heard the sudden crash of breaking glass coming from Elise's apartment.
Son of a bitch, he growled as the female's scream shot through the walls.
The Rogue chose that second to fly at him, but Tegan was ready for the attack. He leaped out of the suckhead's path, landing in a low crouch behind it and coming up fast with his blade. He skewered the bastard in a split-second's move and was gunning for Elise's door before the dead bulk of the Rogue hit the floor.
Using mental will and brute force, Tegan smashed the apartment door off its hinges and stormed inside. Elise was on the floor, facedown, her spine trapped beneath the heavy boot of the Rogue who'd come in through the window. She held the journal tight to her chest, protecting it with her body.
Jesus Christ.
She'd been cut somehow in the struggle; a gash on her upper arm was bright red, slick with fresh blood. And the scent and sight of it had sent her Rogue attacker into a slavering fit of Bloodlust. Instead of going for the book, which the trio had no doubt been dispatched to do, the Rogue on Elise seemed rooted on just one thing--slaking its unquenchable thirst.
Tegan! she cried as her stricken gaze lit on him. She started scrambling to push the journal out from under her now, like she meant to pass it to him even though her life was hanging in the balance. Don't let them have it. Take the book, Tegan!
Fuck that, he thought, his temples pounding with the need to spill more Rogue blood. He went after the suckhead on Elise, knocking the Rogue off with a fierce strike of his mind. Without touching the bastard, using only his will and a flaring, savage anger, Tegan threw the Rogue against the far wall and held him there, two-hundred-and-fifty pounds of thrashing, feral vampire suspended three feet off the ground.
He saw the hunger in the Rogue's eyes, those slitted pupils fixed on Elise, even though Tegan was tightening his mental hold around the suckhead's throat, killing him by degrees. The long fangs were dripping saliva, the mind inside the huge skull no longer capable of any thought besides feeding the thirst. Tegan despised this element of his kind--knew it better than most, enough to know that extermination was the only solution for vampires lost to the disease.
But it wasn't duty or cool logic that made him draw his blade and drive it into the Rogue's heart. It was the heather-and-roses scent of Elise's spilled blood, the bitter tang of her fear, which clung to the air like a mist. This bastard had injured her, an innocent female, and that was something Tegan could not abide.
He let the dead Rogue crumble to the floor, instantly forgotten.
Are you all right? he asked Elise, turning to see her coming to her feet behind him.
She nodded. I'm okay.
Then let's get out of here.
As they hit the street, Tegan flipped his cell phone open and speed-dialed the compound. I need pickup, he told Gideon when the warrior came on the line. Send it fast.
There was a fractional hesitation, no doubt because Tegan, ever the loner, never called for backup. You hit? Nah, I'm good. But I'm not alone. He glanced at Elise's wound and ground out a curse. I'm with a female from the Darkhaven. She's bleeding, and I just smoked three Rogues downtown. Got a feeling there's going to be more real quick.
And if so, he and Elise might be able to shake their pursuers temporarily, but so long as they were leaving a blood scent trail, the Rogues would track them like hounds.
Ah, shit, Gideon breathed, understanding that fact the same as Tegan did. Where are you at right now?
Still running, Elise hurrying alongside him, Tegan gave his location and the direction he was heading.
Yep, I got ya right here, Gideon said over a clacking rush in the background as he typed something on a keyboard at the compound. Tracking GPS on the others now to see who's closest...Okay, looks like Dante and Chase are on patrol just north of you about fifteen minutes out.
Tell them they'd better get here in five. And, Gideon?
Yeah.
Let them know that the injured female who's with me...let them know it's Elise.
Fuck, T. You serious? Gideon's voice dropped low, incredulous. What the hell are you doing with that female?
Tegan heard the edge of wary suspicion in the vampire's tone, but he ignored it. Just tell Dante to haul ass.
Chapter Ten
Elise