Before Sawyer could point out that she was full of crap, Erin was running toward the fight. Screaming like a banshee, she threw herself on the creature’s back. Sawyer had enough time to see her shove the barrel of her pistol in the thing’s ear hole before Harley yanked him away.
“Let’s go!” she shouted, disappearing back into the room with the cells and the kids he knew wouldn’t survive if they didn’t get them out of there fast.
Chapter 7
Harley holstered her Glock and ran into the cell on the left, bending down to scoop up the blond girl from the ratty mattress she lay on. She stifled a cry of dismay when she realized the little girl couldn’t be more than fifty pounds. Her arms were thin and pale, spotted here and there with bruises and scratches from rough treatment. She didn’t even stir as Harley picked her up, and if it wasn’t for the slight fluttering pulse along the girl’s throat and the unsteady heartbeat at the threshold of her werewolf hearing, Harley would have thought the child was dead.
Forcing those macabre thoughts aside, Harley focused on moving as fast as she could out of the cell without jostling the girl more than necessary.
Sawyer had slung his submachine gun over his back and was carrying the young boy in his arms, heading away from the battle still going on in the corridor behind them. Harley quickly followed. She had no idea where they were going, but she hoped this direction would get them somewhere safe. She didn’t want to leave Caleb and Erin behind and couldn’t help but feel like they were playing right into the hands of the traffickers by splitting up like this, but they didn’t have a choice. They had to get the kids out of there and couldn’t do that with that green creature and his buddies on their tail.
At every intersection, Sawyer stopped and sniffed the air. Harley prayed he had some clue where they were heading because no matter how well she’d studied the floor plan of the building before coming on this mission, she’d still managed to get completely turned around down here in this semidark maze.
Over the radio in her ear, everyone called out warnings and instructions to each other over the constant sound of gunfire. The support teams offered suggestions, too, but their voices were hard to hear as they tried to give Jake a route to get him and the others past the collapsed ceiling. Nothing they recommended seemed to work, though.
On the bright side, Harley was certain she heard everyone who was with Jake say something at least once, convincing her that they were all still alive. That was the best she could hope for. Unfortunately, she hadn’t heard a single peep from Caleb or Erin since they’d gotten separated. She refused to think about what that meant.
Harley was so focused on making sure no one slipped up behind them that she almost slammed into Sawyer’s back when he suddenly slid to a halt. The tension in his shoulders told her something was wrong.
“What is it?” she asked, trying to get her gun out while keeping her grip on the girl.
The movement jostled her anyway and the girl let out a tiny squeak of pain. Her eyes fluttered open and Harley found herself gazing into the palest silver-gray eyes she’d ever seen. How could someone kidnap, starve, and abuse a child this precious?
“It’s okay,” Harley said gently when those beautiful eyes filled with fear. “You’re safe now. I won’t let anyone hurt you. I promise.”
It occurred to her then that the girl might not speak English, but the words calmed her down regardless. She looked like she was about to say something in return, but Sawyer interrupted them, his voice low and urgent.
“I smell the vampire.” He transferred the boy to one arm, so he could draw his handgun, his head moving left and right rapidly, testing the air currents through the corridors. “The thing is somewhere close and getting closer. There are other people with him, too. Eight or ten of them.”
Harley cursed. Lifting her nose, she sniffed the air, straining to pick up the scents. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the girl regarding her curiously. She was probably trying to figure out why Harley was sniffing the air like a bloodhound. Harley considered telling her she was a werewolf, but there was no time. Later, they’d talk.
She inhaled deeply again, finally smelling the vampire. It was so nasty that once she had it, she wondered how she could have missed it. Her stomach clenched at the thought of the vampire catching up to them with the kids in their arms. How were they supposed to fight like this?
Sawyer must have come to the same conclusion because he took the first right they came to, heading away from the vampire’s scent and breaking into a run. Harley didn’t have trouble keeping up, but it was rough on the girl in her arms. She didn’t complain, though. Instead, she latched her tiny fingers into the straps of Harley’s tactical vest and held on for dear life.
When they reached another right turn, Harley picked up what she thought might be the smell of fresh air coming from somewhere up ahead. That meant they had to be close to one of the exits to the maze of underground passages. But before they’d gone more than a dozen strides in that direction, she was hit full in the face by a stench so overwhelming it made her stumble and almost drop the girl.
Rancid blood and foul, rotting mud, like something from the bottom of a swamp.
Sawyer shouted a warning, but Harley was already racing back the way they’d come, hunching over to protect the girl in her arms. She glanced over her shoulder to see the vampire and a handful of his goons coming into view, weapons coming up as they blocked the path between them, fresh air, and freedom.
Multiple rounds slammed into the back of Harley’s tactical vest and the girl in her arms screamed as she and Sawyer ducked back down a side corridor and the protection it offered. Harley leaned against the wall for a second, evaluating if her vest had held up as she gathered herself for a sprint back the way they’d come.
Beside her, Sawyer’s head snapped up. From the way his nose was working, this situation was about to get worse.
“Bad guys coming this way,” he shouted over the hail of automatic gunfire the vampire and his friends sent skipping along the concrete floor near where they were hiding. “We’re going to be pinned down in the crossfire with nowhere to go.”
Harley’s stomach plummeted. They’d been played from the moment they’d started this operation. The ceiling dropping to split everyone up, two weak and injured kids left in locked cells, the big, green shifter creature drawing Caleb and Erin away while they herded her and Sawyer down this path into ambush. They were being divided into smaller, easier-to-handle pieces by a group of international traffickers who seemed to know everything they were going to do before they did it.
Sawyer set the still-unconscious boy on the floor against the wall as gently as he could. Harley did the same with the little girl. She clutched at Harley’s arms, terror in her eyes.
“No, baby,” she said softly, carefully extricating herself from the girl’s tiny grasp. “You have to stay here. I have to fight and can’t do that with you in my arms.”