Chapter 21

We'd been staked out outside the witch's building waiting for reinforcements when a chopper flew overhead and landed on the rooftop. I knew they were Luther's men the instant I spotted vampires rappelling down the side of the building, crashing through her apartment windows. What I didn't get was why. Her presence at the club suggested she'd either been working with them or the Hive.

Coincidence seemed too convenient. And the fact they'd decided to show up guns blazing meant they knew we were after her or…

Or who the fuck knew what the hell was really going on. Regardless, I wasn't about to lose my prize twice this night and come home empty handed.

Jumping out of the Camaro, I pressed on my comms. "Bal, you seeing this shit?"

"Aye. Chicken shits beat us to the party."

I reached for the tranquilizer gun in the passenger seat. "I'm going in."

"Bravo team is on its way. We should wait."

"Fuck that. By the time they get here it will be too late."

Stepping out of his black pick-up, Bal flashed toward me, grabbing me by the shoulder and pinning me to the side of the Camaro. "We barely made it out of that club. No doubt these dickheads are also packing poisoned-tipped bullets. We don't have enough manpower to take them on."

Shrugging off his arm, I said, "We'll manage. I'm not losing the witch."

Narrowing his gaze, he stepped closer. "We could be walking into a trap."

"Luther knows he can't touch me, not unless he wants my brother to rip out his heart."

A muscle in Bal's jaw twitched as he contemplated the situation, but I didn't have time to weigh my options. "I'm doing this, with or without you," I gritted.

Swallowing thickly, he dropped his chin as he rubbed his forehead. Turning from me, he gestured to the large SUV across the street. Caleb and Gideon stepped out, blades strapped to their thighs, rifles across their chests.

Time to bring our own heat.

Leading the team, I pushed through the front door of the building. In a single breath, we ascended the staircase to the fifth floor, but as I slowly pulled open the fire exit door, gunfire erupted in our direction.

"Fuck!" Bal shouted. "Take cover. Shitheads are probably using poisoned ammo!"

We returned fire as we dashed across to the perpendicular hall, crouching behind a wall. Bal peeked around the corner and a bullet nearly missed his head. "They got us pinned!"

Sprawled on the floor and writhing in pain, Gideon grabbed his thigh.

"Shit," I said. "Are you shot?"

"Sons of bitches got me!" Gideon immediately tore off his belt and ripped his pants, wrapping the belt around his thigh like a tourniquet to staunch the blood gushing from the wound.

Vampires could heal very quickly from a single bullet wound, but the bullet hole wasn't closing—quite the opposite. Damn wound kept widening, the blood darkening to black in his veins, the toxin visible as it spread through his bloodstream.

"At this rate I'm going to bleed out," he grunted out, breathing raggedly. "I won't have a chance to heal. What the bloody hell is this shit?"

"These fuckers aren't playing fair," I spat.

Bal pressed on his comms. "Base, this is Alpha. We have a man down, repeat; we have a man down."

A response came in through with static. "Alpha, this is Base, repeat your status?"

"Trek?" Bal said, his voice strained. "We're taking serious fire. Luther's men intercepted us. Came for the witch and sprayed us with the same shit they used at Brigham. Gideon is down."

Gideon was barely breathing. His eyes had rolled to the back of his head, the dark toxin already climbing up his neck muscles. "He doesn't look good. Don't think he's gonna make it."

"Hang tight. Second team is on its way, over."

"There's no time," I said.

"Kane, don't do anything stupid," Trek cautioned over the comms.

"I'm not letting them take the girl." Motioning to Bal and Caleb, I said, "Cover me."

Caleb took me by the shoulders and pushed me back against the wall. "What are you doing? You saw what they did to Gideon. You'll get killed."

"I'm fast."

"And what if you can't dodge all their bullets?"

Taking a swift look around the corner, a growl rumbled in my chest when I caught sight of two vampires hauling who I could only surmise was the sylph away. Fuck. They'd gotten to them first. Of greater concern were the two cloaked women who accompanied them. "Witches…" I gruffly uttered. As if hearing me, one of them looked in my direction, our eyes locking in a silent battle. I recognized her violet eyes from our surveillance videos. "The Vates Ordo is here too."

A cold smirk spread across her lips as she pressed her palms flat on the floor. She mumbled something incoherent, and the ground shook as if an earthquake had hit the city.

"What the fuck is going on?" Caleb shouted as he braced himself against the wall.

"A priestess," I gritted, unsheathing a military knife from my ankle holster, balancing on my feet to stay upright. Debris fell from the ceiling and cracks spiderwebbed across the tiles on the floor. The drone of helicopter blades thumped through the sound of the old building's creaking metal. They hadn't escaped yet.

"She's going to crumble this building!" Bal shouted.

"Not with them in it, she isn't." As I was about to leave the protection of the wall, gunfire erupted in our direction again, but at least the quake had subsided. The witch couldn't sustain her power. Good to know.

I cursed as I flattened my back against the wall, avoiding more nasty rounds. Still, I risked another look and spotted movement farther back down the hall before more bullets rang out. I smirked as I spotted the lone shooter. The rest must have run for the roof.

The witch underestimated us. "I'm going after them."

I ran straight for the shooter, my Second-Gen vampire speed giving me the advantage as I shifted on my feet, left and then right, bullets racing to bury themselves into my flesh as I maneuvered away with barely a centimeter to spare.

I dropped to the floor and slid a few feet, granting Bal and Caleb the opportunity to spray him with their own gunfire, earning me the perfect chance to leap back to my feet. I rushed toward the adjacent wall, away from the shooter, then jumped off the wall and launched myself at him.

Aiming for the vampire's neck, I sliced it clean through, severing bone and muscle in one swing before landing flat on my feet, the shooter's head toppling over and falling at my heel, followed by the collapse of the body.

With a nod, I motioned for Caleb and Bal to join me as I wiped the blood off on my pants.

"Looks like they took off through the rooftop access stairs," Caleb called out as he reached me.

"Gideon?" I asked, already fearing his fate.

Caleb dropped his gaze, but Bal scorched me with his. "Trek is sending someone for his body," he uttered, jaw tight.

Saints. A rope of guilt wrapped itself around my body, but I couldn't let his death slow us down. We were warriors and warriors died. But I didn't have to risk any more lives. "Stay with him, the both of you," I said, marching toward the rooftop access. "I'll go after the girl on my own."

"The fuck you will," Bal said, pulling up beside me, Caleb not far behind. "Not passing up an opportunity to smoke the shitheads who did this."

We followed Luther's men, reaching the top as I spotted a vampire draping the girl over his shoulder. He ran toward a rope ladder hanging from the helicopter hovering above. I yelled over the loud thumps of the chopper's blades, "We can't let them take her!"

Bullets pelleted the ground where we stood, a gunman aiming at us from the chopper. We ducked behind an air-conditioning unit. "Caleb," I called out, pointing at the helicopter, "take out the shooter in the bird."

To Bal, I said, "Cover me while I go for the girl."

With a roar, I sprung out from behind the air-conditioning unit and aimed one of my knives straight at the girl's captor, catching him in the back of the thigh. He fell over, throwing the girl off his shoulder as they both landed in a heap of tangled limbs.

The girl turned over, latching on to my gaze, her eyes a swirl of terror, red curls spinning in the helicopter's wind. Amongst the chaos erupting around us, the frantic beats of her heart reached my ears, the smell of fear spewing from her pores.

Fuck. That scent, sweeter than honey, awakened the animal inside me. Running toward her, I came to a sudden stop as another vampire hurdled toward me, weapon drawn, but in that instant, a piercing shriek dug into my skull.

I fell to my knees, holding my head in agony. The pressure was unbearable, my head feeling as if it was going to implode.

But I wasn't the only one; the vampire who'd aimed at me also fell to the ground as Caleb and Bal also roared.

What the fuck is going on?

Across the way, the witch sat on her knees, a burst of white light radiating from her in waves. Every time a wave hit me, the pain in my skull intensified. The witch was going to kill us with some type of supersonic pulse. I'd never experienced anything like it.

Above, the helicopter spun out of control—the pilot must have been experiencing the same skull crushing agony. The piercing shriek grew louder, stronger. I fell on my back, holding the side of my head, blood seeping out through my ears, pouring out through my eyes. This was torture.

Fucking kill me now…

A thundering noise broke through the shriek as the chopper took a nosedive onto the street. Chunks of the building blew off as the chopper's blades chewed through brick and mortar, debris flying in all directions. Then a fiery explosion blasted through the air, rocking the building's foundation.

When the pain drilling through my brain eased, I stood, knees wobbly, head in a fog. Canvasing the rooftop for survivors, I spotted Caleb and Bal stumbling out from behind the air-conditioning unit, looking as bad as I felt, but at least they were alive. I couldn't say the same about the other two vampires laying on the ground.

I had to assume it was our Gen-Two and Gen-Three genetics that had kept us alive.

An orange glow reached up from the street. I didn't need to peer over the roof to know the chopper had exploded into a fireball the moment it spilled over the side of the building.

Sirens sounded off in the distance. Emergency responders were already speeding toward us. We needed to get the fuck out of there or we'd have bigger problems on our hands. Shaking off the buzzing in my head, I searched around the debris littering the rooftop for any signs of the girl, but a tornado of worry ripped through my chest when I couldn't hear her heartbeat or catch a tendril of her scent.

Fucking saints. She was gone.