Secrets in Blood

by Patricia D. Eddy

  Carlo dropped down next to him, keeping his voice low. “You fear for her.”

  “Of course I do. She’s human. One bullet and she could die.”

  “With what you tell us of the serum, the same could be said for you, capo. For any of us.”

  “Perhaps. But we can move quickly. We are stronger. I do not know what I would do if I lost her now.”

  Carlo met Nic’s gaze. “You must promise me something. The Conclave comes first. If the worst happens, if she falls, you must hold it together long enough to get out. To help us get out.”

  Nic tightened his hold on his life mate. “No. She comes first. Always. If I have to choose between her and you, or her and the Conclave, there is no choice for me.”

  Pietro glanced over at the men. “And you expect the Conclave to welcome you back after you say that?”

  “I do not really care.”

  Evangeline’s sleepy voice startled them both. “Stand down, boys.”

  “Evangeline.”

  She wriggled out of his arms and blinked the sleep from her eyes. “No. Look, we’re going to have to figure out how to handle this relationship. You can’t betray your people for me, and I wouldn’t ask you to. Your Conclave needs to understand that. As for what’s going to happen when we get into the catacombs…if things don’t go perfectly, we’re going to find ourselves imprisoned or dead. So once we capture my father and destroy the lab, we need to run. All of us.” Brushing her fingers along his jaw, she offered him a sad smile. “Nic, you can’t worry about me down there. If we get separated, your only concern needs to be getting out again, do you understand?”

  “Cara, no. Do not ask this of me.” If he lost her, he would not survive.

  “I am asking. You need to live. You all need to live. If they capture me, they won’t kill me. Henry will hurt me, but he needs me. And if he’s found a way to manufacture the serum without me, he’ll still keep me alive so I’ll see the destruction of the vampire race. But he’ll kill you in a heartbeat. Any of you. Get out and, if you can, find a way to rescue me. But only if you have a hell of a lot of backup.”

  “I am trying to understand why I should not tie you to a tree right this second and prevent you from coming with us,” Nic growled.

  “Because you need me. When you come out of those access tunnels, you’ll have no idea where you are. I know the layout of the whole place and the access codes for the lab. But more importantly, you wouldn’t do that to me because you know it would ruin what’s between us.”

  Nic started to protest, but she silenced him with a glare. “I know we’ll always be bonded. I get that. But that doesn’t mean I have to like you or forgive you. Don’t push me. This is my world we’re going into. You’re all going to follow my rules, and we’ll get out alive. Understand?”

  When no one spoke, Evangeline cocked a brow. “What? Is there something in my teeth? Did I grow a second head?”

  Vittoria recovered first and laughed. “No, my dear. The men are simply baffled that any human would speak to them in this way. But I dare say this is quite good for them—for all of us actually—to be shown that we are not always the smartest or the most capable creatures in the world.”

  With a soft, feminine snort, Evangeline shook her head. “I’m afraid Nic is going to regret taking me as his life mate. He’s in for a good sixty more years of this.”

  Terror gripped him, and he lifted her in his arms, stealing her away from the group before she could protest. “Nic, shit…what’s wrong? Put me down.”

  “No.” He held her close, desperate, and breathed in her scent, trying to calm his racing heart.

  “You’re scaring me,” she whispered.

  “Tesoro, if I lose you, my life will be over. I do not know how to deal with your humanity. One day, you will die, and I…I will never recover.”

  “Okay, okay. I get it. Just…shit, this is going to sound so silly. Use your words next time? Despite what all the romance novels say, most women don’t like their men dragging them off like a caveman into the woods. When this is over, we’re going to have to talk about our future. You can’t get all angsty and dramatic if I happen to remind you that I’m human. Or when it becomes obvious that I’m getting older. One day, long before you, I’m going to have gray hair and wrinkles.”

  “I know.” Every time he thought of the future, something inside him threatened to rend in two. How could he possibly survive her death?

  Approaching footsteps made him tense, and he turned, barely restraining himself from holding Evangeline behind him, to meet Pietro’s gaze.

  “We should go.”

  Once back in the small clearing, Evangeline strapped a holster to her belt and slung a rifle over her shoulder. Pietro handed her a 9mm Glock and two extra magazines. Once she’d buckled a hunting knife to her thigh, she tucked her hair into a black wool cap.

  Nic outfitted himself similarly, then paused for a moment to appreciate the fierce determination of his life mate.

  “Evangeline, stay at my back. My night vision is better than yours.” Nic took off towards the north, and the rest of them followed.

  “You just want me to admire your tight ass,” she whispered.

  “Guilty.” He tried for an exaggerated shake of his ass as he crept forward and felt her amusement. After a few minutes, the phone he’d clipped to his belt buzzed quietly.

  “We are in position,” Carlo whispered.

  He glanced down at the phone’s nearly dark screen. “The security should be disabled now.”

  “We will start the diversion in sixty.” The connection dropped.

  Nic and Evangeline reached the coordinates just as a hail of gunfire exploded from the west. He nodded his encouragement at her, and she dropped to her knees, crawling forward through the forest litter. When she found the round grate, just sixty feet in front of their hiding spot, she gave him a thumbs-up, and he joined her.

  “I never wanted to be back here again,” she said.

  “Nor did I.” Nic met her gaze, cupped the back of her head, and pressed his lips to hers. “Whatever happens down there, Evangeline…I love you.”

  31

  Pulling the knife from his belt, Nic dug around the metal access panel, loosening the dirt and moss that had encroached around the edges. Once he’d carved out a handhold, he wedged his fingers under the lip of the panel and pulled. The cover flew several feet—like it weighed nothing at all.

  Though she had a feeling he’d be angry, she didn’t care and wriggled into the steeply angled tunnel. The seams of the pipe joins cut into her hands. After a few feet, she couldn’t see a thing, and she inched forward, slipping here and there, bruising her knees, palms, and elbows.

  At a sharp bend, she twisted her body, using one of the lips from the joins to pull herself forward. In her head, Nic’s words made her smile. “I feel like a sardine.”

  As the tunnel leveled out, the hum of the CO2 scrubbers filled the small space, and the rush of cool air over her sweat-drenched face brought a measure of relief. “We’re close.” Around another bend, low light filtered through a mesh screen. “I can’t see anything,” she said as she dropped flat on her stomach so Nic could see over her.

  “Computer on a desk, cabinets along the far wall. Smells like leather and gun oil.”

  “The armory.” Perfect. A few extra weapons wouldn’t be a bad idea. Pushing on the mesh, she stifled her gasp as it fell faster than she’d expected, and she stretched, catching the edge of the panel just before it hit the floor.

  Nic held her ankles as she wriggled forward, and once she’d set the screen down on the desk, she braced herself in a headstand, then tucked her legs and rolled to standing.

  Nic, not to be outdone, twisted his entire body in midair before landing on his feet.

  “You’re like a cat,” Evangeline whispered.

  “Have you ever seen a cat?”

  “In books and movies. I’m not that sheltered.”

  He pressed his ear to the door and l
istened. “I hear no one.”

  “Okay. We’re in the most central office in the south wing. The lab is at the far end of the north wing. Call Vittoria?”

  Nic pulled the phone from his pocket and dialed. “Dove sei?”

  The sharp voice that crackled over the line chilled Evangeline to the bone. “The blond bloodsucker is quite unhappy at the moment. I’m afraid the serum has left her unable to move. That and the silver stake I’ve driven through her abdomen. Whoever you are, I suggest you tell me your location right now. If you do, I promise that your death will be quick and largely painless. Unlike this one’s. She’ll bleed out in a couple of hours, but until then, I plan on making her suffer greatly.”

  Vittoria’s pained cry sent Nic’s anger flooding over their bond. “You won’t do her any good if you lose control,” Evangeline sent him.

  “Let me out of this fucking cage, you goddamned prick!”

  Evangeline ended the call. “Shit. She’s in the lab.”

  Nic hissed out a breath and cupped Evangeline’s cheek. “We end this now. That monster will never hurt another vampire.”

  Nodding, Evangeline yanked open the cabinets along the far wall. Withdrawing two rifles, she tossed one to Nic. Clips followed, and she tucked four extra into her waistband. “Follow me, keep low, and for fuck’s sake, don’t get shot. I’d wager all of their bullets are coated with the serum.”

  He nodded, a vaguely ill look on his face. “Even the ones we have. I can smell it.”

  As Nic pressed his shoulder to the wall and raised the rifle, Evangeline cracked the door.

  Flashing emergency lights in the hall blinded them, and shrill alarms assaulted her eardrums. While she would have preferred to keep their presence hidden, at least the alarms would keep the rest of the residents in their rooms.

  The south wing’s hallway ended in a central rotunda just ten feet beyond the door. A thirty-degree angle and the north wing’s hall stretched fifty feet before the secured lab. Evangeline flattened against the wall as she crept slowly, almost in a crouch. The strobing emergency lights obscured shadows that might hint at approaching foes. Evangeline turned sharply left and pressed her back to the opposite wall. Nic followed.

  “Can you hear anyone? Smell them?”

  “No. The alarms are too loud. I can smell only serum. This…is painful, cara. Too much stimuli.”

  Evangeline cast a quick glance in his direction. Lines of strain gathered around his eyes. She hadn’t counted on her father taking away their one advantage—Nic’s superior strength and senses.

  His eyes narrowed as he gazed towards the rotunda. Before she could react, he grabbed her around the waist and spun with her, rushing down the residential wing as far from the rotunda as he could.

  An explosion sent a whoosh of hot air rushing over them, the force driving them to the ground where Nic covered her with his body.

  “Nic!” she whispered desperately.

  “Hit,” he managed. “Silver.”

  Evangeline rolled and shoved him onto his side. She came up with her rifle in her hand and fired a few short bursts down the hall. Struggling to his hands and knees, Nic wavered as he tried to get to his feet but then collapsed with a groan. Evangeline leapt in front of him. “Get your ass up. Down the hall. Now!”

  Sluggish limbs obeyed, and he braced himself against the wall as he stumbled, leaving a long, red streak in his wake. “Cover me,” she hissed when they’d reached the doors that led to the dorm wing. She jammed her rifle against the access panel in the ceiling, knocking the mesh away with a clatter.

  “Up!” she ordered, firing a couple of shots at a time down the hall. Nic jumped, caught the lip of the vent, and pulled himself up. He had lost his cat-like grace to the wound, but he managed to get his entire body into the small space with only a single grunt. He lowered his hand to grasp Evangeline’s and pulled her up after him.

  Moments later, she panted next to him. He crawled slowly, following Evangeline’s directions whenever she tapped his left or right calf. Finally, she gave a short tug on his leg, and he stopped. Evangeline pressed her ear to the grate under her head, listened, and then lifted the cover. She dropped into the dimly lit bathroom, and Nic followed, barely stifling his gasp of pain.

  Evangeline yanked up his shirt. A piece of shrapnel poked out of his side, and blood streamed over the wound, tinged with the foul scent of the serum. With one hand braced on his hip, Evangeline slid the silver from his body. Blood gushed over her fingers, and Nic fell to his knees.

  “Drink,” she whispered, holding her upturned wrist under his nose.

  He didn’t fight her. Only her blood would erase the serum’s effects. As he pierced the bonding mark, she shivered, the pleasure rolling through her at the intimate contact. Two pulls on her vein and he sealed the wound, then got to his feet and wrapped his arms around her. “Well, that was new,” he muttered. “Serum-coated silver frag grenades.”

  “They’ll find us soon. Once they search all of the dorms, they’ll assume we went up. But the lab is just outside this door. Vittoria is in the second room on the left. The first room is the biology lab, then the main lab where you were held, and at the end of the hall is where we’ll find the servers with the data we need. The other side of the hall has the supply room, my father’s office, and the epidemiology lab. If I had to guess, I’d say that there will be a guard in with Vittoria, several in the server room, and the rest hidden in the other offices. Henry will be with Vittoria.”

  “Can we use the ducts?”

  “That’s how I got in when I rescued you. But there’s a laser grid up there now. We’ll go through the door. You cover the left, I’ll go right and deal with the lock.” She ejected the spent clip of the rifle and slammed in another.

  Nic caressed Evangeline’s cheek, the tender touch of one who knew the next few minutes could easily be their last. His fingers wound around her neck, pulling her close. Softly, he kissed her, his tongue teasing over her lips. “Be careful.”

  “Henry nearly killed you once. He just spilled your blood again tonight. He’s not going to get away. No one fucks with my life mate. Especially not my ass of a father.”

  Worry painted Nic’s face, and Evangeline leaned in for one last kiss before cracking the door. Smoke curled around the hallway floor, but the alarms and strobe lights had stopped. Nic inhaled deeply, then spoke to her mind. “Men. At least three.”

  A dozen bullets hit the steel door, and Evangeline jumped back, slamming the door shut.

  She shouldered the rifle and pulled the 9mm Glock from her holster. “Trust me,” she whispered to Nic and cracked the door again.

  “I’m coming out!” she yelled. “Don’t shoot me.”

  “No!” Nic growled, so low that only she could hear him. Evangeline tucked the pistol into the back of her turtleneck, underneath her hair.

  “Hands laced behind your head, Eva. Drop the gun, take two steps out and face the wall.”

  She obeyed, dropping the rifle on the ground and pressing her forehead to the wall. Through the crack in the door, she could see her life mate kneeling down below eye level.

  Two men approached her. One of them frisked her, running his grimy hands roughly over her lower back, down her ass, and finally along her legs to her ankles. She could practically feel Nic restraining himself on the other side of the door. Thankfully, the man ignored her neck. Evangeline shuddered as her body protested the touch of a man other than her bonded life mate.

  “There’s a third man a few feet away from you. He has a gun trained at your head.”

  She answered him with a barely perceptible nod.

  “Three, two, one,” she said to his mind. “Now!”

  She grasped her hidden gun and fired two quick shots down and behind her. She managed to hit one of the men in the shin and the other in the thigh. They fell to the floor, grabbing their legs. At the same time, Nic sent a bullet through the head of the third man, dropping him instantly. He relieved the living men of their w
eapons and slammed the rifle stock down on their heads, rendering them unconscious.

  Moving quickly to the secured door, Evangeline went to work on the lock as Nic guarded her back. She wanted him to hold her, to erase the memory of another man’s hands on her, but they didn’t have the time.

  Nic’s phone buzzed. “Capo, we are at the access tunnel you used. We have one of the generator devices. What shall we do?” Pietro asked.

  “They have Vittoria. She is injured. We estimate eight of Longo’s men remain. We are about to enter the lab.”

  Evangeline paused before punching in the final number into the lock. “Do you have a prisoner?”

  “Si.”

  “If he’s clean, use the incantesimo. Get him to program the portal generator. If he knows the code for the server room, open the portal there and send a few shots high in the air so you don’t hit the hard drives. If he doesn’t know the code for the server room, get to the lab. Failing that, go for the security office. Make as much noise as possible and be on the watch for grenades.”

  “Si, Evangeline.” Pietro hung up the call.

  Once the door opened, they listened carefully before rushing down the hall.

  The staccato beat of gunfire burst from the far end of the lab. Pietro had apparently managed to open the portal to the server room. Shouts echoed.

  “They’re in the server room!”

  “I don’t know how many!”

  “How the fuck did they get a portal generator?”

  “Shut that fucking thing down! Don, override code! Now!”

  Nic aimed down the hall, fired a shot, and took out a tall, skinny man racing toward the server room. Seven left.

  The phone buzzed again. “We killed one. But the portal disappeared. Pietro is still inside.” The worried edge to Carlo’s voice carried over the line. “I am heading into the access tunnel.”

  “No! Stay away, Carlo. One of us must survive.” Nic didn’t wait for an answer as he shoved the phone into his pocket.