Benny was the first to tumble out the door. He promptly fell the ground and retched up what looked to be a week’s worth of food and blood. When he was done, he glared up at Nikolai, who’d jumped out behind him.
“You fuckin’ lied to me, man,” he said, then wiped the back of his hand across his mouth.
Nikolai shrugged. “I said I’ve flown before. I never said I was good at it.”
Lucas stepped out of the helo and reached back in to lift Seven to the ground. “When someone asks if you can fly, it’s customary to tell them if you suck at it,” he told Nikolai amiably.
Seven patted Nikolai’s shoulder. “I thought you did fine.” He said something back to her in Russian that Quinn assumed was thank you.
Lucas shook his head at her. “You have a cast-iron stomach. Trust me. He didn’t do fine.”
Benny stood up and glared at her. “Yeah, he did fine if ‘fine’ means I only wanted to die for most of the flight instead of all of it.”
Nikolai shrugged again, looking less than apologetic. “My flight experience was with a Mil Mi-24. Russian helo. Turns out it is very different from the American Black Hawk. Who knew?”
Benny threw his hands up in a universal what-the-fuck gesture and said, “And as it turns out, you actually can puke up your own intestines. Huh. Who knew?”
Mischa leapt out of the helo and frowned at Benny. “I managed to sneak a super-fancy, stealth helicopter out of an army base full of armed troops—on twenty minutes notice, mind you—by controlling all of their minds at once, and you’re upset that I didn’t want to take the time to find a better pilot than Nikolai? Well, I am so, so, sorry, princess, but you need to sack up. I did the best I could. And just remember that you’re the one who insisted on coming. I told you to stay home.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and pouted like a petulant child. “I’m tired of being left out. I’m good for more than just comic relief, you know.”
Mischa rolled her eyes. “So you keep telling me. Next time I’m just going to mind-fuck you into thinking you’re on a cruise or something.”
“Oooohhhh, that’d be awesome,” Benny said. “Can we make it a cruise to the Bahamas? I always wanted to go someplace like—”
Quinn lost his patience at that point. “Can someone tell me what the fucking plan is, or do I have to fucking go in there myself and get Marina?”
Mischa had the nerve to smile. “I like him,” she said to Seven. “He’s feisty.”
Quinn was doing the mental math on the odds of surviving a physical confrontation with the head of the Vampire Council’s wife/official enforcer when Lucas stepped up and clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s OK, man,” he said. “Harper has a plan.”
“Yeah, don’t worry about nothin’,” Benny told him. “Harper’s plans always work out. Well, except for that time Mischa got shot twice and died. But other than that…” he trailed off, having noticed what was most likely a thunderous, murderous look on Quinn’s face before muttering to himself, “Shut the fuck up, Benny. That’s what Riddick would say if he was here.”
Which brought up another good question in a long line of good questions Quinn had at the moment. “Where are Riddick and Harper? What are they doing?”
“They’re going in to talk to the terrorists,” Seven said. “The one in charge told Harper to come alone, but there’s no way Riddick was going to let her do that.”
Quinn shoved a hand through his hair. He didn’t want to malign his new boss, but he somehow doubted Harper was especially diplomatic or capable of negotiating a hostage situation. If anything, he’d assume she was more likely to piss the terrorists off than convince them to stand down and let Marina go. “And what are we supposed to do while Harper is talking to the terrorists?”
Seven’s answering smile was a little scary. “We’re going to take out all the vampires who aren’t in that ballroom. Wipe them all off the board.”
Now that sounded like a plan Quinn could get behind.
“Once the rest of the hotel is clear,” Lucas said, “if Harper can’t talk the last few terrorists down, we can storm the ballroom with much less chance of any humans getting caught in the crossfire.”
Quinn glanced over the edge of the roof. “What about all the ones outside?” There had to be 40—no, more like 50—vamps out there.
“Harper figures most of them will head in when she does. They’ll be more focused on protecting the interior once Harper’s in than they are on protecting the grounds now. Especially since they know the cops aren’t coming.”
Which led to yet another question. Jesus, why was it that answers from these people only lead to more confusion? “And how does Riddick plan to keep those bastards from killing him and dragging Harper in against her will?”
They all looked at him like he’d just suggested they drink bleach. “Have you met Riddick?” Benny asked.
Seven adjusted an earpiece Quinn hadn’t noticed and handed an identical one to him. “They’re here,” she said. “Showtime.”
Quinn glanced back over the edge of the roof and shook his head. “Tell me they aren’t just going to walk in the front door.”
Benny smirked at him. “Watch and learn, pal. Watch and learn.”
Chapter Nineteen
“East bound and down,” Harper said, fidgeting with her own earpiece as she got out of her car in the hotel parking lot.
“Loaded up and truckin’,” Benny replied over the com system from his position on the roof with the rest of Harper’s crew.
Mischa sighed. “I think it’s customary to say ‘testing’ and ‘copy that’ when trying to figure out if the com system is working.”
Even from a distance, Quinn could see Harper’s nose wrinkle up. “That’s so boring.”
Benny nodded. “Anytime you can reference Smokey and the Bandit, you should.”
“RIP, Burt Reynolds,” Harper said.
“Amen,” Benny murmured, tracing a cross on his chest.
Mischa opened her mouth, but shut it when Riddick put in his own earpiece and said, “Let it go, Mischa. Let’s just move on before the Cannonball Run references start, OK?”
Mischa shuddered. “Copy that.”
The sea of vampires in front of the hotel parted when Harper identified herself. All but one, that is. The one blocking the main door.
The vamp looked Harper up and down, one hand on the butt of his Glock, before flicking his glance at Riddick. “Your orders were to come alone.”
He sounded like a kid who’d been told he couldn’t have candy for dinner, Quinn thought. If this guy was more than a year or so dead, Quinn would eat his shoe. Come to think of it, the vamps he’d taken out inside had been newly turned, too. If he was the paranoid type—and he totally was—Quinn would think someone was creating an army of young vampires to use as expendable mercenaries.
“Where she goes, I go,” Riddick said in a voice that was just short of a rabid growl.
The vamp stupidly stood his ground—literally, in fact. He planted his feet a shoulder’s width apart and glared at Riddick defiantly. “Not today you don’t.”
Riddick and Harper glanced at each other, and after a brief, loaded silence, burst out laughing.
When her belly laughs eventually dissolved into little chuckles, Harper swiped at her watering eyes with the back of her hand. “That’s adorable. Just adorable, really. But seriously, though, step aside, junior. We’re going in.”
The kid looked like lava might flow out his ears at any minute as he pulled his gun and pointed it at Riddick.
“Oh, shit,” Benny muttered from next to Quinn. “That was stupid.”
“I’ll betcha ten Riddick snaps his neck,” Lucas said to no one in particular.
“No way,” Seven said. “That’d be too easy. Riddick will take out his knee, then head-butt him.”
“Why the knee?” Nikolai asked. “Snapping the neck would be more efficient.”
“The knee hurts more,” Seven and Mischa said in ster
eo.
Benny shook his head. “You guys are fucking scary, you know that?”
They didn’t need to wait long for Riddick’s reaction. In a move so quick Quinn doubted the normal human eye could even track it, Riddick knocked the gun out of the vamp’s hand and kicked it away from Harper in midair before it could even hit the ground. Then, he drove the heel of his work boot into the poor dumb bastard’s knee—Quinn had supernatural hearing, but even an ordinary human could’ve heard that thing snap—before head-butting him into unconsciousness. Riddick caught the vamp by the hair before his body could hit the ground.
“Anyone else want to try and stop my husband from walking through these doors with me?” Harper asked the remaining vamps. They all looked at the vamp with the busted knee, then shook their heads. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Harper muttered.
Benny winced. “I’m guessing that having your knee bent backward like that hurts like a bitch.”
Lucas sighed. “Well, damn, you called it, beautiful. You win again.”
“You can pay me later.”
Her tone was serious, but the playful glint in her eye said she wouldn’t be expecting payment in the form of cash.
“Even if it takes all night,” Lucas promised, making his wife blush.
Below them, Riddick kicked the door open and gestured gallantly with the vamp’s limp body, motioning Harper in. “After you, sunshine.”
Harper raised up on tiptoe to plant a kiss on her husband’s lips. “Such a gentleman.”
Quinn shook his head. “Why does it feel like I’ve suddenly joined the circus?”
Benny patted his shoulder and gave him a look that bordered on sympathy. “That happens to all of us in the beginning. Don’t worry. It passes. Before long, all this will feel totally normal.”
Quinn winced. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
***
Marina’s head shot up as the ballroom door was kicked open and Harper strutted in like she owned the place, alongside her husband, who appeared to be dragging an unconscious vampire behind him. By the hair.
Wow. No one made an entrance like this couple did.
Harper stopped a few feet in front of Davis and raised her hands in a what-the-fuck gesture. “Well, I’m here, as ordered. I have no idea when you were turned, pal, but just a little piece of advice for future reference: there’s been a really cool invention called the phone. I have one. Calling me on it would’ve saved a shitload of stress and effort.”
Davis smirked at her, but his clenched jaw told Marina that Harper’s nonchalance—or maybe the sight of his unconscious guard—irritated him. “I needed to make sure I had your full attention, Ms. Hall. I have a feeling I wouldn’t have if I’d just called.”
She shrugged. “Honestly? You only have about 30 percent of my attention now. ADD’s a bitch. So, I suggest you get to your point before I get bored and decide to just let my husband kill you. He’s been begging to since we got Marina’s call. It’d make his night.”
Riddick’s answering crazy-eyed smile was scarier than any verbal threat could’ve been. A few of Davis’s men even flinched. But not Davis, whose only reaction to the threat was a slight narrowing of the eyes. “Well, I wouldn’t want you to get bored,” he said. “My employer wants you to use your pull with the Vampire Council to get Anton Kristoff released from Midvale. Tonight.”
Harper looked like she was stifling a yawn. “And you didn’t ask the Vampire Council directly because…?” She made the traveling hand signal.
“My employer’s request for parlay was denied by the council,” Davis said through his clenched teeth.
Harper snorted. “Parlay,” she stage-whispered to Riddick. “Apparently they’re pirates now. Dude thinks he’s Jack Sparrow.” Riddick chuckled.
She turned back to Davis and said, “So who exactly is your employer, Jack?”
“Irrelevant,” Davis said. Marina couldn’t help but cringe when he pointed his gun at her head and added, “Are you going to make the call, or am I going to be forced to Jackson Pollock this wall with your sister’s brains?”
Marina’s gaze locked with her sister’s, and they had an entire conversation without saying a word aloud.
Harper: Are you alright?
Marina: Yes, I’ll be fine. Just do…whatever it is you have planned.
Harper: You trust me, right?
Marina: Do I have a choice?
Harper: Nope.
Marina: You know I do.
Harper. Good. And hang on, because this is about to get interesting.
Marina: God, it always scares the crap out of me when you say that.
Harper: I always knew you were the smart one in the family.
Harper turned back toward Davis and her gaze hardened noticeably. “You’re not going to shoot her, because you know that the second you do, anything you hoped to gain from me is lost. If you hurt her, I’ll do whatever I have to do to kill you and I’ll have absolutely zero motivation to help you.”
He sneered at her. “That’s why we decided to take this entire room of people hostage right along with your sister. Surely some of their deaths will motivate you to make a single call on my employer’s behalf.”
A few of the other hostages whimpered.
“Oh, don’t be such a drama queen,” Harper muttered. “No one needs to die. I’ll make the call. There’s no guarantee they’ll let the guy out, though. Some of it will depend on what he did to get put there in the first place. The Council might decide old Anton is more dangerous than you.”
“There’s no one more dangerous than me right now, Ms. Hall,” he shot back with zero hesitation.
If the guy knew her sister at all, Davis would’ve run for his life when Harper smiled at him. But Davis was clueless. Marina, however, knew all of Harper’s many different smiles, and the one she was giving Davis right now? It was the I’m-going-to-strip-your-skin-from-your-bones-with-a-dull-rusty-butter-knife smile.
“I guess we’ll just have to see about that,” Harper said sweetly.
Chapter Twenty
Seven and Lucas went off to clear the first four floors of the hotel, while Nikolai stayed on the roof to pick off the guards who were still patrolling the perimeter with his wicked-looking long-range hunting bow. That left Mischa, Quinn, and Benny to clear the remaining floors. Eventually, they’d all work their way back to the ballroom in the middle.
And not a fucking minute too soon, Quinn thought. He was getting antsy. Marina had been in that room with terrorists for way too long. It was taking every bit of his restraint—which honestly wasn’t that great under the best of circumstances, if he was being honest—not to storm into that ballroom and take her back.
His musings were interrupted by Lucas’s voice coming over the com system.
“Betcha ten the wife and I take out more vamps than your team, Little Hitler.”
Mischa shot back immediately with “Betcha ten I’ll beat you unrecognizable if you call me that again.”
“I’ll take that bet,” Benny muttered. “That’s a sure thing.”
“Fair enough,” Lucas conceded. “But I still say my team’s better than yours.”
“Fine,” Mischa said. “If you’re in the mood to give me money, I’m in the mood to take it.”
Quinn could almost hear Lucas tenting his fingers like Mr. Burns and grinning evilly. “Perfect. Let’s talk terms. No powers.”
“Aw, come on,” Mischa and Seven grumbled.
“Hey, that’s only to even the odds for those of us who aren’t telekinetic and can’t control minds,” Lucas said.
“Fine,” Mischa agreed with an eye roll. “But no shifting.”
This time it was Benny and Lucas muttering, “Aw, come on.”
“That one’s non-negotiable,” Mischa said. “And Hunter wanted me to remind everyone that we’re not supposed to kill any vamps tonight. Incapacitate them as painfully as you want, but no killing. That means head shots, not heart shots, Nikolai.”
Q
uinn manfully swallowed his reply, but Nikolai muttered something in Russian that Quinn was pretty sure translated into, “Aw, come on.”
“Where is Hunter, by the way?” Quinn asked.
“We all decided we wanted the scariest motherfucker we had on our team to stay with Haven, just in case these crazy bastards decided to come after her again,” Benny said.
“Guess I can’t argue that Hunter’s the scariest,” Quinn said.
“Oh, we didn’t vote for Hunter,” Mischa clarified. “We voted for Tina. Tina decided she wanted Hunter to stay with her, too. I think she has a crush on him.”
“Gross,” Benny said, pulling a face. “He’s old enough to be her great, great, great, great grandfather!”
Mischa frowned at him. “He’s old enough to be my great, great, great, great grandfather, too.”
Benny winced. “Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Bygones.”
“I think you’re all missing the point,” Lucas said. “Hunter, the oldest known vampire in the country, the head of the Vampire Council, the dude who once had a fist fight with Christopher Columbus, is babysitting tonight.”
“Oh, that hasn’t escaped my attention,” Mischa said. “When I left, Haven was talking about a princess party and wanted to braid Hunter’s hair.”
Benny’s eyes lit up. “Oh, dude, tell me Tina’s gonna get video of that.”
“Are you kidding?” Mischa asked. “I set up the nanny cam. Harper already scheduled a company meeting on Monday so that we can watch the footage.”
“That’s assuming we all live that long,” Quinn mumbled.
In fact, everyone’s cavalier attitude about this rescue was really starting to piss him off. What he really needed was to hit something or someone…preferably multiple somethings or someones…
And then, as if gifted by the gods themselves, five vampires rounded the corner.
Game. On.
“Don’t let anyone go for their phones or get any shots off,” Mischa warned urgently. “We still have the element of surprise on the guys in the ballroom. I don’t want to lose that just yet.”
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