Bargains and Betrayals (31 page)

I swallowed hard and counted the steps as I started Sophie down the stairs with me, careful of the blood slicking their surface. These agents wanted us dead—or as good as. I tried to keep that in mind, but it was almost impossible to keep a reason for the bloodshed in my head when I witnessed it all.

The path down into the bunker’s heart clear, Cat dodged back up the stairs and outside to do a perimeter sweep and I led Sophie the rest of the way down the stairs, careful of the bodies. “Don’t look down.” I glanced over my shoulder. “There,” I said, seeing Pietr, standing in human form at the bottom of the stairs. “Look at Pietr. Not at the stairs.”

Looking past me, I noticed her eyes widen. “Look at his
face
, Soph.” Despite the corpses we picked our way around, Sophie was still surprised enough to blush at Pietr’s naked body.

If only the blood streaking Pietr’s face and body was a primitive warpaint, I could believe him to be a fiercely beautiful warrior from some ancient tribe roaming Russia’s most distant steppes—or a grim god.

Gunfire snapped me back to the awful reality of our situation.

God, we were all so messed up—and this wasn’t going to help any of us overcome our trust issues or petty paranoias.

I stood her before the keypad. “Okay, work your magic,” I said, watching her lean over the keys.

She shoved her blond hair back and screwed her face up with concentration. “I’ll give it my best shot … but it’s no magic,” she muttered in her breathy way. “Just energy impressions. I see the colors of energy someone leaves behind like a slightly brighter fingerprint if it was more recent. Okay. The last one to touch this keypad had fast fingers. The difference in the traces are subtle. Huh. Backward we have…”

Pietr listened, waiting until she finished to tap the numbers into the keypad in the right order.

Nothing happened. “I need a hand,” Sophia called.

“What?”

“Like, literally. A hand,” she balked, but held up her palm.

Dmitri dragged a corpse forward, flattening his hand to the scanner’s surface, and Pietr swept us back from the doors as they slid apart and bullets rained out.

“Shiiit,” Pietr snarled, hit in the shoulder a moment before he wolfed again and bounded into the fray.

I thrust Sophie into a corner, blocking her with my body. She panted and snagged her lower lip in her teeth. “This is not my life,” she insisted.

I looked at her solemnly. “I’m afraid it is. But it doesn’t have to be for long. Let’s just get through this. Then things go back to normal for you.”

“Like they keep going back to normal for you?” Sophie hissed. “Ghost of your mother, psycho ex-best friend, company agent dating your dad, psychic vampire ex-boyfriend, werewolf current boyfriend—by the way, I can’t blame you for that one,” she confessed, eyes round as she mouthed the word
whoa
before continuing with her list, “Trip to the asylum, attempts against your life, vigilante father…”

“Hey, the last ones are brand new. And the vigilante father thing? He’ll revert.”

“Anyhow, I’m not so keen on your concept of normal.” I caught her staring at me. “Your aura’s all smudgy with a different color tonight,” she whispered. “Something’s changed.…” She craned her neck around to catch a glimpse of Pietr. “Pietr’s color … and his is all smudgy with your color, like his energy’s been smeared all over yours really vigorously.… Oh! Ew!” She covered her eyes.

I blushed for both of us.

“I just don’t know what to do with you, Jessie. Should I congratulate you or rail on you about the dangers of doing
it
?”

I just shook my head.

My normal
.

In the room beyond us the shooting stopped and one final thud sounded as a body hit the floor. On the other side of the doorway, Alexi motioned to us.

“Clear,” Pietr proclaimed.

We stepped through the doorway and kept our heads up, still trying to ignore the worst of the casualties surrounding us. It was impossible as the blood continued to spread in slow, slippery puddles.

A man with a briefcase set it in one of the cubicles and opened it, displaying a bunch of wires and buttons.

Bomb
, I realized distantly.

“Two more doors, Sophia,” Pietr called as he fell back into his wolf form.

“Actually three,” I said, pointing over the wolf’s thickly furred shoulder at the science lab’s door.

In his wolfskin Pietr shook his head.
No.

“The Hell! Right now there are probably a dozen smaller than average scientists in there wetting themselves while you all take out their protectors. What were you going to do, leave them in there as the bunker falls down around their ears?”

The wolf blinked.

“Pietr!” I demanded. “They’ve only followed orders. Why should they die?”

With an impatient whine the wolf whipped into a very angry Pietr again. “Following orders?” he retorted. “You who love your history and research so much should know that was the excuse of every war criminal during the Nuremberg Trials. Every Nazi used that excuse,” he spat. “Following orders! When do they realize they’re doing something awful and stand up and say no, Jess?”

“I don’t know! But what if they just need a chance to realize and change? What if this could be their epiphany?”

“Stop trying to save everyone,” he ordered. “Some can’t be saved.”

I caught Dmitri smiling.

“And when is following orders ever a good enough excuse for not standing by your principles, for not having a moral code?”

“What moral code do
you
have, Pietr, if you just let people die—unable to even defend themselves?”

He looked at me, eyes flickering for a moment, and then he said, “Two doors, Sophia,” and was the wolf again, shifting as he dropped to all fours.

I crossed my arms and watched Sophie go to the door that would open on the final room before Mother’s cell. She leaned over the number pad and tapped in the appropriate digits in the appropriate order. “There should really be some other way I could use this new talent of mine,” she said.

A bullet zipped so close to her head her hair fluttered and Dmitri swung her back against the safety of the wall for a moment before releasing her to finish.

Eyes wide, she tapped in the rest of the code, deciding, “On second thought, I’ll just use it this once and never mention it again. Then back to normal, right, Jessie?”

“Sure thing, Soph,” I called. “Whatever normal is.”

The door whispered open and one more firefight ensued, the werewolves rushing headlong into the broad room holding their mother’s strange clear cubicle of a cage. They raced into danger like life didn’t matter—like, in this moment, they were immortal.

Things changed when the last set of guards’ bullets tore into their flesh.

Pietr’s growl turned into a shout of pain as he flashed out of his wolfskin and skid across the concrete floor, human and bleeding.

“Dmitri!” I screamed, seeing the wisp of smoke wafting from Pietr’s side. “The bullets are spiked! Poisoned!”

Shoving Sophie back, I rushed across the open space to Pietr’s side. I heard Dad’s yell and Wanda’s reply as they gave me cover. Glad as I was they’d rejoined us, there was no time to focus on anything but Pietr. And survival.

Sitting in a pool of sizzling blood, Pietr thrashed and cursed, clawing at his side with shaking hands. I dug the Leatherman out of my pocket and unfolded it, looking at the knife and Pietr’s quickly healing flesh.

“Stay still,” I urged as I grabbed his arm and sliced into his side with an inaccuracy that had him cursing my name. “I almost have it—” There was a thud and the slug fell into the red puddle, spinning and spitting.

Wolf again, Pietr rushed forward, knocking an agent down and out.

In her shatterproof cell, Pietr’s mother howled her joy. She pounded on the clear wall and screamed her children’s names.

Grabbing Sophie I slipped back out the door and raced to the science lab. The man with the briefcase looked up at us doubtfully, rearranging the contents in his case with swift and sure hands.

“Pietr’s not going to be happy,” Sophie protested.

“I’m saving lives,” I reminded. “Pietr will get happy again later. Press the buttons.”

Sophie did and the door hissed open.

Inside, the whole staff of the lab gawked at me.

“Get out now!” I shouted. The lead scientist, Henry, reached for a box; another reached for some files. “Leave it all, or you won’t get out alive.”

The box hit the ground and files fell, forgotten, as people rushed for the stairs.

“Last door, Sophie,” I said, and we turned back toward the room where I’d just dug the bullet out of Pietr.

“Not so fast.”

Dr. Jones
.

I froze, thinking about the location of the gun at my head. How fast could she pull the trigger? If I fell to the ground …

And then there was a shot and I felt the gun slip away and fall, clunking loose to the ground, followed by the limp body of the doctor.

“Now
that
’
ll
require therapy,” Wanda apologized loudly, lowering her gun in the next room.

Sophie glanced behind us and went a shade paler.

Pietr’s eyes focused over my shoulder and I knew he saw the scientists slipping their way up the stairs and away. His gaze fell on me a moment and instead of the anger I expected to find, I caught a sense of relief shining there. Until he noticed the doctor, dead, behind me.

His face tightened.

One last agent fell to Max, the gun falling out of his grip. Guiding Sophie by the shoulders, I steered her into the last room and in front of the control panel at Mother’s cage. Soph tapped in the ghostly pattern she read on the touchpad; the sirens sounded their warning, lights flashing one last time, and Pietr’s mother tore into the free world. Hugs were quick embraces, snatches at arms and hands, and kisses brushed cheeks.

In Pietr’s arms, Mother looked around the room at the people, fallen and still standing, and her gaze settled on Wanda. “Traitor!” she howled, lunging for her and nearly breaking free of Pietr’s iron grip.

Struggling to hold her back, his eyes narrowed. “No, Mother.
Nyet
,” he insisted. “She’s helped us. She’s no traitor.”

“She must be confused,” Alexi justified, stroking Tatiana’s arm gently and speaking soft words in Russian to sooth her. But his eyes stayed sharp addressing Wanda. “
Da
, Wanda? Tell me she’s confused.”

“Yeah,” Wanda agreed, keeping a wary distance. She glanced from Pietr to Dmitri and back before announcing, “I’m going for the files.”

The moment she was out of sight, Mother calmed down and Pietr passed her into Alexi’s guarded embrace.

Dmitri looked at his watch.

Pietr didn’t need to.

Turning, Dmitri said, “To a fresh start.” He shot his three nearest men. “A new way,” he added, shooting another to leave only his original second. He looked at Pietr.

A chill flashed through me and I realized I couldn’t read Pietr’s expression.

My father squeezed my shoulders before shoving both Sophie and me toward Max, his eyes still on Pietr. “Get the girls out of here,” Dad instructed.

Max nodded and Pietr paused to confer with Dmitri. “Let’s go,” Max said, glancing back to Pietr and his mother. “Sophia,” he rumbled. “Watch where you’re walking—don’t gawk at anything else.”

Sophie looked at me, pink as a fresh carnation.

Reentering the office spaces I saw the man with the briefcase dead in a puddle of blood, the bomb slowly moving through its countdown.

Behind us, Pietr’s mother suddenly called out. I spun back toward the commotion. Mother clung to Pietr, convulsing as the wolf tried to take control and Max dropped his arms from around our shoulders and rushed back to help his family.

“Where’s Cat?” Max called, racing to his mother.

I turned to look, but Dmitri’s second came up behind me, one hand on my back, one hand on Sophia’s. I couldn’t remember seeing Cat since she’d headed out on her perimeter search. “I’ll take the girls,” he called over his shoulder.

Distracted and struggling to again calm his mother, Pietr simply nodded and said, “We’ll meet everyone at the vehicles as soon as we’re able.”

We were all going to make it out. We were all going to be okay, I thought as we started up the stairs. So why did goose bumps race across my skin, chilling me to the bone?

“You did admirably, girls,” Dmitri’s second congratulated. “It is nearly over.”

My hand slipped toward my holster at something in his tone, and at the top of the stairs I turned left to head out of the house, but, a gun nestling in my ribs, he nudged me right, his hand clamped to my holster, sealing my gun to my body.

“Here is the problem, girls. As much as we admire your bravery, we have no need of you in the new organization.”

“Crap.” I was tired of needing to be rescued.

“You, especially, Jessica,” he continued, “are more a liability than an asset the way you yank the alpha’s chain. If he would screw you and move on, we might have no problem. But he believes he loves you. He is young—naïve.” He shoved us into a small bathroom. “We will help him grow up. Fast.”

The lights went out.

“Well, it’s about time,” Sophie called out. The lights snapped back on and Sophie confirmed what I’d guessed when a whiff of wildflowers blew past me. “Your mom’s ghost is here. She’s pissed.”

The lights snapped off and on again and in the brief darkness I shouldered the man back. Hard. His head slammed against the door, teeth biting through his lower lip and blood spilling down his chin. His gun fell and scrambling after it I drew my own gun, turning them both on him.

“I’m sorry, but as difficult as Pietr is sometimes—and as much as we argue, he’s the light in my frikkin’ world. And right now? You’re trying to screw up that light. Let us go.”

He lunged for me and I emptied both guns in disbelief.

Sliding down the door, he left a broad smear of blood.

Behind me, Sophie gagged. I grabbed her, tugging at the door and dropping the guns. No ammo meant no use. “Oh. God. Jessie,” she protested. “You just…”