Reaper had taken the Mustang to the meeting place. Briar was in the front seat beside him, and she was tense enough to tell him that she expected trouble.
"So you think it's a legitimate exchange, or a trap?" He asked the question just to see if she would answer honestly.
"What makes you think I would know?"
"Gregor's your man, isn't he? He tells you everything-except how to make drones, that is. Right?"
"He didn't tell me this." She faced him in the dimness of the dashboard lights. "How do I know you haven't got some kind of a trap planned for him?"
"You're with me. Do you see any signs of a trap?"
She shrugged. "You didn't bring your friends."
"I don't want to risk them getting killed."
"Or maybe they're setting up an ambush somewhere." She leaned back against the headrest, closed her eyes.
He was under no delusion that Briar might just be resting her eyes. He was certain she was speaking to Gregor, telling him they were on the way, who was coming, who was not, asking for instructions to help get Reaper's ass killed.
After a few moments she stirred and opened her eyes. Huge, brown, beautiful eyes. Dangerous, dark, deceitful eyes.
"I hope you said hello for me," he said.
She smiled, and he thought anyone who didn't know her would think she had the face of an angel. "You can say hello yourself soon. We're nearly there." She pointed. "There's the club."
He saw it just ahead. It sat in the center of a city block, a two-story brick building with darkened windows and a solid red metal door, probably lead lined. The only noticeable thing about it was the neon lettering above the door that spelled out The Crypt.
He drove up the block, found a spot to park where he was unlikely to get blocked in, pulled over and stopped the car.
He reached for the door handle. She reached for it, too, sliding her arm over his waist, covering his hand with her own. "It's not nine yet."
He met her eyes, instantly suspicious. "So?"
"So he said to come at nine. Precisely at nine. He can be an asshole about details like that. And since he's agreed to make the exchange even though you haven't brought Vixen, you should do whatever you can to keep him happy."
"He asked you to stall me. Why, Briar?"
She shrugged. "I'm just trying to make sure this goes off the way it's supposed to. I want to get back to my people. You want Topaz back with you. Let's do this right."
"I'm not buying it."
She drew a deep breath, sighed, then reached to the hemline of her blouse and tugged it up, over her head, and tossed it to the floor.
He was caught for a moment by the sight of her naked breasts, large for such a small woman, round and full, creamy and supple, with hard little nipples that aroused him beyond reason.
Then he forced himself to look away. "You really want to slow me down, don't you?"
"The exchange won't happen before nine, Reaper. Going in early won't change that. But it might be the last chance for...this." She trailed her hand over his jeans, over his erection.
He shivered. And he didn't pull away. His aversion to being touched didn't even begin to apply here. He tried to ignore his arousal and opened the car door.
"Kiss me just once," she said, sliding a palm to his cheek and turning his head toward her. "Just once, and then we'll go inside."
"Stop with the delaying tactics, Briar. They're not going to work."
"How can you be so sure that's what they are? Tactics? How do you know I haven't been dying to do this since the first night? You kissed me then. Remember?"
He tried not to.
"Remember how good it was? How I tasted?" Her fingertips brushed his lips, while her other hand stroked him through his jeans, up and down. "Taste me again, Reaper." She rose up onto her knees on the seat and brushed her lips over his.
Dammit, he was only human. He snapped his arms around her, and he kissed her. His mouth wide, his tongue thrusting, he kissed her hard and deep. His hands twisted in her hair, holding her face to his as he fed from her mouth. And then he jerked her head back, none too gently, and went after those incredible breasts. He didn't take his time or work up to it. He sucked them hard, bit them harder.
And then her hands were fisting in his hair, and she panted and moaned and shivered.
"Stop," she whispered after a moment. She yanked on his hair, pulling his head away from her. "We have to stop."
"The hell we do." He growled the words, the bloodlust giving his vision a thin red haze, the arousal beyond tolerance. "Not now, Briar. No way in hell."
She tipped her head down, and he saw it in her eyes. The glow, the hunger. She wanted it as much as he did.
"Make it fast," she told him. She hiked up the short, short skirt she wore. There was nothing underneath it. "Fast and hard and fucking angry."
He reached for the fly of his jeans, undid them, freed himself. He was so hard he was throbbing. "Not a problem."
She straddled him, lowered herself, took him all the way in. He lifted his hips from the seat to go deeper, as she bounced up and down, working herself into a frenzy on him. He fed on her nipples again, biting harder than before.
She moved, faster and faster, nails raking his scalp, she whispered, "I'm gonna come."
"Me, too."
"Drink me, Reaper. Pierce me and drink me!"
He bit down harder, fangs sinking into her breast as he pumped into her. The blood welled, and he sucked harder, his entire being overtaken by physical pleasure, and the taste and rush of her blood in his mouth, on his tongue. He thought he would explode, it was so incredibly, unbearably good. And then he did, and his entire body climaxed as his brain lost its ability to do anything but feel.
And what he felt was her, shaking so hard it was like a seizure as the orgasm ripped through her. He felt her bending her head, sinking her teeth into his shoulder, drinking, suckling his life from his very flesh.
And he thought maybe she was crying.
"You should stay in the van," Seth told Vixen when they pulled to a stop directly in front of The Crypt. "Actually, you should drive around the block until we come out."
"What is that expression I've heard your kind use?" she asked. "Oh, yes. I remember. 'Fuck you.'"
"Play nice, kids," Roxy chirped. She shut off the engine. "Let's settle this like grown-ups. Vixen, Gregor wants you back. If he has set some kind of a trap, he's liable to take you, as well as Briar. That's not what we want here, is it." She didn't make it a question.
"No."
"So drive the van around until we come out."
"I don't know how to drive," she told Roxy.
Seth sighed. "Just wait here. Lock the damn doors."
She stared at him, hurt to the core and not liking it. No wonder she'd avoided emotions for so many years. They were absolutely awful.
She turned her gaze to Roxy's. "If you think I should."
"I do, hon. And Seth is only trying to keep you safe. Idiot that he is, his motives are pure here."
"I'm not an idiot."
Roxy rolled her eyes, then met Vixen's. "He's male. Same thing. Climb up here, hon, so I can show you how to unlock it and let us in. And hell, how to make the thing move, just in case you're forced."
"If forced, I'll get out and run," Vixen said, but she climbed over the seats until she was in the second row and watched as Roxy told her how to move the van-just in case.
"It's time," Briar whispered into Reaper's ear, as she climbed off him, righted her skirt and tucked her breasts back into captivity. "You ready?"
He tried to steady his pulse by the sheer force of his will, but it wasn't easy. Briar was acting all business, as if nothing had happened, and he was damned if he could see a hint of anything else in her face. Though he couldn't get her to meet his eyes.
She slid to her own side of the car and opened the door, then got out and started walking along the sidewalk toward the club. Reaper got out and hurried to catch up with her.
"Here we are," she said when they stopped outside the door. A thrumming beat came from beyond it. She nodded at him. "Well?"
"Well."
Rolling her eyes, she reached past him, yanked the door open and strode inside. Reaper followed, his senses opening as he got his wits about him. He stepped into a rush of noise, a pounding beat, colored lights pulsing on and off in time with the music. The door slammed behind him, and he turned fast, startled.
Briar stood there, smiling. He saw her turn the lock, and that was when he smelled the blood.
"What the hell?"
He turned again, his eyes scanning the place, and he saw them, bodies, torn and bloodied, lying all over the place. Mortals. Humans. Young ones, barely more than kids, dressed to party. Their blood slickened on the floor.
"For the love of God," he whispered. "Why? What the hell is this?"
For just a moment he thought she looked as surprised by all the carnage as he was. But then she plastered the hard, cold expression on her face again. "Why do you think I would know?"
He heard movement, felt life, and looked toward the opposite end of the building. "Ah, that will be your friends, coming to join you," she said. She started to walk away from him, toward the sound, but he gripped her arm and jerked her back toward him.
"What the hell is going on, Briar?"
"I don't know." She shrugged, and looked him square in the eye. "But I do have a message for you, from Gregor. If your friends are inside, that is." She turned to look over her shoulder just as Seth and Roxy came around a corner and into sight. Then she looked him squarely in the eyes, and said, "Nightingale."
And everything went black.
Seth and Roxy went in the back door, which was unlocked, but no sooner had they opened it than a hand came from nowhere, shoving them through, yanking the door closed and locking it behind them. Seth heard the lock turn and smelled the death all around him.
"Oh, my God," Roxy whispered. She was staring, pointing. "Seth, my God."
He looked. She'd moved a few steps ahead of him, and he joined her, coming around a corner onto what must have been the dance floor and main room of the nightclub, only to see bodies littering the place like fallen leaves. Tables were smashed, broken glass everywhere. Music played, and colored strobes still flashed in time, but there was no other mortal left alive in this place. It had been a massacre.
Roxy turned away, lowering her head, and Seth automatically lifted his arms toward her, but he froze when he glimpsed Reaper across the room and saw Briar leaning close, her lips moving as she said something to him.
And then something changed in his face. It went blank. Lax. Eyes empty. Almost dead. Something made him grab Roxy and move her behind him, just before Reaper released a deep growl and lashed out.
He reached for Briar, one hand gripping her arm, and then hurled her. She shrieked and flew bodily through the air, landing amid the bodies on the floor, sliding in the blood of the innocent. And then she scrambled, trying to get up, but slipping in the slick scarlet mess, falling, whimpering.
Seth moved closer, calling out. "Reap, what the hell? What's going on?"
Reaper didn't answer. He looked toward Seth's voice, reacting as if on some kind of auto-mode. His head turned, his gaze locked on, but there was no recognition, no life, no nothing.
"Reaper?" Seth asked again, uncertainly.
Reaper came toward him, and Seth backed away, unsure what was happening. He heard Roxy shout a warning, but too late. Reaper swung a fist, and it caught Seth in the jaw, launching him until he collided with a wall and crashed to the floor.
He shook himself, and looked up to see Reaper moving toward Roxy as she struggled to get the tranq gun out of her holster and level it on him.
"No!" she cried, but Reaper hurled a chair at her all the same. She blocked it with an arm, and her weapon flew from her grip. "Dammit! Reaper, stop it! I'm your friend!"
He went after her, and Seth scrambled, dove onto Reaper's back.
"What the hell is the meaning of all this?" an unfamiliar voice shouted.
"He doesn't know what he's doing!" Roxy cried.
Seth was holding on for dear life while Reaper swung him in circles, then smashed him against the bar, trying to dislodge him.
"Seth!" That voice he recognized. It was Topaz's. She'd arrived with a vampire who had to be Jack Heart.
"Tranquilize him!" Seth shouted.
But now Reaper was heading for Topaz, despite the fact that Seth was on his back and pounding on his head, and despite the fact that Jack Heart stepped in front of her and brought a big chair down over Reaper's head.
Reaper swatted Jack away like an irritating mosquito, then reached for Topaz just as she lunged for the gun on the floor.
Her fingers touched the grip just as Reaper's foot connected with her rib cage, launching her into the air.
She grunted, then couldn't seem to breathe well enough to make another sound as she crashed into a wall and lay there, gasping.
Jack dove on the gun, rolled and threw it all at the same time, just barely avoiding Reaper's rampage on the way. As he tossed it toward Seth, Seth released his grip on his mentor's neck, dropped to the floor and reached to catch the weapon.
Reaper whirled, bringing a beefy fist around with him, but Seth leveled the gun and pulled the trigger fast.
The dart hit Reaper right in the neck, front and center, at the same moment that Reaper's fist hit Seth on the side of his head and made him see stars.
He also saw Reaper falling to the floor.
"Hell."
"He's out!" That was Roxy. She hurried to Reaper's side, where he lay in a heap on the floor.
"What the fuck just happened here?" Jack was asking as he scooped Topaz up. She was barely conscious. "Why would he..."
"He couldn't help it, and we don't have time to go into it now," Roxy said. "No doubt Gregor planned all this and will show up any minute. We need to get out before he does."
She was at Seth's side, helping him to his feet.
"Agreed," Seth said. He glanced at Briar. "What did you say to him?"
"Just...a word. Gregor told me to lock the door when he came in here, make sure you all were inside, as well, and then say that word."
Roxy nodded. "Gregor knew, Briar. He knew what that word would do to him. And yet he let you lock yourself in here with him. He fully expected everyone in this room to be killed. You included."
"That's not possible. Gregor wouldn't do that to me."
Seth lifted Reaper up, heaved him over his shoulder and strode toward the door. "There's another word that makes him stop," he said, addressing Briar without looking at her. "I don't suppose Gregor told you what it was, did he?"
"No."
"No. Well, you can wait here for him if you want. I could care less. Just be aware, he expected Reaper to kill you."
"He...he wouldn't."
"He did," Jack said.
Seth glanced at him. "You can bring Topaz out to the van. Just so you know, she's going with us."
"So am I, if you'll let me. My boss tried to kill me tonight, too."
Seth narrowed his eyes, but without time to argue, he didn't see much point.
"There are liable to be drones outside, probably surrounding the damn place," Jack said.
"We've got a van waiting. We'll just have to run for it." Seth went to the door, opened it a mere crack and peered out, Reaper still over his shoulder. But he didn't see Vixen or the vehicle. He could sense others out there, though, watching, waiting to ambush them the minute they stepped out of the club.
"Where's the van?" he whispered. He turned toward Roxy and spoke louder. "Where the hell's the van?"
Vixen had waited until she'd noticed them, the drones, dozens of them, surrounding the nightclub. They didn't go in, just waited outside. And she was afraid of them. If they noticed the van and her inside it-she shuddered to think what they would do. So she moved the thing, as carefully as she could.
It wasn't as easy as Roxy had made it sound. They'd left the engine running, so all she had to do was put her foot on the brake, move the shift from Park to Drive and then press on the gas while using the steering wheel to control the direction.
However, pressing on the gas made the thing buck and shoot forward far faster than she had anticipated, and she could barely control its direction. She let off and the van stopped, and then she tried gripping the steering wheel with both hands and pressing on the gas far more lightly.
Despite the bucking and jerking of the van, the drones paid it no attention. They just stood there, staring at the nightclub as if they could only focus on one thing at a time. As if it didn't even seem odd to them that the van was spluttering and bounding through the parking lot.
She started to get a feel for the thing about the time she emerged onto the street, but there were other vehicles vying for space, and horns sounded and tires squealed as she pulled out into the flow of traffic.
Fighting to control the vehicle, she was distracted by her senses, by the feeling of death reaching her now from inside the club-and then the surge of violence and danger she sensed, coming from Seth's mind to hers.
He was in trouble! Worried that she was getting too far away, she turned right, and after another block or two, right again, her focus entirely on her friends. Their energy. Seth's energy.
Something was terribly wrong! When she sought Reaper's vibes, she felt only a dark black hole that swirled like a whirlpool, sucking reason into it. There was only fury. Rage.
"Reaper?"
And then she felt it, Seth's mind reaching out to hers. Come back, fast, and be ready to take off again as soon as we're in the van. We need you, Vixen.
I'm coming.
She drove the van as best she could, speeding right up to the front door, where several of the drones were closing in. She hit them and sent them flying, falling, crushing some beneath the wheels. She grimaced as her stomach turned, even as she stomped on the brake pedal. The club's door flew open. Roxy surged out, with Seth right behind her. Reaper was limp, hanging over Seth's shoulder.
Drones closed in on them just as Roxy reached for the sliding side door. Jack Heart, of all people, kicked one of the drones away as he carried Topaz in his arms. Briar-Briar-protected Roxy's other side. Roxy got the door open and leapt inside, quickly hitting the button that opened the door of the weapons cache, even as Seth hurled Reaper off his shoulder onto the floor.
"What happened?" Vixen shrieked.
A drone was trying to wrest Topaz from Jack's arms. Another was wrestling with Briar.
Roxy threw Seth a gun. He caught it, spun around and fired at the hulk who was after Topaz. The vampire staggered backward, and Jack was able to climb into the van with Topaz in his arms. He stepped over the prone Reaper, managing to get Topaz into the back, then whirled around fast, taking a weapon from the wall and firing at one drone while Roxy fired at another, and Seth gripped Briar and hurled her bodily into the van, where she landed hard.
Seth was the only one still on the ground, and the drones were closing in on him, despite Roxy's and Jack's efforts. He gripped the side of the van to pull himself inside, and the drones latched on to him, yanking him back into a sea of them.
"Go," Seth shouted. "Leave me and go!"
Vixen shoved open the driver's door and jumped from her seat out onto the sidewalk to his side, and was immediately surrounded. She heard Roxy swear, but she crouched protectively in front of Seth, and then she cried out, yipping, releasing a warbling sound that was half mewl and half howl.
For a moment the drones froze, stunned, even while Jack and Roxy, and now Briar, too, kept firing at them with conventional guns, as well as tranquilizer darts.
Several drones fell, and others shook free of their shock and resumed their attack. But even as they did, a peregrine falcon dove from high above, drilling one of them in the head. Dogs came like floodwaters, surging from down the block, snarling and growling, running full bore and launching themselves at the drones. Other animals flocked. Pigeons dive-bombed; cats flung themselves at the bastards; rats scurried from the alley, leaping on the thugs' legs, gnawing on their ankles.
The crowd of thugs fell away, busy trying to shake free of the animals attacking them, fighting for their lives.
Vixen had turned instinctively, putting Seth behind her, between herself and the van, leaving her between him and the drones. She was crouching, backing up slowly, when she felt herself gripped and lifted. It was Seth. He picked her up, spun around and set her firmly in the van. Then he leapt in behind her, slung the door closed and shouted, "Go, Roxy!"
"Going!" she replied, already behind the wheel. The van jerked into motion, rocking Vixen into her seat.
Seth didn't sit, but he did turn to Vixen. "Are you all right?" he asked.
The way his eyes searched her face, scanned her body, she almost felt as if he cared about her answer. She supposed she was as all right as any of them. Everyone was bruised, cut, bleeding, in pain. "Yes," she said.
He nodded; then he bent to drag Reaper from where he'd been dumped in the middle of the floor and into the back. He stretched his friend out on the floor in front of the rear seat, where Jack had laid Topaz. They were both still out cold. Jack was beside Topaz, looking concerned.
"She okay?" Seth asked.
"I think he broke her ribs when he kicked her. The pain was too much. I don't think she's bleeding, though, and she should heal with the day sleep." Jack glanced at him. "You?"
"I'll survive. You?"
"Yeah, I'm good. I'm Jack, by the way."
"I figured." Seth looked around the van as he took a seat beside Vixen in the middle row. Briar was sitting stock-still on the floor between the middle and front sets of seats. She looked shocky.
"Briar? Are you hurt?" Jack asked.
She looked at him. "I don't understand what happened." She looked around the van, her gaze lingering on each of them only momentarily before settling on Roxy. Then she climbed up into the front passenger seat and addressed the mortal woman. "Tell me. I know you know."
"Reaper used to work for the CIA, when he was human," Roxy said. "They brainwashed him, programmed him to kill. To destroy. There was a word that would trigger him to go into a murderous rage. You know now what that word is."
"Nigh-"
"No, Briar. Don't say it. He's unconscious, but I don't know what it might do."
"Briar," Seth said. "There's another word that will snap him out of it. Are you sure you don't know that one? Gregor didn't give you any clue at all?"
"No."
"Gregor tried to get you killed tonight," Seth said. "He tried to get all of us killed."
"That makes no sense," Briar said. "What would he have to gain? Reaper's the one who is his enemy, and he would have been the only one left alive."
"I think he wants Reaper alive," Jack said. "And maybe the only way he thinks he can get him alive is to get rid of all his helpers. And anyone else he's not certain he can trust. Like you and me, Briar."
She closed her eyes, turned her head away. "He wouldn't hurt me. Not Gregor."
"Briar, what, exactly, did he instruct you to do tonight?" Jack asked.
She pursed her lips, not talking.
Jack sighed. "Well, I'm willing to share. I heard something interesting last night, as I passed Gregor's office. He was on the phone with someone. Calling him sir."
"Gregor wouldn't call anyone sir," Briar argued.
"That's what I thought, but I heard it. He was asking about the trigger. I can only assume those key words are what he meant. And I know he was given two of them. I heard him writing them down, but I didn't get close enough to see." He paused in thought for a moment. "He told me to meet him here, and to bring Topaz. I arrived before you all did. I heard you and Reaper come in the front door, Briar. And then I heard the others come in through the back."
"As soon as we opened the door someone shoved us inside and locked it," Seth said. "Probably one of the drones."
"Same thing happen to you?" Jack asked Briar.
"I locked the door after Reaper and I came in."
"Why?" Roxy asked.
"Because it's what Gregor told me to do. He said to keep Reaper from arriving even a single minute early. He said to get him inside and lock the door, then to wait until I was sure you all were inside, too, and say the word." She paused. "He didn't tell me why, or what would happen next. He said he'd explain later."
"Yeah. But for you, Briar, later was never supposed to come."
She tightened her lips. "I don't believe that."
Roxy came to a red light and slowed, looking into the rearview mirror.
"I can't believe that. I have to see Gregor," Briar said.
"Briar, don't-" Jack began.
Too late. Briar yanked the door open and flung herself from the van, rolled to her feet and took off running full speed. She vanished like a blur of darkness in the night.
"Damn," Jack whispered.
"We're better off without her," Vixen said softly. "She's evil."
"And you're a fox," Jack said. "We all have our little imperfections."