Riley
But he was here now, faster and stronger than any of the horrible humans who inhabited this place, his senses honed beyond what they could imagine. He and his vampire were working in sync, and these people had no chance of keeping Seth away from him.
Footsteps echoed below them, and he and Wolfe froze, waiting to see if they’d come past.
“This is foolish,” Wolfe growled after the sound of the footsteps trailed off. The humans had been running down instead of up, heading deeper into the bunker rather than fleeing to the entrance.
“My plan was to wait for reinforcements.”
“Not happening.”
Riley wasn’t leaving Seth in this place for a single second longer than necessary. It was bad enough he’d run home to tell his mothers and Wolfe in the first place.
Riley hadn’t wanted to. Neither had his voice.
After they’d broken into Seth’s house and found no sign of him—his tote and wallet and car keys all left conspicuously on his kitchen table—they’d both been burning to start a rampage, to rip through the town and surrounding areas until they had Seth back in their arms. Their teeth had ached to tear out the throats of whoever had dared take him.
But Riley had stopped long enough to think about what Seth would do—what he would want Riley to do—and the answer to that had been simple: he’d want Riley to be smart and careful. He’d want him to ask for help.
So Riley had gone home to tell someone he was about to start ripping through buildings and tearing out throats, and they’d made. Him. Wait.
Wolfe had made calls. So many calls. He’d located a hacker, some relative of Alexei’s he’d met once on the East Coast. And then there’d been more waiting as the hacker did what hackers do, somehow finding his way into the research institute’s system, narrowing down the exact location where Seth had most likely been taken.
It had involved a lot of assumptions, this plan. Assuming it had been the institute that had captured Seth. Assuming he’d been taken and not…something else.
They knew they were relying on guesswork, but the gut feeling of every vampire in that room was all they’d had to go on, so that was what they’d done.
Finding the location would have been a feat in itself, considering the spot the hacker had identified was actually a second, hidden bunker, separate from the main research facility. It twisted in Riley’s gut, the knowledge that he probably wouldn’t have found it on his own.
But the hacker had also found digital blueprints of the facility, and a way to take over both their main power and the backup generator remotely.
Calling him had been the definition of smart and careful, and Riley had hated every second.
Seth had been taken. He was probably scared and sad and maybe even hurting. Riley had needed to be there, stopping it. He’d needed to be killing whoever had touched him, not sitting in his mothers’ living room, debating exit strategies.
Particularly since they’d never decided on one.
They’d figure it out though.
Bite them. Tear them. Drain them dry, Riley’s voice chanted now.
Yes, Riley agreed.
Out loud, he reminded Wolfe, “If you wanted backup so badly, you could have brought Eric.”
“Eric does not risk his safety,” Wolfe said, his words clipped and impatient. “Not ever. Bring it up again and I’ll snap your neck and leave you to their experiments.”
Riley was almost tempted to take Wolfe up on it. Maybe they’d put him in the same room as Seth. At least then they’d be together, the search finally over.
But no, he was too close to give up now.
The hacker had found evidence of a newly occupied room in the facility’s records, one that was now on their feeding schedule.
A cell, he’d called it, actually. The word had burned its way into Riley’s veins, demanding retribution.
They’d put Seth in a cell.
He and Wolfe were headed there while Violet occupied the front. She’d somehow wormed her way into the operation, mostly by way of following Riley to his moms’ house and demanding her part.
Riley and his moms had objected; Wolfe had overruled them. He clearly had no issue endangering the local humans, and Riley had been too antsy to act to waste time arguing the point. If Violet wanted to take the risk, so be it.
For their part, Riley’s moms had eyes at the main facility, in case the hacker’s intel was wrong and Seth was being held elsewhere. They’d make their way inside the second Wolfe or Riley gave word.
But Seth was here. Riley could sense it, even with no sign of him. He certainly couldn’t scent him. There was no familiar, comforting orange-butter deliciousness in these halls—only stale, sterile air, saturated with cleaning chemicals and disinfectants and despair.
But Riley still knew.
Seth. Seth, Seth, Seth.
Riley and Wolfe ran down yet another set of stairs. It had barely been a minute since they’d broken in, but it felt like hours. In the distance, Riley could hear shouting, the panicked sound of humans stuck in one of the elevators. Good. He hoped they suffocated in there.
He and Wolfe stopped at the third level underground, second from the last in this facility. They ran down the hall, and Riley scanned the opening to every room he could see.
And there.
There.
Riley could see him, if only dimly. Seth was in a hospital gown, sitting on some rickety cot and looking frailer than he ever should. No. No, no, no. Riley’s warm, solid human mate should never look so cold and scared.
“Seth!” Riley called, banging on the clear barrier between them.
Seth looked up from where he’d been staring blankly down at his feet. He cocked his head, his eyes unfocused in the dark. “Hello? R-Riley?”
His voice was muffled, even with Riley’s enhanced hearing. His cell must have been soundproofed, at least to some extent.
“Tell the hacker to put the power back on,” Riley told Wolfe, his hand still on the barrier, as if he could reach through and touch Seth if he only wanted it badly enough. “Now.”
“You’re aware it will allow all the doors to open. He couldn’t narrow it down.”
“I know.”
Wolfe peered down the hall. He had an embroidered pocket square tucked into his bespoke suit jacket, as if he was attending a matinee at the opera and not engaging in a rescue mission. “There could be dangerous creatures contained here. Hungry and enraged.”
“We’ll manage,” Riley said through gritted teeth. “Open. The door.”
Wolfe shrugged and pulled out his phone. The hacker had instructed them to embed some satellite software so they’d have service even in the bunker.
Wolfe muttered something into the phone, but Riley wasn’t paying attention to the words. His eyes were focused on Seth, who was still on his cot, staring blankly through the barrier, unable to see through the darkness that engulfed them.
Our mate. Whole. Breathing. Waiting.
Yes, Riley agreed. Our mate.
He flinched as the lights came on, bright and just as sterile as this horrible place’s scent.
Seth was on his feet in an instant, running at the barrier. “Riley!”
The door slid open as he reached it, and then he was in Riley’s arms, whole and unharmed and smelling of buttery orange and sharp disinfectant.
Riley tucked his face into the crook of Seth’s neck, holding him tightly and breathing him in. He wished he could hold him even tighter. Wished he could hold him so tightly that he merged into Riley’s skin, encased in Riley’s body, protected and secure and never allowed to leave Riley ever again.
But Seth was tugging at Riley’s shirt, pulling back even as Riley tried to get him closer. “Riley! Listen! They can’t be compelled—the glasses and the goggles. You have to knock them off if they come. And they have—they have tranquilizers. Good ones. We need to go.”
“Are there any other creatures on this floor?” Wolfe asked almost idly, still peering up and down the hallway.
Seth turned to him, distracted and impatient. Then his eyes widened. He blinked, his hand still twisted in Riley’s shirt. “I know you.”
Riley bristled. Had Wolfe been stalking Seth?
Wolfe barely glanced at Seth as he answered, “I doubt that.”
“You came into the bakery in Seacliff once,” Seth insisted. “Your blond boyfriend got a pecan streusel scone and a maple-bacon muffin. He said you knew Sascha.”
Wolfe cocked his head, his gaze running over Seth with considerably more interest than he’d shown before. “Ah, yes. He enjoyed those immensely, my mate. He wanted the recipe for the muffin. You’ll give it to him.”
“Um.”
They were interrupted by the sound of thundering footsteps, and then a horde of humans was spilling from the stairwell into the hallway.
Mr. Perkins was securely in the middle of the charge, surrounded by what looked like soldiers, all of them holding guns, probably the tranquilizers Seth had been talking about.
One of them was also holding Violet, and Seth inhaled sharply at the sight of her.
Damn it. Riley shouldn’t have let her help. He should have realized Seth wouldn’t like it.
“This is why I wanted to wait for backup,” Wolfe murmured.
Riley ignored him.
“Gentleman,” Mr. Perkins announced loudly. “You’re trespassing here.”
He sounded calm, but sweat was beading on his brow, his heart pounding loud enough for Riley to hear. He was, at the very least, rattled by their presence.
Riley would like to do more than that. He’d like to tear those vocal cords out with his nails, make sure without a doubt that no more slippery, slimy words would ever leave that slippery, slimy mouth.
Yess, his voice hissed. Rip. Tear. Crush. Drain.
Riley ignored the bloodthirsty thoughts and shoved Seth behind him. Wolfe stepped forward, stopping immediately when the soldiers all raised their guns higher. Wolfe lifted his hands, as if to show he was unarmed. It almost made Riley laugh.
As if Wolfe needed a weapon.
“Mr. Perkins, I presume? I’m afraid the game is up. Your unauthorized research facility is now known to two major supernatural organizations, neither of which will allow such an atrocity to stand. Any further action on your part would be ill-advised.”
Riley almost choked. Two major supernatural organizations? Was the Colorado den included in that? They were barely more than a big, dysfunctional family. They certainly weren’t organized.
It was weird how Riley had never realized how similar Mr. Perkins and Wolfe sounded until they were in the same room together. Maybe Wolfe had missed his calling as a slimy lawyer.
Mr. Perkins came forward, although Riley noticed he didn’t step even an inch past the soldiers.
“I’m afraid all I see are two individual trespassers.
And I would greatly appreciate it if you’d put away the fangs.
One wrong move and you’ll be unconscious in an instant.
” When neither Riley nor Wolfe reverted back to human form, Mr. Perkins made a deliberate gesture toward Violet.
“And if you’ll kindly re-enable the locking mechanisms to our doors, we might allow your protected humans here to leave unharmed. ”
That explained why the soldiers hadn’t shot them all on sight. The hacker was holding their system hostage. Good.
Although, now they were in a standoff, and Riley wasn’t sure how to break it.
If Riley and Wolfe sacrificed themselves, taking the tranquilizers head-on, Seth could run behind them and get out the stairwell door.
But, for one, that would require Wolfe making a sacrifice on Seth’s behalf, which was incredibly unlikely.
For two, Seth would have a horde of soldiers following right behind him.
And for three, Violet would definitely get caught in the cross fire. Seth wouldn’t like that.
Where did that leave them? They could get word to Riley’s moms, have them sneak around the back and come up behind the soldiers. What were the chances of them arriving in time before all four of them were captured?
Seth tugged at Riley’s shirt. Riley held him tighter.
He was ready to tell Seth that it was all going to be okay, that they’d figure it out.
If nothing else, Eric would call for the Colorado den and they’d all be rescued eventually.
Riley wouldn’t let anyone hurt Seth—he’d make that a clear condition of their surrender.
But Seth wasn’t asking for reassurance.
“Riley,” he whispered. “Let me borrow your phone.”