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The Rogue punched him, a massive fist connecting with his jaw. A second later, a brutal kick smashed into his ribs. Lucan went down, but he swung out with his booted foot and collapsed his attacker's leg. He leaped on the Rogue, one hand going for the blade sheathed at his torso.
A few feet away, the helicopter's rotors began a high-pitched whine. They were speeding up. The pilot was preparing to take off again.
He couldn't let that happen.
If he let Gabrielle off this roof, he had no hope that he would see her alive again.
"Get us out of here," Gabrielle's captor ordered his pilot, as the chopper's blades whirred faster and faster.
Outside, scrabbling on the roof, Lucan fought the Rogue who'd attacked him. Through the dark, Gabrielle spotted another one coming up from a hatch in the roof.
"Oh, no," she breathed, hardly able to speak for the cutting edge of steel that was biting into the skin at her throat.
The big male leaned past her to see what was happening on the roof. Lucan had returned to his feet. He sliced the first Rogue who had jumped him, lacing open the big vampire's gut. The Rogue's scream was audible even over the loud drone of the helicopter's rotors. Its body started convulsing, spasming... melting.
Lucan's head pivoted around to the helicopter. Fury blazed out of his eyes, glowing like twin embers lit by hell-fire. He lunged forward, roaring, shoulders bunched. Coming at the vehicle like a freight train.
"Get us out of here now!" shouted the male beside Gabrielle, the first true trace of worry she'd heard in him. "Now, goddamn it!"
The helicopter started lifting.
Gabrielle tried to shrink away from the bite of the blade by pressing her spine into the back of the small rear seat. If she could just find a way to knock his arm away, she might be able to reach the cockpit door -
There was a sudden lurch of the helicopter, as if they had snagged on some part of the building. The engine whined, straining.
Her captor was fuming now. "Take off, you idiot!"
"I'm trying, sire!" said the Minion at the controls. He pulled a lever and the engine protested with a terrible groan.
There was another lurch, a sharp downward tug that rattled everything inside the helicopter. The cockpit rolled forward. Gabrielle's captor lost his grounding on the seat, a momentary inattention.
The blade left her throat.
With a burst of sheer determination, she threw herself backward and kicked out with both legs, shoving him into the back of the pilot's seat. The vehicle pitched sharply forward. She scrambled for the latch on the cockpit door.
It swung open wildly, flapping on its hinges as the whole compartment shook and wobbled. Her captor was righting himself, about to grab for her again. His sunglasses had fallen off in the chaos. He glared at her with icy gray eyes, full of malice.
"Tell Lucan this is far from over," the leader of the Rogues ordered her, hissing the words through an evil smile.
"Go to hell," Gabrielle shot back at him. In that same instant, she lunged for the open space of the door and dropped the several feet down onto the roof.
As soon as he saw her, Lucan let go of the helicopter's landing rail. The vehicle jolted upward, spinning crazily as the pilot struggled to gain control of his ascent.
He raced to Gabrielle's side and pulled her to her feet, hands roaming all over her to make sure she was in one piece. "Are you okay?"
She nodded jerkily. "Lucan behind you!"
On the roof, another Rogue was heading for them. Lucan met the challenge with pleasure, now that Gabrielle was with him, every muscle in his body primed for dealing death. He drew another blade and pounded toward the approaching threat.
The fight was savage and swift. With fists flying, blades slashing, Lucan and the Rogue engaged in a deadly hand-to-hand combat. Lucan took more than one hit, but he was unstoppable. Gabrielle's blood was still strong within him, giving him a fury that would have been a match for ten opponents at once. He struck hard and with lethal efficiency, dispatching the Rogue with a vertical slice to its body.
Lucan didn't wait to see the titanium do its thing. He spun around and ran back to Gabrielle. Once he was in reach of her, all he could do was pull her into his arms and hold her fast against him. He could have stayed there all night, just breathing her in, feeling her heart beat, stroking her soft skin.
He lifted her chin and placed a fiercely tender kiss on her lips. "We have to get out of here, baby. Right now."
Above their heads, the helicopter was rising higher.
From out of the clear cockpit, the Gen One vampire who'd taken Gabrielle stared down through the glass enclosure. He gave Lucan a vague salute, grinning as his ride ascended into the night sky.
