“Jesus Christ!” Niko’s legs betray him and he crumples to the floor, even though he’s holding onto the wall for support. “What the fuck, Tommy! You almost killed me!”
I wrinkle my nose. “There was nothing else I could use,” I explain, rushing to Niko’s side. Once I’ve helped him up and quickly checked that he’s not mortally wounded, I switch over to Andras and poke his still body with my foot. “Do you think he’s dead?”
With my help, Niko crouches down. “From this?” He clears the hair that’s over the spot where the vase hit Andras’ head, revealing the most grotesque thing I’ve seen in my life—as the blood continues to leak, the flesh moves in these sort of wrinkled waves, mending itself. “No chance in Hell.”
“Eww.” I fight back the need to retch. “I’m wholeheartedly regretting pigging out on that buffet.”
Groaning, Niko hauls the unconscious vampire over his shoulder, grimacing from some kind of pain. I make anote to check him thoroughly once we are back to safety. “I told you not to overeat, didn’t I?”
Commotion just outside the door to the dining hall disrupts our intimate moment before it could turn into something flirty and inappropriate.
“Do you think they figured—”
Niko starts power-walking, causing me to run behind him so I can keep up. “Let’s not find out. You said there was a big terrace with a helipad? Where is it?”
I break into a sprint and lead the way while he carries Andras and types furiously on his phone with his free hand. Just as we reach the stairs at the end of the corridor, the door that I’d so carefully closed bursts open with a loud clank.
Guards with glowing eyes spill into the narrow hallway, bolting for us.
“Oh, shit! How did they get here so fast? I made sure no one noticed us slip inside!” I rush up the stairs as fast as I can, making way for Niko.
“Maybe there were hidden cameras,” Niko speculates, his face contorting in pain and strain.
I stop dead by the pool, spinning in a circle as I try to figure out what to do. We have nothing to block that door with, and even if we did, this is a dead end.
“What now? We’ve got nowhere to run!” I cry out, fear cementing inside me.
This is it. We’re done for. This great and outright insane adventure is about to end in the most gruesome way. I knew the risks, I did, but I sincerely hoped that Niko and I would be indestructible together, that we could pull off the craziest kidnaping in the world.
“Tommy!” Niko yells, already at the helipad. “Get your ass over here right now!”
His command jerks me into action. I cross the distance to the helipad in a time worth an Olympic medal, gritting teeth as my legs and lungs burn from the exertion.
The guards emerge from the stairs, bloodthirsty. The sheer number of them is terror-inducing, the way they move in unison like a wave of deadly sharks, nightmare-worthy. And they are headed directly for us.
“Niiiko! If you have some kind of plan, now is the time—”
“Go, now!” he says and jumps off the edge of the high-rise.
What the fuck? I freeze, eyes wide and heart trying to shoot out of my chest. Did Niko just jump off the roof of a fucking skyscraper?
The guards freeze to a stop, too. When I glance back at them, they are confused, whispering, panic written all over their faces. Yes, I wholeheartedly agree! What the fuck just happened?
Still flabbergasted, I stare wide-eyed at the dark sky. Out of nowhere, a helicopter emerges from below, blades whirring so loud my eardrums feel like they’ll burst. It tilts heavily to one side, a hand reaching out and beckoning me.
It takes me an extra heartbeat to realize it’s Niko’s. He didn’t jump to his death off the edge of this building, he somehow made it into a helicopter and is now telling me to get on.
Well, fuck. I need no second invitation, do I?
Summoning all my remaining strength, I dash the last couple of feet and jump, just barely catching Niko’s hand.
“I’ve got him! Go, go, go!” he shouts, and the helicopter veers to the other side and zooms up into the sky.
I dangle in the air as Niko pulls me up seemingly effortlessly, not daring to suck in a breath until I’m finally in the cabin with something solid under my feet. Panting, I try to normalize my intake of air, but it takes me a few minutes and someone placing noise-canceling headphones on me before higher functions return to my brain.
Once the sensation of scalding suffocation has passed, I stand carefully and get pulled into Niko’s lap. Across from us, I catch a glimpse of Andras, tied and cuffed like a prisoner next to Isidoro, whose expression looks both smug and like he’s just narrowly escaped death.
“What the fuck, Niko?” I bang my fists against my man’s chest, still reeling from his suicide attempt. “Did you seriously jump off the roof? What if you fucking missed?”
