He took a deep breath and snapped his fingers, summoning Viktor’s wolf over.
“Do you even know why you’re carrying that around?” he asked, noticing slobber all over the gun belt in the wolf’s mouth.
When the elevator door slid shut, Wyatt hit the button and pressed his body against the panel to hide. All he could imagine was a man with a machine gun waiting for them when the door opened. His heart pounded as the elevator moved like molasses. Wyatt kept his eyes on the wolf. Viktor’s nostrils were twitching, but no growl settled in his throat as the elevator came to a stop.
The doors opened. Viktor’s wolf craned his neck and then stepped out of view. Wyatt took a deep breath, hooked his thumbs underneath his backpack shoulder straps, and entered a brightly lit hall. The control room was to the left, but Viktor’s wolf had already made it clear he wanted to go right.
“This way,” he whispered.
The wolf gave him a sharp look.
“Fine. But just remember it wasyouridea to separate.” He opened the heavy door and allowed Viktor’s wolf to dash through.
Wyatt quickly jogged back to the other door. Time was ticking.
The carpet met with white flooring, and when he passed an elevator on his left, he skidded to a stop. “That wasn’t in the blueprint.”
He continued on until he reached another door. This one had a small viewing window, so he peered inside the dark room before going inside. Feeling along the wall, he found a light switch and then looked around. None of the monitors on the right-hand wall were operating. Wyatt sat down at a computer station in the center of the room and sputtered with laughter when the computer came on without a password prompt.
No longer able to breathe, he took off the black mask and flung it across the room. It didn’t take long to locate the security camera program, and when he did, the monitors lit up. Most of them were aimed at the white floors of an empty fighting ring, but as he went through the commands, he found cameras in hallways and a public seating area. He spied Viktor’s wolf sniffing chairs in what appeared to be the upstairs viewing room. Wyatt took off his backpack and began copying everything to his external hard drive. He couldn’t afford to waste time digging through computer files. His sole job was to collect evidence and then get out of Dodge.
After he finished up, he walked over to the wall across from the door to check out the control panel. The large metal square had a lot of switches and buttons, each neatly labeled.
“Hold your ponies. External doors?”
Wyatt hurried back to the computer and looked closer at the surveillance system. He clicked on each camera to bring it up on the big screen.
“Empty hall, another empty hall, lobby…” He froze when he pulled up a camera aimed down at Gem. She stood in front of a steel door, wielding an energy ball. Another view showed the rest of the team standing far back.
The ball grew larger, blue light snapping from the exterior like miniature lightning bolts. When it reached the size of a soccer ball, Gem hurled it at the door and collapsed.
“Holy Toledo!” Wyatt knocked his chair over when he shot out of his seat. He’d never seen anything like that up close, let alone from a safe spot where he wouldn’t get burned to a crisp.
After the smoke cleared, the door was nothing but a memory. Claude knelt by Gem. There was no sound, but silent pictures told the story as Claude helped his weakened partner to stand. Wyatt located video of the next door. There was no way in hellfire she’d have enough energy to blast through another one, and they couldn’t pick the locks since the external doors were activated by a keypad.
He was looking down at the computer when the control room door suddenly burst open. Wyatt flew backward onto the fallen chair, startled by the loud noise. With his heart racing, he looked up to see Christian and heaved a sigh of relief.
“You scared the crazy out of me!”
Christian gave him a mirthless smile. “Would you happen to know where my partner is?”
“I’ve got stuff to do.”
Christian waltzed in, hoisted Wyatt off the floor, and hauled him out of the room. “That can wait. Viktor asked me to join, but I can’t seem to hear anyone else running their mouth but you. If my partner’s in danger and I don’t get there in time, I’ll extract your teeth, one by one, and replace them with nails.”
Wyatt blanched. Vampires were strong enough to do it. “Fine. Let me go.”
Once Christian released his hold, Wyatt hustled down the hall. He’d memorized the blueprint, so it wasn’t difficult to locate the stairwell that led to the upper floor.
Once they emerged from the stairwell, Viktor’s wolf lunged at Christian.
“Jaysus wept! It’s me, you furry eejit!”
The wolf hopped back and snorted.
Christian wiped his bloody hand on his black T-shirt. “Careful, Spooky. He’s got blood in his mouth now.”
“That only matters when they’re in the middle of a fight.”
