by Lara Adrian
CHAPTER
Thirty-two
Gabrielle, what’s happening? What’s wrong with Kendra? She came to the gallery and told me you were in an accident and that I had to come with her right away. Why would she lie about that?”
She didn’t know how to answer Jamie’s anxious, whispered questions from beside her in the backseat of the sedan. They were speeding away from Beacon Hill, toward downtown. Financial District skyscrapers loomed ahead in the dark, office lights twinkling like Christmas bulbs. Kendra sat in the front seat next to the driver, a thick-necked bouncer type in a thug’s dark suit and sunglasses.
Gabrielle and Jamie had a similar companion in back with them crowding them onto one side of the slick leather bench seat. She didn’t think they were Rogues; they didn’t appear to be hiding huge fangs behind their tense lips, and from what little she knew of the Breed’s deadly enemies, she didn’t expect that she or Jamie would have gone so much as a minute without getting their throats ripped out if the two men were, in fact, blood-addicted Rogues.
Minions, then, she reasoned. Human mind slaves of a powerful vampire Master.
Like Kendra was.
“What are they going to do with us, Gabby?”
“I’m not sure.” She reached over and squeezed Jamie’s hand. She kept her voice low, too, but she knew their captors were listening to every word. “It’ll be okay, though. I promise.”
They had to get out of the car before they reached their destination, that much she did know. It was the most basic rule of self-defense: never let yourself be taken to a secondary location. Then you were on your attacker’s turf.
Odds of survival would go from poor to nil.
She glanced at the sliding lock on the door next to Jamie. He watched her eyes, brow pinching in question as she stared at him then back to the lock. Then he got it. He gave her a nearly imperceptible nod.
But when he started to shift his hands into place to unlock the door, Kendra chose that moment to turn around and taunt them from the front seat. “Almost there now, kiddies. Are you excited? I know I am. I can’t wait for my Master to finally meet you in the flesh, Gabby. Mm, mmm! He’s just gonna eat you right up.”
Jamie leaned forward, practically snarling with venom. “Back off, you lying bitch!”
“Jamie, don’t!” Gabrielle tried to hold him back, fear seizing her at his naive display of protectiveness. He had no idea what he was doing, agitating Kendra or the other two Minions in the car with them.
But he wouldn’t be swayed. He made a lunge from his seat. “You touch either one of us and so help me, I’ll claw your eyes out!”
“Jamie, stop, it’s okay,” Gabrielle said, pushing him back down. “Calm down, please! It’ll be okay.”
Kendra had hardly flinched. Staring at them both, she let out a sudden, shrill giggle. “Ah, Jamie. You always have been Gabby’s faithful little terrier. Arf! Arf! You’re pathetic.”
Very slowly, obviously very full of herself, Kendra resituated herself in the front seat, giving them her back. “Turn up at the light,” she told the driver.
Gabrielle blew out a tremulous sigh of relief as she settled back against the cold leather. Jamie was bunched up against the car door, fuming. When their eyes met, he slid a fraction to the side, letting her see that the door was now unlocked.
Her heart jumped at his ingenuity and courage. She could hardly contain her hopeful smile as the vehicle slowed for the traffic light a few yards ahead. It was red, but based on the line of cars stopped in front of them, it was due to change at any second.
This was their only chance.
She glanced at Jamie, and saw that he understood the plan perfectly.
Gabrielle waited, watching the light, the seconds seeming like hours. The red light blinked off, then went to green. The cars started moving ahead of them. As the sedan began to accelerate, Jamie grabbed the door handle. Pushed it open.
Fresh night air rushed in, and the both of them made a headlong move for freedom. Jamie hit the pavement and immediately moved to grab Gabrielle’s arm to help her escape.
“Stop her!” Kendra shrieked. “Don’t let her get away!”
A heavy hand clamped down on Gabrielle’s shoulder and hauled her back inside the car. She crashed against the Minion’s massive chest. His arms wrapped around her, trapping her in an iron hold.
“Gabby!” Jamie screamed.
A desperate sob choked out of her throat. “Get out of here! Jamie, go!”
“Punch it, you idiot!” Kendra yelled to the driver as Jamie reached for the door handle, trying to come back for Gabrielle. The engine roared, tires screeching as the car joined the other traffic.
“What about him?”
“Leave him,” Kendra ordered sharply. She smiled at Gabrielle, who was struggling in vain in the backseat. “He’s already served his purpose.”
The Minion held her in a bruising grip until Kendra ordered the car to a stop outside a sleek corporate building. They got out of the car and forced Gabrielle toward the glass entrance. Kendra was talking to someone on her cell phone, purring with self-satisfaction.
“Yes, we’ve got her. We’re coming up now.”
She pocketed the phone and led the way across a vacant, marble lobby to a bank of elevators. Once inside, she pressed the button for the penthouse suite.
Gabrielle immediately thought back to the private showing Jamie had done for her photographs. As the elevator stopped on the top floor and the mirrored doors slid open, she had a dreadful feeling that her anonymous buyer was about to make himself known.
The Minion thug who had her by the arms shoved her into the suite. She stumbled forward and, in mere seconds, Gabrielle’s dread became fact.
A tall, dark-haired figure in a long black coat and sunglasses stood in front of the wall of glass, Boston’s nighttime skyline glowing behind him. He was as big as any one of the warriors, and he projected the same air of confidence. The same cool menace.
“Come in,” he said, the boom of his deep voice rolling like a storm. “Gabrielle Maxwell, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”
Kendra went to his side and pet him adoringly.
“You brought me here for a reason, I assume,” Gabrielle said, trying not to mourn the loss of Kendra’s humanity or fear the dangerous being who made Kendra what she was.
“I’ve become quite a fan of your work.” He smiled without baring his teeth. Kendra was brushed aside with a rough hand. “You take some interesting photographs, Miss Maxwell. Unfortunately, I need you to stop. It’s not good for my business.”
She tried to hold the calm, predatory gaze that she knew was peering at her from behind the dark glasses. “What’s your business? You know, aside, from being a diseased, bloodsucking leech.”
He chuckled. “World domination, of course. Really, is there anything else worth fighting for?”
“I can think of a few things.”
A dark brow arched over the rim of his shades. “Oh, Miss Maxwell, if you say love or friendship, I may have to end this pleasant little introduction right now.” He steepled his fingers, the rings on them sparkling in the dim light. She didn’t like the way he was staring at her, sizing her up. His nostrils flared slightly, and then he leaned forward. “Come closer.”
When she didn’t move, the big Minion at her back shoved her into motion. She drew up just an arm’s length away from the vampire Master.
“You smell delicious,” he hissed slowly. “Like a flower, but there is something … else. Someone has fed from you recently. A warrior? Don’t bother to deny it, I can smell him on you.”
Before she realized it, he grabbed her wrist, yanking her to him. With rough hands, he pushed her head to the side, moving the hair that concealed Lucan’s bite and the other, more damning mark, beneath her left ear.
“A Breedmate,” he growled, smoothing his fingertips over her skin. “And newly claimed at that. You grow more fascinating by the second, Gabrielle.�
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She didn’t like the intimate way he whispered her name.
“Who bit you, Breedmate? Which one of the warriors did you permit between those long, lovely legs?”
“Go to hell,” she said, through gritted teeth.
“Not going to tell me?” He clucked his tongue, slowly shook his head. “That’s all right. We can find out soon enough. We can make him come to us.”
He drew back from her at last, and motioned for one of the Minion guards. “Bring her to the roof.”
Gabrielle fought the grip of her captor, but she was no match for his brute strength. She was forced toward a red exit sign and a door with an information placard affixed to it, marked “Helipad Access.”
“Wait! What about me?” Kendra complained from within the suite.
“Oh, yes. Nurse K. Delaney,” her dark Master said, as if just now remembering her. “After we leave, I want you to come out to the roof. I know you’ll find the view from the ledge to be spectacular. Enjoy it for a moment … then step off.”
She blinked at him dully, then bobbed her head, completely under his spell.
“Kendra!” Gabrielle shouted, still desperate to reach her friend. “Kendra, don’t do it!”
The one in the black coat and dark shades strode past without a care in the world. “Let’s go. I’m finished here.”
With the last block of C4 in place at the northern end of the asylum, Lucan navigated his way through a ventilation duct that led to the outside. He removed the loosened grid and hoisted himself out onto the ground. The grass crushed beneath him as he rolled onto it, fresh air crisp in his mouth as he came up on his feet and started to jog toward the perimeter fence.
“Niko, how’re we doing?”
“We’re good. Tegan’s on his way back and Gideon should be right behind you.”
“Excellent.”
“Got my finger on the detonators,” Nikolai said, his voice nearly drowned out by the low chop of a helicopter encroaching on the area. “Say the word, Lucan. I’m dying to light this sucker up.”
“Me, too,” Lucan said. He scowled up into the night sky, searching for the bird. “We’ve got incoming, Niko. Sounds like a chopper heading right for the asylum.”
As soon as he said it, he saw the dark shape appear over the tree line. Small lights flashed as the helicopter angled for the roof of the asylum and began its descent.
A breeze kicked up as the propeller beat its steady rhythm. Lucan smelled pine and summer pollen … and another perfume that made his blood run cold in his veins.
“Oh, Jesus,” he gasped as the trace scent of jasmine registered. “Do not touch the detonators, Niko! For chrissake, whatever you do, you can’t let that fucking building blow!”
CHAPTER
Thirty-three
A volatile mix of adrenaline, rage, and absolute, marrow-chilling fear vaulted Lucan to the roof of the old asylum. The helicopter had barely touched down on its landing rails as he thundered toward it from the edge of the building. Lucan was vibrating with fury, more explosive and unstable than a tractor trailer packed with C4. He fully intended to rip the limbs off of whomever was holding Gabrielle.
He approached from behind the helicopter, careful not to be seen as he rolled under its tail, then came around to the passenger side of the cockpit, gun drawn.
He glimpsed her inside. She was in the backseat next to a big male dressed in black and wearing dark glasses. She looked so small, so terrified. Her scent swamped him. Her fear tore at his heart.
Lucan yanked open the cockpit door, shoved his weapon into the face of Gabrielle’s captor, and made a grab for her with his free hand. She was jerked back before he could latch onto her.
“Lucan?” Gabrielle gasped, her eyes wide with surprise. “Oh, my God, Lucan!”
He did a quick visual assessment of the situation, noting the Minion pilot and another mind-slave human next to him in the front. The Minion in the front passenger seat spun around to knock away Lucan’s arm, and got a bullet in his head instead.
When Lucan looked back to Gabrielle not even an instant later, the calm one with her had put a savage-looking blade to her throat. Peeking out from the sleeve of his long black trenchcoat were the dermaglyphs Lucan had seen in the surveillance photos from the West Coast.
“Let her go,” he told the Gen One leader of the Rogues.
“My, my, this is a faster response than I could have imagined, even for a blood-bonded warrior. What are you up to? Why are you here?”
The low, arrogant voice took him aback.
Did he know this bastard?
“Let her go,” Lucan said, “and I’ll show you why I’m here.”
“I think not.” The Gen One smiled broadly, baring his teeth.
No fangs. A vampire, but not a Rogue at all.
What the hell?
“She’s lovely, Lucan. I rather expected she was yours.”
Christ, he knew that voice. It came from somewhere buried deep in his memory.
Deep in his past.
A name cut through his mind, as sharp as a blade.
No. It couldn’t be him.
Impossible…
He shook off the momentary confusion, but the slip in focus cost him dearly. Creeping up on him from the side, a Rogue had come up on the roof from within the asylum. With a snarl, it seized the helicopter door and slammed the edge of it into Lucan’s skull.
“Lucan!” Gabrielle screamed. “No!”
He staggered, one knee sinking beneath him. His gun was kicked out of his grasp. It skittered across the rough surface of the roof, several yards out of reach.
The Rogue punched him, a massive fist connecting with his jaw. A second later, a brutal kick smashed into his ribs. Lucan went down, but he swung out with his booted foot and collapsed his attacker’s leg. He leaped on the Rogue, one hand going for the blade sheathed at his torso.
A few feet away, the helicopter’s rotors began a high-pitched whine. They were speeding up. The pilot was preparing to take off again.
He couldn’t let that happen.
If he let Gabrielle off this roof, he had no hope that he would see her alive again.
“Get us out of here,” Gabrielle’s captor ordered his pilot, as the chopper’s blades whirred faster and faster.
Outside, scrabbling on the roof, Lucan fought the Rogue who’d attacked him. Through the dark, Gabrielle spotted another one coming up from a hatch in the roof.
“Oh, no,” she breathed, hardly able to speak for the cutting edge of steel that was biting into the skin at her throat.
The big male leaned past her to see what was happening on the roof. Lucan had returned to his feet. He sliced the first Rogue who had jumped him, lacing open the big vampire’s gut. The Rogue’s scream was audible even over the loud drone of the helicopter’s rotors. Its body started convulsing, spasming … melting.
Lucan’s head pivoted around to the helicopter. Fury blazed out of his eyes, glowing like twin embers lit by hell-fire. He lunged forward, roaring, shoulders bunched. Coming at the vehicle like a freight train.
“Get us out of here now!” shouted the male beside Gabrielle, the first true trace of worry she’d heard in him. “Now, goddamn it!”
The helicopter started lifting.
Gabrielle tried to shrink away from the bite of the blade by pressing her spine into the back of the small rear seat. If she could just find a way to knock his arm away, she might be able to reach the cockpit door—
There was a sudden lurch of the helicopter, as if they had snagged on some part of the building. The engine whined, straining.
Her captor was fuming now. “Take off, you idiot!”
“I’m trying, sire!” said the Minion at the controls. He pulled a lever and the engine protested with a terrible groan.
There was another lurch, a sharp downward tug that rattled everything inside the helicopter. The cockpit rolled forward. Gabrielle’s captor lost his grounding on the seat, a momentary inattention.
The blade left her throat.
With a burst of sheer determination, she threw herself backward and kicked out with both legs, shoving him into the back of the pilot’s seat. The vehicle pitched sharply forward. She scrambled for the latch on the cockpit door.
It swung open wildly, flapping on its hinges as the whole compartment shook and wobbled. Her captor was righting himself, about to grab for her again. His sunglasses had fallen off in the chaos. He glared at her with icy gray eyes, full of malice.
“Tell Lucan this is far from over,” the leader of the Rogues ordered her, hissing the words through an evil smile.
“Go to hell,” Gabrielle shot back at him. In that same instant, she lunged for the open space of the door and dropped the several feet down onto the roof.
As soon as he saw her, Lucan let go of the helicopter’s landing rail. The vehicle jolted upward, spinning crazily as the pilot struggled to gain control of his ascent.
He raced to Gabrielle’s side and pulled her to her feet, hands roaming all over her to make sure she was in one piece. “Are you okay?”
She nodded jerkily. “Lucan behind you!”
On the roof, another Rogue was heading for them. Lucan met the challenge with pleasure, now that Gabrielle was with him, every muscle in his body primed for dealing death. He drew another blade and pounded toward the approaching threat.
The fight was savage and swift. With fists flying, blades slashing, Lucan and the Rogue engaged in a deadly hand-to-hand combat. Lucan took more than one hit, but he was unstoppable. Gabrielle’s blood was still strong within him, giving him a fury that would have been a match for ten opponents at once. He struck hard and with lethal efficiency, dispatching the Rogue with a vertical slice to its body.
Lucan didn’t wait to see the titanium do its thing. He spun around and ran back to Gabrielle. Once he was in reach of her, all he could do was pull her into his arms and hold her fast against him. He could have stayed there all night, just breathing her in, feeling her heart beat, stroking her soft skin.
He lifted her chin and placed a fiercely tender kiss on her lips. “We have to get out of here, baby. Right now.”