Page 97 of Almost Midnight

He switched to Brick’s comm.

“How far out are you?”

“Right behind you, brother.”

“You still in a firefight?”

“Not currently.”

Nick rolled his eyes. “Does that mean you got all of them? Are more coming? Have they sent for reinforcements yet?”

“I feel certain they have,” Brick affirmed in his maddeningly smooth voice. “But no more are making their presence felt as of yet, my excitable offspring.” The vampire paused. “Incidentally, your handsome hybrid pet is quite good with a gun,” Brick mused. “He took out half of them on his own. He is quite useful.”

“I told you what they said about him,” Nick said, impatient.

“Does he not remind you of anyone, brother?”

Nick frowned. “Are you fucking serious right now? We’re in the middle of an op, Brick.”

“Yes, yes.” Brick went back to sounding bored. “I was merely expressing admiration. We’ll pick up any stragglers we find, but expect us in under a minute.”

Nick didn’t bother to answer.

He slowed his steps when he reached the section of blank wall where the map showed an access panel to a hidden staircase.

Nick still couldn’t see it, or hear it, not even with his vampire senses, but something about the metal there hummed differently to his skin, anyway.

He never would have noticed if he hadn’t gotten so near it, and probably wouldn’t have thought anything about the wall at all, if he hadn’t already known the door was there. But his eyes searched all over the panel now, looking for seams, for any kind of way in.

Maybe he’d been too cocky with Kit about his confidence they could break through.

Whatever this wall was, Nick was willing to bet it was made of solid organics.

Even a vampire couldn’t break through that, not with nothing but his bare hands.

He ignited his comms to Brick and Tai both that time.

“Someone grab an Archangel prick, if you can,” he said, gruff. “Someone high up, if you can manage it. Maybe more than one, if it’s not too much trouble. We’re going to need someone with authorization to get us through this door, I think.”

“Alive?” Tai asked.

Her young-sounding voice made the question more jarring.

Nick wanted to say yes, but something made him tell the truth.

“It shouldn’t matter,” he admitted. “We’ll likely need their implant. Possibly bio-metrics, too, but if it’s a fresh corpse, it should still work.”

He was definitely going to hell.

Then again, he didn’t want to think about how many people the kid had killed for Archangel and Lara St. Maarten already.

“Got it,” Tai affirmed. “We’ll bring you the highest rank we can find.”

“Or someone in a lab coat,” Nick offered, when the idea popped into his head. “I’d be willing to bet they let the doctors down there. The ones who do research, anyway.”

“Copy,” Tai said.

Right then, quiet footsteps ran around the corner.

---