The Shadows

  Something was very wrong. His legs weren't working right a'tall.

  Scrambling to stay upright, he was dimly aware of Balthazar shouting his name, and then suddenly, his soldier was right beside him, grabbing onto his arm and dragging him forth.

  In the back of his mind, he sensed a presence departing the enormous vehicle in the manner of a vampire. And then the sound of the bullet impacts changed. High-pitched pings replaced the lower-register noises of lead burrowing into brick, asphalt, stone.

  The lessers had come across that RV.

  Which meant he and Balthazar had a second or two of greater coverage, and Balthazar took advantage of it. With a hard yank, Xcor felt his entire body get pulled off-track.

  And then a moment later, he was behind some large structure.

  No, a second vehicle--or something. Indeed, it was a gigantic square box with some kind of writing on the side.

  P . . . O . . . D . . . S . . .

  His overactive brain traced the shapes of the red letters, but the pattern they made meant nothing to him. What did register clearly?

  They were about to get a clean shot.

  He lifted his gun at the same time Balthazar did.

  Forcing his lungs to cease their greedy gasping, he waited . . . waited . . . waited. . . .

  The shower of bullets grew louder and louder as the shooters proceeded toward them. And so caught up were the slayers in their noisemaking and their pursuit, neither of them bothered to slow down as they came up to the cover that worked so well--and continued forward.

  With unspoken agreement, Xcor took the one on the left whilst Balthazar trained in on the right.

  Two bullets. Not two thousand.

  Two very well-placed forty-millimeter bullets square in the backs pitched both of the shooters forward, face-first into the dirty pavement.

  "I have them," Balthazar barked, switching out his gun for his daggers.

  Xcor would have argued, but he was beginning to feel the extent of his wounds.

  Bali leaped out, his blades flashing. He hit the closest one first, a great explosion of light turning the alley into noontime. With nary a pause, he rolled off and stabbed the second shooter. Recoiling away during the second illumination, the soldier managed to reholster the daggers and grab both of the AKs before . . .

  ...that massive vehicle, the one that had hit Xcor, came barreling down the alley.

  Balthazar ran back for cover, slamming his shoulders into the metal cube, and the two of them stared straight ahead, freezing in place as the thing left the area.

  But the fun and games weren't over quite yet.

  Calm down.

  They needed to calm . . .

  ...down . . .

  Dematerializing out of downtown was the only way they were going to get out of here: Sirens from the humans' police cars were growing louder and louder, and then headlights appeared down at the end of the alley, their brilliant illumination making shadows out of everything.

  "Go," Xcor ordered, knowing his soldier was in far better shape than he.

  "Not on your life."

  "To tarry here with me may be on yours."

  "Then we shall die together."

  As Xcor inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to slow his heart rate and ease off his blood pressure, the smell of heated metal and gunpowder tingled in his nose along with the diesel fumes from that vehicle and the lingering nasty stench of the slayers' sweat and incinerations.

  His legs were killing him, both of them. At this rate, the pain was becoming such that he was going to have to sit down--or pass out.

  Shit.

  The police cars zoomed by, going at breakneck speed, one . . . two . . . three of them in quick succession, their noise and strobing lights going on a fade as they passed.

  There would be more. And the next wave would be slower, in recon rather than pursuit mode.

  "How badly are you hit?" Balthazar demanded.

  He wanted to lie. "My legs are a problem. One is shot, the other likely broken."

  "When was the last time you fed. From a female, that is?"

  Months and months. Since he had first met Layla. Her ultra-pure blood had sustained him for a record amount of time, and when the strength had finally begun to fade, he had taken the veins of deer he hunted in the forest without telling his males he had resorted to such.

  But Bali knew. They all must have known.

  "That long, indeed," his soldier grumbled.

  Xcor looked around, not about to take the conversation further. Across the way, there was a fire escape, but he lacked the strength to drag himself up there at a sufficient speed, and he would not be able to dematerialize.

  "Go," he said to Balthazar.

  "You can do this."

  "I have not the strength to make it back to--"

  Balthazar pointed up. "There. The roof. That is as far as you must go."

  Barking dogs. At least two of them. At the head of the alley.

  Ah, yes, the humans had brought in noses worthy of a search. As opposed to the lame ones on their pitiful faces.

  "You must," Balthazar said. "Just that far. And no farther."

  Xcor traced the way up the fire escape, past the series of windows, up some fifteen floors. It could be worse, he supposed.

  "Now."

  Closing his eyes, he knew it wasn't going to work. "I want you to go. That is an order."

  "I shall not--"

  Xcor raised a tired arm and slapped his soldier across the face. In a weary voice, he said, "The others need organization and tending to. You are it. Go--and take those guns with you. They are valuable. Go! Someone must lead them!"

  Balthazar was still swearing as he disappeared . . . and the dogs came ever closer to Xcor's position. With the fresh scent of his spilled and ever-welling blood, they would find him in a matter of seconds.

  This time, as his lids lowered, it was from pure exhaustion, not from any kind of hope that he would dematerialize.

  Except just before he was due to be captured, as he lifted his gun muzzle and knew that he was about to lose his life in a very bad gunfight . . .

  The image of Layla came to him so clearly that it was as if she stood before him.

  If he did not remove himself, he would die and ne'er set eyes upon her again.

  As a profound sense of loss struck him in the center of the chest, it was then that he knew what he had been denying for some time.

  Faced with the reality that he might be denied one last audience with that female, one final chance to hear her voice, catch her scent upon the night air, stand in witness to her physical presence . . . the bonded male in him screamed in rage at such a crime.

  Just as a German shepherd rounded the corner of the metal container, its deputy on a short leash following suit, at the very instant when the human shouted something along the lines of, "Freeze," or some such drivel . . .

  Xcor up and disappeared.

  Only the drive to see his female again gave him the strength to cast himself upon the night air, scattering his battered, weakened body up to the roof that Balthazar had directed him to.

  As the cop down below let out an exclamation of shock and another arrived to much ensuing conversation, Xcor fell out of thin air, landing hard on the gravel-topped flat roof of the building overhead.

  "Thank you to the Scribe Virgin," he heard someone mutter.

  Groaning, Xcor rolled over onto his back. Zypher was standing over him. Balthazar, too.

  "He is injured quite badly."

  That was the last thing he heard before blood loss and injury dragged him down into unconsciousness.

  *

  One block over, Rhage had his own list of problems thanks to all the damn humans who'd flooded the alleys. With his hands over his head, and his back to the approaching boys in blue, he was annoyed. And bored.

  The real party, with those slayers, had gone ahead along with Bill Murray's--make that Manny Manello's--bulletproof medevac thing. Meanwhile, he was stuck
here with a six-pack of Caldie's finest.

  "Don't move."

  Just like in the movies, he thought while rolling his eyes. "Whatever you say, Officer."

  His keen hearing meant he triangulated their positions with total accuracy. And there was nothing ahead of him in the alley. No cars, late-night pedestrians, or other cops.

  God only knew where Manny was going to end up. Or what was happening with Trez and Selena.

  He didn't have time for this.

  "Officer?"

  "Don't move."

  "No offense, but I gotta blow."

  Just like that, because the CPD didn't stress him in the slightest, he was up and out, dematerializing away.

  He was smiling in his molecular state as he traveled off, imagining the OMFGs.

  But he'd kinda done a no-no. There was one and only one rule in the war with the Lessening Society: Thou shalt not tee up the idiot gallery. I.e., it was in everyone's best interests that humans didn't know that vampires were so much more than a Halloween myth, and the Walking Dead was actually not just a TV show.

  Sometimes you didn't have a choice, however. And though he'd just given Frick and Frack, the handcuff brothers, and their other buddies, a helluva show, it was better than wasting time erasing their memories when Manny really needed him and Trez and Selena might possibly be needing him.

  Blowing his way forward, he re-formed three blocks closer to the river on the roof of a delivery entrance's carport. Just as Manny sped down the alley in his armored tank, with his wedding train of CPD units behind him, Rhage flashed down into the light of those Xenon beams--and gave the good doctor a wave to keep going.

  Then he calmly and very deliberately stepped into the ambulance's wake and opened fire on the markeds that were trailing the vehicle. He wasn't an asshole, though. His Mary had been human once--sort of still was except for her whole immortal thing. So he aimed at the front tires and the engine blocks on a first-come, first-served basis. The unit in the lead quickly lost control and went into a tailspin, which meant the second was harder to hit safely. But he rocked that shit, rendering them useless.

  Buh-bye.

  He caught up with Manny again by ghosting two more blocks down, and he materialized into the passenger seat in the same way he'd left the vehicle.

  Manny gave a shout of alarm, but didn't lose his focus. He kept them moving and in the middle of the alley.

  "We gotta get out of here," the good doctor said.

  "Head to the river. I know exactly what to do."

  "There are cops everywhere."

  "I'll tell you when to turn." Rhage got out his phone and started texting. A block later, he barked, "Now! Right!"

  Rhage hung on tight as Manny threw them into a ninety-degree and hit the gas again.

  "They've got a helicopter on us," Manny announced.

  Sure enough, the wide-screen was showing a lovely picture of a brilliant field of light pulling a heat lamp on them, the broad beam flashing around as the copter held them in view from the air.

  "Two blocks up, take a left."

  "They're going to close in on us from--"

  "Do it!"

  Annnnnd just like that they were under the highway, that spotlight extinguished.

  "One more block," Rhage muttered, jacking forward, praying that--"There!"

  Over on the right, a service bay was opening slowly, the panels rising to reveal a blackened garage space the size of a small house.

  "That's us!"

  "Holy shit, how'd you do that?"

  "All hail to the V."

  Just like that, Manny's RV, along with all its gauze and syringes and scalpels, and the two sorry sons a bitches in its front seat, was undercover and locked in tight as a tick in the delivery bay.

  Manny canned the engine, but didn't take his grip off the wheel. Like he kinda expected to have to drive again. "What do we do now?"

  Rhage put his window down further and listened to the sounds of the cop cars going by on the outside. "We chill--"

  His cell rang and he answered it. "Nice work, my brother."

  Vishous's voice was clear as a bell. "And you thought we'd never need it."

  "Thank God for remote activation."

  "Through my phone. Boom! You safe?"

  "Yeah, but I think we're going to be here for a while unless someone comes and gets us."

  "What the fuck is going on down there?"

  "Pick us up and I'll tell you on the way home."

  "Be there in twenty. Unless we have to worry about the CPD?"

  "Oh, no." Rhage pulled a pshaw with his hand. "You'll be fine. No cops around."

  As he hung up, Manny looked over at him. "Are you out of your mind? This zip code is crawling with the police."

  "He needs the exercise."

  With a curse, Manny banged his head against the back of his seat a couple of times. "Damn it! I haven't even gotten a chance to use this bad boy yet, and it's all trashed."

  "Well, least you got to play with some of the buttons. And this was a good beta test of the whole bulletproof thing." Rhage's phone went off as a text came through. "Oh, good news--Trez and Selena made it home safely. Guess they got out of town before the fun started."

  "That is a relief." Manny took a deep breath, but then cursed. "How're we going to get this thing out of here? Every police station in town's going to have a description of it."

  Rhage looked around the interior and shrugged. "Piece by piece, if we have to."

  "Somehow that doesn't inspire confidence."

  "You haven't seen your brother-in-law with a screwdriver. That motherfucker can take apart just about anything."

  "How's he on the reassemble, though."

  "Great."

  "Are you lying to me just so I don't cry like a little girl?"

  "Oh, no. Not at all."

  Rhage twisted around in his seat and activated the flashlight app on his phone.

  "Checking for hitchhikers?" Manny drawled.

  "You got anything I can nosh on in here?"

  "Not unless you like the taste of sterilization."

  Rhage resettled in his seat and put the thing on recline. "Worse comes to worst--"

  "No, you may not eat my RV."

  "Are you off-limits, too?"

  "Yes!"

  Closing his eyes, he flipped off the doctor. "Party pooper."

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  In the palace's library, iAm slid out the last volume on the last shelf on the last row of healing texts. As he cracked the leather cover, the scream in his head was so loud, he couldn't focus to read the table of contents.

  "Here," maichen said. "Allow me."

  Even though it marked him as a pussy, he let himself fall back on his ass, the hard floor biting through the thin cover of the pale blue maid's uni.

  He already knew what maichen was going to find. Or not.

  The flaw in his reasoning, when he'd set out on this folly, was that he'd never heard of the disease. It wasn't like he was one of the s'Hisbe's healers, with an extensive knowledge of what ailed folks and how to fix it, but something like what Selena had? The Shadows would have viewed it as a defect to stay away from like the plague--so there would have been some common consciousness about it.

  He should have known. But when it came to his brother, he was liable to do anything to save the SOB.

  "Does he have a similar disease?" maichen asked.

  "What?"

  "You just said you would do anything to save your brother?"

  Great, he was talking out loud now. "We'd better head back."

  She closed the volume. "I am sorry we didn't find--"

  "Come on, let's go."

  iAm got to his feet and offered her his hand. In the process of reviewing that last book with all those worthless words, she, too, had seated herself on the floor.

  Her masked face lifted upward as if she were staring at his palm.

  "We need to go," he muttered, wishing she would just put the damn book back and head
out with him.

  When she finally extended her arm, the heavy sleeve slid down, exposing her thin wrist and her long, thin hand. Which trembled.

  He loved the color of her skin. Darker than his.

  "I'm not going to hurt you," he said roughly before he touched her.

  "I know," she whispered.

  As he made contact, his body jerked, electricity licking into him, traveling from the connection to his heart and making that vital rhythm-maker tick even faster. And he wasn't sure, but he thought that she felt the shock as well, the robing that covered her shifting sharply, as if she had jumped.

  There wasn't time to think about any of that, though.

  Taking the book from her free hand, he replaced it into the slot that had been created and started off for the long trek back to the exit. He'd gone about fifteen feet when he realized he hadn't dropped his hold on her yet.

  He had to force himself to let her hand go.

  When they came to the hidden door, he stepped aside and let her open things up in case there was some kind of tracer or security check in play.

  Out in the hall, she said, "Crouch down, remember? You're very tall and very big."

  iAm got with the program. "Thanks."

  Letting her assume the lead, he found himself watching the way she walked, the shift of her body under the robing camouflaged nearly completely. What was she like under there? What was her face like?

  As soon as the thoughts hit him, he dropped them. Now was hardly the time to waste even a split second on anything like that.

  They had gone about twenty-five miles, as far as he could tell, when a set of prison guards came at them. From underneath the mesh that covered his face, iAm tracked their approach, bracing himself for a fight to get away. Typical of s'Ex's security team, they were in black, they were built like bouncers, and their weapons were obvious around their waists, the long-bladed daggers at their hips in ready reach. Their faces were uncovered, and he couldn't remember--did that mean that they were on the warpath?

  Shit, had they been discovered?

  Ahead of him, maichen didn't blink. She stopped, put both her hands in front of her heart in a steeple, and bowed her head in supplication. Staying in her lee, iAm copied her pose exactly, his thigh muscles tight as he forced his legs to remain at half-mast.

  The guards looked the pair of them over, and iAm prayed that that lavender scenting trick did the job. If they caught a whiff of anything close to the aggression pumping through his veins . . .