Gem turned to Claude. “What happened up there?”
Claude stared out the window. “I don’t know. I was guarding the door when he shadow walked onto the floor from the stairwell. The flashlight blinded him, but not before he knocked the stake out of my hand. I tried to keep him away from the room, but he broke the door. He bit my arm, I bit his scalp, and the next thing I knew, we were in the room. It happened so fast. I don’t remember seeing Kira or the boy, but the dog was barking in the bathroom. I was afraid he would go in there, so I looked for a weapon and saw one by the window. He came after me, and I lost the flashlight in the melee.” Claude turned, a perplexed look on his face as he studied the carpet. “I remember seeing an arm out of the corner of my eye. Someone must have grabbed him, but we were in a tussle on the bed. He was choking me. It felt like my windpipe was going to snap in two, and then I started to lose consciousness. Suddenly he stopped, and I managed to shove him off the bed, but I was so busy gasping for air that I didn’t see anything. Then a light blinded me. Probably the flashlight, but for a minute there, I thought I was passing out for real. I got real hot all of a sudden, and then it was quiet.”
“Was it Kira who grabbed him?” Gem asked, tugging the cover up to her chin as if someone were reading her a scary story. She shared the bed with Hunter, who was fast asleep with the dog curled up between them.
“I don’t know,” Claude admitted. “It’s all a blur.”
“I think maybe the boy had something to do with it,” Christian suggested.
Gem snapped her gaze up. “Why do you say that?”
Christian folded his arms, his back against the wall. “We found him missing a glove. He’s young, but he already knows how to use his gifts. He could have temporarily stunned the Vampire. Just a thought. Has anyone asked him what happened?”
They looked over at the sleeping kid, and the answer was a resounding no. He’d been through enough. Shepherd was out searching for Kira.
Wyatt eased up on his elbow and looked around. “Where’s your naked friend? Or is he still in the shower?”
Christian crossed one foot over the other. “I don’t think you’ll be seeing the likes of him anymore. After his good deed, he’s sipping daiquiris in hell.”
Crush’s snore fired up again like a chainsaw from where he slept on the floor near the closet. No one laughed, mainly because they were all just as tired. Since Crush couldn’t hear anyone but Niko and Christian, he had no trouble sleeping.
Viktor walked in and wearily shut the door. He glanced at Crush on the floor before addressing the group. “Shepherd is still looking, but Blue was unable to find Kira after searching the neighborhood. If we have not found a body, that is a good sign. She is alive somewhere, and my guess is her animal took over. If that is true, she will not come back until she’s herself again. If we succeed in reclaiming Keystone and Kira has not returned, we will continue our search. I will hire men to find her if I have to. But right now she is safer where she is than with us.” Viktor took a deep breath. “Blue needs her rest. She will fly to Keystone tomorrow to see if anything has changed with Sparrow’s activities. Tomorrow is an important day. Do not stay awake talking. You are welcome to my room. We will discuss our plan of attack in the morning, so it is important you rest as much as possible. Christian can no longer hear you the way a Vampire should, and there is no better time to strike. In three days, we may no longer have our powers. We cannot afford to wait and see what happens next.”
Niko looked up at him from the floor between the beds. “Do you have a plan?”
“The Vampires we’ve encountered are not skilled fighters, but we cannot assume this is the case for all. We attack at high noon, and we move in fast. Our goal is not to get inside the house.”
“Then whatisour goal?” Christian asked.
Viktor leveled him with his eyes. “To kill every last one of them.”
CHAPTER25
After dark, Sparrow sent in a female Vampire to charm me. When she opened the cage, I tried to flash out, but she shadow walked and restrained me. Without Vampire strength, fighting her was futile. Sparrow didn’t get whatever it was that he was looking for. He wanted specifics, and I didn’t have them. At least he hadn’t sent in Lenore. I didn’t want that woman poking around in my head because she would go looking for a lot more than what Viktor might be planning. Maybe I’d planted enough doubt in Sparrow about her ulterior motives. The Vampire didn’t ask me specific information about my gifts or my team. Maybe Lenore already knew and had filled him in.
Or maybe Sparrow was as dumb as a brick and thought his Vampire army was invincible.
After she left, I stared at the hourglass on my palm, now more than halfway filled. What did that mean for the others who’d attended the party? Would they feel the pressure and flip sides? How many were that desperate? It was too soon to tell, but I guessed by the last day, a large number of them would be showing up at the door.
When morning came, the sun trickled through the latticed windows and painted the floor. Based on the direction, this was definitely the east side, which put me somewhere near the interior balcony.
One of Sparrow’s goons checked on me periodically, so it didn’t surprise me when the door opened.
Whatdidsurprise me was seeing a bearded man waltz in, nonchalantly carrying Blue’s falcon by the talons. She swung back and forth, one wing flapping chaotically. He grabbed the key off the wall and headed to the cage.
I sprang to my feet.
“Step back or I’ll snap her in half.”
When I saw her bloody feathers, I complied. As soon as he unlocked the door, he flung her inside. Her falcon hit the concrete and lay still long enough for me to see an arrow impaling her wing. After the Vamp locked the cage, I fell to her side.
“What the hell did you do to her?” I shouted.
Ignoring me, he put the key back on the wall and left the room. Blue’s falcon had the same blue eyes as she did, and they penetrated my gaze. The grey feathers on her wing were bloody. She flapped with her good wing and hopped up to her feet. The arrow protruded from the wing near the body.
“Oh shit,” I said, realizing what the issue was. “I can’t do this, Blue. Isn’t there some other way?”
She couldn’t shift. Technically she could, but with the object still inside her, it would tear her apart.
