SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits (235 page)

“You planning on phasing us in there?”

Crawford smiled. “Nothing like a little surprise to liven up the party.”

Welcome Home, Vampire: Chapter Nine

Hunkered down outside the edge of the Enochian compound, Cole and Crawford clung to the shadows as they moved in. Dawn was only an hour away and already the sky was shifting from velvety black to a midnight blue. Their cover to get Kayla out was going to quickly disappear.

“On count of three, I’m going to flux. Then we’ll go in,” Crawford peered through the cast iron bars of the fence.

“How will I know you are still behind me?”

He turned and glanced at Cole. “Who said I would be behind you, kid? Maybe I’m the guy clearing the path for you.”

A flash of memory so intense it felt like a punch to the head, hit Cole. He’d been clearing the way for Jack the day Jack died. If he’d done it right, Jack would still be alive, and Kayla, well Kayla wouldn’t be held hostage on the other side of those massive walls. This was his time to fix things. To make it right.

“No dice. This is my battle. I’ll clear the path for you. You just get us through those walls once we jump this fence.”

Crawford gave one curt nod. It didn’t matter what had happened before. This was now. Kayla needed him now, not when he got his head together, not when he figured out how the hell things were going to work out between them when he was a vampire and she wasn’t.

Every muscle in Cole’s body tensed, preparing for the assault on the Enochian headquarters. “Ready? One. Two. Three.” From one moment to the next Crawford went from solid beside him to faded and insubstantial, like a hologram, then disappeared completely.

Cole took a deep breath, in through the nose, then let it out in a rush as he coiled and sprung. He leapt up and over the eight foot perimeter fence and landed with a soft spring and flex of his knees. The soft thump on the ground beside him was the only indication Crawford had followed.

Cole headed straight to the front door, using the natural cover to evade the security cameras. Near the main building he stopped. A double tap at his shoulder, followed by the firm pressure of Crawford’s grip let him know the vampire was there and to prepare to phase them through the wall. They passed through the brick and sheetrock. This time, the action felt more fluid, not as dense. Perhaps he was getting the hang of it.

They found themselves in a darkened room, an office of some kind that was more suited to an executive with its fireplace, large wood marbled-topped desk and wall-to-wall art and bookcases, than it was for a terrorist group bent on dismantling Vector Force.

Cole walked silently to the door, cracking it open. A spear of light pierced the room, leaving a slash of brightness across the carpet. The hallway beyond was empty. Cole inhaled deeply searching for Kayla’s scent, but the odor of angel-food cake overwhelmed everything else. They were definitely in Enochian territory.

He signaled at Crawford, not precisely sure where the vampire was in his invisible state, and crept out into the hallway. Bale had given them at least the basics of the layout in the building. There were rooms in the basement level, with the only access through the first floor near the kitchen.

Cole headed left down the corridor toward the back of the house, his hearing amped up to catch the slightest sounds. Somewhere on upper floor a television was on. There was a low hum of conversation and the sounds of people eating something crunchy.

He passed quickly through the open area of a formal living room. The Enochians had expensive tastes. It accented with rare antiques amid comfortable brown leather Chesterfield couches and Tiffany lamps. Next they passed through the dining area, which held a table big enough for twelve, a massive buffet and a wall of windows that looked out onto a fountain in the dark gardens. A sliver a lighter color smudged the horizon behind the trees. Time was running out.

He squeezed through a narrow opening with a sink and cupboards, an old-fashioned butler’s pantry, and slipped into the kitchen. Only the hum of the refrigerator made any noise. He looked for any door that might lead to the basement.

He opened and closed several doors before a tap on his shoulder caused him to whip around, fangs at the ready in an instant.

Get a move on. We’re running out of time before the whole house wakes up
, Crawford’s voice echoed in his head.

Working on it
.

A switched suddenly flipped, and the coffee machine on the kitchen counter began to hum and burble as fresh coffee dripped into the glass carafe underneath. The fragrance filled the room and acted as an attractant. Footsteps echoed on the stairs, coming closer to the kitchen.

Cole ducked into the mud room adjacent to the kitchen. It had a door that led outside and another to a washroom. And one more that was closed. He had a chance to get out now, before they found him. The door outside was right there. But the door opposite it was one he hadn’t tried, and he couldn’t leave without Kayla. He had no idea where Crawford was and time was running out.

The sound of male and female voices filled the kitchen. He took a chance and opened the door behind him, intending to duck inside if the residents of the house came his way. The smell of citrus and unique feminine fragrance that was Kayla was evident in the air.
Down here.

An invisible hand tightened on his shoulder briefly, then was gone indicated Crawford was right behind him. They shut the door behind them and the steps creaked double time, as they headed down into the basement.

Without any windows, the only light came from a bank of security monitors. Some people turned their basements into rec rooms, with pool tables, bars and big screen televisions. These bastards turned it into a combination war room, laboratory and prison.

Make it quick. We're outta here in five
, Crawford urged.

Cole scanned the monitors, some flipped views between the cameras outside. Others showed the interior of the house. But one set showed views of six cells, if they could be called cells. Three of them looked like the waiting room at a doctor’s office, and three of them looked like hospital rooms. In one of those rooms was Kayla, pacing, and chewing at her fingernails.

Cole tapped twice on the screen then pointed. He dashed down the short hallway until he found the matching room for the label on the monitor.

You want me to check and see what’s behind door number one?
Crawford asked.

Yeah. We only get one shot at this.

The seconds stretched. Without being able to see Crawford, he felt like a sitting duck. The footsteps overhead were heavy now, not just one or two people milled about in the kitchen above, it sounded like a herd. Great. How the hell were they going to get past that?

She’s here
, Crawford said. Cole took the locked door handle in his hands and broke it, pushing the door open. A thwack of something hard and lightweight smacked him against the side of his face, making it throb.

“Cole!” Kayla’s arms wrapped around his neck in a death grip, his T-shirt riding up high enough to expose her belly. “I am so glad to see you!”

Cole’s chest nearly exploded with relief to see her. “Can’t breathe,” he rasped.

She unwound herself from around him her fingers brushing against the throbbing side of his face in a feather like caress. “I’m so sorry,” she murmured, her hands shaking. “I didn’t know it was you. I thought it would be one of them.”

He placed his finger against her lips, telling her to stay quite. Cole glanced down at the floor where a rolled up magazine curled against her foot.

“You hit me with a magazine?”

“Best I could come up with.”

He smiled and grabbed her hand. “Let’s get you out of here.”

She followed along behind him out of the cell, but then sucked in a breath. Cole put his hand over her mouth, cutting off the scream he knew was coming. He locked his gaze on her wide, wild eyes as she frantically pointed behind her.

“You’ve got to stay quiet,” Cole whispered as he let his hand slip off her mouth.

“Something bumped into me!” she hissed.

“Sorry,” Crawford whispered as he reappeared out of thin air.

Cole clamped his hand back over Kayla’s mouth before she could make any more noise. “That’s Crawford, he’s going to help us get you out of here. But you have to stay quiet,” he whispered in her ear.

She nodded, her breath coming in short, quick exhales out her nose. The coppery scent of fear, bloomed in the air around her. He lifted his hand. “He, he, he just appeared,” she said in a harsh whisper. “Out of thin air!”

“Vampire skill. Save the questions for later.”

Her gaze bounced back from him to Crawford. “He’s a vampire, like you?”

“Not exactly sweetheart, but we can talk semantics later. Right now we’ve got to get you and lover boy out of this place intact,” Crawford replied, his voice so low and quite it was barely audible over the sounds of movement coming from upstairs.

“They're going to be down here any minute.” Cole didn’t even get the words fully out of his mouth before the door opened. He smelled fresh perked coffee, soap, toothpaste, and gun oil. Heard two pairs of boots on the stairs. Guys. Upwards of two hundred pounds a piece, and the stench of angel food cake.

Crawford fluxed.
Element of surprise. You set ‘em up, I’ll knock ‘em down
, the vampire’s words reverberated in Cole’s head.

Cole shoved Kayla behind him, then turned and whispered to her, “Go!”

She widened her stance in defiance. “If the only way we’re getting out of here is through that door, then I’m helping you.”

Damn her.

Cole had just seconds to shove her further down the hallway behind him and flatten himself against a wall before the Enochians entered the main war/security room area and took their seats in front of the bank of monitors.

Big guy. Dark hair. Large square jaw. Blue shirt glared at the screens. “Shit. Van, we’ve got a problem. Captive in room five is missing.”

The guy dressed all in black sitting next to him, leaned over and peered at the screen. His sharp, blade-like features and dark eyes turned even scarier when he frowned. “Better alert Rex. He’s gonna be pissed.” His keen gaze darted from screen to screen. “Where the hell could she go?”

The guy with blue shirt made for the stairs. Seconds later there was a terrific crash as he tumbled end over end back down them. He landed at a heap at the bottom.

“Cleave, you okay?”

Cole took advantage of the moment, fangs at the ready to rip out his throat and jumped Black Shirt. He landed square on the dude’s enormous back, but found out he didn’t have the advantage he thought. The man flung him off, ripping him from his back like he weighed no more than a kitten.

Shit, they were strong. But then so was he.

Cole staggered to his feet. But Black Shirt had a bigger problem. He was fighting a foe he couldn’t even see. The sound of flesh hitting flesh, echoed in the confines of the room as the guy’s head whipped side to side, then upward from the invisible punches Crawford was throwing.

But Cole never should have taken his eyes off the guy on the floor. A crack to the back of his head left his ears ringing as he staged forward, and had to brace his hand on a desk. For a second his vision blurred. He spun around fending off another blow and threw one of his own, hitting flesh and cracking bone.

“Hey you guys stop rough housing down there!” said a female voice from the kitchen.

The guy in blue didn’t waste a second. He pinned Cole to the wall and started whaling on him. Kayla let out a guttural scream and launched herself from the hallway of cells onto the guy’s back, beating him about the head with her fists for all she was worth.

Blue Shirt flung her against a wall and like a rag doll, she slumped to the floor. Cole’s whole world coalesced into that split second of watching her fall. His heart stopped. His world stopped. Then it all came roaring back double time. Red colored his vision.

Cole swung his fist hard against the throat of the Enochian, causing his eyes to bulge and his breath to catch. He wasted no time, scooping up Kayla’s unconscious body and carrying her as fast as his vampire powers would let him to the room where they’d kept her. Thank God at least she was still breathing. Crawford was right behind him, and with quick, efficient movements that blurred in their speed, stacked all the furniture in the room against the door.

They both knew the barricade had only brought them seconds at best. Crawford caught his gaze. “We’ve got a problem. I can only transport one person at a time with me, and I don’t know if I’ve got enough juice to do a double run. Fluxing zaps a lot of my energy. I can take either you or her out of here, but I can’t take you both. Sorry dude.”

"No contest," he tightened his arms around her as he head flopped to his chest. "Take Kayla."

"You'll never make it out of here, you know that."

“Maybe I can.”

“You sure you want to take that chance?”

The Enochians pounded on the door. The furniture started to shift. “Tell me what to do,” Cole's calm tone gave no indication of the turmoil he felt inside. If his arrogance got Kayla killed. . .

“Hold on, concentrate on the location where you want to end up, clear focus, think of nothing else, then let it build up in your gut until it pulls you through to the other side. The stronger your connection to the place, the easier it’ll be.”

Cole held Kayla against him, her head slumped on his chest as the door wedged open. A gun barrel poked through. Scope. Shit.

He kissed her hair, held on for all he was worth and concentrated on being back in her bedroom. In the place where she’d discovered he was a vampire and accepted him anyway. In the place where she had told him she loved him. In the one place that felt like home.

The now familiar pull centered right behind his navel as he splintered apart. Still, even through it, he could feel Kayla connected to him, even if he didn’t think he had arms to hold her. In a rush, the particles of his body squeezed and pressed together, cell upon cell, fusing back into solid form.