Chapter 18

“Caro? What the hell? We ha ve to go. Now!”

Noah stopped halfway through the Zeus rotunda when he realized Caro was no longer keeping pace with him. He should never have set her down, no matter what she said.

His skin crawled with alarm and his ears still rang from the bomb blast. It had compromised his augmented hearing, dampening it down to barely normal human levels. Which sucked. He needed all his AVP capacities jacked to the max right now.

“One second. My shoes. I’m crippled in these damn things.” Caro was crouched near the room’s entrance, her evening bag on the floor next to her. “Stupid strap caug ht on my heel.”

Noah pulled out his smartphone and tapped the flashlight function. It lit up the material of her dark crimson dress spread out upon the mosaic tiles like a pool of blood.

Caro finally yanked off the sandal, grumbling fiercely un der her breath.

He listened intently for pursuers while Caro tugged her flats on, but heard nothing. Just muffled noise from the ground floor, sirens of the arriving emergency vehicles, the hum and chatter of agitated voices, some wailing and shouting. It felt strange, like his ear s were plugged.

“There. Done,” Caro said triumphantly. “Mobile again. So let’s get—”

Click . Light blazed. Noah gasped in pain, cov ering his eyes.

The chandelier. Someone had turned it on while his eyes were completely unshielded, dilated, and in full infrared mode.

Blinded. Fuck.

Boom. Gunfire. The sound was huge in the echoing round room. Noah launched himself toward the nearby statue of Europa and the bull, or at least to the place where he last remembered seeing it. He hit the floor, and the phone flew from his grasp, sliding.

He groped around for it. Couldn’t see the damn thing. Could n’t see at all.

Boom. The gun went off again. Fuck, and no cover in this whole fucking room other than the statue and the table.

He heard a creak and rattle above him. Caro had fled up the staircase and into the wooden gallery above. Not much protectio n there either.

Boom. Noah lunged out from behind the base of the statue, groping blindly for his phone. He had to ramp up the lens shield protection so he could fight tha t motherfucker.

Boom. A bullet hit the tiles near his head. Fragments stung his face. He scramb led back again.

“Who sent you?” a booming male voice demanded. He’d heard it before. Konig, the guy he’d seen with Folti this afternoon. Big, bald, and at that time, conveniently sick to his stomach.

“No one,” Noah said. “The door wa s open, so we—”

“That’s a godd amn lie!” Boom .

“Noah!” Caro yelled down from above. “The phone! Right in front of you!”

Noah grabbed for his phone. Knocked it to the side a few inches. Scrabbled for it again. Boom. Tile shards hit his face as he jerked bac k just in time.

He squinted at the screen, eyes streaming as he looked for the app. The wooden staircase squeaked. That son of a bitch was climbing up into the gall ery after Caro.

Konig started to laugh. “You know what I’m going to do now, you eyeless, useless prick? I’m going to shoot your whore. I’m going to shoot her right in the face. I’ll dump her body down on top of you. Then I’ll shoot you—and then I’ll blame you. For everything. You used Lella, but I figured it out. Stopped you just in time. What a h ero I am, huh?”

“It won’t work.” Noah tapped desperately at his screen. “No one wil l believe you.”

“We’ll see.” The stairs squeaked and groaned under Konig’s weight.

Shield activated. Finally. His vision was still blurry and watery, but Noah could just make out the bull’s angry eyes frowni ng down at him.

Bam. He heard Caro gasp, her feet thudding as she scram bled for cover.

* * * *

Shit! Every time Caro got her hand into her evening bag to get the gun, a fresh gun blast sent her scrambling frantically forward on all fours on the wooden gallery walkway, which now seemed barely attach ed to the wall.

She wedged herself into the nearest statue niche. Bam. A bullet snapped off the leg of a marble soldier, right by her ear. She jumped, and the evening bag slipped forward and slid down into a hole from a broken flooring plank, oh fuck…

She barely caught the end of the bag’s strap before it disappeared.

She fished it back up with shaking hands. The shooter was getting closer, he moved more carefully now. The disintegrating walkway teetered with his every step.

And the fucking bag was trapped beneath the wooden slats now. She couldn’t tug it back out. Caro eased forward, slid her hand into the hole to pry it loose—and saw Noah springing up onto the bull statue’s back.

Oh God. He was about to do something reckless and h eroic. For her.

Had to distract tha t shooter fast …

She gave a final desperate yank at the piece of wood blocking the bag. The chunk of wood broke free. She pulled the bag out and leaped out of the statue’s niche, screaming at the top of her lungs and taking off at a dead run do wn the gallery.

Her foot punched through the rotten floor and she pitched forward onto her knees. Broken wood shards raked her ankle as she dragged her foot back out.

Bam, bam. Bullets zinged off marble. One tore through her skirt. She dove for the next niche, huddling down into a narrow space between a marble boy a nd a huge bird.

Bam. The bird’s head exploded right over her.

Caro dug desperately in her evening b ag for the gun.

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