All Knight Long, Book I: One Warlock's Love Story (15 page)

Everyone else appeared so confident, which only made Zander feel that much more unsure of himself. Tau’s suggestion to kill the power and the lights had been a good one, since all supernaturals had better night vision than humans. The black outfits supplied by Hung also helped to camouflage them as they made their way toward the unsuspecting soldiers and scientists.

Once they reached the northern entrance to the building, Hung stopped them. “Wait here while I go disable the power. I’ll be right back.” It didn’t take long for him to return. The sound of panicked scientists and alarmed soldiers could be heard emanating from the building.

“We don’t have long. Let’s go,” Tau said, as he transformed into the lion-like god that made Zander’s heart skip a beat. Hung stepped back and moved his hands in an intricate series of motions that bent the shadows, covering him in a blanket of darkness and making him invisible. Giovanni followed with a piece of magic that created a shield similar to the protective bubble that he had created in the club.

They moved in complete silence, with Tau leading the way. The first room they reached was the holding cell, which was guarded by two of the twenty soldiers. Tau made short work of them, punching the first in the face and then using his limp body to knock the other out cold. Zander took the key off of the first soldier and immediately opened the door to the holding room.

General panic filled the room when Zander swung the door open.

“Stay calm. I am a warlock,” Zander whispered, creating an arc of witch light as a safe signal.

“Zander?” his grandmother spoke up from the back.

“We’re here to get you out, but we’ll have to be quick and quiet,” Zander told them.

“You got this?” Tau asked, giving his lover a quick pat on the ass with his large, furry paw.

“Be safe,” Zander instructed Tau, before he led Hung and Giovanni up the hall.

Zander turned back to the room. “I need all of the shifters to line up first.” He applied a piece of alchemical magic to their metal collars, making them brittle and as easy to shatter as glass. When he was done, he did the same thing for his grandmother’s arm cuff.

“You found me,” she said in tears.

“You and I have got to talk,” Zander told her.

“I know,” she said, as she wiped her face clean.

“What do these cuffs do?” Zander asked.

“They inject us with a deadly toxin at the first sign of a spike in our blood pressure. Most of the witches and warlocks have been meditating to stay calm,” she answered. Zander knew that he had to move quickly. The mere excitement of escaping was enough to raise the average person’s blood pressure, and they had come too far to lose anyone now. Zander and his grandmother started to break the cuffs with the same magic that he had used on the collars.

“I’ll need all of the shifters to help carry the vamps,” Zander ordered, while he led the way toward the exit door.

One especially beautiful young shifter with red hair and freckles stopped Zander. “I am glad that you and the prince came to rescue us.” Zander didn’t have time to figure out what that meant, but he knew he would have to ask later. The group filed out in a relatively quick fashion. Zander pulled up the rear to make sure that everyone got out safely. They were outside and up the hill near Hung’s car in record time.

“I need for everyone to stay here and give my grandmother your name and contact information,” Zander ordered. “I know that it isn’t normal to ask for this type of information, but I may need to contact you to get information about anything that you might have seen or heard while you were captured. The more information that we have, the more likely it is that we can find out who did this.” Zander gave his grandmother his phone to take names and numbers.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“My friends are in there. I have to go help them.” He gave his grandmother a quick kiss on the cheek and dashed back down the hill.

Giovanni, Tau, and Hung had already made short work of eight of the soldiers, leaving ten more somewhere in the building. Zander caught up with them right before they reached the laboratory.

“Is everyone out?” Giovanni asked.

“Yes, I have my grandmother getting their names so that we can contact them later if we need to.”

“Good idea,” Tau whispered. Then, he signaled for all of them to be quiet. They were stopped just outside the laboratory.

Without a word, Tau burst into the lab and scared the pure hell out of the six scientists, who were all gathered around the vampiress, Muslee. What happened next could have been a scene out of a horror movie.

The lead scientist must have assumed that Tau was one of the captives because he kept screaming, “Activate his collar!” Unfortunately for them, Tau didn’t have a collar.

Tau slashed the lead scientist’s throat with one stroke. Hung punched another through the chest and squished his heart before biting the third in his neck and drinking from him until the life drained completely from his body. Not to be outdone, Giovanni sent a tray full of scalpels flying through the air and into the neck of the fourth scientist. Blood spurted out like a fountain until he fell to the floor.

“Wait!” Zander said, before anyone could harm the last two scientists.

“What is it?” Giovanni asked.

“The vamps are still up on the hill and knocked out from the drugs. The blood from these last two scientists may help them recuperate faster,” Zander said, amazing himself at his sudden disregard for human life. The last two scientists, one a small, balding white man and the other an even smaller Asian lady, began screaming wildly.

“Shut the fuck up,” Hung said to the doctors, as he grabbed them and dragged them out toward the parking lot.

“What are you going to do with their bodies?” Giovanni asked Hung.

“I’ll bring their dead bodies back inside when we’re done,” Hung said. To have six vampires drain two small humans promised to be a brutal and painful death. The small man screamed again, and Hung shook him until he stopped.

Zander went over to the examining table to check on Muslee. She was still alive. Zander rushed over to the computers and file cabinets and began collecting papers, reports, and jump drives.

“What the hell are you doing over there?” Giovanni asked.

“We need to figure out what they were up to. This information may help us. Giovanni, go with Hung and take Muslee and these files to the car.”

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” Giovanni asked, looking over at Zander.

“Yes, just go,” Zander said.

As Giovanni headed to the door, five soldiers rushed into the lab with the same rifles that Zander had seen at the club.

“Set to kill!” the first guard yelled. They all aimed at Tau, the largest and seemingly most dangerous target in the room.

Tau was fast, but not fast enough to outrun the lightning blasts emitted by the soldiers’ guns. Zander had seen just one of the rifles kill Milo instantly. The blast of five was sure to kill Tau.

“No!” Zander screamed, and in a flash of magic the entire room was bathed in a white light that rearranged the soldiers like pieces on a chessboard. They found themselves all facing each other in a circle with their guns drawn, engaged and ready to fire. It was too late for them to do anything. With their guns magically trained on each other, they reluctantly watched as they fried each other to death.

“Damn!” Giovanni said, gaping and still holding the box of files that Zander had given him.

“Thanks, babe,” Tau growled.

Zander smiled. “You’re welcome.”

Giovanni managed to get the naked Muslee up on her feet and wrapped in a sheet. Hung, however, handled the two diminutive scientists with much less care, even banging them together once or twice for good measure.

“You have no idea what you are doing!” the small woman yelled. Hung pulled her face close to his and growled at her, showing her his full fangs. She immediately wet her pants.

“We will be back soon,” Hung laughed, as he and Giovanni exited.

“There should be about five more soldiers in the building,” Giovanni warned as he left.

“Get the files out and bring the two scientists back,” Zander instructed. “We’ll burn the building down when we’re done. We don’t have long before the authorities come.” The lab doors swung shut behind Hung and Giovanni, as the acrid smell of frying human flesh filled the room.

“Where are the last five soldiers?” Zander asked.

“It won’t matter where they are if we magically seal the doors and burn the building down.” Tau pulled Zander into a full and loving embrace.

“There are three doors, not counting the one that we entered. Let’s go make sure they’re locked and leave the way that we came,” Zander said.

Zander and Tau found the first door without incident. Zander drew heat in around the metal door and its frame, permanently sealing it shut.

“Good job,” Tau said appreciatively.

It felt good to use magic without limits. Zander felt free for the second time in his life. It was appropriate that Tau was there with him, since the first time he ever felt really free was the first time he made love to Tau.

They had just sealed the second door when two soldiers confronted them.

“What are they?” the first soldier asked.

“I can’t tell if it’s two shifters or a shifter and a warlock,” the second soldier said, pausing and giving his handheld device a puzzling stare.

The moment’s pause was all that Zander and Tau needed. Tau grabbed the first guard by the neck and slammed him into the ground multiple times like an angry child would a ragdoll. Zander’s approach was less violent but no less effective. He concentrated on the second soldier’s helmet, reached into the air and made a fist that he closed tighter and tighter. As he did, the soldier’s helmet constricted around his head until it crushed his skull like a piece of ripe fruit.

They were on their way to the third door when Giovanni and Hung found them.

“Has everyone left?” Zander asked.

“The witches and warlocks all jetted. Giving the vamps the last two scientists was a great idea.” Hung smiled at Zander. “The blood gave them enough energy to get up and get away. I threw the scientists’ bodies back in the lab. They both died slow and painful deaths. The shifters are another story completely. They won’t leave. They said they will wait on the prince a few more minutes, and if he does not exit the building soon, they will come to help him.”

“Is there something that you aren’t telling us, Tau?” Giovanni asked. Zander thought Giovanni must be serious if he was using Tau’s real name.

“The
prince
?” Zander asked. It wasn’t the first time that he had heard the reference.

“There’s no time for talking now!” Tau yelled, exasperated. “There are still three guards somewhere in this building, and we have to get out.”

Zander picked up the soldier’s handheld device from the floor and stuffed it in his pocket, and the four rushed toward the exit, which was at the very end of the long corridor. They were halfway to the door when two guards stepped out from a hallway, blocking their escape. They all froze in place.

The third and final guard snuck up from the back and snatched Zander before he could respond. “If any of you move, I will fry this one’s brains out!” He held the rifle directly against Zander’s temple.

“Let him go,” Tau roared.

“Fuck you, shifter. Revert to your human form now, or I’ll kill him.”

“Don’t do it,” Zander pleaded. The guard tightened his grip around Zander’s neck.

Tau growled, slowly shifted back into his human form, and then gave the guards a mischievous smile.

“What do you want us to do?” Giovanni asked Tau in a panicked voice.

“Nothing,” Tau answered calmly.

Seconds later, a group of werecreatures burst in through the northern door. Zander saw werecougars, werewolves, and even a werefox. They were all majestic and very lethal. Being a gymnast, it wasn’t difficult for Zander to slip away from the distracted soldier, do two backflips, and then magically throw the guard against the wall.

“Two backflips? Really? That was such gay magic.” Giovanni smiled.

The shifters took care of the rest, ripping all three guards limb from limb. When they were done with the guards, they took formation in front of Tau and bowed.

Hung whistled. “Damn!”

“Why are you bowing?” Zander asked, confused.

“Prince Tau is the son of the great Omega, leader of the Cayuga pack,” the werecheetah said.

“Your father is a pack leader?” Giovanni sounded impressed.

“Within the month, our own Prince Tau will be competing to become a pack leader himself,” the werecougar added.

“And he will be doing so against my own brother, Benin,” said the largest of the pack. It was a huge werewolf with a streak of blond hair. It was Ooba, the guard from the club. Zander was completely confused.

“Aren’t pack leader trials to the death?” Hung asked.

Zander gaped. “What?!”

Chapter 23

Zander’s Grandmother Zoe was still sitting on the hill with her arm wrapped around a recovering Muslee when the group exited the building.

They all stood together on the hill as the medical facility burned to the ground. It was so isolated that no one even responded to the larger than life flames. The building and all of its contents would be long burned to ash before anyone even knew what had happened.

Of the eight shifters, two had recently moved into Tau’s father’s region, which meant they were now a part of his pack -- the werecougar and werecheetah. Tau didn’t know them, but they knew him the way humans knew and revered celebrities.

When the fire died, the remaining six shifters gave due respect and left. Ooba whispered something in Tau’s ear that seemed to set him on edge. The werecougar, a twenty-five year old Puerto Rican named Kyle, and the werecheetah, a slight but buxom redhead named Chelsea, were bound to stay by Tau’s side until he was safely returned to his father. It was required of any pack member to take care of royalty in that way -- especially so close to the pack trials.

Muslee rose from Grandmother Zoe’s embrace and returned Zander’s cell phone. “I will be forever in your debt,” she told him.