Along Came a Spider (37 page)

Nicky.

He fired off another couple of rounds, knocking back two of the vampires, then jerked a stake from his weapons belt and sent it flying. There was a loud screech as the stake hit its mark. Nicky spun around just in time to catch Freddy the Ferret taking aim at the center of my chest. Nicky didn’t even hesitate. The loud report of his gun made me flinch at the same moment Freddy’s head snapped back.

Nicky didn’t wait to see Freddy drop before he rushed to me, snatching me from Dracula’s hold and gathering me into his arms. “Let’s go, doll. There’s more of these crazy bitches comin’.”

“Wait!” I cried as he tried to drag me toward the door through the path Gideon was plowing with his fists. When Nicky gave me a puzzled look, I hurried back to Dracula, who was far too weak to follow. The vampire’s chest heaved as he struggled to breathe, his cheeks growing more sallow and sunken even as I looked at him.

“Go,” he said, shaking his head. “Save yourself, Beatrice.”

I shook my head. “No, I’m not leaving you here with these assholes.”

He brought his hand up to cup my cheek. “Then free me from this dark prison.”

I swallowed hard, surprised to find tears blurring my vision. I didn’t know him—not really. And what I’d known of him was far from complimentary. But no one deserved to go through what the Agency had done to him, no one deserved to be a pawn in their sick, sadistic games.

“Trish!” Nicky barked. “Let’s go!”

“Please,” Dracula pleaded, his eyes boring into mine. “Free me.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Nicky, who was unloading his Glock into the chest of a statuesque redhead. Gideon had armed Nicky to the teeth just like I’d instructed when I’d asked him to rescue my love and come back for me. I darted forward and snatched one of the stakes from Nicky’s belt, then dropped down to my knees.

Dracula closed his eyes and nodded. I lifted the stake, then drove it down, but with a blur of motion, Dracula caught my wrist, and his eyes snapped open. “Tell Red I am sorry. For everything.” Then his grasp shifted and he yanked my hand forward, driving the stake through the center of his chest.

He gasped as his eyes went wide. I heard Amanda’s strangled cry of sorrow and an arctic blast filled the room, forming ice crystals on every surface.

Time to go.

This time when Nicky grabbed my wrist and pulled me to my feet, I limped after him, glancing around to see where the hell Gideon had disappeared to. As we made our way to the hall, a black mist suddenly appeared and took shape.

“What the hell is going on?” Nate demanded over the chorus of hissing and shouts and gunfire as the vampiresses continued to attack their Agency captors. “I got a call for at least two Tale dead—maybe more.”

“I’ll explain later,” Nicky assured him, gripping my hand tighter in his own. “Get the souls and get the hell outta here, Nate.”

Nate gave a terse nod, then was gone.

Nicky glanced up and down the hall, trying to figure out which way to go. “Shit.”

“This way,” I said, tugging his arm. “There’s an elevator down this hallway.”

My stomach dropped in horror as Nicky half dragged me down the hall and we saw all the doors open wide, the cells’ inhabitants gone. Although I still had no freaking clue how the vampiresses had ended up in Dracula’s cell before we’d arrived, the open doors certainly explained the number of vampires now running amuck. I hobbled along beside Nicky, my injured leg slowing me down.

We’d just reached the doors to the elevator when a searing pain tore into my shoulder, throwing me back into the wall. I heard Nicky scream my name as he caught me up and fired off a couple of rounds toward my assailant.

Startled and gasping in shock, I turned my head toward where Ian stood with his gun still raised, completely unaffected by the two bullet wounds in his chest. Ian’s throat had been torn open and blood stained the entire front of the white shirt that had come untucked from his struggle with his attacker. His lips dripped with blood and his eyes were wild—and glowed red as he lowered his head a little between his shoulders and hissed.

“Fuck me,” Nicky breathed. He scooped me up into his arms and rammed the elevator button with his elbow. When the doors slid open, we ducked inside and Nicky punched the button to close the doors. “Hang on, doll. Just hang on.”

The doors slid closed at an agonizingly slow rate as we watched in tense silence, but before the doors could meet, Ian appeared before us, fangs bared. Nicky raised his gun and pulled the trigger, but it clicked, the magazine empty. Suddenly, Alex McCain appeared behind Ian, his arm going around the agent’s neck.

“Go!” he grunted, dragging Ian from the elevator. “Get outta here!”

Nicky bolted forward and slammed his fist against the button to close the doors. And before they met, I caught a glimpse of McCain getting flung against the wall.

I sighed and let my head rest against Nicky’s shoulder as my adrenaline left me. “God, I’m tired of getting shot,” I murmured, knowing that unlike last time, I didn’t have a vampire and his ghostly girlfriend around to heal me up ahead of schedule.

Nicky dropped back against the wall and kissed the top of my head, but he didn’t say a word. He just tossed aside his gun to grab another Glock from its holster and waited. I could feel his tension in his muscles as he held me and I knew what he was thinking. This wasn’t over yet. We had no idea what the hell would be waiting for us when those doors opened again.

When the elevator jolted to a halt, I said, “Give me a gun.”

Nicky gave me a tight-lipped nod and handed me his Glock as the doors began to slide open. Then he set his jaw and squared his feet, ready to fight to the death if it meant getting me out of there. As if reading my thoughts, he tightened his arms around me and murmured, “At any cost.”

My arm came up, aiming the Glock at the opening. At the same instant, a dozen rifles clicked as the men waiting outside chambered a round.

“Hold your fire!”

I nearly sobbed with relief at the sound of a familiar voice. “Oh, God,” I moaned, my voice thick with tears. “It’s Al.”

“We’re coming out!” Nicky yelled, carrying me out of the elevator, his steps slow and wary.

As we came out, I glanced around, surprised to see how many FMA Enforcers dressed in SWAT gear filled the hallway. And on their knees lining one wall were easily two dozen Men in Black, their hands handcuffed behind them. I guess Al had taken his stand after all. And he’d had some outside help. As I looked on, Gideon appeared with two more agents, each held in a punishing headlock in the crook of Gideon’s powerful arms.

Gideon inclined his head to Nicky and me in a slight bow, then shoved the agents at the Enforcers, who quickly clasped handcuffs on them.

“I need to get her to the hospital,” Nicky barked, his steps growing more rapid now that the Enforcers were sure of our identities.

“I’ll drive them.” I glanced toward the person who’d spoken. Alex McCain. He was bloody, and his clothes were torn, but he was somehow still alive. He jerked his chin at Nicky as he strode toward us. “Looks like you could use a doctor, too.”

“No way in hell!” I yelled. “This son of a bitch is a traitor!”

Al and McCain exchanged a look. “I’ve been working as a double agent, Trish,” McCain confessed. “Al needed some eyes and ears inside. And he knew he could trust me.”

I glanced at Al to confirm what McCain had said. “But . . .” I shook my head, growing woozy.

Nicky hefted me up and held me a little closer against him. “How about that ride now?”

But before Nicky could take a step, Gideon muscled his way toward us. “I got this.”

He wrapped his arms around us, and the next thing I knew, my lungs were gasping for air in the Tale ER. The moment we appeared, a nurse rushed toward us, calling out orders that were just a jumble of words to me. Nicky was saying something to me, murmuring softly, lovingly, as they put me on a gurney, but the words sounded far away, distorted. And then I was drifting, weightless, and my world went dark.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Nicky?” I called, my mouth dry.

I felt a slender, cool hand grasp mine. “Nope, sorry, you’re stuck with me.”

I chuckled a little, still groggy from the fairy dust the doctor had given me, and turned my head, trying to focus on my friend’s saucy smile. “Hey, Red.”

“About damned time you woke up,” she said through her relieved grin. “My ass is killing me from sitting in this chair.”

“How long have I been out?” I asked, frowning.

“Three days,” she informed me. “You’d been through a helluva lot.”

Tell me about it.

“Sorry you’ve had to wait so long,” I told her, pushing up against the pillows so I was sitting.

She shrugged. “I’m just glad it’s not me for a change.”

“How is everything now?” I asked, glancing toward her belly.

Her hand smoothed lovingly over her basketball-sized bump. “Max is doing great now. No problems at all.”

“Max?” I said, grinning.

“Short for Maximus,” she explained. “Turns out that was Nate’s name . . . you know, before. He thought it might be better to change his name when he took on his assignment with the Tales.”

“I like the name Max,” I told her, nodding. “I think it’ll suit your little guy. He’s definitely a little warrior.”

“Thanks to you,” Red said. “Seriously. Thanks, Trish. For everything.”

“I’m sorry about Dracula,” I told her, meaning it. “If there’d been any other way . . .”

She nodded. “I know.”

“He said to tell you he was sorry.”

She sighed. “Nate tried to collect his soul, but it was already gone. Looks like he’s a ghost now.”

I laughed a little at the irony. A ghost. I had no doubt that he’d be well taken care of in the spirit world by the phantom who loved him, who had done everything in her power to rescue him from the darkness that had imprisoned him. I just hoped now that they had each other, they’d leave me the hell alone. “Good to know. And Ian?”

Red grunted. “Talk about poetic justice. That son of a bitch is safely tucked away in the Asylum undergoing rehabilitation for vampirism.”

My brows shot up. “The Agency didn’t want him?”

“More like he didn’t want the Agency,” Red explained. “We gave him the option. He thought he’d be better off throwing in his lot with us.”

I thought about the experiments the Agency had conducted on Dracula and God knew who else in their quest to understand us. “Wise choice.”

Red gave me a wicked grin. “Yeah, well, he might not think so after a few days with his rehabilitation counselor.”

I gave her a wary look. “Yeah?”

She nodded, her blue eyes sparkling with mischief. “Gideon requested the assignment specifically. You should’ve seen Ian’s face when Gideon walked in. You’d think someone had walked over his grave.”

She probably wasn’t far off. For a split second I almost felt sorry for Ian. Almost.

“So, what do you say we get you the hell out of here?” Red said, pushing to her feet and pressing the Call button for the nurse.

“Maybe I should wait for Nicky,” I said, a little hesitantly. “When is he coming back?”

Red shrugged and turned away, busying herself with pulling some clothes out of my overnight bag, which someone must’ve picked up from Nicky’s place while I was out. “He said he had some stuff to deal with.”

“What kind of stuff?” I breathed, my stomach twisting into knots.

“He didn’t say.” Red’s back was turned—she was hiding something.

I suddenly felt like I needed to hurl. Nicky couldn’t possibly still be leaving town, could he? Not after everything we’d been through together. Not after admitting how much he loved me. Right?

“When did he leave?” I demanded, peeling the leads from my chest and setting off alarm buttons on the various monitors.

Red cast a frown over her shoulder at the sound. “What the hell are you doing?” she asked as I pulled out the IV with a wince. “Let the nurses take those out.”

“No time,” I insisted, throwing back the covers and rummaging through one of the supply drawers until I found a piece of gauze and some surgical tape. “I have to stop him. He told me he was leaving town for good once everything was over with Dracula.”

“Trish, I—”

“I can’t let him go, Red,” I interrupted, my heart racing. “I love him. You have to help me find him.”

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “I don’t need to find him. I already know where he is.”

My eyes went wide. “You do?”

She gave me a wry look. “You say that as if tracking people down wasn’t my thing. But in this case I don’t need to track him down—he’s at his house.”

My heart was thudding painfully against my breast now. “He is?”