A Perfect Blood (The Hollows #10)(56)
Author: Kim Harrison

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.