Chapter 56
Laurie
We made it exactly three steps out of that goddamn laboratory before the corridor ahead erupted into chaos. An entire squadron of armored security personnel swarmed in like beetles, glossy black combat gear standing in stark contrast to the clinical white of the walls.
They wore riot shields, body armor, and evil-looking hybrid weaponry that told us they meant business.
The sirens blared unbearably loud overhead, and these guys shouted louder still, demanding we get on the ground.
Unfortunately for them, I’d scored myself seven capable vampire companions, and all of them were ready to bash some heads.
I glanced at River, still completely baffled by the fact that she was here and even more baffled by the fact that she was here for me. But there wasn’t much time to get teary-eyed about that now.
River looked back at me with steel in her eyes, pupils narrowed to predatory slits and fangs protruding under pursed lips. She unsheathed two cutlasses from the scabbards at her back and held both blades at the ready. “Get behind me.”
I melted a little—and had to firmly remind myself that now was certainly not the time for furious blushing.
Maybe it was the adrenaline that made me a little loopy, but the first thought that shot through my mind when I looked her over was ‘hot.’ Had we not been about to dive headfirst into battle, I would have thrown myself at her right then and there.
Instead, I cocked my gun and did what she asked, slipping behind her while the rest of the Leyore vampires swept forward in a rush of fangs.
Dylan blinked into being beside the first line of guards, wielding living shadows that swallowed the overhead lights.
The sight of it still terrified me, but those curling tendrils of darkness were on my side now.
I watched in both awe and horror as that darkness billowed outward.
It shielded the massacre happening within, but the rampant gunfire and panicked screams of the guards painted a gruesome picture of what Dylan was up to behind that cloak of shadows.
Hunter entered the fray next, confronting a few of the armored men who managed to slip through the dark mist. She didn’t even need to use her fists; I watched her clasp a hand around one man’s throat, and one spoken command from her mouth had him crumpling, eyes blank, weapons clattering uselessly to the floor.
Maxine cackled beside her and grabbed the stunned guard by the forearm.
She let out a whoop that could have rattled the rafters and swung him backwards, sending him crashing into two of his buddies who came running over to help.
They both went down, and when they reached for their weapons, Amara blurred past us to intercept them.
She was the fastest of the bunch by a long shot, and my mouth fell open when literal bat wings erupted from her back.
The corridor was cramped and crawling with bodies, but she breezed past all of them in a flash, gliding over unsuspecting heads and snatching rifles right out of their hands before the shooters could blink.
Behind her, Jordan and Skye advanced in perfect unison. Jordan’s elbow caved a guard’s helmet in while Skye tossed a sparkling powder substance that detonated in mid-air, slamming bodies backward with a rush of purple fire.
When our allies had successfully carved us an opening through the chaos, River locked an arm around my waist, the other wielding a cutlass to parry any stray blades swinging our way.
We ducked behind Maxine while she pummeled a poor guy senseless, rolled through a curtain of Dylan’s shadow, and hurdled over the bodies Hunter left catatonic on the floor.
A few converging guards tried to reinforce the bottleneck but Amara launched herself off the wall, wings beating once, and took them out in a whirling dive kick.
I sprinted alongside River, gun steady in both hands, heart galloping right out of my chest. The elevator we’d planned to take dinged open, stuffed with a fresh squad of armor-clad guards—and not all of them human.
I spotted hybrids among them, vampires too, and realized with a sickening lurch of my stomach that this fight was about to get messier.
“Shit—not that way, not that way!” River backpaddled when the reinforcements poured in, yanking me clean off my feet as she redirected us towards the exit on our left.
Rather than let her drag me like a rag doll, I planted my feet and stumbled along beside her, sparing a concerned glance over my shoulder at the other Leyore women.
Gunsmoke and shattered ceiling lights turned the hallway into a grotesque disco, but every vampire on our team matched the tempo perfectly, holding their own despite the new threat—and River and I wove between them, sprinting for the emergency stairwell before the rest of the guards could regroup.
We made it to the stairs and I let out a strangled squeak of surprise when River sheathed her blades, scooped me up bridal-style and took them sprinting, skipping two at a time as she raced to get us to the top.
“Carrying me? Really?” I huffed, slinging my arms around her neck and holding on for dear life while my stomach dipped violently at the motion. The gun was nearly jostled right out of my grip, and I barely managed to tighten my fingers in time.
“It’s faster this way.” River took a right-angle skidding, shoulder whacking against the wall before she rocketed up the next flight of stairs.
“Ugh, fine.” I rolled my eyes, but she had a point. River could get us all the way to the top without breaking a sweat, being a vampire and all. I’d probably end up enduring full-blown heart failure if I tried to do the same. “Will the others be okay back there?”
I barely got to finish my question before gunfire echoed below us.
Bullets zipped by, uncomfortably close and ricocheting off the walls, and boots thundered up the concrete steps.
I twisted in River’s arms, heart hammering in my throat as I stretched out both arms over her shoulders and aimed my gun at our pursuers.
The angle was awful, but it was worth a shot, so I squeezed the trigger—missed—and the recoil walloped backward hard enough to send the butt of the gun smacking against River’s head.
She hissed through her teeth at the impact but didn’t slow her pace. “Ow! You’re supposed to be pummeling the bad guys!”
“Sorry!” I shifted as much as I could in her grasp, bracing both elbows on her shoulders for a steadier platform.
Another squeeze—this time the round punched clean through one of the guard’s knee plates as he vaulted up the stairs.
He tumbled, taking his associate down with him in a clattering spill down the staircase.
“Nice,” River huffed between breaths, though she didn’t turn her head to witness the damage. “How many bullets you got in that thing?”
I flicked a quick glance at the mag, gripping onto her ponytail when she took another flight of stairs in one jolting leap. “Enough to last until we reach the top—if you keep running like you stole me.”
“Technically, I did.” She bundled me tighter against her chest, landing in a crouch before jetting off again. “According to the organization, you’re a valuable asset, right? Sucks for them I’ve taken a shine to you.”
“Convenient that—Oh my god, duck!” I hollered in her ear when I spotted another guard aiming at us from a lower landing. River swerved, graceful even with my added weight, and the bullet whizzed behind us, cracking the concrete before it ricocheted away.
I aimed again and fired wildly. I was getting used to the rolling motion of River’s gait by now and managed to catch the guy in the shoulder when he rolled to the side. His shriek echoed after us, and River flashed me a fanged smile. “Poor dude. That sounds like it hurt.”
There was no time to respond before we crashed through the door to the top floor, and River skidded to a halt in the same cold, vacant corridor I’d walked earlier.
My knees nearly buckled when she set me down, but I steadied myself, adrenaline in my veins overriding every ache in my body.
I rushed down the corridor, gun raised, and shouldered my way through the door at the end—and stopped short.
The room was empty.
My eyes widened, pulse pounding loud in my ears. I dropped my arm, and the gun hung useless from my fingertips.
“No,” I whispered, and my voice cracked in two. The glass table was there, but all the chairs were empty. The sky was a tumultuous, angry gray through the sprawling window. “No, no—fuck!”
Panic and frustration surged in unison, wild and unchecked. I stormed across the room, kicking over a chair in unleashed fury. “They were here! They were right here!”
“Laurie…” River reached for my shoulder, but I jerked away, panic reaching fever pitch as I paced back and forth.
“They were right here!” I kicked another chair, sent it skittering into the window, and the clang echoed back at me.
Rage boiled over. My heart twisted, violent and anguished, in my chest, and a sob choked my breath.
I buckled over, blinking back tears, and let out a groan that burned the back of my throat.
I’d fought so hard—crawled through fire, let River dig memories out of my skull, bartered with my own life—and still they slipped the noose.
I slammed both fists on the glass table, breath hitching, chest heaving.
A new noise ripped through me; a raw, angry scream tore loose from my lips before I could throttle it.
River’s arms came round me from behind and I sagged, tremors rippling through every muscle while tears splattered the tabletop. “It’s not fair,” I rasped. “After everything… It’s not fair.”
“It’s not fair.” She pressed her cheek to my shoulder. “But it’s not over.”
I dragged a sleeve across my face, fury and grief battling in my ribs, raking my brain for the next move.
She was right, it wasn’t over. They couldn’t have gone far.
They hadn’t taken the elevator because it had been full of guards, and they hadn’t taken the staircase because we’d just scaled it ourselves. Which meant there was another exit.
Something Caden said floated back to me, something he and Arlon were muttering about during that meeting at the Leyore coven. Something about the very building we stood in.
I stiffened. “The roof.”
River lifted her head. “What?”
“This building has a helipad,” I panted, already worming away from her and barreling toward the far door. “They’re escaping from the roof!”
I had barely managed more than a few hurried steps before that door burst wide open—and a wave of armored guards poured in. Human, hybrid, and vampire. Every one of them brandished ugly, warped weapons pointed directly at the two of us.
I backed up slowly and held my own gun at the ready. Behind me, River was snarling, a throaty, guttural sound that had the hairs on my neck standing upright. She was ready to fight, but there was one problem:
We were instantly surrounded. Outnumbered and outgunned.