Fangtastic (20 page)

I took a figurative breath and launched myself through the inner door. There was that moment of thickness, where I felt caught and held fast, a fly in amber, then I pulled free and was out again. If I'd still been human or, you know, embodied, I'd be hyperventilating. But panic wasn't on my agenda. Rescue was.

I came back to myself on the other side, needing my actual senses to scope things out. I knew the general layout from my other invasion, but I didn't know—ah ha! Down the right-hand corridor, two of the doors were ajar. Evidently they hadn't been shut at the time of the pulse. I'd start there. If those rooms were occupied and I could free their occupants first, I'd have built-in backup. I wouldn't be battering in doors all by my lonesome. Because how wrong was it that I now had minions but was totally still on my own?

The hallway was clear, but I didn't know for how long. In my last pass-through, I'd seen how much security they had on staff, and I knew I hadn't seen enough of them run by me while I was burning near to death to empty the place out. I had to act fast.

I bolted for the closest open door off the corridor. Immediately, something pierced my arm, and I looked down to see a hypodermic needle sticking out of my flesh. I raised my glance from the needle to the fear-crazed eyes of the white-coated guy who'd jabbed me with it, and I swear he nearly wet himself at the look on my face. He made a sudden move to my right, but with a human facing down a vamp, “sudden” was a relative term. He didn't have a prayer. I grabbed him by both shoulders and threw him to the ground, leaping on top of him. I forced him to look at me.

“What was in the needle?” I growled.

“N-n-nothing. Just a needle from my cart. I'm a phlebotomist.”

“A what?”

“A blood guy,” came a chill voice from one of the two beds in the small room.
I knew
that voice.

“Selene?”

“Just snap his neck and be done with it,” she answered. “You bust us out and you're in. You've proven yourself.”

Oh, right. She had no idea my mission had been called on account of conscience.

The blood-boy squirmed and thrashed and did his level best to escape, but there was no way I was killing anyone. Not if I could help it. Someone who went around sticking other people for blood surely wouldn't mind a donation of his own. After all, didn't they say that charity begins at home?

My teeth were already down with that thought. I caught a whiff of him as I lowered my lips to his neck. Fear, as intoxicating as it might be, did not do good things for a man's scent. Not generally. But I forgot all that when my teeth pierced the flesh of his neck, and his hot, sweet blood came pouring out. I didn't lose myself this time. I was way too conscious of the ticking clock. I took just enough to feel my burns begin to heal and the exhaustion of the past few days slip away. I felt more energized. More superhuman. More
me
.
If only the blood would do the same for my clothes.

When I pulled back, I dealt him a blow to the head where I'd learned in training it would do the most good. He wouldn't be coming after us or raising any alarms, but he'd live.

I raced to Selene's bedside and began undoing her straps. As soon as her hands were free, she started ripping needles and tubing out of her arms. I got to work on her leg restraints.

“I've got this,” she said. “You just take care of Zzz—
uh, Xavier.”

It wasn't what she'd meant to say, I'd stake my whole collection of Dolce & Gabbana on it. The list of names starting with the Z sound was pretty short. In fact, I could think of only one other, more of a nickname, really—
Xander
.

I looked over at the other table, but the vamp there seemed glassy-eyed. Not all bright-eyed and bushy-fanged like I expected fellow vamps to be this time of night. I approached his bed and started on his restraints, using the excuse to lean in and whisper, hopefully too quietly for Selene to hear,
“
Nelson
?”
She didn't want me to know who I had, and that made me suspicious.

His eyes focused on me, but the befuddlement didn't clear, which made total sense, since I was a complete stranger in a melted vinyl dress, smelling like a killer cocktail of car tire and char.

“Who—?” I could practically hear his lips crack as they opened and wondered how long it had been since he'd fed. With a body that big, he'd totally need to feed on a regular basis. He was about the size of a basketball player, with the pro-ball buzz-cut cookin' too. Reddish brown hair grew right into sideburns that in turn led into a closely shaved chinstrap beard. Handsome in a totally Cro-Magnon sort of way.

“Your uncle sent me,” I whispered, falling silent just as Selene appeared beside me, staring down at Nelson like he was the cherry on her sundae and she could just eat him up, which totally grossed me out, because she probably had, like, a century on him at the very least. Talk about cougar. But I guess that was only if she wanted him for his mind … the current one. She'd called him Xander … or just kept herself from calling him that, anyway. I was pretty sure that was who she saw when she looked at him, even knowing that he was currently body-swapped.

Selene tore at the bonds around his legs, then helped him to stand, gripping him tightly.

“Let's go,” I said, turning away from the confusion and fear in Nelson's eyes. Now was not the time to confront Selene. Later, in the confusion of the escape, the two could easily be separated. Permanently.

I got to the doorway first and looked both ways, ducking quickly back inside as two guards in goggles that made them look like ant aliens turned onto the hall. Night-vision goggles. Crap. Eric had warned me that anything turned off and stowed in their upright and locked position would survive the EMP.

“We've been spotted!” I cried, but quietly, just in case I was wrong. “Grab something to use as a weapon.” Because no way was I surrendering any of mine. Not that I didn't trust Selene … to stab me in the back.

There was no time to think beyond that. In a blink, the two alien-thugs were in the doorway, aiming pistols our way. I was counting on wooden bullets and on not getting hit. Also, winning the lottery, regaining my reflection, and becoming a Victoria's Secret model … not necessarily in that order. I kicked the gun hand of the first guy, even as he fired. His shot went high, but he kept hold of the gun and was already lowering it for a second shot.

Nelson/Xander reached right over me and ripped the gun out of his hand, turning it back on the thug. The other one used his partner's shoulder as a stabilizer and fired off a shot, zinging the gun straight out of Nelson's hand. It flew into the air. While thug one winced from the sound of the gunshot going off in his ear, I brought a knee up hard into his groin. His dangly bits were no match for my nicely-shaped knees, and he went down like the loser in a drunken game of Twister, leaving thug two totally exposed.

He re-aimed his pistol at me—clearly the bigger threat since I'd just downed his pal. Selene finally entered the fight, whirling an IV pole over my head and whacking the last thug standing in the temple. His head cracked ominously, and he fell to the ground like Humpty Dumpty off the wall.

I frisked him quickly for weapons, thinking twice before finally deciding to arm Selene. “The only way out is with me,” I told her, fixing her with the hairy-eyeball and loading any mesmeric mojo I might have into the statement. “I have a team outside. You're either with us or you're dead.”

Nelson grabbed the second gun off the floor where it had gone flying. He was kind of awkward in his movement—gawky as though he'd just gone through a growth spurt and didn't yet know how to handle his arms and legs, which made sense if he was walking around in someone else's body—especially if he hadn't had a lot of practice at it because the vamps had kept him hungry or locked away. At least, it seemed, I could trust Selene where he was concerned. She'd look after his body, if not his soul.

I peeked into the hall, and this time found the coast clear. There was a door straight across the way. If we could get a good running start, with our vamp speed and power we should be able to bust it down. But we couldn't all hit the door at once. There wasn't room. As the most petite, and the boss besides … I delegated.

“You two, bust down that door. Bust down as many as you can. I'm going to get us reinforcements.”

Nelson nodded. Selene looked more dubious about my authority, but finally nodded as well, which was good, because kicking her butt would take time I wasn't sure we had. I dashed down the hall to the next open door and was just inside when I heard them slam into the room opposite.

No one jumped me this time, and I could see why in an instant. A lab coat guy … no,
gal
this time, at least if the long red hair was anything to go by … must have gotten too close to one of the vamps on the gurneys. Whether the vamp had mesmerized her or she'd just been careless, it was clearly the last mistake she'd ever make. I couldn't see her face through all the hair, but I could see her throat—what was left of it.

I looked into the eyes of the vampire responsible and realized that the name
Very Scary
was clearly an understatement. Homicidal. Psychopathic.
Evil
.
Any of those would have been a lot more accurate. I tried to think whether under the same conditions—trapped, fighting for the strength to break free—I would have torn out a woman's throat. The blood I'd taken from her fellow tech curdled in my stomach. No. Never. Not even if I'd been starved to the point of feral. Kelly Swinter had survived, after all.

I tore my gaze away from those eyes that glittered like snake venom and turned to the vamp on the other bed in the room. I didn't recognize him, but at this point I was perfectly willing to take the devil I didn't know over the one I did. I freed his bonds and he dashed to Very Scary's side.

“
Don't
,”
I ordered, leveling the guard's gun at him. “You're with me. We're freeing the others.”

His eyes widened as he turned back at my command and spotted my gun. “But what about—”

“Leave him.” I was bluffing with the gun, I was almost sure of it. Shooting him wouldn't be any better than what Very Scary had done to the girl. Unless the wound
I
inflicted was non-lethal.

Very Scary rattled his gurney, making a helluva racket trying to free himself. “You're still thinking like a human,” he spat. “It's us against them.”

“Right now, I don't want to claim either of you,” I told him with perfect honesty. I waved my gun at the other vamp. “Move.”

With a single glance back at Very Scary, he moved off into the hall, where Selene and Nelson had managed to free two others. Down the end of the corridor, toward the entrance, I heard shouting and more explosions. It sounded like the battle was still going full force. But we had a growing army now, and the Federal flunkies would soon be sandwiched between the vamps and our small band of rebels.

I picked the two biggest vamps besides Nelson-Xander, who was already rubbing his door-bashing shoulder. “You two, keep banging down doors and freeing the others.
Do not
let your leader loose or you answer to me.”

They looked at each other, probably wondering why they were taking orders from a green girl half their size, but “escape” must have registered with them. Either that or I was far more intimidating than I thought.

“The rest of you, come with me.”

We headed toward rather than away from the noise and found the hospital guards falling back to the entrance. There were a dozen or so still standing, but they were bloodied. The guards in the back turned at our approach. The closest, realizing attack would be coming from both sides now, gave a cry, dropped his weapon, and dropped to the floor himself, assuming a non-threatening position with arms spread. His closest compatriot saw this and twisted his face up with disgust. He wasn't going down that easily. He yelled something unflattering and started firing at us. Too high to hit me—one advantage of being short—but behind me someone gasped and stumbled back. The others roared around me like a tidal wave, rushing the hero guard and taking him down, spraying bullets as he went. The hulk that was Nelson grunted and jerked with the impact of a round to the shoulder, but kept on going. Other cries of pain nearly drowned out the sound of gunfire, and I rushed in, elbowing a guard in the gut as he raised a rifle to fire on Selene, who had her back to him dealing with one of his pals. I got in under his guard, and as he
oophed
, I used all my weight to wrench his gun from him.

Out of nowhere came a blow to my lower back with a gun butt, and I fell forward, through a sudden gap in the guards. I would have gone sprawling on my face if Bobby hadn't caught me. I smiled fiercely. Glad to see him, glad I'd fought my way through. Fell through. Same difference. We turned as one, shoulder to shoulder to meet the remaining resistance, but it was short-lived. The Feds were down to less than half the remaining flunkies—few enough that Bobby was able to disarm them all with one great Jedi mind trick … or anyway, telekinetic blow to their weaponry. Guns clattered to the floor and hands went up. In some cases only one hand, as the other put pressure on a war wound.

“Lock them up,” I ordered the vamps still standing.

Selene stepped to the front, hands on her hips and
eyes blazing cold fire. “Just a second. Who made you boss? You don't get to decide to leave the master behind. We don't take orders—”

A sound like a hive of pissed-off wasps broke in on her, and suddenly she froze, her eyes rolling up into her head. She fell jittering to the floor.