“Catch me!” My eyes widened in horror when Shepherd blindly waved his arms, assuming I was higher up.
“Down here!” I squeaked.
He quickly reached down, hooked his hands beneath my arms, and hauled me to safety.
Instant relief came over me, but it didn’t last long. I stood up and looked around. “Let’s go. I can see something up ahead.”
At the far end of the room, which was similar to the last, was a slice of light that could only be coming from the bottom of a closed door.
An explosion rocked in the distance, shaking the ground beneath our feet. Dirt and small bits from the ceiling sifted down, and I covered my mouth.
Once there was enough light to see, we finally stopped by a spray-painted pillar. “What now?” I asked quietly.
He wiped the sweat from his brow. By the way his eyes shifted around, it looked like he could see a little as well. “Let me take over from here.”
“You can’t go in there alone, and I didn’t come all this way to wait outside.” My breath caught when a shadow moved behind him.
Shepherd didn’t speak. He studied my face and mouthed, “Mage?”
I shook my head. No energy licked against my skin, and I couldn’t even sense the presence of a non-Mage, which left only one possibility.
Vampire.
Maybe Shepherd had deduced the same, because he retrieved an impalement stake from inside his jacket. It had what looked like a metal weight in the center. He gripped his fingers around that metal and held it like a spear. Instead of turning to look, he watched my eyes.
I studied the darkness, making small talk. “Maybe we should knock on the door and see if he answers.”
“Yeah. Sounds like a plan,” Shepherd said flatly, still focused on my eyes.
I caught a shadow to the left and flicked my eyes in that direction. With lightning speed, Shepherd spun around and threw the stake. It whistled through the air before striking the shadow.
I flashed over and flipped the man onto his back. Even though my fangs had appeared, I was reluctant to bite a Vampire without knowing the effect his blood would have on me. The stake had punctured his chest, and I shoved it in farther for peace of mind. Then I searched his pockets for weapons or…
“Keys,” I whispered.
“Give ’em here.”
Shepherd briefly inspected them before silently approaching the door. He knelt down, peered beneath the crack, and then touched the knob for a moment.
“It’s clear,” he said, testing the key in the locks. “That must be one of his guards. Pussies always hire Vampires to do all their dirty work. I don’t think there’ll be any traps inside unless they’re alarms. Think fast and move fast. Got it?”
As soon as the door opened, fluorescent light pierced my eyes. It looked like a small security room for lazy guards. To the right, a red chair and ottoman. Magazines were scattered all over the floor, and someone had tossed an empty bag of potato chips in the corner.
Shepherd freed two knives from their sheaths and twirled them in his hands. “Get ready to move fast.”
We neared the door directly in front of us. When I turned the handle, we rushed inside a long hallway. Passing a few vacant rooms, I ran as far as it went. Energy spiked against my skin, and I heard the unmistakable sound of swords clashing. The end of the hall diverged, so I followed the sounds and flashed to the right. Having left Shepherd behind, I burst into a dark room lit by computer screens. Niko was in a clinch with a man whose sword was impressively long.
“Other room,” Niko grunted. “I have this.” He shoved the man off-balance before hopping back and putting distance between them.
Disregarding the two men, Shepherd plowed right past me and through an open door on the opposite side of the room. When Niko advanced on his attacker, they engaged in one hell of a swordfight. I wanted to sit and watch, but instead I flashed to the other side to avoid getting sliced in two.
I ended up in a hall and followed the sound of Shepherd’s heavy footfalls going left. The hallways were reminiscent of an ancient prison, complete with decrepit walls, pipes running along them, and dirty floors. The only modern thing was the overhead lights. The temperature was noticeably warmer.
I slowed my pace when a loud commotion sounded from a room Shepherd had entered.
On the floor, Christian was straddling Cristo, his hand firmly wrapped around the Mage’s throat. “Where is the baby?” His eyes never left Cristo’s for a moment.
“Safe,” Cristo replied tersely.
Viktor encroached on them, a streak of blood across his face and his clothes ragged and torn. There weren’t overhead lights in this room, just a pool table and lanterns on the walls.
Shepherd loomed over the man, his knives in hand with the pointy tips tapping impatiently against his thighs.
Blue appeared in the doorway, out of breath. The hood of her cloak had fallen away from her head. “He’s not here. I checked all the rooms.”
I pointed at Cristo.
“No. I meant the baby.”
“Are there any more goons?” I asked.
She shook her head, eyes on Christian. “Niko’s taking care of the only guard we found inside.”
“There might be more outside. We ran into a Vamp.”
She nodded. “Us too. Vampire guards are popular since they’re mostly undetectable. That’s why I brought these.” She opened her cloak. In addition to her tomahawk were two impalement stakes, but all I noticed was the blood dripping down the handle of her axe.
“Where’s the baby?” Christian pressed.
“Safe,” Cristo replied.
“Safe where?”
“Safe.”
Shepherd removed his leather jacket and it dropped to the floor. “Let me ask him. I promise I’ll be nice.”
Niko came up beside Blue, his hair askew and swords back in their scabbards.
“Where the hell is the baby?” Christian growled.
“Safe,” Cristo repeated.
“Why is it not working?” Viktor asked. “Is he a Blocker?”
Blue drifted into the room and stood beside Viktor. “I think he means a safe. Ask him.”
Christian leaned in so tight their noses touched. “Is the baby inside of a safe?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, for feck’s sake, why didn’t you just say so, you poor excuse for a spark plug?”
I turned to Niko. “Can you see the baby’s energy?”
He entered the room and scanned it. “Not behind walls.”
Christian slapped the Mage. “Where’s the safe?”
“Upstairs.”
“What’s the code to open it?”
“Six one six, nine five nine.”
Christian stood up and kicked him hard. “There’s a special jail cell for men like you. One with hungry rats and broken toilets.”
Cristo coughed and rolled to his side. “No jail can hold me.”
Shepherd slowly circled around him and knelt down.
Cristo glared up at him, his nose bloodied. “What the fuck are you looking at?”
Shepherd tapped the tip of his blade against his own chin. “Remember me?”
“I don’t know you.”
“But I know you.” Shepherd held out his arms to show him the scars and then sliced open the front of his shirt, revealing more.
“Is that supposed to mean something?” Cristo, still lying on his side, stared daggers at him.
Shepherd gave him a mirthless smile. “Five years ago, an acquaintance of yours tried to stab me to death while you murdered a woman in her own bed.”
Recognition sparked in Cristo’s eyes. “Oh, yeah. That was back when I ran with a partner. I knew he should have cut off your head.”
“Your buddy cried like a baby when I killed him.”
Cristo rolled onto his back and gave him a crooked smile, blood smeared across his face from a broken nose. “That was years ago when I was new at the game. Taking on a partner was a mistake, so you did me a favor. We could tell you weren’t a Mage or Vampire, but he should have taken your head anyway. Joe was always sloppy. Sorry bastard almost got me killed.”
With lightning speed, Shepherd stabbed Cristo through the palm, pinning his hand to the floor. Cristo bellowed in pain, and before he could even think about blasting Shepherd with his free hand, I flashed over and stepped on it.
Shepherd twisted the knife slowly. “You killed my woman. You killed my future. And you killed… my… baby.”
A slow chuckle rose in Cristo’s chest until he rocked with laughter.
Shepherd wrenched the knife free and chopped off Cristo’s fingers. The Mage’s green eyes bulged, and he clutched his bleeding hand to his chest.
Shepherd held the blade against Cristo’s neck, and a rivulet of blood trickled out. “You held its lifeless body by the leg as if it were nothing but garbage! I’ve waited for this moment for years, but before I make you suffer, I want to know why.”
Cristo stared at the ceiling, his eyes watery and bloodshot from the pain he must have felt in his hand. Yet despite his obvious agony, he looked at Shepherd with amusement. “You really don’t get it, do you? Why would I kill a baby? They’re worth more alive than dead.”
Shepherd blanched, and I stepped on Cristo’s hand even harder until he whimpered and tried to jerk it free.
“Do you think that was my first cesarean?” he continued. “That’s not how I run my business anymore; it was too messy. But I can bring a baby into this world better than any Relic can. I remember that job. Accidentally cut his face when my knife went in. Thought I killed it. I only got paid half for damaging the merchandise.”