“Looks like Sakal wasn’t sleeping alone,” Brian observed dryly.
“I never thought he was,” she said absently, then found a light switch and flicked it on. There were two wall sconces above the bed that together emitted a low pinkish light. She sighed and said the obvious. “Sakal is officially in the wind. And I bet you were right, Riv. He left before we ever got here. Which means he could be anywhere.”
“Except the farm,” Brian said helpfully.
“Except the farm,” she agreed. “But I doubt he planned on going back there.” She kicked the stupid bed. “Fuck. Okay. Let’s get Xavier and Chuy down here.”
“I hate to think what might be on those sheets,” River said, staring at the messy bed.
“Oh, for the fuck’s sake. Fine. I didn’t see curtains anywhere—”
“They’d be filthy with dust anyway,” Riv commented in disgust.
“Riv, they’re vampires. They don’t get sick, okay? They drink blood. I’ll strip the bed and flip the mattress. Happy?”
“No, but as I’m not going to be sitting on it, it’s fine.”
A HALF HOUR LATER, they had both vampires more or less safely resting in the vault—and yes, the mattress had been flipped. After that, there was nothing to do but wait. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a comfortable place to do that, because everything resembling a chair had been broken into pieces to block the front door.
Layla texted Danilo to let her know that everyone was safe, without naming names, since no one but she and her team had even known why they’d rushed out that morning. And if there was a traitor, whether Joaquim or someone else, they didn’t want word getting out that the vampires were alive.
So, throughout the day, they rotated from the first floor to the basement, keeping watch on both the vampires and the front door, which while closed in the strictest sense, definitely wasn’t secure.
And while they sat—on the floor, because well, chairs—they speculated among themselves as to where Sakal might have gone, or what he might have been after, beyond Xavier’s death. Had he planned to kill Xavier and simply go home? Or had he somehow convinced himself that Xavier’s territory would be his?
Based on what Xavier had told her of his history with Sakal, Layla knew that was impossible. But maybe Sakal was sufficiently delusional to believe he could somehow rule vampires who were powerful enough to squash him like a bug.
“What are you thinking?” Brian asked, when she’d obviously been quiet for too long.
“When Xavier wakes—”
“He’s going to be pissed as hell,” he provided. “To say the least. Furious is probably closer. I’m not sure any of us should be here when—”
“He won’t hurt me.”
“Yeah? What about the other guy?”
“Chuy? I barely know him, but Xavier will wake first. He’ll handle Chuy.”
“Damn it, Layla.”
“I know. I’m a pain in the ass. But you love me.”
“Yeah. Okay, Kerry and Riv will stay upstairs, but I’m staying down here with you. Just in case.”
“All right,” she said agreeably. She had no intention of going along with it when sunset arrived, but she didn’t mind company in the meantime.
“What about food?” he asked.
“Oops. I forgot about that. I guess Riv can go out through the garage and find something quick, while Kerry keeps watch on the front. You can rotate up and down until Riv gets back.”
AT 1100 HOURS, RIV returned with a rather delicious assortment of tapas, including bread and dessert, of course, along with soft drinks and a fresh supply of bottled water, since none of them trusted anything about the building they were stuck in. Once he was back inside, they re-bolted and welded the garage door, just in case.
By 1300 hours, they’d gone through every crumb of food. Riv had found a trashcan upstairs to dispose of the rubbish, and as it was summer, which meant longer days, they were contemplating their next meal.
At 1400 hours, they tossed a bunch of smoke bombs into the elevator with the dead bodyguards, then closed and welded shut the doors, in addition to turning the air-conditioner to its lowest temperature, since the bodies had begun to do what dead bodies did—decay, which in turn made them smell.
At 1700 hours, the smoke bombs and the welding had worked well enough that they’d begun to seriously contemplate their next meal, while obsessively checking their watches and phones for the time.
“For fuck’s sake,” Layla finally said, after Riv, who was sitting next to her on the basement floor, checked his giant-can-do-everything watch for the twentieth time in as many minutes. “Sunset isn’t until after nine, okay? That’s hours from now. Set your super-duper watch to go off fifteen minutes before that. Then you can just stare at it until sunset, okay?”
Riv just looked at her. “What bug crawled up your ass, Cap?”
“I don’t believe this.” She opened her comm and said, “Brian, I’m coming up. He’s all yours.”
Brian was waiting when the elevator door opened. “What happened?”
“You’ll see,” she said tightly, then stepped out of the elevator and began doing laps of the marble circle, while breathing slowly in and out, in and out.
AT 1900 HOURS, everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they decided the front door didn’t need to be completely blocked, and sent River out for more food. Which once again, they all enjoyed a lot.
And at 2000, with the sun still a pink glow above the glass dome, Layla made her way down to the basement for the final watch.
Since Brian still insisted on remaining downstairs with Layla, she explained to him what it would mean when Xavier woke to an unfamiliar and unsecured location after what had clearly been a pitched battle with Sakal’s bodyguards, and possibly with Sakal himself. Xavier had been fighting not only whatever magic Sakal had used to trap him, but the power of the rising sun. That he’d succeeded at all, much less long enough for Layla and her team to finish off the enemy, was a textbook example of the extraordinary strength possessed by a vampire lord compared to every other vampire walking the earth.
“He saved both Chuy and himself,” she told him. “But he paid a price for that, a price that is measured in blood. Which means he’ll need blood to recover. No, not need. Demand. From me,” she said softly. “Not only because I’m here, but because we’re lovers, and he’s done it before.”