Logan gripped the door handle and turned it slowly. The door opened with a soft snick. He paused, waiting for any sound that something had heard us. Not a mote of dust moved.
Ash nodded.
Logan pulled the door open, and Ash slipped through. We waited several long seconds and then he returned and jerked his head in a come-on gesture.
The room beyond was an open-plan office floor. Forlorn, abandoned cubicles filled the huge space. Most of the windows had been blacked out, but there was the odd one that hadn’t been covered properly, and shafts of sunlight lanced into the room to illuminate the worn gray carpet and metal filing cabinets. The window we’d entered by had been left uncovered because it was a side room, unused by the Feral, but not this room. There were sleeping Feral in here, several of them, clustered in corners, tucked into cubicles, curled around each other.
Ash signed something to Jace, and Jace nodded and leaned in to whisper in my ear. “Follow Ash’s lead. They’ll slumber deep, but a sudden loud sound or blood will wake them.”
I nodded, and we began to move. Ash navigated the floor with expert ease, skirting the debris of fallen chairs, cabinets, and slumbering Feral with light-footed perfection. I watched his movements, mimicking the way he walked on the balls of his feet. Not a floorboard creaked, not a sound was made, and then we were out of the door and in a stairwell.
Logan exhaled softly and mouthed the word fuck.
Jace grinned and laid a hand on Ash’s shoulder.
Ash indicated we head down the stairs.
It was darker in the stairwell, and the air smelled stale and close. This was where the majority of the Feral would be, in the darkness, away from the possibility of sunlight. The virus had turned the sun into their enemy. Dad said that it had altered their genetic makeup, making them hypersensitive to UV rays. The slightest exposure could cause their cells to combust. They were slaves to the night, just like the Feral Claws, and we were headed into their den.
Please let Tobias and Emily be here. Please let them be alive and uninfected. Ash led the way down the stairs. Jace went next, then me, with Logan at my back. We came to the second floor, and Ash paused and signed something. Jace headed for the fire exit to the second floor. He opened the door, and the stench of piss and shit blasted out to hit me in the face. I gagged, turning my face into Logan’s shirt. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and buried his nose in my hair, choking back a gag of his own.
I inhaled the freshly washed scent of his shirt and latched onto the vanilla undertone that was his signature contradictory scent. And then my brain reminded me who I was cozying up to, and I quickly extricated myself.
Logan released me with a soft chuckle.
Jace closed the door and rejoined us. He shook his head, and Ash continued down the stairs.
I leaned in close to Jace. “What was in there?”
“Drained bodies.”
I paused. We had to go back and check for Tobias and Emily. What if they were among the dead?
Logan gripped the back of my neck and propelled me forward. “No. We focus on the living. We focus on freeing them. It’s not all about your friends.”
Shame washed over me, hot and stinging. He was right, of course. We were here now, and if we could save the humans, then we would. No point wasting time on going through the dead. If Tobias and Emily weren’t amongst the living, then I’d have my answer. Oh, God. It was getting gross now. The stench as we hit the first floor was cloying and unbearable.
“Not a warehouse.” Jace’s voice was low. “An office building.”
Yeah, that made sense with what we’d seen of the place so far.
Logan branched off to check this floor. He twisted the door handle and pushed. There was a crack and snap and the door handle came off. Logan pushed again, but the door wouldn’t budge. Either it was bolted from the inside or barricaded. Logan glanced over his shoulder at Ash and then shifted out of the way so that Ash could take his place. The big guy braced his shoulder against the door, ready to break through.
I stepped up and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Is this a good idea? It’s barricaded from the inside … why would they do that … Oh, God. They wouldn’t, but humans might.”
Ash smiled as I came to the conclusion. I held up my hands and stepped away to allow him to do his thing. He turned the door knob and pushed with all his might, but the door didn’t budge.
A soft cry emanated through the door.
Shit. They were in there. There were humans in there.
I pushed by Ash and pressed the side of my face to the door. “It’s okay. We’re here to help you. Open the door.” My voice echoed in the empty corridor and my bowels tightened. What if the Feral heard?
Ash remained silent, his head cocked, listening for sounds around us.
A scuffle ensued and then a voice called out, “Eva? Eva, is that you?”
My heart leapt into my throat, beating wildly. I knew that voice. “Tobias. Oh, God. Yes. It’s me. Let us in.”
“Fuck, you need to get out of here. Go now.”
Like hell. “I’m not leaving you. I’m never leaving you again. Let me in.”
“Dammit, Eva. You have to leave. There is no door on this side. It’s been bricked up. There’s another door on the other side of the room, but it’s bolted from the outside. They come for us via that. It leads down to the ground floor.”
“On it.”
“No. Eva, you don’t understand. The Feral are down there. They’re all down there. There is no way out.”
Clever Feral. They’d shut their food up in a room where the only escape during the day was to go past a slumbering horde. We’d made it past several Feral on the third floor, but who knew how many were on the ground floor.
No. We were here now, and we’d find a way to get them out. “We’re not leaving without you. Are you tied up?”
“We? Eva, you found help?” There was hope in his tone now.
“Yeah, I got help. I’m getting you out.”
“But, Eva—”
“Okay, be ready. We’re on our way.”
He was here. He was alive, and I was going to make sure he stayed that way. I pushed past Ash and made to head down the stairs, but he snagged my elbow and hauled me back.
“Easy,” Jace said. “Ash will go first.”
Shit. Of course. Damn, I needed to stay on the ball. Ash slipped ahead, and we made it to the ground floor. The darkness here was almost absolute, but my excellent night vision had kicked into gear and my olfactory system had finally become semi-accustomed to the smell. We stepped into a dusty reception area. A large desk dominated the space. The front door was chained shut and the windows smeared with black paint, letting in only tiny spears of light. To our left were a set of double doors, slightly ajar, and a corridor ran down the side of the reception desk. Logan headed down the corridor and returned a few seconds later.
“Back door exit is that way,” he said in a low voice. “There’s a pile of Feral asleep a few feet in front of it. It’s the only way in and out for the humans.”
Ash stepped up to the double doors and peered in. His body rippled with tension. We’d found the Feral. Ash pushed the door open slightly and slipped into the room. Jace held up a hand—a warning to wait. Ash reappeared a moment later, his silver eyes gleaming in the darkness, and even in the gloom it was evident that his cheeks had drained of color.
He signed rapidly, and Jace’s jaw tightened. He braced his hands on his hips and tucked in his chin.
“We need to abort,” Logan said softly.
I looked from Ash to Jace and then to Logan. “What’s going on?”
“This isn’t a roost, this is a hive,” Jace said.
“What’s a hive?”
“When several roosts get together,” Jace explained. “It looks like this is a central base for the Feral in the surrounding area. Like a base of operations. It’s wall-to-wall Feral in there.” He met my gaze. “Eva … even if we do get through there’s no
“And it’s the only exit,” Logan added.
The logical part of my brain, the part trained for survival, told me this was a lost cause, and that we should turn around and leave right now, but the other part, the friend in me, the part that was growing to feel things for Tobias that I shouldn’t, ordered me to stay.
“Eva, we’re formidable fighters,” Jace said. “And we know you can hold your own. Four against one hundred, if it was just us trying to make it through, may be possible, but four against one hundred while escorting a bunch of humans … There is no way we can protect them.”
My mind was whirring, working on the problem, and the solutions made me feel sick. “Ash, can you get us through there without waking them up?” I looked up into his brutally beautiful face. His mouth turned down as he considered and then he nodded once.
Logan made a sound of exasperation. “Yeah, but getting back out with the humans will be impossible.”
“What about with just two humans?”
Logan blinked down at me in surprise. “Well, well, well.”
I swallowed and looked to Ash and Jace. “Can we do it?”
Ash and Jace exchanged glances. “Yes. I think we can.”
“Cutthroat,” Logan said. “I like it.”
I turned on him. “Shut it. It’s nothing to be proud of, trust me.”
“Oh, I do. This is distasteful for you, but it’s also not that difficult. Is it?” He leaned in. “I see the hard glint in your eyes. It’s the survivor’s eye. I saw it before, back at the bunker, but your whole save-my-friend shtick made me wonder. I guess you’re a straddler—holding on to humanity and morality by your fingertips.” His eyes flared. “It’s him, isn’t it? This Tobias. He’s the one keeping you from giving in to your instincts and turning cold.”
“Fuck you, Logan.”
But there was a little voice inside me that agreed with him. Tobias was my tether. Tobias made me a better person, and if I had to leave the other humans here to die to save his life, then so be it.
I lifted my chin. “We’re doing this.”
Ash signed again.
“Okay,” Jace said. “We follow Ash’s lead, step where he steps, stop when he stops. Got it?”
“Yeah. I got it.”
Ash went in first, and I followed. Jace was right behind me and Logan made up the rear. Darkness closed around me like a suffocating, scratchy blanket. Ash waited a moment, probably giving my night vision time to adjust.
The inky black lightened to dark gray, and the room came into focus. It was huge, stretching back into the shadows farther than my eyes could make out. Broken tables and chairs littered the floor, and lying amongst the debris were the monsters, pale skin glinting in the darkness, naked, bald, and curled around each other like distorted cubs eager for warmth. It was a sea of Feral as far as the eye could see. My chest grew tight and my fingers tingled. This was death—an ocean of fangs and talons and bloodthirst. Ash reached back and brushed my hand with his. The warmth from his fingers seeped into my skin, snapping me out of my shock. I snapped my mouth closed and breathed through my nose. Focus.
Ash began to navigate his way through the bodies. A foot here, a leap there. I mimicked him, breathing evenly, careful, watchful, arms out for balance. He made it look easy, he made it look effortless, but every time my feet left the ground my heart threatened to stop beating. But we were doing this. We were making our way across the room, and we were halfway there. The black rectangle of a doorway was visible ahead of us. It was the exit that would lead up to the first floor, to where they were keeping the humans.
And then Ash stopped suddenly, canted his head, and listened. What was it? What was he listening for? The room around us was deathly still, deathly silent, because the Feral made no sound when they slumbered, not a breath, not a moan. But Ash continued to listen, and then his head whipped round and his hands began to sign. Jace’s face was a pale blob of anxiety in the dark, and Logan looked like he wanted to spit a few choice curses.
Ash scanned the room and then pointed left. There was a closed door not too far from the doorway we were headed to.
What was happening? Why was he leading us to the closed door? Wait, had I gotten my directions mixed up. Maybe this was the door we needed.
He reached it and tugged on the handle, trying to open it. Nothing happened. Fucking locked. Around us the room had lit up in red light. I looked down at the Feral asleep in their hive to see several red orbs flashing amongst the tangle of pale limbs. Red orbs flashing on collars, like the one the Feral that had attacked me had been wearing. The Feral attached to the collars began to stir.
“Ash …” Jace unhooked his chain from his belt.
Logan slid a long dagger from a sheath at his waist, and Ash unhooked his crossbow and backed up against the door that refused to open. I gripped the hilt of my tulwar and drew it from its sheath. The metal glinted wickedly where an errant ray of light caught it.
The collared Feral rose from the blanket of their brethren, red lights winking at us like some kind of silent countdown. Their pale, sinewy bodies cracked and contorted as their hungry eyes found us.
“If we fight, we’ll wake them all,” Logan said.
“If we leave these alive then they’ll wake the rest,” Jace pointed out.
I rolled my neck on my shoulders. This was my forte. Killing quick and silent and moving fast. This was what I’d been trained to do.
I didn’t take my eyes off the collared; instead, I pinpointed their locations so they sank into my mind like quicksand. “Then we kill them quick.”
Every step Ash had taken, every safe spot, was etched into my brain. As the Feral advanced, I took a deep breath, tuned into Motorhead, and then let my body take over. Their heads had to come off, and the tulwar did a fine job of that. My toes barely touched the ground before I was back in the air. Leaping, spinning. Slicing. Time was suspended; there was only the hiss of my blade and the silent spatter of crimson. There was only the track in my head and the rush of my blood as it hammered in time to the beat. And then it was over. The red lights were gone, and the room was silent once more.
I slipped back into the driver’s seat, turned off the music, and located the guys still standing by the locked door. Their weapons were clean, clutched loosely in their hands, and their eyes were on me. Why were they … Oh. They hadn’t gotten in a single hit. I’d taken out the red collars solo. This was a moment to be pumped, but the way they were looking at me sent ice trickling through my veins. They were looking at me as if I was the monster.
Something brushed my leg, and my heart stuttered. I looked down slowly, knowing exactly what I’d see. The Feral looked up at me, its mouth opening in a rictus grin showcasing yellow elongated fangs, and then its hand clamped around my leg. A silver barbed ball slammed onto its head, crushing it with a sickening thud.
Jace yanked the chain on his weapon to retrieve the ball, and I shot him a grateful look.
“Too late, guys,” Logan said. “Slumber party’s over.”
The ground heaved and writhed around us as the rest of the Feral awoke. The blood of their fallen comrades was fresh in the air, enough to spike their senses and nudge them into consciousness. And now it was time to make a run for it. I jerked my head toward the open doorway, and Ash snapped into action, running quickly through the mass of Feral who’d slumbered through the death of their comrades.
Screeches filled the air, the Feral battle cry, and then they were in pursuit.
Chapter Seventeen
Ash didn’t take the stairs; instead, he ran straight for the nearest door and shoved it open. We tumbled into a dark room… shit, not even a room, a closet of some kind. Shelves and boxes and paper. Supply closet? Ash slammed the door shut and engaged the lock. It wouldn’t keep them out for long, but it would buy us precious time.
“We need to barricade it,” Jace said.
Logan grabbed a filing cabinet and began to slide it across the ground. Jace grabbed the other end and they shoved it up against the door.
Howls ripped the air outside the room.
Tobias. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.
“There’s a window,” Jace said. “It’s boarded but we can get—”
Ash held up a hand, and Jace fell silent. He cocked his head, listening again, and then he began to sign.
Logan cursed softly, but Jace was silent.
Dammit. I needed to learn how to read sign language. “What is it? What’s happening?”
Engines growled outside, and I rushed to the window.
Jace pressed his chest to my back, peering over my head. “Vladul.”
Adrenaline spiked my blood, and my knuckles gleamed white as I clutched the window pane. “What? What are they doing here?”
“Reaping,” Logan said. “The red collars out there belong to them. It looks like they have scouts in this hive. The collars contain trackers, and the Vladul send out reaper parties to collect any uninfected humans the Feral might have. Ash heard the acceleration in the collared Feral’s heartbeats a moment before the trackers went live and woke them.”
The Vladul had come to take the humans? “They can’t come in here, not without the risk of infection.”
“Look,” Jace whispered in my ear. A huge vehicle skidded to a halt outside, the battered bumper in view of the window. Boots hit the ground, and then several figures came jogging past. They were covered in shiny silver suits that seemed to glow. Their faces were hidden by helmets so only their eyes were visible.
“UV suits,” Logan said. “They emit UV rays. The Feral won’t touch them.”
They were going to take the humans. They were going to take Tobias. I rushed to the door. “We have to stop them.”
Ash locked gazes with me.
Shit. Stop. Think. Assess. “Ash. Is there a way to stop them?”
Ash shook his head.
Enough, Dad’s voice snapped. Enough. You took a risk, a huge risk, and it’s over. Get the fuck out. Get out while you can.
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