And he attacked, killing four more when the rest abandoned their comrades, leaving them to face the monster while they raced into the remaining elevator, most of them bloodied and begging, crying to their God, to their impotent master to save them.
He would have given chase—he could have killed them all before elevator was gone—but the sun was still rising and with every degree of movement, his strength declined. Not enough to disable him, not yet. But he still had to save Chuy.
“Run. Hide if you can,” he growled as the doors closed. “You will never escape my revenge.”
He crossed to Chuy, cursing the heavens and whatever gods might still permit this good man to die. His concentration was wavering, his massive power reserves lower than they’d ever been, when he reached out and without slowing, grabbed Chuy’s arm, forcing himself to keep moving until he collapsed against the shadow of the far wall, his lieutenant next to him.
His last sense of anything before he slept was the sound of a huge explosion filled with the shriek of tortured metal. And Layla’s voice calling his name.
LAYLA ALREADY HAD her door open when the SUV slid to a tire-screeching halt in front of Sakal’s lair. The building was just as Joachim had described in the briefing with Xavier, something that now seemed like a hundred years ago. She saw extensive damage as she ran up two steps to the big metal door, damage that appeared to have been repaired by welding the edges to the frame. Her first thought was that they’d used an odd choice of repair technique, since it sealed the door completely shut. But hard upon that observation, her brain was calculating the best way to blast through it. She called over her shoulder while she continued to study the barrier. “We need to blow through this thing fast. I don’t care what’s left, as long as you get me inside ten minutes ago.”
“Roger that,” came Brian’s voice, as Layla rushed to the back of the SUV and yanked open the cargo door. “Kerry, help me get these tents out.”
She leaned in to lend a hand, but said, “Tents, Cap? What—?”
“There are vampires inside,” Layla snapped. “And the sun’s up.”
“Fuck!” Kerry raced to grab a tent, dropping it next to the one Layla had already propped against the building wall, well away from where Brian and River were getting ready to blow the door. Kerry dumped the two ground sheets on top, then yelled, “What’s the delay on the fucking door?”
“On the three count,” Brian responded.
The huge door crashed inward, nearly drowning out the ding of an elevator as it announced the arrival of four blondes with sub-machine guns firing on auto.
“Get rid of those assholes!” she shouted, but River was already tossing flashbangs and smoke grenades, while the rest of the team grabbed for the tents and belly-crawled into a short, narrow hallway, which got them inside, but provided shitty cover.
“Cover us,” Kerry commed, and a moment later she and River were darting out, making for a curve of upward stairs to the immediate left of where the short hallway opened up. Once they were out of view and racing for better positions on high ground, Layla and Brian covered themselves, shooting wildly into the dwindling smoke while running behind a wall that curled right and ran under the mezzanine to form the damn circle.
Leaning against the wall, catching her breath before the blondes recovered enough to formulate a strategy, Layla studied the odd room. Other than the small area where the elevators landed, the room was one big circle, with a second-floor mezzanine hanging over all but a marble- floored section that was lit by a glass dome in the ceiling. The sunlight beaming through that damn dome had her stomach churning with dread, but there were still areas of shade deep under the mezzanine, and she thought she detected a boot sticking out from behind a . . . fully- stocked bar of all things.
There was no more time to sightsee, however. The smoke was down to wisps when the elevator opened and four more damn blondes raced out, panic firing as they ran, and not hitting anyone, because no one was in their line of fire.
They were in Kerry and River’s line of fire, however, and soon there were only three left out of what had been eight blondes. One of the survivors was flattened against the wall of the open elevator, near the button panel, while two others huddled low to the floor, behind the curve of the stairs.
The huddlers were from the first charge into the smoke after Brian had blown the door. Their less lucky teammates were lying dead on the floor. Unfortunately for the two huddlers, they couldn’t target Layla and Brian without stepping out of cover.
Elevator girl was the only survivor of the last suicide charge, but she also couldn’t shoot without exposing herself completely. Her three friends had done that, and they were very definitely dead, their bodies all but shredded, parts of them actually stopping the elevator doors from closing.
While a tiny part of Layla’s brain entertained the irrelevant thought of whether the damn bodyguards had bleach nights for all that blond hair, because no way it was natural, the rest of her was figuring out the best way to grab a tent and get to the opposite side of the circle, where she could still see that perfectly motionless boot behind the bar. With no warning other than a murmured “Cover me,” and a glance at Brian, she stepped out firing, reached for one of the tents lying half inside the damn entranceway and ran for the other side of the room.
“Layla, damn it!” Brian’s furious protest followed, but he changed his angle of fire to cover her movement, without shooting her, while at the same time Kerry and River opened fire from up above, making sure the remaining bodyguards couldn’t risk exposing themselves to fire on her.
She was forced to dive to the ground, rolling for cover when a trio of shots smacked into the giant pillar next to her. But she managed to hold onto the damn tent when she scooted behind the damaged pillar and sent a hail of her own fire ripping into the stairway, destroying the wooden bannister, and taking out the remaining huddler. Someone else had killed the other one, probably either Kerry or River shooting from above.
Sakal’s guards were fucking idiots Layla thought, when she scooted around to face the bar. They should have gone up to the mezzanine the minute they fled the elevator. Hell, at least the first group had tried to keep them penned up in that stupid entry hall, to stop them from entering the building at all. Too bad for them that her team had big guns and better tactics. But at least it had been smarter than getting boxed into a fucking elevator.
Clearly, bodyguarding one man didn’t compare to fighting for your life in free-for-all war zones. Elevator blonde was still alive, but Layla wasn’t worried about her, since the round room provided all the cover she needed.
Reaching the bar, she shot a quick look behind her position and was relieved to see two big bodies lying in what was clearly the darkest corner they’d been able to find. Fear swelled in her heart. No, not bodies, vampires. They were both old and strong, and alive. Scooting backward on her ass until she reached them, she experienced a dizzying rush of relief to find they were still breathing, followed hard by hot fury that they’d been forced into these circumstances, and even worse, that they’d obviously been meant to burn with the sun.