“We need some alive for questioning,” I growled.
“Fine,” Hawke grumbled, winging a guy in a lab coat.
A bullet whizzed past us with a hiss. Lachlan shoved Valor behind him with one arm and shot the guard with the gun in his left hand.
“She’ll be at the end of the hallway,” Valor said, trying to push away from Lachlan’s back and failing. “For fuck’s sake, get out of my way.”
“No.” He didn’t even bother giving a reason.
The door at the end of the hall was steel everywhere but the glass panel, and even that had metal lattice-work running through it.
“Please don’t kill me,” the lab-coat guy begged, shoving himself into a sitting position against the wall as Benedict stepped over his legs.
“Where is she?” I asked, leveling my aim at his one healthy shoulder.
His hand shook as he pointed toward the door.
“We’re missing a dozen men if Valor’s estimates are right,” Lachlan stated.
Right on cue, the door opened, and bullets whizzed past as men poured out of the small space. My chest expanded as the bond flared bright without the steel barrier between us. Lyric was back there somewhere, but where?
“Only shoot if the shot is clear!” I didn’t need to explain why. With both clips empty, I stepped into a side room to reload, just as Hawke had a second earlier. New clips in place, I lunged back into the fray just in time to hear Benedict curse.
“That was close, you asshole.” Another shot. Another body dropped.
Bullet holes peppered the walls of the hallway, but so far, none of us had been hit, to include Lachlan who was managing the whole thing one-handed.
“Stop or I’ll shoot her!” a man called out from just beyond that door.
The sound of Lyric’s cry paused every trigger finger on my team, and six new guards stepped out of the room, guns raised, but not shooting. Fuck, they even all looked the same. Medium builds with identical tactical uniforms and caps.
My stomach twisted as a man pushed his way forward, his elbow locked around Lyric’s throat as he used her like a shield, a gun at her temple. Holy shit.
She was covered in blood, her pink sweater stained with crimson at the side of her stomach and down her forearm where blood dripped freely down her fingers. There was another gash above her eyebrow, but the scab there didn’t ease the wrath that took hold of my body. It only served to tell me they’d been at her for hours. There was a bruise along her jawline, her lip was split, and her heartbeat sluggish in a situation that clearly called for a racing pulse.
And underneath all that smattered blood, she was pale. Drained.
I kept my eyes off hers, knowing if I saw one ounce of fear in those emerald eyes, my control would vanish. Logic would cease to exist. I would become every ounce the animal I was capable of being, and it would put her life at even more risk.
Even I couldn’t stop a bullet at that range if he decided to pull the trigger.
“Put it down,” the man warned, his beady eyes narrowing over Lyric’s head as he pushed the gun harder against her head. His eyes were the same color as Valor’s. Her father.
“Let her go.” I lowered my weapon slightly, knowing I’d have it up faster than any of his guards could pull their triggers. The steel lining may have dulled my powers, but I wasn’t that slow.
“Tell all your little fanger friends to drop their weapons, and we’ll talk,” the older man suggested like he was ready to hand over insurance information at an accident instead of holding a gun to Lyric’s head.
I nodded my head slightly, and the guys lowered their aims.
Lachlan was almost as old as I was, and could get his Glock back up just as fast, but Benedict and Hawke were a couple hundred years younger. It would take them at least half a second. But I couldn’t gamble with Lyric’s life.
“That’s better.” He shuffled Lyric forward slightly. “It would be a shame to lose the queen, wouldn’t it? From what I’ve seen, you mated her, which means you’re physically unable to sire offspring with anyone else, right?”
My vision went thermal, and a low growl worked its way through my chest.
“It looks like we have a little standoff here.” He fucking chuckled.
“What do you want?” I snapped, forcing my eyesight to normalize, keeping my gaze firmly pinned on his, but still cataloging every ripple of the muscles in his forearm, the flex of his fingers.
“Well, that’s a loaded question, don’t you think?” His brow furrowed. “I’ve spent my entire life planning for a moment just like this. When I’d have the king of the vampires at my mercy and his queen under my knife.” His lips twisted into a sneer. “Gun. Whatever.”
“And is it all you wished for?” I kept my voice level.
“Surprisingly, no. Imagine my surprise when you mate my daughter’s best friend! Not that Valor knows what we’ve—”
“I’m well aware!” Valor shouted from behind Lachlan, leaning to the side so she could see her father when Lachlan’s grip didn’t ease up. “This is insane! Let Lyric go!”
Moorehouse’s eyes widened slightly. “Is this your game? Trade my daughter for your queen?”
“I don’t use women as pawns.” My grip tightened on my Glock, but I didn’t raise it. The tension in here was one movement short of explosive.
“Then—” He hissed. “That’s how you got in, isn’t it?” His gaze shifted to his daughter, icing over. “You opened the fucking door for them, didn’t you, darling?”
“What the hell did you do to her?” Valor shouted, straining against Lachlan’s hold. “God, Lyric, I’m so sorry. I didn’t put it all together until the night you were shot, and by the time I learned about their plans, they’d already taken you!”
“Of course, I didn’t tell you! I knew you’d go soft! You’re too much like your mother—that traitorous bitch!” His face reddened, and his grip tightened around Lyric’s neck. “I knew you were soft, Valor, but this…I’ll never forgive you for this.”
“I’m not asking you to! Just let her go. You can have me. Do whatever you want to me, but let her go!” She lunged for Lachlan’s other side, and his hand splayed over her waist, keeping her firmly locked behind his back.
“I might not like you much, lass, but my queen favors you, which means you’re staying put,” Lachlan said without so much as looking her direction.
I used the time to calculate the distance between the guards, the angles at which they held their weapons, and their proximity to Lyric. They were no match for Hawke, Benedict, or even a one-handed Lachlan, but they weren’t my problem.
Moorehouse was.
“You think I want you? I’d sooner let every soldier in my army fuck you raw until you bled out on this floor than let you near this family again! You’re as good as dead to me, you stupid bitch, and as soon as your brother sees the security footage, you’ll actually be dead.”
Valor gasped.
Lachlan growled.
“Every bullet in their guns is loaded with Night Thistle,” Valor said softly, her voice breaking. “They increased the concentration when Lachlan didn’t die that night.”