Deathtrap (Crossbreed #3)(76)
“Will you quit talking about spiders? You’re going to give me fucking nightmares.”
Tempted to jump to reach the top of the door and hang on, I opted against it. No sense in accidentally falling into a portal to hell. Could I jump the distance? And if so, was the ground on the other side stable? It wasn’t worth the risk.
So, as Shepherd suggested, I improvised. I squatted down and grabbed the doorknob on each side with both hands. Once I had a firm grip, I clamped my thighs shut with the edge of the door between them and kicked off, the door swinging in his direction.
“Catch me!” My eyes widened in horror when Shepherd blindly waved his arms, assuming I was higher up.
“Down here!” I squeaked.
He quickly reached down, hooked his hands beneath my arms, and hauled me to safety.
Instant relief came over me, but it didn’t last long. I stood up and looked around. “Let’s go. I can see something up ahead.”
At the far end of the room, which was similar to the last, was a slice of light that could only be coming from the bottom of a closed door.
An explosion rocked in the distance, shaking the ground beneath our feet. Dirt and small bits from the ceiling sifted down, and I covered my mouth.
Once there was enough light to see, we finally stopped by a spray-painted pillar. “What now?” I asked quietly.
He wiped the sweat from his brow. By the way his eyes shifted around, it looked like he could see a little as well. “Let me take over from here.”
“You can’t go in there alone, and I didn’t come all this way to wait outside.” My breath caught when a shadow moved behind him.
Shepherd didn’t speak. He studied my face and mouthed, “Mage?”
I shook my head. No energy licked against my skin, and I couldn’t even sense the presence of a non-Mage, which left only one possibility.
Vampire.
Maybe Shepherd had deduced the same, because he retrieved an impalement stake from inside his jacket. It had what looked like a metal weight in the center. He gripped his fingers around that metal and held it like a spear. Instead of turning to look, he watched my eyes.
I studied the darkness, making small talk. “Maybe we should knock on the door and see if he answers.”
“Yeah. Sounds like a plan,” Shepherd said flatly, still focused on my eyes.
I caught a shadow to the left and flicked my eyes in that direction. With lightning speed, Shepherd spun around and threw the stake. It whistled through the air before striking the shadow.
I flashed over and flipped the man onto his back. Even though my fangs had appeared, I was reluctant to bite a Vampire without knowing the effect his blood would have on me. The stake had punctured his chest, and I shoved it in farther for peace of mind. Then I searched his pockets for weapons or…
“Keys,” I whispered.
“Give ’em here.”
Shepherd briefly inspected them before silently approaching the door. He knelt down, peered beneath the crack, and then touched the knob for a moment.
“It’s clear,” he said, testing the key in the locks. “That must be one of his guards. Pussies always hire Vampires to do all their dirty work. I don’t think there’ll be any traps inside unless they’re alarms. Think fast and move fast. Got it?”
As soon as the door opened, fluorescent light pierced my eyes. It looked like a small security room for lazy guards. To the right, a red chair and ottoman. Magazines were scattered all over the floor, and someone had tossed an empty bag of potato chips in the corner.
Shepherd freed two knives from their sheaths and twirled them in his hands. “Get ready to move fast.”
We neared the door directly in front of us. When I turned the handle, we rushed inside a long hallway. Passing a few vacant rooms, I ran as far as it went. Energy spiked against my skin, and I heard the unmistakable sound of swords clashing. The end of the hall diverged, so I followed the sounds and flashed to the right. Having left Shepherd behind, I burst into a dark room lit by computer screens. Niko was in a clinch with a man whose sword was impressively long.
“Other room,” Niko grunted. “I have this.” He shoved the man off-balance before hopping back and putting distance between them.
Disregarding the two men, Shepherd plowed right past me and through an open door on the opposite side of the room. When Niko advanced on his attacker, they engaged in one hell of a swordfight. I wanted to sit and watch, but instead I flashed to the other side to avoid getting sliced in two.
I ended up in a hall and followed the sound of Shepherd’s heavy footfalls going left. The hallways were reminiscent of an ancient prison, complete with decrepit walls, pipes running along them, and dirty floors. The only modern thing was the overhead lights. The temperature was noticeably warmer.
I slowed my pace when a loud commotion sounded from a room Shepherd had entered.
On the floor, Christian was straddling Cristo, his hand firmly wrapped around the Mage’s throat. “Where is the baby?” His eyes never left Cristo’s for a moment.
“Safe,” Cristo replied tersely.
Viktor encroached on them, a streak of blood across his face and his clothes ragged and torn. There weren’t overhead lights in this room, just a pool table and lanterns on the walls.
Shepherd loomed over the man, his knives in hand with the pointy tips tapping impatiently against his thighs.