“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
The guards’ station was just where they said it was. A Darkblood sat behind the desk, his feet propped up, reading a newspaper. In a heartbeat, Dom was behind him, his blade unsheathed.
“Goodbye, asshole.” He plunged the silver-tipped blade deep into the guard’s sternum and twisted. The body slumped to the floor, where it darkened and began to char. Even the clothes disintegrated, until all that remained were the metal parts. Zippers, rivets, coins and a large set of keys.
He sprinted hack to the cell and soon had the door open. “Hurry, but stay very quiet.” He gave them quick directions. Corey hung back with Blake. Dom unholstered a gun and checked the safety. “Either of you two know how to use this?”
“I do,” Corey said.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me? It’s got silver-tipped bullets. Through the heart and the Darkblood is dead, anywhere else and he’s wishing he were. Now, go.” Seeing Corey hesitate, he added. “Leave with them. I’ll find her. Now get the hell out of here.”
Dom moved down the corridor quickly but methodically. He tried to reach Mackenzie, but she didn’t answer. Why the hell had he wasted precious time freeing those people? He should’ve followed his gut and freed her first. If something happened to her because of that delay, he’d?—
When he rounded the last corner, light from a cracked doorway spilled out into the dark hallway. A control panel was on the far side of the room, and the huge wall of windows overlooking another room reminded him of a surgery observation area. Was this the viewing room she’d mentioned?
Mackenzie?
No answer.
A door fifteen feet away hung open, as well, and he heard voices again. “Yes, m’lord,” someone said.
Dom froze, hardly daring to breathe. It washim.Pavlos. Just a heartbeat away.
Random thoughts filled his head. The sound of his mother’s scream. The terror in her eyes just before Pavlos killed her. His father, tied with silver chains to his chair, forced to watch. The draperies flapping in the open window. Never had he been this close to the monster who was the last one to see his parents alive. Not in the catacombs of Paris, on the hills outside Prague or down in the Florida Everglades. Not until now.
Revenge chilled him from head to toe as he palmed a blade. It took every ounce of willpower he had to stand his ground. He slipped into the viewing room instead. On the other side of the windows, Mackenzie was strapped to an exam table. With her arms out at right angles, an IV bag of blood at her side, she lay with her head turned away.
Oh God, she wasn’t...gone...was she? Was he too late?
Just then, she turned her head and opened her eyes. He was at her side in an instant. She blinked a few times, as if unsure of what she was seeing. Then she smiled and her relief flowed into him.
“I knew you’d find me,” she whispered.
He quickly unbuckled the leather straps and pulled her into his arms. After thinking he’d lost her, he wanted to hold her like this forever. Before he could get her out of the exam room, he needed to get the IV out of her arm. He tugged gently at the tape holding the thin tube to the inside of her elbow and slid the needle out. A small trickle of blood dribbled from the site. Without thinking, he dipped his head and sealed the wound.
Oh God, that taste.It sat on the back of his tongue. Sweet and enticing. He forced it out of his mind and pulled her off the table.
“Wait. I don’t want those pricks to have this.” She unhooked the half-full IV bag and tucked it in her pocket. “We’ve got to get to Corey.”
“I already found him and the others. They’re on their way to safety. Come on. Let’s get you out of here, too.”
Just before they exited the viewing room, they heard voices out in the hallway. He pulled Mackenzie down behind a gurney as two DBs entered.
Dom stealthily unsheathed two knives.
Close your eyes. This isn’t going to be pretty.
In a single movement, he jumped out and knifed them both. A dual jerk and a twist. They collapsed to the ground in unison and began to disintegrate.
“Let’s go.”
Mackenzie was at his back. He was reaching for the door when the smell hit him. He tightened the grip on his knives, prepared to throw them. They were wrenched from his hands as if by magic and clattered to the floor. What the?—
“What a delightful surprise.” A tall, crane-like figure in a black robe was suddenly in front of Dom, his feet floating several inches above the floor. The overhead light glinted off Dom’s knives, now held in his bony hands.
Pavlos.
Dom lunged at him, but Pavlos was faster. Before he knew what was going on, a cold metal band snapped around Dom’s neck and jerked him off his feet.
