Chapter Thirty-Two
Reyna bounced from foot to foot in the back of the black van.
Zoya had hooked it up with several video screens so they could see everything playing out.
Nearly everyone was wired with a tiny camera and they broadcasted everything live.
Anyone who wanted to see the realities of Visage now could.
People had called Everett’s video propaganda, but they were listening after video of his murder was released and they were enraptured now that Elle broadcasted live for the first time ever.
From Reyna’s vantage point, she could see what she now called the storming of the camps. It was frantic and manic and totally incredible. Guns going off to stop the vampires from obstructing their entrance. People rushing forward through the front. Mayhem as they moved deeper through the trenches.
Humans poured from the front entrance as they escaped their vampire guards and made it out. And all of this was just the first couple minutes.
Madness.
Panic.
Distraction.
That’s what Reyna wanted and needed.
“Your cue,” Zoya said as a flare erupted on one of the screens.
“We’re sure he’s in there?” Reyna asked.
Beckham nodded. “Affirmative.”
Gabe slid open the van door. He jumped down enthusiastically. “I’m fucking ready for this shit.”
Meghan shook her head. “Only you are this happy about it.”
Jodie cocked the gun in her hand and shrugged. “I don’t know. They gave me a gun. I’m pretty stoked.”
Tye jumped out of the van and adjusted the many guns strapped on him. Philippé stepped out with them, leaving Gerard with Beckham. Zoya was on comms and Katarina had gone in first.
Beckham grasped Reyna’s chin and faced him again. “If anything goes wrong, I’m coming in after you.”
“It’ll go to plan.”
“It never goes to plan.”
“Okay. Yeah. It never goes to plan.” Reyna ran her hand down her ponytail and shrugged. Her nerves ate at her as she played the plan over and over again in her head.
“Don’t do anything reckless.” She arched an eyebrow.
“Anything more reckless than normal.” Then he kissed her.
This was fierce and loyal and demanding.
His emotions exploded through her all at once.
She could sense him, feel him, taste him.
It was so intoxicating that she thought she’d never be able to walk away from this.
Never be able to go into that pit of Hell. Not if it meant she did it without him.
“You won’t,” he said, reading her thoughts. “I’ll be with you every step, remember?”
“Good,” she gasped.
“You’re bloody coming out of there.”
Adrenaline pumping through her veins and pushing her into action. “You bet I am.”
…
Reyna followed the vanguard of her army.
Gabe paved the way to a back entrance into the camp.
They’d scoped it out yesterday to check for guards.
There were two on the door at all times and a rotating round who patrolled the perimeter.
Despite the fact that Reyna hated the idea, Beckham had contacted Roland to get inside information—schematics, blueprints, passcodes, everything that would help.
They’d debated it for a long time, but it was the only way that they knew they could get to Harrington.
It was a risk. The biggest risk Beckham might have ever taken.
But at the end of the day, Roland wanted to depose Harrington as much as they did.
The enemy of my enemy was my friend, even if she hated him. She hoped the bastard played his part.
Tye discreetly cut his way through the fencing with a laser that Katarina had provided. It took a full minute while they waited anxiously before they could slip through the hole he’d created. Reyna ducked over to the other side, with Gabe flanking her rear.
The distraction had done its job. All the guards were missing from the back door and the patrol was gone. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t meet someone on the inside, but for now they were in the clear.
Reyna hurried after Jodie and Meghan to the back door. She plastered herself against the wall. Her breathing heavy and terrified.
“You’re doing great,” she heard Beckham’s commanding voice in her ear.
She pressed her finger to the tiny earpiece. It was amazing to be able to hear him. Though she wanted to rely more on sensing him. She opened herself to him and sensed him in the van. Good. Close enough. Not too far away.
“Enter the passcode and follow the hallway to the left.”
Reyna repeated the instructions. Gabe was already a step ahead of her, entering the fifteen-digit code. The lock gave with no resistance.
“Here goes nothing,” Gabe said. He yanked open the door, holding the gun aloft in front of him.
He shot the vampire in the heart who was waiting on the other side and quickly the second one.
The bullet was enough of a distraction for him to jump in with a large knife and lop off both of their heads.
He checked the rest of the hallway with a nod. “Empty. We’re clear here.”
A sinking feeling set into the pit of her stomach.
Even though this was exactly to plan, she still felt like Harrington knew they were coming.
Except he couldn’t know they were coming.
There was no way he’d predicted this. Still it felt like he was clearing the path for her to walk into another one of his traps.
Had Roland given them up? Given them all the information that they needed to hang themselves?
She’d have to do something he wasn’t expecting.
“What’s this mean?” Meghan asked. Her red box braids were in a high bun on the top of her head, and she held a gun in her hand. Jodie came in behind her, looking around wide-eyed.
“He knows?” Tye guessed.
“If he knows and he wants to see me, well then, let’s make that fucking easy for him.”
She strode forward and did the thing that Beckham had told her not to do. She abandoned the plan.
…
“You are not walking to the left, Little One,” Beckham said in her ear.
She sighed. Yeah, she wasn’t. “He knows we’re here. Roland must have told him we were coming. We have to go with Plan B.”
The silence on the other end was enough for her to know he was not pleased. Five minutes in and already shit was breaking down. But that was okay. She could roll with the punches. It didn’t change what she needed to do. Nothing did.
“Where the hell are you going?” Gabe asked, jogging to catch up with her.
“You can’t walk in there,” Jodie said.
“I appreciate it, but clear the way for me.”
“But…” Meghan began.
“That’s what I need from you,” Reyna said. “I’ll be fine.”
Meghan looked skeptical. Jodie snorted. Philippé said nothing of course.
But none of them contradicted her and they all ran ahead to clear the hallways as she walked through the first floor of the feeding camps like a woman on a mission.
She passed dozens of closed doors that led to holding facilities.
The nicer ones. The ones they kept the new prisoners in before they got them doped up on vamp venom and forgot to care that they were living or eating or breathing.
That knowledge made her grit her teeth. She needed to save these people. Give them back the lives they deserved and not the one forced upon them by Visage through poverty and desperation.
A set of double doors stood closed at the end of the hallway.
Two dead guards were lay on the floor in front of them.
Philippé and Gabe stood by impassively. Meghan’s gun was aimed on the vampires.
Her hand was steady, but she’d rather heal than kill.
Jodie and Tye returned a minute later from connecting hallways.
“Clear,” Tye said. “What’s our next move?”
“Help get others out this way,” she told them.
“What about you?” Jodie asked.
Reyna kicked one of the vampires out of her way with the edge of her black boot. “I have an idea.”
“Little One, do you know what you’re doing?” Beckham’s voice crackled through her earpiece.
Yes. Yes, she did. She needed to do this her way and on her terms. She stepped over the second vampire and pushed the double doors open with both hands.
“Did someone throw a party without me?”
About a hundred pairs of eyes snapped to her and her grand entrance.
She’d entered the main holding facility for the humans.
Medical equipment lined the walls and rows of chairs filled it to its entirety.
As with most things from Visage, the room was strangely sanitary.
No one would guess that they were dosing humans with antidotes and feeding a vampire army out of a place like this.
But it didn’t surprise Reyna. Not when she knew about Harrington’s idiosyncrasies.
“Get her!” someone cried as a group of vampires lunged for her.
Philippé and her friends kept most of them off her, but one got through and grabbed her upper arm with enough force to bruise.
“I’m here to see the boss. It’s time that we had a face-to-face.”
The vampire snarled, “You’re not seeing anyone.”
“Ouch,” she yelped. “That hurts. I’m needed in one piece. You do not want the boss to get mad at you.”
The vampire released her abruptly. That had struck a nerve. Seemed Harrington had instilled some discipline into his army.
“I’m Reyna. Perhaps you’ve heard of me.” She snapped her fingers in the vampire’s face, twice. “Let’s get a move on.”
The vampire looked to his buddies in confusion. She blew out an exasperated breath and tried to walk past them. But he grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her to him. She was only an inch from his face and nearly gagged.
“Dear God, did you stop brushing?” she gasped.
“What is wrong with you? Don’t you fear me?”
“Not in the slightest. I contend with the heavyweights, not a grunt.”
The vampire snarled and reared back as if he was going to sink his teeth into her.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Harrington would probably kill you if you drank from me. I’m Reyna fucking Carpenter. Now bring me to the boss before I get pissed off.”
The vampire was so confused that he actually did what he was told.
He probably thought this was a joke and seeing Harrington would be worse for her in the long run.
She couldn’t really argue with that. Harrington was never someone she wanted to see, but sneaking into his private area was not how she wanted to have this confrontation.
She wanted to play chess on her board, not his.
No traps except the ones that she set.
The henchman vampire dragged her around the action and up a wide set of stairs to the observation deck.
Sickeningly, there was a platform to watch what was going on below.
To check to see who was feeding and when and change people out when necessary.
Reyna was sure a lot more sinister shit had gone on down there, but she didn’t really want the details.
The ones she envisioned were bad enough.
She stumbled over a step and was nearly dragged up the rest of the way, but hastily regained her stride. The vampire was faster than her, and he didn’t care for how fast her human legs could carry her.
They made it to the landing, and Reyna hazarded a glance behind her. She shuddered at the glimpse of the pandemonium below. So many casualties. She prayed that it soon would be over.
“You want to see the boss?” the vampire snarled at her.
“No, I asked you to take me to him for no fucking reason.”
The vampire laughed viciously, and it sent a shiver down her spine.
She sensed Beckham’s unease about the situation from a mile away. It was hard to separate it from her own terror, which she was harnessing like a whip. But she couldn’t back down now. She was clutched in the jaws of an alligator, waiting for it to bite.
“You asked for it.”
The vampire pushed open the door to the observation deck and tossed Reyna to the ground.
“Boss, brought you a present.”
Reyna groaned on impact as the metal flooring collided with her body. That was going to bruise.
“Excellent,” a female voice said from above. “Dismissed.”
Reyna’s head snapped up at the sound. The sound she only heard in her nightmares. The sound that haunted her like a ghost.
“Bronwyn?”