s just say that I cleaned up what was left behind.”

  Vicq glanced at Mr. Reynolds. “He did a good job of hiding while his employees paid the price.”

  “There’s no time to argue about why I’m here,” she said. “You cuffed me to a bed rail, and you’ll pay the price later when we’re done here.”

  “Who un-cuffed you?” he asked, and then his gaze trailed over to Melrose, who was exchanging some words with Eli. “Never mind. It’s pretty clear who helped you get out.”

  “Did you or did you not release the vampires in the dungeon,” she asked.

  “Dungeon? It was hardly a dungeon. It was a lower level prison. We found one Dresdan who was obviously too strong to contain. He was strapped down on ice when we released him. He killed all of the scientists in the room before we could get anything out of them and then fled the room. There were several other vampires in coffins, but we won’t know their intentions unless we wake them from slumber.”

  “Where is he now? The Dresdan that got away?” she inquired, adamantly.

  “That’s the problem. We’re finding evidence that he’s been feeding on and killing guards before we even get to them, which means he’s seeking out an exit. We’ve picked up what evidence we can, but now it’s time to go.”

  “What about Leo’s sister? Did you find her?”

  “She was never held here. Eli talked one of the lab techs into pulling up her information in the database, and it turns out she’s at some fertility center in Texas—also District owned.”