Page 33 of Fanged Embrace
My heartbeat roared in my ears, but inch by inch, I managed to push forward. The rest of the hallway stretched before me, tinted a ghastly shade of scarlet. Each step loosened the stranglehold of terror by a fraction, enough that I could think again.
Teeth gritted, I forced one foot in front of the other, willing my shaking limbs to obey.
A burst of gunfire from somewhere deeper in the complex made me jump, and I pressed myself tight to the wall. The fight was still raging, just around the bend, close enough that I could hear the clash of bodies and the snapping crack of bullets splitting the air. Which meant River was still alive. Possibly.Good for her.
What more could I do? I’d done everything I could: shut off the lights, triggered the alarms, and tried to give them every advantage I could think of. Except, something in me refused to let that be the end of it.
I closed my eyes, forcing myself onward. I had to go. Using the fight as a distraction was my best shot at escape.Just slip away…I had a clear path.
But guilt is a sneaky little beast, and it whispered that I couldn’t just vanish while River risked a bullet buffet. Hell, she was only in this situation because of informationIgave her. I couldn’t just leave her behind now.
“God dammit.” I halted in my tracks.
My mind raged around the topic, and all the while the sirens shrieked overhead, feeding the panic in my veins. I would be no match for those guards—I could end up just another casualty, or worse. They could put me right back where I started. Helpless and hopeless and locked in a cage all over again.
But my gaze lingered on the corridor behind me.
“No.” I wrenched my eyes away, forcing my legs to carry me in the opposite direction. “Nope, absolutely not. Pull yourself together, this isinsane.”
But my steps slowed again.
I groaned aloud, brandishing my fists in the air and cursing my own stupidity. Unfortunately, the verdict was in, and my flippant, temperamental heart had chosen a path.
“All right!Fine!” I yelled at the ceiling. No surprise that the ceiling had nothing to say back.
With a frustrated snarl and my heart in my throat, I secured the straps on my backpack, spun on my heel, and sprinted back toward the chaos.
Toward River.
17
River
I heard the gunfire before I saw the flash.
Sirens blared overhead, and I barely had time to push Ethan aside before a volley of bullets chewed through the air where he’d stood. Sparks danced off the concrete walls, peppering us with flying bits of debris.
“Move! Head for the exit!” I elbowed Ethan out of the way when an armed guard came barreling toward us, and rushed to meet him head-on.
From the moment we collided I knew something was off.
The weapon he brandished was oddly jagged, almost organic in construction. He was slow to react when I crashed into him, but the single slash he managed to swipe across my arm told me that weapon was far from normal steel. The pain flared sharper, more vicious than anything I’d felt in a long time.
I hissed through bared teeth and twisted it out of his grasp, sending the bloodied weapon sliding across the concrete. When the guy kicked out in retaliation, I headbutted him andhe dropped like a stone at my feet. A second guard replaced him in an instant, swinging another vicious-looking weapon inches from my nose.
I jerked away, dancing on the balls of my feet as the guy tightened his grip on the hilt. Something about the shape of that blade was uncomfortably familiar, and a second later the horrifying realization dawned. The blade was lined with teeth. Vampire teeth.
They were weaponizing our own biology against us.
But there was no time to dwell on that epiphany. Bullets sputtered every which way, leaving pockmarks and crevices in the walls overhead. When the guard rushed toward me, startlingly fast for a human man, I lengthened my claws and reached for the blade.
It gleamed red in the flashing lights, connecting in a resounding clash of metal and bone. The shock reverberated up my arm, but it was worth it when the blade tore free of his hand and I swiped it away, sending it clattering to the floor with a grating ring that confirmed my fears—it was lined with vampire matter.
The guard directed a roar of fury at me, but he never got the chance to scramble for his heinous weapon. I lashed out with a brutal kick, slamming into his chest. Something crucial cracked under the force, and the momentum flung him back into a stack of crates.
Any triumph I felt was short-lived. Another hail of bullets screamed past, splintering the wall and raining shards of concrete over my head.
Nearby, I heard Maxine hiss a curse as she rolled for cover, shimmering skirts fanning out behind her. Another gunshot boomed, and her body jerked to the side as a bullet tore straight through her shoulder, spraying a fine mist of red up the wall behind her.
