Keystone (Crossbreed #1)(92)
He took an extra step so he was ahead of me. “When you get wrapped up in emotions, you make mistakes. There’s never a reason to hurry. Take your time, assess the situation, and you’ll always come out on top. Men who get excited and hurry never do the job right.”
We reached the second floor and realized there wasn’t a door. It was pitch-black, and I could barely make anything out. It looked like someone had remodeled the inside to resemble an office building, with a long hall and several doors. It made it impossible to hide, let alone flee if someone attacked us. We turned left and approached an intersecting hall that led to the right, cutting across the building.
Christian held his arm in front of me and placed his index finger against his lips. Shepherd kept going straight, his hand brushing against the wall as he attempted to maneuver through the dark. I suspected he was also using his Sensor abilities to read emotional imprints.
Christian and I neared the middle hall that Shepherd had passed, and as soon as we turned right, we noticed a Mage on the other side, leaning against a door.
I’d never seen a Vampire shadow walk up close, but watching Christian float through the darkness without making a sound was breathtaking. One minute he was by my side, and the next, in front of the Mage.
Shepherd barked out a curse, and a fight erupted in a nearby room. The Mage in front of Christian started to move, but Christian struck him in the head with a powerful blow.
I ran back to the stairs and charged up to the third level, my heart pounding with adrenaline. As I emerged from the stairwell, a Mage on the left was barreling toward me like a tornado, his fists pumping in the air. Because he couldn’t see in the dark, he wasn’t using his Mage energy and his pace was unsteady. I jumped when a gunshot went off on a floor above.
The Mage drew a gun, and I wondered why Darius felt safe arming his men with such ineffective weapons. I flattened my back against the wall, deciding not to waste my efforts on this idiot when my real target was Darius.
After he passed me and vanished down the stairs, I opened the door to a middle room and shone my light in, not caring if anyone spotted me. When I saw it was empty, I crossed to the door on the opposite side. This place felt more like a maze than a home. Who could live like this? Darius made such a fuss about land and property, yet his own home felt more like a prison or a mental institution. If there were windows, they only existed in the outer rooms, which were all closed off.
As soon as I stepped into the hall and turned right, I ran into someone.
Wyatt stumbled backward, his eyes wide. A small penlight fell out of his hand and tapped noisily across the floor.
“It’s me,” I whispered. “Raven.”
Wyatt heaved a sigh and quietly said, “You scared the crazy out of me.”
I watched as he bent down to pick up his flashlight. “I thought Christian was supposed to be protecting you?”
He pulled off his hat and stuffed it halfway into his back pocket. “If that man were a sock, he’d be the one that goes missing.”
“Well, I saw him downstairs. Is there anyone else on this floor?”
He shrugged. “I came in through the fire escape. You didn’t hear the window break?”
“No, that must have been when the gunshots were going off.”
He peered over his shoulder at Viktor, who stepped out from an open door. “I need to find his office. Have you seen it? Anything with filing cabinets or a desk.”
I shook my head, and we parted ways. Since Viktor and Wyatt had this floor covered, I circled back to the stairs. If Darius was in the building, he was probably hiding as close to the roof as he could get.
A commotion sounded from above, and I ran up the steps, my light moving erratically across the walls with every swing of my arm. More shots fired, and I stumbled out of the stairwell, spinning in confusion when I didn’t run into a wall. Instead of narrow hallways, the entire floor was wide open, separated by accent walls in the center that went toward the back.
A light flashed with the crack of a gunshot, and a sharp sound whizzed by my ear. I dropped my flashlight and shrieked, then raced across the open living room.
Claude roared, and when I reached the other side, I glimpsed him fighting a Mage who was armed with a dagger. Claude didn’t need a weapon. He had venomous fangs, and before they moved out of my line of vision, I saw him dive in for a bite like a savage animal.
Another shot was fired and grazed my arm. I flashed into a dark corner, grimacing in pain and trying to get a sense of the layout. There were several couches, two coffee tables, and a wall with a stone fireplace on the center wall to the right. I grabbed a vase and flung it across the room at the Mage, hoping he’d stop shooting long enough for me to do something.
Still armed with my dagger, I flashed toward him but tripped over an area rug. I rolled hard across the floor, close enough to him that I swiped my blade, cutting his leg. I tried to remember the moves Niko had shown me. Punching him in the testicles wasn’t one of them, but it always got the ball rolling in the right direction, so to speak.
He had the perfect opportunity to shoot me point-blank, but he cursed and dropped the gun, attempting to grab my wrist and disarm me. He was probably more concerned I had a stunner, and as we wrestled, he accidentally kicked the gun away with the heel of his shoe and sent it flying beneath the couch.
“Hold her still!” someone shouted.
When I heard the first shot, I scrambled out of sight. My flashlight was on the floor, aimed at the empty fireplace, but it illuminated the room just enough to allow me to see more clearly.