The underwire from her bra was supposed to be flexible so it wouldn’t bite into the skin—yeah, right!—but when she tested it out, she thought it might be just stiff enough to do the trick. The ends of the wire were covered in a rubbery coating, but by bending and twisting she was eventually able to snap one end off. Then she climbed the stairs and got down on her knees, peering at the daunting keyhole.
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” she muttered as she poked the wire into the lock and tried to turn it. She smiled when she realized the wire was just stiff enough to make a passable tension wrench. She then inserted the wire from her key ring. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes to better concentrate all her attention on the feel of the pins inside the lock. She felt and heard the first pin lift into place, but the surge of adrenaline that small success triggered made her hand shake and she lost the pin.
“Damnation,” she grumbled, then took another deep breath and tried again.
As time crawled by, she found that she had a relatively easy time with the first couple of pins, but keeping the pressure steady on the makeshift tension wrench was a bear. Its flexibility meant that if she moved the hand that was holding it even a little bit, the tumbler would move enough to dislodge any pins she’d managed to lift. By the time she gave herself permission to take a break for a while, her hands were shaking with frustration.
Three more times during that long morning and afternoon she knelt down before that lock and tried to coax it open. Some times she had more success than others, but each time she failed, she came closer to giving up. She told herself she’d give the lock one more go. Trying to relax as much as possible, she inserted the wires again. One by one, the pins lifted into place. She was so attuned to this lock by now that she no longer had any doubts as to when a pin had “clicked” into place.
Four pins gave in to her persistence. Perspiration coated her face as she tried to keep herself from getting too excited by her success. Just one more pin to go and she’d be able to open the door. She sucked in a couple of deep breaths, her arms aching from the strain of holding so terribly still. Gently, she wiggled the wire that was holding up the last pin.
When she felt and heard the click of the pin lifting into place, she held her breath. Maybe it had been just an illusion. Or wishful thinking. But when she increased the pressure on the “tension wrench,” it turned in her hand and the deadbolt slid open with a gratifying thunk. She practically wept with relief.
If only it hadn’t taken her so long! It was nearing six o’clock already, and Deirdre could be waking up any moment now, and for all she knew Montgomery was now in residence as well. Carolyn glanced at her watch, chewing her lower lip. Below her, Gray lay fast asleep on the floor of their cell. He would expect her to run for her life immediately, but she couldn’t just leave him here. If there had been more hours of daylight left, she could have armed herself and tried to kill their captors, but if they were already stirring, she’d be doomed.
Carolyn hurried down the stairs and knelt before Gray, putting her hand on his shoulder and shaking him urgently.
“Gray? Wake up. We have to get out of here.” He made a vague, incoherent sound of protest. She shook him harder. “Gray! I got the door open. Now come on, you’re not completely unconscious. Move it!”
His eyes opened to slits, but he showed no inclination to move. He mumbled something and his eyes closed again.
Carolyn’s heart thumped behind her breastbone, every nerve on high alert. Montgomery was an old vampire, and she’d already learned from Jules that older vampires could rouse themselves before the sun had set. How much longer did she have before the Banger awoke and cut off their retreat?
Gray remained a dead weight as she grabbed his arm and slung it over her shoulder. She shouted down her doubts as best she could as she dragged him toward the stairs. He grumbled some more and took some of his weight onto his legs, though his head still lolled. Holding his arm around her shoulder, she put her other arm around his waist and dragged herself up the first step.
Already her lungs were straining for air and her muscles were quivering with strain. Thin though he was, he outweighed her by at least fifty pounds. She was in decent shape, but she wasn’t a bodybuilder or anything. Gritting her teeth against her muscles’ protest, she forced herself up another step.
Despite being mostly still asleep, Gray tried to help, supporting a little of his own weight and lifting his feet from one step to the next. Halfway up, Carolyn had to stop for a rest, though she was terrified she wouldn’t be able to start up again once she lost whatever slight momentum she’d gained. Gray almost fell down the stairs when she eased him into a sitting position. His eyes slid closed, and in frustration she slapped him across the face.
“Damn it, Gray! Wake up! Our lives depend on it.”
He didn’t open his eyes, but he nodded. “Soon,” he said, or at least that’s what she thought she heard.
“Now!” she insisted. She still needed more rest, but she was too conscious of the time ticking away to hold still for long. Slinging his arm around her shoulders again, she dragged him to his feet and climbed one more step.
The next few minutes went by in a blur of pain and exhaustion as she labored up one step after another. Gray helped more and more with each step as he slowly roused from his unnatural slumber. By the time they reached the top of the stairs, he was yawning and his eyes were open, though he still leaned against her for support.
“Hurry,” she urged him as she reached to push the door open.
“Too late,” Gray said, finally standing on his own power.
The door swung open, and Carolyn’s heart sank. Standing in the doorway, smiling in malicious condescension, was a man she’d never seen before.
Too tired to think before she spoke, she said, “Archibald Montgomery, I presume?”
JULES AND HIS MAKESHIFT raiding party watched Deirdre’s house from the cover of one of the city’s ubiquitous dark alleys. Jules tried to suppress his scowl, but the expression only deepened when Drake returned from his recon mission.
“I sensed three vampires in the house,” he said, shaking his head as he, too, seemed to calculate the odds and find them lacking. “There’s a window at the back of the house on the second floor that looks like it might be breachable, but we’d have to scale the wall to get there, and we’d only be able to get one man through the window at a time. If we attracted any attention to ourselves on the way in, the window would be a choke point and they’d be able to pick us off one at a time. Even with all of us attacking together, we’ll be at a disadvantage. Perhaps we should have allowed the mortal to accompany us after all—she could have provided some distraction, at least.”
Jules snorted. “Yeah, but it’s us she would have distracted. The last thing we need is another helpless mortal to protect. This is going to be hard enough already.” He’d been an idiot even to mention to Hannah that a rescue party was being organized. Even based on their admittedly slight acquaintance, he should have known she would insist on coming along to try to save her friend. It was a minor miracle that he’d gotten her to see sense without having to use glamour.
“Hard?” Michael Freeman complained. “This is beginning to seem like a suicide mission!”
Jules resisted the urge to snap at the youngster. Personally, he would have preferred that Eli kept the puppy at home, but considering what they were up against, he supposed the extra manpower was necessary.
Usually, when the Guardians needed to attack a Killer, they attacked in greater numbers, for the Killers were much stronger. However, right now many of the Guardians couldn’t be trusted to heed Eli’s call. And so Jules was stuck with an untried fledgling and a Killer he disliked as his partners.
“Anyone know why Eli wouldn’t come himself?” Michael asked. “I mean, he’s the most powerful vampire I’ve ever seen!”
“Eli doesn’t leave the house,” Jules answered. “Ever.”
Michael’s mouth dropped open. ??
?Ever?” he repeated. “But why?”
Jules shook his head. “Never mind that. Keep your mind focused on the task at hand.” Drake chuckled faintly, and Jules glared at him. Of course Drake knew the answer that Jules had avoided giving—“I don’t know.” No one knew why Eli remained in his self-imposed imprisonment, but Jules supposed it was something more than a whim, or the current situation would have drawn him out.
“So, what’s your plan, fearless leader?” Drake asked, raising an eyebrow at Jules.
“We need a diversion,” Jules answered, thinking fluriously. “I can go to the door, and Dee will probably open for me. I’ve stopped by before, so she shouldn’t get suspicious. But if the two of you were with me …”
“She’d slam the door in our faces, then she and Montgomery would batten down the hatches.”
“And possibly use Carolyn as a hostage, assuming she’s still alive.”
“I understand the reasoning,” Drake said, “but what’s your plan?”
“I go to the door like I’m just here to discuss the Banger case. I keep Dee talking as long as possible, and you two try to get in from the back. Break a window if you have to, just make sure you can both get in. We need all three of us there and at the ready when she realizes the jig is up.”
“Of course, she might not open the door,” Drake said. “After all, she’s not alone in there and if she lets you in, you might learn things she doesn’t want you to learn.”
But Jules shook his head. “She’ll let me in. She’s dead-set on framing Gray, isn’t she? What better way than to make me the next Banger victim?”
“I don’t like it. If she wants to make you the next victim, you could easily be dead before Michael and I find a way in.”
“We’ll just have to chance it,” Jules said, smiling grimly. “Besides, I expect Deirdre thinks she’s terribly clever for having fooled us for so long. Chances are if she has me in a position where she thinks she has the upper hand, she’ll want to gloat a bit.”
Drake and Michael didn’t appear entirely convinced. However, neither of them professed to have a better plan, and so, hoping his plan wasn’t going to get them all killed, Jules gave Drake and Michael five minutes to get into position at the back of the house, then crossed the street and rang the bell.
20
SO MUCH FOR KEEPING the bad guys from learning how much she knew, Carolyn thought, wishing she could swallow back the words as soon as they’d left her mouth. Montgomery smiled and bowed from the waist in a mockery of a polite greeting, but she hadn’t missed the way his eyes widened in surprise at hearing his name on her lips.
At first glance, Carolyn would have said he looked quite ordinary. Of medium height and medium build and medium weight, he wouldn’t warrant a second look if she passed him in the street. His hair had been prematurely thinning and going to gray when he’d “died,” making his high forehead look even higher than it was, and his gently rounded cheeks lent his face an aura of innocence. His eyes, however, were far from innocent, a shockingly deep and cold shade of blue that glittered with malice.
“I can’t tell you how pleased I am to make your acquaintance, my dear,” the Banger said when he stood up straight. He reached out to her with the clear intention of touching her face.
Gray snarled and yanked her out of reach, which seemed to amuse the Banger to no end. His pudgy cheeks dimpled when he laughed, and if it weren’t for those eyes he would have looked positively harmless.
“Such gallantry, Mr. James,” he said, still laughing. “I can understand your desire to protect such a beautiful woman, but since you’ll be killing her in the near future, the effort seems wasted.” The dimples vanished, and he looked Carolyn up and down with blatant appreciation. She shuddered when he licked his lips. “Of course, she might prove an enjoyable diversion. Perhaps I should send you down to the basement by yourself, let your hunger build while I indulge my own appetites.”
Gray stepped in front of her. “You’ll have to kill me first!”
But Montgomery just laughed at Gray’s bravado. “You think so?”
Carolyn saw that Gray was carefully avoiding Montgomery’s gaze. And she saw that moment when Montgomery’s glamour got to him anyway. Montgomery put a hand on Gray’s shoulder and pushed him aside.
Carolyn’s heart slammed in her throat and a trickle of cold sweat chilled the small of her back. She was unarmed, and she had none of Hannah’s martial arts skills. Even if she did, she would be helpless before this creature, with his glamour and his strength. She shuddered as he licked his lips again, slowly and with exaggerated relish. He took a step toward her and it was all she could do not to retreat. He couldn’t miss her terror—she wasn’t a good enough actress to hide it entirely—but she would give him as little satisfaction as possible.
“What’s the matter, Montgomery?” she asked, her voice shaking a bit despite her best efforts to sound sarcastic. “Can’t find a woman to sleep with you willingly?”
He chuckled and bared his fangs. “Happens I prefer a little more excitement than I get with a willing woman.”
She snorted. “Yeah, I bet it’s real exciting to rape a woman who’s like a zombie because of the glamour. Must make you feel like a really big, powerful man.”
His eyes narrowed, and Carolyn hoped she’d managed to irritate him a little. At least he hadn’t trapped her with glamour yet. As long as her mind and body were still her own, she would hope she could find a way out of this.
“When one is willing to allow one’s victims to be found,” the Banger said, “one is well-advised to leave a minimum of evidence at the scene. Which leads me back to the question of how you knew my name.”
Carolyn mentally cursed herself for letting that slip. He was dangerous and elusive enough when he thought he was completely safe from his pursuers. Now unless she could find some story to allay his suspicions, he’d be even more cautious, maybe even flee to a safer location, where he could go on killing with impunity.
“You’re not as clever as you think,” she told him, stalling for time.
He dropped all pretense at charm, freezing her to the marrow with the menace of his glare. “Careful what you say, my dear. I have refrained from satisfying some of my more outrageous appetites since I’ve come back to reclaim my city, but the Guardians are descending into chaos as we speak and I am free to indulge my every whim.” His nostrils flared. “And believe me, you would not enjoy it if I indulged them with you.”
Her nerves were stretched so taut the feminine giggle nearly startled Carolyn to death.
“Now, now, Archer darling,” Deirdre said, coming up behind him and putting her hands on his shoulders, “it’s not polite to play with your food.”
His eyes crinkled, but he didn’t quite smile as he covered one of her hands with his. “Gray’s food, dearest, not mine. But your point is well taken.”
Deirdre pressed her body up against his and then turned her attention to Carolyn, a faint smile on her lips. “Gray never stopped loving you, you know,” she said.
Carolyn blinked, more than a little confused by the change of subject.
“I’ve been trying to win him over for years, and he used your memory like a suit of armor to hold me away. I knew once he had you in the flesh I’d never be able to get him on board without … extraordinary measures.” She slipped out from under Montgomery’s arm and came to stand mere inches away from Gray, who might have been a statue for all the life that shone in his eyes. Deirdre reached up and stroked his cheek, and it was all Carolyn could do not to snarl and pull him away as he had done when Montgomery had tried to touch her.
“He’s spent three years in hell,” Deirdre continued, and if Carolyn didn’t know better she would have sworn there was a hint of compassion in her voice. “The Guardians have always treated him like dirt because—” She paused and furrowed her brow. “You do know that Gray has killed already, don’t you?”
Carolyn didn’t answer, but Deirdre shook her head as if it hardly ma
ttered.
“Cut off from the life he once knew, unable to embrace his current life, constantly under surveillance … I don’t know how he managed to tolerate it as long as he did. It’s time for him to shake off the brainwashing and rise to his potential.”
“Are you telling me you think he’d be happier if he were out there indiscriminately killing people?” Carolyn asked, unable to believe what she was hearing.
Deirdre smiled. “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, lady. The rush is indescribable.” She pouted. “If you really love him, you’ll encourage him to stop fighting it, to let himself become what he’s meant to be.”
The weird thing was, Carolyn got the sense Deirdre actually believed what she was saying. “So you’d like him to be like your boyfriend the Banger here, raping and killing women without—”
Deirdre cut her off with a hiss. “Don’t be ignorant! Vampires are predators, just like lions and wolves and hawks. We kill to live, and we have as much right to live as mortals.”
“Wolves don’t rape their prey before killing them!”
Deirdre and Montgomery snorted in unison, but it was Montgomery who answered. “The Guardians try to teach that it is a sin to be what we are. They teach their fledglings to put everyone else’s well-being above their own. Deirdre and I are merely existing as we were meant to exist. That we take pleasure out of our lives and our natures is not a source of shame!”
“But you don’t have to live that way,” Carolyn said. “The Guardians manage to be vampires without being wanton killers.”
Montgomery bared his teeth. “Don’t canonize them, Ms. Mathers. They are every inch the predators we are. They’ve merely chosen to hunt other vampires instead of mortals.” His eyes narrowed. “They hide behind a cloak of respectability and righteousness, but you should never forget that they are beasts and killers all.”