More people spilled into the landing over the bodies. Lucas leaped into the attackers. He smashed one out of the way, cracking the man’s skull against concrete like a walnut. The man slid down, leaving a bright red stain on the wall. Lucas ripped a woman’s throat out with his hand, backhanded another man down the stairs, and shuddered as a handgun barked. Red spray shot out of Lucas’s side. He lunged forward and broke the gunman like a twig and dived into the doorway.
The sound faded. She was completely disconnected from her body now. Only her vision worked.
Lucas emerged from the door, bloody, his eyes furious. He must’ve jerked her up, because her view changed and suddenly he was directly above her. He barked something, angry. The world shook. He dived down. His lips closed on hers. She felt nothing. He jerked back up and rocked back and forth, screaming again.
He kissed her again and rocked, his face jerking up and down. His hands pushed on her chest. She saw the muscles on his arms flex, but felt nothing. The red stain on his sweatshirt spread wider. Was he doing CPR? Was she dying?
The ice cracked. She heard a distant female scream somewhere impossibly far. Warmth flooded into her. Something popped inside her mind and she saw a radiant light, bright and glorious.
The world snapped back to its normal speed, jerking her back into her body. She felt everything at once: pain, the hardness of the stair under her back, and the rhythmic push of Lucas’s hands on her chest. She gasped. He pulled her up, into his arms.
“Mind Bender attack,” he told her. “Up. Keep moving.”
The scent of heated metal rising from Lucas was so thick, she almost choked. He wasn’t just hurt. He had to be close to dying. If he died, she would be free, but in this moment she didn’t care. She just wanted him to survive. “You’ve been shot.”
“We must move,” he told her and pulled her up to her feet. “Faster!”
He drove her down the stairs, through the door, and along the narrow hallway. They dashed past a row of offices. Lucas rammed a door head-on and they burst into a small conference room. Henry lay slumped in the corner, his back pressed against a wall that was mirrored floor to ceiling. His cracked glasses sat slightly askew on his blood-smeared face. Emily was curled in the crook of his arm.
Karina cleared the room in a desperate sprint and dropped to her knees. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” Henry said softly. “She woke up a little when I had to help you, but now she’s sleeping again.”
Karina hugged her, cradling Emily’s small body. Finally.
Lucas shoved the table against the door and landed next to them.
“I see you’re bleeding, too, cousin.” Henry smiled. “Nice of you to join me.”
“Where are the others?” Lucas growled.
“I don’t know. We were hit two minutes after you went into the vault. It was a concentrated assault. They came prepared. The seventeenth floor fell within ten minutes. We were retreating, when I got cut off. I went into cloak almost immediately. Our people may have evacuated.”
“Without us?” Karina stared at them.
“Arthur probably thought I fed,” Lucas said. “Your blood would give me enough of a boost to either get Henry and me clear or to hide.”
“They are surrounding us,” Henry said. “What’s the plan?”
“You and I go. They stay,” Lucas said.
“Ah.” Henry nodded. “I thought it might be something like that.”
“What are you talking about?” Karina gathered Emily closer.
“We’re going to open that door,” Lucas said. “Henry and I will take off. Henry will make sure they concentrate on us and I will make sure to keep them busy. They will follow us. You will wait here for three minutes, then you will take Emily, go out into the hallway, and turn right. You will come to an intersection. Turn right again. That will get you to the stairs. Shoot anyone you see. Then you get the hell out. If you make it out of the building, Arthur won’t look for you right away, since I’ll be dead and he won’t need a donor immediately. Don’t use credit cards, don’t stay twice in the same—”
“They will kill you!” No, that was not how this would go. The spring of tension inside her shivered, compressing.
“It was never about me surviving,” Lucas said. “I died when we opened the vault.”
“He’s right,” Henry said.
God, he pissed her off. “No.” She shook her head, trying to keep a lid on her anger. “We go to the stairs together and fight our way down. Together.”
Lucas grabbed her, jerking her close. “You will do as you’re told.”
“No,” she said into his snarl. “I won’t. We go together.”
The pressure inside her built.
“This isn’t a democracy!”
“Lucas, I can’t carry Emily and shoot at the same time. I can barely hold this stupid gun with two hands. Do you think I’m Rambo? It’s suicide for me, Emily,
“She has a point,” Henry said.
“See? They will kill me and your grand sacrifice will be wasted. I don’t want you to die for nothing. I don’t want you to die at all.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because I care if you live or die! My God, you are a moron! We fight our way to the stairs together. We have a better chance that way.”
He shook her. “I’m trying to save your daughter, you idiot! I’ve been doing this a long time and I am telling you, if we go out there, we’ll all die.”
“He also has a point,” Henry said.
Karina exhaled. Emily’s life was all that mattered. “Then drink my blood and get her out of here.”
“I would have to drain you dry. I’m barely conscious!”
“Do it.” Karina told him, furious. “You have the best chance of getting out of here with Emily alive. Drain me.”
“No!” he snarled.
“Do it, Lucas!”
“That’s nice,” Henry said. “But the Ordinators are coming.”
“Drain me or we go to the stairs,” Karina said.
“No, we’ll do this my way.”
“Your way, I die, you die, Emily dies!”
“There is no time,” Henry said calmly. “You missed your opportunity. We are all about to die. Don’t let them take you alive. You will regret it.”
The back wall of the conference room shuddered. Cracks crisscrossed the wood. It shattered and rained down in a waterfall of tiny splinters. People stood behind it, people with automatic weapons and dark helmets shielding their faces. In front of them a tall man with pale hair down to his waist slowly lowered his hand, smiling. She looked into his face and saw her own death there.
It hit her like a punch. Emily, she, Lucas, and Henry—the four of them really were about to die.
For nothing. They would die for nothing.
Lucas surged to his feet, trying to shield her.
No. No, this was not happening. She was tired and scared and pissed off and she was done with this shit.
Fuck them all.
The coiled spring inside her snapped free. Fiery power surged through her in a glorious cascade. It was time to set things right.
The smile slid off the blond Ordinator’s face. He opened his mouth.
