Hunter's Salvation (29 page)

“Breathe, Jess.”

Air wheezed out of her in a rush. Hard hands pushed her back into the wall and she looked up. Blinking, she found herself staring at Vax. His eyes were stormy. His hands cupped her face. “Breathe.”

Her eyes were too damn dark. Her skin was as white as a bedsheet. Vax didn't like it. He shook his head and muttered, “Let's get you out of here.” He caught her hand in his, took the gun from the other one, and tucked it in his jeans. But when he went to pull her away from the wall, she wouldn't come. Jess shook her head and said, “No.” She took a deep breath and expelled it in a rush. “I'm fine. I'm fine.”

He didn't think she was. But her eyes weren't so dark now, and there was a little bit of color in her cheeks. “It's not too late to get you out of here. Not yet.”

Jess gave him a faint smile. “Yes, it is. No turning back, Vax. At least not for me. I can handle it.” His hand felt firm and strong in hers. She squeezed lightly. He squeezed back and then murmured, “Let's get to it.”

The ground floor of the warehouse had a couple of roughed-in offices, but it didn't look as if they were being used at all. The desks were bare, there was nothing on the bookshelves—the entire area had a vacant feel to it. He found a stairwell, but it didn't go down, just up three floors. “I thought you said it would be underground,” Jess whispered.

“It will be. There's another way down.” But ten minutes of walking around just revealed two more stairwells and a utility elevator. Vax grumbled under his breath and started to retrace his steps. The warehouse had more cameras and each one had fizzled up into smoke before he got within thirty feet. “No monitors.”

“What?”

Looking back at Jess, he said, “I haven't seen any security monitors. Eight cameras, and no locked rooms for employees only. Hell, this entire place looks untouched. It was like they moved the desks and furniture in as soon as the paint dried and never set foot back in here.” The place wasn't vacant, though. He smelled them.

Blood. Soap. The faint, wild scent of werewolf. The cool, almost herbal scent he associated with vampires. And women. Even without shampoos, lotions, and perfumes, women smelled different from men. Softer and sweeter, and each woman smelled unique. Vax scented five different women.

The stronger scents belonged to the vampire and the werewolf. They were the ones moving around up here the most, and the most recently. Closing his eyes, he blocked out everything but the faint scent trail. The blood was human—he knew whose. The girl who had died during the night. The werewolf had had her blood on him when he came in here, and it was that scent that Vax locked on. He followed it into the centermost office. Most of the office space was large and open-aired, separated by fabric-covered partitions. But this small office was enclosed, insular. The blood trail came to a dead end right by the built-in bookcases.

“I don't believe it,” he muttered. He turned slightly and looked at Jess. “A secret entry. This is a first for me.” He cocked a brow. “Can you?”

“B
ASTARD”.
William rubbed a hand over the back of his mouth and tried to forget the bitter, nasty taste that fear had left. He'd seen Thomas in action. Thought he knew what the vampire was capable of. He had been wrong, wrong, wrong. Even though he knew that it had been Thomas's power causing the fear, feeling that fear pissed him off to no end.

He had paced the floor so many times, he wouldn't have been surprised to see tracks in the carpet. It felt as if the walls were closing in on him, but he couldn't seem to make himself leave the room. He wanted to, needed to. He wanted to run and feel the wind on his skin.

Maybe some bloodied flesh under his claws.

In the middle of the room, William came to an abrupt halt. That was exactly what he needed. Maybe not the blood. Not a good idea after last night. Had to lie low. Definitely had to lie low. With the rising sun, the murderous drive from last night had faded, and he knew that it had been too damn risky, what he had done. Way too risky. Stupid.

It was that sort of thing that led Hunters to the doorstep. That was the last thing they needed right now. “Got to be careful,” William muttered. He nodded and repeated it. “Be careful.”

“It is a little too late for that, pup.”

He turned. The sight of Thomas made his gut clench, but he refused to acknowledge it. William didn't live in fear—he wouldn't let himself develop an instinctive fear of some fucking bloodsucker. “Shouldn't you be in your coffin?”

Thomas didn't smile. He came inside and made his way to the bank of security monitors on the far side of William's room. “You know, these do more good if you actually have them engaged.” He turned them on. Most of the cameras were trained on the labs on the level below, and the images on the monitors were nothing remarkable. The various subjects were sleeping or pacing their cells. One camera was trained on the only cell that held more than one person. This one contained the witches that Thomas used to harvest the brain chemical. They were brain-dead, but as long as their hearts beat, their bodies would live. Lower brain function continued. The perfect donors.

But the remaining monitors showed nothing but black and white bars flashing across the screens. The monitors from outside and the ground level. Thomas slid William a look and cocked his brow. “Perhaps if you had the screens on, you might have seen something before they went dead.”

Unsure what Thomas was talking about, William just shook his head. “Exactly what was I supposed to see?”

“The Hunter who just found the elevator down here, perhaps?”

William heard the elevator as it started its descent. He looked back at the bank of monitors. There was an odd little prickle low in his spine, and he hissed as recognition tore through his body. Another witch. He could smell them now. A man. A woman. Powerful magick. Very, very powerful magick.

William growled. Rage sizzled through his veins, and then there was that disgusting, hated fear. The fear was fueled by some gut-deep knowledge. It was as if his recently acquired magickal sense had a measuring gauge, and when he held himself against this new witch, he came up lacking. He was lesser.

Lesser—my ass.
Claws ripped through the tips of his fingers, and his hands shifted so rapidly, he never felt the discomfort that usually came with any sort of shift. “I'll show the bastard who the lesser one is.” But when William started for the door, Thomas blocked him.

“Do not be any more a fool than you already are,” Thomas said. William went around him, and Thomas backhanded him. “You rush out there without thought, and you are a dead man.”

Through a haze of pain and fury, William pushed himself to his feet. He wiped the back of his clawed hand across his mouth. The smear of blood there was the last little spark—blood rage tore through him.

“You are an ignorant arse,” Thomas said with a weary sigh. He reached inside his jacket.

William was already rushing him, leaping for him. Even though he saw the syringe in Thomas's hand, the fury and the bloodlust rode him too hard. He took Thomas down under him, and his own body weight pushed the thin needle inside. The drug hit fast, a shock to his system that was instantaneous. First there was a wave of weakness and dizziness. Then black dots closed in on his system. Shoving off of Thomas, he rolled away and stared down his torso. The needle had caught him in the abdomen, and only a scant bit of liquid was left inside the barrel of the syringe.

“What did you…” At least that was what he tried to say. It was more along the lines of
wah duh
.

“It's a sedative. An extremely strong one,” Thomas offered. He stood up and nudged William's unprotected side. Then he followed with a harder kick. A wide smile spread across his mouth, revealing the tips of pointed white fangs. “You know, when I started this endeavor, I knew that I might at some point encounter fools like you. Individuals that came through the transition with more power than sense. That was why I manufactured this—do you know, this particular narcotic is strong enough to put down three elephants. Let's see how long it keeps you out. I think I have a minimum of six hours….”

Six hours
was the last thing that William heard. Thomas watched as William's eyeballs rolled up until just the bottom crescent of the iris showed in the whites of his eyes. A tiny bit of saliva dribbled out the corner of his mouth, and his heart beat more slowly with each passing second. “Bloody fool,” Thomas muttered.

The sound of footsteps drawing nearer had him stilling. With no time to hide William, Thomas shifted into mist. He passed through the walls, knowing that the Hunter would sense him and, Thomas hoped, follow. It was too much to hope for, though. The Hunter had little interest in him.

It was the lab that the Hunter was searching for. Even if William's fuckup last night hadn't happened, the Hunter would have shown up on Thomas's proverbial doorstep. It was the lab, and the subjects locked within, that had led the Hunter here.

At least, Thomas had been operating under that assumption.

The familiar blonde head gave him an unwanted surprise. Jessica Warren—Thomas snarled silently. His rage at William kicked up, and he wished he had simply ripped out the fool's heart instead of administering the enhanced sedative. William should have killed the nosy, intrusive bitch months ago. When she first appeared on the scene, Thomas had known she would be trouble. He was so wrapped up in his research, he had left William to manage the day-to-day business of the club. For the most part William had done an adequate job. Nate reported to Thomas, keeping him abreast of William's management of the club—and some of the more troublesome issues. Like Jessica Warren.

William had been told to watch her, and if it looked as though she would cause trouble, she was to be eliminated.
Before
the trouble started. Instead William had killed her sister. When she proved to be like a dog with a bone, William still hadn't been successful. Gave some serious credence to the theory,
If you want it done right, do it yourself.
Thomas should have killed Warren the very first time she showed that blonde head at Debach.

There was a curious little puzzle to her presence here. The tall man at her side was a stranger to Thomas, but Thomas could feel the power coming off the witch. After a century or so, the more powerful vampires developed a magickal sense. They learned to gauge a witch's power the same way they sensed the presence of another vampire or a powerful shifter.

What he sensed off the witch was exactly what he hadn't wanted to encounter. A powerful Hunter.

An inquisitive reporter could be made to disappear. Oh, there'd be questions asked; Thomas had no doubt of that. But there were ways to get rid of humans that wouldn't lead back to his door. Different story with Hunters. More so with witches. If this one disappeared, another witch could track him. They could connect this Hunter to the labs and therefore to Thomas.

All because some ignorant bitch wouldn't mind her own damn business.

Since they weren't going to be moved off their course, Thomas stopped trying. The door to the lab was hidden in the panels of the wall, but it wouldn't throw off either of them. Particularly not the Hunter. He'd found the passageway down here, after all. The woman jumped in surprise when Thomas solidified in front of them, but the Hunter had already drawn a blade from the sheath at his waist.

The familiar gleam of silver caught Thomas's eye, and he smiled at the witch. “Do you really think I'll let you close enough to use that?”

The man stepped forward, using his body to shield the woman. He waggled the knife and gave Thomas a taunting little smirk. “Do you really think you can keep me from it? You're no fool, Thomas. You know what I am, why I'm here. You also know that we don't let the prey get away.”

With a soft laugh, Thomas shook his head. “Why are you so convinced that I am the prey? It could well be you who doesn't live through this.” Then he glanced at Jessica and smiled. “Or her.”

He reached inside his jacket and withdrew a slender gold case. It was similar to a cigarette case, just a bit larger to accommodate the syringes. The murky yellow fluid wasn't as concentrated as the dose he had laid aside for William. For the trouble he had caused, William got something extra. But this dose would do the trick for the witch, possibly send his skills into meltdown. Or it would be enough to bring his nosy friend through the transition at an accelerated speed. That might be worth seeing.

There was something to her. Thomas hadn't been this close to her before. No way he could have known. Anticipation had him smiling. “You aren't normal, are you?” he murmured. “How intriguing.”

“Jess. Leave.”

“No, Jess.” Thomas smiled at her and murmured, “Please stay. You know, if we both live through this, you had better run long and hard to hide her from me, Hunter. I've yet to have this experiment succeed on a mortal. But perhaps I was aiming too low. I wanted the average mortal, but I needed one like you, Jessica.”

She stood behind the Hunter, her eyes wide and dark, her face pale. The Hunter said again, without looking away from Thomas, “Leave, Jessica.”

“No, Jess. Stay, please. This is going to be so much fun.” He flashed a syringe at Vax and murmured, “I'm going to have a hard time deciding whom to use this on. I have this theory—do you know that magick originates in the brain?”

Vax curled his lip. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you've found a way to duplicate whatever the hell it is that brings magick to a witch. Big. Fucking. Deal.”

Thomas looked somewhat disappointed. “So you have it all figured out.” He lifted the syringe and studied it. A faint smile appeared on his lips. “Yes, that is what I've done, but that's not what this dose is for. Although I think it would be fun to slide it into her neck and watch—will it kill her? Will she come through it with the strength of a demigoddess?” He looked at Jess like he would a smear under a microscope. Then he gave a dismissive shrug. “We shall have to see. But I'm more interested in what it will do to you, Hunter. Too much of what makes you witch may well make you little more than a weak, pathetic mortal. Some rewiring, so to speak.”

That smile lingered on his lips as he looked back and forth between Vax and Jess. He tapped the syringe against his palm and murmured, “Which one, which one.”

His eyes landed on Jess, giving her an idea of how a deer caught in the headlights felt. She suddenly understood why the damn things didn't run, even though they could feel death whispering its slippery, cold breath all over them. They didn't run because they couldn't. Terror clenched its fist around her chest and turned her legs to putty. The only way she stayed upright was by locking her knees.

She'd thought William was the big threat. But looking into Thomas's pale brown eyes, she had a bad feeling she was wrong. William was like a forest fire—destructive. But Thomas, a stiletto in the dark, just as deadly but so silent you'd never feel your death coming, and you'd have no chance to escape.

Under that intense, icy gaze, she backed up one step, then another. But she wouldn't let herself take that third step away. She was here for a reason.

He held her gaze as he rolled a syringe between his palms. Jess had seen three more tucked inside with it before he'd snapped the case closed. He lifted the syringe and smiled at her. “Perhaps, instead of letting William have her, I should have used this on your precious baby sister. What was she?…Oh, yes. An Empath. The transition is quite painful.”

Jess started towards him, a snarl on her pretty, unpainted mouth. “You gutless son of a bitch. She was just a kid.” The Hunter wrapped his fingers around her arm, keeping her from coming any closer, and she turned on him, baring her teeth. “Let go of me, Vax.”

“Vax…Vax…” Thomas narrowed his eyes, and then he smiled a wide, beaming smile that made shivers run down Jess's spine. “I've heard of you. My kind say that you lost your spine. Talk about gutless, Jessica. You should get to know your lover a little better. He killed his own wife.”

Wife
…Jess looked at Vax, but the stony set of his face told her everything. As though he could read her mind, his hand fell away. “Ahhh…I didn't think he would have told you,” Thomas said, looking a little too pleased with himself. “I don't think I ever heard her name, Vax. Tell me, did it give you a rush, sticking that knife in her heart? She had just Changed. She would have been weak, not much of a fight there. Still, one dead vamp is one more dead vamp.”