Page 86 of The Union
Motherfucker.
I stood in the middle, sharpened my hearing, and listened. The slow cadence of a heartbeat filtered in. I headed up a slight incline where the garage banked around to the second floor. Theboom… boom… boomindicated either the person was out cold or that a vampire was waiting, since our hearts beat slower.
Olivia’s voice blared in my comm. “Sam, what’s your location?”
I couldn’t answer until I knew what I was dealing with. As I reached the second level, I stomped my foot once, pulled back my arms, and drew in the natural energy of the sun’s rays beaming in. An electrical charge careened down my arms to pool in my hands as the wind began to howl, rushing in, whistling. A paper cup flew by. A bottle rolled past me, and a collection of paper and trash swirled in the air.
I sniffed again, and the scent of human blood drifted into my nostrils. I tapered off my elemental powers, my fangs elongating. I sprinted up another incline and banked around the corner. A man lay on his stomach behind a white car. Jordyn’s scent lingered close by. Where Layla was all cherries, Jordyn smelled of vanilla.
I pressed on my comm. “Olivia.”
“Sam, where the fuck are you?” she returned.
“Parking garage. I can’t find Layla. Do you have her or Jordyn?”
“Negative,” she said.
Sirens blared in the distance as a gust of wind swept through.
“Roman’s men are piling up. We have about ten dead,” she said.
“A bald fucker was chasing Layla. Have you seen Lane?”
“Negative on both,” she returned. “The SEAL team is two minutes out.”
The human was bleeding from an area on his lower back where it appeared as though he’d been stabbed.
I rolled him over. He looked like Adam Emery minus the wicked scar on his face. Jordyn had mentioned Fred Emery. “It seems someone clocked Fred Emery. Can you get someone up here to make sure we bring him in?”
“Copy that,” she said before she clicked off.
My phone rang.
“Layla, where the fuck are you?”
“Sam,” she whispered in a heavy breath. “I’m in the basement of the hospital. Jordyn is bleeding. But there are SWAT men chasing us as well.”
“Where in the basement?” I jogged back the way I’d come. “Are they vampires?” Roman’s men could very well be in SWAT gear.
“The sign said boiler room. I managed to scream when one of them tried to grab me, and he collapsed. He’s out, but not for long. Jordyn passed out too. They’re not vampires.” She shuddered.
“I’m coming your way.”
“Don’t,” she bit out harshly. “They have those dart guns.”
I clutched the phone, almost crushing it. “How many men?”
“I only saw two,” she said in a low tone. “I think they’re with Intech.”
That much was true since Fred Emery had brought his goons with him. “Have you seen Lane? And where’s the bald vamp who was chasing you?”
“They were fighting in the alleyway.”
Once out of the garage, I hopped over a median, then took off down a road alongside the hospital. “Keep talking.”
“Someone is coming,” she whispered.
I ran with the phone to my ear, searching for the door into the boiler area. Again, images from long ago fucked with my head. Jo had been stabbed by Cliff, our alcoholic foster dad, and a trip to the emergency room had set us on a course to hell.
