"Get dressed. Something you can fight in. The perimeter's been breached and Vincenzo's finally making his move."
The softness of sleep in her face hardened into alertness, fear flickering beneath the surface before she suppressed it.
There she is, he thought.My perfect queen.
Rodrigo's jaw tightened as every instinct screamed to lock her in the safe room and throw away the key.
Lupo's words echoed in his mind.Trust that she is strong enough to stand beside you, not behind you.
"Go to Leo in the conference room. I should be there, but I might have to leave straight away. Stay safe for me," he begged. "I'm going to be needed all over the compound, and the others will protect you while you take down Vincenzo's comms for me."
Giana seemed to fight an internal struggle before she kissed him hard. "Go, but don't get killed or I will be so fucking mad at you."
"I'll do my best. Get dressed and catch up." He kissed her once more, and then he was out the door and running, his boots echoing through the stone corridors.
The conference room was already a storm of activity by the time he reached it. Leo sat at the heart of it,surrounded by monitors showing camera feeds from every sector of the compound. Iz worked beside him, coordinating communications, her voice a steady counterpoint to the chaos crackling through the speakers.
"What is happening,Leone?" Rodrigo asked, taking his position at the central tactical display.
"They are coming in as we expected," Leo replied without looking up. "They hit the east and west sectors simultaneously, exactly four minutes ago."
Red markers on the monitors showed enemy positions converging on the compound from multiple angles. At least forty hostiles, moving in disciplined fire teams, using cover and suppressive fire like they had trained for exactly this scenario.
"Dario's holding the east wing," Leo continued. "He's got the heavier fortifications, but they are throwing serious firepower at him. Mortars, maybe? Something's making the ground shake."
"Silas has the west," Iz added. "He's managing, but they're trying to push through the old stables. He's requesting to have backup ready."
"Kon and Athena?"
"Already in the thick of it." Leo pulled up a camera feed showing a section of the perimeter wall. Rodrigo watched as Athena dropped two attackers in rapid succession with a wide, peaceful smile on her face. Kon covered her flank with a short saber in one hand and a gun in the other.
"Where's Altun?" he asked.
"East terrace with Julian. She said…" Leo paused, his eyes darting to something on his screen. His face went pale. "Rodrigo, you need to see this."
He pulled up a camera feed from the outer perimeter fence line that marked the boundary of the compound's consecrated ground. Rodrigo's blood ran cold.
Figures moved in the shadows beyond the fence. Something was wrong with them. They shuffled with an unnatural gait, their movements jerky and disjointed, their eyes gleaming with a faint, sickly light in the pre-dawn gloom.Gul.
"Fuck," Rodrigo breathed. He had seen them once in Istanbul, during the attack on Kon's warehouse. They were living corpses, animated by forbidden magic, hunger incarnate wrapped in rotting flesh. Their relentless advance, inhuman strength and immunity to pain still haunted his nightmares.
"They're not crossing the fence," Leo replied, voice strained. "They keep reaching for it, but something's stopping them. It's like there's an invisible wall."
"It's the consecration because this was originally a monastery. The old wards, renewed by generations of Colleoni priests, still hold."
"How can you be sure?" Leo demanded.
"Altun told me. Can you get her on comms?" Rodrigo asked him.
"One second."
A crackle of static, then Altun's voice came through a moment later, "I see them, Rodrigo, but they aren't advancing past the perimeter."
"How many?"
"Thirty. Perhaps more. They're positioning themselves to block any escape route. Anyone who tries to flee the compound…"
She didn't need to finish. Rodrigo understood. Thegulweren't attacking because they were cutting off a retreat. They wanted to turn the compound into a killing ground with no escape.
