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She had to know what had happened.
Alex's uncertain steps became a jog, her boots dragging in the snow. Her heartbeat was racing, lungs squeezing for each breath as she ran through the frigid darkness, following the piercing beam of her snowmachine's headlight.
She sucked in a gasp when she saw the bloodstains in the snow. So much blood. Kade's footprints tracked it everywhere. So had the pack's many paws.
"Oh, God," Alex whispered, feeling sick, about to retch, as she ventured deeper into the forest, following the trail of gore.
The snow was stained almost black the farther she went. Blood as she'd never seen. Far too much for Kade to have lost and still be able to stand upright, let alone run off as he had when he'd realized she was there.
Alex walked numbly, all of her instincts clamoring for her to turn around before she saw something she would never be able to purge from her mind.
But she couldn't turn away.
She couldn't run.
She had to know what Kade had been doing.
Alex's feet slowed as she reached the place where the carnage had begun. Her vision swam as she stared down at the bloodied aftermath of a vicious attack. A vampire attack--worse than any savagery she'd witnessed before. Another human being, another innocent person, brutalized by the monstrous killers of her nightmares.
By Kade, though she never would have believed it had she not seen him with her own eyes. Alex couldn't move. God, she could barely feel a thing as she stood there, numb with shock and a horror so profound she couldn't even summon the breath to scream.
Kade felt the oddest sensation in his chest as he and the other warriors pushed farther into the corridor of the mine's shaft. He crept forward in the dark, weapon held at the ready, trying to dismiss the chill feeling that was knotting up tight behind his sternum.
Jesus, had he taken a chest hit in the earlier fracas?
Surreptitiously, he felt around for a wound or the stickiness of spilling blood but found nothing. Nothing but the phantom ache that seemed to want to suck a lot of the air out of his lungs. He shook it off, struggling to keep his attention on the pitch-black cavern that stretched out ahead of him and the other warriors.
The alarm sirens continued to wail from behind them; nothing but quiet awaited in the depths of the mine shaft. Then--the most minute scuff of a footstep came from somewhere deep within the shadows. Kade heard it, and he was certain all the rest of the warriors had, too.
Tegan held up his hand to halt their progress in the passageway. "Looks like the damn place is empty," he said, fishing for Dragos's lieutenant as he cast the line into the murky abyss ahead. "Hand me some of that C-4. Let's blow this mother--"
"Wait." The detached voice was begrudging and arrogant, an airless grunt of sound in the dark. "Just
... wait, please."
"Show yourself," Tegan ordered. "Walk out nice and slow, asshole. If you're armed, you'll be eating lead before you take the first step."
"I do not have a weapon," the voice growled back in reply. "I am a civilian." Tegan scoffed. "Not today. Show yourself."
Dragos's associate came out of the darkness as instructed, but only barely. Dressed in tailored gray pants and a black cashmere sweater, he looked to be more of a boardroom strategist than a military tactician. Then again, from what the Order had seen in the past of Dragos's handpicked associates, he seemed to recruit his lieutenants based on pedigree and aptitude for corruption more than anything else. Hands held up in surrender, Dragos's man hung back near the shadows of the mine shaft. He moved with slow deliberation, his carefully cultured expression not quite able to mask his fear as his eyes took stock of the five Breed warriors holding him in their killing sights.
"Who are you?" Tegan demanded. "What's your name?" He said nothing, but his gaze seemed to slide almost in-discernibly to his side.
"Is there anyone else left inside?" Tegan asked. "Where is the Ancient? Where is Dragos?" The male took a hesitant step forward. "I would need some kind of assurances from the Order," he hedged. And there went that quick, telling dart of his eyes again. "I would require sanctuar--" A gunshot exploded out of the darkness, cutting short his words as it blew away a sizable chunk of the vampire's head.
"Assassin," Hunter snarled at the same sharp instant, but his warning was eclipsed by more gunfire blasting out of the shadows.
Dragos's lieutenant--the vampire who might have given the Order their best lead on their enemy-was collapsed on the floor in a pulpy, boneless heap. Kade and the four other warriors opened fire on the black maw of the mine shaft, peppering the area with rounds as they dodged the gunfire coming back at them.
"Take cover!" Tegan shouted as the incoming bullets showed no sign of stopping. Kade and Brock ped into the nearest chamber in the corridor of the shaft, Tegan right behind them. Chase and Hunter took posts farther up on the other side of the passageway, returning fire on the relentless hail of bullets that ripped out of the darkness.
"Brock," Tegan said, his fangs gleaming in the darkness. "Throw some boom down the corridor. We'll shoot it from here and set it off."
Brock put down his gun and grabbed a pack of C-4 from his satchel. Working quickly, he stuffed a blasting cap and a small detonator into the pale cake. When it was done, he gave Tegan a nod. "Gotta hit this shit pretty square. If we miss the embedded detonator, we get no spark." Kade caught the warrior's dark gaze. "No spark, no boom."
"Right."
"Toss it," Tegan said.
