Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
It was good to be back on the surface. Even if it was still under layers of the twisting buildings and roadways on the edge of the metropolis.
The fact that the metal and concrete were so densely packed meant that the smog and exhaust from the vehicles left a choking, dense cloud in the air at all times.
It caught in Nadi’s throat and made her eyes sting.
And the acrid, chemical reek from the mushroom processing plant they had come here to destroy didn’t help matters either. Even from their vantage point from an alleyway three blocks away, the smell of the facility was going to make her sick.
Rotting flesh combined with the stench of machine oil mixed with the fungal cultivation that fed on the rotting flesh.
“Uglier than I remembered,” she muttered, adjusting her grip on the curved knives at her sides. The weapons felt reassuring after carrying around the damn bolt cutters for so long. Though she really would have preferred a damn gun, nobody in the Iltani clan was going to give her one.
And they hadn’t given Raziel anything.
They weren’t going to take any fucking chances, it seemed.
Raziel stood beside her in the alleyway, his red eyes scanning the facility with professional interest. Now, watching him study their target, Nadi could see the predator awakening beneath his carefully controlled exterior. All thoughts of their marriage had been put aside.
This was about work.
“The scout says sixty-three guards, according to the latest count.” His voice was barely above a whisper. “Twelve on the perimeter, twenty-four inside the main building, the rest scattered between the holding areas and the processing floors.”
“Any changes since the surveillance was done?” Nadi asked. Sometimes, having a vampire around was convenient. If anyone could pick up movement from this far away, it’d be him.
“Additional patrols, it looks like.” His smile was almost feral in the lamplight. “Mael and Lana are learning to be paranoid. Good for them. Bad for us.”
Behind them, the Iltani strike team made final preparations.
Twelve fighters had been sent with them, armed with a mixture of stolen guns and improvised explosives.
They moved with the quiet efficiency of people who’d learned that noise meant death, but Nadi could see the tension in their movements.
This was probably the biggest operation they’d attempted since the destruction of their clan.
“Remember,” Kalo’s voice carried through the narrow space, pitched low enough to avoid detection but clear enough for everyone to hear, “we’re not here to win the war. We’re here to send a message. Get in, destroy what we can and get out. Anyone who tries to play hero gets left behind.”
Harsh words, but Nadi understood the logic. They couldn’t afford heroics when survival was still uncertain. And none of them were righteous anyway.
“Two minutes,” Kalo announced, checking his watch.
Raziel turned to face the strike team, and Nadi saw several of them unconsciously step back. Even knowing he was supposedly on their side, the Iltanis couldn’t entirely suppress their instinctive fear of the Serpent. And Nadi couldn’t say she blamed them.
“Listen carefully,” he said, his voice holding the authority of someone accustomed to command and leaving no room for argument. “The humans inside that facility are tools. When I give them orders, they will obey without question or hesitation. We will use that to our advantage.”
“And the vampires?” one of the younger fighters asked.
“Leave them to me.” Raziel smirked.
The simple confidence in those four words sent a chill down Nadi’s spine.
She’d seen what Raziel could do to humans—make them turn their own weapons on themselves with nothing more than a spoken command.
But vampires were different. Vampires required more…
personal attention. They were immune to his control, after all.
“Positions,” Kalo ordered.
The strike team scattered, moving with practiced stealth toward their assigned entry points.
The plan was simple in concept, complex in execution.
Three teams would hit the facility simultaneously—one through the main entrance, one through the loading docks, and one through the ventilation system on the roof.
Maximum confusion, minimum opportunity for organized resistance.
Nadi and Raziel were the fourth team. Raziel simply held out his hands and dissipated into a swarm of bats, taking to the sky. Nadi, meanwhile, shifted her form into that of the facility’s lead guard who she had otherwise detained by the raiding party earlier that night.
Otherwise and rather permanently detained.
Somewhere up above them, Mael and Lana were probably sleeping peacefully in their beds, unaware that their shiny, new and carefully constructed empire was about to take its first real hit.
The thought filled Nadi with savage satisfaction.
The facility’s roof was a forest of ventilation shafts, cooling units, and access hatches.
According to the intelligence files, the central air intake led directly to the main processing floor—their best chance of reaching the prisoners before the guards could execute them in retaliation.
That would be Raziel’s path of entry. He would go in from above.
As for Nadi? She was going to walk right in through the front door.
She scratched at the stubble on her chin and didn’t even glance behind her as she headed toward the front of the building.
Shoving her hands into the pockets of the grubby coat she wore, she didn’t do anything but grunt at the other guards standing at the door as one of them opened it to let her in.
It hadn’t taken her long watching the guard that morning to know exactly who he was and how to mimic him. There were a million men like him in the metropolis.
It was amazing how easy it was to get into places if you just walked with confidence. Nobody glanced at her as she walked right out onto the main floor. It helped she looked like the main guard reporting for duty, but still.
Nadi could see the source of the facility’s toxic output—massive vats filled with bubbling, phosphorescent liquid, connected by a network of pipes and conveyor belts that fed processed mushrooms through various stages of refinement.
The noise was overwhelming—grinding machinery, hissing steam, and the constant drip of condensation from overhead pipes.
Perfect cover for what they were about to do.
Guards were stationed throughout the facility, but the majority were human security forces armed with conventional weapons. There were only two vampires that she could see.
One of the vents from the overhead ducting popped loose, unable to withstand the sheer pressure of the volume of bats that collided with it from behind. Black bats swarmed the space and quickly reformed in front of her.
A guard—a young human woman with the hard eyes of someone who’d seen too much violence for her age—lifted her gun at him. “Hey! You’re not supposed to—”
Nadi slipped her knife in between the woman’s ribs. Taking her gun with her other hand, Nadi shoulder-checked her over the railing and sent the woman falling into the boiling vat of liquid. She offered Raziel the gun.
“No need.” He straightened his tie as he walked down the catwalk.
He didn’t even bother to use his ability to control them.
He simply used his speed. Before they could even register his presence, he simply appeared behind each guard, snapping their necks in silence, and threw them over into the vat.
One by one, they floated to the surface.
Some still twitching or thrashing. Most already dead by the time they bobbed up like fish.
But it wasn’t long until they were noticed by the vampires in attendance.
The first one spotted them as they descended a maintenance ladder near the cages. He was young for a vampire, probably no more than a century old, with the lean build and nervous energy of someone still adapting to immortal life.
Bullets rang out. Nadi ducked behind a wall, dropping her illusion of the guard for her own shape, drawing the curved swords.
But Raziel moved like liquid shadow. One moment he was on a ladder, the next he was behind the vampire, his hands gripping the younger immortal’s head.
The twist was sharp, efficient, and absolutely final with a loud, visceral crunch. The vampire’s body crumpled to the concrete floor, his spine severed just below the skull.
But what really bothered her was how the rest of the facility was quiet. The Iltanis should have struck by now. But the only shouts and gunfire were pointed in their direction.
Where was everyone?
She didn’t have time to think about that, she had to focus on not dying.
The other guards were now shooting at them.
And by the sounds of things, there were a lot more than the intelligence had suggested. “Raziel!”
“I am aware!”
A roar of fury echoed across the processing floor, and Nadi looked up to see a massive vampire charging toward her.
This one was older, stronger, with the kind of presence that spoke of centuries of violence.
His fangs were fully extended, and his eyes burned with predatory hunger.
He held a silver switchblade in his hand.
Raziel stepped between the vampire and Nadi, empty-handed but utterly calm. “Hello, cousin Cassius. Still working simple security jobs?”
The charging vampire—Cassius—slowed to a stop. “The traitor. They said you were dead. Should’ve known.”
“Mm. I’m sure you’re disappointed I’m alive.” Raziel smiled, showing his own fangs.
“I am so very glad I am going to be the one to kill you.” Cassius grinned. “I always hated your smug fucking face.”
“Oh? And you really think you stand a chance?”
The other vampire laughed, deep and rough. “You’re outnumbered and outgunned. Your little fae friends aren’t coming to help you.”