Kneeling in the damp grass outside the building, Winter frowned at the collection of buildings. The Wadsworth Atheneum was made of five connected buildings ranging from Gothic Revival to late modernist. All of them were arranged in a square with a central, enclosed courtyard.
They’d spent close to an hour going over the layout of the building, but with the waning night working against them, there was no avoiding a full-frontal assault. Luckily, they had numbers on their side. Aiden had summoned the full force of the Varik and Montgomery clans as well as the Moon and Novick clans. Several others had volunteered to join the fight. They also had a number of werewolves on their side from the local shifter pack.
And then, they had Winter’s collection of weapons to play with.
Winter’s job was the initial distraction. Once he got inside the building, he was to search for and free Fox. After that, it was only a matter of finding Damon and claiming the fucker’s head.
Of course, they had no idea where Fox was, where Damon was, or how many fighters Damon had on his side. They didn’t know what they were heading into, and fear sat heavy in Winter’s stomach. He worried for his brothers and their mates. For the first time, Marcus was permitting Ethan to join the fray. It was his right to fight for his clan and his future, but God help anyone who so much as breathed in Ethan’s direction. Marcus was ready to rip their head off with his bare hands.
Bel’s wolves looked just as feral when it came to their absent-minded professor, but they were in for a surprise. Winter had seen the type of ruthlessness Bel was capable of when it came to protecting his family. And there was no telling if he had any “science experiments” hidden on his person.
And Rafe was just an evil fucker when he wanted to be.
He had yet to see Aiden in a fight, but then a vampire didn’t live as long as he obviously had without knowing how to handle himself.
No, his family was going to be fine. He needed to keep his focus on finding Fox. He wished Julianna had been able to give him some direction when it came to locating his missing witch.
The cell phone clutched tightly in his hand vibrated and Winter looked down to see the text he’d been waiting for.
Ready.
He glanced over his shoulder at the collection of vampires and werewolves that had chosen to follow him into the building. They were the distraction team. Bel grinned at him while his hands rested on the furry backs of Wyatt and River. The massive wolves looked more than ready to take a few vampires apart.
Pulling on his power, Winter disappeared from sight, slipping into the world of the dead as he left cover and crossed the street. He briskly walked up to the Main Street entrance of the Wadsworth. There were only a couple of vampires loitering outside of this entrance, keeping watch for attackers. Ghostlike, he moved in behind each, appearing long enough only to bury a blade into each vampire’s throat before disappearing again. There was a cough, a gasp, and then one by one, bodies hit the ground with a loud thud. Winter barely stopped moving, his eye always turned toward the doors.
At the entrance, he was forced to drop fully into the world of the living, but he’d brought a present. He attached the explosive device to the doors and smiled broadly at the vampires standing on the other side. With a wink, he set the timer and disappeared. He ran around the side of the entrance, using the thick stone structure as cover as the device exploded.
The force of the blast was relatively small, just enough to blow through the locks on the door. The main purpose of the blast was the smoke that rolled through the opening. Lifting his face cover into place, Winter stole into the building. He moved deftly back and forth between worlds, slaughtering one attacker after another without ever being seen.
More than two dozen vampires and even some humans poured through the first-floor lobby, and more were moving away from the adjacent entrance on Atheneum Square to fight the invaders. Which was just fine. Aiden and Marcus would be bringing in a second wave through that entrance any second now.
Unfortunately, Winter couldn’t wait around to enjoy the ensuing melee. Disappearing once again, he jogged through the building, quickly searching for