Kyle lurched forward as, from the hallway,his mother’s scream reverberated around the room. Determined todraw the gunfire away from his dad, Kyle sprinted out from behindthe glass. He raced across the room to where his dad lay unmovingon the floor; a growing pool of blood soaked the floor beneathhim.
***
Lucy knew only a direct shot to the heartwould bring her down now, but her human instincts still caused herto duck back into the hall. It took everything she had not to curlinto a ball and cower from the gunfire.
However, she dredged up her courage asStefan, Vicky, and Nathan went through the door. They took down thefirst wave of fighters but ducked into a lab when more fighterspoked their heads out of doors and fired down the hallway.
They were stuck in this hallway while theirenemies hid behind doors and fought around corners like thechickens they were. These assholes wanted to fight for this cause,but they wouldn’t do it fairly.
And they wouldneverconsider thepossibility they were wrong. When Mike, Aiden, Maggie, and Davidwent through the door next, Lucy followed Isabelle, but Mollie wasdriven back into the stairwell by a volley of gunfire aimeddirectly at her.
The gunfire caused Lucy’s ears to ring, butit didn’t deafen her like it probably would have if she were human.Somehow, despite the gunfire being louder to her, she still heardother sounds.
Grunts of pain and cries of horror filled thehallway as they pushed forward. They were sitting ducks, but theycouldn’t stay in the first room; if they did, the guards would trapthem in there.
“Let’s go,” Stefan said.
He was the first one back into the hall, andthis time, they all went with him. She felt like she was in a videogame as bullets whizzed by her head, sliced across her ear, andskimmed her arm as they zinged off the walls.
When Stefan went down, Isabelle cried out andraced over to his side. She’d almost reached him when a bulletstruck her and knocked her on her ass.
Grasping Isabelle under her arms, Vickydragged her out of the way while Nathan gripped her feet. Mike andAiden pushed on until they entered the second room. Lucy stopped tohelp David and Maggie pull Stefan into the safety of the room.
Except the room wasn’t all that safe. Fivemen were already in there, and they were still firing. However, itwas too late for any of them to retreat as more were approachingfrom behind.
Nathan made it to one of the guards andyanked the rifle from his hand. He used the butt of the gun tosmash it into the man’s face. He turned, and swinging the riflelow, opened fire on the other men in the room.
Two of them went down when he shot out theirlegs, David tackled another when he tried to run. When the othertwo ran for the door, Vicky kicked out the legs of one, and Maggiebroke another's leg.
Wails of anguish filled the room, but whenfurther blows rendered the guards unconscious, those wails ceased.Vicky turned her attention back to Isabelle and inspected hershoulder. A large hole remained there, but the blood flow wasalready slowing.
Stefan wasn’t so lucky as he’d taken a bulletto the center of his forehead.
CHAPTER 47
“Will that kill him?”Lucy asked.
“No,” Maggie said. “It will take time toheal, but he will.”
“Isabelle,” Vicky said as she pulled theguard she knocked out over to her sister.
Isabelle’s lashes fluttered before her eyesflew open. She gasped in a breath before rolling over.“Stefan?”
“He’s going to be okay,” Vicky said. “But youhave to feed and get blood into him.”
Isabelle started to shake her head, but thenher gaze settled on Stefan, and the color drained from her alreadypale face. There were ghosts with more color than shepossessed.
Vicky seized the guard’s wrist and held itbefore her sister. “I know you don’t feed on humans, but you haveto. We can’t stay here, and you both need blood.”
Isabelle closed her eyes before nodding. Asif afraid it might burn her, she snatched the guard’s wrist andbrought it to her mouth. She held it there for a fraction of asecond before biting down. The guard jerked but didn’t wake. Atrickle of blood slid out of the corner of Isabelle’s mouth as shedrank.
David and Nathan secured the other guardswhile Mike and Aiden slipped out of the room. Gunshots eruptedagain before fading away.
David and Nathan forced blood into the guardsthat Nathan shot to keep them from dying but did nothing more totend their wounds before zip-tying the guard’s ankles and wristsbehind their backs. They stripped them of all their weapons and putthem in the corner of the room.
Lucy crawled over to the door and poked herhead out as Mike and Aiden appeared in the doorway of the roomdiagonally down the hall. She couldn’t see any more guards outthere, but she could feel them creeping around like lice through achild’s hair.
She turned to look behind her as Isabellereleased the guard’s wrist and crawled over to Stefan. Drying tearsstreaked her face as she bit into her wrist and rested it againstStefan’s mouth. She brushed the hair back from his forehead beforebending to kiss it.
