I shook my head at his accusatory tone. “I waited in the locker room for you for so long, but once I heard all the explosions, I left because I thought maybe you went to help the army when you heard the siren.”
With a firm grip on my shoulders, Gabe made sure our eyes locked, his expression serious and unwavering. “Do you know how scared I was for you?” He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in for a hug filled with relief. “I saw that fucking Unicorn nearly kill you at the fountain, and I think my heart stopped. I can’t lose you, Vin.”
I held him close, savoring the feeling of his arms around me and offering a silent prayer of gratitude for our survival.
“I need to get you to your room. It’s the safest place for you, away from any potential danger.” Gabe’s words were barely out when he clicked his fingers against the keycard, the plastic face popping off to reveal tiny numbered dials. Completing the code, a faint click echoed from the door’s mechanism, signaling the lock’s release. “All keycards have a backup battery for instances like this.” Gabe looked at me with a smug smile. “By the way, can I have my key back?”
I held out the crisp, white card, its edges sharp against my fingertips, and he snatched it away, tucking it into his back pocket with a swift motion. As we entered the stairwell, the echoing silence amplified the sound of our footsteps, and I looked up at the countless floors stretching before us. “I don’t suppose the elevators have a backup battery, right?”
He laughed from inside the doorway. “Yes, they do, that’s what I just activated. The keypad temporarily unlocks this stairwell and allows us to use the elevator inside.”
I’m not religious, but thank God.
A lone metal door, dented and scratched from age, was bolted to the wall to our left. Pressing the metallic button, a small light illuminated the knob, and within seconds, the rusty doors groaned open.
After pressing the top button, the elevator rumbled to life with a low, vibrating hum. “So what’s going on out there?”
“The Unicorns launched an invasion,” Gabe calmly explained. “We’ve speculated an attack was coming; we just didn’t know it was going to be tonight.”
I nodded, remembering a prior conversation. “My dad did say our enemies have been quiet, but what are they looking for in The Wastes?”
“They can’t get inside without going through The Wastes first.” His eyes shifted away. “I’ve been told they’re looking for a way to kill all vampires, and they think the key is hidden somewhere in Elysium.”
“Is it?”
He shrugged. “No idea. I’ve never been told of a trigger that would kill all the vampires in the world, and I don’t know why one would be made.”
The elevator doors slid open, revealing a dimly lit hallway, the silence broken only by the faint hum of machinery. Only the dim glow of the keypad to my apartment broke the darkness of the hallway. With a slight wave, Gabe’s card unlocked the door.
Placing one hand on the handle, I opened it ajar. “You’ll protect me tonight?”
“Absolutely.” He smiled. “I first have to report to your father that you’re back safely and get my arm bandaged, then I’ll be right back.”
“Deal.” I smiled at him, at my boyfriend. “Thanks for looking out for me.” Stepping inside the penthouse, I lingered on the man in the hallway who constantly put me on a pedestal. The door clicked shut, and I eased myself into the kitchen, pouring a glass of rich red wine. Its taste did little to calm my nerves.
I was safe.
“What a crazy birthday,” I murmured to myself, taking a sip of the spiced red wine. The adrenaline wore off, and a wave of heavy-lidded fatigue washed over me, my senses dulled like a foggy hangover.
“Hello, Mr. Asposito.”
My grip on the wine glass tightened as a man in pristine white robes, his light hair entered my view, the air around him thick with unspoken power. The mask obscuring his face was crafted from metal and shaped like a horse’s head with a tiny horn jutting from its brow.
A Unicorn.
The man’s sudden appearance startled me, a gasp escaping my lips as my grip on the wine glass loosened, sending it tumbling to the ground with a sharp shattering sound. Purple liquid pooled at my feet as bits of glass tinkled on the floor. “W-who are you and what do y-you want from m-me?”
The man clasped his hands, his knuckles white, and spoke in a calm voice that resonated with authority. “No harm will come to you as long as you do as I say.”
So much for being safe.
I nodded, and the cold steel of the handcuffs clicked shut around my wrists as the man secured them behind my back. From behind, he wrapped a coarse white fabric around my mouth, the rough texture scratching my lips as he bound it tightly to the back of my head, silencing me.
Usually, handcuffs and a gag would have a different effect on me.
“Please follow me.”
His hand was placed in the middle of my back, urging me forward. We walked along the plush carpet, which reached from the penthouse to the elevator, and pressed the button. I stared at the button, a silent prayer on my lips, willing the power to be off, but the doors slid open with a hiss of compressed air, a chilling sound in the sudden silence. The man reached into his front pocket and swiped a white card. The doors closed, and the vestibule descended through Elysium. As the screen inside counted down the numbers, it halted at floor thirteen.
