Sunfall Read online

Just minutes before, the bedraggled contingent of Sunrunners had been released to us outside of Wilmington, Delaware. Brenner had left them chained inside a camper trailer by an RV park. Only an hour before, he had sent a terse communiqué with their coordinates. Summers had made the arrangements with the Philadelphia branch of the Consortium to pick them up. We had anxiously watched their recovery on a secure satellite feed, half expecting some kind of ambush. The extraction team had been forced to cut things closer than they’d like, what with sunrise being only a few hours off, but ultimately all of the delegates were collected and accounted for. They appeared healthy, if malnourished, aside from their leader, Bai. Second-in-command to Tian, the Blood Prime of the Sunrunners, Bai had been wheeled in with his neck immobilized in a brace. The Consortium rescue squad had found him unconscious and badly beaten. When the other delegates were questioned, they revealed that they had been held separately and had no idea how or why Bai had been tortured. Val had wanted him to be transported here, but Constantine had overruled her, arguing that until we had neutralized Brenner’s threat, all of New York City should be considered a hot zone.

  The hostages’ return had allowed us to shift our focus entirely to Helen’s rescue. We had already been over the tactics dozens of times in hastily rendered computer simulations, and we were as ready to go as time would allow. The members of our small group were dressed entirely in black, and all of us were armed to the teeth. Just moments ago, I had watched Valentine strap two semiautomatic pistols to her belt and slide a knife into her ankle sheath. Now, she was crouching over her sniper rifle, inspecting it for the second time tonight. She bent to make an adjustment, and desire stirred in me at the sight of her strong, elegant fingers moving over the bones of the firearm. When a strand of golden hair slipped into her eyes, I knelt beside her and smoothed the errant lock away from her face.

  She leaned into my touch and smiled. “You’re breathtaking.”

  “Oh? You find the commando look attractive?”

  A grin played at the corners of her mouth. “I love when you go commando, baby.”

  “You have a teenage boy’s sense of humor.” I rolled my eyes for her benefit, secretly glad she felt capable of humor despite the thick tension in the room.

  My attention was suddenly drawn to Foster moving toward the inner door, her cell phone pressed to her ear. She opened the door to admit Solana. This was the first time I’d ever seen Solana with her dark hair pulled back, and the look accentuated the sharpness of her cheekbones. A slight redness lingered around her eyes, but otherwise, she betrayed no sign of internal distress. Her reunion with Helen had been a century in the making, but they’d had only a few hours together before Brenner’s ultimatum had turned the entire Consortium on its head.

  I stepped forward to fold my arms around her, but her posture remained stiff despite my embrace. I could empathize; her heart was shattering, and to let her guard down even for an instant would spell the disintegration of her composure.

  “Tell me what I’ve missed,” was all she said.

  I stepped back and motioned to Constantine. “Have you met?”

  Solana inclined her head as he joined us. “Earlier this evening.”

  Constantine kept his hands clasped behind his back. When he spoke, his tone was cool. “You’ll be joining us as we make our way up the stairwell. We expect heavy resistance, and it’s safe to assume that Alexa and I will be four-footed for much of the mission, as will Brenner’s forces. Have you fought against Weres before?”

  “I have not.”

  “Aim for the head. We can recover from almost anything else.”

  “I’ll need weapons.”

  I pointed to the far corner where an open duffle bag fairly bristled with side arms. “Take whatever you need.”

  “The truck’s ETA is fifteen minutes,” called Summers, whose operatives had commandeered a produce freighter bound for the Four Seasons.

  A wave of anxiety prickled beneath my skin, and suddenly, I couldn’t bear the space separating me from Valentine. She glanced up as I approached, and my face must have betrayed some hint of my inner turmoil because she immediately got to her feet. When her arms came around my waist, I laid my head on her chest. Her heartbeat pulsed against my cheek, and I let its rhythm steady my nerves.

  Her heartbeat. It had been many hours since she’d last tasted my blood, and she needed to be at her sharpest and strongest for this mission. Besides, I craved the intimacy of her teeth in my vein—the knowledge that I was nourishing her, empowering her, satisfying her. I pulled back just enough to tug the collar of my shirt down over my left shoulder.

  “Drink me.”

  Val jerked as if I’d struck her. Darkness swallowed her sparkling blue irises at my command. She struggled to rein in her thirst, but I cupped the back of her neck with one hand.

  “Don’t think. Don’t hesitate. I want you, and you need this. Feed, my love.”

  The last band of her restraint snapped, and she crushed my body to hers. I swallowed a moan as her teeth pierced me, pain and pleasure fusing in every cell. Desperate to feel her skin against mine, I pushed my free hand beneath the hem of her sweater and skimmed my knuckles along the taut muscles of her abdomen. Everyone could hear her muffled groan, but I didn’t care.

  In another minute, I might have begged her to take me, regardless of our audience. But before I could speak the words, she wrenched herself away, shuddering. The tendons in her forearms leapt into sharp relief above clenched fists, and her dilated eyes never left mine as she battled for control. My panther prowled restlessly behind the doors of my brain, craving the satisfaction she’d been denied. Beyond words, I sucked in one deep breath after another, torn between animal desires and human reason.

  Val finally closed the gap between us. Her feeding frenzy had passed like a summer thunderstorm. Her hands were gentle as they clasped my shoulders, and her mouth moved tenderly over the bite mark as she cleaned the fading puncture wounds with delicate strokes of her tongue.

  “Thank you.” She murmured the words against the shell of my ear, so softly as to almost be inaudible. “I love you.”

  I cupped her face in my hands. “We have unfinished business. After this is over, I plan to finish it. So come back to me.”

  “Baby.” Her mouth twisted in a lopsided smile. “I’ll be light years from the action. You’re the one riding into the heart of the storm.”

  “Truck’s here,” Summers called.

  A hush fell over the group, and I was able to make out the spitting sound of gravel against asphalt as overburdened tires neared the door. As we filed out into the night and climbed into the shipping container, the scent of garlic enveloped us.

  “Good thing that particular allergy is misinformation,” Val said dryly.

  Foster wrinkled her nose. “At least our scent will be masked if Brenner has his dogs at the loading dock.”

  I settled onto the floor with my back against a crate, and Val joined me as the truck began to move. The muscles in her thigh were tight beneath my hand as I stroked her gently, needing the connection.

  “All right, people.” Summers raised his voice over the creaking of the axles. “This mission is going to get ugly fast. We’ll need to cut communications early on to avoid tipping Brenner off to our location. Val, if you don’t hear from us by sunrise, take your shot. We clear?”

  “Crystal.” Val covered my hand with her own, lacing our fingers together. When I tried to meet her eyes, I found her locked in some kind of staring contest with Solana, who nodded almost imperceptibly before looking away.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, trying to keep my tone light.

  But before she could answer, the truck made a sharp turn and lurched to a halt. “Seagram Building.” The driver’s words came disembodied into my ear bud.

  “This is my stop.” Val brushed her knuckles against my cheek with the lightness of a butterfly’s wing, but her eyes were bright and fierce. “Don’t show them any mercy.”


  Again, the visceral memory of my captivity by Brenner overwhelmed me: the pungent stench of rot and urine and desperation mingled with the fear that Constantine and I would turn on each other before we could escape.

  I shook my head to free myself of the flashback. “Believe me, I won’t.”

  Despite the agitation I could read in the taut lines of her face, Val’s kiss was tender. “I love you.”

  “I know. I’ll see you soon.”

  With that, she was gone.

  As the truck accelerated, I leaned my head back against the crate and closed my eyes, unwilling to betray to the others just how difficult it was to be separated from her. Once Brenner’s threat was neutralized, I would see to it that we left town for a while. We needed time alone to learn each other anew. Ever since Val had been turned into a vampire, our relationship had been a protracted battle against the odds. We had persisted in the face of obstacles others had called insurmountable: her thirst, my panther, my illness, her descent into darkness. After so much conflict, we needed the chance to take a deep breath together. I wanted to lie in her arms for hours—to bask in the sight and scent and taste of her without pressing agendas or the threat of emergency.

  A sudden presence where Val had been snapped me out of my reverie, and I opened my eyes to the sight of Solana settling in beside me.

  “How are you?” she asked, her voice warm with empathy.

  I felt selfish for being on the receiving end of her comfort. My lover would be far from the center of action, but hers was Brenner’s target.

  “I think you know. Let’s talk about something else.”

  “Gladly.”

  “What was that little exchange you had with Val, hmm?”

  The hint of a smile curved Solana’s lips. “She wanted me to watch your back.”

  “Oh? So you’re a mind reader now?”

  “I didn’t have to read her mind to know exactly what she was thinking.”

  “We’re all going to get through this,” I said, channeling a confidence I wanted to feel. “Every single one of us.”

  Again, the truck slowed dramatically. As it began to turn, the driver’s voice echoed in my head. “ETA, one minute.”

  “Roger.” Summers got to his feet. “Val, do you read?”

  “Loud and clear.” Relief swept through me at the sound of her strong, albeit breathless, voice.

  “Any problems so far?”

  “Nothing I can’t handle.”

  “Good. We’re going to black for our approach.”

  “Got it. Stay safe. Especially you, Panthro.”

  I smiled at the memory of the first time she’d used that nickname—nearly two years ago now on a brief vacation in the Catskills where I’d finally had a breakthrough in successfully handling my panther. But now was not the time for a trip down memory lane. Shaking off the nostalgia, I rose to a crouch and thumbed off the safety on my pistol as Foster picked her way toward the sliding metal door. After the driver opened it, she would have only a moment in which to neutralize any obvious threat. I was hoping Brenner’s foot soldiers wouldn’t be lying in wait, but luck hadn’t exactly been on our side thus far.

  I steadied myself against the crate as the truck lurched into a three-point turn. The driver cut the engine and opened his door, and I prepared for the beginning of a firefight. But when he began to whistle “You Are My Sunshine” under his breath, I felt a glimmer of hope. That was his all-clear signal. Was it possible that Brenner hadn’t deployed anyone to guard the service entrance? Had he underestimated our resourcefulness, or did he think the Consortium believed Helen to be dispensable?

  The door grated harshly as its ball bearings slid along the rusty tracks. A gust of cold air rushed into the container, and my panther pushed for control. She wanted out of this box just as much as I did. Soon, I would have no reason to resist her, but for now two legs would serve me better than four.

  “Clear,” Foster whispered, sounding incredulous. One by one, we stepped out onto the smooth cement of the garage. Aside from several dollies leaned up against the wall and a Dumpster in the far corner, it was empty.

  “Where the fuck are they?” muttered Summers.

  I didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I couldn’t help sharing his cynicism. And then, as though he had issued a summons, a female security officer stepped out of a door to our left. She was squinting at something in her palm—a phone, probably—and didn’t immediately see the group of commandos bent on invading her workplace.

  “You’re quite a bit earlier than expect—” The words died in her throat as she looked up.

  Before she could even reach for the radio at her hip, Summers was across the room. He pinned her arms behind her back with one hand and clamped the other over her mouth. Foster divested her of her keys and tossed them to Constantine before helping to secure her in the back of the truck. When a muffled whimper reached my ears at the same time as the coppery scent of blood flooded my nostrils, I realized they were taking the opportunity to feed.

  Solana’s body went rigid. Her eyes were suddenly dark, fathomless pools of thirst.

  “Go,” I said. “You need it. And you can make sure they don’t kill her.”

  Faster than even I could perceive, she was gone. I joined Constantine, who was standing in front of the door flipping through the guard’s key ring.

  “Anything useful?”

  He held one key aloft. “This one will get us inside. And this one might be for an elevator. We’ll have to see.”

  As he perused the others, I let my gaze sweep over the nearly empty garage. “Why haven’t we encountered any resistance?”

  Constantine only shrugged. “Could be that Brenner is trying to lull us into a false sense of security. He rarely behaves in ways you’d expect. That’s how he keeps his enemies off-balance.”

  I turned at the sound of footsteps to see Solana, Summers, and Foster approaching. The driver would stay with the truck to guard our escape route.

  “Let’s get in there.”

  Foster’s words were clipped, her movements restless. Her blood high was in full swing, driving her to action. Constantine unlocked the door and she slipped inside behind him, but when I moved forward to follow, Summers held me back.

  “Let them scout ahead.”

  Neither my panther nor I liked that idea, and we listened intently for any sound that might indicate a struggle. By the time they returned several minutes later, I was trembling with the need to hunt.

  “There’s a janitor working near the northwest corner of this floor,” Constantine said. “Otherwise, it’s clear.”

  “We’re two levels below the lobby,” added Foster.

  Constantine dropped one of the keys into Summers’s palm. “I couldn’t test it without detection, but I’m reasonably sure that this one will call the elevator that opens directly into the Ty Warner suite.”

  “To be used only if feeling suicidal.” Summers snorted in derision but pocketed the key. “Any last questions?”

  I looked at my watch. The sun would rise in just over an hour. By now, Val should be in position. Her absence suddenly tore at me, and I stepped over the threshold hoping to find a measure of peace in forward motion.

  The two groups split immediately, Foster and Summers heading toward the bank of elevators, and Solana, Constantine, and I ducking into the stairwell. The door creaked as I opened it, and I listened intently for the sounds of any movement above. When silence reigned, I edged up the first flight of stairs on my toes. As far as I could see, the landing above was empty.

  But as we rounded the banister, I caught sight of a camouflaged figure on the stairs above, his semiautomatic pointed directly at my head. I spun away even as the silenced report of his gun quietly echoed between the walls, and I gritted my teeth in advance of the impact.

  The bullet ripped into my shoulder, shredding muscle and shattering bone, and I embraced the pain as it set my panther free.

  Chapter Three

&nbs
p; The acrid scent of gunpowder stung my nostrils as I leapt for my attacker. I felt the passage of his second bullet high above my head and saw the surprise in his eyes as I lunged for his jugular. My shift had taken mere seconds, and he hadn’t been expecting that. His blood was hot in my throat and I tore at him greedily, desperate to assuage the hunger twisting my gut into knots. But even as I feasted upon my kill, I kept one ear cocked for sounds from above.

  “Keep moving,” I heard Constantine say as he and Solana edged up the next flight of stairs. “Don’t let them reinforce their positions.”

  At the sound of a loud thud and muffled grunt, I raced to join them. Constantine was sprawled on the second floor landing, blood rushing from a nasty gouge in his forehead. Solana was grappling with a large man, her forearm pressed hard against his windpipe. As I watched, she kneed him in the groin. He doubled over, and I leapt to assist her, raking my claws along his back. The scream died in his throat when Solana slashed the butt of her gun across his temple. I turned back to Constantine in just enough time to see him convulse once before the space around his body blurred with the heat of his transformation. He emerged snarling, eyes fixated on Brenner’s unconscious soldier.

  While he fed, we continued our ascent. When the sound of growling erupted above us, Solana slowed her pace and hefted her weapon.

  “They’re prepared this time. I’ll cover you when we get closer.”

  I growled in acknowledgment, tail lashing. Together, we crept up the next flight. I pushed my senses to their limit, straining for a sound or scent of the enemy above us. Constantine joined us at the halfway point, and I felt comforted by the press of his shoulder against mine.

  With the advantage of stillness, they heard us first. The air erupted with the pings of silenced gunfire and Solana jerked away from the salvo. She crouched below the banister, expression grim.

  Constantine butted his head against my flank and I turned to follow him. As we slunk along the wall, I braced myself for the chaos to come. We were trusting Solana to be able to cover us well enough to preoccupy any human gunman while he and I took on the four-footed soldiers. We padded gingerly along the landing, and suddenly, I caught the musky scent of wolf.