Five of the werewolves break off immediately. Four of them back away from the gathering with their heads down, exposing the backs of their necks. The last, a young male with acne-scarred skin and a nose ring, slowly and deliberately turns his back before walking away.
Wendy clenches his fists. “That boy…”
“I know.” I touch his arm. “And if you don’t nip it in the bud, he’ll be a dick later, but right now we don’t have time.”
For a horrible moment I worry he’s going to ignore me. Then Wendy breathes deep and turns back to me. “Fine, meat sack. Let’s go get Pips.” He grins.
“After you, dog breath.”
Chapter Twenty-seven
Next stop, weapons.
I hate the thought of giving up the location of a SPEAR safe house, but I’ve little choice left.
Wendy agrees to take his wolves ahead and wait for us while I take the others to see Shakka.
He’s not pleased to see me.
When he attempts to slam the door, Rayne jams her foot in the narrow gap and shoves with all her might. The force catapults him into the far wall where his head cracks the plaster.
Tina and Hozier appear embarrassed and apologetic, but Barney smiles as we walk through, with a condescending glower at Shakka on the way.
I make up my mind to keep a close eye on him. Seems it’s more than vampires he has a problem with.
Shakka catches up at the bottom of the stairs to the containment space. He darts ahead and stretches his arms in front of the door. “You can’t do this. You can’t bring civilians in here.”
“They’re with me.”
“Even the vamp? After the way you treated her? She’s from Vixen’s nest.”
“She was from Vixen’s nest.”
The tiny goblin hawks from the chest and spits at our feet. “You know better than that. She’ll always be from Vixen’s nest.”
“Open the door. All we need is weapons, then we’re gone.”
“No deal. SPEAR pay me well—I’m too old to risk losing it all for whatever madness you’re cooking.”
“Saving people isn’t madness.”
“You’re suspended.”
Eye-roll. “Don’t listen to gossip, Shakka. Anyway, I’m not sitting this one out. Vixen has my sister.”
He snorts. “Then may she die quickly. That’s the most you can hope for.” He steps right.
I follow. “Vixen has dozens of unregistered vampires in her nest. She’s been snatching humans off the streets to feed her followers and now she’s planning something bigger. We have to stop her.”
Shakka stops, one hand raised as if to fend me off. Slowly, he curls long, knobbly fingers down over his palm. “She’s powerful. You can’t stop her.”
“Watch me.”
The goblin strokes the side of his nose, rubbing the rough area covered in tough, dark scar tissue. His gaze traces his right hand and the missing middle finger. “She did this, Karson. Said she’d take a fresh piece of me every day I refused to help her.”
I’d always wondered what happened to his hand. Every SPEAR has their own theory about how he lost that finger. And the chunk of his nose. And his ear.
I personally thought he’d had a scrap with a dog and was too proud to say, but this?
“What did she want?”
Shakka glares at the closed door to the holding area. His gaze skims away, across the trio of officers and Rayne, before darting back to me. “Covert access to this holding area and knowledge about all the others. She wanted SPEAR.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
A chill grips my chest. How long has Vixen been planning this?
“I escaped, but I’ll never forget how she treated me.” He breathes deep.
“Then help me stop her.”
“You already owe me.”
“Don’t remind me.”
He walks to the steel doors and activates the opening sequence. “If you’re really going to stop her, you can clear your debt in one move.”
“Which is?”
“Kill her. Tear that bitch up and wash the ooze into the sewer.”
The doors swish open.
At the far end, the nursing gargoyle from earlier leaps up with a roar. Both wings spread wide as she dives at the bars.
A sharp crackle fills the air, accompanied by the sickly scent of charred meat.
The gargoyle flies back and hits the far wall, smoking from the palms.
Well, they’re always warned about the bars.
Barney keeps back at the top of the stairs, but Tina and Hozier walk straight in, eyes wide with bold and unabashed interest.
On either side of the mother, two smaller gargoyles watch us with open curiosity. These gargoyles are too young to hate and fear humans the way some older ones do and chatter through the bars. One male, one female, both pale in colour with soft wings yet to fully unfurl.
Rayne follows me to the number pad for the weapons store and watches as I enter my code.
The pad flashes a red light. Beeps.
“What?” I type it in again. Slower this time.
Red light. Beep.
Shakka waddles over, expression grim. “What’s taking so long?”
“Not a damn clue.”
Rayne sighs. “You’re suspended, remember?”
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, and fucking bollocks.
I drag my hands through my hair. This can’t be happening. Not now. Not when we’re so close. And Pippa—
“Rayne, wait!”
She stops dead, fist trembling a hair’s breadth from the number pad. “We need weapons.”
Slowly, I close my hand around hers and pull it away from the security pad. It’s like hauling an elephant by the tail. “If you hurt this unit, the entire building locks down. It’ll knock us out.” I direct her gaze to the small holes in the ceiling tiles. “Isoflurane. You’d be out in seconds.”
“We all would.” Shakka backs away. “And I don’t feel like bursting facial boils for the next six hours.”
I stumble as Rayne relaxes her arm. Though she catches me, I shove away and retreat to the far side of the holding area to press my forehead to the wall.
My mind is spinning, working through different scenarios, coming up with further plans.
There has to be a way we can do this without weapons. We have to make it work.
“Danika?” A gentle hand touches my shoulder.
I close my eyes. “Yes, Rayne?”
Even without vampire smell and hearing, I know her touch. It’s familiar and tender, cool yet somehow warm, not with body heat but intent. “We’ll get Pippa out.”
I grip her fingers. Draw strength from the quiet assuredness in her voice.
Damn right we will.
I turn back to the others. “Change of plan. Without weapons you guys can’t come. Rayne and I will go in, covert, and work on getting everybody out. You contact SPEAR and convince them to send backup to Sertral Street.”
Objections. Lots of them. All at once.
Doesn’t matter. Can’t listen.
I have my gun, and the remains of my throwing knives. My utility belt has extra ammunition, and a few other peripherals against edanes. I won’t need any of it if Rayne and I manage to sneak in, which shouldn’t be hard at this time of night. This is the only way.
Tina blocks the door. “You can’t do this alone. Wait for SPEAR.”
“I can’t. Pippa—”
“You won’t be any help to her if you’re killed trying to be a hero.”
I frown. “I’m not trying to be a hero.”
“No? Bringing in the werewolf cavalry, bullying your edane colleagues? You’re half a step from vigilante. You’re not supposed to be working right now. This is personal for you on a huge level. You need to be objective and I’m not sure you can.”
I think about Rayne. About Mikkleson. Jack. About the house I long to rebuy and the new block of shops that will eventually take its place. I think of Mum and
the haunted, desperate look in her eyes as she begged me to save the person we both love more than anyone else in the world.
Personal? Hell, yes it is.
“Hey, Shakka, why is the door open? You can’t keep—oh. Well, that was easy, sí?”
Startled, I scoot around Tina to find the source of this new voice.
Oh hell.
Noel stands in the doorway.
* * *
Noel edges down the steps, fingers tucked into the waist of his trousers. He smiles, looking hard at everyone before focusing on me. The smile broadens. “When they sent me to find you, I had no idea it would be so easy. I only came for a weapon.”
Slowly I step left to put myself between him and Rayne. “Quinn sent you?”
“Naughty, naughty Dee-Dee. What have you been doing?” He cranes his neck. Again I shift to block his view. “Quinn wants you in containment. What is all this? Who are these people?”
Hozier opens his mouth but whatever he planned to say is lost beneath a grunt of pain as Tina stamps on his foot.
“Friends,” I tell him.
“You don’t have friends.”
“Of course I have friends.”
Noel wags a finger at me. “No, no, people you choose not to punch can’t be counted as friends. I mean people you want to spend time with, sí?”
I feel rather than see Rayne step closer to me. “I have friends.”
His eyebrows lift. “Bueno. But you must come with me now.”
The officers, tense and unmoving, wait for my response. Shakka backs towards the wall. Only Rayne seems comfortable, reaching up to grasp my shoulder, a silent show of her support.
“I can’t. I tried to tell you before—those missing people? The unregistered vampires? They’re on Sertral Street. This is my chance to stop them and get Vixen.”
“You said this on the phone last night. But it’s crazy, you can’t mean it.”
“It’s true.” Rayne steps around me. “I know because I’m one of the vampires that helped make it happen. The leader, Vixen, is old and very dangerous. I also know where she is.”
In an eye-blink Noel has his gun out and levelled at Rayne’s face. An instant later, my own gun is free and pointed at his.
“Dee-Dee? What are you doing?”
“I’m sorry, Noel.”
“A vampire? Here?”
“Rayne’s the only reason I know so much. I can’t do this without her.”
His fingers shift on the trigger. In the still, his breathing is a harsh hiss. “What happened to you? First you release this vampire, then you lie and lie and lie. Even to me.”
My hand trembles. “I had to.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“You know I do.”
“Then why say nothing? Why wait until you’re suspended? I could help. You must know this.”
The air in the room is tight and thick. Every muscle along my raised arm trembles with tension. Every part of me is knotted with it, my tongue dry against the back of my teeth. “I’m sorry.”
“You did like you do always. You fight alone, you make your own rules.” His gun wavers.
“Please, Noel. They’ve got my sister.”
“I have authority to shoot you if I must.”
I lower the gun. “If we don’t do this now, we don’t get another chance. Vixen is in a corner now, and she’ll either bust out of it and kill us all, or we keep her there and take her down. You know I’m right.”
Voices from beyond the door. The tramp of booted feet.
Tina throws me a panicked glance.
I keep my gaze fixed on Noel. “I wouldn’t ask for this if I wasn’t certain. Let me go after her. Let me end it.”
Louder voices now. Even I can hear the chink and clink of chains, probably from a set of handcuffs.
“Please.”
Noel spins the gun on its trigger guard, turns, and puts his head through the door to speak to his team. “I chat with Shakka, amigos. Wait for me, sí?”
“So she’s not here?” The voice outside rings with disappointment.
I hold my breath.
Noel says, “No.”
The breath whooshes free.
“Shame. Was hoping to introduce her to these cuffs. Bet she’d look great all tied up and helpless.”
Another voice laughs. “Would make a change, right?”
“Yeah. Think we’d need to strip-search her?”
“You never know what she’s hiding under all those clothes.”
More laughter.
Rayne snarls. Silver light fills her eyes.
I grab her by the waistband.
“Go, amigos, go. I’ll grab what we need, then follow.” Noel pulls his head back in and shuts the door.
I watch him walk down the stairs. Hold my ground as he stops in front of me, the toes of his boots nudging my own.
Silence.
His gaze bores into mine, hard, intense, and searching. I feel like he’s flaying my thoughts, one at a time, to reach the tender, bloody centre of my mind.
“Dee-Dee?”
“Noel?”
He lunges, one hand scooping around me, the other flying at my face. I duck it, grab his wrist, and twist until the gun flies from his fingers. Noel grunts. I pull. He stumbles. I take him forward, further upsetting his balance, and flick my leg over his arm. Pull again.
He crashes to his knees behind me, arm pulled awkwardly between my legs. Twist and my gun is pointed at the top of his head. “Too slow,” I mutter.
He chuckles. “One day, I get you. One day.”
“But not today.” I release his arm and kick my leg free. The gun I put away. “What now?”
He lifts his hands to shoulder height, palm out. “We go to Sertral Street, sí?”
I grin.
He slips his gun back into the holster. I lower a hand and Noel uses it to bound to his feet.
“Great. Now, could you open the weapons lock-up? We also need protective vests and access to the toy store.”
Noel looks briefly at Rayne before nodding. “Two conditions for my help. First, my unit join us. You will need us and I won’t lie to them.” Though he doesn’t say it, the phrase like you did to me hangs in the air.
“Fine. I’d expect nothing less. The second condition?”
His smile returns, all teeth and dimples under twinkling brown eyes. “I get the battleaxe.”
Oh hell. That’s just not fair.
Chapter Twenty-eight
We’re in Noel’s modified minivan, since it’s the only way we can travel together, loaded down with kit and weapons. And the only way he’ll allow a vampire on the team. He seems uneasy, rather than wary, and keeps looking at Rayne with an odd look in his eyes. I can’t place it.
She sits beside me, seemingly oblivious, occasionally twitching her leg to allow her knee and thigh to brush mine.
The siren’s effects are long gone, but each touch sends my pulse leapfrogging. I can feel it in my throat.
Noel coughs. “You work with Dee-Dee?”
Rayne stiffens. “I…yes.”
“How did that happen?”
“I gave her information. After verifying it, she took responsibility for me as a witness.”
“Ha, you talk like these.” He waves a hand at Tina and the others.
“I used to be an officer.”
His eyebrows twitch. “And now?”
“I don’t know.”
I share my gaze between them, trying to figure out where this conversation is going.
“I do.” Noel leans forward against his seat belt. “Before SPEAR I was an engineer for Bytes and Mites Inc.”
She studies him. “Nanotechnology? Nice.”
“Yes, so I’m smart.” He taps the side of his head. “I see things. I see you and Dee-Dee. You’ll take care of her tonight, sí?”
“I don’t need taking care of.”
“Of course.” Rayne cuts across me. “I’ll protect her with my life.”
Noel
sighs. “Good.” He runs both hands through his hair. “Not what I imagined for my friend, but she smiles in a way I’ve not seen before. Must be good.”
“I hope so.”
My cheeks are burning. “Rayne, I don’t think—”
She grabs my face. It doesn’t hurt at all and I marvel at the self-control she must have to avoid crushing my jaw. Then all big-girl thoughts are gone as she kisses me, long and deep, one hand gripping my hair, her legs rubbing against mine.
Wow. Oh, wow.
Tina giggles.
Barney gasps.
Noel sighs and reaches into one of the pockets on his trousers. From the corner of my eye, I spot him flick a pair of ten pound notes at Hozier, who gathers them up with a smug grin.
When Rayne lets me up for air, I slump in my seat. My body is goo and I can barely lift my head high enough to catch Noel’s eye. “Hardly a smart bet.”
“No? I know well of your preference for the ladies, but a vampire? That, you must admit, is strange.”
I glance at Rayne. “A little. But I’m getting used to it.”
Up front, the agent driving takes a sharp turn left. “Nearly there, guys. What’s the plan?”
Rayne clears her throat. “They’re in a modified bomb shelter beneath the building. We should be able to access it from street level with no trouble.”
“Sertral Street, right?” Tina frowns. She pulls her phone from her pocket and stabs at the screen. A moment later, she nods. “Thought so. The only building large enough for what you describe is a nightclub. Are you sure, Rayne?”
“That’s what he told me.”
Noel throws me a weary look. “I hate working around civilians.”
“We could clear them?” I think about how long it might take to do that and know straight away it’s a bad idea.
Fiddling with his borrowed gun, Barney snorts and stamps his foot. “Clubs? Are you serious? Why would this fanger make a base in a club?”
“Because it’s perfect.” Rayne shows off a hint of fang. “Who’d suspect anybody is hiding there if the club is working undisturbed? One of our other locations was the attic of the city library. Public places are perfect and usually accessible.” Rayne’s voice has a hint of admiration in it. “She’s hiding in plain sight. Genius.”
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