“Yes. I don’t know how it happened, but there’s too little time. You need to get to Barcelona—”
“We’re leaving. Now!” Layla hit the stairs, jumping down four at a time, holding onto the wall with one hand, the way she had as a child. She caught up with her team in the barracks. “Full gear, including comms. And we’ll need tents. Xavier—”
“—they’re trapped,” Joaquim was saying. “A spell keeping them in sunlight. Xavier can break the spell, but there are guards.”
“Address, damn it. I need an address!”
He gave it to her, his words already slurring. Fool should have started with that.
“Got it. Hanging up now.” She grabbed her gear and followed her team out to the SUV, talking all the way. “Xavier and Chuy are trapped in Sakal’s lair, with the sun about to hit them. We have to get there, kill whoever stands in our way, and get them to safety. You brought the tents, right?”
“Got ’em,” Brian said as he swung into the driver’s seat and started the engine, while the others were slamming the cargo door and piling in. “What the fuck are they doing there?” he asked, spinning the SUV in a dirt-spewing circle before speeding for the gate, which was already rising.
“I don’t know. Something to do with ambushing Sakal. Dumbass plan, but they’ll be dead if we don’t get there in time.”
“We’ll get there.”
“No speed limit,” she snapped. “I don’t care if every cop in the city is on our tail.”
“Roger that.”
XAVIER PACED AS he worked to break the penultimate spell. Fucking Sakal. Forget the spell, which he’d clearly created before he arrived. But the rest of the scheme, recruiting young people to do his dirty work, to attack the Fortalesa as a distraction until he was ready for the final step. Kidnapping the children to make sure Xavier took that final step. And then using his brother as a decoy. How the hell had he known Xavier would choose to stage an ambush, or anything else, for that matter?
There had to be a spy among his people. But who? He’d been so careful to let no one but Chuy and Joaquim know the final plan, and he’d have sensed if either of them had betrayed him. Hell, Chuy would die with him if he failed to get them to safety in time. And Joaquim? Impossible.
But then who? Someone else in the Fortalesa, someone so far down the chain of command, or someone he saw every day, and so no longer noticed as he went about his nights was guilty. Damn it. They were so careful with the people they recruited to the guard force, and he always did the final interview personally. There was no way in hell a human could have deceived him that much and slipped by. But the daylight guards were only a small percentage of the humans living in his Fortalesa. And even they could change their minds once they’d been accepted into the ranks. There were also visitors all the time. A cousin coming to visit, a new lover spending a few hot nights. It was impossible for him to check everyone who passed through the gates. Although, now that he knew, he’d tear down his beloved Fortalesa stone by stone until he found the traitor.
The spell layer gave way with another snap of power that had him raising a hand to protect his face. Damn sorcerers. He hated every one of the fuckers. He wasn’t old enough to have fought in the wars, but Josep had, and he’d met others who had, too. Ancient vampires who’d sworn fealty to him from the first, but who wanted only to be free to live quiet lives as artists and shopkeepers, even the occasional professional, a lawyer or a bookkeeper.
He walked over to check on Chuy, who’d withdrawn to a shady spot behind the bar. The sun wasn’t high enough yet to shine directly through the dome, and indirect light only weakened Xavier slightly. Chuy was strong enough to remain mostly awake, but his strength was failing, trying to pull him into sleep as the fire in his brain urged him to find a safe place. Xavier, too, sensed the coming fire, could hear the clock ticking down the time he had left.
He crouched down to lay a hand on Chuy’s arm and whisper, “Only a little longer.” And then he hurried back to continue his work. If he fell before he succeeded, he might die where he stood. And if he was forced to seek the little safety remaining, would the spell stop Layla from reaching them? Would the fates be that cruel? To bring her back to him only to end his life?
No. He was no plaything for the fates, a piece to be moved on the chessboard of existence, subject to random chance or the mood of mythical beings. He was a fucking vampire lord and he would damn well determine his own fate.
He bared his fangs at one of Sakal’s bodyguards who’d drawn close, unaware that while she studied him like some exotic creature safely caged in a zoo, he was about to break down the only barrier that kept him from ripping out her throat. Switching his gaze to one that was intentionally seductive, he waited until her eyes were locked with his, unblinking and hazy, and then moving far too fast for her human senses to follow, he bared his fangs, snapped the final spell, and lunged forward, slashing her throat while her gaze was still locked on his. Then he leapt on the others.
Xavier forced himself to ignore the panicked slam of bullets, the sudden heat of a lucky hit that passed cleanly through his upper arm and shoulder, as he moved too fast for them to follow. It hurt like hell, but it wouldn’t do any permanent damage. He ripped the gun from the next guard’s hands, tearing her arm off in the process, and then, drawing one of his knives, he stabbed it through her heart.
Stupid of Xavier to have abandoned his own MP5, but just as stupid of Sakal to have been so certain of his spell that he hadn’t warned the women who protected him of just how dangerous a vampire lord could be.
The remaining women stared, too terrified to move, to react. Had they grown accustomed to Sakal and his brother? Had they believed no vampire could be as strong as the stories told about them? He stood there for a glorious instant, giving them that fang-bearing grin, and letting them see the arrogance and strength of a truly powerful vampire.
“Laugh, you fucker,” one of them whispered, her voice hoarse with fear, as the others tried to hide behind her. “You’ll be a pile of ash soon enough.”
He shrugged. “Why wait? Are you scared?”
She glowered silently as they sidled like a herd of sheep toward the elevator. “My master has forbidden it,” she muttered sulkily. “He wants you to suffer as the sun rises, as your blood cools and forces you to fall into sleep knowing you’ll never wake.”
Xavier laughed. “You think that’s going to happen?” he said. “That the coward you worship can save you? You’ll be dead long before me, girl, and your master with you.”