Tessa focused on Seth.
“Take Sean’s blood,” he coaxed.
Forcing a smile, Sean extended his forearm. “Bon appétit.”
Her lips quirked at the corners as she sat up with Seth’s aid. “I suddenly feel like we’re in a low-budget vampire movie.”
He chuckled. “Yeah. This is so weird. I’ve never given another immortal blood before.”
“Have you ever taken blood from a live person?”
“No.”
She shook her head with a smile. “That’s even weirder.” Clasping his forearm with icy fingers, she sank her teeth in.
It hurt more than he’d expected. Étienne had bitten him when he’d transformed Sean, but Sean had no memory of that thanks to the GHB-like chemical the glands above fangs released under the pressure of a bite. Fortunately, the virus rendered him immune to the chemical this time, so Tessa feeding from him wouldn’t leave him loopy.
Seth glanced to one side as if he heard a noise.
Sean followed his gaze and listened carefully but heard nothing aside from the activity of their teams here on the fourth floor and down on the second. That and the conversations the guards and maintenance staff in the rest of the building conducted.
Seth’s brow furrowed. “David is having a hard time locating Augustus Benford.”
So that’s what he’d heard. David was so powerful that he could speak to Seth or anyone else telepathically even if hundreds or thousands of miles separated them.
“He isn’t at his home,” Seth continued. “Neither is his driver. His Carolina office hasn’t seen him since this morning. He hasn’t appeared at the airport. And no one seems to know where he is right now.”
Sean frowned. “Do they think something’s happened to him?”
“No. David just can’t find anyone who knows the man’s current location.”
“Could he already be on his way here?”
“If he is, he took someone else’s jet. David said the one that brought Tessa here won’t land in North Carolina for another twenty minutes.”
When Tessa would’ve removed her teeth from Sean’s wrist, Seth motioned for her to continue.
A hint of weakness crept in, the kind Sean usually felt as a result of blood loss when wounded. It wasn’t debilitating. But if she kept going, it might slow him down a bit.
Clicking sounds suddenly filled the lab. They seemed to come from Seth’s vicinity and… the floor at Sean’s feet?
Sean looked down, searching for the source.
The clicks repeated, more coming from the other room.
Click-click. Pause. Click. Pause. Click-click-click.
“There’s a red moon tonight,” Nicole said conversationally out in the hallway.
Sean frowned.
“How’s the weather?” Henderson’s voice emerged from multiple sources simultaneously.
The encrypted walkies.
Sean dug his out of his smock but didn’t press any buttons, because he’d failed to ask Nicole their various functions.
Seth and Tessa stared at the walkie in his hand.
“Clear skies here,” Nicole replied. “How is it there?”
“Looks like it’s gonna rain cats and dogs,” Henderson drawled.
More clicks followed.
“Seth.” Nicole spoke out in the hallway without raising her voice or opening the door, knowing every immortal in the building could hear her. “Read Henderson’s thoughts. Something’s up.”
Frowning, Seth looked in the FOB’s direction.
Bastien entered the room, one of his hands still curled around the biceps of the doctor who’d called Orson an asshole.
Before Bastien could speak, Seth held up a hand to halt him.
A long moment passed.
The doctor looked around, her brow furrowing with confusion.
If she hadn’t seen Seth abandon his disguise, she probably wondered where the hell Albert was and how Seth had come to be in here without her noticing.
Seth swore and turned to Bastien. “What is it?”
Bastien nodded at the woman. “She claims she has information.”
A door opened in the primary lab. “Here,” Nicole said, beyond his sight. “I don’t know the details, but if Henderson says it’s gonna rain cats and dogs, you need to arm up.”
Seth speared the doctor with a look. “Speak.”
Fastening her nervous gaze on him, she straightened her shoulders. “I heard you say you don’t know where Augustus Benford is. Orson told us earlier that Benford is on his way here.”
Seth studied her. “Do you know when he left North Carolina?”
“No. But we’re supposed to find out everything we can about—” Her gaze flittered to Tessa, and her eyes widened upon finding her sitting upright with her teeth sunk into Sean’s wrist. The doctor swallowed hard. “About the woman before dawn.”
Which wasn’t more than an hour or two away at this point.
Seth loosed an irritated growl.
David abruptly appeared beside him.
The doctor jumped. “Holy shit,” she breathed as she gaped up at him.
Ignoring her, David turned to Seth. “What’s up?”
“According to the doctor here, Benford will arrive at dawn. But we have bigger problems. Henderson said a large team of heavily armed men is moving toward our location as we speak.”
Multiple engines reached Sean’s ears, approaching the building at a fast clip.
“Mercenaries?” David queried calmly, his gaze going to an exterior wall.
“Most likely.”
“How many?”
“Two dozen. Maybe more.”
“What?” the doctor blurted incredulously.
As soon as Tessa withdrew her fangs from Sean’s wrist, he shot past Bastien and returned to the main room.
Nicole was bent over, opening a compartment in the cleaning cart to reveal a small arsenal.
Melanie zipped over, grabbed a couple of shoto swords, then returned to her seat and laid them on the desk beside the computer. Focusing on the screen once more, she resumed typing. One window after another opened.
Sean tucked a 9mm into his smock and slipped on a harness that settled two sheathed shoto swords on his back. He usually preferred katanas. But in an enclosed space indoors, the longer blades might be a hindrance. “Darnell?”
The only other mortal in the room didn’t move. “I already have two 9mms under my lab coat and extra mags in my pockets,” Darnell murmured distractedly.
Nicole swiftly donned shoulder-holstered 9mms equipped with 33-round magazines. Sean grabbed several extra mags and stuffed them in her smock pockets.
Seth, David, Tessa, Bastien, and the doctor entered.
Seth eyed Darnell and Melanie. “Where are we on copying their data?”
Darnell never looked up. “I need you to buy me some time.”
“Me, too,” Melanie added.
Seth turned to David. “Go take Jared’s place in the other lab so he can spirit Tessa away. He’s driving me crazy.”
Shaking his head with mild amusement, David vanished.
“What the hell is happening?” the doctor whispered shakily as she looked wildly from one to the other. “Are you… are you messing with my head? Did you drug me?”