A Perfect Blood (The Hollows #10) - Page 12

Chapter Twelve

I stood from my crouch beside the warm, ticking car and handed Ivy the night binoculars. The brisk wind tugged at a strand of hair that had escaped my ponytail, and I tucked it behind an ear as I looked at the industrial building across the parking lot. The lights of Cincy were distant, and no moon lit the spaces in between. Deserted for forty years, the industrial area had been left to rot when the world fell apart. Trains still ran through here, but they didn't stop anymore.

I felt akin to the empty tracks and vacant buildings, abandoned when things went wrong while others thrived. Frowning, I fingered the band of silver around my wrist, thinking. Simply cutting it off would send a burst of ley-line force through me large enough to fry my brain. It was, after all, a piece of the elves' and demons' historic war, designed to make demons almost useless. Being able to cut it off wouldn't be very effective. It had to be disenchanted first. That meant Trent.

His offer to help me pacify Al long enough to explain had me more than nervous. I wasn't so sure that anything we could do or say would keep me on this side of the ley lines once Al knew I was alive. The ever-after was a hellhole, and despite my earlier thoughts that demons were more moral than HAPA, they were only when they felt like it. It was like trying to play cards with five-year-olds who kept changing the rules and lying. If you didn't have the clout to make them hold to their rules, they wouldn't.

I'm going to talk to Trent about the options. That's all, I thought, and stomach tight, I blew on my cold hands and shoved the thought away to worry about later. It was above forty-three degrees, so Jenks would be okay, but it was going to get colder the longer this took. Glenn had driven us here, taking the last road with his lights off and the car barely moving, his excitement pushing Ivy's buttons to the breaking point. Wayde had thought it was amusing, but I didn't see anything funny about it.

That had been about fifteen minutes ago, and I was getting antsy myself as I watched car after car show up and the slow deployment of people and equipment. Wayde was fidgeting by the I.S. van specially designed to hold magic-using criminals. He shouldn't even be out here, but they were cutting him lots of slack. Jenks was somewhere on the other side of the building. I didn't like him being gone this long, especially when it was so cold.

I grimaced, my low boots grinding into the grit. The parking lot was laced with cracks that allowed grass as tall as my thigh to grow, and the entire area reminded me of the tomato cannery that Ivy and I had once stormed when I'd been interning at the I.S. with her. A Were had died that night – one we'd been trying to save. I hoped it wasn't a premonition. The other Were, though, we'd saved. It bothered me that I couldn't remember her name.

I half turned when Glenn broke from the FIB officer he was talking to, his motions sharp as he stomped our way, dress shoes kicking up tiny pebbles and his suit jacket open. Ivy stood, exhaling as she handed me the binoculars. "Please tell me that's not the tomato cannery," I said.

"It's not," she said as Glenn stopped between us. His mood was tense, and I could smell his aftershave on the cool night air. There were two yellow FIB vests in his hand, and I eyed them suspiciously. They were probably ACG, but I still didn't want to wear one.

"You've been here before?" he asked as he handed one to me, and sure enough, my fingers felt the somewhat slimy feel of material coated with an anticharm spray. Maybe if I put it on they wouldn't give me any crap about being part of the team storming HAPA's hold.

Shaking my head no, I put the vest on over my thin leather coat. I wasn't wearing leather as a matter of style – though it did look good – but as a matter of my not wanting to leave skin grafts on the pavement. Chances were good I'd go down at least once before the sun rose. "No," I said flatly, not wanting to explain. "Is everyone finally ready to move?"

His motions holding an excited quickness, Glenn looked at his wrist, the dial softly glowing a faint blue. "No," he said, and Wayde rubbed his beard and edged closer, his hands in his pockets and his shoulders up about his ears. "Someone from the FIB wants to observe. We wait until she gets here."

Ivy rolled her eyes, black in the dim light. "Are they questioning your methods?"

"I've no idea," Glenn said, his low voice going lower. "They've never done this before."

A soft "mmm" came from Ivy, and she touched his shoulder. "You've never worked this closely with the I.S. before."

Wayde's posture said he wanted to argue with me again, and I turned my back on him, relieved when I spotted Nina striding in from the distant parking area at the head of about six people. "Excuse me," I said softly, then started her way. I could tell even from this distance and in the dark that it was Nina the DMV clerk, not Nina the dead vamp, and I wanted to talk to her.

Behind me, I heard Ivy say, "I'm not wearing that," and Wayde's nervous laugh.

Finding a smile somewhere, I pasted it on my face, extending my hand as I approached. The young woman took it, looking a little more unsure than that afternoon in the DMV office. A jumpy wariness had taken the place of her eager, confident excitement, and she looked somewhat wan, even in the dark, her attractive features tight and drawn. Nina the DMV clerk wasn't looking healthy anymore, even if she was better dressed and had a bevy of people looking to her.

"How are you doing?" I asked, and her eyes jerked to mine, probably catching the wisp of pity that had arisen from nowhere.

Her hand pulled from mine, and the positive smile returned – barely hiding a flash of fear. "I'm fine, of course," she said, her entourage coming to a halt behind her. "Why would I be otherwise?"

I shrugged, rocking back to get a glimpse of Ivy and Glenn. "I've seen how hard it is to have a god inside you," I said, and her eyes flashed a frightened black. Her hands trembled, and my old vampire scar tingled as she suppressed a rising hunger, a hunger he had instilled in her, one she didn't have the practice to contain on her own.

Crap, Ivy hadn't been kidding, and I stifled a surge of fear. This woman wasn't safe anymore. "I'm surprised he's not here himself. It being dark and all," I added, trying to say something to take her mind off her needs while she tried to get a grip on them.

Nina breathed slow and deep, standing stiffly as she regained control. She looked scared. She should be. "He doesn't come out of the basement much, actually," she said as she pulled her shoulders back to find a stronger posture. "He was – "

I looked up when her words cut off. Nina shivered, and like magic, I watched the I.S. boss slip in behind her eyes, shake the reins, so to speak, and take control.

" . . . waiting for you to arrive," she said, her voice now low and soothing as she eyed my leather with a much darker thought behind her appraisal. She blinked in appreciation, and I felt myself flush.

"Hi," I said dryly, and she shook her head.

"I already said hello," she said as she waved her people off and took my elbow to direct me back to Glenn, Wayde, and Ivy. "Are you not listening?"

"Don't touch me," I said as I pulled out of her grip. "Or aren't you listening to me? I don't like what you're doing to Nina. You need to spend some time helping her gain control of the crap you've been turning on in her brain before she hurts someone."

"Nina is fine," she said, smiling even more beautifully as she tugged the lace hem of Nina's shirt out where it belonged to make a more feminine statement in the otherwise business-looking attire. "I've not been at an actual tag for decades," she said as she watched Ivy and Glenn, still arguing over the FIB vest, then turned her attention to the dark building. "You've no idea how odd it feels to be able to use magic openly like this. You will participate?"

In the tag? I patted my hip, and then my back where my splat guns were. "Don't see why not." And by God, they were going to let me, I thought, glancing at Wayde.

The soft popping of gravel under tires became obvious. Ivy, too, looked up, shoving the vest back at Glenn, her posture becoming somewhat hesitant as she took Nina in, evaluating her, perhaps.

"About bloody time. I think they might be ready," I said when the FIB car swung around to park beside Glenn's, and Nina and I started toward it. "Ivy, have you heard from Jenks?" I asked, and she shook her head, clearly as worried as I was.

"Ahh," Nina said as she gazed at the sleek black car and rubbed her hands together as we walked. "Have you met Teresa Cordova, Ms. Morgan? She's the woman that Detective Glenn probably told you about. She wants to talk to you. Something about . . . a list?"

My pace bobbled, and Nina smoothly put a hand to the small of my back, propelling me forward. The scent of vampire incense rolled over me, and my pulse hammered as I was reminded of Kisten. "Uh," I said, halting ten feet from the still closed car.

Nina leaned close, laughter in her voice as she said, "That's what I told her you told me when I brought it up. I don't trust her any deeper than I can bury her. Watch her face when she realizes who I am. She's fun."

The car door opened, and Jenks darted out, his dust a bright silver, telling me he was fine. "I could have made better time if I'd flown!" he exclaimed, making bright circles around me. "Tink's panties, Rache, the guns they got over there! You ready? Seen the plan?"

I held my breath until his dust settled. I had seen the plans – several times, actually. And "fun" wasn't the right word to describe the older woman getting out of the car.

Impatience colored her motions, making her look jerky as she tugged on her gray business skirt to get rid of the wrinkles. She looked about fifty-something, a very unhappy fifty-something in low heels and hose. It was hard to tell in the dark, but it looked like her hair was an attractive mix of hard black and silver that only a lucky few women get as they grow older. A lined face, narrow chin, and no makeup made her look even more severe. She sent her gaze over the assembled team, her expression looking as if she smelled something bad.

An aide had his head near hers, and the woman's eyes flicked to mine and held when he said something. Putting a small hand on his arm, she brushed by him, headed for me.

"Watch now," Nina said as she took a deferential step backward to leave me all alone. "She doesn't know it's me," she said into my ear, leaning forward to whisper it. "You can't pay for entertainment like this."

Curious, I thought, feeling vulnerable until Jenks landed on my shoulder. A vampire with a sense of humor? Perhaps the fun-loving, skydiving Nina was rubbing off on him.

"Teresa," Nina said suddenly, her voice pointedly cheerful, "have you had the pleasure of meeting Rachel and her team yet? They're one of the biggest assets this city has. Look, she brought her own spell pistols. Grand little weapons, those. I wish we'd had them when I was still in the field. They're powered by compressed air and don't need to be licensed!"

The woman's hand extending toward me faltered, and then she grimaced, reaching out to take mine in a firm grip, warm from the glove she was wearing against the chill. "I see you've met Felix," she said, her aide standing an irritating three feet behind her, talking into a cell phone.

Nina laughed at her sour expression, and I wondered. Felix? I thought he hadn't wanted me knowing who he was. "Pleasure," I said, wincing when my band of charmed silver slipped down to thunk into my wrist.

"I've explained this, Teresa," Nina said as our hands parted. "Call me Nina now. That is who I am." Leaning conspiratorially to me, she whispered loudly, "Felix was the name of the man I did my daylight work through when we first met. I guess that sort of thing sticks with the living. I miss him," she said, and I leaned away as Jenks buzzed a warning that she was too close. "He was very small, but quick. Died of an infected tooth, poor boy."

"You don't get out much, huh?" I said as I stood between Cincinnati's head of the I.S. and the head of the FIB, wondering why they were here. Really. Why were they here?

Nina smiled deviously, and something in me twisted. She looked like a woman, but the arrogant eyes raking over me were very male. "Not that anyone can prove, no."

Lips pressed, Teresa brought her attention back from Glenn, waiting a respectful distance away. "Thank you for your help today, Ms. Morgan," she said, a big "however" in her tone.

From my shoulder, Jenks coughed, saying, "Lame!"

Her eyes tightened at the corners. "And your help in the past as well," she said, her eye twitching as she saw the tattoo fluff visible on my collarbone. "It's the future that concerns me."

I kept my hands in my pockets as my tension rose. "We get the bad guys and go home. What's more to know?" This was taking forever. If it had been just Ivy, Jenks, and me, we would have been in and out by now.

The woman sighed, and Nina shifted, smiling as if waiting for the expected punch line. "Ms. Morgan, we would appreciate a list of the magic you can do as a demon," she said, and Jenks made a weird, almost unheard whine. "For your own protection."

"That's a cap of toad shit!" Jenks said, and I raised my hand as if to cover his mouth.

"Ms. Cordova," I said firmly.

"Doctor, actually."

Well, la-di-da. "Dr. Cordova," I started again. "If you want to know what demons can do, then go to the library and look it up. Then subtract ninety percent of it and you'll be close. I'm not going to give you a list so you can blame every demonic act on me."

The woman glanced at Nina as if for support, but the vampire was stifling a laugh, badly. Dr. Cordova's finger and thumb rubbed together, the fabric of her glove scratching, and I thought she ought to lose that particular tell. It made her look like a bad movie villain. "We're concerned that – "

"No."

Nina made a dramatic sigh. "She won't give me one, either," she lamented, and I tugged out of her grip when she tried to lay claim to me. What was it with vampires anyway? No sense of personal space.

Dr. Cordova's eyes squinted, and seeming to give up for the moment, she turned to Glenn. "Detective, I'm anxious to see how you work a team. I suggest you get to it."

Jenks hummed his wings as he stood on my shoulder, whispering a delighted, "Ohh, she's pissed, Rache. You made her look bad in front of walkie-talkie man."

"Then she shouldn't have asked for something I didn't want to give," I said, but I was starting to fidget, and I wished I could slip out from under her sharp gaze. You don't get to the head of Cincy's FIB division by being nice and working well with others.

Glenn had shifted closer, his uncomfortable stance melting into determination. "Jenks," he said, and the pixy took off from my shoulder, leaving a softly glowing dust. "We're under radio silence. Will you tell team two six minutes from . . . mark?"

"Gotcha," he said, and he was gone, his dust dissolving to nothing in time and distance.

Glenn's dark eyes took in Ivy, not wearing her vest, and me in my stylish, sulfur-coated nylon. Beside the car, Wayde stood in frustrated silence. He wanted me to stay with him at the transport van. It wasn't going to happen. Glenn clapped his hands together once. "Everyone's set. Let's go. Rachel, stay with Wayde."

Like hell I am. I shook my head at Wayde, making him grimace. My pulse jerked into a faster pace, and after checking my splat guns, I broke into a slow jog after Glenn, now headed for the building. Ivy was behind me, her footfalls almost unheard over my come-and-go breaths.

"I am not going to run over there." Teresa's voice came faintly. "Get in the car, we'll follow at a discreet distance and time."

"Rachel . . ." Glenn all but growled, and I smiled slightly at him as I jogged. Dr. Cordova's car door thumped shut, and he winced at the noise.

Looking back, I was surprised to find Nina tagging along with us, looking especially trim in her suit as she effortlessly loped along. "Storming HAPA with two dozen guns is safer than sitting in a parked car with Dr. Cordova," she said.

"Yeah!" Jenks was on Ivy's shoulder so his dust wouldn't give us away. "That woman is a pterodactyl."

"There," Glenn said, and we angled to the service door I'd seen earlier with the binoculars. There was an FIB man decked out head to toe in anticharm gear beside it, complete with a helmet, night goggles, and a weapon as long as my arm that looked like it should be in the armed forces, not a residential arsenal.

We came to a stop, none of us breathing hard. "Did you know he was coming?" I whispered to Glenn, and his eyes flicked to Nina behind him.

"I didn't know you were coming," he said sourly, looking at the red-glowing screen the FIB officer held out to him. It was a breakdown of where everyone was. I hadn't known the FIB had such technology. Neither had Nina, if her high-eyebrow expression meant anything. The vampire had put on an I.S. armband during our jog here. It looked vaguely like something I'd seen in an old '40s movie, and again I wondered how old this guy was.

"Rachel, I appreciate your zeal. Go back to the car," Glenn said as he studied the screen, the information electronic, not magic, and Jenks snorted.

"The pixy is right," Nina said, and Glenn's eyes fixed on hers with a hard intensity. "Rachel is safer surrounded by the I.S. and FIB than sitting in a car, even if she is in close proximity to the very people who would like to see her captured. I'll keep an eye on her."

Glenn glanced at his watch, then dropped his head, tired. "You good with that?" he asked me, and as Jenks hummed his approval, I nodded, even as I edged away from Nina. I'd go with a chaperone if it got me inside. Once the fur started flying, it wouldn't matter, and I felt the bumps of saltwater vials I had in my belt pack, nervously counting them.

For another long moment, Glenn looked at me, his brow furrowed. "You stay behind us," he finally said, and I nodded. "Okay, let's go," he added, and eased to the door, already open and waiting for us. I slipped in after him, immediately sliding to the side and out of the small patch of lighter darkness. Ivy and Nina followed, and the FIB guy eased the door shut and remained outside to keep our retreat open.

I was in. Elated, I breathed the smell of moldy oil and decayed sawdust. It was a single large room with the ceiling girders glinting softly in the skylights. In the corner came a flash of a penlight, one, two, three.

"The primary entrance to the lower floor is over there," Glenn whispered in my ear. "Stairs. That's what we'll take. There's a service elevator outside against the far wall where the majority of the men will come in."

Ivy took off, loping toward the light when it blinked again. Clearly it was another FIB guy. They had this place stocked with them. I followed her, Nina taking the position behind me, and Glenn bringing up the rear. We said nothing as we passed the man at the top of the stairs. He was suited up head to toe in ACG like the one outside, making me feel naked with only my vest, but Glenn was wearing only a suit. And a pistol. And a really big grudge that Dr. Cordova was here.

The stairway was painted cement block, and the round pipe railings on either side were cold as I followed Ivy belowground, the air becoming chill and stale as we descended. Another man waited at the bottom. This one was an I.S. cop, which surprised me until I remembered living vampires could see in the dark better than the best night goggles. It was a joint effort in the truest sense of the word, which made me feel good.

The man respectfully inclined his head at Nina before gesturing Glenn closer. Apparently word of top I.S. brass possessing DMV workers got around. "There's an air shaft not on the plans," the living vampire said softly to Glenn, pointing behind him into the dark. "It vents out into the parking lot. They, however, are over there." He pointed in the other direction to a hazy light showing the low ceiling, and my teeth clenched.

Glenn nodded, and we crept farther into the dark. I wasn't used to having this much vanguard on my runs, but there was no such thing as being too careful when it came to black magic and HAPA. My pulse quickened at the growing light, and we slowed. The area downstairs appeared bigger than the area upstairs, a mere eight feet above our heads with thick pylons holding up the ceiling. It looked as if they'd stored huge tooling machines down here at one time, but the space was mostly empty now. My heart hammered when I heard a feminine voice call out, but it wasn't in anger or surprise. It was them.

We stopped at a thick ceiling support where another I.S. officer waited. His small pistol was holstered, but the look in his black eyes said he was ready for anything. "There," he said as he pointed, and I leaned around him to look. My mouth went dry, and I felt for my splat guns.

The suspects had hung milky plastic sheets from the ceiling to the floor to make an indistinct thirty-by-thirty room. Fuzzy shadows moved in the bright light behind it. It looked as if the plastic was two layers thick to help retain heat. I could hear the soft droning of a machine, and the easy talk of two people who hadn't a care in the world – and it pissed me off.

Glenn pulled back into the shadow, and we clustered around him. He glanced at his watch, grimacing. "We have two minutes before they come in the far end through the elevator shaft on the other side. How many people are there?"

"Two males," the I.S. guy said, glancing first to Nina, and then Glenn. "Three females, one in a modified dog cage. We can't tell if she's conscious, but we're getting good aura impressions from her. We might be in time for this one."

God, I hoped so. I thought it odd that vampires preyed on people and yet had a huge drive to protect, but that's the way it was.

Glenn checked his watch again, and I wiped my hands off on my leather pants. Ivy retied her hair back out of the way. Nina cracked her knuckles and took off her coat.

Ivy stared at her. "You're not coming any farther," she said flatly. "I'll watch Rachel."

Nina stiffened. Silent, she handed her coat to the I.S. officer and commandeered his pistol.

"You don't have the practice resisting your instincts in a high-stress environment," Ivy said, her voice low but intent. "Felix, listen to me. You will lose control."

"You overstep yourself, girl."

Nina/Felix's voice was angry, tight, and threatening, and I edged back. Glenn was getting huffy, but the I.S. officer had retreated, too, his eyes going dark as he read the emotions flowing between the two vampires, one dead for at least a hundred years, and the other living, but the epitome of vampiric lust, desire, and restraint all rolled up into my roommate.

"With all due respect," Ivy said, not backing down an inch, "you've been out of the field too long, and the child you're in has no experience at all. Stay here. Otherwise, I'll be watching you so you don't kill your host and you'll be more of a hindrance than a help. You're more of a liability than Rachel."

Glenn's frown deepened, and he turned his back on the room glowing with light and warmth just a few yards away. "If your presence is going to jeopardize a safe acquisition, you will remain here. Sir."

Yeah, like that was going to happen.

Nina sighted along the pistol at nothing. "I'm older than all of you together. I have control."

"Your host doesn't," Ivy insisted. "Felix, please. You know who I am. You know I understand what I'm talking about."

I held my breath as Nina finally looked at her, eyes squinted in thought. "Aye, you might at that. I'm thinking Nina is tired of her desk job and is impinging upon me more than I'm wont to accept. She's enjoying the adrenaline far too much. You're correct. I will stay and observe."

My exhaled breath slipped from me in a slow sound of relief as Nina gave the I.S. officer his gun back. But then Nina's head came up, and I watched her eyes dilate.

I spun when a high-pitched beeping came from the glowing rectangle of light. It was followed by harsh, feminine swearing, and behind the milky plastic, people moved. Someone had tripped an alarm, and I didn't think it was us.

"No!" Ivy hissed, her hand outstretched as Nina darted into the dark for the quickly moving shapes behind the plastic.

"Go! Go! Go!" Glenn exclaimed, and we followed.

Something had given us away before we were all in position, and if we didn't catch them in the next thirty seconds, there wasn't going to be anything left to catch.

Reaching them long before us, Nina tore a sheet from the ceiling, her trim, feminine outline suddenly sharp against the backdrop of silver machines, lab equipment, and people scrambling. A blond woman in a lab coat sitting on a rolling chair stared at Nina as she ran an arm over a countertop, sending glassware, papers, and samples into a sink. "Accendere!" she shouted, and a ball of flame rose up in it, incinerating everything.

Magic. HAPA was using magic.

Nina shouted her outrage and leapt at a military-looking man wearing a beret and a necklace of amber nuggets fumbling at the woman's cage.

"Ivy! They're hot!" I shouted as I burst in, meaning they were magic users, but she'd probably figured that out. Gasping in fear, a second dark-haired woman in high heels and jeans ran for a desk, and with tiny puffs of smoke, more evidence vanished.

"Felix, no!" I yelped when Nina yanked the man away from the cage, wrapped her hands around his neck – and squeezed. Ivy ran forward, and I drew my gun, hesitating when she got in my way.

"Get the women!" Ivy shouted, and I turned back to the blonde, who was laughing manically as she threw everything in the cupboard onto the floor and started another bonfire.

"Everyone freeze!" Glenn shouted, his stance domineering and his voice hard as he slid in with the I.S. guy behind him, screaming into the radio.

Dropping the radio in disgust, the I.S. officer ran for a second man in a pair of overalls trying to get that terrified woman out of her cage, and I heard a soggy thump of fists into flesh as they met. The alarm was still beeping. Where was the second team? Were they deaf?

"Too late, you putrid corrs!" the blonde in the lab coat sang out, smacking her hand into a big button set, then pushing off the counter, rolling her chair to a distant desk and the last set of papers. I shot at her, missing, then dove for the floor when she threw a spell at me, laughing merrily. My arms took most of my fall, and my teeth clicked, just missing my tongue. Why the hell was HAPA using magic?

Fall number one, I thought as I tossed my head to get a strand of hair out of my eyes.

His gun holstered, Glenn went for her, and my eyes widened. "I said freeze!" he shouted, his expression ugly with frustration. The scent of acid blossomed, sharp enough to make my eyes water, and the irritating beeping emitted a sad wail and died. That last button she'd pushed had fried the computers in a very permanent way.

"Don't touch her, Glenn!" I shouted from the floor. The plastic behind me was melting. Where was the other team?

But with a gleeful "Doleo!" the woman met Glenn's extended hand with her own.

Glenn choked, trying to pull his hand back from what would have been a submission hold, but it was too late, and he dropped to his knees, his mouth open in a silent scream. Holy crap, the woman was packing! That had been a black ley-line charm. I remembered Ceri using it on Quen once.

Glenn collapsed, and the woman ran for a second desk, littered with papers.

"You son of a bitch!" I shouted, shooting at her as she laughed and flashed a bubble in place to deflect it.

"Follow the drill!" the woman said as she stood over the desk, her arms full of notes as the I.S. officer, grappling with the man at the cage, crashed into a machine, out cold. The thick man in the overalls turned back to the cage, yanking the door open. And still, Nina choked the first man despite Ivy desperately trying to pry off her fingers.

The woman in the cage screamed when she was pulled out, babbling and begging him to let her go. Sitting up, I swung my pistol around. Maybe he didn't know how to set a circle. My eyes were tearing from the bonfire, and I held my breath at the twin puffs of air. "Damn it!" I shouted as they missed, and the man swung the woman over his shoulder and ran to the small row of cots. The alignment was off. This was the last time I trusted assassin weapons.

"Please! Help me!" the woman screamed, her arm reaching back for me.

I took aim, but the I.S. officer had regained his wits and darted after them, getting in my way. Glenn was still out cold, and that blonde in the lab coat was still burning everything she touched and laughing. As soon as she was done with the papers, she might start in on us.

The captive woman screamed again as the man flung open a panel in the floor, and in an instant, they were down it and gone. An I.S. officer followed.

"Damn it!" I shouted, not knowing who to shoot.

"Rache!" Jenks exclaimed, and I puffed a strand of hair out of my eyes as he hovered beside me, dripping a bright red dust.

"Where is everyone?" I griped, then shot at the brown-haired woman chucking paperwork on the bonfire, and she ducked, swearing at me. "This is insane!"

"Elevator jammed. Someone cut the power before they got out."

Swell.

Nina howled, and Ivy flew through the air, crashing into a pylon, then slumping to the floor.

Jenks darted to her, and my eyes squinted. I'd had enough. I should've come down here by myself,