Chapter 15 #2
“This way.” He was moving on instinct now, following the faint current of fresh air that meant an exit.
His wounded arm left a trail of blood on the walls as they passed, dark droplets that would be all too easy to follow.
Nothing to be done about it. Racking his brain for anything he remembered from the intelligence package he read from Kassa, he scrambled.
“There should be a loading dock on the east side of the building—”
A shape stepped out of the shadows ahead of them.
Nabrisi Rosov stood in the corridor, her gun leveled at Raziel’s chest. Behind her, Asha emerged from a side passage, cutting off any hope of retreat.
“Did you really think it would be that easy?” Nabrisi’s voice was thick with contempt.
“Running wasn’t really the plan.” His voice was smooth, controlled, giving nothing away. “More of a tactical repositioning.”
“Silly boy.” Asha moved closer, her delicate features twisted with something that looked almost like anticipation. “Lana wants you alive. She has questions. But she didn’t say anything about keeping your little fae in one piece.”
Nadi shifted at his side, gripping her remaining blade. It wouldn’t be enough—and she likely knew that.
Two elder vampires against one wounded vampire and a fae assassin? The odds were impossible. But neither of them would go down without a fight.
“Touch her,” he said with his own smile, “and I will make what I did to Cassius look like a hug at the family reunion.”
Nabrisi laughed. “Big words from someone who is in the process of bleeding out. That arm of yours looks bad, Serpent. Silver rounds do such interesting things to vampire flesh.”
“I’ve had worse.”
“Mmhm.” She cocked her head, studying him with cold assessment. “You know, Braen used to talk about you. Before you killed him.” Her jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. “He respected you. Said you were the only Nostrom worth a damn. Isn’t that funny? He actually admired you.”
“And look where it got him.” Raziel shrugged indifferently. Dismissively.
The words were cruel. Deliberate. Raziel was pushing her buttons, trying to make her angry, trying to make her sloppy. But Nabrisi wasn’t Cassius.
“Nice try.” She smiled, showing her fangs. “But I’m not going to make it that easy for you. Asha?”
The younger Rosov moved with terrifying speed, crossing the distance between them in a blur of motion.
Raziel could do little but watch as Nadi barely had time to raise her blade before Asha was there, grabbing her wrist and twisting with enough force to make her cry out. The dagger clattered to the floor.
With a growl, Raziel started forward, but Nabrisi’s gun tracked to follow him.
“One more step,” she warned, “and I put the next round through your skull. Silver to the brain tends to be permanent, even for our kind.”
Asha leaned in to talk to Nadi in a way that made Raziel’s stomach churn.
“You know what’s funny?” Asha’s voice was soft.
Gentle. “Lana told us what you are. A shapeshifter. A fae playing dress-up in the vampires’ world.
And I keep thinking… what would happen if I broke every bone in your body?
Would you still be able to change your shape then? Would you still be able to hide?”
“Why don’t you find out?” Nadi ground out back at her. “I’m sure your brother would love to know how you died.”
He couldn’t help but be proud of his fae assassin, though he was hardly surprised she held strong.
Something flickered in Asha’s orange eyes. Not fear—something else. Something darker.
“Zabriel doesn’t care what happens to me.” The words were flat. Matter-of-fact. “None of them do. That’s the thing about vampire families. Love is just another word for leverage.”
Before anyone could respond, an explosion rocked the facility.
The floor shook beneath their feet, sending Nabrisi stumbling against the wall. Dust rained from the ceiling. Emergency lights flickered and died, plunging the corridor into near-darkness.
Asha’s grip must have loosened. Nadi made her move, driving her elbow back into Asha's ribs. The vampire gasped, releasing Nadi’s wrist.
He had a split second to react. He wouldn’t be able to get to her in the second she needed. But her blade?
He kicked her the fallen weapon where it lay on the ground near him.
Her fingers closed around the hilt just as another explosion shook the building, this one closer, sending chunks of concrete raining down around them.
But Raziel had his own problems to contend with.
Namely, Nabrisi. He charged toward her, using the chaos as cover.
She fired her gun, but he dodged. The shot went wide, sparking off the wall inches from his head.
Then he was on her, his good hand closing around her throat, his fangs bared in a snarl of fury.
“Nadi!” he shouted. “Go! I’ll hold them—”
“Like hell!” she shouted back. He couldn’t look to see what was going on. But whatever was happening, she was mired in her own brawl with Asha. “I’m not leaving you here!”
“This isn’t a debate!” He dug his nails deep into Nabrisi’s throat and into the flesh. She howled and screamed. But she was strong. “Find Kalo. Make him explain himself. I’ll find you when—”
Asha screeched.
There was a crash.
With a snarl, Raziel slammed Nabrisi’s head into the ground once, twice, three times, trying to smash her skull to splinters. But she kicked him off her, sending him crashing into the wall.
Just in time for him to watch Nadi sink her blade into Asha’s shoulder, slicing through fabric and flesh. But Asha barely seemed to notice.
“Fast,” the vampire acknowledged, circling. “Faster than I expected. But I’ve been killing things for two hundred years.”
“And I have made a career out of killing your kind.” Nadi was panting, but she seemed uninjured for the moment.
Another explosion. Closer still. The whole building groaned, metal shrieking as support structures began to fail. Somewhere, Raziel could hear shouting—fae voices, vampire voices, all mixed together in a cacophony of violence.
Asha’s eyes flickered toward the sound, just for an instant.
“Raziel!” Nadi scrambled to her feet, her blade dripping dark blood. “Now!”
He heard her. Of course he heard her. Even in the chaos, even in the darkness, even with Nabrisi’s hands clawing at his face and her fangs snapping inches from his throat, he heard her.
With a snarl of effort, he drove his knee into Nabrisi’s stomach and threw her against the wall. The impact cracked concrete, and the vampire slumped, momentarily stunned.
He had her gun in an instant.
Two silver bullets to the skull was all it took.
Nabrisi was dead. Eyes wide. Blood splattered on the wall behind her.
Asha screamed.
Another explosion and it was clear they were out of time.
A shame they didn’t have enough time to finish the other sister. Grabbing Nadi’s hand with his blood-slicked fingers, he took off running again—past Nabrisi’s crumpled form, and toward a door at the end of the corridor that hung open on broken hinges.
Freedom. Maybe. Possibly.
If they could just make it a little farther—
They burst through the door and into the night.
The loading dock was the aftermath of a warzone. Bodies littered the ground—more vampire than fae. They didn’t stop running until they had made it to the edge of the buildings a few blocks away to catch their breath.
Raziel leaned back against the stone wall of whatever abandoned building in whose shadow they were taking shelter, and held Nadi close. “I—”
The click of a gun next to his head had him letting out a long, heavy sigh.
“You’ll be coming with us, vuampi. It is time the Serpent faced justice once and for all.”
Kalo.
Of course.