“What the hell?” I said, stepping back.
Harris stepped in front of us, leveling his gun at the crack in the ceiling. “Stay behind me.”
Another deafening thud followed, accompanied by the sound of splintering wood. The crack widened, crumbling at the edges as bits of plaster and debris rained down.
“Nicolas, there’s someone above us—they’re trying to break through the ceiling,” I said into the phone, my voice tight with fear.
“Get out now!” Nicolas hissed. “Eli, go! Now! I’m on my way.”
Another impact, and the hole above us widened until it was the size of a beach ball. Several pale faces appeared through it, grinning down at us with malevolent delight. I caught a flash of fangs.
That galvanized me into action. I shoved the phone into my pocket, grabbed Sam’s hand, and fled, pulling her along behind me. I wrenched open the door to the hotel room just as the windows on either end of the hall exploded—figures swarming through, at least a half dozen on each side. They moved with inhuman speed.
Sadie flew forward and kicked open the door across from us, hard enough to splinter it into pieces. The room beyond was vacant, identical to ours.
“Get inside!” she hissed, pointing toward it.
Sam and I darted through the doorway, and Sadie immediately positioned herself between us and the door.
Then another loud thud shook the floor, followed by cracking wood from the hotel room we’d just fled. It was punctuated by several heavy, body-sized thumps—vampires dropping through the ceiling.
A split second later came the ear-splitting pop-pop-pop of gunfire.
Between the vampires swarming from above and those flooding the hall at either end, we were penned in. This had been a trap after all—just not the one Nicolas expected.
It was a trap for us.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE || COLE
“I’ll be damned,” Jeremy said, the moment we arrived. Driving would have taken too long. Instead, we used vampiric speed to race across town. It was still agonizingly slow. I followed his gaze to the top floor of the building, where I saw three vampires descending from the roof and dropping through a broken window, one after the other. Disbelief washed over me, and my stomach tightened with dread.
A group of human bystanders noticed it as well. One of them gasped and pointed. Another took out their phone.
“Go,” Thierry said harshly, glaring toward the humans. “We’ll be right behind you. Right after we handle them.”
I was in motion before I even realized I’d moved. My only thought was getting to Eli.
In a blur of speed, I reached the outer wall of the hotel and scaled it, my fingertips jamming through the stucco like it was made of butter. I felt my nails splinter, and my hands began to burn as though they were encased in fire while I climbed. I ignored the pain. It didn’t matter.
Not him. They couldn’t hurt him. I wouldn’t allow it.
I reached the window, following two more vampires through.
Immediately, I ducked a bolt of greenish light cast by Thierry’s witch friend, Poppy. The vampire who lunged into the space directly in front of me wasn’t as lucky. Her spell hithim square in the chest, causing him to go completely rigid, as though he’d touched a live wire. He dropped to the ground.
Poppy immediately hissed out an incantation, pointing at the vampire. His skin turned to stone in an instant.
Belatedly, I realized that the hallway was filled with stone statues.
The other vampire—a black-haired female dressed all in red—turned on her heel and went right for Poppy, fangs bared and eyes wild.
The redheaded witch turned and raised her hands, more of that vivid green light blooming between her palms. But she wasn’t going to be fast enough.
I darted forward in a blur of speed, grabbed the female vampire’s head with both hands, and snapped her neck with a sickening crunch. She dropped to the ground, unmoving. It wouldn’t kill her, but it would put her out of commission for at least a few minutes—longer if she was newly turned.
“Thanks for the save,” Poppy said wearily, wiping sweat from her brow with the back of her hand. “They just keep coming—I need to put another ward on the window to keep them out. They tore through the last one.”
“Thierry, Jeremy, and Godric are right behind me. Wait on the barrier until they’re through.” I paused. “Is Eli… is he—”
