Van Helsing Rising - Helen Scott Page 0,56

it, I’m going the opposite direction from Striker.

The further I move ahead, the more right it feels. The more confident my steps grow. At the end of the hall is a room with a door. I move to the door, stop in front of it, and release a slow breath. Reaching a hand out, I pray the door isn’t locked, then turn the handle. To my relief, it moves, and I push the door open. Inside, it’s dark, except for something that glows a soft blue.

My gaze clings to the small light, and I enter the room as if drawn by an invisible force. The closer I get, the brighter the blue light becomes until I’m standing in front of a table. On it, two daggers glow brightly, and I know this is why I’m here. I know this is what I was supposed to find.

“Damn it.” I hear Striker over the headset. “Dani? Where are you?”

I ignore him, focusing entirely on the daggers. My hands reach out, trembling ever so slightly, and I close my hands around the hilts. The second I do, the blue glow melts away, replaced by red, and a shudder wracks my body. It feels so good to hold the daggers. They’re cool and perfectly balanced.

Twisting my wrists, I watch as the light that illuminates the blades dances in front of my eyes.

“Dani,” I hear Dragon growl my name.

I blink and the glow fades from the daggers. The pulling fades away, and I turn away from the table and head back out the door feeling strange.

“Dani, fucking answer!” Dragon’s voice is filled with rage.

“I’m okay,” I whisper.

There’s a sigh of relief in my ear.

“Our information was wrong. I don’t know what the hell this place is, but it’s not a testing facility. Meet back at the door.”

My heart hammers. Do I know which way the door is? I look at the emergency lights and choose what I hope is the right direction. A few minutes tick by. The silence around me is deafening.

Someone touches my shoulder.

I whirl around and strike out with the daggers.

Striker jumps out of the way just in time to avoid my blow. Then he grabs me by the forearms and presses me against the shelf. His expression is thunderous.

“Sorry, I--”

I’m shocked when he kisses me. It’s hard, possessive, and angry. When he starts to pull back, he bites my lower lip, and there’s a threat in his eyes that I can’t ignore.

Then he whirls around and I hear his voice through the headset. “Stay close. This time.”

We head back outside and find the alley still quiet, just as before. Our group sticks close together as we circle back to our bikes, and no one speaks until we spot our bikes up ahead.

“Well, that was a waste of fucking time,” Crash says.

Phoenix shrugs. “Just bad info.”

I look down at the daggers in my hands. Should I tell them? Or will they think I’m crazy? For some reason, I feel like it’s important they know that place wasn’t what it seemed to be, but I also don’t want to start talking about glowing daggers.

“I think that place was run by the order…”

Phoenix looks back at me. “Why do you say that?”

At the same time Crash asks, “You feel that?” His tone is grim and leaves me with a knot of fear in my stomach as the guys visibly tense around me.

Suddenly, dark shapes drop down from the rooftops, and a cry of warning slips from my lips. But it’s too late, the monsters…they’ve found us. And they outnumber us easily two to one. I grip my daggers as one of them growls and leaps toward me.

Fuck. Was this a trap?

25

Dani

The animal-like being leaping toward me is quickly taken down by Striker and his silenced pistol. Two shots to the chest and one to the head. That doesn't make me safe, though. There are more shapes amassing behind the ones that initially dropped down to the point that I want to yell at the guys to run, never mind anything else.

There is no way for the four of them to fight this many off. It's too overwhelming.

Just as they are getting going though, the beasts part and a figure walks between them, like a shepherd through a herd of sheep. Vicious, snarling, death-machine sheep.

"Gentleman, let's not have any more violence than necessary," the figure says. When he stops in front of our little group, I can see that he is wearing a fedora and