I’d shoved them in the closet. With Cherish standing outside the room door guarding it, I passed over Niko’s katana and various other blades. As he dressed, he slid them into place and put his coat on to conceal them all. His clothes were clean except for a blood-stain on the shoulder of his coat and the shirt beneath. I was still in the scrub top. My jeans were all right, though, as was my jacket. The nurse came back to say the CT had come back normal, and Nik would be discharged soon. When soon dragged into the second hour, we left. What the hell? The ID they had was false, and no one noticed as we walked out.
No one but the Auphe.
We were on the stairs when the gates opened. I didn’t have to warn anyone. They opened on the landing a floor below us. A straight shot and that’s what I took, firing several shots at the first of the seven, but it had already slid to the side as my finger pulled the trigger. Then I felt two more gates open behind us. Nine of them, four of us. That wasn’t even odds, nowhere near. One of the ones who’d appeared behind us was carrying something. At first I didn’t recognize what it was. I didn’t recognize it because I didn’t want to.
Cambriel’s head.
It was held by a handful of copper hair, the normally neat braid a tangled mess, the light brown eyes filmed. “I brought you a present, treasonous cousin. Traitorous brother. To put you in the breeding disposition. We hope it pleases you.” Scarlet eyes were bright with homicidal glee. “We made sure that he knew he died because of you.” The metal teeth flashed. “He had a long time to think of that before we finished. So very long.”
I didn’t think about that. I couldn’t. If I did, I’d make a mistake, and we couldn’t afford one now. “Mi Dios,” Cherish murmured in dread. She had called me Auphe, but now she saw the real thing. Walking, talking carnage. Even vampires feared the Auphe, were their victims like anyone else.
We hadn’t been able to handle two before between four of us with Niko in top shape and Robin with his thousands of years of experience there. I didn’t think we could take nine. I knew we couldn’t take nine.
I didn’t know if I could build a gate around all of us, four and Xolo too. That would be a big one, bigger than I’d attempted before. And a half-ass gate? I didn’t know what that would do. Take half of our bodies out of here, leave the other half? It was risk that might be as dangerous as the Auphe. So I opened one behind us, between the two Auphe and us. I concentrated. I stayed in control . . . God knew how. They were there. Right fucking there, and if we didn’t get out of there someone was going to die.
My gate was open, tarnished and greedy and big enough for two people to pass through at the same time. “Go!” I rapped. Promise didn’t hesitate. Cherish did for the briefest of moments, but then followed, dragging Xolo behind her. The Auphe watched them go, unmoving—their silver teeth showing in wider, contorted grins. Then Niko and I lunged for the gray light of the gate.
The Auphe closed it in our faces.
I felt them jerk it out of existence, collapse it into nothingness.
I hadn’t known they could do that. I hadn’t . . . oh, Jesus. It was Niko they wanted first. Last time, this time. The one person I could least afford to lose. The one I couldn’t lose.
The two who had appeared behind us on the upper stairs moved apart, leaving the way clear between them. “Run,” the one with Cambriel’s head said. “Give us our chase. Give us our thrill. Run, meat. Run, whore. Run.”
We did. We ran up eight flights. For anyone else with a concussion it probably wouldn’t have been possible. For Niko it was not only doable, but he had to slow down so that I could keep up. Ultraconditioned athlete or machine, take your pick.
At the fourth-floor landing a man in scrubs and a lab coat was scanning a clipboard. With one quick motion Niko gave him a hard shove back through the door and slammed it in his face. We went up four more before the scream came. He hadn’t stayed behind the door like he should have. I didn’t have time to feel guilt over his death. I didn’t have time for anything but the running, lungs burning and legs propelling with all the strength they had. We were still ahead of them, but only because they let us be. They were taking their time, drawing it out. Having their fun.
The last door was locked. I shot out the lock and we were on the roof. We could’ve gone out onto one of the occupied floors, but I didn’t think that would stop the Auphe. Not this time. They were in the heat of the chase, insane with it. A cold insanity and ready. They were so damn ready. Niko and I ran to the edge. At least sixteen floors up, there was nothing below us but the street. Nothing to hold on to, no way to climb down.
The door slammed open across the roof and they were there. Blood on their teeth and claws, dripping down pointed chins. Running. So quick I barely had time to point the Glock, but not time to pull the trigger—they were so fast they were almost on us when Niko tackled me and we went over the edge. I felt the concrete ledge hard against my knees, the breath-sucking tumble. Then there was free fall, lights flashing past us, and the hard thud of the ground beneath us. Not the street, but the bristle of winter grass.
I’d tried one last time. Tried one last time on the way down to be Auphe, and the Auphe had let me.
Niko rolled off of me to lie at my side, and I stared at the morning sky above Rafferty’s backyard. I waited slow seconds as the air finally began to wheeze back into my lungs. I’d created the gate one floor down as we fell from the hospital roof, the gate open one moment and closed the next. The Auphe had allowed it. Why? Because even in the madness of the hunt they knew what they wanted.
Me. And Niko had played on that when he’d pushed us over the edge. Him they wanted dead, but me they needed alive. They’d still been at their homicidal vengeful play, trying to take him, then the others. I had a feeling, though, playtime was about to be over. They might live almost forever, but they didn’t know that I would. They’d tire of the chase and soon. Torture was good fun and all, but they had their plans too. Then they would all come, and it wouldn’t be long. Not two, not nine, but every last one of them—which would accomplish both their goals. A massacre, and me pulled back to hell to remake the Auphe race.
I coughed and said hoarsely, “I never thought my dick would save our asses.”
“You had to say it, didn’t you?” Niko studied the sky with me. Blue and clear—a good day to still be alive. “But in this case you’re an idiot whose penis did save our lives. And I hope I never have to say or think that again.” It had been our only chance, Nik’s plan, the only way I wouldn’t have seen my brother die before my eyes while they held me back.
And if for some reason it hadn’t worked, hell, hitting the pavement would’ve been one goddamned better way to go.
12
I hadn’t known that the Auphe would let us escape the relatively painless death of a sixteen-floor fall. I’d strongly suspected, but I hadn’t known. I had known the only other option was not preferable. I turned my head, the grass rustling in my ear, and watched as Cal continued to stare at the sky, memorizing it, as if it were the last one he’d ever see. The faith he’d once had at the beach, the determination since, had drained away, leaving his face blank and empty. I watched it go as the stomach-wrenching nausea from the gate slowly began to subside. Cambriel, and the stranger who’d gotten in the Auphe’s way at the hospital—it was all hitting him now.