Julian closes his eye. Opens it.
"She's here. She's on the mattress. She's awake." Simone's voice cracks once, catches, steadies. "She's watching me."
"Simone." Celeste, from the top of the stairs. Quiet enough that the girl below might not hear. "Take your time."
"I know what this room looks like from where you're sitting." Simone is talking to the girl now. The pitch has dropped. The deliberate softness she found for the survivors in the medical wing. "I know what the bread tastes like when they remember to bring it and how the light changes when someone opens the door and you don't know if it's better or worse."
Silence from the girl.
"My name is Simone. Your mother sent us."
A sound through the comms. Small. High. The kind of sound a body makes when a word hits the one wall it's been holding up.
"She carried a bracelet you made," Simone says. "She put it somewhere we could find it so we could come get you. That's how we're here."
The sound again. Closer. The girl is crying.
"I'm going to help you up now. Is that all right?"
A pause. Fabric shifting. Then Simone's breathing changes. "She can't stand. I've got her."
"She's light. She's too light." Simone's voice is rough.
"Bring her up," Celeste says. "Alexei, check her at the vehicle."
Simone's boots on the stairs. Slower now. Each step measured.
Simone's feed flickers back. She's carrying a girl. Thin. Face pressed to Simone's shoulder.
Through the comms, a voice I haven't heard before. Faint. Close to Simone's mic. "Lira. My name is Lira."
Simone's voice breaks completely. "Her name is Lira."
Through the bond, grief and fury hit sharp enough to blur my vision. Then the pulse steadies. Harder than before.
"Wolves." Kael's voice cuts through, sharp. "Vehicle approaching from the north access road. Fast. Two inside. Armed."
Julian straightens.
"Simone, get to the car," Celeste says. "Now. Alexei, engine."
"Kael, intercept," I say.
"Already moving. Two wolves on the approach."
The shared pulse between us sharpens. The same focus I've felt from her before combat. Tight. Rapid.
On Alexei's feed, Simone crosses the yard at vampire speed, the girl's arm over her shoulders. She's at the SUV in seconds.
"Kael?"
On Celeste's feed, headlights on the access road. Then impact. A snarl. The windshield shatters. A second impact.
"Vehicle stopped. One guard down. The second triggered a handheld device before we reached him. Short-range burst."
"Celeste, that's a distress signal," Alexei says. "Standard Konstantin panic protocol. It sends a coded ping to the nearest operational node."
"How long?"
