Embraced By Darkness

found. Let's not make it too easy.'

'I wasn't intending to.' He motioned to the door on the other side of the room. 'Go check that. I'll move these two into the shadows.'

I walked across the room and pressed an ear against the door. The mechanical sounds we'd been hearing seemed to come from here. Certainly they were stronger—so much so it was almost impossible to hear anything else over them.

I glanced at Rhoan to make sure he was ready, then gripped the handle and carefully opened the door.

It slammed right back into my face and sent me reeling backward. I barely had time to swear before it was opened again and two wolves in human form were lunging toward me. I hadn't even scented them—but they'd obviously smelled me.

I scrambled backward, trying to collect my wits, trying to keep out of their reach. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rhoan move, and realized my attackers hadn't grasped the fact I wasn't alone. So I stopped moving, letting them get close, moving just fast enough to avoid their blows, then dropped my shoes and released a quick one-two jab of my own, hitting one in the gut, the other across the chin.

Chin boy reeled backward—straight into Rhoan's waiting arms. I grabbed the other, spun him around, and threw him backward. He hit the concrete wall hard, his head smashing into it with a crunch that made me wince. As he slid unconscious to the ground, I spun to see if my brother needed help. I shouldn't have bothered.

'How's your nose?' he said, not looking at me as he stepped over the body of the man to the still-open door.

'I'll live.' The door had squashed my nose back against my face, but it wasn't broken and wasn't even really bleeding. Not much anyway. 'What's beyond?'

'Machine room.' He paused, cocking his head slightly. 'I can hear distant footsteps. I can't tell where exactly they're coming from.'

'The office areas won't be near the machine room, I wouldn't think.'

'No.' He glanced at me. 'Ready to move on?'

I nodded. He slipped out the door and, after picking up my shoes, I followed. The room beyond was lit by globes high in the ceiling, but there were enough shadows to provide some cover should we need it.

We walked down a set of metal stairs, the sound of our footsteps seeming to echo across the silence. The room below wasn't actually full of machines. Sure, there were generators and water pumps, but there was also a vast array of switchboards, electrical stuff, computer stuff, metal boxes of various shapes and sizes, and God knows what else. Calling it a junk room would have been more appropriate.

We reached the floor and ran across to the nearest machine, keeping close to the various bits and pieces as we made our way through the room.

The sounds of nearing footsteps were becoming evident, but it was still hard to pinpoint a location. At times, they seemed to be all around us, though if that were the case, we surely would have seen them as we ran from the cover of one machine to the other. Only the dead could move fast enough to confuse a werewolf's sight—and we weren't normal werewolves. And even if we had been, we surely would have smelled them. Most vampires tended to be smelly beasts at the best of times.

We were nearing the far end of the machinery room when goose bumps began to scamper across my skin. I scanned the immediate area, then what walls were visible beyond it, seeing nothing out of place. Yet I couldn't escape the sensation we were about to walk into danger.

I stopped.

It was then I smelled him.

A vampire, stepping up behind me.

I spun and lashed out with a stiffened hand. He caught it hard and fast, amusement flashing across his thin lips. Or maybe that was contempt. Hard to tell sometimes with suckers.

I twisted and slashed out with the heel of my shoe. The wooden stiletto scraped across his face, and sparks flickered as the smell of burned flesh bloomed.

The vampire swore and began to crush my fingers, as if hoping to restrict my movements by sheer force of pain alone. At the same time, a tingling began to buzz around the edges of my thoughts. He was trying to get a mind-lock on me. Like that was ever going to happen.

'There's more,' Rhoan said, his voice harsh as the sound of flesh hitting flesh joined the scent of burning in the air.

I didn't reply, just wrenched my hand away from the vamp. Surprise flickered in his eyes, but I didn't give him enough time to wonder why a mere wolf could free herself so easily from his grip. Just hit him as hard as I could, my fist flattening his nose and sending him flying backward. He hit the side of a generator with a grunt and slid to the floor, blood gushing from his nose and filling the air with its thick scent.

Another guard came at me. I ducked his blow, dropping to the ground and spinning around with an extended leg, sweeping him off his feet. He hit the ground with enough force to bruise his spine, but he didn't even grunt, just sprung back to his feet and leapt toward me.

I whacked out with a shoe, the spiked heel spearing through his hand. Fire flickered as his flesh began to burn, and he made a gargling sound. I ducked his punches, then thrust up, hitting him hard under the chin and sending him flying backward, my shoe still stuck in his paw.

Rhoan suddenly appeared beside me. He hurled away another wolf, then grabbed my arm. 'Let's get out of here. The four remaining guards are undoubtedly on the way.'

'We can beat four.'

I twisted away from the blows of the vampire with the bloody nose, then kicked him in the nuts, as hard as I could. He went down with an oomph and didn't get up.

'Not without killing the other six.' Rhoan disappeared from my sight for a moment then reappeared, the smell of blood thick on his skin.

'There are other options to killing. Like, calling in help.' Hey, the things in our ears were there for that very purpose.

'Right now, they might think we're just thieves. The minute they know the Directorate is onto them, they'll pack up and leave. That's what happened in England after the seventeen kills there.'

I ducked another blow then punched upward, aiming for the vamp's chin. He dodged, the bastard, and lashed out at me with a booted foot. The blow caught me in my still-healing thigh and pain flared. I hissed and whacked him with my remaining shoe. 'Seventeen? I thought it was only a dozen or so?'

'There were four other similar kills the police couldn't connect to the club.' He shrugged. 'I did a little investigating after you went to bed.'

'You didn't tell me that.'

'Slipped my mind,' He paused, then added, 'The other men just entered the room. We need to get out now.'

'Then go. I'll follow.'

'Like hell. Sisters first.'

He shoved me forward. I staggered a few steps, caught my balance, then ran like hell back through the machine room, heading for the loading bay and the half-open door. Hoping, of course, that it wasn't now closed. Although the lasers would soon take care of that.

Rhoan grabbed my arm, his grip tight, bruising. 'Faster.'

We pounded through the shadows, ducking and weaving as the remaining guards came at us, shoving them out of the way more than fighting them.

We reached the steps and pounded up them. I thrust open the door and ran inside. We'd gained precious seconds on our pursuers. Part of me wondered if it was going to be enough, simply because we had no idea what waited in the loading bay. I certainly didn't trust the silence coming from that room, that was for sure.

'Push the shelving unit down,' Rhoan said, pointing to the unit on the left while he headed right.

I moved quickly to one side and shoved it with all my might. The unit made an odd sort of groan then slowly began to topple. Machinery bits and tools scattered, clanging across the floor and making enough noise to raise the dead. Or another alarm. Though I guess that was a pretty pointless worry when they were obviously more than a little aware of the fact they had uninvited guests.

Rhoan shoved a heavy-looking desk in front of the shelves. 'That'll hold them for a few seconds.'