Chapter 63: The Raid

The drive north took two hours through snow-covered roads and empty towns, the sky darkening as we crossed the county line, and I sat in the passenger seat with Lena's address folded in my pocket while watching the trees blur past and my fingers tapped against my thigh. Dorian was in the back with Kael, both of them quiet, both of them checking their weapons every few minutes like they were counting the seconds until we arrived. Jenna drove with her eyes fixed on the road, her jaw tight enough that I could see the muscle jumping under her skin, her knuckles white on the steering wheel where she gripped it too hard.

Mira and Zoe followed in the second car with Vance riding beside them, and I could see Mira's face through the rear window, pale and set, her hands steady for the first time in weeks.

The warehouse sat at the end of a dirt road, surrounded by dead trees and chain-link fence, the windows dark and broken except for a single light burning from a second-story window, yellow and weak against the gray sky. Jenna killed the engine and we sat in silence for a moment, the only sound our breathing and the wind rattling the branches outside.

Kael leaned forward from the back seat, his cast braced against his chest. "How many are we expecting?"

Lena had said a dozen at most, maybe more if the elder was visiting, so I didn't have a solid number to give him. "We'll find out soon enough once we get inside."

Dorian opened his door and stepped out, the cold air rushing in and biting at my cheeks. "Let's move before we lose the light."

The fence was rusted and the gate hung open, so we walked through without needing to cut anything, the snow crunching under our boots while the sound echoed in the silence around us. Mira and Zoe appeared from the second car with their breath fogging, Vance behind them with the grimoire tucked under his arm like a shield.

Kael pointed at a side door set into the warehouse wall. "That's our way in, no windows, no cameras."

I pulled the iron rod from my jacket, the metal cold and heavy in my grip. "We go in fast and hard. Jenna and Kael, you're on the first floor clearing rooms. Mira, Zoe, Vance, you take the second floor and work your way down. Dorian and I will clear the basement and come up behind them."

Jenna nodded, her rod already raised. "Don't take too long down there."

The side door opened with a groan, the hinges rusted and stiff, and we filed inside with our footsteps echoing on the concrete floor. The smell hit me first, blood and rot and something else metallic and old, something that made my stomach turn before I could stop it. Dorian's hand found my elbow in the dark. "You okay?"

I shook him off and kept moving. "Focus on the mission."

Voices came from somewhere above us, muffled and low, and Jenna gestured toward the stairs with her rod raised while Kael moved past her with his knife in his good hand. Then the lights went out all at once, total darkness with no windows and no moon to guide us.

Mira's voice came from somewhere to my left, tight and controlled. "Vance, the grimoire."

A flash of blue light cut through the dark as Vance opened the book, the pages glowing faintly. "I've got it, keep moving, don't stop."

The basement door was at the end of the hall, heavy and iron, and I pushed it open to let a wave of heat hit my face. Fires burned in metal drums along the walls, casting long shadows on sleeping forms arranged in rows on the concrete floor. Vampires. A dozen of them, maybe more, their chests barely moving.

Dorian moved past me with his rod raised. "We need to move fast before they wake up."

I stepped into the room and let my voice carry loud through the silence. "Wake up, all of you. You're done running."

The first vampire opened his eyes and lunged at me before I could blink, and Dorian swung his rod to catch him in the chest, sending him flying back into the wall with a crack that echoed off the concrete. I grabbed the second by the throat and drove my iron rod through his ribs before he could scream.

Then the whole room erupted into chaos, bodies moving fast with teeth bared and hands reaching, and I couldn't see Dorian anymore through the flash of metal and the spray of dark blood. Mira's scream echoed from somewhere above us, and Vance's voice shouted words I couldn't make out over the noise of the fight.

I swung and swung until my arms burned and my breath came in ragged gasps, hitting whatever moved, not stopping to think.

Then the lights came back on.

The room was empty. The vampires were gone.

Dorian stood in the middle of the floor covered in black blood, his chest heaving, his eyes scanning the empty space. "Where did they go, where did they disappear to?"

I didn't have an answer, just a cold knot in my stomach. "Upstairs, now, move."

We ran up the stairs and found the second floor the same way, empty and broken with blood on the walls but no bodies anywhere. Mira stood in the center of the room with her hands shaking and her eyes wide. "They just disappeared, one second they were here and the next they were gone, like smoke."

Vance was at the window with his face pale, his fingers pressed against the cold glass. "They weren't real, they were projections, illusions." He turned to face us. "This was a test, a trap. Someone wanted to see what we could do."

Kael limped through the door with his knife still in his hand, his eyes scanning the empty room. "Who set this up? Who knew we were coming?"

The answer came from behind us, a voice I didn't recognize, calm and almost amused. "I did."

I spun around and saw a woman standing in the doorway, tall and pale with white hair that fell past her shoulders like snow. "I'm the elder you were sent to kill," she said, her eyes fixed on mine. "And I've been waiting for you to arrive."