sunfall (23 page)

It took us fifteen minutes to reach the end of the line. We would have to drop in almost vertically, and we paused for several minutes to determine whether the room below was guarded. While Constantine spider-climbed down to disable the second fan, I pulled down my goggles. Unless someone cut the power, they would no longer be useful.

The vent’s protective covering creaked loudly as Constantine removed it, but the rest of our descent was silent. We found ourselves in a rectangular, dimly lit room containing rows of lab benches, four separate fume hoods, and several large refrigerators. I wondered whether the hybrid parasite samples were stored there, and I almost suggested that we check. But the more time we remained stationary, the more likely we were to be discovered. Brenner was the mastermind. Our mission was to cut the head off the snake.

A noise in the hall made us scatter and take cover. From beneath one of the lab benches, I watched the door open. Maybe the guards had been on a regular patrol, or perhaps they had heard some sign of our entry. There were two, and once they stepped inside, they stood no chance.

I rose, gun extended, and shot the left guard in the center of his forehead before he could do more than widen his eyes. Foster was a hairsbreadth slower, and her shot caught the right guard in the shoulder as he began to draw his own weapon. Constantine finished him off neatly. He and I searched their bodies and came up with two keycards.

“Let’s go.” Malcolm turned right out of the laboratory, and we fanned out on either side of the corridor. I stayed behind Alexa, straining my enhanced senses for any sign of life nearby.

We turned right again before Malcolm paused at a T. I heard him conferring with Constantine and began to approach them in case I could help…only to be brought up short as I passed close to the left-hand opening. A visceral scent memory flooded through me: pain, rage, helplessness. I had been in that corridor. I couldn’t remember exactly when, or even if I had been conscious, but I was beyond certain.

“Val?” Alexa’s voice was nearly inaudible. “You’re trembling. What’s wrong?”

“I’ve been in that hallway.” As I pointed left, I drew Malcolm’s attention.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, but the memory isn’t clear. I don’t know what’s down there.”

“We may as well try it,” said Constantine. “Otherwise, we’ll be choosing at random.”

As we made our way down the corridor, I took deep, even breaths to settle my stomach. I hated this feeling of weakness that had nothing to do with my body and everything to do with my brain. Easing my left-hand pistol out of its holster, I clutched both grips with a feverish intensity, silently daring Brenner and his cronies to test us.

At the end of the corridor, a large door was covered by a metallic grate—the modern equivalent of a portcullis.

“That looks important,” Constantine said dryly. “Let’s see if this works.” He slid the card through the slot in the keypad to the right of the door. A green light blinked, but nothing happened.

“We should have asked for their codes before we shot them,” I said, mirroring his tone.

“Do we use our explosives here?” asked Alexa. “Or continue exploring?”

“We should use them,” said Malcolm. “This level of protection is a promising sign. Karma?”

“I agree.” She set down her rifle, unzipped the large pocket on her vest, and extracted two spheres of plastique. From a different pocket, she produced the detonators. With Constantine’s help, she set the charges, and as he lit the fuse we retreated quickly down the hall.

I crouched next to Alexa, shielding us both from the blast. No sooner had the initial shockwave passed than we were in motion. Karma sprayed the smoking threshold with her assault rifle, then leapt inside and continued shooting. I dove through the doorway and halted my momentum in a somersault, searching for enemies as my head came up.

At a flash of tawny fur to my left, I fired twice, felling a large mountain lion. As the smoke began to clear, I realized that we had entered a room full of cubicles. Some of their occupants had shifted, while others remained in human form and were returning fire. Alexa had wedged herself into a well-protected spot between the wall and one of the cubes and was systematically picking soldiers off with her shotgun. Karma continued to lay down cover fire until Constantine charged up the center of the room, his own guns blazing. As I watched, an enemy bullet caught him in the thigh, but he shifted effortlessly and darted to the left.

Karma let loose with another spray of bullets and Malcolm slipped in behind her, picking off those who dared to raise their heads too soon. As the enemy fire temporarily ground to a halt, I darted over to Alexa. She went low, I went high, and together we began to clear the left side of the room.

The acrid scent of gunpowder burned my throat and set my eyes to watering. Struggling to focus through the haze, I suddenly found myself knocked to the ground, left arm stinging as though a swarm of bees had descended upon it at once. I looked down to the sight of a bloody furrow perpendicular to my biceps where a bullet had grazed me. Alexa was leaning over me and asking me if I was okay, and in the midst of all the chaos, I pushed myself up to kiss her. And then I scrambled to my feet, reentering the fray.

Slowly but steadily, we gained ground. As I rounded the corner between the last row of cubicles and the wall, I noticed that the only door set into that wall had been left ajar.

“Cover me!” I shouted to Alexa and made a break for it.

I slid into the room, both weapons extended, heedless of the pain in my arm. The room was empty, but when I took a deep breath, I knew exactly whose office this was. I would never forget the scent of Brenner’s musk, and it conjured up the image of his sneering face looming over me, his taunting words echoing in my ears. Even now, I could hear his voice, tormenting me with descriptions of what he would do to Alexa.

And then my blood froze as I realized I wasn’t hearing his voice in my head. He was speaking. Right now. Directly outside. Heart racing, I crept behind the door, hoping to catch him in my line of sight. Instead, I saw Malcolm, Karma, and Foster slowly lowering their weapons to the ground.

“Come out of there, Valentine,” Brenner called, his voice devoid of any inflection. “I saw you go into my office, and if you don’t slide both your firearms out here and crawl into my sight, I’m going to put a bullet through your pretty little girlfriend’s brain.”

Alexa. He had Alexa. The one thing I’d sworn would never happen, the one thing I had vowed I’d give my life to prevent, had come to pass.

My mind was a blizzard of rage but I did his bidding, pushing both pistols out through the door and then following them on my hands and knees. He had Alexa in a tight headlock, his pistol digging into the side of her head. She was trying to be brave, but her eyes were wide and dark in fear. My stomach turned, bile rising in my throat. I had to think. Had to focus. There was a way to get out of this. Even if it meant sacrificing myself, I would never let him have her. As I looked up to meet Brenner’s eyes, I showed him every ounce of my hatred.

He laughed. “Well, Valentine, I’ll give you credit for this much: you’ve certainly managed to surprise me. My soldiers told me it would have been impossible for anyone to survive that crash, and yet here you are. Moreover, you show no signs whatsoever of having been infected by my parasite.”

I kept silent, waiting for even the slimmest opportunity. If there was one thing of which I was certain, it was that Brenner loved the sound of his own voice. The longer he talked at us, the longer we had to think of something.

“So what I’m wondering, Valentine,” he continued, “is exactly how much you would give me to spare your girlfriend’s life. I’m still going to give her to my soldiers, of course. I’d already promised you that, and I don’t break my promises. But they won’t kill her, whereas I have no compunctions whatsoever about embedding one of these slugs into—”

A black blur. The flash of light reflecting from curved teeth. Reality slowed as Constantine appeared from behind the cover of the nearest cubicle, leaping directly for the throat of his nemesis.

Instinctively, Brenner shifted his weapon away from Alexa and fired into the panther’s mouth. Alexa dove for one of my guns as I stretched for the other. Gunfire filled the air, and Brenner’s body jerked wildly as he was riddled with bullets.

I couldn’t stop pulling the trigger. My weapon clicked hollowly, having long since run out of ammunition, but I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t stop.

Alexa’s trembling hand closed over mine. She stilled my trigger finger, then slid the gun out of my grasp. Beyond words, I crushed her to me.

“Did he hurt you at all?” I finally managed to ask.

She exhaled shakily. “No. Thanks to Constantine.”

She buried her face in the crook of my neck, and I rubbed my cheek against her hair, exulting in the feel and scent of her. Warm. Alive. Mine. As the horror of seeing her in Brenner’s clutches began gradually to subside, I realized just how dear a price we had paid for Brenner’s death. Constantine Bellande, who—like Alexa—had become a wereshifter in order to save a family member, had died the way he lived: sacrificing himself for others.

Karma and Malcolm were standing over his body, their heads bowed. “He died a hero,” Malcolm said, voice rough with unshed tears. “But we have no time to grieve for him now.” He lifted Constantine’s bloodied corpse, cradling him in his arms. “We have to hurry.”

As we jogged through the corridors, we formed a phalanx around him—Foster and Karma in front, Alexa and me behind. Our search for a staircase led us into one small group of guards, but we were able to dispatch them quickly.

When we finally emerged into open air, I let the tears run freely down my cheeks, unashamed. Brenner was dead, his reign of terror over. As Malcolm called for the chopper that would extract us to safety, I wrapped my arms around Alexa. Together, we grieved for the man who had saved us in so many ways.

By siring Alexa, Constantine had allowed her to become a wereshifter when no one else would. He had made it possible for her to save my soul—not once, but twice.

We owed him more than our lives, and we would spend the rest of eternity in his debt.

The white oak conference table made a graceful U-shape in the middle of the Consortium’s newly renovated meeting hall. After Brenner’s sacking of Headquarters, an executive decision had been made to remodel the facility with an all new design that favored wide-open spaces over starkly delineated offices. The new conference room was emblematic of the new regime: a practical and comfortable gathering space that was equipped to accommodate vampires and wereshifters equally. Underneath the table, Alexa’s hand rested warmly against my thigh. I leaned my shoulder into hers and luxuriated in her nearness.

Malcolm and Foster stood side by side at the mouth of the U, while satellite photos flashed on the screen behind them. Helen and Solana occupied the far corner. So far they had been mostly quiet, letting Malcolm and Foster run the meeting. It was highly uncharacteristic of Helen to be so laissez-faire in such a high profile gathering. Then again, in the past, most of those meetings had been held behind closed doors with just a small handful of trusted lieutenants present. During those meetings, Helen had barked commands and the rest of us heeded them.

Today, every seat in the room was filled and several more observers stood against the back wall. Vampires and shifters were present in equal numbers. I had been surprised to find Sebastian among the invited. He had given me the cold shoulder as I made eye contact. He still hadn’t forgiven me for sniping him—or for divorcing him, for that matter—but I wasn’t bothered. We had eternity to make up.

Malcolm rested his hand on a thick binder on the table in front of him. “We’ve managed to secure thousands of files and hard drives from Brenner’s research facility. Our data teams in India and New Zealand are going through them now to see if anything is usable. Early reports have identified pockets of shifter rebel camps in Outer Mongolia. Beijing headquarters has been notified and will be sending reconnaissance soon.”

Foster flipped to a grainy aerial shot of a cloud of smoke blanketing a densely wooded area. “We’ve scavenged Brenner’s equipment and requisitioned usable weapons and laboratory equipment. The rest of the facility will be dismantled and demolished within the next six to eight weeks.”

I raised my hand and waited for Foster’s acknowledgement. “The hybrid parasite?”

Foster pulled a small notepad from her breast pocket and flipped through it. “We found notes indicating that Brenner was synthesizing an injectable version of the parasite and was planning on distributing it through his underground drug network.”

“Christopher Blaine’s network now,” Alexa pointed out. “Who shows every sign of filling the power vacuum left by his father. On the human end of things, at any rate.”

“I have Olivia Lloyd investigating the drug connection,” I added. “Can we pass on additional leads to her?”

In the short time we’d been away, Olivia had already begun making inroads into Blaine’s operation. She was working undercover and had reported success at infiltrating the circle of a low-level dealer while simultaneously passing tips along to the police.

Foster nodded. “We have some org charts and some maps that might be useful to Olivia. I’ll be sure to send them along.”