Bad Boys of the Night: Eight Sizzling Paranormal Romances: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set

by Jennifer Ashley

  An ominous feeling deep within him whispered it would be to his doom.

  To corridors of fire.

  To his nightmare made real.

  CHAPTER 17

  Tor slipped through the darkness, staying to the shadows surrounding the large industrial warehouses. His prey had led him on a long dance but, in the end, the man had slowed to a walk and headed to this location. Since entering the area, Tor had spotted other vampires, most of them leaving the warehouse district and heading towards the city. Only his vampire kept moving deeper into the maze of buildings, and Tor kept moving with him, silently racing from shadow to shadow, keeping his distance but remaining close enough that he wouldn’t lose the man if he began running again.

  The man didn’t run though. He stopped outside a dark warehouse and stood still for long seconds in which Tor knew he was scanning the area with his senses, checking to see if he had been followed.

  Tor was far enough away that the male wouldn’t be able to distinguish him from the other vampires or humans in the area, but he walked away from the male just in case, giving him the impression he was just another signature on the move and nothing that concerned him.

  Tor’s sensitive hearing picked up the creak of a metal door opening and his internal radar detected his prey moving again. Into the building. The presence of so much metal played havoc with his senses, blurring signatures together into one mass and making it impossible to tell what was on the inside of the building. For all he knew, there could be an army of weaklings in it or just the one he had followed.

  He edged back towards the front of the building he was using as a hiding place and leaned against the wall, surveying the warehouse the vampire had entered. It looked like the rest of them—modern, corrugated metal, big. Security lamps mounted on the corners shone light in all directions, illuminating the wide stretches of tarmac between the buildings.

  The door opened again. Tor pressed himself flat against the wall and watched three men emerge, talking in low voices about the chill in the air and not being allowed to hunt. One mentioned purebloods. Another mentioned the incident in the red light district. His prey must have spread the word to them on his way into the building, warning them to stay out of the city.

  A subtle scent wafted across from the building, barely noticeable at first, but slowly growing stronger. Blood. Human blood.

  Had he found their location? If he had, then his team were in trouble. The weakling he had tracked would inform whoever was in charge about what had happened tonight and they would move location.

  He cast a glance up at the sky.

  Night hung like a veil over the city, darkness that wasn’t due to fade for several hours yet. Time was against him. The weaklings had more than enough of it to move their entire operation. He needed to stop them, but first he needed to be sure he had found their base and not just a place where weaklings were hiding out.

  He needed to infiltrate the building.

  Tor turned his back on the three men, pulled his phone from his pocket and fired off a message to Eve, telling her that he had found something and was checking it out, and would contact her again later with an update. He didn’t want her to come rushing down here with the Law Keepers when he wasn’t sure that he had found what they were looking for. He needed to be certain.

  Two more weaklings appeared off to his right, heading towards the building. Tor saw his chance and took it, rushing around the back of the warehouse beside him and coming up behind them. He pulled his hood up, jammed his hands into his jeans pockets and fell into step with them, keeping a few metres behind them. These two were young and weak, probably turned in the past year. With their low-level senses, they wouldn’t be able to tell he wasn’t a weakling too. He hoped all of the vampires were as young as his escorts, but experience told him that wouldn’t be the case.

  If this was their base of operations for the Midnight project, then the vampires running it would be much older, and far more wary of a strange face.

  The two young vampires reached the warehouse and the three men loitering outside it greeted them, and him.

  “Fucking cold tonight,” Tor said and the vampires murmured in agreement. “Coming inside before you freeze your balls off?”

  The three men shook their heads, and one said, “Taking a break. Sick of smelling so much blood when we can’t drink a drop.”

  Tor grunted in agreement. It was driving him crazy too, twisting his stomach in knots. He wanted to feed. Weakling blood was useless to him and these five men were lucky that was the case otherwise he might have considered draining them all to death and stashing their bodies where their comrades wouldn’t find them until they had decomposed into ashes.

  He followed the two younger vampires inside, his eyes instantly adjusting to the low lighting. The warehouse was vast, but not a base of operations. The only things inside the building were a few crates and some makeshift beds. He scanned the cavernous space, searching for the source of the blood he had scented outside.

  The two men crashed on the mattresses, their idle conversation filling the silence. Tor branched away from them, heading deeper into the building, constantly scouring the cavernous room for a sign of the source of blood. Nothing.

  He paused when a woman appeared out of the floor and walked towards him, a smile curling her lips as she ran an appreciative gaze over him from head to toe. He forced a smile in return and headed towards where she had emerged from. As he drew closer, it became clear. Steps. Leading downwards. There was a level beneath the floor.

  He approached the metal staircase and focused his senses. Several more vampire signatures came back from below him and these ones were older.

  He kept his hood up and walked down the steps into a low-lit wide white corridor right out of his nightmares. He suppressed a shudder and his sudden desire to turn back and moved onwards, deeper into the compound. Hallways branched off in all directions at the first junction a short distance along the corridor.

  Tor took a deep breath to catch all the scents pervading the musty air. A lot of human blood, but there was vampire blood too, among other things. He tracked the scent of other things off to his right, down a corridor with strip lighting that was on its last legs, flickering and buzzing as he passed. A series of rooms lined the corridor. Cells.

  All of them were empty now, but the odour of stale urine and blood told him they had held humans there for some time.

  This was their base of operations.

  It had to be.

  He needed more evidence, proof of some sort before he contacted Eve and told her to dispatch the Law Keepers to his location. He would demand that she stay away though. If she wasn’t here, then nothing bad could happen to her. He needed to keep her safe. He needed to stop the glimpse of the future he had seen from happening.

  Tor turned back and reached the junction again. He went right, following the corridor directly opposite the entrance steps. The floor sloped, leading downwards, deeper into the ground. Was there another level?

  Whoever had built this place had done it specifically for the containment of humans and other prisoners. This plan had been in motion for some years now, probably since the night they had killed Eve or possibly before then. It was about time it came to an end.

  The scent of blood grew stronger as he moved further into the building and he came to another floor. Muffled noises travelled along the pale corridor ahead and the one that intersected it, forming another crossroad. The ceiling strip lights blinked on and off. He focused on the muted sounds, trying to discern the direction they came from, and banked left.

  A scream echoed down the hallway, drenched in agony and terror that blasted over him. It sounded as if someone was going over the victim with a hot poker. He hurried forwards, towards a doorway near the far end. Every step closer he took, the smell of blood and death grew stronger, and the signatures of the vampires grew clearer.

  He pinned his back against the end of the wall and peeked around the corner into th
e room.

  Two rows of upright metal boards lined either side of the wide room, humans strapped to some of them, held at an angle in steel restraints that banded around their necks, waists, wrists and ankles.

  A familiar male voice barked orders.

  Tor bit back the growl that rumbled up his throat and tracked the man with his senses, monitoring him.

  Another man in a grubby white coat stained deep brown in places came forwards and unbuckled a dead young male. Two other men moved to assist him, these ones burlier than their colleague, dressed head to toe in black. They took the dead human and dragged him out of the door and past Tor. Neither paid him any attention as he casually leaned against the wall and toyed with his phone.

  “We need stronger blood,” Adam snarled, his signature overflowing with frustration. “It has to be the key. We need to run more tests… new quantities. It has to work.”

  Tor pocketed his phone again and frowned. Evidently, things weren’t going to plan.

  “We have tried all the blood we have available and in every quantity possible. The test subjects either awaken like us or like the purebloods. You are sure you have all the information?” the man in the dirty lab coat said and turned his back on the remaining few humans.

  They writhed and wriggled, fear in their wide eyes.

  “Yes,” Adam snapped and growled. “The strength of the blood must be the key. We must keep trying.”

  “To keep trying, we shall need to source more blood. It will be dangerous.”

  “So we sacrifice a few of the humans who turned like us. We have a damn surplus of them now. We’ll use them like cannon fodder. They will distract the pureblood target while we close in enough to tranquilize them. From now on, we’ll bring the vampires back here and keep them sedated.” Adam paced into view, his boots heavy on the tiled floor. He still wore his leather over his black t-shirt and palmed the pocket where he kept the tranquilizers. “We can’t stop now. The vampire tonight… he had old blood… we can wait for him to come back—”

  “Madness. When I agreed to this plan of yours and to bring you over, it was on the basis that this whole project would be completed in a matter of days. It has been years and we are still no closer to acquiring this Midnight. I’m beginning to think it’s a lie and was never a success. Besides…” The other man shoved his fingers through his hair and bared his fangs at a woman strapped to one of the boards. She screamed and struggled harder. The man struck her across the face and she slumped in the restraints, unconscious. “You said it yourself… those weren’t normal purebloods.”

  “Law Keepers,” Adam muttered and rubbed his chin. “I thought we had hit the jackpot. You should have seen how he moved. Damn it. Fucking Eve. Always fucking things up for me.”

  Tor eased away from the door and turned on his heel. He needed to contact the Law Keepers now, while the weaklings were still struggling to complete their formula for Midnight. It was their chance to strike and put an end to this madness before it was too late and the weaklings succeeded in turning a human into a weakling-pureblood hybrid.

  He suspected that those they tested the toxic mix on were coming back pure weakling and were being recruited, like the youngsters he had followed into the building, or they were coming back pureblood and Adam and the mad scientist were killing them before they were strong enough to defend themselves.

  Tor strode up the corridor to the next floor and then took the steps up into the warehouse.

  Either way, he now knew without a doubt that the humans weren’t the only ones playing God. It sickened him. First Section Seven toyed with their hunters, giving them vampire genes, and now weaklings attempted to create hybrids loyal to their pathetic cause.

  Tor wanted to kill them all.

  He pulled his phone from his jeans pocket and started punching in a text to Eve, telling her that he had found their base and so far there were no successful turnings, that they needed stronger blood, and warning her not to come but to send the Law Keepers.

  He was about to add a location and send the text when the two thugs who had dragged the body out approached him.

  “It’s late to be heading out,” one said

  Tor shrugged. “I’m hungry.”

  The two exchanged an unconvinced look. “You won’t make it back before sunrise.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “It’s hours until dawn.”

  They were stalling him. He sent the text without the location and pocketed his phone.

  “If you’ll excuse me.” Tor went to pass them and they stepped into his path, a wall of muscle that most would have found daunting. They were weaklings though. They could put on as much muscle as they liked and he would still be stronger than they were.

  “No one is meant to leave. No hunting in the city tonight.”

  Tor had forgotten about that. “Really? Shit. What’s a guy got to do to get some fresh blood around here?”

  He quickly scanned the warehouse and frowned as he spotted the cameras above the exit. How had he missed those? He needed to make tracks, and fast.

  He launched his left fist at the closest male.

  A sharp stinging sensation erupted in his left shoulder blade and his vision wobbled, the edges growing dark.

  Tor stumbled as his muscles slackened and his bones caught fire. He blinked fast to clear his vision, combating the fuzziness creeping into it, and swung around to face the way he had come.

  A man stood there next to the entrance to the underground lair with a gun in his hand.

  The world wobbled again and the man was closer. Clearer.

  “Like my new toy?” Adam said, flashing the black tranquilizer gun, a sick smile of satisfaction on his face. “It certainly makes dealing with pests easier.”

  Tor’s legs gave out and he clutched at the concrete floor, fighting the drug and determined to remain conscious. He fumbled behind him, desperately trying to reach the gun tucked into the waistband of his black jeans.

  He couldn’t let Adam capture him.

  Eve would feel it.

  She would come to find him.

  A second dart struck his shoulder, unleashing fire that burned him to ashes inside and made the world spin violently.

  His vision dimmed and he collapsed onto the cold floor, consciousness draining from him.

  She would die.

  CHAPTER 18

  Eve slammed the phone down and growled at it. Bloody Section Seven. It had taken her almost half an hour to convince them that she was who she said she was, and that she wasn’t lying to them about Adam and his plans to use Midnight. She wasn’t sure what they could do.

  They were having a meeting.

  She shook her head at that. Vampires launched straight into action, sending their top men to deal with the potential problem, hunting down those who were a threat to both their kind and the humans. Section Seven had to have endless meetings before they even considered lifting a finger.

  She growled again and paced away from the telephone before she hurled it across the library.

  Vincent’s calm hazel gaze tracked her. The man had an incredible way of blending into the background and becoming one with the furniture. She swore he hadn’t moved in the last forty minutes, ever since he had taken up position near the door, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest.

  “I don’t suppose you have any suggestions?” she said, a little more bite to her tone than he deserved.

  He hadn’t done anything wrong. He had escorted her back to the mansion in the Law Keepers’ black car and had brought her to the library where they could work in peace. He had been a perfect gentleman the whole time, not saying a word out of place.

  She was just riled and lashing out, irritated by Section Seven’s behaviour and the constant yawning abyss within her. She shuddered, wishing she could shake off the chill and the emptiness that had come upon her the moment Tor had sprinted out of sight. With every metre further apart they had moved, the weird sensation had increased, and her tempe
r had frayed with it.

  She didn’t like him being away from her. Not feeling him close to her, sensing his emotions and his presence, was disorientating.

  Her mobile phone beeped.

  She pulled it from her jeans pocket and frowned at the message from Tor. He was telling her to keep away and let the men handle the job? Insufferable bastard. She was more than capable of taking Adam down. She wouldn’t hesitate again.

  Pain tore through her insides, shredding them and ripping a cry from her throat. She clutched her stomach, her head spinning from the crippling agony burning her to ashes inside and threatening to render her unconscious.

  “Are you alright?” Vincent pushed away from the wall and was by her side in an instant, hovering close to her, his hand held barely a few inches from her arm.

  He couldn’t touch her and he knew it. It would make her pain worse, and probably send her tumbling into darkness.

  She held her stomach, screwing her eyes shut and waiting for the agony to pass, her skin crawling and prickling. Her throat tightened as a thousand thoughts blasted through her mind, each reason for her pain more frightening than the last.

  Vincent reached out to take her arm and she stumbled away from him.

  “I’m fine. It’s not me.” She knew that with a bolt of dread that tore her up worse than the pain had because this one struck her heart with a direct shot. “It’s Tor. Something has happened to Tor.”

  Eve fumbled with her phone, her hands shaking as she pressed the button to call him. She pinned the phone to her ear and rubbed her stomach. It went straight to voicemail.

  She cursed under her breath, her panic increasing as her mind filled with terrifying images of Tor in the hands of Adam.

  “We need to find Tor.” She showed Vincent the text she had received. “They need strong blood and I have a bad feeling that they just got their hands on some.”

  He nodded. “We’ll have to follow your bond.”

  She swallowed hard. “Follow it?”

  He marched towards the door and she raced to keep up with him. “You are bound to him. You can follow your instincts and senses, and those will lead us to his location. We will have to wait for Daemon and Serge to return.”