Passion Ignited (32 page)

“It’s not your fault. You’re infected. None of
what you’ve done the last few days is your fault.”

“Wrong again, old man. If I’d been able to
keep my fangs in my damn mouth, then that kid wouldn’t have been
infected in the first place.”

“Wrong. You told me he was already bleeding.
He’d already been fed on.”

She paused before dropping her foot to the
ground. He was right. The boy had been fed on before she’d seen
him. But that didn’t excuse the fact that she had a hand in
infecting him. As soon as the TV had started spouting what was
going on down at the hospital, she had been able to sense it. She
was connected to the little one somehow—likely through a
blood-bond. None of the Guardians could say the same. She was their
only link, which made her a key player in what was going to go down
tonight. “I have to do this, Raid. Are you with me, or
not?”

His jaw tightened, clearly unhappy with her
decision. He finally nodded once and headed toward his door. Only
before he walked through the opening, he turned around and faced
her. “I’m sorry I have to do this.”

He whipped out a tranquilizer and pulled the
trigger. The dart slammed into Nitro and just as she started to go
down, he grabbed onto her and eased her to the floor.

She looked up at him, exhaustion taking her
over. “Why? When?”

“I grabbed this before we did our test on my
brothers. In case I couldn’t stop you.”

“Why?” she asked again.

“I won’t be able to stop you from attacking
all the people running around. Please understand—”

She blacked out before hearing the rest of
what he had to say.

Chapter
Thirty-Two

“Thanks for showing up so quick, man.” Raider
walked toward Draven, keeping to the shadows just as the other
Guardians were doing. As of yet, no humans had spotted them in all
the chaos.

“No problem. You know, I
am
still a
Guardian even though I don’t live there,” he replied, greeting
Raider with the customary forearm grip. “Oh, and Thrash is on his
way.”

Raider released his arm and stepped back. “You
found him?”

“Yeah, we tracked him down. He’s keeping to
himself though. What have we got going on?”

Raider pointed to the Children’s Hospital
where there were countless police cars, ambulances, fire trucks,
and SWAT trucks littering the grounds. So many godsdamned lights
were bouncing around the place that he was starting to get a
headache. He turned to face Raine, Draven, Ethan, Blaze, and Ash,
then quickly glanced over at the Valkyrie harem that insisted on
participating.

Draven noticed them as well. “Who
are—”

“Draven, Valkyrie. Valkyrie, Draven,” Raine
said. “I’ll explain later.”

Raider took over from there. “I think we have
a Drac situation going on inside. The kids that we rescued from
Ekhart’s demons were taken to that hospital. I know that some—if
not all—had been bitten by Dracs, so that means that this is in our
court.”

Thrash ran up and crouched by the rest of the
men.

“Good to see you,” Raider said before
continuing on. “We’ll need to get past the humans undetected.
They’ve got everything closely monitored, so those of us with
tracing and flashing Instincts will need to go in first. Secondly,
they’ve got eyes inside the building, so I’ll be hacking their
system and creating a continuous loop. Let’s get this sitch under
control, and then we’ll come up with a plan to wipe the humans’
memories.”

“What about us?” Savannah asked. “We can’t
trace or flash, but we can certainly fight.”

“You, Ash, Thrash, and Blaze will need to find
a different way to get inside undetected,” Raider replied. “Someone
needs to stay out here and keep an eye on what’s happening outside
the hospital.”

Everyone looked around at each other,
obviously hoping that someone would volunteer to stay out of the
action.

Raider cocked an eyebrow at them. “You all can
work out the specifics. I’ll go hack their vision and let you know
when you can go in.” He stood and flashed from the shadows into the
melee of humans. Before anyone could track it, he was already
inside the police van and had tranced two officers into thinking
they had to go pee. He immediately returned to the
others.

“I can get us in through the sewers,” Thrash
offered. When everyone—especially the Valkyrie—wrinkled their noses
at him, he rolled his eyes. “Fine. Stay out here and miss it all.”
He, Ash, and Blaze shared a quick nod before they stood and ran
through the shadows away from the hospital. Caleen, Odette,
Savannah, and Raven glanced at each other before following the
men.

Raine crouched down next to her sons as she
looked at Raider. “Is everything set?”

“I’ve got it looping, but I don’t think we’ll
keep them clueless for long. Can you keep an eye on things out
here?” When she nodded, he looked at Ethan and Draven. “Let’s head
in—”

“You’re not going in without me, are you,
cousin?”

All four of them turned just as Ferox crouched
next to them. “I’m surprised none of you called to fill me
in.”

“You’ve been busy,” Raine said, her voice
laced with venom.

“You’re right, and for that I apologize. The
point is, I’m here now to fight alongside my men.”

Raider turned to Ferox. “The others are
inside, and I’ve got the humans’ vision under control. Draven,
Ethan, and I were about to go inside.”

Ferox stood and smoothed his fighting jacket
as he eyed each of them. “Well then, let’s get in
there.”

****

Mass pandemonium, huh? That’s what the news
lady said. Well, she hadn’t been on the inside of the hospital.
Raider and Ferox had teamed up, which meant that Draven and Ethan
started making rounds together. He guessed that Blaze, Thrash, and
Ash were staying with the Valkyrie, but he had no idea where they
were.

The amount of blood inside this place was
disgusting, even to a vampire. Children, adults, doctors, nurses,
anyone they came across lay dead on the hospital floor. Raider and
Ferox worked as a team as they searched room by room until they
reached the elevators. This floor had been completely wiped out, no
survivors. They punched the button and rode the elevator two levels
up, skipping the floor that Draven and Ethan were
searching.

Both warriors stealthily moved from the
elevator as they heard sounds erupting down the hallway. They
briefly inspected each room as they passed, but were drawn further
down the hall by the sounds of a battle.

“I heard something in here,” Ferox whispered,
stopping in the hallway. “Move on ahead, I’ll check this
one.”

Raider nodded once and moved forward as Ferox
ducked into the room. He pulled his daggers free and held one in
each hand as he neared the screams and cries that came from the
nurse’s station up ahead.

As soon as he turned the corner, the severity
of the situation slammed into him. Four children were ravaging
bodies, biting, sucking, maiming. He didn’t have to reach out with
his mind to know what was going on here. The children had turned
Drac. A painful cry escaped one of the nurses, and Raider kicked
into gear. He rushed forward, gripping one of the children and
throwing him against the wall. The wall crumbled from the impact
and the boy fell to the ground. The other children whirled on him,
baring their teeth. The three of them launched themselves at him,
colliding against his waist. He swung out with his arm, sending the
kids in all directions.

From behind the nurse’s station, one of the
nurses rolled over and started crawling away slowly. Raider
positioned himself between her and the children, ensuring that she
wouldn’t be fed on again. As one, the kids swarmed him. He fought
them off again, pushing them away as if they were flies.

How was he to know that they were simply a
diversion?

A pair of arms wrapped around Raider and
crushed him to the being behind him. He pushed down with his arms,
brandishing all the strength he could muster. Just as he thought he
was gaining some ground, his attacker struck, its fangs driving
into his neck. Raider yelled out, pushing against the arms that
bound him, but the attempt was futile. The children swarmed him,
their small teeth slicing through his skin like butter. He yelled
out in pain, yelled for Ferox’s help, but it was useless. The
bastard who’d bit his neck grunted in pleasure as Raider’s
lifeblood seeped from his veins. The demon had likely not seen that
the Drac kids had latched on, because once he noticed, he ripped
his teeth back out, shredding his neck.

Raider’s strength waned, his knees buckled as
a round of growls sounded in the hallway. The big bastard behind
him was growling at the children, and the children were growling at
him. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was the dirty tile
floor rising up to meet him.

****

Nitro woke up in a rush as pain exploded
through her neck. She sat straight up in bed and put her hand to
her neck, but there was nothing weird there.

It wasn’t her.

She quickly glanced around, finding that she
was still inside Raider’s room. It smelled heavily of his dark,
spicy scent, but her vampire was nowhere to be found. Confusion
clouded her mind for only seconds more before she remembered what
he’d done to her. He’d drugged her, and likely left her here while
he went to take care of the Drac business himself.

Kaira was in one of the ceiling corners.
Crawling down the wall, she made her way to Nitro, jumping onto the
bed. How had she gotten in there? The Guardians had warded the
mansion against intruders. Nitro shook her head. That wasn’t
important. What was important was that Raider had drugged her and
left her here.

A low growl came from her chest as she
scrambled from the bed. Kaira dodged out of the way as she rushed
over to the door, turned the knob, and wrenched. It didn’t budge.
She yanked again, and yet still it remained closed. She reached out
to Raider, ready to give him a mind-to-mind ripping, but what she
found on his end wasn’t what she’d expected to sense.

Pain. Weakness. He’d been fed on—was
still
being fed on.

A much louder growl erupted as she banged on
the door. Just on the other side, she heard Gregory
approach.

“Let me out,” she yelled.

“I’m sorry, mistress, but Raider has
specifically said you cannot leave the room. He put one of his
locks on.”

She stepped back from the door and inspected
it. It looked like a run-of-the-mill door, but the vampire had put
mojo on it…

She kicked out, her heel sticking in the wood.
She had to pull her foot free, which pissed her off all the more.
Kaira joined in then, launching herself at the wooden obstacle.
Miraculously, it splintered slightly; a small hole gaped in the
middle of the door, which was just big enough for the little demon
to scramble through. Nitro bent over, watching Kaira scare the old
man, who had just backed himself into the wall. She turned then,
jumping up and turning the knob. The door opened quickly, allowing
Nitro to run out.

“Don’t tell me he did that to any other
doors.”

Gregory quickly shook his head and she was
off. With Kaira running by her side on the walls, jumping back and
forth as they ran down the hall, passed the stairs and library,
through the entryway and out the front door.

The Children’s Hospital was miles away, and
she needed to get there
now
. Closing her eyes, she imagined
the hospital, hoping that she’d by some miracle have the ability to
trace.

Yeah…not so much.

She ran down the front steps, ready to flash
toward the gate, when something caught her attention. Thadius. He
gleamed in the moonlight, a beacon begging her for a ride. She
threw her leg over the seat and started her bike up. He purred to
life, growling with excitement as she revved him. Kaira jumped on
the seat, hanging onto Nitro’s shirt just as she goosed it. She’d
argue with the demon, but she’d seen the little thing in action.
Kaira could take care of herself as well as Nitro could. The tires
spun out and she was off, toward the Guardians’ gate. Even without
her hitting a button, the iron gates opened at her
arrival.

Pulling out onto the quiet neighborhood
street, she drove like a bat out of hell as Kaira held on
tightly.

Minutes. That was all it took to reach the
hospital. The drive had been the easy part. The hard part had been
all those humans clamoring about with their hearts beating and
their pulses ringing in her ears.

She parked Thadius in the parking lot and
dismounted. Walking toward the entrance of the hospital, she had to
bite back the hunger that racked her. It didn’t take long until she
scoped a good entry point, but that entrance meant she needed to
haul some serious ass. She surged forward, bypassing human after
human, in a speed none of them could even track. Kaira stayed on
her like white on rice, only she wasn’t flashing, she was tracing
repeatedly, going just far enough ahead so that they stayed side by
side. Nitro kept flashing: around a human, dodge this, dodge that,
jump the tape, and
voila!
she and her demon side-kick were
inside.