Page 13 of Edge of Darkness

Before he had a chance to finish that thought, the lights in the club went out. Humans were the only ones who’d have trouble seeing in the darkness, and sure enough, seconds later, they began to scream.

Of course they did, when nearly everyone and their brother owned a gun in this country and a certain element liked to shoot up gay clubs.

Then the fire alarm went off.

“For fuck’s sake,” Connie growled, surging to his feet.

Oddly enough, Hudson didn’t smell smoke. He did notice the humans around him panicking, though.

“It’s a distraction,” Hudson said softly over the screaming to Connie. “No smoke.”

“Why?” Confused, Connie glanced at the terrified crowd.

That was the question. If the hunters—and apparently there were more than one—were trying to escape, the threat of fire would certainly be a good cover for them to get out of there. But even if they were trying to save their buddy, again, a fire was still a perfect distraction.

A man shoved a woman into Hudson as he rushed by. Hudson helped steady her even as he cussed the human male. This was going to get ugly quickly.

The humans were on the verge of stampeding the exits because they didn’t know there wasn’t really a fire. And in the dark, everything was confusing. The red lights of the fire alarm and the screaming didn’t help matters either.

“We need to help the other paranormals evacuate the club.” Hudson motioned to one of the exit signs. “Come on.”

Connie stuck close to Hudson as they made their way to the nearest exit. Sure enough, the door had been thrown open and paranormals were trying to direct humans through.

More likely the same was being done at the other exits. He hoped. There was crying and shouts as people fought to get outside. He noticed a vampire trying to use his talent of persuasion to calm the humans, but there was too much stark terror for it to work.

Fucking hunters. The acidic scent of fear canceled out everything else. Even if a hunter passed Hudson on his way through the exit, there was a good chance Hudson wouldn’t know.

Off in the distance he heard sirens. Well, it appeared the police were responding in a timely manner. Hopefully, they could calm the crowd and not incite them.

Connie had moved outside and was trying to calm a group of young women who were crying hysterically. One of them had apparently been pushed down in the rush to get outside.

Her lip was busted and bleeding, her dress was torn, and she’d scraped her knees pretty badly. Several people were bleeding, in fact. Hudson hoped the vampires didn’t lose control.

Some humans were quickly vacating the area while others were standing around aimlessly staring at each other. Most likely shock was setting in.

It appeared as if people had finally figured out the fire alarms were false and were calming down a little. Hudson scanned the groups of people standing around talking. Now several of them had their cell phones out. Because of course they did.

A decrepit white van stopped a little way down the street from the club. Its door slid open.

Alarms started going off in Hudson’s head immediately. “Shit.”

A human male dressed all in black had his arm around a young woman, consoling her as he gently herded her toward the van. In fact, Hudson noticed several humans were being led that way.

The alarms in his head were now shrieking. He hadn’t stopped to consider option three—that this was a human kidnapping mission. Hudson ducked out the exit and started speed walking toward the van and the people moving in the direction of it.

Connie fell into step beside him within seconds. “What?”

“Men in black clothing are moving humans toward that white van on the street.” Hudson picked up his pace, Connie still beside him. “I got this. Make sure there isn’t another van on the side streets.”

“Torres will kill me if I leave you unprotected, Sire,” Connie murmured.

“Check the side streets, Conrad. That’s an order.”

“Dammit to the flames. Fine. Yes, Sire.” Connie broke off and headed in the other direction.

Hudson hated to use his position to order his lover about, but right now he was acting as the king of the Fire Court, and he had a really bad feeling about this.

He broke into a run just as the pair closest to the van started to fight. The girl’s instincts must’ve finally kicked in, but it was too late. The man who was leading her picked her up and threw her inside.

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