Replica(20)

“So?”

“They were cleaned, but they still smell funky.”

Now that was interesting. “Take me.”

Chef boy led the way further into the kitchen. I had to hand it to Victor. Even his cooking staff knew how to obey orders.

“Here.” He pointed at a pair of large steel doors propped open. I grabbed his arm and shoved him ahead of me. “Hey, don’t!”

“Little late for that,” I said. I didn’t even have to take a deep breath when I stepped into the doorway of the freezer. The smell of blood permeated every crevice. I tightened my hold on chef boy. “How long ago did they clean it up?”

“A few days,” he whispered.

“Where are all the vamps?”

He shook his head. “Gone. They disappeared when Victor did.”

So before the CDC came in, someone had professionally cleaned out all the blood Victor used to keep in here. His head chef had taken the blame, and no one would be the wiser about what had really gone on at Amore Sangre.

The ding of a timer going off whipped me around. A heavy billow of gas rolled over me. “The lines have slipped...can you fix this?” I asked.

I dragged him with me, hoping he could do something. He started to blubber. “I can’t live without my cooking.”

Oh. Fuck.

I dropped his arm and sprinted through the kitchen as the fumes spread. One glance at the stove and the blue flames licking at the bottom of the four pots he had going told me all I needed to know.

Time was not on my side. The fumes caught the blue flames and a brilliant flash popped up behind me.

The hiss of flames nipped at my heels, the heat spurring me forward. I was out the main doors by the time the first boom rocked the building. The elevator door opened on my left, beckoning me, as three demon dogs burst out of the stairwell to my right. They carried a scent I knew as well as my own.

Calvin.

I had no time to consider what it meant.

Elevator it was. I stepped in and hit the button to close the doors repeatedly. They closed, but not before one of the demon dogs leapt through them. It hit me in the back, scrabbling and clawing at my side, then reaching down and clawing through my pants and into the flesh of my thigh. I twisted, then flipped us over so I was positioned over it, sitting on it, then yanked a silver stake from the top of my boot and slammed it through the dog’s left eye socket. It whimpered, gave a full body twitch and went still.

A second boom rocked the building and the elevator shuddered. I jumped up and pushed the escape hatch open over my head. Above me, the world was nothing but flames two floors above me. The elevator lurched to a stop, swaying in place.

“Seriously?” What was it with these particular death traps and me lately?

A chunk of burning metal dropped toward me. I jerked back into the elevator as it bounced off the top of the tiny hanging box, and the whole contraption groaned. I pulled myself up through the hatch. There was only one choice—I had to get to another floor and work my way down. The cables above me groaned, and two of them snapped, slicing through the air. I leapt to the side and hooked my fingers onto the doorway above my head as the remaining cables gave way and the elevator plummeted down the shaft.

I pulled myself up to the edge of the doors and pried them open. The racket was almost unbearable to my sensitive ears—sirens blared in the distance, and there were continued smaller booms from above. Which was my only excuse for not seeing him until I was all the way through the door.

Calvin stared down at me. “Are you okay?”

I put my hand in his and blinked several times. No. Not Calvin, but a young human who could have passed for his brother. The same hair color, eyes, and build. I tightened my grip on his hand as hunger surged through me.

Had he been left here to toy with my emotions?

“Come with me.” I tugged him and he followed, falling under my thrall so swiftly I knew he’d been used before. Most people fought the urge to obey. He just got in line and did as I commanded.

We worked our way to the stairs and started the long climb down, conspicuously free of demon dogs. The firefighters had just arrived by the time we reached the bottom floor. I paused and put a hand on the lead man. “Don’t go up yet. Let it burn.”

His eyes fogged. “Don’t go up yet.”

“No. Stay here.”

It was the only thing I could do to keep the humans safe not only from the fire, but from the demon dogs up there. They couldn’t handle doors on their own, which meant someone had helped them. Rachel would have wanted me to at least try to keep the men safe.

I walked away, my new pet trailing behind me. After a while, he jogged to catch up to my side. “Where are we going?”