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Kaja! You talk to me right now. I felt that. What are they doing?
He’d caught her pain? That wouldn’t do. She would have to shut down their connection. She was loathe to do it. Feeling Dante was the only thing that was keeping her going.
That was why she’d been afraid. She’d been afraid of loving him. She’d been unwilling to fight for him because when she couldn’t directly feel him, she didn’t trust him. It was time to move past that. It was time to believe.
They are killing me. Come quickly. I love you, my Dante.
She closed the connection between them as the pain began again. This time she was alone, with no physical sense of Dante. As the shaking began, she realized he was with her. No matter what. She didn’t need to feel him to know he was coming.
He would always come.
Kaja howled and held on to the pain. As long as she hurt, she was still alive.
Chapter Nineteen
The hovercar stopped in midair.
Dante’s brain felt numb. Oh, his every nerve felt alive. His heart was beating so fast, he was surprised the fucker didn’t set off some alarm. His senses seemed far sharper than ever before. He could see farther, smell more. Even his hearing seemed to be on some type of steroids. He’d noticed it as they had left The Club. He’d been able to hear whispered conversations from yards away. His every sense had come to full life, but there was a hole at his center. A dead space.
She’d cut their connection. He couldn’t feel her anymore. He was numb so the pain and panic didn’t take over.
Dante tried to see out the window. A thick fog made seeing difficult, even with his enhanced vision. He strained and managed to see the name on the building. Palgrave. Palgrave Industries would own all the upper space. Dante checked the side of the building. Twenty-three. Damn. They were into the lower quarter. No wonder he couldn’t see much. Visibility was extremely poor below the fiftieth floor. And under twenty was nothing but tenements. It was where his people stuffed the poor so they wouldn’t have to look at them.
His people had more in common with Kaja’s than he liked to think about.
“This is it
.” Meg pointed to a small ventilation shaft. She seemed very excited to see the grubby thing. “It has sensors, but they don’t work. The pollution level here is off the charts. The building next door manufactures something that screws with the sensors. Heavy metals, I think. I’ve been able to get into the building, no trouble.”
“And where is the lab?” Roan asked.
“Thirty floors up,” Meg said without a pause. “We have to get to the fifty-fourth floor and go across. The first air duct you come to drops directly into the medical lab. If your consort and her captors are in there, you’ll be able to hear them.”
He would be able to find Kaja no matter where she was, but that wasn’t the point. Dante stared at the vampire. “You want me to climb thirty stories up a ventilation shaft? Tell me something, Meg. Does it have ladders?”
She bit into her bottom lip, looking so much like her human counterpart when she had to tell her warrior husband something bad. “Not exactly. Um, I’ve always used a hover lift. I probably should have mentioned that. I have one at home. We could go get it.”
Kaja was dying now. He didn’t have time to find a hover lift. And a hover lift would only take one of them up at a time.
Suddenly, he just knew. He had the strength to do this. Kaja had given it to him. He had the strength to save her.
“Fuck that.” He opened the door to the hovercar. Even with the inertial dampeners, the car swayed slightly. He pulled open the access door. It was big enough for him to crouch in. His eyes adjusted to the darkness. Strange. He could see in the dark. More than that, he could smell. Kaja. She was here in this building. She was holding on. “Roan, if you can’t follow me, then get to the cops. I need a couple of minutes to get up there and protect her, but then send them all in.”
“What are you talking about? You can’t make it up there without a lift. Look, I’ve got some mag gloves that will let me climb this, but that’s a long way up.” Roan was directly behind him. “Dellacourt, you aren’t trained for anything like this. Let me go.”
Roan might be trained, but he didn’t love Kaja. And he didn’t have Kaja’s blood flowing through his system.
“Like I said, Roan, try to keep up.” Dante jumped from the car to the access hole. The edge of the opening was small, but he felt an odd grace come to his limbs. He stopped fighting his instincts. He allowed Kaja’s blood to take over.
His claws popped through his skin, but he welcomed the pain. Longer. He needed them longer, and they pushed through another inch. His claws were long and thick, wickedly sharp on the end. They were made to rip and tear, but now they would carry him.
Dante leapt across the few feet that led to the opposite side of the shaft. His claws slid into the metal as though they belonged there. He dangled for a moment, all of his weight being held by his hands.
And he knew. He could do it. He would do it. And he would win.
“Dellacourt? Are you insane?”
Dante pulled his left hand out and pulled up with his right arm. He got up another couple of feet and dug in again. Easy as pie. He wasn’t even winded. “Nope. I’m on werewolf blood. She likes to be called a werewolf. I’ve never been this strong. If you’re coming with me, you better get going.”
