Demon's Kiss (25 page)

“Seth!” That voice he recognized. It was Topaz's. She'd arrived with a vampire who had to be Jack Heart.

“Tranquilize him!” Seth shouted.

But now Reaper was heading for Topaz, despite the fact that Seth was on his back and pounding on his head, and despite the fact that Jack Heart stepped in front of her and brought a big chair down over Reaper's head.

Reaper swatted Jack away like an irritating mosquito, then reached for Topaz just as she lunged for the gun on the floor.

Her fingers touched the grip just as Reaper's foot connected with her rib cage, launching her into the air.

She grunted, then couldn't seem to breathe well enough to make another sound as she crashed into a wall and lay there, gasping.

Jack dove on the gun, rolled and threw it all at the same time, just barely avoiding Reaper's rampage on the way. As he tossed it toward Seth, Seth released his grip on his mentor's neck, dropped to the floor and reached to catch the weapon.

Reaper whirled, bringing a beefy fist around with him, but Seth leveled the gun and pulled the trigger fast.

The dart hit Reaper right in the neck, front and center, at the same moment that Reaper's fist hit Seth on the side of his head and made him see stars.

He also saw Reaper falling to the floor.

“Hell.”

“He's out!” That was Roxy. She hurried to Reaper's side, where he lay in a heap on the floor.

“What the fuck just happened here?” Jack was asking as he scooped Topaz up. She was barely conscious. “Why would he…”

“He couldn't help it, and we don't have time to go into it now,” Roxy said. “No doubt Gregor planned all this and will show up any minute. We need to get out before he does.”

She was at Seth's side, helping him to his feet.

“Agreed,” Seth said. He glanced at Briar. “What did you say to him?”

“Just…a word. Gregor told me to lock the door when he came in here, make sure you all were inside, as well, and then say that word.”

Roxy nodded. “Gregor
knew,
Briar. He knew what that word would do to him. And yet he let you lock yourself in here with him. He fully expected everyone in this room to be killed. You included.”

“That's not possible. Gregor wouldn't do that to me.”

Seth lifted Reaper up, heaved him over his shoulder and strode toward the door. “There's another word that makes him stop,” he said, addressing Briar without looking at her. “I don't suppose Gregor told you what it was, did he?”

“No.”

“No. Well, you can wait here for him if you want. I could care less. Just be aware, he expected Reaper to kill you.”

“He…he
wouldn't.
”

“He did,” Jack said.

Seth glanced at him. “You can bring Topaz out to the van. Just so you know, she's going with us.”

“So am I, if you'll let me. My boss tried to kill
me
tonight, too.”

Seth narrowed his eyes, but without time to argue, he didn't see much point.

“There are liable to be drones outside, probably surrounding the damn place,” Jack said.

“We've got a van waiting. We'll just have to run for it.” Seth went to the door, opened it a mere crack and peered out, Reaper still over his shoulder. But he didn't see Vixen or the vehicle. He could sense others out there, though, watching, waiting to ambush them the minute they stepped out of the club.

“Where's the van?” he whispered. He turned toward Roxy and spoke louder.
“Where the hell's the van?”

 

Vixen had waited until she'd noticed them, the drones, dozens of them, surrounding the nightclub. They didn't go in, just waited outside. And she was afraid of them. If they noticed the van and her inside it—she shuddered to think what they would do. So she moved the thing, as carefully as she could.

It wasn't as easy as Roxy had made it sound. They'd left the engine running, so all she had to do was put her foot on the brake, move the shift from Park to Drive and then press on the gas while using the steering wheel to control the direction.

However, pressing on the gas made the thing buck and shoot forward far faster than she had anticipated, and she could barely control its direction. She let off and the van stopped, and then she tried gripping the steering wheel with both hands and pressing on the gas far more lightly.

Despite the bucking and jerking of the van, the drones paid it no attention. They just stood there, staring at the nightclub as if they could only focus on one thing at a time. As if it didn't even seem odd to them that the van was spluttering and bounding through the parking lot.

She started to get a feel for the thing about the time she emerged onto the street, but there were other vehicles vying for space, and horns sounded and tires squealed as she pulled out into the flow of traffic.

Fighting to control the vehicle, she was distracted by her senses, by the feeling of death reaching her now from inside the club—and then the surge of violence and danger she sensed, coming from Seth's mind to hers.

He was in trouble! Worried that she was getting too far away, she turned right, and after another block or two, right again, her focus entirely on her friends. Their energy. Seth's energy.

Something was terribly wrong! When she sought Reaper's vibes, she felt only a dark black hole that swirled like a whirlpool, sucking reason into it. There was only fury. Rage.

“Reaper?”

And then she felt it, Seth's mind reaching out to hers.
Come back, fast, and be ready to take off again as soon as we're in the van. We need you, Vixen.

I'm coming.

She drove the van as best she could, speeding right up to the front door, where several of the drones were closing in. She hit them and sent them flying, falling, crushing some beneath the wheels. She grimaced as her stomach turned, even as she stomped on the brake pedal. The club's door flew open. Roxy surged out, with Seth right behind her. Reaper was limp, hanging over Seth's shoulder.

Drones closed in on them just as Roxy reached for the sliding side door. Jack Heart, of all people, kicked one of the drones away as he carried Topaz in his arms. Briar—
Briar
—protected Roxy's other side. Roxy got the door open and leapt inside, quickly hitting the button that opened the door of the weapons cache, even as Seth hurled Reaper off his shoulder onto the floor.

“What happened?” Vixen shrieked.

A drone was trying to wrest Topaz from Jack's arms. Another was wrestling with Briar.

Roxy threw Seth a gun. He caught it, spun around and fired at the hulk who was after Topaz. The vampire staggered backward, and Jack was able to climb into the van with Topaz in his arms. He stepped over the prone Reaper, managing to get Topaz into the back, then whirled around fast, taking a weapon from the wall and firing at one drone while Roxy fired at another, and Seth gripped Briar and hurled her bodily into the van, where she landed hard.

Seth was the only one still on the ground, and the drones were closing in on him, despite Roxy's and Jack's efforts. He gripped the side of the van to pull himself inside, and the drones latched on to him, yanking him back into a sea of them.

“Go,” Seth shouted. “Leave me and go!”

Vixen shoved open the driver's door and jumped from her seat out onto the sidewalk to his side, and was immediately surrounded. She heard Roxy swear, but she crouched protectively in front of Seth, and then she cried out, yipping, releasing a warbling sound that was half mewl and half howl.

For a moment the drones froze, stunned, even while Jack and Roxy, and now Briar, too, kept firing at them with conventional guns, as well as tranquilizer darts.

Several drones fell, and others shook free of their shock and resumed their attack. But even as they did, a peregrine falcon dove from high above, drilling one of them in the head. Dogs came like floodwaters, surging from down the block, snarling and growling, running full bore and launching themselves at the drones. Other animals flocked. Pigeons dive-bombed; cats flung themselves at the bastards; rats scurried from the alley, leaping on the thugs' legs, gnawing on their ankles.

The crowd of thugs fell away, busy trying to shake free of the animals attacking them, fighting for their lives.

Vixen had turned instinctively, putting Seth behind her, between herself and the van, leaving her between him and the drones. She was crouching, backing up slowly, when she felt herself gripped and lifted. It was Seth. He picked her up, spun around and set her firmly in the van. Then he leapt in behind her, slung the door closed and shouted, “Go, Roxy!”

“Going!” she replied, already behind the wheel. The van jerked into motion, rocking Vixen into her seat.

Seth didn't sit, but he did turn to Vixen. “Are you all right?” he asked.

The way his eyes searched her face, scanned her body, she almost felt as if he cared about her answer. She supposed she was as all right as any of them. Everyone was bruised, cut, bleeding, in pain. “Yes,” she said.

He nodded; then he bent to drag Reaper from where he'd been dumped in the middle of the floor and into the back. He stretched his friend out on the floor in front of the rear seat, where Jack had laid Topaz. They were both still out cold. Jack was beside Topaz, looking concerned.

“She okay?” Seth asked.

“I think he broke her ribs when he kicked her. The pain was too much. I don't think she's bleeding, though, and she should heal with the day sleep.” Jack glanced at him. “You?”

“I'll survive. You?”

“Yeah, I'm good. I'm Jack, by the way.”

“I figured.” Seth looked around the van as he took a seat beside Vixen in the middle row. Briar was sitting stock-still on the floor between the middle and front sets of seats. She looked shocky.

“Briar? Are you hurt?” Jack asked.

She looked at him. “I don't understand what happened.” She looked around the van, her gaze lingering on each of them only momentarily before settling on Roxy. Then she climbed up into the front passenger seat and addressed the mortal woman. “Tell me. I know you know.”

“Reaper used to work for the CIA, when he was human,” Roxy said. “They brainwashed him, programmed him to kill. To destroy. There was a word that would trigger him to go into a murderous rage. You know now what that word is.”

“Nigh—”

“No, Briar. Don't say it. He's unconscious, but I don't know what it might do.”

“Briar,” Seth said. “There's another word that will snap him out of it. Are you sure you don't know that one? Gregor didn't give you any clue at all?”

“No.”

“Gregor tried to get you killed tonight,” Seth said. “He tried to get all of us killed.”

“That makes no sense,” Briar said. “What would he have to gain? Reaper's the one who is his enemy, and he would have been the only one left alive.”

“I think he
wants
Reaper alive,” Jack said. “And maybe the only way he thinks he can get him alive is to get rid of all his helpers. And anyone else he's not certain he can trust. Like you and me, Briar.”

She closed her eyes, turned her head away. “He wouldn't hurt me. Not Gregor.”

“Briar, what,
exactly,
did he instruct you to do tonight?” Jack asked.

She pursed her lips, not talking.

Jack sighed. “Well, I'm willing to share. I heard something interesting last night, as I passed Gregor's office. He was on the phone with someone. Calling him
sir.
”

“Gregor wouldn't call anyone
sir,
” Briar argued.

“That's what I thought, but I heard it. He was asking about the
trigger
. I can only assume those key words are what he meant. And I know he was given two of them. I heard him writing them down, but I didn't get close enough to see.” He paused in thought for a moment. “He told me to meet him here, and to bring Topaz. I arrived before you all did. I heard you and Reaper come in the front door, Briar. And then I heard the others come in through the back.”

“As soon as we opened the door someone shoved us inside and locked it,” Seth said. “Probably one of the drones.”

“Same thing happen to you?” Jack asked Briar.

“I locked the door after Reaper and I came in.”

“Why?” Roxy asked.

“Because it's what Gregor told me to do. He said to keep Reaper from arriving even a single minute early. He said to get him inside and lock the door, then to wait until I was sure you all were inside, too, and say the word.” She paused. “He didn't tell me why, or what would happen next. He said he'd explain later.”

“Yeah. But for you, Briar, later was never supposed to come.”