Elyse was still trying to recall all the details of what happened while Saxon wheeled her down the hall to the elevator. She hated being in the wheelchair, but when she’d tried to walk, her legs gave out; Saxon caught her before she collapsed. Feeling like a newborn colt, she’d sat helplessly on the bed while Saxon kicked Lucien out of the room so he could help her dress.
Lucien jabbed the button for the elevator and tapped his foot as the green light over the doors revealed it was on the first floor and not moving. Lucien stabbed at the button a few more times, and when the elevator still didn’t move, he slammed his fist against it.
“Stupid fucking human technology,” he snarled.
“Yeah, because the nineteenth-century technology of elevators is super high tech,” Logan said and rolled his eyes.
Lucien looked about to rip off his head and punt it down the hall when he spun on the young hunter who lifted an eyebrow at him.
“What’s going on?” Elyse asked, their urgency finally piercing through the haze still enshrouding her.
“Why is this thing not coming?” Lucien demanded as he walked over to another elevator and started pushing the button. The numbers over the door revealed it was on the fifth floor and not moving. “It has one job.”
Elyse would have laughed over his frustration, but something told her there was nothing funny about this situation. She turned in her chair to gaze up at Saxon’s handsome face as he stared at the elevators with a perplexed expression.
“Saxon, what’s going on?”
He smiled at her, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “The Savages have found us.”
“How?”
As quickly as possible, he told her about the news story and the fact the Savages were using human help to locate her.
“And now they have,” he said. “We sent Declan and Asher outside early, but someone could have spotted them in the parking lot. The Savages were probably checking cameras on the roads for some sign of you, and if someone at the bar saw them break your arm, then they would check doctors and hospitals. It was only a matter of time before they located us.”
Elyse gulped as she tried not to give in to her rising panic. Not only did they have to worry about Savages locating them, but now they had to worry about the media and humans too. She never should have agreed to stay for the surgery; Saxon wouldn’t have made her remain. Now, she’d put them all at risk.
“At least they didn’t send the police; that could have been a complete disaster,” Logan said.
She grasped Saxon’s hand with her good one and squeezed it. She never would have taken his blood, but she could have dealt with the pain; she’d suffered through worse. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have stayed here. You shouldn’t be involved in this; none of you should. Leave me—”
“That’s never going to happen!” Saxon interrupted.
“I should turn myself over to them,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken.
The last thing she wanted was to be back in the hands of the Savages, but she couldn’t let them die because of her. She already hated herself for her role in helping to build the Savage’s army; she’d never forgive herself if something happened to Saxon too.
“I won’t allow it,” he said.
“They’ll leave you alone and probably retract the news story, or at least put it to rest if they have me.”
His hands tightened on her. “No.”
“Saxon, listen to me—”
“I said no,” he interrupted more harshly than he intended, but he couldn’t handle the idea of losing her.
“I’m not worth all this,” she protested.
“Yes. You. Are,” he bit out.
She tried to come up with another argument that might make him listen to her. “I’m only one life compared to all of yours and all the lives you save from these bastards.”
“And what if they don’t kill you but use you to find more vampires and build their army again?” Lucien inquired.
For some reason, she’d expected Lucien to hop on board with her plan; he seemed ready to wash his hands of all this and her. She didn’t have an answer for him, and it was possible they would use her for such a thing, but Saxon would be alive; she couldn’t guarantee that if they kept on this path. However, something in Lucien’s eyes told her that, though he understood why she was offering this, it would never happen.
“We’re in this together, and we’ll get out of it together,” Logan said.
“They’ll leave you alone if they have me,” she told them.
“No, they won’t,” Lucien said. “And we never leave one of our own behind.”
Elyse gawked at the man; she was fairly certain he didn’t like her, but now he was calling her one of their own. She knew it was because of Saxon and their love for him, but for the first time in years, she felt like she might have a place to belong—if she didn’t get them all killed first.
“I think we have to give up on the elevators,” Logan said, and he no longer looked amused by Lucien’s frustration.
“Maybe they shut them down,” Elyse suggested. “I mean, isn’t that what the police do on TV? They shut down the elevators to concentrate their search on the stairwells.”
“Which means the Savages are on their way up,” Logan said.
“Son of a bitch,” Lucien muttered.
“Are there cameras in the stairwells?” Saxon asked Logan.
“There are cameras everywhere, but I made sure they were shut down again before I left the security office.”
“Good,” Lucien said. “Did you see how many Savages there are before you left the office?”
“Two SUVs pulled up out front and two in the back. I saw seven get out before leaving the room.”
“So if there were five per vehicle, we can assume twenty of them,” Saxon said. He stared at the elevators before turning to study the hall. “Do you know how many stairwells there are?”
“Four,” Logan said.
“Five per stairwell, if they all entered the building.”
“Five against three, those odds are in our favor,” Lucien said with a grin.
“We’ll take the closest stairwell,” Saxon said, which was back past Elyse’s room. “It will be faster if I carry you,” he told Elyse.
She nodded, and he plucked her out of the chair. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she draped her arms over his shoulders as he carried her. The strength of his arms and the power thrumming through his body helped ease her trepidation, but she couldn’t rid herself of a growing sense of urgency.
If something happened to one of them because of her, she would never forgive herself.
“We spent too much time here,” she muttered.
“This isn’t your fault; it’s theirs,” Saxon said as Lucien opened the door to the stairs.
The crisper air in the stairwell cooled her heated skin when they stepped into it. Below, the squeak of sneakers rebounded off the gray, concrete walls. After the brightness of the hall, the dimmer glow of the light here was a welcome respite.
Whoever was below didn’t speak as they ascended, and it could be humans making their way up, but she doubted it; the Savages were coming for them. The door didn’t make a sound as Lucien closed it, but the steps stopped below them. A door opened, and Elyse held her breath as she strained to hear something more. Are they still down there?
A soft cough alerted her that at least one of the Savages remained below. She imagined them standing by the door, waiting for whoever went onto the floor to return. The Savages had no idea they were waiting above. The seconds stretched into minutes and Elyse thought she might scream from the tension before the door opened again.
“Clear,” someone said, and the footsteps started on the stairs once more.
Saxon jerked his head back toward the door behind him, and Lucien opened it. When they returned to the hall, they nearly walked into a nurse. Her jaw dropped, but before she could make a sound, Lucien placed his hand over her mouth and drew her against his chest while Logan closed the door.
The woman’s eyes widened over Lucien’s hand as he bent to whisper in her ear. “You saw nothing. Now get out of here as fast as you can.”
When he released the woman, she scurried away and vanished around the corner.
“I have to put you down,” Saxon whispered to her. “Will you be okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” she assured him.
She wasn’t so sure, but it didn’t matter; she’d make her legs work if it meant helping to keep them safe.
Saxon carried her a few feet away and reluctantly set her down. He’d prefer not to let her out of his arms with Savages close by, but there was no choice. She smiled at him as she rested her hand against the wall and assumed a casual posture he didn’t quite buy.
Drawing her close, he kissed her forehead. “Stay here.”
“Stay safe,” she whispered.
He pulled away so abruptly she swayed toward him before catching herself. She hated the stiff set of his shoulders when he stalked away to rejoin his friends. He stopped behind Lucien as the door opened and a Savage stepped through.
Lucien didn’t give it time to react before he lifted it off the ground and charged through the door. As Saxon followed him, he grasped the edge of the door and smashed it into the face of the one standing behind it. The Savage staggered back, and its hand flew to its battered face as Lucien bent his captive over the railing until its back broke.
Saxon yanked the Savage out from behind the door as he pulled a stake out of his jacket and plunged it into the thing’s heart. When the third Savage turned and fled, Logan took off after it. The young hunter disappeared around a bend in the stairwell.
Saxon turned to Lucien as he tore the heart from his Savage. “Help Logan while I get Elyse,” Saxon said.
Lucien bounded down the stairs as Saxon returned to find Elyse standing where he’d left her. She smiled at him, but she couldn’t hide the strain on her face or the sweat beading her forehead.
“Are you okay?” he demanded.
“I’m great,” she lied; she was beginning to feel her arm again and felt so queasy it was taking everything not to vomit on his sneakers. She suspected it was the lingering effects of the anesthesia, but she felt incredibly weak. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. We have to go.”
“Lead the way.”
Saxon gave her a look before bending to lift her into his arms. He carried her into the stairwell and closed the door as Lucien returned. “Logan took care of it,” he said. “He’s staying with the body.”
Carting three dead bodies around with them wasn’t the best way to go incognito, but they couldn’t leave these things behind to be discovered by humans. Lucien grabbed the Savage he’d killed by the shirt collar and tossed it over his shoulder.
When a door opened below, Saxon leaned over the metal railing running along the stairs to peer down. His stomach rolled as he stared at the stairs winding below them, but he kept his face impassive.
He’d hated heights ever since he fell seven stories while battling a Savage on a rooftop. The fall broke almost every bone in his body, and it took him a week to heal. Ronan and Killean practically scraped him out of the alleyway to carry him to the car. Thankfully, he’d fallen on top of the Savage, with his stake in its heart; otherwise, it would have been worse.
He couldn’t see anyone moving below but their steps reverberated off the walls as they climbed to the second floor before exiting. Saxon stepped away from the railing. “They’re gone,” he said to Lucien.
Lucien grasped the other body by the back the waistband of its jeans and lifted it off the ground; Saxon held Elyse as he followed his friend down the stairs.