Page 43 of Never Run from an Immortal

“It’s empty,” Aidan breathed a heartbeat later.

“What?”

“The facility. The whole fucking site is empty.”

He went quiet, and she knew he was giving his instructions to the other Vampires.

“We’re getting closer,” he said. “No point leaving the cars so far away in this weather.”

Rain came down, thick and heavy, and Rae was inclined to agree. The original plan had been to take a service tunnel the humans used for their power lines to come up into the heart of the facility, but it was in an area of the First District too narrow for their vehicles.

Rae had received a report back from one of her operatives only a few hours before; the facility had been manned at that time. Which meant they’d cleared out before nightfall. She pulled up Omnia personnel files on her PAD, reading through the cadet’s details until her attention snagged on something. The operative’s sister had been missing for a week.Fuck.“They were tipped off,” she muttered.

“By who?”

“One of mine, I think.” Rae couldn’t bring herself to blame her cadet for that. The fault was hers for not screening him better. For being distracted.

Aidan was quiet, likely passing on the information again. Zeke’s data had provided test subject names, with dozens of matches to missing person lists Rae had access to. But no information about who the data was goingto; that was too much to hope for.

They stopped a block away from the facility beside an access point for the service tunnel, the metal door hanging wide open. Rae hadn’t told her operative any of their plans, had only asked that he report back with any activity. She hoped whatever he’d given Torrin and the others had been enough for them to hand back his sister. That the girl was still alive when they did.

Baelin greeted her as they exited the cars, swiping rainwater from his eyes. “They’ll sweep first,” he explained, following Rae’s gaze as she watched one of Aidan’s units enter the service tunnel. Behind him, Aidan instructed his First Unit, the rain drowning out his words.

The air hummed, and Rae took a step closer to the tunnel, a shiver running down her spine. Something wasn’t right. She pressed a hand to the outer wall, closing her eyes to feel for traces of magic. Aidan’s abilities had been tampered with repeatedly in the last week; she wasn’t going to rely on him.

Her eyes shot open, and Baelin’s gaze locked on hers. “What is it?” he asked.

“Get them out!” she cried, just as an explosion rang out and Baelin slammed into her. A shrill sound sang in Rae’s ears, and it took a moment for her to realise the Vampire was above her, his body pressing hers into the wet ground. “Baelin,” she rasped, all the air knocked from her lungs.

For a too long second, he didn’t move. Then he coughed, and Rae loosed a breath beneath him.

“What happened to staying out of trouble?” Aidan snapped as Baelin’s weight shifted off her. She rolled to her feet, eyes fixed on Aidan, on the way he pulled a glass vial from his inside jacket pocket, bit off the cork, and brought it to Baelin’s lips, a thin line of crimson trickling onto his lower lip. Blood.

Are you hurt?he asked her without taking his eyes off his friend.

I’m fine.Though Rae didn’t doubt he already knew the answer.Is he?

Another vial. Another cork spat into the dirt beside them, and had Rae not been spending so much time with him, she might have missed the look of concern that flashed so briefly across Aidan’s face before he schooled it to neutrality.

This time Baelin reached for the vial, knocking back the contents and glancing over his shoulder. “I liked this shirt.”

Sometimes the similarities between the two of you are alarming, Aidan said dryly in her thoughts.

Rae huffed a laugh, but the sound quickly withered away when she looked back at the entrance of the service tunnel, the black scorch marks around the door. No one was running in after the unit that had gone ahead, and that told Rae everything she needed to know. They were dead.

No survivors, Aidan told her, confirming her suspicions. She felt the hint of remorse in his tone, the frustration at nothaving sensed what was going on in the tunnel. Whatever advancements had been made with the test subjects, it was already messing with his Provident abilities far too much for Rae’s liking. Trading one group of power-crazed autocrats for another would do Demesia no good at all.

Baelin grumbled something about the rain and reached for his PAD, inspecting the smashed screen where it had been in his back pocket. The back of his shirt was singed in places, probably even the ends of his hair, if Rae had to guess.

“Let’s get you back to the manor,” she said to Baelin, forcing down the guilt that was crawling up her spine. He is not your friend, she reminded herself for a second time—but he’d saved her life, without hesitation.

Aidan pulled his Ascendant to his feet. “Orion will take him.” The First Unit was already moving around them, hands on weapons, eyes searching out into the dark.

“Ascendants always travel separately. It’s a safety thing,” Baelin explained when Rae began to protest.

It made sense. Travelling together meant one target, and both the Vampire Lord and his Ascendant could be taken out in one hit. Baelin shrugged away help as Evander offered him a hand.

“Thank you,” Rae told him, hoping he knew just how much she meant it.

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