‘Not if we spread the rumor that the Crovirs possess new, technologically advanced body shields and a fast-healing serum that confers an unnatural ability to survive otherwise mortal wounds,’ said Ashely. ‘Your men will just have to be extra careful. Besides, the FBI will probably give us body vests.’
Costas snorted. ‘Good God, I never thought I’d see the day when an immortal would have to wear human armor!’ He stormed out of the room.
Gabriel looked at his watch. ‘We have eight hours before we leave. I suggest we all get some rest.’
I had been given a guest room at the back of the lodge. I grabbed a quick bite, showered, and climbed into bed. The mattress was soft and more comfortable than the one I had been forced to lie on for the last three days. Still, although I felt physically drained, sleep proved elusive once more. I stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours before drifting off.
A sound woke me some time later. A soft breeze was blowing in through the open window. Light from a nearby security lamp flickered through the swaying curtains and cast moving shadows across the walls of the bedroom.
There was a creak from the doorway.
I lifted my head off the pillow and gazed at the figure standing there. Surprise washed over me. ‘Sheila?’ I sat up, alarmed. ‘What’s wrong?’
She crossed the floor silently, bare feet sliding over the dark wood. Her eyes were unreadable in the gloom. She stopped at the side of the bed and pulled the covers back before crawling into the space next to me.
‘Don’t speak.’ Her voice was a bare whisper in the night.
Her lips covered mine a heartbeat later, her hair a silky curtain falling around my face.
I froze for a moment, too shocked to move. Then, all thoughts of resistance were drowned by the hunger that had been raging inside me since the very moment I first set eyes on her. I raised my hands to her head and deepened the kiss with a low groan.
Chapter Twenty-Three
She was gone the next morning. I blinked at the ceiling. Distant sounds came through the bedroom door as Gabriel’s men prepared for the day’s mission.
Memories from the night flooded my mind. The softness of her skin under my fingers. The velvety taste of her mouth beneath my lips. The strength in her warm, supple legs as they clung to my hips. The intoxicating heat of her body. Her quiet, breathless moans as she arched beneath me. Her nails clawing at my back. And throughout it all, the heady smell of oranges that infused the space around us, flooding me in her scent.
Someone rapped sharply on the door, startling me.
‘You up?’ said Ashely from the other side.
‘Uh-huh.’ I sat up and swung my legs off the bed, trying to suppress the sensual images still flashing past my eyes.
‘Get your butt moving. We leave in forty minutes.’
A column of SUVs and vans stood waiting in the driveway at the bottom of the porch when I walked out of the lodge moments later. I stopped as I got my first daylight look at the Schwatz compound.
The complex was positioned near the summit of a peak, surrounded by a thick oak and pine forest. The land fell away in carefully carved terraces that accommodated a collection of buildings and underground entrances, all of them artfully camouflaged to blend with the green and brown background. Guards with automatic firearms patrolled the grounds.
I caught a view of blue skies and a distant range through a gap between the trees, the peaks crowned in wisps of thin clouds and fading morning mist.
‘We’re in Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains,’ said Ashely at my side. He lit up, inhaled deeply, and blew out a smoke ring. ‘Impressive, isn’t it? Gabriel tells me they’ve had this place for over sixty years.’ He smiled faintly. ‘It’s bigger than the FBI’s training grounds in Quantico.’
The Schwatz convoy was getting ready to move. I watched Costas and Gabriel climb inside one of the trucks. Gabriel spoke to Grigoriye briefly through the open window; the Council member was staying behind to guard the complex, along with some eighty Schwatz Hunters.
Footsteps sounded behind me. Godard appeared at my side. ‘Be careful,’ he said and handed over the daisho.
My fingers closed over the familiar handles. ‘Thank you. I will.’ I slipped the blades into my belt. ‘Say goodbye to Sheila for me.’
The drive to DC took a little over two hours. The tension inside the vehicle rose perceptibly as we drew closer to the city. Shortly before eleven, we rolled into a deserted parking lot close to the Washington Circle Park.
Lacroix and the FBI were already there.
Solito’s boss was a burly Texan called McCabe. A frown darkened the man’s features as he shook hands with Gabriel.
‘I have direct orders from the Oval Office to follow your instructions to the letter.’ He chomped down on a cigar stub. ‘I don’t know who you are, Mister, but if you put the lives of my men in jeopardy, there’ll be hell to pay, whatever the Attorney General says.’
‘Same here,’ said Lacroix coolly.
A polite smile crossed Gabriel’s lips. ‘Rest assured that our organization will do the utmost to prevent any such misfortunes.’
Lacroix’s eyes shifted to me briefly. ‘You wouldn’t want to tell us the name of this organization of yours, by any chance? It appears to have a great deal of influence with Heads of States on both sides of the Atlantic.’
Costas grunted. ‘That’s none of your concern. You know far too much as it is.’
Discontented mutters arose among the agents behind McCabe and Lacroix.
‘Not exactly a people person, is he?’ murmured Ashely.
My lips twitched despite the anxiety humming through my veins.
Gabriel sighed. ‘There are sound and valid reasons why we must keep our identities a secret from you,’ he said, looking the FBI chief and the Frenchman firmly in the eye. ‘I’m afraid that to say more would indeed, as Costas states, reveal too much.’ He turned to the surveillance photos of the Pennsylvania Avenue sky rise spread across the hood of a vehicle. ‘In any case, your men won’t be going higher than the tenth floor.’
‘And why is that?’ Lacroix challenged.
Gabriel glanced at him. ‘Because we have more experience dealing with these people than you do,’ he said curtly.
The Frenchman looked unconvinced.
A Schwatz tech passed a handful of pictures to Gabriel.
The immortal spread them over the FBI surveillance photos. ‘These are the latest thermal satellites images we have of the tower.’
‘Wow.’ Solito’s eyebrows rose. ‘Those look a helluva lot better than ours.’
The tech who brought the images grinned. ‘Oh, we’re using the latest in laser satellite technology.’ His expression sobered at Costas’s stare. He cleared his throat and retreated silently in the background.
‘How did you guys get your hands on that kind of money?’ said Solito.
Silence fell across the parking lot. The FBI analyst observed the crowd of unsmiling faces. ‘Forget I asked,’ he muttered.
‘Most of their men will be in the top four floors of the building,’ said Gabriel, pointing at the pictures. ‘That leaves about forty guards watching the access to the underground garage and the ground floor, as well as the dozen others spread out above.’
He looked at McCabe and Lacroix. ‘We need you to handle the guys on the ground while we get to the lifts. Tell your men to aim for the head. Their body armor will protect their other vital points.’ He ignored Lacroix’s frown. ‘Are your SWAT teams in place?’
‘They are,’ said McCabe with a nod.
‘Good. Let’s move.’
The day before, we had debated long and hard between a slow and subtle infiltration of the Crovirs’ defenses versus a fast and hard approach. We all voted for the latter tactic, convinced that shock and the element of surprise would work in our favor.
As the cavalcade drew closer to the sky rise, Ashely and I fastened FBI vests over our clot
hes and checked our earpieces.
‘You ready?’ said my partner while he loaded a magazine into the chamber of his Glock.
‘Not really.’ My fingers slid over the reassuring weights of the blades at my waist. I looked at Lacroix. ‘Good luck.’
The Frenchman nodded curtly.
Our convoy squealed to a halt in front of the Pennsylvania Avenue tower. We opened the rear doors of the van and spilled out onto the asphalt. McCabe’s men surrounded the building and started setting up a security perimeter.
We ran onto the sidewalk and fired at the facade of the main foyer. The glass wall shattered in a rain of glittering fragments. The shards crunched loudly beneath our feet as we stepped through the gaping frames.
Figures appeared around the lobby. I holstered the Glock and unsheathed the swords. Two Crovir Hunters fell beneath my blades a moment later.
‘Head for the lifts!’ Gabriel shouted to my right.
I nodded and raced along the concourse toward the bank of elevators.
Lacroix’s agents and McCabe’s men entered the building just as dozens more Crovirs charged across the floor. Gunfire erupted around the lobby, the echoes deafening in the vaulted space.
The first elevator pinged a moment before I reached it. My stomach lurched. I skidded on the polished floor.
‘Get down!’ Ashely yelled behind me.
I dropped to the ground a heartbeat before the metal panels opened to reveal five Crovir Hunters.
Ashely and Lacroix emptied their guns into the men before they had a chance to raise their own weapons. I jumped to my feet and lifted the daisho, blood thundering in my ears.
The blades slashed all too readily through the flesh of the immortals.
We heaved their bodies out of the lift and stepped inside. Bullets from the foyer struck the doors as they closed after us. The elevator started to rise.
‘If one of you is intending to say something patronizing like “You shouldn’t be here”, save your breath!’ Lacroix snapped while he reloaded his gun.
Ashely and I exchanged glances.
‘Wasn’t gonna say a word,’ muttered my partner as he shoved a fresh magazine into the Glock.
The lift opened on the fourth and seventh floors. We left a trail of bullets in the corridors beyond and the bodies of the Crovir Hunters who stood in the way. Distant explosions reached our ears as we neared the tenth floor.
The battered elevator doors slid aside with a tortuous creak. The lift opposite opened a second later. Gabriel, Costas, Bruno, and Anatole crouched inside, their guns raised.
We stared at one other and listened to the deadly silence in the corridor outside.
Anatole poked his head around the corner of the lift door. A bullet whined through the air and struck the metal frame, raising sparks inches from his face.
‘Whoa!’ said the red-haired immortal while Bruno dragged him backward. A grin lit up his face. ‘Looks like they’re home after all, boss.’
A frown clouded Costas’s face. ‘What’s he doing here?’ he hissed in a loud whisper, gesturing pointedly at Lacroix.
I shrugged noncommittally. Lacroix muttered something rude under his breath.
Gabriel studied the interior of the elevator. ‘Looks like these lifts don’t go any higher without a security pass.’
I inspected the control panel next to me. ‘You’re right.’
‘It shouldn’t come as a surprise, really. I guess we’re going to have to make our way on foot from here on.’ A smile played across the immortal noble’s face.
Even though my heart was racing inside my chest, I found my lips curving upward. ‘Sure looks like it.’
‘On the count of three?’ said Gabriel.
I nodded and took a deep breath.
Bullets riddled the air and ricocheted off the walls when we charged out of the lifts. Ceiling lights shattered, showering us with slivers of glass and metal. Plaster dust clouded the air.
Ashely grunted when a slug struck his vest. I gripped my blades and moved.
We paused seconds later in the clearing smoke and observed the still bodies around us. Further explosions rocked the foundations of the building. Doors slammed in the distance. Footsteps pounded the floor and drew closer.
‘Go!’ shouted Gabriel. He indicated the fire escape at the end of a passage beyond a junction. ‘We’ll hold them back!’
I turned and raced toward the fire door. It opened just before I reached it. I stabbed the man crossing the threshold. My eyes widened as he fell to the floor.
The Hunters behind him raised their guns.
Shots sang past my ears from behind, the draft from the bullets ruffling my hair. The Crovirs jerked violently and dropped to the ground. Ashely, Lacroix, and Costas materialized at my side.
‘What’re you waiting for, an invitation?’ snarled the Schwatz noble.
I leapt over the fallen immortals and started up the stairs beyond. Halfway to the next landing, the sound of gunfire rose from the lower levels of the tower. I glanced over the banister and caught a glimpse of the first wave of Schwatz Hunters as they made their way up through an army of Crovirs four floors below.
Something hot stung my face. I looked up and saw the Hunter above me take aim once more.
Ashely shot the immortal in the head.
‘You’re bleeding again,’ he said, inserting another magazine in the Glock.
I wiped away the sliver of blood where the bullet had grazed my cheek.
‘It’s a distressing habit of yours,’ he continued as we raced up the steps. Costas and Lacroix had already plowed through several Hunters on the landing above. ‘Sheila will undoubtedly kill me if I let you hemorrhage all over the place, so please try not to do so.’
I smiled. ‘Right.’
We reached the eleventh floor only to find it abandoned. Empty storage rooms lined the massive space. It was evident from their state that they had recently been cleared.
I lifted a scrap of paper from the ground and studied it with a frown; it was a label for a box of medical equipment.
‘We can’t be far from the research facility.’
The labs were on the next story.
Several figures dressed in white decontamination suits worked swiftly inside the network of interconnected glass chambers that occupied the floor. They were clearing the worktops and packing steel canisters inside transport boxes.
Some twenty Crovir Hunters stood between us and the closest room.
I clenched my teeth, knuckles whitening on the handles of the daisho.
There was a noise from behind. I looked over my shoulder and watched a dozen Schwatz Hunters step through the fire door. Blood oozed from their wounds. Their breaths left their lips in harsh pants.
They straightened when they saw the Crovirs. Scowls dawned on sweaty, red-streaked faces. Fingers tightened on the handgrips of guns.
‘Oh boy,’ muttered Ashely, mirroring my own thoughts.
Flashes of light and smoke filled the air as gunfire exploded around us.
I ducked and weaved through the wave of surging Crovirs. Crimson rivulets soon dripped from the edges of my blades and splashed across the floor and walls as the daisho slashed repeatedly through skin and flesh.
Behind me, Ashely and Lacroix emptied their guns and reloaded.
Halfway across the complex of labs, I saw movement out the corner of my eyes.
Burnstein was racing toward an exit to the east. Two scientists in sterile suits followed behind him, each with a pair of silver cases in hand.
I wheeled around and headed after them.
I was ten feet from the doorway through which the three men had disappeared when half a dozen figures materialized before me. In addition to guns, these Crovir Hunters wielded swords.
‘You’re not getting through us, half-breed!’ one of them barked.
I scowled and widened my stance.
The daisho sang at the tips of my
fingers, the steel edges glinting coldly under the light of the fluorescent strips. A sword grazed my back. Another sliced across my cheek.
I dropped to the floor a heartbeat before metal slashed across the space where my head had been. I spun and kicked out, taking out the three remaining Hunters. The wakizashi flashed through their ribcages in rapid succession.
I stepped over the dead men and entered the stairwell. A second group of Hunters appeared on the steps above me. Frustration gnawed at my insides; with every second that passed, Burnstein got farther away, along with the virus and the vaccine.
I sheathed the wakizashi and held the katana in a double-handed grip.
Bullets scored the ground and pinged off the metal banister as I bolted up the stairs. A couple of slugs struck my vest. I grunted and forged ahead, the sword carving a lethal path through the smoke-filled space.
I reached the next landing and opened the fire door. My heart thudded in my chest. I threw myself to the side.
A grenade shot from the rocket launcher shouldered by the Crovir Hunter fifteen feet ahead skimmed the air inches from my flank and detonated against the opposite wall. I hugged the floor and covered my head as debris riddled the stairwell. Something slashed across the back of my left hand. Bricks and chunks of concrete thudded around me.
Gray billows choked the air in the aftermath of the explosion. Ears still ringing from the blast, I used the cover of the dense cloud and crawled through the doorway.
Gunshots erupted ahead of me. The shadows shifted.
I sheathed the swords and raised the Smith & Wesson in a steady grip, my finger on the trigger.
‘It’s me,’ said Gabriel.
Anatole and Bruno appeared next to him in the clearing haze. The body of the Crovir Hunter with the grenade launcher lay on the ground behind them.
‘We found a pass for the lift,’ said Anatole. He observed the wreckage of the stairwell with a grin. ‘You’ve been busy.’
‘Have you seen Burnstein?’ I said urgently, climbing to my feet.