She stared at him. "Have you gone totally mad?"
Jack snorted softly. "Far from it. Mike, you okay?"
The big man made a series of low curses as he pulled himself off the floor.
"I'll take that as a yes." Jack walked over and picked up a wristcom. "Control, Redfern here. We're under attack. I repeat, we're under attack. Flint's been hit. Stairs are occupied. We're taking the elevator."
"Sending teams one and five to help."
Jack smiled and clicked off the wristcom. "Transformation time, Mike."
The big man raised his fingers to his face and slowly dug in. With an odd sucking sound, his mouth, nose, everything, began to peel away. David Flint lay underneath the mask.
"A clone," she murmured.
"A clone," Jack said, tone smug. "Eddie, time for your magic."
The skinny man near the elevator door pulled a small box from his pocket and walked to the control panel. Jack squatted down next her. Slowly, carefully, she eased the laser into her pocket. Gabriel's was long gone — she hadn't even seen him move it.
"Time to get out of here, my friend."
"Thanks, but I think I'd rather remain here with the dead."
"Sorry, that wish has already been granted to Stern."
He grabbed her shoulder, callously digging his fingers into her wound. Through a haze of pain, she heard Gabriel swear. Almost in slow motion, she saw Jack raise his gun, saw the flash as the bullet was fired. She felt Gabriel's shudder as if it were her own. Screamed when his blood splashed across her face.
Jack laughed. Then fire leapt into her skull, and for an instant, everything went black.
"Bastard," she heard Gabriel mutter, voice taut with pain.
He was alive. Relief swam through her, dissolving some of the pain. Shuddering, she took a deep breath, trying to control the churning in her stomach. Then she opened her eyes.
Gabriel's face was white, his forehead beaded with sweat. His hands were clenched around his thigh, and blood seeped slowly between his fingers.
The best way to stop a shapechanger was to wing him, Jack had once told her. Then they were useless in either form.
"I've decided I don't need the disks enough to cart you around with me, Stern. You're a little too dangerous to warrant the effort." There was no humanity left in Jack's eyes now. The vampire had risen fully to the surface. "I'd love to stay and watch you bleed to death, but time is against me. Up, Sam."
He pulled her roughly to her feet. "Terry, get those bodies out of the elevator. Eddie, you ready?"
Acid burned up Sam's throat. Sweat trickled down her forehead, dripping into her eyes, stinging. She blinked and met Gabriel's gaze. His eyes were intense, full of anger, and yet she sensed that even now, he was holding himself in check, waiting. For what? His gaze went to the clock then back to her. Frowning, she looked at the clock. One minute to four. It would take less than a minute to go down in the elevator. He'd asked her to wait until four before she moved. He was asking her to hold back again.
Against all reason, something deep within her trusted Gabriel. For the moment, she'd do as he asked.
Jack jerked her forward. Pain leapt like fire through her muscles, making her knees go weak. She staggered at little, trying to keep her balance.
"You're dead meat, Kazdan." Gabriel's voice was flat, holding no emotion, no anger, and was all the more frightening because of it.
Jack laughed harshly. "No. You're the meat. See that bomb? It's primed and counting down. You have less than two minutes to say your prayers."
Jack thrust her into the lift. She hit the wall and slid down, struggling to breathe as the bright lights danced before her eyes.
But her gaze caught Gabriel's as the elevator doors closed, and she knew she was not alone. Somehow, he would come after her.
* * * *
The doors were barely closed when the dead came to life. The four Federal Police rose, three moving across to the stairwell door and the fourth to the bomb. Flint rolled to one side, his shape shifting, reforming, as he moved. Stephan, in his Byrne identity, got to his feet."I thought he was going to shoot your f**king head off," Stephan said as he knelt beside Gabriel and dug a medi-kit out of his pocket. "You don't know how close I came to shooting the bastard right there and then."