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The succubus glared. The angel pleaded silently. They both moved on.

* * *

Alex watched Hauser receive reports over his earpiece. “Get everyone moving and sweep the whole floor,” ordered Hauser. “Guns out. Take this seriously.” He turned his attention back to Bridger again. “Talk to me.”

The other agent shook his head. “I can’t get a sense of anything other than the fact that there’s a presence here.”

“Only one?” Hauser demanded.

“Stealthy. I wouldn’t even be sure, unless…” he frowned. “It’s hard to explain.”

“Hauser,” spoke up Nguyen, who thus far had been silent, “we still don’t have Maddox yet with her suspect.”

“Shit,” Hauser grimaced. “Call her.” He looked to Bridger. “Can you find Maddox with your magic or whatever?”

Bridger let out a frustrated breath and shook himself from his trance. “Yeah,” he muttered, flexing his fingers, “yeah, I can try.”

Hauser put his finger to his earpiece again. “Dammit, we’ve got men down.” He rose out of his seat.

“Let me talk to her,” Alex spoke up.

Hauser stopped. He glared at Alex. “You know what’s happening? Who is it? Who is ‘her’ that you want to talk to? Is it Lorelei? Rachel?”

Chained as he was, Alex gave what little of a shrug he could. “I can think of about five different women it might be. One of them isn’t my friend at all, and if it’s her, she’s probably going to kill people unless I can stop her.” He paused. “She might kill me, too, so it’s not like she’s here to do me any favors if it’s that one. But I won’t know until I find her.”

They heard people rush past the door. Someone shouted outside.

“You won’t try to get away?” Hauser asked.

“I don’t want to live on the run, no,” scowled Alex. Hauser moved over toward him, handcuff keys in hand. “But after this, you let me see my friends. Otherwise I ain’t doing a damn thing to help with the next person that comes looking for me.”

Hauser hesitated, but let out a grumbling breath. “Fine.”

* * *

Abandoned offices stood as a silent testament to government inefficiency. Lorelei found old yet perfectly useful desks, chairs and even office equipment left behind almost every door. She suspected that the office had been repurposed more than once since the Navy ended operations in the building, but even those later occupants left much behind.

She moved through the hallways swiftly and silently. Rather than invest the time in picking locks-Lorelei had to admit to herself that she was a bit out of practice-she noted the doors she could not open and continued her sweep through the building. Better to get a sense of her surroundings and eliminate the larger spaces first and then narrow down the more complicated tasks. She needed to know how many agents and guards occupied the site, their capabilities and their priorities. She also needed to maintain as much of her stealth as possible.

Uniformed men with body armor and drawn weapons moved in pairs, hoping to locate her. To her relief, her powers of stealth seemed more than adequate for the task. They knew she was here, but could not actually spot her. The demon let patrols pass without disruption.

The occasional guardian angel with said mortals, however, was another matter. “Rachel,” demanded one, “what is the meaning of this?”

“Oh, un-wad your fuckin’ panties, Jerome,” Rachel snapped. “I got this shit. She didn’t kill the other dudes, she’s not here to hurt anyone else, okay?”

“You mean to chaperone her, then?” the other angel frowned skeptically. His charge, and the mortal partnered with him, continued on down the hall. Jerome stayed behind as they passed the unseen intruders.

“What the-Jerome, when have I not been cool with you? Has there been a single moment since I took over where I let this city backslide?”

Lorelei shook her head and moved on. Rachel and Jerome continued to bicker as they trailed behind her. It was a distraction that Lorelei could ignore, but apparently not something that Rachel could simply shut down.

She rounded a corner, heard a door open around the next and pressed herself against the nearest doorway. With at least one sorcerer at work among these mortals, ordinary practices of stealth meant as much as her supernatural abilities. She paused and listened.

“Aw, fucking seriously?” complained a familiar voice down the hall. Lorelei recognized the sound of handcuffs being fastened.

“You aren’t getting out of my sight or out of my hands,” said another. “You take off running and I will shoot you like any other fleeing felon, got me? Let’s go.”

Lorelei waited. She watched as Alex came around the corner and toward her, his hands restrained at his back. He was flanked by two uniformed guards and a husky, fit blond man in rolled-up shirtsleeves and a loosened tie. Her love looked irritated, of course, but unharmed.

“So what’s your plan?” asked the agent behind Alex.

“Walk out into the open and hope I can talk everyone down,” Alex answered. “You got anything better?”

“Hauser,” said someone back from the group, “Bridger thinks he’s got a bead.”

“Go,” grunted the blond man. Whomever he spoke to rushed back the way they came.

Lorelei watched. The group passed her by. She fell in behind them. As she suspected, Hauser had his pistol out, but it was pointed straight up rather than into her lover’s back. Hauser’s other hand stayed firmly clamped in a control hold between Alex’s handcuffs.

“Well?” demanded Hauser.

Alex sighed. She knew that tilt of his head; he was rolling his eyes. “Hello?” he called out loudly. The tinge of sarcasm in his voice almost made her grin. “If you’re there, it’s Alex! I’m here and I’m okay! Please don’t break the FBI!”

“That’s it?” demanded Hauser. “That’s your fucking plan?” The two guards looked this way and that, ready to shoot.

“C’mon out and talk to me,” Alex asked, ignoring Hauser. “Please.”

Assured that her moment would not get better, Lorelei moved around the group again. She reached out briefly to caress her lover’s neck, revealing her presence to him alone. Her eyes remained set on the man holding him.

“Lorelei, don’t,” Alex said quietly. “Just hold off.”

“You see her?” Hauser pressed. Lorelei slipped in behind him, undetected by the two uniformed men at his side.

“No. Chill.”

“You think this shit is funny?!”

“Lorelei, we can’t fight our way out of this,” Alex announced, his eyes cast down to the floor. “I don’t want to spend my life hiding from the cops.”

Her hands shrank back from Hauser’s neck. She slipped back around him to stand in front of Alex. “What would you have me do?” she asked. Her voice dropped so low that only he would likely have heard her even without her enchantments. “I cannot leave you here.”

“We have to work with these guys,” Alex said. He tried to speak louder than necessary, not wanting to give away the invisible woman’s position. Lorelei’s hand came up to caress his chest, but he didn’t look at her. “They’ve got the guys, too, but I don’t think they want us. They say they want the vampires.”

“You are too trusting,” Lorelei warned. “Police and courts can be bought and manipulated. You can be manipulated. Your altruism makes you vulnerable.”

Other guards appeared down the hall and at the corners. “What’s happening?” asked Hauser. “Is she talking to you?”

“Well, duh,” Alex scowled.

“Tell her to stand down and show herself.”

“I can get you out of this, Alex,” Lorelei assured him, calm and cool as ever. “Just let me handle it.”

He shook his head. “I think these guys are the real deal, Lorelei. This is bigger than you and I. It’s… I need to help them. People could get hurt.”

“Have you not sacrificed enough for others already? This man cares nothing for you and your little life. Can you not see the ambition in him? He will only use you. He threatens all that we have.”