CHAPTER 12
THE CONCUSSIVE FORCE OF the blast hit Alex like a punch to the chest. He was half a second from scattering himself into smoke and flying across the loading area when Henri slammed into him from behind, knocking him to the ground.
People were screaming. Over the ringing in his ears, he could hear the pick pock of debris raining down around them.
Terror filled him. Dani had been inside when the explosion hit. If she’d been hurt—
“Are you okay, Your Highness?” Henri rose, extending his hand. A thick cloud of dust and smoke choked the air, making it impossible to see.
“We have to get in there.” Coughing, Alex stood. “Dani was in there. And there could be others trapped and hurt—”
“I know, sire. Let’s try to move away, get to where the air is clearer.”
Quickly, they helped the others from the press pool up.
“Lara?” A member of her security detail hurried over.
“I’ve got her,” another bodyguard called, helping Lara to stand. She batted the poor woman off, frowned at a scuff of dirt on her sweater, and pulled out her phone to check her hair.
Alex barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Lara was fine.
He turned to Henri. “Is everyone accounted for? We need to get in there.”
“Our team is all here, Your Highness. Looks like whatever explosion they detonated was targeted at the loading docks.” He nodded back to the distribution center, where the back wall of the building had collapsed. Smoke was billowing out of the structure at an alarming rate.
“You think it was a bomb on one of the delivery trucks?”
“Maybe.”
“I called the emergency line,” one of the reporters said. “They’re estimating they can have a rescue crew here in ten minutes.”
“They may not have ten minutes,” Alex said.
“There’s an evacuation plan,” Lara pointed out. “It’s drilled regularly. And you’re not trained for search and rescue.”
“That may not help if someone’s trapped in there and there’s a fire.
” He could see people streaming out the doors, and again thought of Dani, wondering if she were trapped inside.
They didn’t have time to wait for the rescue crews.
He turned to the group. “I need anyone who can dematerialize and is willing to come with me. We need to get as many people as possible out before the fire spreads.”
Three vampires immediately stepped forward.
Lara grabbed his arm.
“That’s my production crew,” she hissed. “I need them.”
Over her shoulder, Alex caught the unmasked look of disgust from one woman.
“Tarek can film, Ms. Cavalieri. I’m sure you can make do with a smaller crew, given the circumstances.”
Lara refused to release his arm. “I need you to stay here with me, not go running off to check on that sanguine whore.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.” Alex shook his head. “People could be hurt inside. We can’t abandon them.”
“I’m scared.” Her voice wobbled. “We don’t know what’s happening. There could be more attacks.”
“If you feel unsafe, you should stay here with your security detail. They’ll protect you. I’m going to try to help.” He pulled his arm free, turning to the others. “Let’s go.”
Lara was still protesting as they ghosted away towards the collapsed wall at the back of the building.
Inside, it was chaos. Dust and smoke choked the air, making it impossible to see. The heat was scorching, enough to make him recoil. Fires burned back where the wall had collapsed, and alarms blared throughout the building.
They needed to hurry.
Alex started forward, only to slam into someone in the dark. The man began to cough, and Alexander grabbed him to keep him from falling over.
“It’s too damn hard to see,” he shouted. “I think we’ve got more in there, but the lights went off when the power blew. Emergency generators should have kicked in by now. They must have been hit, too.”
“How many do you think are missing?” Alex shouted.
“If they’re following procedure, managers should be doing counts now outside based on who clocked in to their shifts.” The man paused to cough. “But there may be more injured deeper in the building that we just can’t find. We’ve been looking, but it’s dark and with the rubble coming down—”
“Leave that to us.” Alexander smiled, flashing fangs. “Tracking blood is what we do best, after all.” To the others, he said, “Let’s work in teams. If there are survivors trapped beneath the rubble, it may take more than one person to free them.”
Even as he said it, every instinct in him screamed to search for Dani, to hunt for her and her alone. But he couldn’t smell her blood, and from where he’d last seen her in the building, she wouldn’t have been one of the workers stationed closest to the wall that collapsed.
She would have gotten out.
He had to trust in that.
And if she hadn’t, he would find her.
The first group he and Henri located were trapped inside an employee break room.
The wall that had come down had shifted the doorframe with tons of cinderblock and broken pipes jamming it closed.
Although they’d managed to pry the hinges free, the people trapped inside hadn’t made any progress in opening it.
There were seven in that group.
By the time Alex was ferrying the last man out, a crowd had formed, circling around the extraction point where they were dropping off survivors.
They were stripping off coats, offering water.
These people had so little, and yet they weren’t hesitating to give everything they had of themselves on the worst day of their lives.
That was when he scented Dani’s blood.
He was just turning, heart slamming wildly with fear, prepared to track her across the entire parking lot of injured humans if that was what it took, when she threw herself into his arms.
“Alexander. Oh, you’re safe. When the explosion happened, I was so worried you hadn’t gotten out.”
He allowed himself only a single second to hold her close, then pulled back to check her over, alarm filling him at the gash across her scalp that was trickling blood down into her hair.
“My gods, you’re bleeding.”
She bent over double, head between her knees. “Don’t remind me. Sorry. I’m still a little shaky.”
“You should sit down.”
“I’m fine. I was getting a shelving unit down when the explosion hit and I didn’t manage to catch it as it fell.” She laughed ruefully. “Or rather, I caught it with my face and then it landed on top of me.”
“Put pressure on it.” Pulling out his handkerchief, he pressed it into her hands. “I have to go back in. There could be more people in there.”
“Go.” She pressed a hand to his heart. “Be careful. I’m so proud of you, Alex.”
He scattered in a blur of smoke, using his predator’s instincts to comb the building for every wounded survivor, every last beating heart, until at last they heard sirens approaching in the distance. By then, he was spent, unsure he could safely make another trip back.
The members of Lara’s communications crew were standing with the last group they’d brought out, looking utterly exhausted. Carefully, he laid a woman with a broken leg on the cold ground, then pulled off his coat to put over her.
“Your Highness, I couldn’t,” she started, even as her teeth were chattering.
“I insist, madam. If you argue, I may have to give you my shirt as well.”
This earned a round of laughter and catcalls from onlookers.
“You’re going to be okay.” Dani appeared by the woman’s side, offering a bottle of water. “Eunice, right? We had lunch together last week.”
Alex glanced up at the sound of Lara’s voice, only to realize it was coming from someone’s phone. He quickly pulled up the live feed. And snorted.
Apparently, Lara had weighed her options and decided staying onsite with a picked over crew and the worsening weather wasn’t worth it, not when she could go back to Cavalieri Tower where there was a dedicated hair and makeup team waiting to do her bidding.
Lightbulbs flashed as reporters shouted questions.
Lara held up a hand. “At this time, we only have preliminary information. Alex and I were outside at the time of the bombing, doing an inspection of the facility.”
“I assume you’re referring to His Royal Highness, Prince Alexander?”
“Yes, of course.” She lowered her head, batting her eyes. “My apologies for the mistake.”
Alex rolled his eyes. Mistake, his right fang. Maybe she would accidentally tell them what color underwear he wore next? Not that she had any idea.
“At this time, we need everyone to remain calm.” Lara’s voice hardened. “Rebel forces are intent on destroying the peace Alex and I have been trying to restore, the kingdom we all hold dear. But they will not prevail. We will not let them win.”
“We don’t yet know what happened,” Dani said quietly from beside him, watching Lara’s performance play out. “Or who’s responsible.”
“No, we don’t.” An uneasy feeling stirred in his gut.
On the live feed, there was more shouting from the press pool. “We’re getting reports that Prince Alexander stayed behind to go back into the building and search for survivors, along with several members of a news crew that was onsite. Can you confirm that?”
Lara’s expression froze. Quickly, she recovered.
“Yes, it’s my understanding that he did.”
“Was there any reason you didn’t remain to help search as well?”
“That person’s getting their press credential yanked!” someone called off to Alex’s right.
“Ooo, she’s mad!” someone else said. “She might be smiling, but you can see the steam comin’ out those ears.”
“I was knocked to the ground in the initial blast,” Lara explained to the room. “I begged Alex to let me come with him, but he didn’t feel it was safe for me to go into the building in my condition.” She pressed a hand to her stomach. “He’s very protective that way.”
The crowd around them fell silent.
In her condition? Alex pinched the bridge of his nose. What was wrong with Lara? Now everyone was going to think—
Well, of course that was exactly what she wanted them to think.