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Jake was waiting in the lobby. He tossed Nikki a flashlight and led them toward an exit. “This will take us down to the basement.” He swiped a keycard through the lock and opened the door. “From there we can get into the parking garage."
"Do the elevators go down to the garage?” Michael touched Nikki's elbow, stopping her from entering before he could. Her annoyance clouded the link, but he ignored her, his gaze searching the darkness for any sign of life—or un life—below in the basement. Nothing moved, and the only heartbeats he could hear were Nikki's and Jake's. Both were erratic.
"One does,” Jake said, locking the door behind them. “But there are several security cameras in the structure, and they're monitored twenty-four hours a day."
"Did the cops check the tapes?” Nikki asked, her voice soft yet edged with tension. He wondered what it was she sensed.
"Yeah, but they didn't find anything,” Jake said. “Whoever took Dale didn't take her out through the parking garage."
Nikki's flashlight beam swept across the darkness. He wondered why she was bothering. Her night sight was almost as good as his these days. If he could see in this darkness, she certainly should be able to. Not that there was anything to actually see. He swept his gaze past the huge clumps of machinery and frowned. Nothing stirred, and yet something waited in the far corner. A hint of depravity and death. Frown deepening, he led the way down the stairs. Both Nikki and Jake made a racket on the metal steps and the noise seemed to echo across the room.
"Are the garage cameras still being monitored?"
"Yep,” Jake said. “And I checked them earlier. Nikki's attacker didn't appear on any of them." No surprise there. Michael reached the basement floor then stopped. Nikki paused beside him, and apprehension stirred the link.
"There's something here,” she said.
"Yes,” he replied, wrapping his fingers around hers. “But I'm not sure what."
"It doesn't feel human, whatever it is.” Though her voice was steady, her trepidation shimmered through him.
"Vampire?” Jake queried, stopping on the last step behind them.
"No.” Michael glanced at him, noticing for the first time the slight bulge in his jacket pocket. “And you know from experience guns are not an effective weapon against them." Jake merely grinned. “Maybe, but it sure as hell makes me feel a little safer. You have to let an old man have his illusions."
Nikki snorted softly. “Old man my ass. You could probably outrun me, bad heart and all."
"Damn right, especially if it's a pack of vampires on our tails.” Though he grinned, his tension was evident in the set of his shoulders. “So if it's not a vampire, what the hell is it?"
"Something that isn't scared by a lot of noise,” she muttered. “Something that has been dead for some time."
Jake groaned. “Not a zombie. That's all we need to complete the party right now."
"No, it's not a zombie,” Michael said. “You'd be able to smell it by now if it was."
"What then?"
"I don't know.” He met Nikki's narrowed gaze and almost smiled. She wasn't going to let him get two steps away from her side—not that he wanted to, especially until he knew why that vampire had been sent after her. “Keep close behind me. If you sense anything, tell me, no matter how insignificant you think it is."
She raised an eyebrow and nodded. He tugged her forward and switched to the infrared of his vampire vision. The cloak of darkness lifted completely, and a hazy, humanoid figure appeared in the far corner of the room. One that didn't have a heartbeat or take a breath.
He wove his way through the network of noisy machines and air conditioning units and approached the far wall. The body he could see was behind it.
Nikki stopped in front of the wall and pressed her right hand against the plaster. “It's not solid,” she murmured. “And it holds back death."
He glanced at her quickly. Her expression was as distant as her thoughts, and unease slithered through him. Was this yet another mutation of her psychometry talent? When he'd shared his life force and made her as immortal as he, had he somehow altered her psychic essence? Even now he wasn't sure, and neither he nor Seline had been able to find much in the old texts about thralls—other than one warning that stated it was better not to turn those with psychic talents. It didn't say why, which was damned frustrating. Seline was still looking, but he had a horrible feeling they'd better hasten the search. It wasn't just her talents mutating. There were signs of other changes too—like her night sight.
"Sure looks solid,” Jake said into the silence. He slapped the wall, then frowned and stepped back, running the light across the ceiling and down to the machines behind them. “You know, I thought there was more of a gap between the wall and this unit."
"Maybe there once was—there's another wall behind this one,” Michael commented, his attention still on Nikki. She was moving away, her fingers trailing across the wall, as if feeling for something. “There is a gap of about four feet separating them."
Jake frowned. “Why would anyone want to build a false wall like this?"
"Maybe someone who wants to conceal a hidden entrance." Nikki stopped near the end of the wall, and energy stirred, tingling briefly across his skin.
"Here,” she murmured. “There's an entrance here."
Jake flashed his light across the plaster. “Nik, that wall is as solid as the rest of it." Michael probed the wall with his fingers and found a hairline crack in the plaster, one that extended ceiling to floor. He moved around Nikki and found another four feet along. Looked up. There was a minute gap between the ceiling and the wall, barely noticeable and yet telling. As was the metal rod he could see in the middle of the plaster, thrusting from the ceiling into the floor.
