“I will.”
“And if you have even the slightest suspicion that Gershom is here, call Aidan immediately. Gershom can teleport, so even the thickest doors and most complex locks won’t keep him out if he comes looking for the baby.”
“Okay.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too. Be careful.”
Cliff caught Bastien’s gaze. “I’ll guard them both with my life.”
“I know you will. Thank you.” Bastien clasped Cliff’s arm and pulled him into a hug. He never knew from day to day when Cliff might reach the point of no return.
Alleck stepped into the doorway. “What should we do with the vampires?”
Bastien strode from the apartment and closed the heavy door. “Todd,” he called, heading toward the heavily armed human guards positioned in front of the elevator and the door to the stairwell.
“Yeah?” Todd asked.
“We have reason to believe an attack may be imminent.”
The guards all swore.
“I want each of you to give one of your tactical knives to a vampire.”
Todd looked at the others and hesitated. “What makes you think an attack is coming?”
“Melanie has a bad feeling. Lest you discount the significance of that, the last time she had a bad feeling, mercenaries bombed the hell out of the original network headquarters.”
Every human guard present handed over a tactical knife. Some handed over two while Todd spoke into his walkie and gave the rest of the guards in the large building a heads-up.
“Send all of the elevators up to the first floor, then disable them. I’m going to head up to the lobby.”
“Linda and I will head up to sublevel one,” Alleck said.
Bastien eyed Linda doubtfully. He had never seen her in action before, so he didn’t know how skilled she was with weapons.
“Don’t worry,” she said, guessing his thoughts. “I’ve trained as extensively as Melanie has. Alleck and I will do our best to keep any vampires from getting past us.”
Bastien nodded and turned back to the human guards. “Melanie and the baby are in Cliff’s apartment. The rest of the vampires will stay here and help you guard them.”
“Yes, sir.”
Surprise struck. Bastien had injured so many of the guards here during his darker days that none of them had ever spoken to him with respect before. It felt . . . good.
Nodding to Alleck and Linda, Bastien dashed up the stairs.
He had almost reached the ground floor when he heard a deep, accented voice say, “Hello, gentlemen.”
An alarm blared. Curses erupted.
Bastien burst through the door that led to the lobby in time to see the guards stationed there leap to their feet and raise their weapons.
A man garbed in black pants, boots, and no shirt faced them. Standing perhaps six feet eight inches tall, with midnight hair and glowing golden eyes, he bore dark wings similar to Zach’s that spanned the width of the lobby when he spread them.
Oh shit.
The Other’s thin lips stretched into a cruel smile as he met Bastien’s gaze.
“Gershom,” Bastien snarled.
Gershom arched a brow. “So hostile.”
“Call Aidan now!” Bastien bellowed, loud enough for Melanie to hear down below, and shot forward, swords drawn.
Gershom tossed something at the guards.
“Grenade!” a guard shouted.
Bastien jerked to a halt and looked back at whatever hit the floor and skidded past him.
It wasn’t a single grenade. It was a cluster of them.
Grinning, Gershom disappeared.
Bastien raced over to the grenades, picked them up, and hurled them at the front of the building as the guards ducked behind the massive granite desk they manned.
Light—blindingly bright—flashed as thunder filled Bastien’s ears. Shrapnel struck like a thousand knives as flames engulfed him and a wave of energy lifted him off his feet and slammed him against the wall behind the guards.
Bastien dropped to the floor.
Pain crashed through him.
“Shit!” one of the guards shouted.
Bastien tried to sit up, but his limbs were slow to respond. Glancing down, he saw numerous projectiles protruding from his body.
“Here they come!” someone shouted out of Bastien’s line of sight.
John Wendleck, one of the guards on duty, helped Bastien sit up. Peering over the desk, he swung back to face Bastien and held out his wrist. “Take my blood.”
Bastien shook his head.
“Do it,” John urged. “I’ve never been bitten before, so it won’t transform me. And we’re about to be overrun.”
Bastien sank his fangs into the man’s wrists and siphoned as much blood as he dared take into his veins. Almost instantly, the virus began to push the projectiles from his body and flood him with strength.
“Thank you.” Grabbing the swords he had dropped, Bastien rose and faced the enormous hole the grenades had blown in the front of the building.
In the darkness beyond, an army of vampires sped toward them.
Melanie swore when the building’s alarm began to blare.
Adira woke with a start and began to cry.
As Melanie hurried over to pick her up, she heard Bastien say Gershom’s name, then yell for her to call Aidan.
Cliff swore. Backing toward Melanie, he tightened his hold on his katanas and kept his eyes trained on the door of the apartment.
A thunderous boom shook the building and assaulted their ears as something exploded on the ground floor.
Adira wailed even louder and clung to Melanie while Melanie held the baby with one arm and yanked her cell phone out of her pocket with her free hand.
“Shh. It’s okay, honey,” she soothed as she dialed. “It’s okay.”
“Yes,” Aidan answered, the clash of weapons loud in the background.
Before Melanie could speak, a man as tall and imposing as Seth appeared just inside the apartment’s heavy door. He was garbed much like Zach usually was—black pants, black boots, and nothing else—and radiated power. Large dark wings framed his form as he swept the room with eyes that glowed golden.
Her blood turned to ice.
Gershom.
“Come now!” Melanie cried into the phone.
Aidan instantly appeared beside her. Glimpsing Gershom, he grabbed Adira and vanished.
Gershom tilted his head to one side and regarded Melanie with cold curiosity. “Surely you don’t believe you can stop me.” He started to say more, but paused. His eyes shifted to the ceiling, as though something above had drawn his attention.
Heart pounding, Melanie bent and drew the short swords from her box of tranquilizer guns.
Gershom returned his attention to her. “Interesting.”
As Cliff rushed forward with a roar of fury, Gershom vanished.
Aidan tugged his coat closed around the baby wailing against his chest and teleported to Telfer, Western Australia.
“It’s okay, little one,” he murmured as he instantly teleported again to Svalbard, Norway. “It’s okay. Uncle Aidan will keep you safe.”
He took her to Motuo, China. Then to La Rinconada, Peru. Easter Island. Kosaka, Japan.
He spent mere seconds in each destination before he moved on, fearing Gershom would appear at any moment and try to tear the babe from his arms.
Aidan vowed he would die before he let the Other have her.
In McMurdo, Antarctica, he began to croon a song his mother had sung to him when he was a boy. It took them through Colmar, France. Kiffa, Mauritania. Burano, Italy. Monsanto, Portugal.
The babe ceased weeping in Bibury, England.
Her breath stopped hiccupping in Mombasa, Kenya.
Her little head began to bob with weariness in Meissen, Germany.
She fell asleep in Salta, Argentina.
And still Gershom didn’t appear.
Had Melanie and the other immortals found a way to detain him at the network?
Or had Gershom simply opted to stay and wreak havoc there instead?
Aidan didn’t know. But he thought it was worth the risk to return Adira to David’s home, where Gershom had not yet put in an appearance . . . as far as he knew.
At least there, Aidan would not have to battle the Other alone if Gershom caught up with him. He feared Adira’s fate should such come to pass.
Heather shifted from foot to foot in David’s basement, nerves jangling, as the cacophony of battle raged above her. How the hell many vampires were attacking?
At the top of the stairs, Ed fired almost continuously. “Marcus!” he yelled suddenly. “I’m about to be overrun!”
Heather glanced over her shoulder at Marcus.
Marcus looked at Sheldon. “I haven’t heard any movement in the tunnels so far, but don’t let your guard down.”
Sheldon nodded.
Aidan abruptly appeared, Adira in his arms.
Alarm splashed across Marcus’s features.
“Gershom is at the network,” Aidan said. “And it’s under attack. Too many vampires to count.”
Marcus dropped his weapons and took the baby, cuddling her close. “Is she—?”
“Adira is fine. I teleported multiple times to throw Gershom off in case he followed me, but I haven’t seen or sensed him.” Aidan looked to the ceiling, then back at Marcus. “The vampires are about to make their way down here. Give the baby to Tracy, and help me end this so we can better protect Adira if Gershom makes an appearance.” He disappeared.
Sheldon looked at Marcus. “Go. We’ll keep her safe. I swear it.”
Tracy gently pried the sleeping baby from Marcus’s arms.