Page 100 of Obsessed in Blood
Devon checked his watch. “We’re five minutes early. Do you know where the building is from here? I think it’s down that path we walked by.”
Cressa nodded. “That’s right, but we don’t have to backtrack. There’s a dirt path the gardeners use that will take us back to the one we want. It will take us by the staff apartments, so it’s best to follow the hedges to the left of the path.”
The others nodded, and Cressa took the lead. They ran into human staff near the apartment and ducked below the hedge until they passed by. When the building where Hamilton was kept became visible through the bushes, she stopped and pointed to the left and right.
Keeping her voice as low as possible, she said, “If my dream was correct, there’s one guard to the left and one to the right.”
Devon and Lucas nodded, and, quiet as the night, they split off, going around and coming in from different directions. Devon moved quickly, surprising the vampire guard and putting him in a headlock until he passed out. He dragged him to the entrance of the building, meeting Lucas, who dragged his own vampire.
“Any others?” Devon asked.
“Not that I saw.”
Devon whistled lightly, and Cressa and Raquel appeared through the brush. They crouched next to the fallen men as Devon opened the door. It opened quietly, and he rushed in, Lucas behind him. There were two more guards, both knocking their chairs over as they stood, but they weren’t fast enough. Devon leaped for one as Lucas jumped for the other. It was over in seconds.
They found a room on the same floor that locked from the outside. They dragged all four into the room, confirmed there were no other exits or communication devices, and slid the lock home behind them.
Cressa and Raquel were in the kitchen, the door going to the lower levels already open.
Lucas led the way down the stairs with Raquel following him. Devon went next but stopped Cressa before she could take a step.
“Keep an eye out, just in case. I’ll only be a second to ensure the cave entrance is open.”
She nodded as her foot began tapping.
The stairs led to a large central area with a kitchenette, a table with four chairs, a sofa, and an LCD display mounted on a wall. To the left was a long hallway.
Devon found the door leading to the lower floor and raced down the steps, Lucas and Raquel following. He found the entrance to the tunnel that led to the cave at the far back wall, right where Cato said it would be. The tension that gripped the back of his neck since stepping onto the island released.
He turned to Lucas. “You know the signals.”
Lucas nodded. “We’ll get him out.”
ChapterThirty-Four
Lucas and Raquelstared after Devon as he ran up the stairs, then they glanced into the dark tunnel.
“It’s a good sign there wasn’t anyone down here guarding the door.” Raquel stripped out of her gown, leaving her in a long-sleeved bodysuit. A belt and sheathed dagger were at her waist, and another dagger was in a thigh holster. The daggers surprised him. He hadn’t fought alongside wolves before and had assumed they shifted to fight. It seemed he had a lot to learn.
“They could be waiting for us on the beach.”
“Are all vampires so negative?”
“That wasn’t negative, it was considering all possibilities.”
“Uh-huh.” She stuffed the gown behind one of the storage shelves. “Let’s get the package.” She didn’t wait for him and took the stairs two at a time.
“Slow down.” He shouldn’t have to tell her more security could have shown up. When he reached the second floor, she was coming down from the first. She was faster than he expected.
“It’s clear, but who knows how long before someone notices the outside guards missing.”
Lucas turned down the hall that led to the cells. There were three doors on each side with a viewing port to peer inside each room. He opened the first one, and though no light flickered, he could tell it was empty.
Raquel opened the one across from him, and they checked the next two, all of them empty. He waited for Raquel to check the last room on her side, and she turned to him, shaking her head as she moved to stand next to him, pulling out the dagger at her waist.
He’d expected the other cells to be empty, but if someone had been in there, Devon had given him the decision whether to release anyone they found.
Lucas opened the last viewport, his eyes moving directly to the candle flame burning on a small table in the corner, then to the chair next to it that faced the dark window. The outline of a man huddled there. How many times over the decades had he stared at a world of sky and sea, perhaps occasionally seeing a ship pass by, sailing to places he would never go?
