by Nikki McCoy
“It’s taken care of. Daneya is his priority now.” He thought he saw a hint of approval on Phoenix’s face but it was gone in the next instant.
At the entrance to the stairwell, Blade burst through the door just as Demetrius was headed in. Though blood trailed from a shallow cut on one cheek and he walked with a slight limp, there were no other visible signs of damage. “Hey, you found your woman! Wait, is she all right?”
“She will be,” Saden answered grimly. “Did you pass Gabriel on your way down?”
“Haven’t seen him. It looks like most of the Djinn are abandoning ship, but the leisonguardes will be joining us soon.”
“Go!” he snapped at Demetrius. When the phantom left with Daneya and Phoenix, he began checking each of the cells for Mckenzie. “Get the women out of their cells and ready to take upstairs.”
“Didn’t you hear me?” Blade said, hurrying after him. “Those guards are gonna be coming soon. We won’t be able to get all the women out of here safely before Roshon and his men show up. At best, we can only afford to get Kennie and Cherri.”
“Then we stand and fight. We need those women alive to testify against Gabriel and I can’t risk him killing them if we leave them here.”
“You sure about this?”
Saden turned sharply to his friend. He couldn’t blame Blade for wanting to leave now. The odds were stacking up against them rapidly. “Are you having second thoughts?”
Blade bared his teeth in a wide grin. “Hell no. This is just gettin’ good.”
He smirked and continued to make his way down the corridor while Blade used his power to break the locks on the doors. It was in the last cell that he finally spotted Mckenzie. Relief flooded him when he saw she was unhurt. He released the breath he hadn’t known he was holding and willed his heart to return to a normal pace. If anything had happened to her, there’s no telling how much blood he would’ve bathed in before his twenty-four hours were up.
Her room was a luxury pad compared to the others. Complete with carpeting and wood furniture that muted its clinical atmosphere. She was standing in the middle of it and appeared to be arguing with Cherri, who looked none the worse for having been taken captive. The woman was dressed in stylish street clothes and wearing about a pound of makeup and jewelry.
Saden blew the lock and walked in. Mckenzie blinked in surprise then ran into his arms. Her hold was like a death grip around his waist, pulling at his wound, but he didn’t care.
“I knew it!” she cried. “I knew it was you! Did you find Mom?”
He gently disengaged from her tight grasp and knelt down to wipe his blood from her cheek. “She’s waiting for you outside. Are you hurt?”
Mckenzie’s soft features hardened into a brave mask as she shook her head, even though Saden could feel her trembling. So much like her mother. He met Cherri’s wary gaze with a critical eye. The woman was hiding something. It was evident in her bearing and posture. “What about you?”
Cherri offered a thin smile. “I’m glad to see you.”
“No, you’re not,” Mckenzie refuted hotly. “She’s not,” she repeated to Saden. “We wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for her. She lied to Mom so Gabriel could kidnap us. They were waiting for us at the park. Her boyfriend works for Gabriel.”
“She’s a little confused.”
“I’m not confused! I’ve seen you kiss him. You tried to make me think my mom wants to be here with Gabriel but I know that’s not true. She told me he’s evil. You care more about him than you do about us. Saden, you have to believe me.”
“Shh,” he said soothingly. “I believe you.” The underlying fear in Cherri’s eyes fit it all into place. She had been the instrument Gabriel had originally used to find Daneya after nine years and the means for Daneya’s recent capture. Her anger and impatience over being confined at his manor for more than a week made sense now.
As far as he was concerned, she was no better than a seeker and deserved to face her fate alongside Gabriel. She was a part of Daneya’s family, though, and he wouldn’t disregard that if their friendship still held true.
“Let’s go,” he said to Cherri in a tone that brooked no argument.
Chapter Nineteen
Outside, Blade was still working on coaxing the last of the women from their cells. Those that stood around him were skittish with fear except for a few who appeared ready to fight for their freedom. Even they, however, wore their bravery like a thin shield over their obvious terror. Saden could see it in their eyes. It sickened him to find most of their spirits broken by a race he had proudly claimed his own once.
It would be easy to blame Gabriel entirely for the corruption of Vampyre laws and integrity, but the truth was, he had only been the conduit through which they had found their so-called salvation. The man who had delivered them from the potential threat of annihilation brought on by their own righteous ignorance.
While the Djinn had started the war, it had been the Vampyres who had kept it going throughout the centuries. Recklessly sacrificing their warriors in battle in an effort to not only beat back the Djinn, but to eradicate them completely. A feat that was strategically impossible.
Saden recalled the lesson his father had taught him as a boy. That sometimes battles were won simply by staying alive and knowing when to back off. A lesson most of their race hadn’t learned, and was paying the price for now.
Mckenzie shouted Blade’s name as she barreled into him. He swept her up and swung her around with a deep laugh. “Hey, two bit. Did you miss me?”
She answered by plastering herself to his front and burying her face in his neck. Saden felt a pang of sympathy for his friend. While Mckenzie had unwittingly become as close to a daughter as he would ever know, it was Blade who had real experience at being a father. The fact that he could care so much for a little girl he barely knew after losing his own child and mate spoke volumes about his strength.
Saden couldn’t say he might turn out the same if he were to lose Mckenzie and Daneya. Insanity would be a safer bet than the high ground Blade had taken.
He opened the two remaining cells and forced the women outside, ignoring their frightened attempts to shy away. “Come with us or stay and die,” he told them gruffly. They were running out of time and couldn’t afford to wait on Roshon and his men.
After herding the women down the corridor, Phoenix burst from the narrow landing of the emergency stairs. He slammed the door closed behind him then turned to Saden. “That way’s no good. I had to distract the guards from Demetrius. They’ll be here soon.”
“That was the only exit,” Blade said. “I’m all for fighting but what do we do with the women?”
Saden recalled Daneya mentioning an underground cafeteria and gym at the facility she’d first been taken to. Although neither room was ideal, it would at least give them a little more space to maneuver in. “Follow me.”
He took them past the elevator to a door on the opposite side of the cells. It opened to what looked like the cafeteria with six wooden tables and chairs placed randomly in the center and a long, metal serving line against the back wall. Several tall cabinets lined the side walls and at the far left corner was a pair of double doors he assumed led to a kitchen area.
“They’re coming,” Phoenix warned. His eyes had faded from their normal gray hue to a glowing, ice-violet as he sensed the guards.
Saden grabbed Mckenzie’s hand and started across the expanse of the room. “This way!” He blasted the lock on the double doors and kicked them apart then stood aside while the women hurried past. Inside, he knelt down and made Mckenzie focus on him. “I want you to stay in here until either Blade or I come for you. Do not come out by yourself no matter what you hear. Understand?”
“But they’ll kill you,” she said, her voice tremulous and wide eyes swimming with concern.
Her fear for him made his chest ache with emotions he’d once thought dead to him. After smoothing her wild hair, he kissed her forehead and said, “I�
��m not that easy to kill. Trust me, okay?”
She bit her lip and gave a small nod. He shut the two doors behind him just as Gabriel stormed into the cafeteria with a group of six men. Five more entered a few seconds later from a door that was farther down the corridor outside. By their energy, he could tell only seven of them were leisonguardes. The other four were Djinn who must’ve come back for the fight.
Gabriel sneered at him with unveiled contempt. “You should have stayed in the hell realm I sent you to.”
“Oh, I’m going back, but I’m taking you with me.”
“Get them!” Gabriel barked to his men.
Saden summoned a wall of blue-white flames in front of the men just long enough to temporarily blind them and throw them off-kilter.
The three nearest Phoenix on the other side of the room were already too close to react and charged in all at once. The guard in the middle went at him swinging. Phoenix responded with a fluidity that was remarkable for his size. His movements were sinuous and precise. A testament to his deadly reputation.
He smoothly leaned to the side and caught the man’s wrist in one hand then slammed the heel of his other into the back of the man’s elbow. The joint was torn apart as bone ripped through flesh, causing the guard to let out a high-pitched scream and hunch forward. Phoenix kicked him in the chest and sent him skidding across the floor.
The two still standing came at him from both sides. At his left, the guard did a spinning kick that he blocked easily, though it left him vulnerable. The second man rushed him from behind and punched him in the base of his skull. He stumbled precariously but quickly regained his equilibrium and spun around, lifting himself up to smash the point of his elbow down onto the guy’s collarbone. Saden could almost hear the bone shattering as the man dropped to his knees howling.
Phoenix immediately turned to see the gun the other guard was aiming at him. He went in low before a shot could be fired and grabbed the guy’s wrist to get in two swift kidney shots. That allowed him to step into the man, grip the gun from the inside and use it to shoot the guard with the broken collarbone in the leg.
The whole scene occurred in a blur of speed. Saden pulled his attention away when one of the guards to his side lunged at him with a double-edged dagger. He leaped back to dodge the blade as it was curved through the air toward his midsection then again at his throat. At the third attempt, Saden took advantage of the man’s overextension by gripping his forearm to yank him close and head butt him. Another hard yank enabled him to snatch the back of the guy’s neck and hurl him into one of the cabinets against the wall.
Motion from the corner of his eye made him turn, but he was too late. A Djinn in the vessel of what looked like a human bulldozer barreled into him. He felt the room tilt as he was picked up by the belt and neck then slammed down onto one of the tables. The wood splintered on impact, breaking beneath him. Everything went white as jarring pain ripped through his back and head. Air was punched from his lungs and his mind fogged over for several heartbeats.
It was only the sound of a bullet ricocheting off the floor next to his ear that forced him back to awareness.
He rolled over, snatched the knife from his harness and lashed out at the nearest body. The blade sank hilt deep into the Djinn’s calf, bringing him down to one knee with a sharp cry. Saden ignored the strain of his bruised muscles and put the brunt of his weight into a blow to the man’s jaw. Another round was fired and missed. He gained his feet and put the Djinn in a choke hold, using the guy’s massive build as a human shield.
Instead of trying for another shot, the guard tossed his gun then lifted one hand. Saden saw the concentration in the man’s gaze and knew what he intended, yet couldn’t react fast enough.
Just as he tapped into his power, the guard overrode it with his own. Agonizing spasms seized his body as it was riddled with high voltage, electric currents. The strength of his convulsions dropped him to the floor, his eyes rolling back and teeth vibrating violently. It felt as if thousands of razor blades were shredding his insides while his bones threatened to shatter.
A sharp, heavy weight bore down on his chest then more pain exploded in his jaw. Over and over again, he was struck in the face until consciousness began to fade.
Suddenly, the punches stopped coming along with the electric shocks. It took him long seconds to fight through the drowning haze surrounding his mind. Cramps flared in his muscles as he sat up and pried open his eyes. Beside him, the Djinn lay on his back with a shuriken embedded in one shoulder and another just above his heart. On the other side farther away, the guard was on his knees cradling one of his hands, a shuriken sticking out of his palm.
Blade.
Saden glanced across the room to his friend who shot him a devious grin. Blade had stripped out of his trench coat and sported more than a few deep cuts and bruises, though he was far from out of the game. He held a knife in each hand and wielded them with expert precision—living up to the Drakon name he’d been aptly given.
The guard Saden had thrown against the nearby wall cabinet came back at him with a chair. Saden ducked easily then swept the guy off his feet with a low kick, simultaneously sending out a spark of Drakonem power which instantly igniting the wood.
To his surprise, the flames were snuffed out before the wood fell on top of the man. Not from the same vacuous power used by the leisonguarde he’d taken down in the corridor, but rather from what felt like a confined impact of a severe cold front hitting the flames. His skin tingled and breath fogged in proximity to the area.
He’d only heard of the rare technique once. The ability to cause a localized manipulation of air particles that changed the temperature to severe degrees of cold or hot. The oxygen feeding the flames had literally been liquefied. Taken well past the freezing point.
Shock froze the features of the guard on the floor, telling Saden the power had come from someone else. He looked over to find another leisonguarde with a buzz cut standing close, staring at him with bold confidence.
This man was different from the others. There was the mark of authority in his hard countenance and light brown eyes. His thin lips curved up in a humorless smile half hidden by a mustache. “Want to test your power on me?”
Saden glanced past the man to where Gabriel stood by one of the doors, watching the entire scene unfold. No doubt waiting to see whether he should bolt or not.
When their gazes met, Gabriel sneered and waved the gun clutched in his hand at buzz cut. “What are you waiting for? Take him down.”
Quickly, Saden assessed the situation and changed his stance. The order hadn’t been to kill, which meant Gabriel wanted to save that pleasure for himself. A good thing considering Saden’s power against the guards’ was like fire on ice, a combination that could destroy everyone around them if they weren’t careful.
He recoiled from the guard’s advance, dodging the swing at his face to come back with a punch to the man’s ribs. Movement from the corner of his vision alerted him to the charge of the second guard who had gotten over his shock. He took a step back, spun around and slammed his elbow into the guy’s temple, sending him reeling into buzz cut.
In that brief moment, something else caught his attention. Something that made him freeze in terror. Mckenzie was in the room near the back wall, leaning down to pick up a gun that had been dropped by one of Gabriel’s men. Her eyes as she straightened were wild, trying to take in everything at once. A few yards away, Cherri stood with the same panicked expression, only her fear seemed to stem from a different source. She was staring past Saden at the guards behind him.
He took a step toward Mckenzie and shouted, “Kennie, get out—” The rest of his sentence was cut off by a hand on his right arm. A thumb dug into the bullet hole there and cold so deep it blazed like a hot iron seared through his flesh all the way down to the bone. It rocked him with a wave of weakness that spread the entire length of his body.
Before he could react, he was yanked around to meet buzz cut�
�s gaze. Rending pain tore through the muscles in the side of his abdomen as he was stabbed with a thick blade.
The guard moved in close to murmur, “Not so invincible after all, are you?”
Saden felt his strength fading rapidly. His limbs were heavy and heart pounded out a sluggish beat in an effort to compensate for his blood loss. He went down under the guard’s hard shove, jerking when the blade was wrenched away. In a last ditch attempt, he summoned a column of fire to envelop the guard but it was snuffed out almost immediately.
Gabriel came into his line of sight to loom over him with a gun hanging loosely from one hand. “Thank you, Rhys. I’ll take it from here.” He placed the sole of his shoe on Saden’s windpipe with menacing pressure then slowly aimed the gun at his head, as if he had all the time in the world. “I should have killed you when you were a boy. Your sister is the only legacy worthy of your parents. She’ll be glad to know you’re taken care of once I tell your Drakonem about this.”
The zeal in Gabriel’s eyes was sickeningly familiar. It was the same feverish glee he had shown when he’d tried to beat Saden to death to cover up his treachery. Saden struggled against the foot at his lacerated throat. Although the hole in his side was just a flesh wound, the knife had gone straight through. Combined with the effects of his other injuries, what little energy he had left wasn’t going to last long.
He called forth a surge of power and readied to send it out in an explosion, his only chance at killing Gabriel. The gun would likely go off, incapacitating him in the process, but it was a risk he had to take.
“Stop!” Mckenzie’s scream rang out high above the din of combat.
Almost simultaneously, Gabriel lurched forward and clawed at his chest. His face contorted in a rictus of pain before fury set in and his gaze fixed on Mckenzie. Seconds later, all sounds of fighting ceased as everyone’s attention was drawn to the spectacle of a small girl holding a gun on Gabriel. The weapon shook in her trembling hands and her eyes flicked nervously from Gabriel to Saden and back.