The transformation was awesome in the truest sense of the word. Genevieve and Beth sat cross-legged in the middle of a circle drawn with white chalk on the floor, their backs against each other. Nigel kneeled on one side of the girls, a hand resting on each of their heads as he did the spell. Reece stood outside the circle facing Gen and as the magick worked he felt his breath stop. It was as if her face—her entire body—was melting. It became liquid, dissolving into the intense energy that filled the circle, and when it coalesced, Reece found himself staring at the image of the vampire he had known for so long. Only the blood-stained bandage on her forearm and the disconsolate expression in her hazel eyes hinted at the truth.
“It worked?” she asked softly.
“Mmm…kinky,” Carden purred with a crooked smile from the other side of the room. Reece shot him a warning glare, but the lamia laughed it off.
Beth stood up in the circle after Nigel had dispelled the Powers and ran her hands down the sides of her body. “Not bad, witch,” she said. “How long will it last?”
“Until my Power runs low,” he replied. “It depends on the fight and what other spells I’ll have to do. But I’ll give this spell priority for as long as I can.”
Genevieve still sat on the floor, looking at her hands—Beth’s hands. She seemed so small at that moment. So young. Crouching down beside her, Reece asked, “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” she replied quickly. Then she looked up at him. “Let’s just get this over with.”
He wanted to touch her. He wanted to gently squeeze her hand like he might a child’s and promise her that everything would be all right. But she wasn’t a child; she was a Wild Power who had been betrayed by the person she trusted more than anyone. She couldn’t bear to be touched any more and she would see his platitudes for what they were. He knew that there was nothing he could do for her beyond completing the job he’d been hired to do.
Reece stood up, determination steeling his bones, slowing his heart rate, turning the corners of his mouth into a hard, grim smile.
Glancing around the room at his team, he met Beth’s eyes. She grinned at him, understanding Reece’s expression perfectly—she had seen it thousands of times before. “Ready to rock, Cahill?” she asked.
The witch nodded. “You?”
“Hell yes.”
“All right,” Reece replied. Then he turned slightly to address the entire team. “Let’s suit up.”
Since the security was so tight after Genevieve’s attack, no one had been allowed to bring his or her own weapons inside the compound. Instead, Anton Parish had secretly procured a large chest full of stakes, knives, guns, bullets, crossbows, and Kevlar vests from the compound’s stockpile for their use.
Each member of the team approached the arsenal with a slightly different temperament. While Carden sifted through the weapons excitedly, stashing the flashiest and most powerful ones into the zippered pockets of his vest, Sumitra thoughtfully chose a few of the more simple weapons for herself. To prepare for her role as Genevieve Harman, Beth took a revolver as well as a few knives and stakes that could be easily concealed under her ordinary clothing. Nigel, who still seemed to feel some disdain for this violent side of Circle Daybreak, ignored the guns completely and chose only a handful of defensive weapons. Reece, on the other hand, took one of every type of weapon, loading himself up as if he needed to make tangible the weight of his responsibility.
As Carden popped a magazine of silver-tipped wooden bullets into the last of his guns, Beth leaned past him to grab a box of ammunition for her revolver. When she pulled back, he was leering at her, shamelessly letting his gaze wander up and down her body.
Beth pursed her lips. “If you’re going to keep looking at me like that, I’m going to start charging,” she snapped.
Carden moved into her and slowly ran the barrel of his gun over her cheek and rested it against her temple. “You know, I once met a girl who liked to do it this way. Too bad we decided against the kidnapping plan, baby. It would have been one hell of a turn on.”
She sneered at him. “I hate to break it to you, but guns and chauvinist pigs don’t do it for me.”
The lamia gave her a lazy smile. “Maybe you just haven’t met the right chauvinist pig.” Then he pensively cocked his head to the side, as if a curious thought had just occurred to him. “I wonder why Hellraiser didn’t just shoot Genevieve in the head.”
Reece stood aghast. “Carden—”
“She would have been dead before she could put up any kind of fight.” The vampire’s voice was a soft caress as he stared at his gun appraisingly, unaware of the tension building in the small room. Beth and the rest of the team were stunned into silence, frozen in place as they gaped at him. “Guess you can never be too sure. If there was even a tiny involuntary twitch, the bullet might not kill her, and then she’d make Hellraiser burst into flame.”
The strain was palpable then. Reece knew that he had to stop it, but as it wound tighter and tighter, he couldn’t bring himself to move.
“Or maybe deep down he always knew he couldn’t do it.” Carden’s voice fell to a whisper. “Watch his soulmate die…”
Suddenly the tension snapped like a cello string and the gun was jerked from the lamia’s hand so fast that he cried out in shock. The weapon smashed into his forehead, knocking his head back before it fell to the floor.
There were no questions about who had done it, but nobody except for Reece dared to look at her. Genevieve seemed frail, almost sickly, as she stood in the corner of the room, but the hazel eyes that were not her own were blazing with Power; Beth could never have that look in her eyes. “Don’t mention Aiden again,” she warned in a low voice.
“Fucking bitch,” Carden muttered, rubbing away blood from a gash just above his eyebrow. The wound healed in seconds, but the vampire’s lip was still curled in anger.
This was about to get out of control. Reece took a step towards Carden, on the verge of shouting at his teammate, but Beth moved between them. “Come on, Cassinova,” she groaned as she grabbed the vampire’s wrist. Her tone was softer than Reece would have expected after the scene Carden had just caused and it left him confused. “It’s time to get to work.”
Beth tugged him out of the room and with a sigh, Nigel followed them. But at the threshold, the British witch paused to throw an apologetic look at Gen. “We’re all high strung and we deal with it differently,” he tried to explain. “Carden’s an ass, but he’s good.”
The Wild Power said nothing.
As Nigel left, quietly shutting the door behind him, Reece checked his watch. “As soon as I get the signal, we’re up,” he murmured, unsure if he was speaking to himself or the others. “Five, ten minutes, maybe.”
Sumitra caught his eye and nodded towards Genevieve. Jagged energy was still radiating from the witch as she stood with her arms wrapped tightly around herself.
Reece was at a loss. He ran his fingers through his hair—an unconscious anxious gesture. This mission, his new team…suddenly it felt like they were both out of his control. And who the hell had recruited Carden? Whoever it was couldn’t have actually worked with him. The vampire may be the best marksman in Daybreak, but Reece doubted that he had ever been part of a team before.
Goddess, he just couldn’t think about it now. He needed to focus.
He walked over to Gen, carefully touching her shoulder. “Hey,” he whispered. “It’s okay. You’ve got to calm down. You’re going to waste whatever Power you’ve got left.”
She shrugged his hand off. “I can’t stand this,” she hissed.
“I know,” he replied. “I’m sorry about Carden.”
“I shouldn’t have hurt him,” Gen said softly. “I’m sorry, but I’m also just…not.”
“You’re exhausted and you’re grieving. Give yourself a break.”
She nodded and was quiet for a moment. “I can feel him,” she finally said. “Aiden. The soulmate link faded over the past few days, but a little while ago it sparked to life again. It feels like he’s right here with me, strangling me all over again. His thoughts are everywhere.” Squeezing her eyes shut, she drew in a ragged breath. “I don’t know which is worse, when I can feel him or when I can’t.”
Reece didn’t reply. There was nothing he could say. Silently he stood next to Gen, offering her the simple, yet paltry comfort of not being alone.
Her newly violet eyes stared back at her, reflected in the shining walls of the elevator that slowly lifted her up to the ground floor. She tried to make her expression darker, but she couldn’t. There was no way to fake the kind of pain Genevieve was feeling. It didn’t matter, though, because very few of the Daybreakers had the guts to see through the witch’s weak façade of normalcy. They all suspected that their Wild Power might never recover from her attack, but they didn’t dare look into Genevieve’s eyes to confirm their fears—there was simply too much at stake.
Right now, Beth was grateful for that. It was going to help them get out of here.
Carden stood behind her, still rubbing his forehead where Genevieve had hit him with his gun. Beth couldn’t blame the girl for doing that; she would have loved to beat him to a pulp herself, but she knew that Reece wouldn’t have stood for it. And besides, when Carden was speaking before, something in his voice had gotten to her—an unmistakable tremor of pain that made her soften toward him even though he didn’t deserve it.
The witch, Nigel, was standing on her right side. He seemed vaguely nervous and somewhat tired already, as if the spell to change her and Gen’s appearances had taken more of out him than he’d expected. Even so, the firm set of his mouth reassured Beth that he was ready for this.
The elevator opened onto the ground floor of the compound and Beth led the team out to the main entrance. She paused to take a final deep breath before opening the heavy steel door. “Ready or not,” she whispered to herself.
Sunlight flooded through the large windows that lined the main lobby of the compound and she forced herself to keep her eyes wide open—as a witch, Genevieve wouldn’t have to squint away from the brightness. After a second, though, she realized that her eyes didn’t hurt after all. Circle Daybreak must use a special kind of glass for the vampires here.
As soon as Beth stepped foot in the lobby, she felt the weight of the Daybreaker’s stares on her. Everyone had turned to look at her, their gazes filled with confusion, pity, and adoration for their Wild Power. It made her skin crawl a little and she wondered how Genevieve could have lived with this much scrutiny for so long.
There were about twenty Daybreakers here. Five guards by the security station, a few people entering the compound who were being searched by three more guards, a vampire couple who stopped to catch a glimpse of Gen on their way out of the building, and a custodian. All the Night World races were covered. Only three humans.
Beth’s heart began to pound and she used it to her advantage; she let her hands and her lips tremble from it as she strode over to the security station with Nigel and Carden following her.
“Miss Harman,” one of the guards behind the tall desk addressed her. “What are you doing out here? It’s not safe for you.”
“It’s not safe for me anywhere!” Beth shrieked back at him. If any of the Daybreakers hadn’t been watching her before, they certainly were now. The lobby fell silent. Beth ran her hands through her long blond hair and pulled at it desperately. “I—I have to get out of here. Now!”
The guard was anxious and he looked around him for help. A female guard—a witch—came to his rescue and Beth could feel her trying to force calming energy on her. “Genevieve,” she said softly, “It’s okay. You’re not thinking clearly. You are safe here. Aiden won’t come after you again.”
“Don’t say his name!” Beth screamed, pointing her finger at the witch accusingly. “He got in here and he almost killed me. Don’t you dare try to placate me!”
“I’m sorry, you’re right,” the woman said quickly. For the first time she glanced at Nigel and Carden, who were standing behind Beth. “Who are your friends?” she asked suspiciously. “You know we’ve increased security. We aren’t allowing any new people to enter the compound.”
“Like that would help,” Beth spat. She wanted to steer the conversation away from Nigel and Carden. Neither of them was associated with this compound, but they were still Daybreakers, so there was a slim chance that someone here would recognize them. If that happened, their cover would be blown. “Aiden wasn’t new. He was here long before I got here. You all knew him and trusted him, so now I can’t trust any of you.”
“I know you’re overwrought, Gen, but maybe we should escort you back to your room so that you can rest.”
The witch began to circle around the security desk and Beth knew that this was the right moment. She reached under her sweater and grabbed the revolver that she had hidden in the waistband of her pants. Her hands shaking, she brought the gun up to her temple and cocked it. Nigel and Carden whirled around and drew their own weapons, covering her from behind.
“Stay back!” she shouted. “Don’t come near me. I’ll pull the trigger, I swear.”
Putting her hands up, the witch froze as if Beth was trying to rob her. “Gen!” she gasped.
“I’m getting the hell out of here,” Beth told the guards. “I’ll be safer out there on my own. If you try to stop me or follow me, I will shoot myself. I’d rather die than be locked up in this compound with all of you staring at me as if I were a goddamn messiah. I’d rather die than live here, knowing that the Night World can get to me any time they want.”
“But Gen,” the first guard interrupted, “what about the war? Our world will be destroyed without you.”
“The world can go screw itself,” she replied bitterly. “It certainly screwed me.”
Beth backed up slowly, holding her gun to her head while her teammates stayed pressed against her. Some of the Daybreakers in the lobby had started to cry and she felt momentarily sorry for them. They didn’t understand that this was what needed to be done to keep the Wild Power safe.
It’s a go, she told Reece telepathically. She hoped this would give him enough of a distraction to get out.
She looked around wildly, seeming edgy and possessed as she made her way to the door of the compound. Once they reached it, Carden kicked the door open and the three of them ran out onto the street.
They weren’t sure what to expect at this point. The guards could follow them or they could shoot down Nigel and Carden as they ran. The latter seemed unlikely, though. The Daybreakers couldn’t risk shooting Genevieve, even to give her a non-lethal wound, because if she called on the blue fire, she could level the compound if she wanted. Beth just hoped that the Daybreakers believed Gen was hysterical enough to be capable of doing that. The best-case scenario would be that they were simply too stunned to know how to react, so they would call as many guards as possible to the lobby to formulate a plan to bring their Wild Power back.
In the meantime, Beth, Nigel, and Carden ran towards Washington, D.C. Boosting a car was the fastest way for them to get out of the city, but it would be easier to find a cheap car to steal downtown.
“Turn right at the end of this block,” Beth shouted to the others as she ran. “We want to stay off of the main roads.”
Just before she reached the turn, she heard a strange, soft pop from somewhere above and behind her. She started to look back to see what had happened, but then the sidewalk came rushing up at her.
Unable to stop in time, Nigel tripped over her as she hit the ground. “Carden!” she heard him call. “She’s been shot!”
Shot?
The concrete felt cool against her face and Beth shivered. Her chest was burning, but the rest of her body was so cold. A layer of ice was quickly spreading over her limbs, rendering her motionless.
“Beth, look at me,” Nigel ordered. She knew that her eyes were open, but it seemed like a dark veil was draped over her. She could hardly make out the witch’s face as he leaned over her and brushed her hair back. “Can you hear me? Beth!”
She tried to speak, but the sound she made was nothing more than a gasp.
Then she heard Carden’s voice above her. “Fuck. Sniper shot. We’ve got to move, witch. We can’t stay out in the open like this.”
“But Beth…”
“She’s dead,” he said shortly. “We’re not yet. Come on!”
Beth heard their footsteps fade as she began to fade away as well. The last thought that whispered through her mind was simply, Cahill…
Reece reached out with his mind again, desperate to feel a trace of the Elements, but once more found them too far to sense. He let out a breath of frustration.
Finally he heard Beth’s breathless voice in his mind. It’s a go.
“Time,” he said to Sumitra and Gen.
The girls followed him to the door and he opened it carefully. He poked his head out and made sure that the hallway was deserted before he slid out of the room. Quickly, the three of them walked to the stairwell with Reece leading the way and Sumtra trailing behind Gen, giving the Wild Power the safest position in the line.
When they reached the door to the stairs, Reece ducked and pulled Gen down with him. Through the small window on the door, he saw a group of Daybreakers running at full speed up the stairs toward the ground floor. After another moment, a few more of them passed by as well. The news about “Genevieve’s” escape had obviously spread as fast as they had hoped.
“If anyone else comes, just try to blend in; pretend to be in a panic over the Wild Power,” Reece advised his team.
“That should be easy enough,” Sumitra replied dryly.
He opened the door to the stairwell and looked down at the flights of spiraling stairs below them. No one else was coming up. “All right, let’s go,” he whispered to the girls.
They had made it up five flights when a thin, silent whisper trailed down Reece’s spine like a shiver of terror. Cahill…
He came to an abrupt halt on the steps and clutched the cold, metal railing in one hand. “Beth,” he gasped.
“What’s the matter?” Genevieve asked from behind him.
Reece shook his head, straining his ears and his mind as he listened for his teammate. For the first time in his life, he cursed the fact that he was a witch and could not telepathically search for her; he could only wait for her to contact him.
“I can’t feel her,” Sumitra said quietly, confirming Reece’s fears. “Something went wrong.”
“We’ve got to run,” he said in a thick voice as he turned to the lynx. “You shift and take Genevieve. You’ll be much faster in your cat form.”
“It’ll draw attention,” she reminded him.
“I know. But we have no idea what happened out there to the others. Let’s just get Gen out of here as fast as possible.” He glanced down the stairwell again, but it was still empty. “Don’t look back, Sumitra. Just keep running.”
The dark-haired girl nodded hesitantly and began to shift into her animal form.
“What about you?” Genevieve asked him.
“I’ll be right behind you. Now go!” he urged.
Without another word, Gen straddled the large, black lynx and wrapped her arms around the cat’s neck. Then they were nothing more than a blur as Sumitra sprinted gracefully up the stairs with the Wild Power on her back.
Reece took off after them, but he knew that he would never be able to catch up to Sumitra; her speed was incredible, even with Genevieve’s weight on her. Still, he ran as fast as he could, his muscles burning as he fled up the stairs two at a time. He concentrated his Power on his legs, helping ease the pain of exertion as he pushed himself harder.
Finally he burst through the door onto the fourth underground floor of the compound. Without breaking stride, he raced down the hallway.
A few yards away, he saw a couple of Daybreakers gathered in the middle of the hall. They were circled around a male vampire who was lying unconscious on the floor, blood oozing from large gashes on his arm. Sumitra and Gen were nowhere in sight, so whatever the vampire had done, at least they had gotten by him.
He ran past the group and they hardly took notice of him as they tended to the injured vampire.
When he turned the corner, he found Sumitra fighting off a wolf, keeping herself between the wolf and Genevieve. The witch was pressed against the wall, her chest heaving as she tried to summon enough Power to help the fight. An orange fireball shot from her open palm, but it burned out before it could do any damage.
The wolf growled deeply and lunged at the lynx, sinking its teeth into her neck as it slammed her into the ground.
Reece called out a spell and the wolf was suddenly frozen on top of Sumitra. The lynx kicked the paralyzed shifter off of her. Blood matted the fur around her throat as she rolled over and pushed herself onto her back legs.
“Thanks,” Sumitra croaked after she had changed back into her human form. “Good timing.”
“What happened?”
“The vampire back there saw me with Gen. He was about to run into an office to call down the guards, so I had to take him down.” She paused to catch her breath. “I thought I did it quietly, but this shifter must have heard because he was lying in wait for me as soon as I got around the corner.”
Reece nodded, eyeing the ugly lacerations crisscrossing the lynx’s neck and shoulder. “I need to heal you,” he told her. “You’re losing too much blood.”
“No time, Cahill. I’m fine for now. The wolf and the vamp are the only ones who saw me, but more Daybreakers will be coming any second.”
“All right,” Reece replied begrudgingly. “The entrance to the tunnel is at the end of this hall.”
Genevieve stepped away from the wall and started to follow him, but then she wavered on her feet. “My Power is too low,” she whispered, gripping her bandaged forearm. “I can’t keep the cut open any longer.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he replied, even though he was silently cursing their luck. He had really hoped that her Power would hold out for a while longer.
He tried to put an arm around Gen to help support her weight, but she backed away from him, shaking her head vehemently. “I’m fine.”
Reece knew it was a lie, but he didn’t try to argue with her. “Come on, then. We’re almost out of here.”
With Genevieve laboring at his side, he jogged down the hall. Sumitra was right behind them, covering their backs even as her blood dripped onto the floor.
“Someone’s coming!” the lynx suddenly hissed. Then in one rapid movement, she pulled the other two with her through a door into the men’s bathroom.
As the door swung shut, Reece realized that the Daybreakers would see the trail of Sumitra’s blood stop in front of the bathroom. He quickly cast a small spell, making red stains appear on the floor of the hallway lead around a corner towards a different wing of the building.
Seconds later they heard someone run by and call, “This way!”
There was a loud rumble of footsteps and then silence.
“Thank the Goddess for shapeshifter hearing,” Reece whispered.
Sumitra smiled weakly in response.
He opened the door a crack and saw that the hallway was empty. “We’re clear,” he whispered.
They fled out of the men’s room and finally reached the entrance to the tunnel. It appeared to be an ordinary door to yet another office, but it could not be opened without the proper spell.
Reece whispered the words and pushed at the door with his mind, but nothing happened. Disconcerted, he tried again. Still nothing. “Damn it!” he hissed. “I need more Power.”
Genevieve shook her head. “I don’t have any more,” she whispered.
“Use me,” Sumitra offered.
He looked her over, shaking his head. Blood was still oozing from the wound on her neck and she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. “I can’t,” Reece replied. “You’ll die.”
“If you don’t,” she argued, “then you and Genevieve won’t get out. All of this will be for nothing. Just do it now before I lose any more energy.”
Reluctantly, he took the shifter’s hand. “I can’t pull energy from you against your will,” he explained. “You have to push it at me, okay?”
Sumitra nodded and closed her eyes. Immediately Reece felt her life force flooding him. He cast the spell again and shoved at the door with all of his Power and the energy the shapeshifter had given him.
As the door opened, he and Sumitra fell forward as if they had physically thrown themselves at it. For a moment, he just on the ground of the tunnel, gasping for breath, but the shapeshifter next to him was motionless.
Genevieve hurried in after them and slammed the door shut behind her. Then she came to lean over Sumitra, dipping her fingers in the blood that coated the shifter’s throat as she felt for a pulse. “She’s dead,” she said dully.
Reece pulled himself up and rested his head on his knees. He had lost people before; it was inevitable. Good friends he’d been laughing with one day were dust the next. It always hurt, but it had never been like this—he’d never been the one to cause it. Sumitra had sacrificed herself willingly, he understood that, but it did nothing to dispel his guilt.
Genevieve reached out to him tentatively as if she wanted to comfort him, but her hand froze mid-air as she hissed sharply through her teeth. She fell to her knees, pressing the heels of her hands against her temples. All of the color had drained from her face, leaving her complexion a ghastly shade of gray. In spite of her pallor, she was smiling almost wistfully. “He’s coming,” she breathed. “He’s coming for me. Oh Goddess, Aiden…”
Gritting his teeth, Reece forced himself to get up. There was no time for despair now; they needed to keep moving. If Hellraiser was going to come after his soulmate again, Reece needed to be ready.
He took the Wild Power’s arm, helping her to her feet, and for once she didn’t recoil from his touch. “Genevieve?” he asked worriedly.
Her eyes stared back at him blankly. It was as if the stress had finally become too much for her soul to bear and it simply shattered.
Reece tightened his grip on her arm and pressed her onward. If he didn’t get her to safety soon, it would no longer matter if she was alive or dead; either way, there would be nothing left of her.
Part 6
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