“Even if it means torturing and sacrificing your own soldiers?” I shot back.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Alan said, his face grave. “Compromises must be made in the pursuit of a higher goal. Even with good people, like Finley. She understood what was necessary, even sacrificing her own life.”
“I watched acid melt her flesh off her bones. I doubt she was thinking of your higher goal when she tried to scream even as her lungs turned to liquid.” I felt bile rise in my throat as I remembered it, turning my voice hoarse.
Several quiet gasps broke out around the table, but I didn’t take my eyes off the man I had once called uncle. The flat hardness of his eyes told me I was never going to get through to him. If Alan and the board wouldn’t change their opinion, then I simply had to do my best to make our plan work. If he hadn’t captured my team yet, I could at least stall for Bryce’s team to infiltrate. With Dorian out of commission and me in cuffs, we would need their help.
“What are you going to do with me and Dorian?” I asked.
The board members exchanged glances.
“You’ll have to be contained until you cooperate,” Jones said.
Were they planning to torture us? It might be too risky to ask, even if it stalled for time. I’d said my piece about their lack of ethics, and if I pushed it further it might become obvious that I was buying precious seconds.
Elena Bradley focused her sights on Dorian. “Your friend may also have information for our cause. He’ll prove valuable if we can convince him to talk.”
They had never planned to let us leave. Instinctively, I had known that, but watching their unmoved faces drove it home.
The door flew open. Guards in full combat gear spilled inside.
“Director Sloane,” a panicked soldier said. “I know we’re not supposed to interrupt, but the situation in the Sloane family quarters is getting out of hand.”
Alan didn’t spare me a glance. “What’s happening?”
“The defector Zach Sloane and a vampire are holed up in the apartment. We need backup to keep the situation under control. They’ve warned us they have bombs. They said they’ll detonate explosives in the room and destroy the entire residential tower if we attempt to harm them.”
So much for a quick and clean extraction or infiltration. Where were our parents? It was possible Zach and Sike hadn’t found them, but then why stay in the apartment? And why make bomb threats they could never carry through? Maybe they hadn’t been able to get out and were buying Louise time.
Alan rested his chin in his hand, mulling it over. “Call their bluff,” he said calmly. “Evacuate the family quarters, then shoot to”—he gave me a sidelong glance and finished smoothly—“injure and see what happens.”
Fear and anger surged within me at the unspoken threat. He wouldn’t directly say it, but it was a potential death order.
The soldiers hesitated. I could see their minds working. Director Sloane would allow them to shoot his own nephew?
Alan slammed a hand against the table. “I thought it was urgent. Why are you still here?” His booming voice made the soldiers snap to attention and salute.
“Yes, sir!”
The soldiers took off. The woman taking notes next to Alan looked unnerved for the first time in the meeting. So, she was surprised by Alan ordering violence against his own family but not genocide against an entire species? Good to know one person in here still had a shadow of a moral code.
Dorian jerked next to me, straining at the restraints even harder now. The buckles of his straitjacket groaned. He snarled behind his muzzle. One of the guards, the young man, lost his grip as Dorian pushed forward. Someone screamed.
No, not like this.
“Get out of the way!” I bellowed. To my surprise, the guards backed off slightly as Dorian let out a vicious growl, but they kept a light grasp on him. The burly one glanced at the handcuffs on Dorian. They seemed to be counting on those to hold him back. I stepped toward Dorian, meeting his eyes.
“I need you to calm down,” I whispered hoarsely. Angry tears spilled from my eyes. I couldn’t stop them. Everything was turning to dust around us. I couldn’t let Dorian be taken, but I needed to make sure he didn’t lash out and kill anyone—it would be the kiss of death for our plan. He snarled once more but then quieted. His shoulders dropped, and I saw the shadows retreat from his eyes a fraction. The burly guard let out a sigh of relief.
Could we really go on with our plan? He was at his limit, and I was handcuffed. I sucked in a steadying breath, wondering if we really had reached the end of the line.
Feel the fire and dig deep. I replayed Bryce’s mantra over and over. We had to believe in our plan. It was the only thing we had left.
“Sloane, this is getting out of hand,” Jones snapped. A plump man next to him nodded furiously, his face drained of color. He kept a close watch on Dorian.
“Should we cancel the meeting?” asked a tall man with a pile of badly arranged gray curls. “The guards mentioned a vampire running loose. Sloane, do you actually have control of this situation?”
“Everything is fine,” Alan said with cool annoyance. “We have it under control. The new weapons were a good investment. The vampires are problematic, but they can be stopped.”
The sound of rotor blades filled my ears. This in itself was not unusual considering the helipad on the building next door. What was strange was a helicopter rising from the ground level instead of the top of the building. I froze as a chopper appeared outside the bank of windows lining one wall.
The blades roared. A light flashed. A rocket flew toward the window. The glass shattered, and panicked cries rang out into the night. Bodies hit the ground. I flew into the table, grabbing it to steady myself, totally disoriented.
The Bureau helicopter had all its guns aimed at the meeting room.
Team War had arrived.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chaos broke loose in the boardroom.
Several board members dove under the table to protect themselves from flying debris. Elena Bradley let out a panicked cry. The guards against the wall, who hadn’t been assaulted with the flying glass, rushed toward the table to help the board members.
“Guards! Keep the prisoners under control,” Alan shouted in the fray.
The burly guard shoved me and Dorian to the side, and the other three soldiers who were escorting us aimed their weapons at us. You’ll have more to worry about than us soon.
Dorian stumbled but caught himself, swaying a little, almost motionless. After his outbursts earlier, this was unnerving.
The blast had taken out most of the windows and formed a hole in the wall large enough for bodies to get through. The other guards stooped to pull board members from underneath the table and rubble, lifting those who were unconscious or wounded. Then they shoved the table over, creating a thick mahogany shield for the board members to hide behind.
“Down on the ground,” a guard bellowed. “Watch the prisoners. We need a wide range. They might be part of this.”
“Get the X-75s ready. The vampires are the priority,” Alan commanded from behind the table. From my vantage point, I could see his cane sticking out past the edge of the table. Had he bluffed about catching part of Team War or expected to find them after discovering the bomb unit of Vonn’s team? Or had he mistakenly meant my team and missed Team War entirely?
The chopper veered toward the building, hovering alongside it. The sound crashed over us, drowning everything out. Glass and debris flung through the air in a deadly storm. I covered my eyes and turned my back to the downdraft, feeling splinters of glass strike my head. Whatever Alan thought he had control of, it wasn’t this.
As much as I hated the thought, with Team War incoming I needed to get ready to protect the board members. The resulting wind sent a new wave of panicked cries from behind the table. In the flickering light from the damaged fluorescents overhead, I saw a shape emerge from the helicopter.
Vonn leapt from the
chopper into the room through the newly blasted hole. Rayne came through next, carrying Roxy on her back as she made the jump. Roxy had two guns strapped to her back and an assault rifle in her hands, ready to exact revenge. Where did she get those?
Gavril, Oleah, and Harlowe completed their team. Harlowe waved a hand at the chopper, indicating for it to go, and I glimpsed Colin at the controls. It peeled away.
Roxy stepped forward, her boots crunching the broken glass and scattered bits of concrete.
“I’m here to revenge Grayson,” Roxy shouted. She stopped suddenly when she saw the mass of gathered guards. They must’ve expected to find the conference room already in tatters from the explosion they’d planned. She saw me, and her eyes widened. “What the hell are you doing here? Is that Dorian? I thought these vultures had captured him.”
Vonn sucked in a breath. His eyes swept across the room, and his face cracked with a manic grin. Oleah, Rayne, Gavril, and Harlowe hung back behind him.
“We don’t have time to discuss this,” Vonn hissed.
How convenient. I couldn’t wait to tell them what he did to Dorian.
“They must’ve caught the others,” Rayne said. “And stopped the bomb from going off here.”
“No matter. There are dark souls cowering behind the table,” Vonn replied coolly. He was on a full-blown power trip.
The vampires dropped into fighting stances, fangs descending, ready to launch themselves across the room. Roxy aimed her gun at the guards, who edged toward Team War but held their fire. When I looked at Alan, I saw he had his finger held low. He wasn’t letting them fire? This many dark weapons would destroy the vampires. They were stronger and faster than the Bureau soldiers, but the board was well prepared. The odds were firmly stacked against us.
Did Alan want to see where this went? Or was he hoping more backup would come?
Rayne rounded on the closest guard. “What happened to the other vampires? What did you do to them?” Her fangs flashed. I wasn’t sure she knew he held a dark energy weapon.
The startled man said nothing, pressing his lips together as he held his ground, eyes flickering to Alan and back to the vampire. He wouldn’t fire unless commanded.
“The darkness is calling,” Oleah growled, prowling beside the windows. She narrowed her eyes at the overturned conference table. In a flash, she lunged at a guard.
“Fire!” Alan bellowed.
“No!” I yelled.
The guards shot at the approaching vampires, beams of green light crossing each other and chasing the vampires around the boardroom. Narrowly avoiding two beams, Harlowe stepped into the path of a third. She grunted in pain as it sank into her skin, stumbling to one knee and then being struck in the shoulder by a regular bullet that sent her crumpling to the ground. Oleah froze, her shocked eyes staring at Harlowe. Rayne hauled Harlowe behind fallen rubble, the destroyed building serving as temporary shelter. Vonn, Gavril, and Oleah dove for cover. Roxy ducked behind it but kept her rifle aimed at the guards, using the top of the rubble to support it. The guards with the dark energy weapons stared at the end of her rifle. The few carrying regular rifles moved their sights off me and Dorian to focus on her.
Everyone was distracted with the chaos. It was my last chance to keep everything from turning into a bloodbath. All our work from going up in smoke. I dropped to the ground, working my cuffed hands under my legs and feet until I had my hands in front of me, then leapt forward. Despite all my survival instincts screaming at me, I planted myself between the two groups, in a no-man’s-land of glass and overturned chairs. “Stop! Everyone!”
Dorian growled beside me. My breath caught. I hadn’t seen him move with me. He stood on a large chunk of concrete from the destroyed wall, a startling image in his muzzle and straitjacket. I raised my cuffs placatingly toward the Bureau soldiers, and he turned to the vampires hiding behind the rubble, wrestling himself under control.
“Wait,” Dorian rasped. “All of you wait. Please.”
“Don’t shoot,” I said, turning to the guards. “We’re trying to protect you.”
Would they believe me? If they wanted to keep their necks, I hoped so. The guards stared back. Behind the table, Alan said nothing. It was a tense standoff, and it wouldn’t last. We needed to work fast. We had to stop Team War and the guards from murdering everyone in the room, then capture the board members. Sure. No problem.
“You’re not dead?” Gavril stared at Dorian. There wasn’t an ounce of guilt in Vonn’s face when Dorian shook his head. Rayne smiled, relieved.
Vonn frowned with feigned sympathy. “I see the Bureau has been treating you well after capturing you.”
Dorian’s eyes narrowed, and he snarled. “Shut up. You attacked me when my back was turned and left me for dead like the crazed coward you are!”
Rayne gasped. Vonn’s team seemed to deflate as the revelation came over them. I felt a hopeful glimmer. If we could convince them to ditch Vonn, we might be able to succeed in this mission.
“It’s true,” I added. “Bravi and I had to rescue him. Even wounded he climbed a sheer cliff and hung on until we found him.” I glared at Vonn. He’d incited hatred and chaos among the group. Now we had to deal with Team War. Kidnapping board members would have been hard enough without this.
“You’re losing your way. Trying to take power for yourself. You’re at risk of becoming the darkness we feed on,” Dorian continued, his tone strained by the evident desire to feed.
I scanned the faces of Vonn’s team. Their fangs had emerged, and their expressions bordered on feral.
We’re close to a breaking point. One way or the other.
Vonn scoffed loudly. “Vampires can’t become dark, you fool.” He turned to his team. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you when the Bureau grabbed you, Dorian, but they’ve obviously tampered with your mind.”
He was still lying about Dorian’s disappearance?
Harlowe frowned, her expression growing skeptical even through her pain. Rayne’s gaze flicked back and forth between Dorian and Vonn. Even Oleah was starting to look unsure. Roxy scowled from her position, hands still firm on her rifle. I would have to trust Dorian to handle the vampires. I had to get her to listen to reason.
“Roxy, please,” I called out. “Setting off a bomb to get revenge for Grayson would be just like what the Bureau did to him. We can’t stoop to their level.”
Her eyes hardened, unconvinced. If she shot at the guards, Alan would retaliate against us. Roxy and I would be riddled with bullets. The vampires would fall to the dark energy weapons.
“There are innocent people in this building,” I pressed. “There’s a difference between fighting for our freedom and needlessly adding to the bloodshed. We can figure this out.”
“I don’t see a difference between fighting and avenging Grayson,” she muttered. Her eyes seemed thoughtful. Her grip loosened on the gun.
We had a chance. If I can get them to stop, we can still salvage the board members.
“I’m addressing the board members behind the table,” I said, knowing they were listening to all this. “This conflict can end today if you stop persecuting the vampires.” Even if I could only get them to negotiate long enough for our backup to arrive with Fenton, it might be enough.
A tense moment passed. Dorian shot me a frantic look, pulling against his jacket. Even while struggling to control himself, he wanted to help me.
“They can’t be trusted,” someone yelled from the board’s side. “Fire!”
I’d feared it would come to that. I threw myself to the ground as the guards fired without hesitation. This was it. I had no choice but to charge forward with Dorian and try our best. Disappointment surged through me along with the adrenaline of battle, but there was no use trying to make sense of an unfair reality. We would have to fight this out.
“We need them alive,” Dorian shouted to Vonn’s team. A laser blast struck him in the chest. He groaned and stumbled, sliding off the rubble. I choked on a burst of fea
r, running to him as a barrage of lasers struck him all at once. I threw myself over him, but while I seemed to block the energy, it was already too late. He let out an agonized groan and fought his restraints, the mask digging into his head as his fangs fought to descend.
“Lyra,” he panted, breath rasping. “Get the jacket off. Or the muzzle. Something. Anything. Please.”
Frantic, I tugged at the myriad of buckles and clips holding the straitjacket closed. He needed his arms free. But my hands were too slow in the cuffs, and the fastenings were too complex. I was powerless to help pull him out of the pain, just as I had been after Phoenix HQ.
I can’t help him like this. Rolling behind some rubble, I jumped to my feet and ran to the nearest shooters holding dark energy weapons, the X-75s. The soldiers tried to back away as they fired, many of them overwhelmed by the situation. I couldn’t help but wonder if some of them had been swayed by my testimony, as the three soldiers who had guarded us hadn’t fired their regular rifles yet.
Dorian’s cries rose up from behind me. Leaping over a fallen chair, I brought my leg up and delivered a swift kick to the closest soldier, knocking the X-75 gun from his hands. He attempted to snatch it back up, but I got behind him and dragged him out into the open space by the destroyed windows, using my handcuffs to cut off the flow of blood to his brain. He gave a strangled cry, and I punted his gun into the rubble, far from the other guards. His comrades watched, but their panicked eyes swung back toward the oncoming vampires, and they didn’t dare step out into the open. They had underestimated my level of threat and placed the vampires over me. Good. I could use that.
In the corner of my eye, Vonn leapt toward the table with flashing fangs. My heart slammed against my chest as he snarled, closing in on a board member. A guard fired a dark matter blast into him. He let out an agonized cry but popped right back up, intent on destruction. Did he even feel the pain? Roxy followed him closely. What’s she doing?
Darklight 2: Darkthirst Page 46