Addict (41 page)

Trent shook his head. “No idea, man. I thought he was with you guys. You had a meeting tonight. Kelsey, maybe you need to fill me in.”

“Yeah, I bet you’d like that,” Gray said under his breath.

Trent ignored him. “Let’s go and grab a beer and talk.”

Beer bad. Beer was the vehicle for Winter’s coup d’état. “No. Absolutely not. We have to shut down the bar right fucking now. As a matter of fact, shut down the whole club. Everyone needs to go home. Now.”

If I could get them out of the building, we might have a chance.

I expected a fight. I expected Trent to look at me like I was fuck-all insane and start to laugh. Instead, he picked up a walkie-talkie. “Security, I need a full shutdown and evacuation procedures. Right now. I’ll inform Dev.”

“Just like that?” I hadn’t had to talk him into it. No explanations at all and he was shutting down the club.

Trent gave me a half smile. “Just like that. You’re the
Nex Apparatus
, Kelsey. Now that you’ve passed all the tests, you tell me to shut down the club and I shut it down. I take my orders from you and the royal family.”

No one had explained that to me. I could give orders? Maybe this gig wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. “Winter is somewhere in the building and he’s got a mega shit ton of rabid weres and shifters ready to take out anyone in their way.”

“Are they targeting the king?” Trent asked. His shoulders had straightened back, his whole body going into a military stance.

“I suspect the whole royal family.” I couldn’t forget that Winter had said he would take out Evangeline. He would kill them all if it brought him closer to his goal.

Trent got back on the phone, calling up to the penthouse and getting it locked down.

The bouncers were already hard at work, trying to get the line of people waiting to get into Ether moved back.

“Come on,” Trent said as he started for the club entrance. “We have to find Dev and get him to safety. Everyone else is in the penthouse. They should be relatively safe, but Dev is in the open.”

I jogged to keep up with him. We did have a couple of issues to deal with. “Please tell me you haven’t had a beer tonight.”

“Sure,” he replied as we came to the doors. “Dev brought in a new craft beer. Naturally it required tasting. You know that’s what we wolves are for.”

He grinned at me as he opened the door and I heard a long scream.

“Kelsey, get back here,” Gray said.

Trent stepped inside and then his hand was reaching for his gun. I ignored Gray because I couldn’t spend the evening cowering behind him. I’d let him take care of all those creepy snow creatures, but this was one hundred percent my job.

“What the hell is going on, Owens?” Trent surveyed the dance floor with a critical eye. “I gave specific instructions for the club to be shut down. Why aren’t they moving? They should have turned on the lights.”

“Who did you give the instructions to? One of your drinking buddies?” Fear flashed through me on several levels. Trent was a powerful alpha wolf. If he went crazy, he would take out a bunch of us with him.

He’d taken the drug. The last couple of people who’d taken the drug had died, their brains destroyed. Despite our issues, I really didn’t want that to happen to Trent.

Out on the dance floor, people were still moving around, though I could see a portion starting to move back. A man was on his knees in the middle of the dance floor. I watched as he changed, becoming a sleek mountain lion. The cat roared and immediately attacked a woman to his right.

“Shit.” Trent took aim and fired.

The cat’s head exploded and that got people moving.

“What the hell is going on?” Trent didn’t look my way. He kept his gun up, looking for more threats.

“Winter put the drug in the beer. You’ve all been exposed to it,” I explained.

“You need to get every wolf and shifter who drank that beer somewhere safe. When Winter begins to use his influence, none of you will be able to resist.” Gray held his hand out. “I’m going to need a weapon. This is going to get nasty and fast. I’m the only one who can take out Winter.”

“I feel fine,” Trent insisted, but handed Gray his backup. “And my men are fine. Look, they’re taking care of the problem on the dance floor.”

Sure enough, three of the bouncers were moving in, helping the woman who’d almost been bitten get to her feet. She was nodding, looking infinitely grateful to the man who’d helped her up.

That was when he shot her in the head.

“What the fuck?” Trent shouted.

Jamie put a hand on the big wolf’s arm. “It’s going to get worse.”

Trent didn’t hesitate. He lifted his gun and shot the wolf between the eyes. He was a hell of a shot.

“I don’t feel anything.” Trent had to shout because the whole club had erupted into chaos. He kept his weapon up, his eyes scanning for more trouble.

I moved in close so he could hear me. “How much did you drink?”

“Half a beer, maybe. I got called away,” he explained. “Fuck, I just killed a man who’s been my friend for ten years.”

“Unless you get them somewhere they can’t hurt anyone, you’re going to have to kill a whole lot more,” I said.

“I think we’re past that now.” Jamie watched the dance floor.

Trent looked down at me, his eyes beginning to turn. “Kelsey, you should run.”

Gray’s hand was on my arm, hauling me back when Trent howled. The sound shook the damn roof, but before he could change, something slammed into him from behind. He fell to his knees, gun clanging to the floor right before his head hit.

Dev Quinn came out of the smoke, one rifle in his hands and several more slung over his shoulder. “Tranquilizer dart. Extra extra druggy. Even Trent will sleep for at least an hour.”

We all stared at the faery.

He shrugged and started passing out the rifles. “My contingency plans have plans. Did I ever dream a day would come that our allies could be turned against us? Every damn night and twice during the day. James, how good a shot are you?”

“Excellent,” my brother replied.

“Good, then come with me. There’s a perfect sniper position up in the lighting unit. I’ve already called Daniel. He’ll be here as soon as he can,” Dev explained. He was perfectly calm even as the club collapsed into chaos. “So I figured out that Winter must have drugged my beer shipment when two of my best bodyguards attempted to behead me. They’re sleeping it off in a cell. Do we have a way to bring them back?”

“My blood amplified by the king’s.” Gray’s voice sounded even deeper than normal and I heard Quinn gasp.

When I turned, Gray’s eyes had gone white. He stared ahead, though it seemed like he was seeing something.

“What the hell?” Jamie asked.

Gray’s eyes returned to normal. “Sorry. That happened quickly and honestly, it was more about common sense than prophecy. But I do know it’s the right way to go. I feel it deep inside. The most efficient path is the same we took healing Kelsey’s arm. The drugs are booby-trapped in a way. Any use of normal vampire blood will amplify the damage. Demon blood accelerated with the king’s own is the only way to heal the wolves.”

“I’ve only seen those eyes once before,” Quinn said, his voice unsteady. “On a prophet.”

“Yeah, Gray picked up some cool new powers at the mansion tonight,” I explained. “But we’re not going to be able to use that information if we stand here talking. I need to find Winter. He’s got to be here somewhere.”

I had to move. There was a massive crowd coming our way, likely trying to get away from the now crazed wolves and shifters.

Quinn and Jamie started shooting anything that looked vaguely psychotic. I took one of Quinn’s tranq guns and so did Gray. Luckily it wasn’t a full moon or the wolves would be at peak strength.

The crowd shifted and started running the other way, back away from the exit.

That was when the outliers showed up. Our wolves were simply crazed, but the group from Brimstone had been introduced to the drug slowly.

They strode in like they owned the place, a massive alpha at the head. I’d seen him before. I was fairly certain he was a werelion. He was also a drug addict. He stopped and took a long breath.

“Take them all boys. Winter’s promised us all the Brimstone we can handle and a million dollars to whoever brings him the king’s head.”

The werelion stared down at his chest where a very large dart was now stuck.

Sometimes I love my job. The leader went down but the rest of them scattered.

“Dev, you and Jamie pick off as many as you can,” I ordered. “Gray and I are going to find Winter and put a stop to this. Where did you say the king is?”

“He was upstairs with our family. He’ll be down here once he’s sure they’re safe.” Dev stood next to Jamie, ready to do his job.

I would never call the man paranoid again. He was prepared and it was a beautiful thing. “Tell him to stay upstairs. They’re looking for him. There are too many of them. He would have to kill them and he won’t like that option.”

“I’ll do it.” Quinn and Jamie headed for their spots.

“Where would Winter be?” Ahead of me, the dance floor was empty. As far as I could tell, everyone was hiding or trying to. I was fairly certain I’d seen a bunch of non-shifters hightailing it for the bathrooms. Hopefully they could hole up there or in the kitchen. I didn’t want to have to worry about civilians.

The vampires were fighting. I saw my assistant holding off a brown werewolf. The wolf snapped at him, drawing blood, but he wouldn’t fight back. He merely tried to keep the wolf off of him.

One neat shot and the wolf went down.

Justin immediately dropped to his knees, pulling the wolf into his arms.

His girlfriend. He was weeping over her, trying to get her to respond.

“She’ll be out for about an hour,” I explained.

“She’s not dead?” Tears streaked down the kid’s face. He loved the wolf.

I had to give him something to do. “Not dead. It was a tranquilizer. I need you to take her and lock her up somewhere. I don’t know if they’ll still be in the same state when they wake up. We have to be prepared. When you’ve found a place to stash the sleeping wolves, go back to the bar and grab Trent for me, please. I had to leave him there.”

Someone grabbed me from behind, jerking me off my feet. I lost the rifle as Gray and I were separated. I heard Gray call out my name, but I was suddenly in a crowd of outliers.

“Hey, look what we have here,” one of the women said. “Looks like a human decided to sneak in.”

A big shifter walked right up to me and sniffed my hair. “She smells good. Almost good enough to eat.”

Someone needed to learn some manners. I brought my elbow back and up, crunching his nose while I kicked out and shoved the female down.

“Kelsey Jean, heads-up,” Gray shouted.

I put a hand up and the rifle was perfectly placed for me to catch and start firing. Gray and I were a good team when we weren’t fighting.

“Shit.” I saw Scott up ahead. He was standing at the bathroom doors, his hands claws against the metal.

Not only did it make a horrible annoying sound, it proved how far gone he was. He didn’t seem to be making progress at getting the door open, and I had so few darts left. I could see that Jamie and Quinn had made a dent in the army Winter had sent, but there were still so many of them.

A calm wave washed over me, and I turned toward the office door in time to see Marcus and the king at the top of the steps.

I expected the king to jump straight into the fray. I was actually kind of looking forward to it. Donovan, it seemed, had gotten lazy in his old age. He let me take on all the fights now that he was a father of three, but I’d heard stories about what the man could do when he decided to take someone out. If Donovan wanted to, he could probably take on all these guys. The only trouble was he would have to kill them, and that wouldn’t look good on his royal resume.

Instead of leaping into the fight, Donovan searched the floor. I wasn’t sure who he was looking for until Marcus pointed my direction.

“I think they want us over there.” I gestured to the office so Gray could get a lay of the land. He hadn’t been in Ether more than a few times. Most of the times he’d been in the club, he’d been raiding it or getting himself tossed out on his ass.

“Why isn’t Donovan fighting?” Gray asked as he took my six.

We had to fight our way through the crowd. The weres and shifters now seemed to be fighting amongst themselves. They hadn’t caught Donovan’s scent yet or they would have been all over him. I was going to shove the king right back in Quinn’s neat as a pin and probably hyper-secure office.

I looked up at Marcus, happy to see his face. “Things didn’t go the way we’d hoped.”

Marcus nodded. “They never do,
bella
.”

“We need Donovan to get up to his condo. They’re after him,” Gray shouted.

“I can’t,” Donovan shouted back. “I can’t do a damn thing until I find my son.”

A chill went up my back as the place suddenly went quiet. I was staring at Donovan, the words not quite processing in my mind.

Donovan went pale, and I didn’t want to turn around. Gray closed his eyes and when he opened them again, there was a horrible resignation there. As though he’d seen the available futures and he hadn’t liked the outcome.

“Lee,” Donovan said, his face tight with emotion.

I turned and Lee Donovan-Quinn had slipped his bed again. Unfortunately, this time he was in the hands of a demon. Julius Winter stood in the middle of the dance floor, one hand around Lee’s neck.

Chapter Twenty-Two