Sunfall Read online

  I didn’t hesitate. Surging forward, claws extended, I darted around the corner. I tore through muscles and sinew but didn’t take the chance to dig in and keep hold of my prey. Instead, I spun toward Constantine, racing back around the corner before the gunman’s bullets could find me.

  Taking advantage of his distraction, Solana darted into the open and returned fire. When Constantine and I crept out of concealment, the man lay sprawled along the top stair, blood pouring from a hole in the center of his forehead. The wolf was also bleeding from a gash in his right shoulder, but as Solana took aim, he fled. My paws skittered on the concrete as I sought to overtake him. For a moment, I felt like one of the figures in an Escher painting, but then the wolf’s hindquarters came into view and I let instinct take over.

  As one, Constantine and I leapt for him. I buried my teeth in the ruff of his neck as Constantine attacked his underbelly. Within moments, he was still. We stood panting over his body as Solana ejected the empty clip from her side arm and reloaded. She glanced at her watch.

  “At this pace, we won’t arrive in time.”

  I heard what she didn’t say: that we needed to take more risks. I pressed forward more quickly than we had been, and Constantine and I took turns darting around the corners of each landing, trying to spring whatever traps they had laid for us. For several flights, we met no resistance. We had just passed the fourteenth story when suddenly, two wolves bounded onto the landing above, blocking both the stairwell and the door to the fifteenth floor. They paused for only an instant before racing toward us. I froze, but Constantine snarled and rushed to meet them. As he moved, a human figure hurtled into the space they had occupied, a pistol clutched in each hand. Time slowed as he pointed them both at my head.

  If I ran toward him, would I be fast enough to evade his shot? Would Solana arrive in time to cover me? Even as the thoughts swarmed my brain, I was in motion. I bared my teeth as he drew down, gun barrel tracking my progress…and then the door crashed open to reveal Devon Foster, who didn’t so much as hesitate before dispatching him. As Summers crowded in behind her, I shifted my trajectory to help Constantine with the wolves.

  They had him cornered, and one had already scored a hit on his left flank. I darted in low, snapping at the legs of the nearest wolf who broke off his attack to face me. When I pounced, he backpedaled and managed to close his jaws on my right ear. Pain arced through me, bright and sharp, but when I kicked out in retaliation my claws hit home. Despite his grip on me, I twisted in his direction, forcing him to release me. Blood streamed into my eyes, but I followed his scent forward, lashing out with claws and teeth. When he faltered before the ferocity of my onslaught, I hung on to every part of him I could reach, snapping and battering blindly until he went still.

  “Alexa. Alexa!”

  Solana’s voice pulled me out of my animal brain, and I sank back onto my haunches, blinking through the streams of red clouding my vision. Gentle hands stroked my neck as I panted against the pain.

  Foster knelt before me. “Don’t shift. You need your energy, and we can stop the bleeding if I tie a tourniquet.”

  I dipped my head in assent, and from behind me came the sound of fabric ripping. Solana entered my field of view and held out a piece of black cloth to Foster, who leaned forward to secure it to my ear. My nerve endings screamed, and it took an effort not to shy away. When Solana cupped my face with one hand and began to clean the blood out of my eyes, I focused on her gentle touch.

  “Hurry,” said Summers. “They’re coming.”

  Brenner’s soldiers were no longer making an effort to conceal their movements. The clattering of footsteps above was intermittently punctuated by the snarls of those in beast form. As Foster and Solana moved away, I looked to Constantine, who was licking his wound. Thankfully, it seemed shallow.

  Summers gestured for us to stay pressed against the banister. As the approaching footsteps grew louder, he held up his hand and counted down on his fingers. When only his closed fist remained, he, Solana, and Foster leaned just far enough into open space to issue a salvo of bullets.

  “Fuck!” Summers’s gun clattered to the floor and a patch of red blossomed on his right forearm. “Just a nick,” he hissed, eyeing his gun, which was now lying in the center of the landing. “But damn, that stings.”

  “We’re outnumbered,” said Foster.

  “And out of time.” Solana bit her lip, clearly fighting against despair.

  “Well,” said Summers, free hand clamped over his wound, “either we retreat or use the elevator.”

  Solana nodded. After a moment, so did Foster. I moved forward to brush against Solana’s leg, indicating my agreement, and Constantine’s answer had never been in doubt. If I died today, Val would be so angry at me for walking willingly into a trap. But this was now our only chance to beat Brenner at his own game, and if Val had been in my position, she wouldn’t have turned tail, either.

  “Make peace with your maker,” Summers announced. He dropped a handful of shell casings over the railing, presumably in an effort to distract Brenner’s soldiers. As they hit the floor, we made our dash for the door.

  Their hail of bullets arrived just as we slid out of the line of fire. We raced down the empty hallway of the fifteenth floor, Foster leading the way toward the bank of elevators. Summers fumbled for the key, and as he fitted it in the lock to summon the elevator, we heard the sounds of pursuit. The elevator arrived as Brenner’s troops pounded around the corner, and Foster and Solana laid down a fresh round of fire as the sliding doors closed. For several seconds, our harsh breaths were the only sound.

  “This is suicide,” Summers finally said, sounding oddly cheerful.

  I knew he was right; everyone in the Ty Warner suite would see the elevator coming. They could beset us as soon as the doors opened, and we would be trapped.

  I got as close as I could to the steel panel and prepared to leap for one of our assailants. Perhaps by surprising him, I could dodge a bullet. Constantine briefly touched his nose to my ear as he joined me at the door, and a purr rose in my throat at his gesture of affection.

  The chime sounded. Valentine’s face was before my mind’s eye, handsome and loving and hungry. I would see her again. I had to believe it.

  Slowly, the doors opened.

  Chapter Four

  As the suite’s marble-tiled foyer came into view I pushed hard off the floor with my back legs, but my blind leap was not met by a snarling wolf or shower of bullets. The foyer was empty.

  “What the fuck?” Summers stepped out of the elevator and surveyed the hall in disbelief.

  An unearthly howl pierced the air and I felt my hackles rise. A burst of gunfire followed, but was cut off sharply by an agonized human scream. Solana raced past me toward the source of the sounds, and I followed at her heels. The corridor twisted once before opening onto a sitting room framed by a massive, floor-to-ceiling window.

  Solana gasped and I crouched at her feet, every muscle tensed. The room looked like the set of a horror film. Swaths of fresh blood festooned the walls, the floor, and the opulent furniture. A large black wolf crouched over mangled human remains, gorging himself on his kill.

  In the center of the room, a woman sat facing a brilliant sunrise. Her long, flaxen hair was resplendent in the golden glow, but her head was slumped forward and the sickly smell of burning flesh stung my nose. Her right hand was covered in blood, and more had dripped down to create a pool on the floor.

  “Helen!” Solana was across the room before I could register her movement. Frantically, she dragged the chair into the hall, out of direct sunlight. As Foster and Summers rushed to help, Constantine and I positioned ourselves between them and the wolf.

  “She’s alive!” Foster announced triumphantly.

  The human part of me rejoiced, but my animal brain was preoccupied by our canine adversary. He was behaving strangely. A low growl rumbled from his throat, but he had lowered his head and was backing away from his kill in a show of
submission. Was he trying to indicate his surrender? Constantine at my side, I padded forward, alert to any sign that the wolf was bluffing.

  We flanked him and began to herd him into a corner where his maneuverability would be compromised. After only a few steps, he stopped and held his ground. When I darted forward, snarling and snapping, he sank onto his belly, whining. As soon as I stood still, his body began to blur. My ears flicked backward at the sound of Summers’s footsteps, and at the edge of my vision I caught the glint of daybreak off his gun barrel. Whoever this was, he was well and truly outnumbered.

  My reaction to the tall man with shaggy dark hair who suddenly stood naked before us was wholly involuntary. I growled loud and long, ears flat against my head, tail lashing wildly. Sebastian Brenner had once dared to claim my mate as his own, going so far as to marry Valentine after she had lost her soul so they could both take advantage of the inheritance she had been able to collect upon wedding a man. For Val, their union had been only a business arrangement, but Sebastian had wanted to possess her fully, and for that, I could never forgive him.

  “Sebastian Brenner?” Summers sounded even more surprised than I felt. “Explain yourself!”

  Sebastian bared his teeth in an echo of his wolf’s displeasure. Fists clenched at his sides, he took an assertive step forward, seemingly unfazed by his nudity in such a fraught situation.

  “Back off, Leon. I came here to bargain for Helen’s life.”

  “Bullshit.”

  Sebastian’s face flushed. “If you won’t trust me, then go ahead and shoot me. Wouldn’t be the first time.”

  “Last I heard, you and Balthasar weren’t on speaking terms. You expect me to believe you’d confront him on Helen’s behalf?”

  “My father takes great delight in begging. He would never listen to me, but I was hoping that if I kept him talking, I might learn something about his plans.”

  Summers finally lowered his side arm, but his finger remained a hairsbreadth from the trigger. “And did you?”

  “He wasn’t here.”

  “What?” Summers sounded as incredulous as I felt. “What do you mean he wasn’t here?”

  “There was no sign of him at all. I was trying to make a deal with one of his lieutenants, when someone fucking shot me.” He palpated his left biceps, grimacing. “I shifted. The guards were too slow. Now they’re dead.”

  When I realized that Val must have sniped Sebastian, the very human urge to laugh came on so strongly that I let it carry me into my transformation. Unashamed of my own nakedness, I raised my arms above my head, stretching my human muscles. Sebastian’s face went blank as he looked me up and down, and I smiled in triumph. Mine was the body Valentine craved, the one she worshipped with her touch. Not his. Never his.

  I turned to Summers. “We’re safe. Let’s contact Val.”

  As he hailed her over the com link, I went to the nearest closet. When I found several terrycloth robes hanging inside it, I tossed one to Sebastian before wrapping the other around myself. They probably cost hundreds of dollars, and I was happy to be charging them to Balthasar Brenner’s tab.

  The moment a fleeting smile crossed Summers’s face, I let myself breathe again. Val was okay. We were going to make it through this.

  “Yes, Alexa’s fine,” he said. “Helen is badly injured, but alive. What’s your—”

  “We need to get out of here,” Foster called. The tension in her voice sliced through my relief. “Now. The police are on the way.”

  I turned to the sight of her gesturing sharply, her expression grim. Solana stood nearby, Helen in her arms. A damp towel covered Helen’s face and neck, and as I joined them I cringed at the charred scent that enveloped her. Helen’s burns had to be very serious, and I wondered if she’d be able to make a full recovery.

  I pressed close to Solana as we entered the elevator. She cradled Helen as gently as though she held an injured bird.

  “How are you feeling?”

  Her face was tearstained but resolute. “I’ll feel much better when the physicians have examined her.” She bared her teeth, and for a moment I was reminded of my first encounter with her in the jungle of Argentina. “He cut off her thumb! Why would he do such a thing?”

  Unable to offer any answers, I rubbed her shoulder in comfort as the elevator descended. We were so close now, but as we exited into the garage, I heard sirens approaching. The truck rumbled into life and I jumped in after Summers, then turned to help Solana. Helen’s head lolled against my shoulder as we raised her into the container, and when my stomach roiled, I focused on breathing through my mouth. She and I had never seen eye-to-eye, but all I could feel for her now was sympathy.

  The truck lurched as the driver pulled out, and I crouched low to steady myself. Solana was whispering to Helen in Spanish, and I let the gentle cadence of her words soothe my own anxiety.

  “Can you leave a different way than we entered?” Foster was asking the driver. “What kind of barricade? Just a chain? Smash through it, then. Hurry.”

  I braced myself between two wooden cartons, but the impact, when it came, was less than I’d expected. And then the truck began to tilt as the driver made a sharp turn much faster than he should have. For a moment, it felt as though we might jackknife, but with a bone-rattling thump, the truck finally settled back onto its axles.

  “We have a problem,” Summers said into the relieved silence. “I can’t raise Headquarters.”

  “What?” Foster pulled out her phone, but Summers shook his head.

  “Tried that already. Not the front desk, not the War Room, not the hospital wing. Nothing.”

  As I looked from face to face, I watched confusion give way to the realization that once again, Brenner had outmaneuvered us.

  “We’ve been played.” The epiphany sent chills shivering under my skin. “Helen’s death sentence was a diversion. Brenner’s been attacking Headquarters—”

  “Probably since we left,” Foster finished. “God damn it, we walked right into both traps.”

  “Are there countermeasures in place?” I asked, wondering what tools Karma had to work with as she tried to defend the people and resources threatened by Brenner. “What happens in the case of an invasion?”

  “The War Room will be locked down,” said Summers, “as will the hospital wing.”

  “How long will it take him to break into those areas?”

  “Days.” But Foster sounded uncertain.

  “Hopefully, days,” amended Summers. “Maybe hours.”

  “Helen certainly doesn’t have days.” The roughness of Solana’s voice betrayed her inner turmoil. “She may not even have hours.”

  “We can go to the west-side hunting facility.” Sebastian spoke for the first time since we’d descended from the penthouse. “It’s a bare bones installation, but it does have a clinic.”

  “You don’t think your father will deploy some of his troops there?”

  “They’re spread too thinly already.”

  I suspected he was right. Brenner had not only needed an attacking force, but also manpower to guard his vampire hostages, including Helen. He would likely focus on Headquarters and take the other Consortium outposts in the city later.

  The truck began to slow. No sooner had it come to a halt than the container door was flung open. Valentine leapt inside, haloed by the rising sun. Her eyes found mine immediately, and within three long strides she had closed the distance between us. Our lips clashed in a kiss that was hot and fierce and far too brief.

  All too soon, she pulled away and rested her forehead against mine. As I breathed in the cool, spicy scent of her, my world telescoped until it contained only us. We had endured this latest crucible unscathed. Others might call me naïve, but I truly believed that with Valentine at my side, all things were possible.

  “We have to find a way to help Karma,” I said, thinking of everything she had done for us, ever since I’d been a naïve but determined human.

  Val cupped my face in
her palms. “We will. We’ll put our heads together and come up with a plan. But we need to regroup first.”

  “I know.” My stomach chose that moment to rumble loudly. Shifting required an immense amount of energy, and I needed to eat as soon as possible. “I’m ravenous. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Only ran into a few security guards, and I was able to catch each of them by surprise.”

  The truck lurched back into motion, but Val’s lightning reflexes kept us from stumbling. As we found a place to sit amongst the boxes, I saw her glance in Helen’s direction. Solana was still bent over her, murmuring too quietly for me to hear over the throb of the semi’s engine. I wondered what Val saw when she looked at them, and I got my answer when she grasped my hand a moment later.

  “Thank you for never giving up on me,” she said softly.

  As I leaned my head against her shoulder, a wave of contentment washed over me. It should have felt incongruous in the midst of so much mayhem, but in that moment, all I could feel was gratitude.

  Chapter Five

  I toyed with my empty candy bar wrapper, daydreaming of the meal Val and I would share when this madness was behind us. I had a craving for steak—a rib eye cut, cooked black and blue, paired with a very expensive bottle of Shiraz. A long, leisurely dinner over which we would talk about nothing but our plans for the coming weekend or where we should travel on our next vacation or whether we should buy a second home out in the country.

  Across the small, rickety table, Constantine balled up his empty bag of potato chips and tossed it into the garbage can next to the kitchen counter. He had shifted back into human form after hunting in the facility’s subterranean arena. It was a far cry from the arena at Headquarters with its sun lamps and state-of-the-art climate control that could support both forested and prairie zones. This outpost on the west side served as a way station for Weres who found themselves in need. The kitchen shared the ground floor with a rudimentary infirmary and a small sitting room, and several floors of rooms above were available for anyone who needed a place to sleep for a night or two.