Mindy closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. “Olivia. They sold her, to someone really scary.”
“Scary how?” Campbell asked.
“These people came in wearing red cloaks with hoods, then a guy with the same kind of cloak, only black. He never said a word, but...there was something about him. Cold, made my skin crawl.”
“Some vamp with a weird fetish?” Len suggested.
“Maybe,” Campbell said, but he was getting a distinctly bad feeling. “How long ago did they leave?”
Mindy looked confused for a moment, as if she’d lost all track of time. “Not long.”
Campbell headed for the stairs.
“No,” Mindy said with more force than she’d exhibited since they arrived. She pointed toward the other end of the room, toward a half-hidden door in the shadows. “They went through there.”
Campbell nearly ripped the door from its hinges in his haste to reach Olivia. He heard more feet pounding behind him, but he didn’t look back to see who it was. He ran as fast as he could through a series of dark corridors. He’d lost count of how many turns they’d made when he rounded another and saw movement up ahead, the fluttering of cloaks. Two big guys in red turned toward him, and he saw Olivia hanging between them. If they’d hurt her, he was going to slice the flesh from their bodies before he staked them.
They shoved Olivia into the darkness ahead of them and turned to fight. Campbell and Len hit them full steam. Fists flew and Campbell took a couple to the jaw and an elbow to the gut. Another blow busted his lip and rattled his fangs. Not in the mood to let this guy live any longer, he pulled his stake-shooting gun from his hip and pressed it against the guy’s chest. He pulled the trigger and the fight went out of the guy like a light switch being turned off.
Campbell let him drop and stood in time to see Len make a powerful swipe with a knife that severed the other guy’s head from his body.
When Campbell looked ahead, Olivia was gone. “Damn it.” He raced past the dead vamps. He refused to believe he’d gotten so close only to lose her. He rounded another corner and skidded to a halt. Olivia lay in the middle of the floor, struggling to lift herself. He ran to her and dropped to her side. She yelped and tried to crawl away.
“Shh, Livvi. It’s me.”
When she saw him, tears sprang to her eyes and she crawled into his arms. “I knew you’d come for me,” she said. “I knew it.”
He held her close. “Are you okay?”
She nodded against his chest. “Now I am.” She sat back suddenly. “Mindy?”
He framed her face with his palm. “Safe. The rest of the team is getting them across the street to a human-owned building.”
“Mindy needs to get to the hospital. She’s lost a lot of blood.”
He ran his hand over her mussed hair, needing to reassure himself that she was really there in front of him, really safe. “We’ll take you both to the hospital.” He glanced down the darkened corridor, considered sending Len after the guy who got away. But he was probably long gone, and getting the humans help was more important at the moment. He didn’t let go of Olivia as he led her back through the maze of corridors.
When they reached the basement where the captives had been held, all of them were gone but Mindy. Colin had just lifted her in his arms. Olivia raced forward. “Min?”
“She’s passed out,” Colin said. “But alive. She’s strong.”
“How are the rest?” Campbell asked.
“Weak but okay. They hadn’t been fed on in a couple of days, and it looked as if they’d been given food.”
“They wanted to make sure they were able to keep making blood,” Campbell said with disgust.
“Everyone else went up under their own power,” Colin said.
“We’ll guard them until morning when the ambulances start running, but we’re taking Mindy and Olivia to the hospital now.”
Colin didn’t argue and started up the stairs with Mindy.
When they reached the club, Campbell stopped and looked down at Olivia. “Go out with Colin. I’ll be there in a minute.”
She gripped his arm.
“It’s okay. I just have a bit of business to finish.”
He watched as Olivia followed Colin out the door. Then he turned his attention to Salmeri. “You have no idea how much I want to kill you right now and save the Imperium the trouble of a trial. I’ll settle for shutting you down and anticipating seeing which horrible punishment they hand you.”
“You may have won the battle, but you’ll lose the war,” Salmeri said with a contemptuous sneer.
“It’s war, is it?” Campbell asked. “That why you tried to blow us to the hereafter?”
“You’re nothing more than a nuisance, but I don’t like nuisances.”
“Then you’re really not going to like where you’re going.”
Salmeri had the gall to laugh. “I won’t be there for long.”
“You seem mighty sure of that,” Campbell said. “Think your Nefari friends are going to break you out?”
Salmeri snorted. “You think like the small-minded vampires you are, as if the Nefari were your biggest problem.”
There it was again, that skittering feeling up his back that told Campbell something bigger was going on.
“Feel free to stop being cryptic at any time,” he said.
“You’ll know soon enough,” Salmeri said, evidently deciding to stay with the cryptic. “That or the next time someone bombs you, your merry little band won’t be so lucky.” He met Campbell’s gaze with hate-filled eyes. “When they do kill you, I plan to watch the tears pool in your little human’s eyes, delight in her mourning for her poor dead vampire.” Salmeri smiled, causing rage to swell inside Campbell.
Fed up, he jerked Salmeri to his feet and shoved him at Len and Kaja, who had returned from escorting Salmeri’s victims to safety. “Get this piece of garbage out of my sight before I kill him.”
Kaja wrapped a silver chain around Salmeri’s neck and dragged him out like the dog he was.
“You think he was just blowing smoke with all that mysterious crap?” Len asked.
Campbell stared toward the door and thought about Salmeri’s words. “I don’t think so.”
“What do you think he was talking about, then?”
Campbell shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’m sure we’re not going to like it.”
Chapter 20
Having been checked out and given a clean bill of health, Olivia sat beside Mindy’s hospital bed as her friend slept. Mindy had been through so much, new horrors she didn’t deserve. The press had wanted to interview them again, especially since the viewing audience was already familiar with them from when they’d halted the earlier kidnapping attempt. But Olivia had simply denied them access, focusing instead on Mindy’s recovery. Despite what Mindy had said when they’d been held captive, Olivia still felt guilty.
A scrolling Breaking News banner on the muted TV caught her attention, so she adjusted the volume just enough to hear the reporter.
“An unbelievable story is coming out of Mount Sinai Hospital this morning. Eight people, the victims in a rash of recent abductions, were rushed to the hospital this morning just after daybreak. All had suffered significant blood loss and other less threatening injuries after having been kept as blood slaves beneath a new nightclub popular among vampires. Officials say that the victims confirmed that they were abducted by humans working for vampires. But what is truly surprising to everyone who has spoken to the victims is that they are all claiming they were also rescued by vampires. One of the rescued abductees, Jennifer Watson, spoke with some of the vampires who raided the club and freed the people being held captive.”