the computer came on without a password prompt.
No longer able to breathe, he took off the black mask and flung it across the room. It didn’t take long to locate the security camera program, and when he did, the monitors lit up. Most of them were aimed at the white floors of an empty fighting ring, but as he went through the commands, he found cameras in hallways and a public seating area. He spied Viktor’s wolf sniffing chairs in what appeared to be the upstairs viewing room. Wyatt took off his backpack and began copying everything to his external hard drive. He couldn’t afford to waste time digging through computer files. His sole job was to collect evidence and then get out of Dodge.
After he finished up, he walked over to the wall across from the door to check out the control panel. The large metal square had a lot of switches and buttons, each neatly labeled.
“Hold your ponies. External doors?”
Wyatt hurried back to the computer and looked closer at the surveillance system. He clicked on each camera to bring it up on the big screen.
“Empty hall, another empty hall, lobby…” He froze when he pulled up a camera aimed down at Gem. She stood in front of a steel door, wielding an energy ball. Another view showed the rest of the team standing far back.
The ball grew larger, blue light snapping from the exterior like miniature lightning bolts. When it reached the size of a soccer ball, Gem hurled it at the door and collapsed.
“Holy Toledo!” Wyatt knocked his chair over when he shot out of his seat. He’d never seen anything like that up close, let alone from a safe spot where he wouldn’t get burned to a crisp.
After the smoke cleared, the door was nothing but a memory. Claude knelt by Gem. There was no sound, but silent pictures told the story as Claude helped his weakened partner to stand. Wyatt located video of the next door. There was no way in hellfire she’d have enough energy to blast through another one, and they couldn’t pick the locks since the external doors were activated by a keypad.
He was looking down at the computer when the control room door suddenly burst open. Wyatt flew backward onto the fallen chair, startled by the loud noise. With his heart racing, he looked up to see Christian and heaved a sigh of relief.
“You scared the crazy out of me!”
Christian gave him a mirthless smile. “Would you happen to know where my partner is?”
“I’ve got stuff to do.”
Christian waltzed in, hoisted Wyatt off the floor, and hauled him out of the room. “That can wait. Viktor asked me to join, but I can’t seem to hear anyone else running their mouth but you. If my partner’s in danger and I don’t get there in time, I’ll extract your teeth, one by one, and replace them with nails.”
Wyatt blanched. Vampires were strong enough to do it. “Fine. Let me go.”
Once Christian released his hold, Wyatt hustled down the hall. He’d memorized the blueprint, so it wasn’t difficult to locate the stairwell that led to the upper floor.
Once they emerged from the stairwell, Viktor’s wolf lunged at Christian.
“Jaysus wept! It’s me, you furry eejit!”
The wolf hopped back and snorted.
Christian wiped his bloody hand on his black T-shirt. “Careful, Spooky. He’s got blood in his mouth now.”
“That only matters when they’re in the middle of a fight.”
Large windows encircled the fighting room down below.
Christian gave Wyatt a menacing stare. “Well? Where is she?”
“I thought you wanted to talk to Viktor about a plan.”
“I don’t speak dog.”
Wyatt pointed around the bend. “She went that way.”
Christian marched off.
Wyatt caught up and tugged on Christian’s shirt. “I wouldn’t advise going the way she did.”
“You let me make that decision.”
Wyatt didn’t bother arguing. At least this would get Christian out of his hair, if not eternally. If Christian wanted to join his lover in a fighting ring or a pit of fire, so be it.
Wyatt stopped in front of a door on the outside wall and looked at the card reader. “That’s a problem. I need to go back for my bag.”
Christian shoved him toward the wall. “Figure it out, Einstein.”
Even with the keypad below the reader, Wyatt didn’t know the code. Before cracking it open, he decided to run down a list of the most commonly used passwords. Birthdays were ruled out since he didn’t have that information, so he punched in the street number of the