Adam had to think—to regroup. There had to be a way overlooked by Spencer. Spencer was good, but not creative. Overconfident. There were things he would have missed. The ducts, perhaps, or—
The floor buzzed beneath Adam’s feet. The vibration moved over his skin with a sudden terror. He knew the source: a great machine was retracting as a safety measure released.
A distant shriek echoed through the walls of Segue.
From below. From hell.
From Jacob.
The floor shook. Talia saw the lines of Adam’s face tighten, his color turn ashy, and she knew what it meant. There were monsters outside, and now a very motivated one inside. Jacob.
Adam’s expression focused, as if a line of thought were developing in his mind. He abruptly turned and coded into his office. Custo followed, pulling her with him, and propped open the door with a chair but blocked the others as they crowded beyond the door. Adam dropped his rifle on the small leather sofa to his right and typed madly into his computer.
Talia glanced at the monitor to the right of Adam’s desk. Jacob’s guards were strung up like macabre marionettes inside the cell they once guarded. Adam switched the image immediately to view a long, empty corridor. He looked over his shoulder at her, concern in his eyes.
Not necessary. Talia’s fear was still tightly packed into a knot of horror in the back of her mind. It wouldn’t bother her anymore. Patty had taken care of that.
Adam returned his attention to his computer monitor. “Elevators are still locked down. Coded security measures are still active.”
He stepped over to a tall cabinet on the other side of the room, jerked it open, and rummaged through long rolls of papers. He selected one, flicked off the rubber band, and unfurled it.
A strong wipe of his arm cleared the adjacent work space. Files, papers, a laptop, and assorted flotsam fell to the floor, replaced with the curling page. Detailed plans of the building in delicate blue lines filled the white space, though the shapes of the rooms and corridors were not familiar to her.
“This is a blueprint of the hotel, not Segue. Spencer and SPCI were not part of the initial renovation of the building, so I’m hoping we can all slip by them and get to the garage. There are three cars left in there, though it will be a tight fit for all of us. The access road might not be blocked.”
Adam traced his finger along a set of narrow lines. “There is a God.”
Apparently the green parlor had an old, concealed service passage, now covered with drywall, from which it was possible to get out the west side of the building. Then they’d cut across the terrace, climb onto the roof of the garage, enter through a vent, and pack into Adam’s cars like circus clowns to make a speedy getaway.
Ridiculous. Her plan was better.
“Trading you is not an option,” Adam said, as if he could read her mind. He was back at his computer, concentrating on a detailed list of files, selecting and copying those he wanted.
“It’s the only way,” Talia insisted. “I can see it. Everyone else can surely see it. That leaves just you. No one else has to die.”
From the corridor, Armand shouted, “If the wraiths want her so bad, just give them to her. One life for twelve.”
Talia caught the quick, cutting look Adam shot Custo.
Custo turned to the crowd in the doorway. “Let’s move back and let the man think. We’re not trading anyone to the wraiths today.”
Arms spread wide, gun across his chest, Custo herded Gillian and the others down the hallway toward the stairs.
As soon as they were out of sight, Adam said, “Martyring yourself won’t bring Pat back. The Collective wants you bad enough to go public before they’re ready.” A bar slowly made its way across the computer screen as files were downloaded. “They don’t have the numbers yet to sustain a full-on war, which means they are embracing years of being hunted just to capture you. You’re that important. If we give you up now, the wraith war will be over. They’ll have won.”
He turned back to the cabinet, pulled out a fire ax, and laid it next to his rifle.
He just didn’t seem to understand. “Adam. Maybe in an alternate universe, I am actually helpful against the wraiths, instead of a liability. But here and now, I don’t know how I could possibly stop them.”
If, however, she went to The Collective, negotiated safety for the Segue staff and Adam, then maybe she could do something worthwhile with her life.
He shook his head, no. “We need to buy you the time to figure your role out. No matter what happens today, you find out why you are so important, and then end this.”
The man was insane.
He pressed a flash drive into her hand. “You’ve got all my Segue files here, as well as locations of global safe houses. Actually, ignore those. Find somewhere populated, but anonymous. A big city, but don’t tell me which one. You’ll have access to money, resources. Names of people who will help you.”
Talia tried to give it back. “I’m not taking this.”
“I don’t want to have to give it to you, but there’s nothing left to do. No, I take that back. Just one thing left…” His mouth descended on hers, his hand cradling the back of her head, fingers lacing into her hair. He seared her with his regret.
She didn’t want to feel this. Feel what might have been.
He shifted, kicking the desk chair out of the way to mold her body to his, showing her—cruelly—just how perfectly they would have fit together had things been different. A wild surge of his emotion overwhelmed her—too many feelings to parse individually, but all racked with guilt.
He pulled back, but the sensation of his mouth still lingered on hers.
“I’m sorry for how I did it before,” he said. “I was feeling sorry for myself. Still am, but what the hell.”
She gripped his arms. “What? So now I’m supposed to run away and leave you to—”
He nodded. “Yep. Far and fast.”
Across their touch, his determination surged, washing out all other emotion.
“No. I’ve seen what the wraiths do to people.”
“We all have to die someday.” He grabbed her around the waist and shoved her into the corridor.
She turned to find him armed with his rifle and the ax. “But they won’t feed on your ‘life energy.’ They feed on your soul.”
Adam glanced down at her briefly in the office doorway, mouth twisting a little. “My soul’s half eaten already.”
“No, it’s not. It’s…” There were no words to describe what she felt in him. “I could make it so dark that we could all slip out to safety.”
“I assure you that we will be using that trick of yours, but your range isn’t wide enough to blind them all. To save us all. Just you.” He pushed her down the hall to the rest of the Segue group. Custo already had the stairwell door open.
“And I can do things in the dark, too. I disabled one wraith on the street…” she argued as she hurried alongside Adam.
“But not the one that got Patty. We have an entire army outside those doors.”
Then it was hopeless. “You’re not going to fight to live at all?”
“The green parlor,” Adam said to Custo, who ushered the others into the stairwell. Adam turned back to her, looked her straight in the eyes. “Talia, I am going to fight to the death. Please understand. I have to see to my brother.” Dark, bloody anger coursed through him, as if the word brother had a death grip on his heart. “You find the thing that did this to him.”
She pulled back. No. I don’t want to.
This was not the Adam that had just kissed her. This Adam was a stranger. Unyielding, implacable. Bent on fighting a creature ten times his strength. Out of his mind.