Chapter 47

“What?” I asked, making a right turn at her command.

“Something’s familiar… I don’t know what… Turn right here,” she said and I did as I was told. Suddenly, I knew what she meant. We had been on this road recently. Recently like…it seemed like a million years ago, but it was just this morning, wasn’t it. Fuck, this whole day started off a lifetime ago that was really twelve hours.

“Shit,” I said.

“Shit,” Reggie reiterated when she realized what Billy and I had.

Another few minutes and I was pulling into the parking lot and slammed the truck into park because I was too pissed to be gentle with it, no matter how much I loved her. But I wasn’t too pissed to think everything through. “We were on the third floor and Reggie was on the top floor. Did you make any stops other than that?”

“No,” she said.

The other cars parked on either side of my truck and I got out and looked at the façade of Debienne’s apartments. There were six floors below her rooms and then a basement. If had been extraordinarily quiet when we were here earlier to be housing an entire Family of Annihilists plus a terrified infant.

“Basement?” I asked Billy.

She paused. “They’re scattered throughout the building. I’m guessing taking up apartments. There are several in the basement including Millie, however. Also notable, as I’m sure you noticed Asire, there aren’t any vampires in there right now. Dead?”

“Scattered,” I said.

“I agree,” Reggie declared. “After we showed up today, Debienne would have tired of whatever game she was playing this whole time.” Her voice was more growly with anger. “She would have tried to evict her guests and when she realized that wasn’t so easy, she would have gathered her vampires and run for the hills.”

“So she’s in the wind,” Billy said. “How—”

Reggie held a hand up. “Do not worry about her, Billy. After we get Millie, you and yours are out of here. We can’t risk someone realizing you and Asire are in the same city. Understand?”

Billy’s eyes tightened at the corners. “Fine,” she gritted out.

“Nope, Debienne is my problem,” Reggie continued. “And I will make sure she pays for this.”

“Good,” Ella said. The entire time she hadn’t taken her eyes off the building. Her daughter was in there and it was the only thing she had left. We weren’t going to let her kill herself and she needed her daughter so that life was bearable.

“How many?” Loki asked.

“Twenty,” Billy and I said in unison. Then she finished with, “Not including Millie, of course.”

Loki glanced around. There were ten of us. The odds were better than it sounded. Legions get into fights like this all the time. He nodded once, happy with that. “Four should go into the basement,” he finally decided. “The rest should make sure none of the others get out alive.”

“Agreed,” Reggie said sourly because he had taken charge.

“I’m going to the basement,” Ella declared. “My daughter’s there and I’m going.” There was no room for argument in her voice.

Fortunately, none of us wanted to argue. Reggie nodded once and said, “I’m sending Asire with you. And Loki. You can block whatever magic they still have right?”

He smiled. “Already am.”

Reggie looked grudgingly impressed. “And Regory,” she finally decided. I was pretty sure she just randomly said the last name. “The rest of us are going hunting through the building.”

I opened the driver’s door to my truck and pulled out my bag. It took half a minute to shuffle through it and find what I was looking for. My remaining silver dagger. I never carried a lot of them, but they came in handy. I tucked it into the back of my pants and brought my shirt over it. It wasn’t the best option, but I wasn’t outfitted for hiding it in shoes or a holster, like it was meant to be.

We started moving toward the apartment. I began paying full attention to everything around me. Beyond the soft sound of snow falling, I could hear people talking inside. Based on the conversations I heard, none of them were overly aware of our presence. Good. I liked surprising people.

The scent of the streets blocked anything else useful, but once we were inside, I’d be able to do better.

Billy hunkered down and whispered, “Shade, Sunbeam? Why don’t the two of you go block the back entrance?”

The two of them nodded and rushed off around the building. That left four of them to deal with the upstairs while I was retrieving Millie. My stomach dropped at the notion. I didn’t like the numbers, but again, not much to be done for it now. If we waited to call for others, we’d certainly be seen and they’d scatter. We couldn’t keep letting Millie disappear. She needed her mother almost as much as her mother needed her.

Reggie grabbed the handles to the double doors and shoved with all her strength. The wood splintered and the lock snapped in half as the doors were forced open. She, Billy, Dovie, and Henrik rushed into the building. Henrik stationed himself by the stairs and elevator while the others threw open the stairwell door and disappeared inside.

Leaving us to fulfill our half of this mission. I took point because I could sense where the others were. The basement door was hidden between two bathrooms that were on either side of the mailboxes. The buildings latest incarnation was that of an apartment building, but it used to be a hotel. As evidenced by the bathrooms all the way down here.

I opened the stairwell door and we all moved down. So far the attack had been a silent one and we kept it that way. I shuffled down the steps, keeping my feet silent the entire way. It wasn’t until we got to the bottom that noise erupted.

“SI!” Millie screamed from my right. Thus alerting the six other legions that they were not alone.

Movement broke out on the heels of surprise. Among those down here was the leather clad man who had helped kidnap Millie in the first place and killed Alain. The leather clad woman was there as well. The others were all blond and had a similarity in their faces that made them all background noise. The dark haired man locked eyes with me. For a brief, beautiful moment, there was shock.

“MOMMY!” Millie screamed even louder.

I didn’t have time to pay much attention to her, but I noticed she sat in a crib and couldn’t get to us. The frustration made her start crying and screaming. It was just too much for Ella, who broke away from us and ran toward her daughter.

“Stop!” the man in leather screamed and pandemonium broke out.

Loki and Regory launched themselves from behind me, taking on the legions who were coming at us. The man in leather and I hadn’t moved. The two of us locked in a standoff. Him waiting for me to take a step and me doing the same to him.

“Sorry, we haven’t met properly,” he said. “I’m Nigel Martinson. And you are?”

I raised an eyebrow. As if he didn’t know. “I’m Asire Thomas.”

His grin got wider. While we were talking, I paid attention to everything around me. Ella was trying to get her daughter out of the crib, but couldn’t manage it because her leg was tied to the side. It made anger coil deeply in my stomach. Anger that he’d treat her in such a way, but also that he probably had to after he shot her father. Right in front of me. A bullet meant for me going into a man who loved his daughter.

Loki and Regory were keeping the four other legions away from Ella so she could get her baby to safety, and she was trying desperately to do so.

That’s why he smiled.

Two seconds before the blonde in leather could hit me upside the head, I shifted out of her way, slinking to the side so that the club she grabbed passed harmlessly over my head with a swish of air. Without missing a beat, I snatched her arm and hauled it behind her with enough force to pop it out of its socket. Another jerk broke it completely.

She screamed wordlessly. I yanked her around and grabbed her about the head then jerked with the ease of practice. Her neck snapped and her eyes dulled. I dropped her to the ground and met the eyes of the man staring at her body. Nigel, his name was. And he looked furious.

There was a grunt behind him as Loki punched a man in the stomach and he doubled over breathlessly. Then another as Regory was thrown into the wall. In the same second Ella was finally making some progress with the ties on Millie, who kept screaming for me and her mother.

All that I took in in a nanosecond, because Nigel had started moving, coming at me with blind rage in his eyes. The woman hadn’t been his mate, or he’d be unconscious on the ground, but I suspected she might have been his girlfriend.

I reached behind me and grabbed the knife out of my pants and yanked it out at the same second he did the same. His knife froze on my neck, pressing into my skin at the same second that mine froze in the same spot on his neck. We were mirror images of each other, standing an arm’s length apart, looking into each other’s eyes.

“You do it and I’ll kill you,” he declared.

“Same for me,” I said.

“Everyone stop!” he shouted. “Or she dies.”

The room froze. Ella had finally freed her daughter and she clutched the baby to her chest while Millie, with tears clinging to her cheeks, made comforting sounds and patted at the tears on Ella’s cheeks. Mother and daughter looked so much alike it was an almost painful idea that they could be separated.

Loki and Regory were standing behind the man. Loki eyed the distance between the two of them, clearly thinking he could get there and stop anything bad from happening. Since I thought he might be able to, I didn’t bother stopping him. Regory did, though. He wouldn’t risk my life on anything.

As for the Martinson Family. The second he told them to stop they did so, all looking over here with victory in their eyes.

Above us, the sounds of fighting and screaming raged. There were thuds of bodies hitting the floor and the softer sounds of pain and breaking glass. I had little doubt that Reggie was doing the most damage she could to ensure that Debienne never forgot her mistake.

“Now,” Nigel said, his eyes locked on mine. “Here’s what’s going to happen. We are going to take that child,” he nodded to Millie and ignored Ella’s sound of grief and anger, “And we’re going to leave, understand? We’ll all live to fight another day. Make no mistake, I will take this city. I’ve worked too hard not to. And I will get the other children for the same reasons. Today, you have lost. Tomorrow, you will lose. Is all that understood?”

I raised an eyebrow.

“So, on the count of three, you and I will go up the stairs so that the others will stop fighting. And I’ll gather my Family and then we will each drop our knives and everything will be okay. Are you ready to start counting?”

I looked into his dark eyes and felt his knife breaking my skin. Blood was spilling down my neck and staining my tank-top. His Family thought they had won. They were edging away from Loki and Regory and one of the women was approaching Ella, to take back Millie.

“Si?” Millie asked, her voice full of childish fear and love.

I smiled. It was really stupid of him to think, for a second, that I would put myself before that of a two-year-old I had watched grow up. It was even stupid to think that I would let him push me around.

He blinked when I smiled. I leaned in, just slightly. The cut got bigger and blood flowed fuller down my neck. I whispered, “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?” And I moved.