It hadn’t taken her long watching the guard that morning to know exactly who he was and how to mimic him. There were a million men like him in the metropolis.
It was amazing how easy it was to get into places if you just walked with confidence. Nobody glanced at her as she walked right out onto the main floor. It helped she looked like the main guard reporting for duty, but still.
Nadi could see the source of the facility’s toxic output—massive vats filled with bubbling, phosphorescent liquid, connected by a network of pipes and conveyor belts that fed processed mushrooms through various stages of refinement. The noise was overwhelming—grinding machinery, hissing steam, and the constant drip of condensation from overhead pipes.
Perfect cover for what they were about to do.
Guards were stationed throughout the facility, but the majority were human security forces armed with conventional weapons. There were only two vampires that she could see.
One of the vents from the overhead ducting popped loose, unable to withstand the sheer pressure of the volume of bats that collided with it from behind. Black bats swarmed the space and quickly reformed in front of her.
A guard—a young human woman with the hard eyes of someone who’d seen too much violence for her age—lifted her gun at him. “Hey! You’re not supposed to?—”
Nadi slipped her knife in between the woman’s ribs. Taking her gun with her other hand, Nadi shoulder-checked her over the railing and sent the woman falling into the boiling vat of liquid. She offered Raziel the gun.
“No need.” He straightened his tie as he walked down the catwalk. He didn’t even bother to use his ability to control them. He simply used hisspeed.Before they could even register his presence, he simply appeared behind each guard, snapping their necks in silence, and threw them over into the vat.
One by one, they floated to the surface.
Some still twitching or thrashing. Most already dead by the time they bobbed up like fish.
But it wasn’t long until they were noticed by the vampires in attendance.
The first one spotted them as they descended a maintenance ladder near the cages. He was young for a vampire, probably no more than a century old, with the lean build and nervous energy of someone still adapting to immortal life.
Bullets rang out. Nadi ducked behind a wall, dropping her illusion of the guard for her own shape, drawing the curved swords.
But Raziel moved like liquid shadow. One moment he was on a ladder, the next he was behind the vampire, his hands gripping the younger immortal’s head.
The twist was sharp, efficient, and absolutely final with a loud, visceralcrunch. The vampire’s body crumpled to the concrete floor, his spine severed just below the skull.
But whatreallybothered her was how the rest of the facility was quiet. The Iltanis should have struck by now. But the only shouts and gunfire were pointed in their direction.
Wherewaseveryone?
She didn’t have time to think about that, she had to focus on not dying.
The other guards were now shooting at them.
And by the sounds of things, there were alotmore than the intelligence had suggested. “Raziel!”
“I amaware!”
A roar of fury echoed across the processing floor, and Nadi looked up to see a massive vampire charging toward her. This one was older, stronger, with the kind of presence that spoke of centuries of violence. His fangs were fully extended, and his eyes burned with predatory hunger. He held a silver switchblade in his hand.
Raziel stepped between the vampire and Nadi, empty-handed but utterly calm. “Hello, cousin Cassius. Still working simple security jobs?”
The charging vampire—Cassius—slowed to a stop. “The traitor. They said you were dead. Should’ve known.”
“Mm. I’m sure you’re disappointed I’m alive.” Raziel smiled, showing his own fangs.
“I am so very glad I am going to be the one to kill you.” Cassius grinned. “I always hated yoursmug fucking face.”
“Oh? And you really think you stand a chance?”
The other vampire laughed, deep and rough. “You’re outnumbered and outgunned. Your little fae friends aren’t coming to help you.”
“And who says I need them to?” Raziel’s voice took on a different quality—not the commanding tone he used on humans, but something darker, more intimate. “Tell me, Cassius, do you still have nightmares about what I did to your precious little progeny?”
