to be rushed through the facility by strangers, even if he knew they’d been sent by his mother.
His now deceased mother.
The woman took the young’s fragile hands and murmured to him. Her words didn’t carry far. Her compassion went around the world: There was a sheen of tears in her own eyes as she reached up and brushed his hair back. After a moment, he nodded.
In response, the woman wrapped her strong arms around him and picked him up, sitting him on her hip. As the young held on to her shoulders and tucked his head into her neck, Murhder knew that the simple act of kindness to a frightened young in the midst of a nightmare was …
Well, it was the sort of thing that told you everything you needed to know about her character, didn’t it.
Unconsciously, Murhder’s eyes dipped to the ring finger on her left hand. Humans marked their matings in that manner. Hers was bare.
That was a treacherous relief.
“You got him?” Murhder asked softly.
Her honey-colored eyes shifted up to his. “Yes. I do.”
Well, brace yourself, he thought. Because I’m very sure you got me, too.
Murhder refocused and shoved at Kraiten’s shoulder, reigniting the march of descent, the lineup moving down the concrete stairwell with more shuffle than alacrity. At the bottom, Kraiten stopped and seemed to want to speak.
Murhder ripped the gag out of his mouth. “What.”
“I need …” Given that the man was still fighting the commands he’d been given, his voice was slurred. “Credentials.”
“Where are they?” Xhex said.
“My breast pocket.”
The female shoved her free hand into Kraiten’s suit jacket and came out with a black alligator-skin wallet, key fob for a car, and a pass card. She swiped the last one through the reader next to another steel door, and after the lock released, they broke out into an underground loading dock and delivery area.
A black Lexus SUV gleamed under the caged fluorescent lights, and as Xhex pointed the fob at it, its running lights flashed.
Thank God it isn’t a two-seater, Murhder thought.
Leading the young and the woman over, he settled them in the backseat, and then looked at Xhex and John.
“I’ll get these two out,” he said. “Kraiten’s yours to play with.”
The man in the suit started blurting all kinds of threats, his survival instincts partially overriding the mind control.
Murhder stepped up and clapped a hold on the guy’s throat. Leaning in, he put his mouth to the human’s ear. “I could tear your beating heart out of your chest and eat it for what you’ve done.” He eased back and measured the true terror in those eyes. “But I’m going to leave you to them—especially her. What she is capable of will be much, much worse.”
As he felt his fangs elongate, he wanted to take a hunk out of the side of the man’s throat, but he was aware of the woman in the car. She was watching him through the glass as she held the pretrans tight.
Backing off, Murhder nodded at John and Xhex, and then he took the car key from the female, the pass card—and for good measure, the wallet. Turning away, he went around the hood of the SUV and got behind the wheel. Glancing up to the rearview mirror, he found the young and the woman holding each other and staring at him.
God, that face, he thought as he focused on the woman. He had been looking at it for twenty-five years … and now she was with him.
It was as if a ghost had become real.
But why did she have to be human? And why did they have to meet like this?
“Buckle up,” he told them. “And you’re going to have to tell me where to go.”
He started the vehicle and put it in drive as everyone clicked in.
The woman leaned forward. “I know where we are. Go that way.”
As she pointed to a metal garage door, he hit the gas. The panels rolled up as they approached, and then they were out in the night, on the plowed lane that went around the facility.
“Take a left …”
She was efficient with the directions, helping him to navigate the route to the single point of entry onto the site. The good news? No flashing lights on the buildings. No security guards coming after them. No human police arriving in a rush.
“That’s the gatehouse up ahead,” she said. “I don’t know how we’re going to get through security, though.”