a stretch. The numbers I know are etched so deeply into my brain that I’ll never forget them. But for the two missing digits, there’s nothing to recall since I don’t actually know them.
The keypad code is six digits. Zero-nine-three-something-something-four.
I’m pretty sure the fourth digit is either a one or a two, and I think the fifth might be a seven or an eight.
Fuck it. I’ll just have to guess until I get it right, and pray it doesn’t set off an alarm.
I punch some numbers in, trying the first possible combination.
Nothing.
The door doesn’t open, but no alarm goes off either, so I take that as the small victory it is and keep trying.
It turns out, I was wrong. The fifth digit is a five, but after several minutes of cursing under my breath and punching the keypad with shaking fingers, I finally enter the right combo. The arrow on the keypad turns green, pointing upward like a beacon leading to freedom, and I let out a ragged breath.
The elevator door slides open, and I grab Nathan by the arm and haul him in after me.
I want to feel relieved, but despite the brief moment of victory, I know we’re not out of the woods yet. I punch the button for the street level floor—there are two floors between here and there—then stand with my back pressed against the cold glass. Nathan’s giving me a worried look, chewing on his lower lip.
“What?”
“How did you know about this?” he whispers. “How do you know where it goes?”
“Prince Bloodsucker took me up here once.”
Ouch. I didn’t think calling him that would hurt. It’s not like I’m in love with him or anything… but I had a connection with him.
Maybe I just need to connect with more human people. I don’t really make a habit of it. I never considered it a weakness before now, but maybe I should have. Loneliness leaves you vulnerable to rotten connections.
And seeing Bastian as anything but a monster is a mistake. Just because he’s been hurt before, just because he’s experienced the exact same pain I have, that doesn’t mean he’s a good person.
It doesn’t mean I should allow myself to miss him if—when—I get Nathan out of this place.
As I try to drag myself from the memory of what it felt like to have Bastian’s solid arms around me, his hand resting on my stomach and his face buried in the crook of my neck, the elevator chimes suddenly.
I stiffen.
This isn’t right. We shouldn’t be stopping. We aren’t at the ground floor yet. Keeping my gaze locked on the doors, I step forward so that Nathan is behind me, reaching back to hand him one of my blades. I raise my other knife as the twin doors slide open.
“What—” Nathan starts to say, then stops.
The five vampires outside the elevator door stare at us. We stare back.
For a second, nobody does anything.
Then we explode into motion.
Striking like a cobra, I leap forward and jab at the “close door” button at the exact moment that one of the vampires hisses and launches himself into the elevator. The rest of them follow, practically landing on top of each other, fangs bared, mouths spewing inhuman snarls.
One grabs my shoulders and lunges at my throat, but he ends up swallowing my knife instead. It bursts through the back of his head, coated in slick, dark blood. More blood and foam gurgle past his reaching fangs, smothering his furious growls. I don’t have enough room to yank the blade out and stick it where it’ll do some real damage, so I kick him as hard as I can. He slams into the button panel hard enough to shove my knife forward, but not quite out of his mouth.
It’s fucking disgusting, but I don’t have time to dwell on that because there’s another vampire attacking me from the other side. He goes for my throat, and I duck down, letting his face smash into the glass wall behind me. If I never hear vampire fangs screeching down glass again, it’ll be too soon.
From this vantage, all I can see of Nathan is his feet, but the frustrated grunts of our attackers and the darkly metallic scent of vampire blood in the air tell me that he’s holding his own… so far, anyway.
The elevator chimes again.
I throw a kick at the vampire nearest to me, connecting with his chest and sending him flying out through the elevator doors as they open. The rest