Page 133 of Dancing for the Minotaur

TAUREX

The coordinates the Goddess had given him led Taurex straight toward downtown Tampa, and the closer his shuttle came to the glittering cluster of towers rising beside the bay, the more puzzled he became. He checked the navigation system twice, certain he must have entered something incorrectly, but the glowing marker remained fixed on the same location.

When the sleek Montana Building finally came into view beneath him, its glass exterior reflecting the early evening sunlight in long sheets of gold, disbelief gave way to a cold, simmering anger. The children weren’t being held in some abandoned warehouse or remote compound on the edge of the city, as he had imagined when the Goddess warned him they were in danger. They were here—inside his own building.

“What in all the Seven Hells?” Taurex muttered as he magnified the coordinates. His golden eyes narrowed when the navigation system isolated the exact floor. The signal originated only one level below his own penthouse.

Orlov had been living right beneath him.

The knowledge made something savage twist inside Taurex’s chest. How long had the human male been there? Had he deliberately chosen an apartment so close to Terra’s workplace, or had the arrangement been some kind of grotesque coincidence?

Taurex doubted the latter. From everything Terra had told him, Viktor Orlov was a male who watched and waited and collected information until he believed he possessed enough leverage to take what he wanted. Apparently that obsession had led him directly under Taurex’s feet.

He guided the golden shuttle to the building’s rooftop landing area and brought it down silently. Ordinarily he used the parking levels when operating in terrestrial mode, but there was no reason to announce his arrival today, and the roof offered direct access to the private elevator system reserved for the uppermost residences.

The instant the shuttle settled, he was out of his seat and moving, every warrior instinct he had spent years training rising effortlessly to the surface. His earlier grief had vanished beneath something much colder and more useful—purpose.

Cody and Lisa were somewhere below him and he was going to get them out.

Taurex used his exclusive access key to call the golden elevator, then rode it down one level to his penthouse first. The doors opened onto the familiar foyer, and he moved quickly through the silent rooms toward the locked compartment where he kept the weapons he normally carried when conducting business on less civilized worlds.

There were several choices available to him—short blades, pulse weapons, and a compact Kindred blaster he had acquired years ago through legitimate military channels. Taurex chose the blaster immediately.

It was not without risk. The weapon was Kindred technology and any forensic examination of the damage it caused might eventually point investigators toward someone with access to off-world arms.

Taurex didn’t particularly care about that at the moment, but he cared very much about getting Cody and Lisa out without alerting every armed male in the suite below. Human projectile weapons were loud. They were primitive, violent things that announced every shot with an explosion and sent metal fragments tearing through flesh and walls alike.

The Kindred blaster was nearly silent and right now stealth and speed mattered more than anything else.

Taurex checked the charge, slid the weapon beneath one side of his dark jacket and returned to the elevator. His reflection stared back at him from the polished golden wall as the car descended a single floor—a huge horned male with golden eyes gone cold and flat, all traces of the businessman who argued with Terra about filing cabinets replaced by the warrior he had once been.

The elevator doors opened soundlessly and Taurex stepped into the hallway.

The coordinates had narrowed the location to the largest apartment on the floor. It wasn’t a true penthouse—his own residence occupied that designation—but it was large by human standards and shared the same expensive finishes as the rest of the building. Cream stone floors gleamed beneath recessed lighting, and decorative panels of dark wood lined the walls between doors.

Taurex walked toward the unit at the end of the corridor. Before he reached it, he heard something—a child crying.

The sound was faint enough that a human probably wouldn’t have caught it through the thick apartment walls, but Taurex’s sensitive Monstrum ears picked it up instantly. A high, broken sob followed by another softer sound—someone trying desperately not to cry.

Lisa.

His blood went cold—the Goddess had been right.

Taurex stopped outside the door and forced himself to breathe through the surge of Rage that threatened to overwhelm his judgment. Charging inside roaring might satisfy every protective instinct he possessed, but it could get the younglings killed. He had no idea how many males were inside or where they were positioned, and until he knew, he had to move carefully.

He knocked.

For several seconds nothing happened. Then Taurex heard heavy footsteps approaching from inside.

The door opened perhaps four inches, restrained by a security latch. A human male peered through the gap. He was broad through the shoulders and wore a dark T-shirt with a gun-shaped bulge beneath one arm, but Taurex dismissed the possibility that this was Orlov almost immediately because there was no white stripe in his hair.

Terra had described Viktor Orlov’s appearance several times without realizing how useful the information might someday become. Slick black hair with a distinctive white streak on one side, pale gray eyes, expensive suits and the oily confidence of a male who believed currency placed him above consequences.

This male had close-cropped brown hair, so not Orlov—one of his guards.

“The fuck are you?” the human demanded, staring up at Taurex’s horns.

Taurex kept his expression calm.