by Kali Argent
The only one who seemed untroubled by their situation was Lieutenant Lynk Foster. He’d hidden his sleek white hair beneath that black, knit beanie that he currently had pulled down over his eyes. Reclining in the back corner of the raft, he rested his head on the inflated side, his hands folded together across his chest. For all intents and purposes, he appeared to be fast asleep, but Nikolai knew better.
Once upon a time, Lynk had been a Warden, a soldier with advanced training assigned to guard the royal families. Specifically, Lynk had been one of several Coalition soldiers designated to protect the Diavolos family. Before the fall of Trinity Grove, Nikolai wouldn’t have considered the enormous shifter a friend, but he’d known of Lynk. They’d spoken on a few occasions, usually about some security threat or a new safety protocol. They didn’t know each other well, but Nikolai was sure of one crucial detail.
Lynk Foster never let his guard down.
So, when the first explosion rocked the night, sending vibration rippling to them half a mile out, it didn’t surprise Nikolai that Lynk was the first to speak.
“That’s our signal. Let’s move.”
Luca pulled the recoil rope on the outboard motor, firing it to life. The water churned behind them and sprayed up over the front of the raft as they sped through the water, reaching the front of the old cinema just as the second explosion detonated, shaking the ground beneath them and shattering the windows of the five-story hotel.
It wasn’t like in the movies. There was no big ball of fire. No roaring flames that engulfed the entirety of the building. Still, the acrid stench of smoke hung heavy in the air, wafting to them from a quarter-mile down the bank. The screams and shouts started, joined by the pounding of booted feet slapping against the paved roads that wound throughout the complex.
“Draw your guns only as a last resort,” Luca instructed them. “We’re ghosts. In and out, and we don’t attract attention.”
By the time the third blast hit, Nikolai and his team had already made it to the entrance of the theater. Just as Trevor had said, only two guards awaited them. Distracted by the commotion going on at the hotel, it had been all too easy to dispatch them and drag them into a small alcove at the side of the front doors. Thea, Rhys, and Lynk circled behind the cinema to deal with the other guards, and while there, had the good fortune to stumble upon two of the four sentries who should have been inside the building.
Just two minutes after they’d come ashore, they all reconvened inside the vast, high-ceilinged lobby. The black and white tiles appeared dull and had begun to chip in places. The cash registers at the concession stand stood dark and dusty, just like the appliances behind the counter. The menu board had been cleared at some point, and now, it showed only a black screen, back-illuminated by white, fluorescent lights.
Whatever they were doing with the humans here, it wasn’t happening in the lobby.
Knowing the other two guards could be anywhere within the sprawling building, they moved quickly through the lobby, sticking close to the outer walls as they hurried around the corner from the concession stand. On their right, they passed a dimly lit room with working arcade games, the machines glowing neon and chiming with whimsical music.
They passed a women’s restroom next, its inner walls painted the ugliest color of yellow Nikolai had ever seen. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they entered a long, wide corridor with a multicolored carpet in a swirling design that had been worn down over the years from moviegoers. Dark stains spotted the lighter patches of the carpet, and even the stringent odor of chemicals couldn’t mask the scent of spilled blood.
Everyone stopped, looking up and down the hallway at the signs over each of the seven showing theaters. So far, they hadn’t encountered the remaining two guards, meaning they were likely in one of those theaters.
They’d only just arrived, and time was already running out to find their friends and make their escape. Taking the time to search all seven rooms was a luxury they didn’t have. They’d come this far, though, and no one would be deterred from their objective.
“Split up,” Luca ordered. “We’ll search these four first,” he added, pointing down the corridor in front of him.
“Six minutes,” Thea informed them, looking at her watch again.
Sean and Nathan Chambers had secured a cargo van much like that of the coyote shifters. It wasn’t so big that it couldn’t make a speedy exit, but at the same time, it was large enough to fit all the Revenant members, plus at least half a dozen more bodies. Nikolai didn’t know the specifics of how the twins meant to get into the compound or reach of the cinema, but he did know that if he and his team weren’t waiting when the van arrived, they’d likely never make it out alive.
“Then let’s hurry.” Luca pointed to Rhys and Thea. “You two take number seven. Deke, you and Roux get six. Lynk, number five. Nik and I will check out the fourth one. Back here in three minutes. Got it?”
Nikolai started to nod, but the rustle of footsteps over the carpet drew his attention behind him. He had just enough time to shove Deke out of the way before gunshots erupted in the corridor. As a unit, they turned toward the threat and fanned out, taking cover behind trash bins and inside doorways. Everyone except Luca.
Drawing his handgun, he stood in the middle of the corridor, took aim, and pulled the trigger. One shot was all it took for the bullet to find its mark and pierce the guard’s skull right between his eyes.
A door at the end of the hall opened, and the last guard stepped out, gun in hand, but upon seeing his comrade, he quickly retreated back into the movie theater.
“I’m on it.” Pulling his weapon from its holster, Lynk jogged down the hall in the pursuit.
Before he’d even reached the theater, bright lights began to strobe across the ceiling and over the walls, glinting rhythmically off the glass of the poster frames that lined the corridor. An alarm blared, the sound shrill and harsh as it reverberated to every corner of the building.
“Shit,” Luca cursed. “Go! Go! Go! Search fast. We’re out of here in three.”
They split up as planned, only Thea and Rhys ducked into theater five instead of seven. Nikolai followed close behind Luca, hurrying toward the door on the right, but he drew up short when an agonizing scream pierced his brain. Stumbling sideways, he rested one hand on the wall and shook his head, but it did little to relieve the building pressure.
“Help! Someone help me!” The screams quieted, fading into wracking sobs. “Please find me. Please don’t leave me.”
Though the voice filtered directly into his mind, he had the strangest sensation that it came from nearby. Without knowing why, without any clear destination, he pushed away from the wall, following the pull he felt to the three theaters at the opposite end of the corridor.
“Nik, where the hell are you going?”
“Get the others,” he called over his shoulder.
The door of theater five burst open, and Thea staggered out into the hallway, her arms wound tightly around Cade’s midsection. The male’s skin was pale and his cheeks hollow, and he looked moments away from death’s door. Every movement seemed to cause him pain, and he struggled to hold his head up as he stumbled along beside Thea.
“Rhys has Duncan.” Thea grunted as she heaved Cade upright. “We didn’t find Kamara, though.”
“That is some seriously fucked up shit,” Rhys said as he joined them, half carrying another male with dark skin and a long scar running down the left side of his face. “This place makes St. Louis look like a day at Disneyland.”
“Cade?” Exiting the theater she’d been searching, Roux bounded down the hall until she reached the male. “Oh, my god, Cade. Can you hear me?” She grabbed his face with both hands and pushed up on her toes. “Cade, talk to me. You’re going to be okay.”
“He will, but our time’s up.” Deke strode down the hall with Lynk right behind them, and neither of them looked very pleased. “We have to go.”
“What? No.” Roux jer
ked away when he reached for her. “We haven’t found Kamara.”
“I’m sorry, kitten, but we have to go. Now.”
They continued to argue, but Nikolai barely heard them. With every step, the voice in his head grew louder, urging him to hurry his steps toward the last door just before the emergency exit.
“Thirty seconds,” he heard Thea say from behind him, her voice distorted beneath the wail of the siren. “I hate it, too, Roux, but he’s right. We have to go.”
“Nik!” Luca bellowed. “Come on.”
He could no more turn back than he could cut off his own hand. “Go,” he shouted back at them. “I’ll catch up and meet you at the rendezvous point.”
The plan was for Deidra and Miles to take the boat back and meet them on the other side of the bridge, meaning he’d probably have to swim the width of the lake to meet them, but it didn’t matter. He had to know why he was hearing the voice in his head. He needed to know what was in that last theater.
Without waiting for a response, or giving his friends a chance to argue, he jogged the last hundred feet to the theater, ripped the door open, and stopped cold.
It was nothing like he’d expected. Instead of a sloping room filled with cushioned chairs and a giant movie screen, he found a sterile, cold room with barren, white concrete walls, illuminated by harsh, bright lights. Surgical equipment he couldn’t even begin to name covered every flat surface, and a row of hospital beds lined the far wall, separated by thin, blue curtains.
Any staff had since evacuated the room—probably when the gunfire began—and from the looks of things, they’d left in a hurry. Several monitors still beeped, and one of the tables filled with medical tools had been overturned, the utensils scattered through a puddle of still-wet blood.
Crossing the room, he went straight to the only occupied hospital bed on the back wall. Naked and shivering, the female looked at him through heavy-lidded eyes as he approached, but she didn’t move. She looked so small stretched out on the big bed. Dried blood caked her neck and clavicles, the streaks ending at the hollow between her breasts.
Sadness and rage vied for dominance, but Nikolai held his emotions in check, and when he spoke, he kept his voice calm and even.
“Are you Kamara?” he asked as he removed the needle from her arm as quickly and gently as he could. “Is your name Kamara?”
Not that it mattered. Whether she was the female they’d been looking for or not, he wouldn’t just leave her there.
“Yes,” she whispered into his mind. “I’m Kamara. Please, don’t leave me.”
“You’re going to be okay,” he answered aloud as he wrapped the sheet around her nude body and lifted her from the bed. “Stay with me, Kamara. Just stay with me.”
He carried her across the room and through an exit in the back corner, encouraged when the heavy door opened to reveal the lake at the bottom of the hill. Chaos still clung to the night, the sound of frantic voices reaching him from the hotel farther down the bank. A truck engine revved. Tires screeched. A loud crash faded into a metallic hum.
None of this hid the sound of the gun cocking from behind him, though.
Still holding Kamara, Nikolai froze, unable to escape or reach his weapon in time. The shot resonated deep within his bones and made his ears ring, but when his head cleared, he felt no pain.
“Shooting people in the back is bloody rude.” Giving the dead guard a swift kick, Deidra stepped over his prone body as she entered the room. Her hair still dripping with lake water, she shoved her handgun into her waistband and smiled. “Fancy meeting you here, handsome.”
Nikolai had never been so happy to see anyone in his life. “I thought you’d already be halfway across the lake.”
“I should be, but I heard the sirens.” She shoved his arm to get him moving, following half a step behind as they hurried down to the lake. “I leave you idiots alone for two minutes, and look at the trouble you get yourselves into.”
At the bank, Deidra jumped into the waiting raft as Miles started the motor. With a lot of reluctance, Nikolai passed Kamara to the she-wolf so he could climb into the boat as well, but once seated, he reached for her, pulling her back into his arms.
“Is she okay?” Deidra asked, raising her voice to be heard over the roar of the wind as they flew across the top of the lake. “She looks like hell.”
Nikolai rounded his shoulders, using his body to shield the female from as much of the cold as he could. He stroked her pale cheeks, skimmed his fingers over her shorn scalp. His chest constricted, and his heart pounded heavily against his ribcage. She needed his help, but he couldn’t agree with Deidra. To him, Kamara was beautiful.
“She’ll be okay,” he answered, subdued. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“Everything okay, Nik?” Miles asked. He cut the engine but continued to steer as they drifted toward the shoreline on the other side of the lake. “You seem a little out of it.”
“Everything’s fine.”
“You know her or something?”
Looking down at the peaceful lines of Kamara’s face, Nikolai clutched her tighter to his chest and shook his head. “Not yet.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Nikolai looked up at the vampire, his head spinning with all the implications of the words he was about to speak. “She’s my mate.”
CHAPTER THREE
Kamara came awake to birds chirping, sunlight pouring in through a dirty window, and a raw, burning ache in her throat.
The pillow under her head was soft, and the bed she’d been placed in even softer. A fuzzy, fleece blanket covered her from neck to toes, and she burrowed deeper into the warmth of the covers. Her pulse pounded in her temples, and even with her eyes closed, the golden beams of sunlight hurt her eyes.
Sweet Jesus, everything hurt. Her muscles ached. Her skin felt too hot and too tight. Her joints protested even the subtlest of movements, and even her damn teeth hurt.
A voice whispered outside the door of her room, a woman’s voice, but she had no trouble making out the words.
“Wait. What does that mean?”
A man answered her. “It means she’s in transition. It means she’s going to wake up confused, maybe disoriented, and hungry.”
“Okay, so what do we do?”
“She’ll need to feed, but otherwise, I think all you can do is just be there for her.”
“Will you tell her?”
There was a long pause before the male replied. “I think it should be you. She knows you, and she trusts you.”
Kamara didn’t know who the man was, but she thought she recognized the woman’s voice.
“Thea?” Groaning, she pushed into a sitting position on the mattress, biting down on her bottom lip as fire lanced up her throat again. “Is that you? Someone? Anyone?”
The bedroom door swung open, and Thea rushed into the room, stopping at the foot of the bed with her hands resting on her hips. “Hey, Mulan.” She winked. “It’s about time you woke up. How are you feeling?”
“Like I died.” Kamara winced when her voice croaked and wheezed. “My head is killing me, and my throat feels like I’ve been gargling glass.” She took stock of her other grievances and decided they were too minor to mention. “Where are we anyway?”
“A cabin near the Red River.” Watching Kamara’s every move, Thea rounded the bed slowly and eased down on the edge of the mattress. “Do you remember how you got here?”
Kamara tried to remember, but she couldn’t think past the pounding in her temples or the pressure building behind her eyes. “No, not really.” She shook her head tentatively and sighed. “I’m sure it was an epic rescue. I’m sorry I slept through it.” Something did occur to her, a question she was almost afraid to ask. “The others? Did they…are they…”
“Cade and Duncan are okay. They’re in one of the rooms down the hall.” Leaving one foot on the floor, Thea angled to the side and bent her other knee so that it rested on the bed. “Abby was sent to a
shifter pack in Colorado, but we don’t know any details yet.”
She had only known Abby for a couple of months, but going through something like what they’d suffered in St. Louis had a way of bonding people. With a heavy heart, she closed her eyes for just a heartbeat, then looked up to meet Thea’s searching gaze.
“When do we leave?”
Thea nodded, an approving smile stretching her full lips. “The guys are discussing which of the packs might have her right now. As soon as you, Cade, and Duncan are healed up, we’ll go get her, I promise.”
Thea’s ebony hair was a little longer than Kamara remembered, her face a little fuller, and she could only guess that a significant amount of time had passed since they’d last seen each other. She had so much she wanted to ask she didn’t even know where to begin. Maybe it would be easier if she could think straight, but flames continued to lick at her throat, and a burning hunger twisted and coiled in her belly.
“Kamara, there’s something you need to know,” Thea began, her words slow and halting. “I don’t really know how to tell you, so I’m just going to come right out and say it.”
Kamara tilted her head, but Thea’s words made no sense. She inhaled deeply, hoping the oxygen would clear her mind, but it only intensified the burning in her throat. The most intoxicating scent tickled her nose, a delectable fragrance that reminded her of sweet licorice with just a hint of a metallic undertone. Her mouth flooded with saliva, and a shiver rippled down her spine as she sniffed again, trying to detect the source of the delicious scent.
Instinctively, her gaze drifted to Thea’s neck, to the vein that throbbed just below her smooth skin. As she watched, focusing on the thin blue line, she could actually hear the shifter’s pulse thundering in her ears, growing louder by the second, and drowning out everything else.
Ba-bum.
Ba-bum.
Ba-bum.