Page 114 of Fanged Embrace
Something Caden said floated back to me, something heand Arlon were muttering about during that meeting at the Leyore coven. Something about the very building we stood in.
I stiffened. “The roof.”
River lifted her head. “What?”
“This building has a helipad,” I panted, already worming away from her and barreling toward the far door. “They’re escaping from the roof!”
I had barely managed more than a few hurried steps before that door burst wide open—and a wave of armored guards poured in. Human, hybrid, and vampire. Every one of them brandished ugly, warped weapons pointed directly at the two of us.
I backed up slowly and held my own gun at the ready. Behind me, River was snarling, a throaty, guttural sound that had the hairs on my neck standing upright. She was ready to fight, but there was one problem:
We were instantly surrounded. Outnumbered and outgunned.
57
River
There were more of them than we’d expected. Even with their personnel spread far and wide across the facilities, the organization still had more than enough manpower to trap us in that building. The alarms were still blaring throughout the corridors, and thundering boots in the distance told me more armed muscle was marching up the stairs to meet us.
Which wasn’t ideal, considering we already had our hands full with the guards in this room.
Laurie backed up slowly, stiff with tension, until she stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me. I felt the rapid flutter of her heartbeat, her ragged breathing as she clutched the gun tightly in front of her. Her aura radiated outwards in overlapping waves, fury in one pulse, fear in the next. I did my best to soothe that tide, but my own aura was going haywire too.
We were completely surrounded, and the circle of guards closed in tighter as more poured in behind them, guns trained unwaveringly at the both of us. My muscles coiled tight, ready to spring, every instinct roaring to fight, but Laurie’s presencekept me rooted in place. If I so much as blinked, they’d open fire—and if I went down, Laurie would be going down with me.
I held myself rigid instead, my breath coming shallow and strained, heart thumping wildly as I raked my brain for a way out of this new predicament. A way out that didn’t end with both of us riddled with bullet holes. I scanned the room slowly, taking stock of our surroundings. I counted twenty guards in total, all of them armed and alert, circling us like wolves.
The one right in front of us raised his gun and aimed the barrel directly at Laurie. “Nowhere to run.” His eyes narrowed at her own gun, still held aloft with shaky hands. “I suggest you put that down.”
“I suggest you go to hell,” she muttered through gritted teeth, unrelenting with her snippy commentary, even at gunpoint.
“Put the gun down!” the guy barked back. His eyes were cold, ruthless. He was only human but the weapon in his hands made him a deadly threat. “The director wants you alive, but that doesn’t mean I won’t hurt you if I have to.”
Laurie’s hands trembled, fingers tight on the trigger. She didn’t move, didn’t lower the muzzle, furious defiance flickering dangerously in her expression.
“Laurie,” I murmured. “I think you should do what he says.” It killed me to say it, but the look in his eyes said he meant every word of his threat. The organization wanted her alive, but they clearly didn’t specify in what condition they expected her to be delivered.
Laurie, however, did not put the gun down. She didn’t fire it either. She did something much worse. Her lips thinned to a hard, harsh line and her eyes zeroed in on the guard, flashing with fire. Then she lifted her hand and pressed the barrel directly against her own head.
The guard faltered, his face slackening momentarily in shock. “What the hell are you doing?”
“You know I’m valuable to them,” Laurie snarled back, voice unwavering despite the tremor in her hands. “Your boss wants me alive, right? You can’t afford to lose me. So, here’s the deal: You let River and me walk out of here right now, or I make myselfpermanentlyuseless to you.”
My blood ran cold, dread clawing cold fingers up my spine at the implications of the words she spat. “Laurie…”
“Trust me.” Laurie’s voice was icy steel, her resolve evident in the fierce set of her jaw. Her eyes never left the fuming guard. “They won’t risk losing their precious experiment.”
It was extreme, horrifying actually—but she was right, and for a heartbeat, I thought she had them. The guard sneered, baring blunt teeth, but he lowered his gun. But from the corner of my eye I caught movement, and whipped around just in time to see another guard lunge forward.
I raised my claws, ready to raze him to the ground, but froze in place when he lifted his own weapon. That second barrel was aimed directly atmy forehead.
I dropped my arms, slowed my breathing to a crawl, and the guy inched forward. The deadly muzzle pressed cold and unsettling against my skin. Had it been any ordinary gun, I wouldn’t have batted an eye; I would have crushed the insignificant hunk of metal with my bare hands. But that was no ordinary gun—that was a weapon designed to kill monsters. Designed to kill people like me.
“If you try anything stupid, your creepy girlfriend goes down with you,” the first guard hissed somewhere behind me, taunting Laurie. “Are you willing to risk that?”
“Creepy?!” I cut in with a gasp, if only to shield her from the direct terror of that threat.
She said nothing, and I held myself dead still, assessing her expression from the corner of my eye. Laurie looked stricken, finally beat, fingers slipping from the trigger in agonizingly slow increments. I could feel the anguish radiating off her inviolent waves as she lowered the weapon. I wanted to scream at her to run, to fight, but there was nowhere to run to, and fighting was impossible now.
