building. Why, he didn’t know, though he could tell that James was looking for something—someone. Utana also felt the approach of the vahmpeers. They were near. Very near. Within moments, he knew, those heroic creatures would be leaping the electrified barricade in order to save the Chosen, to save their beloved Brigit.
And he would be ordered to kill them. If he so much as hesitated, Brigit would suffer the wrath of Nashmun, and even more electricity would surge through her already pain-racked body. And he knew she could not withstand much more.
She hung limply now, her head down; that most recent blast had nearly done her in. Then, beyond the fence, Utana glimpsed motion.
The vahmpeers had arrived.
He closed his eyes, drew up the power within him, and let it build and build until it was humming in his head, vibrating throughout his entire body. He was barely able to contain it. Desperately, he sent one last thought to James.
It wasn’t a thought Nashmun would be likely to interpret correctly. It was a number.
Ten.
“The vampires are leaping over the fence!” Nashmun shouted. “It’s working. Just a few more seconds, Utana. On my signal. Hold… Hold…”
Nine.
“May the Anunaki show me mercy,” Utana said in Sumerian.
Eight.
“Keep holding,” Nashmun ordered.
Seven.
“I will do as you say,” Utana said softly.
Six.
Utana continued drawing up the power. It rose from the ground beneath him, a glowing green light.
Five.
“Hold it, hold it…”
Four.
The power flowed down from the heavens, a golden yellow beam.
Nashmun lifted a hand. “On my word…”
Three.
“Wait for it….”
Two.
Get out of the building, James of the Vahmpeers. Do it now!
Nashmun’s eyes went wide and shot to Utana’s. “What the hell…?”
One.
Utana shifted his gaze, releasing the power from his eyes, and the beam burst forth with more strength than it had ever done before. The light blazed with the blinding flash of a sustained bolt of lightning. But it didn’t shoot through the glass into the crowd of vahmpeers outside, who were rapidly freeing the Chosens from their fence of torture and death.
The beam flashed across the basement instead—to the propane tanks that lined the farthest wall.
James had left his sister and called up the vampire side of himself even as he ran straight for the building. As he vamped up, he poured on a burst of speed and jumped from the ground to the fire escape. Dashing up it, he knew he was moving almost too fast for human eyes to detect. And even if they could, everyone in Gravenham-Bail’s command was too busy watching events unfold in the enclosed backyard to notice him.
He sped, leaping from level to level at top speed, arriving on the fourth floor in mere seconds and smashing out a window to get inside.
One quick glance showed him the nurses’ station and the corridor he needed, and he went lunging down it to the final door on the right. He didn’t even need Brigit’s directions. He felt the pure song of the little girl’s energy the moment he entered the building.
Without pause, he kicked the door open, and then he was inside, looking at three very startled females. That was about the time he heard, in his head, very loudly, Utana’s voice, as the Ancient and Mighty One began what James quickly realized was a countdown, and he started to count for himself.
“I’m here to get you out!” J.W. shouted at them. “Come with me,” he said.
The little girl was the first on her feet, the other two close behind, and James led the way down the stairs. He was down to the second-floor landing, with the little girl riding piggyback and clinging to his neck when his mental countdown got too low for comfort.
“Oh, hell.” He had an inkling, and it wasn’t a good one. Quickly James darted along the second-floor corridor, running. “This way—fast!” he shouted.
The women followed. He raced into the first room he saw and kicked the window. Safety glass. Dammit!
In his mind he heard Utana shouting, Get out of the building, James of the Vahmpeers. Do it now!
James called up the healing power, but this time he directed it with the intent to destroy, and aimed it at the glass in the window. A blast of light emerged from his eyes, and then the window was gone, annihilated. Without hesitation, he grabbed the two women and dragged them through the window.
One.
An arm around each woman, the little girl still clinging to his neck, James dove through the open window, even while hearing the deafening explosions that began below